This week I have been very busy out on the ground capturing and trying to move forward with my project, which you can find update here.
This week I listened to a guest lecture by Sam Laughlin. I have really enjoyed listening to all the guest lectures that Falmouth have put on this year, even though I believe this was aimed for students from the first module. The content is still valuable and gives another artists perspective when progressing and tackling new body of works.
Sam Laughlin is an artist that tends to deliver a specific aesthetic. Many of his works have a grey monochromatic feel with only capturing subtle shadows and highlights that present different tones of grey. Laughlin talks about his body of work ‘Frameworks’ around the essence of a building the architectural space, which I found conceptually interesting. These images show the first steps of construction, the skeleton. Laughlin selected these construction sites that were unfinished, he says for him they suggested a ruin rather than a building. These construction sites are destined to become buildings but without walls they are not architectural spaces, just a structures. I find this interesting until the new structure is completed it still resembles a ruin, has no belonging or purpose.
Does this concept fall in with my airfield buildings? Once the walls have decayed and the shell is all that remains, are they no longer architectural spaces just a ruin, just a structure. Laughlin’s approach for this project was consistent throughout scouting for sites during the day and then returning at night with his large format camera and capturing his images through long exposures, which really gave him the sense of making an image.
Laughlin says a lot of his work is based on time, material and the processors rather than an actual moment or event. How he displays and works with scale is important to him as much of his work doesn’t work when displayed in a linear form, which can be seen on his website for ‘Slow Time’. When exhibiting his work he often likes to display physical objects for the viewer, in order for them to experience the subject. These all interesting elements that could be considered in my own work and especially the scale of prints and to really think about, if my work needs to be displayed in a linear form. (Laughlin, 2019)
References
Guest lectures were recorded by Falmouth University and feature as part of the MA Photography programme. April 2019
Critical Research Journal 