To start my project I intend to explore ideas of sublime and beauty within nature, focusing on emphasising light and fragility within the natural world. I want to be able to express an emotion through my photos, whether that be using shapes, shadows, reflections and light.
The photographer Rinko Kawauchi is an artists who interested me, inspired by Japanese art and her ethnic religion, looking at portraying nature in a feminine light. This is where I will explore ideologies like beauty and the sublime and styles of Japanese art, as well as form and shape related to femininity. When I do a shoot in this concept I will emphasise the light, similar to Kawauchi.
I also want to explore uses of colour and texture and the opposing shapes and forms that are associated with the ideas of masculinity and femininity. For example to explore stereotypical views on masculinity i could photograph geometric bold structures in the urban environment, I could juxtapose these images to natural ones to represent stereotyped femininity. I will focus on soft shapes in comparison to angular ones and create a contrast between the two, perhaps looking for similar shapes within the images to connect them. I am also inspired by the artist Meghann Riepenhoff who produces seascape without a camera looking at the tidal patterns made by ocean waves creating more abstract images. She describes her photos as a 'series of camera-less cyanotype'. I am interested in exploring her work and interpreting it as for my political landscape project I explored ideas of light sensitive paper and cynotypes and tried to recreate them. Exploring that in this project will follow on from my previous work and gives me a better understanding. The work of Meghann Riepenhoff also links to the work of Susan Derges which is another photographer I will take inspiration from in my project. She also specialises in cameraless photographic processes, most often working with natural landscapes. Exploring the movement of water and the texture it creates is an concept i want to explore in my project.To interpret their work I will try to create cynotypes myself. I want to do this as I think it creates an interesting aspect to my project where they are photos that aren't taken by a camera, creating an effect that wouldn't be produced with a digital images.
Example Meghann Riepenhoff Work:
Example of Susan Derges:
As I continue through my project I will develop it further by evaluating what I have done successfully and work from that. I will start by exploring shapes and forms within nature that soft and rounded linking the ideas of beauty from a feminine point of view in my first shoot. I then plan to explore the movement of water/ocean in my second shoot and will continue by researching cyantypes by Susan Derges and Meghann Riepenhoff to do an interpretation in my third shoot. I then want to focus on abstract shapes looking at light and shadows within a landscape in my forth shoot. I am particularly interested in exploring nature and beauty as I consider it something that influences me as an individual.
