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SAM DRAKE |
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The photographs ability to stand on its own without words or narrative is something that fascinates me; the photograph can offers an apparently simple directness that avoids an explanation. The work of Bernd and Hilla Becher has had a strong influence on my own practice. There is a humbleness about their images; they draw attention to what they show never to themselves. |
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Carly Beard |
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Framing is still a very important element to my work. Often when entering a building with a past people say, 'if only these walks could talk'. They obviously cannot. They can how ever offer us small clues: the physical dimensions of the room, the décor, the furnishings and the wear received. Sometimes when you are in certain buildings you get the tiniest indication of events that might have happen there. This creates a sense of slight unease. You walk round quietly not making much noise, as if not wanting to disturb the memories that might be there. You what to find out more but the walls cannot tell you. I want to create a similar feeling within my work. I want to create feeling of being almost able to sense some kind of narrative, the sense that something tragic has or is just about to happen. I want to make the viewer feel part of the scene, yet held back, frozen unable to do anything but look on as the light changes; almost as if they were looking from inside the wall. |
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This idea of our society not acknowledging tragedy as a part of life is something that fascinates me. While I do not think people should morbidly expect tragedy, I feel that tragedy (disappointment, loss and death) is a part of life. I was reading The Daybooks of Edward Weston, in a section of it Weston talks about the Mexican bullfights, 'Strange humour, living from week to week in the anticipation of the Sunday bullfight, acknowledging its cruelty, shuddering when a mortally gored horse careens across the area with its guts wrapped round its legs, but watching the pageant or orgy, nevertheless, in fascinated horror. The Latins have evolved a sport which symbolizes life, its glorious moments and its sordid ones, its dreams and deliriums- and futility, they can return from such an afternoon to tenderly pet their birds and water their geraniums.' Roland Bathes in Camera Lucida refers to the photographic image as, '...never anything but an antiphon of "look", "see".' This is something that I strongly agree with. I have tried to photograph the animals in an incredible simple and economic way. I do not wish to shock or disgust the viewer, I want to encourage them to notice the stark beauty of the animals. I want to make people stop and observe what the animals really look like: To notice the shape, the intricate detail and the amazing tones and then notice that the animals where dead- I want it to be a gentle realisation. |
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