20200208-Project 3- Exercise-Peter Mansell

• Which of these projects resonates most with you, and why?

I found I could resonate to Peter Mansell project more than the others. I find photography a kind of mental therapy to keep the mind occupied and working. So many people suffer in silence in today’s modern world. I’m not a person that can let feelings go through talking unless it with people with common ground. Expressing one’s thoughts through photos for myself, I find easy and quite liberating at times.

• How do you feel about the loss of authorial control that comes when the viewer projects their own experiences and emotions onto the images you’ve created?

I see that as a compliment to the photographer more than anything else. I had some recent comments made on the images I took of graves from Brookwood Military Cemetery. I would say this is the same for both a written article, TV/Film productions. So many viewers can resonate to pictures with personal feelings.

I think to look at an image and not seeing anything that doesn’t resonate your not looking correctly or close enough.

20200207-Project Two- Image and Text-Exercise-Poem

The aim of this exercise was to take a poem that resonates with you. For this I didn’t take a full poem but the part that sits deeply with me. The poem I have chosen is by Laurence Binyon’s “For the Fallen”

brookwood mil cem trip 4

For the Fallen

BY LAURENCE BINYON

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

The paragraph in bold is what everyone will know. I chose to use triptych for this exercise to show element within the poem. Agree there are some that repeat themselves but in a different narrative from the meaning of “They shall grow not old” by showing the varying ages and time frames from 1917 to 2009. The Sun casting shadows in the morning, remembering them.

Reflecting on this exercise, I had originally thought of using Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Tommy”. It is quite a lengthy poem with some complex issues. I had thought of using various locations by visiting the Brookwood Military cemetery and local cemeteries that contain military graves. If this was to be a further subject id travel further afield to the national arboretum in Stafford.

This may turn out to be an ongoing project and possibly an idea for assignment two once I’ve consulted my tutor.

Bibliography

(n.d.). For The Fallen By Laurence Binyon | Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved February 7, 2020, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57322/for-the-fallen {asessed 20200207}

20200127-Project 1 Telling a story (exercise)

In this exercise, we are asked to read Bryony Campbells Dad project and the photo of the Country Doctor. How I have interpreted the two is merely from the images and the short sharp titles. I have to say they have some heavy emotional aspects to them, particular the images of the dying father.

I have not had to witness this, but have seen friends die in places I do not wish people to know about nor will I go into details. Its, not something I wish to repeat.

How does Bryony Campbell’s The Dad Project compare with Country Doctor?
- From my perspective, Campbell’s Dad Project holds greater emotion within the pictures with a personal feel to them, although she is documenting the death of father in what I think is extremely brave. I’m not sure I could handle that. It is a beautiful way of remembering your father. Personally, I would prefer to remember my dad how he was not how you remember his last moments.
- The pictures show two sides of emotion I believe. The physical and the mental-emotional sides. Seeing pictures like that, for me hit home to how lucky I am. Both my parents are still alive and well. Had this been my story I’m not sure I could find the right way of constructing such a strong story. I’m almost feeling like I didn’t want to know the outcome. However from the opening images shown you can work out what the outcome is. If you know what certain emblems on the paperwork are then you know what it is all about.
  Fig 1 Welcome to the End
  
  Fig 2 Me and Dad 25th August 2009
- The above two images stand out as the strongest and most powerful. (lump in throat moment). Knowing what the Marie Claire Cancer care is and what is does speaks volumes. The second image of her holding her dad’s hand in such a cold, yellow state, you know exactly what has happened. When you have held the hand of a dying/dead person and seen death you know the exact emotion what is going through the person and what she is trying to capture and tell. Losing anyone is hard and emotional.
- The Country Doctor for me is less emotional personally. But by documenting the life of what the doctor is doing its fairly similar to the above, less emotional personally without confusing the two. Yes, both stories show different sides, but both show areas where you see both sides of the story as mentioned above physical and mental emotions.
- Fig 3 Not published in LIFE. Dr. Ceriani examines his handiwork after the partial amputation of a patient’s leg, Kremmling, Co…
  W. Eugene Smith—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image
- The above image resonates more with me than the others, just through seeing friends with leg amputations and how they have coped with them.
What do you think she means by ‘an ending without an ending’?
- Ending without ending….. I believe she knew the ending without having to know it. Having the understanding that the time will come without knowing when that time is. Taking that as a project was her ending to this. By documenting the story she knows the end without having it as the end. It may sound like nonsense but I think I understand what it is she writes.

Bibliography

B. (n.d.). The Dad Project – Briony Campbell | Photography & Film. Retrieved January 27, 2020, from http://www.brionycampbell.com/projects/the-dad-project/ {assesed 27 Jan 2020}
(n.d.). https://time.com/3456085/w-eugene-smiths-landmark-photo-essay-country-doctor/. Retrieved January 27, 2020, from https://time.com/3456085/w-eugene-smiths-landmark-photo-essay-country-doctor/{assesed 27 Jan 2020}

Illustrations

Fig 1 Welcome to the end. The Dad Project – Briony Campbell | Photography & Film. Retrieved January 27, 2020, from http://www.brionycampbell.com/projects/the-dad-project/ {assesed 27 Jan 2020}

Fig 2 Me and Dad 25th August 2009. The Dad Project – Briony Campbell | Photography & Film. Retrieved January 27, 2020, from http://www.brionycampbell.com/projects/the-dad-project/ {assesed 27 Jan 2020}

Fig 3 Dr. Ceriani examines his handiwork after the partial amputation of a patient’s leg, Kremmling, Co… ://time.com/3456085/w-eugene-smiths-landmark-photo-essay-country-doctor/. Retrieved January 27, 2020, from https://time.com/3456085/w-eugene-smiths-landmark-photo-essay-country-doctor/{assesed 27 Jan 2020}