photography

Practicing with my camera in different environments and lighting, getting the hang of this now!

Mixed medium images

 A collation of mixed medium collages i have been playing with for my personal passions project.

I wish i'd done this - Vivian Maier

 I have been asked to write a report on an image that I wish I would of liked to of produced myself. The brief asks that the piece should have made an impact on my own work and practice. It asks me to reflect on what I can learn from this image and how it has motivated my own approach. I found it difficult to find just one piece, so I have opted to explore one of the more inspirational artists I have discovered. By exploring her practices and influences I am hoping to connect them to my own work. 


Vivian Maier is a New York street photographer whose love of photography helped to document life on the streets of New York in the 1950s. Maier was a dedicated care-worker who had spent the majority of her life looking after children.  She was not a trained photographer but had a dedicated interest. She has had a natural ability to capture life in all its rawness and in an era where we are no longer invited to take voyeuristic or observational photographs, Maier has happily captured her subjects in a ‘none’ intrusive way.  Some of her imagery reflects the hardships of the New Yorkers of that time, some of them homeless vagabonds, dirty unnourished children and domestic scenes of family life. There is also a collection of images that show us how far we have developed in the last sixty years in our social and environmentally acceptable behaviours.


One of her images that I was instantly drawn to is the image of a woman in glamorous 1950s attire captured in the evening. The black and white image is fuzzy in its appearance and shows the woman making her way over to a waiting car. The image is framed in dark tones of blacks and charcoals with bursts of white and silver glimmers that portray the glamor of a pending evening. The posture of the woman standing tall making her way to the car conveys the anticipation of her evening ahead. The female is dressed in clothing of crisp whiteness and hints at wealth or a special occasion. This is variably different to what Maier has captured before. Many of Maier’s grittier images consist of dead animals slain or decaying by the roadside along with dirty, uncared for children and the surrounding poverty. There is however a more sinister appearance to this image. In the darkness of the remote surroundings, there is seediness to awaiting car and the urgency of the female’s body language.

Most of Maier’s imagery is untitled so we will never know the truth but what is imbedded in her work is a moment, a time, a beautiful acknowledgement to a period in history.

 In the year 2012 it is unlikely we are able to capture the presence of life that is so evident in her work. We now live in a time where such images would be classed as stalking or annoyance not the inquisitiveness of an avid photographer with a passion for life. Photography from another period is always more interesting  to a viewer but i am finding that our generation is lost on the gadgetry  of technology and saturation of  staging to ever really capture a real mood and environment. 

 New York has always been a feisty city and especially in the 1950s some parts were notorious for being dangerous, dirty and poor. Yet Maier still found its beauty and documented its inhabitants in an exciting period of change. Vivian Maier has encouraged me to think about the here and now and what imagery is available to influence my work now. With a love of photography myself, I too am experimenting with shadow projection from bare branches and dilapidated buildings. I would like to also document my own passions for life, people and the environment and to translate my findings into a surface design that can then be produced into an interior setting. What Vivian Maier’s work has encouraged is to not over think about the subject matter but to just be passionate about it and create something that can be timeless and innovative. Unfortunately Vivian Maier died without ever knowing the impact her imagery taken with a Rolleiflex camera would have on our cultural understandings of a bygone time and her talent for composing beautiful imagery. 

Fiona Hepburn

Fiona Hepburn, finds inspiration for her work from her Scottish heritage, natural history and the organic environment. Her work is designed around these found objects and materials.  Fiona then lets these objects narrate and visually represent her findings. By deconstructing, magnifying and reconstructing her subjects, she explores ways to interpretate her work. With a Fine art degree and masters in printmaking, her skills help to produce these intricate, detailed and labor-long anatomical images. I find her work unusual, captivating and completely innovative to the surface design mixed 3D work I have seen before.  Her work is detailed and beautiful and has explored the natural environment in a refreshing approach.