A LEAP INTO THE IMPOSSIBLE

In my last post I was looking at some film artists, Pippilotti Rist and Jonas Mekas, who are just bloody brilliant to be quite honest. So I started trying to throw a bit of absurdity into my work. The solution came without any real preamble - essentially I was feeling a bit frustrated one day and decided to turn everything in my space upside down, including my desk and some of the prints on the wall. Some of these pictures looked much better upside down for some reason... so I photographed all the upside down-ness from my space.

When I got the prints back, I showed them deliberately flipped upside down:

I was surprised by how something as simple as turning an image upside down could cause it to be read completely differently; the inversion of the floor and ceiling causes confusion and the brain struggles to process the scene - which way is up?
Ideally I'd like to experiment with this a little further in the installation room with other furniture, and possibly get some people involved too.

Also to follow on from those photos of the bitches, I had a bash at getting some candid photos of people I met, or have a connection with somehow. I'm reasonably happy with them, but some of them lack a bit of oomph; they feel more like bog-standard snapshots than the kick-ass, chunky images laden with pathos that I was expecting. However, I guess that's up to the viewer's interpretation. The harshest critics we face in this life are ourselves after all.

Taking my feedback from my mid-term review into account, I'm gonna carry on with the spaces ideas. However I'm gonna try and broaden it; include film as well as photographs, and try not to force a concept onto it like I have been doing by turning them upside down. Observe everything, then edit backwards from there, picking out the "good bits". So I may end up with hundreds of photos or hours of video of nothing in particular, but be able to pick out or splice together lots of little moments, similar to "As I was Moving Forward...." by Jonas Mekas.
Also, I want to expand on the people shots - I've always thought I have an eye for portraits, but perhaps I need to work on it. I've been suggested to get right up in the face of my subject, maybe make them uncomfortable with the proximity of the camera... I'm not sure if I'll make any friends doing this, but it's definitely something I want to try.

Also... this door.

I keep seeing it and wondering if there's anything I can do to expand on it. Maybe photograph lots of doors? Would tie in nicely to the whole "observe everything" malarkey that I'm working on.

Well - that's me more or less set up for a few weeks I'd say. Let's rock n' roll.

- Padfoot