Blank Media Collective

Biography / Personal Statement

The more you press on space, the more the notion of time will return with a vengeance.

Time and Photography (Baetens, Streitberger & Gelder)

At night and in an urban environment, using artificial light and working in a sequential manner I enquire into everyday spaces, recording traces of experiences. Using time based medium I have prompted questions into the suitability of using photography and film in exploring experiences of time and space.

Time is essentially the experience of change and flux within space and appears to us in numerous ways. These include the change from our reliance of natural to artificial light, movement and memory. 

Time can appear within photographs in different ways. It can be said to be a reference to a moment in time, a memory of that experience. It can show the elapse of life, depict death. Photographs demonstrate a trace of time signifying something past, no longer existing.  Time can happen between photographs providing reference points, then-and-now. The passage or movement of time can be shown through a series of images or through montage.

Perceiving space is reliant on our cognitive reflexes. Seeing the world full of colour, in three dimensions and our movement through space is possible because of our bodies’ ability to perform corrections to conform to reality:  including spatial perception, consistency of form and colour consistence. What is space? One offer to this definition can be presented through this Phenomenologist statement; a philosophy which was concerned with perception of the world, space and time.

Space is neither an object, nor an act of unification on the subject’s part: it can neither be observed, since it is presupposed in every observation, nor seen to emerge from a constituting operation, since it is of essence that it be already constituted, for thus it can, by its magic, confer its own special particularizations upon the landscape without ever appearing itself. (Phenomenology of perception, Merleau Ponty)

Not an object, not a unifying matter. You can’t see it and but we assume that it’s there, it isn’t produced from anything it all ready exists, and unexplained it defines the landscape without materializing.  

In the images and films I have emphasised; spaces surrounding structure, the blackness and emptiness of areas where light does not filtrate, movement of objects cutting through the darkness, the traces of occupation but not the people themselves. These all direct the viewer to the reduced visuals of the image but also to the nothingness.  

The hours of darkness at night provides a strong indicator of the time of day and changes the ways we experience the environment. I play on the fact that we can see less at night, the spaces appear more ambiguous and our imaginations fill in the gaps. Taking images at night places the spaces within a different context aided by; the cultural portrayal of night time, our sensory experiences of the dark and the alternative image the camera depicts through the reduced light.

The camera obscures a large amount of visual information but at the same time highlights, with stark contrast, what is actually present. The glow of the street lights, the traces left by car headlights, the radiance of surfaces washed with the faux light. Movement of transport appears as defined traces of light, which changes depending on their momentum, often presenting only traces without much of the vehicles form. People appear as black ghosts within the images lacking any individuality and detail.  Witnessing only the traces of human existence provides the images with a solitary feel.

Movement of objects, other people and us through space projects this idea of time, of duration, and this movement shows change within the environment, nothing staying the same. Long shutter speeds as well as being in motion, on a train on in a car, while taking the images results in movement being recorded as a blur or trail of light. My movement can also be demonstrated; through creating a sequential catalogue of that period in time, and by taking the image while walking- the blur suggests movement.

Time cannot exist without memory. Awareness of the changing factors only provides us with a sense of duration if we remember what has happened, what is happening and our ability to form a sense of future, which is all down to memories of experience. The photograph becomes a memory of the moment when I took the picture and decoding it, understanding what is shown, relies upon the collective memory of the viewers experiences of space and time.

Memories can be stimulated through photographs, it could be a private moment or a public event but after that moment has passed the image is left as a reference to that. Our memories and experiences we gather through life allow us to read, de-code, images we are presented with; wither in a magazine, a billboard or an art gallery. Memories facilitate the passage of time; without remembering change and movement, time will seem disjointed or nonexistent.

Using film; to explore duration, changing light and movement, allowed for a divergent exploration of time and space allowing its manipulation through capturing it, reconfiguring, speeding up and slowing down. Manipulating time.  Placing reduced edited sections in a loop allowed the exploration of repetition and movement. Segments of time repeating themselves in a potentially never ending loop refer to the cyclical nature of our experience time. Although the manner in which video and photography approaches the issue of time and space are different; creating a static image of time and a moving image, they inform each other both using light to create an image and both  acting as a trigger for memory and experience.

The ways in which the medium of colour digital film, colour digital photographs and black and white analogue photographs are employed differ; informed by the technological differences between them. With the immediacy of digital formats, cameras which I carry around which are easily accessed and will be unplanned in so much as I will take them on the bus, or in the car or walking around. Spur of the moment. They can be instantly downloaded, viewed and discounted if they did not work aesthetically or technically. Often I hold the camera low down providing; a different viewpoint from what I am experiencing and allows my movement to present. I think this plays with the idea that the camera provides me with a new visual experience, a new take on perception.

When using an SLR analogue camera the process of developing the image is more time consuming and costly and because of the investment within each film. The capturing of the image becomes more of an event in itself and the amount of time spent taking the image and connecting with the environment is extended. The results of each image are composed technically and compositionally but the finished result is not seen until after hand processing, the darkroom processing is an experience in its self. When using a SLR camera I always use a black and white film. I connect the black and white prints with everything which has gone into their creation; technical operation, the developing and the surface quality of the image.

The images appear sequentially in their printed form and through digitally projecting these allowed me to think about the medium of photography as a temporal reinterpretation. This gave an opportunity to explore internal space, scale, and the interaction between surface and projection. Splitting up the image; through projecting over different surface levels, disjointed it, reminiscent of our fractured memory of space and time.

All medium and methods used present back to me a way of visualising the world. It is the way in which using these medium I can experience a different take on the everyday, use them as a vessel for experiencing space, time and memory and communicate these findings to a wider audience. Looking at the ways in which other creative thinkers have considered our collective experiences of these concerns has deepened my contextual intrigue and curiosity.  

This, I hope, has been an insight into how my practice has been developing.