WORK IN PROGRESS please click here
For this work in progress I have decided to change website platforms from Smugmug to Squarespace, this has enabled me to present my work in a more professional way. For now I have chosen to present two airfields, RAF Cluntoe and RAF Killadeas in their separate folders both containing 8 images. As my practice in on-going and I plan to capture all 28 airfields, it is difficult to commit at this time how many images I will include for each airfield. After visiting all the sites it may be then that I notice a correlation between certain types of buildings, landscapes or details that I may wish to include. Until this time I will remain patient and open to the areas that I document. In my ‘about’ page I hope I have included enough information to give a small background and intent for my practice so far, with the map to share geographical context to the areas I have captured.
RAF Killadeas: This site holds different points of interest that I felt were important to capture to represent the history. For me I couldn’t just capture one type so I wanted to include the outside of buildings, interiors and also close ups of details that I felt necessary. I went with the approach of objectivity in the style of Bernd and Hilla Becher to capture systematically, but I soon quickly realised there wasn’t enough content to remain that consistent. I would have had to forfeit some of the more interesting aspects of the area. The whole site has varying inhabitants were the original hangar is still in use by the Lough Erne Yacht Club. It is in very good condition and the outer wall has been built so thin so I wanted to draw attention and document the brickwork and grandeur of the space. The image of the 3 original mooring blocks (image 4). Has the lough in the background and is contextually important as the airbase was home to seaplanes (Catalina), the water is the airfield.
The last images take you up to an area that has been untouched by the public for several years. The buildings have been abandoned and left for the landscape to engulf them. The 3-sided building (image 6) you have to look hard to see where the building stops and trees start, they almost continue the structure upwards. Unfortunately I ran out of time but there are a few more areas I would like to capture, like the old officer’s mess that is now a hotel. This could offer a good perspective in the preservation of military buildings.
RAF Cluntoe: For these images I spent some time going around the area, looking at the buildings and deciding what would be good to capture. I went with the same approach as RAF Killadeas wanting to include buildings, interiors and interesting details. I did shoot some of the buildings in the style of Bernd and Hilla Becher just in case in the post-production I could make some sort of comparison with the two sites but it didn’t work and I didn’t like the outcome hence not included in my WIP.
For the rest of the images I went with more of an approach like Stephen Shore using the camera as a descriptive tool and constructing an image that a viewer can explore through. The viewer gets to move through image and see how the structures often standout from the landscape. Then others seem to provide the perfect platform for the trees and foliage that want to take them over. The close up of the small opening that has had 1943 scribed into the concrete (image 6) I might ague is slightly too cropped and offers more of an image through my eyes but I thought it was an important to document and didn’t want to leave it out.
With this WIP I feel I have come full circle from concentrating on aesthetics (previous WIP) to being more objective to now wanting to have a balance between the two. Much like John Kippin does in Cold War Pastoral, I want to focus more on the relationship with how these buildings sit within the landscape and even though including close up of details might seem like my representation. I would still like to include them as I think they are interesting and important to document.
Critical Research Journal 