Vilhelm Hammershøi

Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi's (1864-1916) paintings often portray people turned away from the viewer in muted tones of greys, greens and purple. He mostly worked in native Copenhagen and I think a lot of the paintings are photographic in the framing. 
Look at how the table as been cropped in half, suggesting a limitation of the space that the artist is able to capture and also an outside world, beyond the frame.

I think these paintings are really scandinavian in their moodiness and muted tone.  I am comparing to his contemporary Andres Zorn. Although, there are significant differences in subject (interior vs exterior) and also aura, Hammershoi is more moody while Zorns seem more reflective yet almost passing. More like a snapshot of joy than sorrow. Both artist use a similar pallet and I think is is one that is symbolic of the scandinavian light and also something I am considering in my photography.

Anders Zorn Sommarnöje

Anders Zorn

Anders Zorn "Out"

Growing up I used to admire Anders Zorn in Gothenburg's art museum. They have the image directly above in their collections. I used to visit the art museum alot and would always peak into the photographic exhibition at Hasselblad's center althoug my favourite rooms were on the third floor where the late 1900th and early 2000th century art was located. (Zorn amongst other such as Picasso, Cezanne, Monet and more)

This is a particular one that I would spend a long time looking at. I used to look at the gentlemans foot as it does not seem to touch the railing it is also slightly too large, it just does not look right.

Richard Bergh, Nordisk sommarkväll, 1899-1900.

Stills from my 16mm film.

Collage film

I am working with found footage in my Final Major project. The surrealists had a critical role in concept of appropriation. Andre Breton liked the idea of combining footage as he would travel between cinemas, never seeing the end of each film but effectively combining sequences from different films into a new timeline. Also, in some of the images in Nadja he is using the idea of the filmstill and collage to suggest movement. 

Some further reading:

André Breton, Nadja (Paris: Gallimard, 1964), and 
Breton, “As in a Wood.” L’age du cinema (1951) as reprinted in The Shadow and Its Shadows, ed. Paul Hammond (London: The British Film Insititute, 1991). As cited by Rony, Fatimah Tobing. The Quick and the Dead: Surrealism and the Found Ethnographic Footage Films of Bontoc Eulogy and Mother Dao: The Turtlelike. Camera Obscura. Jan2003, Vol. 18 Issue 52

tree hugging

Was thinking about ways of further realting to the time zones and the meridian. I would like to take a walk from where the Meridian enter England down to where it exits in the south. Perhaps setting up some kind of communicating between the two locations (Hull area and Pecehaven area). These kinds of ideas on communication relates to the postcard project I did in year 2 where I set up for people to send postcards from Kings Hill, UK to Lödöse, Sweden.

It would be nice to do something that would also relate to time and duration and the existence 'inbetween'  entities (now, present, future, here, gone etc). Perhaps I can include the environment in some way. Something that I know will last for a long time, like a tree. Trees have, as we all know, year rings that in a physical way show the passing of time. Perhaps I can manipulate the trees to, in the future contain my images.

This article is about a bullet that was found inside a tree.

ISO XXX?

Working with the large format and x-ray film is, as I expected a really good way for me to really get my hands dirty with all the techie film stuff.
From last week's trial and error I have really got some more figuring out to do in order to get some aceptable results. I shot last week at ISO 100 and got really bad results, or none at all (which was also down to mistaking my film holder for Ali's..) Now, having done some more research I hope that I will get some better results this Friday when we have our next Large Format workshop with Nigel.
This website is really good for help on using x-ray film.

Large Format Photography Forum

my name on a website

Gosh, had a bit of a challenge getting my head around the website building but I finally got it all up and running using filezilla to upload my website to my domain.

The website can now be found at:

www.elin-karlsson.co.uk

It is still being tweaked to find the right balance between text/image but it is pretty close to what I wanted.
Have a look!

stills from life

Augustine's Message (Stereo) by Robflute

Augustine's Message (Stereo) by Robflute


wow!

woman.

Who can resist sitting on a photocopier when the opportunity arises? These scans are the result of such a lack on inhibition. I liked making work that was intuitive rather than planned as these just happened as I was scanning some other images (of dried flowers non the less). These were made on the scanner and no post production has been used the "stripes" are the scanning head moving on the scanner bed and me readjusting my body each time.

Phew interim review. Over

Had a marathon day. Woke up at 5 to get to uni so that I could look at my 16mm footage that I received in the post yesterday. It was the day of our interim review so I was hoping to be able to show some for 2 pm. The footage was really great, better than what I expected. The "Family Medley" contained most of a young girls childhood. From being a 1 year old in a nappy to becoming a big sister at about 9, then leaving the limelight to her little brother for a few years. Their camera-keen father (I think it was the father, but can't know for sure) had captured the first bike ride, donkey rides, visits to zoo, sun bathing, weddings, birthdays and family gatherings.
On the other reel as expected I found the b/w British Transport documentary on Sussex. I can already see some connections between the two films and possible points where I will be able to cut the material together to start a dialogue. Points of interests were shots from Beachy Head (where a lot of people have committed suicide) and a man cutting down a large tree with an ax and chainsaw. Think that these potentially threatening situations may marry well with the "sunny" family footage the aim would then be to introduce a risk of failure are uncertainty to hold on to happy moments. I would like the final film to somehow summarize the bitter sweetness of life an the anxiety it often creates.

As the interim review was due I had also printed some of the work I have been doing since I started Final Major 2 back in January (gosh seems like ages ago).  However, I was notified that there was not enough time for me to show this material, in the space I had I would only be able to show what I felt most urgent. I made the decision to show some screened 16mm footage. I had shot this on my lap top for my own reference of interesting sequences and it was never intended to be shown in a serious context, but today it was. Through making that decision I felt I misrepresented the project as I was unable to be clear on my intentions. I simply was not at a stage where I could communicate my ideas.
I guess this is an issue with a self-initiated project as it may not be in sync with the time table and certain dates. The mistake I made was not to take the date of the interim review into consideration when planning my time, the resulting presentation of my work therefor was very vague and I was not able to get the feedback I felt I needed.

Also, while to some degree I think this is down to poor time management on my behalf I think the organization of today's interim session in itself was lacking. To have only 15 minutes to present 2- and- a- bit months of work, in order to give the tutors and up-to-date idea of what you are up to is a big ask. Especially when some of the staff are not familiar to previous work at all. This leaves me to wonder, who is to gain from the interim review? To a certain degree I felt that it was for the tutors to be spoon fed information of progress, but this is completely without benefit to the students. As a student the interim review is useful as a way to fine-tune concepts but moreover to get response on pieces that are work in progress and under development. I think of this as a dialogue where the tutors can act like a ball-plank, to bounce visual concepts with.

Gary Tarn

Gary Tarn's Black Sun. A poetic documentary about a man tat becomes blind over night.

The soundtrack strikes me as vital as the sound is what holds this film together, so foes the soundtrack in Decasia.

decasia

I have recently started working with moving image. It seems as though my final major 2 will result in a 16 mm appropriation. This is quite a risky project, I feel as though a lot can go wrong. But I am exited by the risk and I hope that the danger can become part of the narrative.
For inspiration I am watching:

Decasia

Alternative photography

Essential website for every alternative developing process thinkable.

http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/

Will be looking at alternative fixing methods for developing at home. Got some trays and FD10 Fotospeed to use.

splicing films

This excellent tutorial by Bob Brodsky talks about how to splice 16mm film. Very dry, very funny but most of all informative.
Watch here