louisearmitagephotography

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Artist Statement

Connected

 Connected is an on-going project and is based around the aspects of abstraction but the primary focus of the project is water and is about linking both emotions and water together; how it can evoke feelings within people but also within myself. This project is location based, so for many images the locations were local, places that I had access too such as lodges and rivers. I photographed the strongest currents of the river to show the forces of water and I also utilised the reflections in the still water which helped to produce some fascinating images; I visited the same locations during different weathers to see what the outcomes between the photos would like.

Equipment wise, I used a Canon EOS 4000D with the 18-55 mm and 50 mm lens. The scale of the final work would have roughly been between the sizes of A2-A1 with a few smaller prints at a possible A3. The outputs for this project were part of a group collaboration and was an online exhibition due to a public exhibition not being suitable to have.

The main source of my inspiration behind my project was Nadav Kanders project on the River Thames as he focused on the cycle of the river and treated it as a metaphor for the everlasting cycle of change and renewal. I became intrigued after reading that he visited the same place for 3 years and has developed this beautiful body of work.

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Thoughts on past shoots & whole project

Comparing all the shoots I’ve done during semester 2, I can definitely see that some of them are lacking in a creative way. I feel as though I could have been more creative with my photos and the ways in which I photographed them or maybe even try to edit them differently. The project as a whole, I can see some progress and growth but it’s a slow growth. I can see a good starting point and I believe that this does have potential and could be explored a lot more and in different ways too.

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Final Exhibition images

C O N N E C T E D

These 4 images are my final exhibition images. I did originally have 5 but after going back through them, I decided that it wasn’t as strong as the other 4 that I had selected. When looking at them, I do think they work quite well together. I specifically chose 2 calmer looking ones and 2 ferocious looking ones. I’m hoping that when other people view these images they can be connected by emotions. As for myself, there’s a sense of tranquillity when looking at the more calmer images but there’s also a sense of danger or fear when looking at the fast flowing water. 

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Finally finding a project name

Finally coming up with a project name, this proved to be a little tough as I could never think of a good one that fit the project. However, the name that I have for it now was quite literally a last minute light bulb moment.

c o n n e c t e d

I came up with ‘connected’ because water wherever it starts, always ends up connecting together in one place. I also found it interesting that there is a connection between body and water as the body is made up of around 60-70% water and is essential; and that the earth’s  surface which is water-covered is made up of around 71%.

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This post features some screenshots of exhibition promo on my IG page. Behind the scenes of the locations I visited. Screenshots of the posts I made on the @/ photouclan page during the Instagram takeover; more screenshots of what the website layout looks like on mobile. 

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These images here are just a few extra experiments. I used a small glass prism to achieve these entrancing outcomes. There is definitely an idea  or 2 waiting to be discovered with this. 

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A few contact sheets with the majority of all my images in one place. 

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Shoot 13 - Final shoot before exhibition

This is the last shoot before preparing for the exhibition. Some of my latest shoots, I started having trouble when it came to finding inspiration to get some of these shots, although the weather played a part in this shoot as I found photographing the ripples of the water rather intriguing. The outcomes remind me of what the sand at the beach looks like after the tide has gone out. 

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Shoot 12

These are the stronger images from shoot 12. (the last image is supposed to be flipped horizontal, but after many tries it keeps going back to landscape). For the middle image, I thought of maybe trying to incorporate surroundings of the area in the water, so for that particular image, the surroundings of that area were a light-post and a fence

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Working around the current pandemic & how I’m going to continue the project

Unfortunately, there has been a small hiccup in my plans to explore my project due to the current situation known as covid-19. This hasn’t affected my work in a big way but there is certainly some changes that I will have to make, such as putting my travel plans on hold until further notice due to the travel not being necessary at the moment. I do have access to water in my surrounded area, although I am limited with certain places as they are either private land or I’m in need of some sort of license or permit to access some of the lodges; I can still access the places that are of public access and are in the local area. 

As this situation has affected some of the ways I wanted to work, it has also affected my exhibition, as there cannot be any crowds of people. So the alternative to having a public exhibition is to have on online one! I personally think that an online exhibition will be just as interesting and fun as a public one and will definitely need the same amount of communication, time and effort being put into it to make it work. 

How I’m going to continue is to wait until certain restrictions are lifted from the current situation and to travel to the places that I had planned on visiting so that I can carry on as I feel like I can explore this project a lot more. Another way on how I wish to continue is to also experiment more with a glass prism that I have, as I have gotten some really interesting outcomes with that prior to this project. 

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Hiroshi Sugimoto

I had done small research on Sugimoto but his ‘Seascapes’ work has been a source of inspiration for the coastal shoots that I had planned. His black and white seascape images are beautiful but yet dramatic.

https://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/seascapes-1

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Shoot 11

The water for this shoot was relatively calm and still, so I found this one a little challenging when it came to taking photos, as I didn’t want to create more work that would be similar to past shoots. The small problem I constantly ran into was to try to and create something interesting from this shoot as the reflections on the water were always the trees as the lodge is located in the middle of a field, so there wasn’t any buildings near the body of water. I think that the images from this shoot are pretty weak in comparison to past images that I have gotten.

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Shoot 10

Similar to shoot 9, I made the decision not to showcase all the images from this shoot also. Although, from this shoot I got some very interesting reflections from the water. There’s a sense of mysteriousness in some of them which I find intriguing. The first image of this shoot, I decided to put it in my top images for possible exhibition. I also flipped some of the images upright to give them a more mysterious look.

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Exhibition Thoughts

As exhibition day is not that far away, I’ve been thinking of ways on how I want to present my work. I’ve thought about maybe having some images arranged into either diptychs or triptychs and possibly have a soft water soundscape playing in the background to add a different element to my exhibit. As for print sizes, I thought maybe having between 1-3 images that are of at least A2-A0 sized and a few smaller images at A3 size. To go alongside the exhibit, I thought about creating an A5 zine which would showcase my project from start to finish as that would give the viewers an insight on how and where my project started. 

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Nadav Kander

I was really inspired by the work of Kander, more specifically his on-going project ‘Dark Line - The Thames Estuary’. His work has changed the way that I observe and interact with the spaces around me and how I can utilise them to my abilities. 

Kanders’ project so far, consisted of him travelling to the estuary alone and back home in the dark over a period of 3 years. His project focuses on the cycle of the River Thames itself, as he treats the river as a metaphor for the everlasting cycle of change and renewal. 

https://www.nadavkander.com/works-in-series/dark-line-the-thames-estuary/single

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I had also briefly looked into the project that Thomas Joshua Cooper had created. ‘The World’s Edge: The Atlantic Basin Project’. I thought that the work he had produced throughout was beautiful and intriguing; and found it very interesting to watch and listen to him talk about his project as a whole and the journey he had. 

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Susan Derges

I had briefly looked at Susan Derges’ work as the majority of it ‘revolves around the creation of visual metaphors exploring the relationship between the observer and the observed’. 

Throughout her work, she captures the movement of the water by putting photographic paper directly into rivers. Derges created her work at night, with the light of the moon and a torch to help expose the images onto the light sensitive paper.