Marc Auge - 'Non-Places'

In this book Auge explores the concept of a 'non-space' as a place where people wander in and out of constantly but never settle. Airport lounges, bus stops and supermarkets he says results in a profound alteration of awareness: something we perceive, but only in a partial and incoherent manner. Auge uses the concept of ‘supermodernity’ to describe the logic of a capitalist environment—a logic of excessive information and excessive space. Although interesting from an anthropological point of view it didn't directly inform my current work, however it did remind me of the feeling of mindlessly walking through these non-places and not completely percieving them. In insomnia these non-spaces extend to everywhere and everything, a non-awareness or non-mindfullness of your surroundings. I think by photographing empty spaces as in Martin Cregg's work, they can work as a metaphor for this experience.

Brassai

Brassai's photographs are very surrealist, he saw the beauty and strangeness behind every day things. This is the same thing I am looking for in my photographs in a more contemporary way. It seems he uses light to create compositions in weird ways, but also bodies without parts cut off from the image, as in the third image where the head is missing; this means the shape we are left with is reminiscent of a woman's body, but surreal at the same time. Taking pictures of parts of the body instead of the whole (especially missing the head and face)  has always interested me, I will look out for more of these shots.

Martin Cregg - Empty Spaces

Martin Cregg's Empty spaces is a collection of pictures of perfectly empty spaces, not just physically lacking objects but also missing any colour at all. I've noticed these around me before and been obsessed with the phenomenon, we live in a world surrounded by colour so when we find a small corner where there is none, it feels strange. A lot of his images look as though they're balck and white as well, but just the smallest hint of colour to offset the feeling, this creates a really surreal image. The images are also reminiscent of insomnia 'being neither awake nor asleep', in a sort of limbo or completely empty stark space. I will also look for this kind of image around me to illustrate this eery feeling.

Michael Nguie

Michel Nguie is one of my favourite photographers at the moment. He says he is driven by 'finding colour', and its very evident in his photographs; flawlessly seeing photographs that group vibrant colours together perfectly. He also photographs things that are surreal and interesting in a strange way. I like the third picture in the way that its busy, a lot of the time too much in a photograph can ruin it, not here, in a funeral shrine where death is celebrate there is an abundance of life. What is most attracting to me about his photographs is his use of flash, it singles out the subject of the photograph to maintain dominance. Also, as I learnt from Fight Club and The Machinist is the use of light to create that feeling of starkness, I think using a flash could really give that feeling to my photographs, enhancing the 'insomniac experience'.

Missy Prince

Missy Prince takes wonderful pictures of things she see's in her life. The way she brings them alive though is looking at them through a dream like lens, the light in most of her pictures is very romantic; in the third picture of the back of a mans head the light feels like its revealing something just out of view. The first picture is what really interested me; strange, surreal objects in everyday areas. This may seem normal to people that go there frequently, but to the outsider its amazing. The second picture of the bike is also striking, very dead pan it doesn't seem to obsessed with a meaning, it just is, and thats what I think beauty is all about. I think I will try and use these qualities in my photography; trying to reveal something of the everyday and bring outsiders into 'my world'. Also I don't want to get too hung up on the why, just the fact that this image is beautiful just because.

Alec Soth

What I particularly like about Alec Soth's images is the colour co-ordination, strange subjects and light. In the first picture we can see how all the colours are similar, creating a simple composition without a huge amount of colours to distract the viewer; this is the same premise as black and white photography. In the second picture the strangeness is subtle; a normal living room environment, you can imagine a cute old couple living there apart from when your eye is drawn to the top shelf magazine lying on the floor. In this way the whole aspect of the image is offset, creating an interesting composition. The final picture is of a towel shaped into two swans I think. I like this because its one of those things we can glance over easily and not recognise its beauty; when we truly look at the world around us there is a lot of weird, wonderful and beautiful things lurking beneath the surface. In a state of sleep deprevation I feel like I can notice these things more, I also take pictures of things that aren't any of these things, but to me at the time do look strange. While I am photographing I will have to try and record these feelings and reasons behind them as much as I can.

Sigmund Freud's 'Study of the Unconscious'

Following on from the post about Geoffrey Chaucer's problems I decided to look into how things I read and see can plant themselves in my unconscious and re-emerge in my photography. So why do I take pictures of certain things? Why would something I see compel me to record it? Freud theorised that the mind can be split into three parts

1. The conscious - everything we are aware of, full control and includes our memories to be pulled into awareness at any time.
2. The preconscious - representative of ordinary memory, not always aware of it but can be pulled into consciousness at any time.
3. The unconscious - reservoir of feelings, thoughts, and memories that outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our behavior and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences. 

So to Freud, as we are going about our everyday activities our unconscious can suddenly spark up in response to something, making me recognise a potential photograph because it symbolises something to me personally. In this way it doesn't feel like I'm just running around with my camera taking pictures of things, the images will have deeper meaning.

Chaucer 'The Book of the Duchess'

 Geoffrey Chaucer was a chronic Insomniac, in his poem the Book Of The Duchess, not being able to sleep he reaches for his copy of Metamorphoses by the ancient Roman poet Ovid. The book is full of grand visuals and emotion, so when he eventually falls asleep he has magical dreams about the story. This is similar to being awake and dreaming; reading a story or seeing a film that effects you leads to seeing scenes or images while awake. This means that photographs I take could be contextualised back to something I have watched recently, maybe I could experiment by watching or reading something that inspires me to take such pictures?

Insomnia in films

 Memento is the story of a man who's wife has been murdered and his journey for revenge. The only problem is that he has a severe memory problem, meaning to remember his investigation he must take pictures and tattoo facts onto his body. No exactly about insomnia, it does however illustrate the way it effects your memory. The film is very disorientating, in my images I may choose to add this feeling to immerse the viewer, but then I'm not sure yet if I want to create strange images or document what I stumble upon.

 

Fight club follows an insomniac on his downward spiral into madness. It's very illustrative of the condition and how it feels to be in the state. Quotes like 'when you have insomnia you're never really awake and you're never really asleep' and 'nothing's real. Everything's far away. Everything's a copy of a copy of a copy' are vivid of the feeling. The whole film is filled of surreal happenings and objects, but its never realised if this is all in his imagination or real, this is alike with 'dreaming while awake'. After so long being awake you start to seem things that replay themselves from movies or pictures in front of you, things out of the corner of your eye make you jump a mile, and the most usual object can look completely different. I will also consider the unkind lighting throughout alot of the film, its always very stark. Maybe if I were to use a flash it would add this effect, also colour gels and filters could you be used?

The Machinist follows the story of a factory worker that hasn't slept in a year. Eventually he begins to question his sanity when strange things start to happen. The overlying question of the whole film is, is it all in his head or not? As in Fight Club the imagery is very stark and empty, it shows the dark side of insomnia; how the smallest things can frighten you and things appear completely different. Maybe I could research more dark photography and directors like David Lynch to incorporate more of a terror quality into the photographs?

Self Directed Project

For my self directed project I have decided to chronicle what it is like to be an insomniac. I have had the condition for years, going without or with very little sleep for days on end. The experience can be likened to 'dreaming while awake', the body and mind becomes slow, I start hallucinating and things which appear normal and everyday take on a dreamlike quality. As this is similar to what photographers strive for in their images; the beautiful and unusual in the mundane, I thought what better way than to use this to my advantage?

Pictures from the shoot.

Today I brought my Olympus XA film camera and my lumix digital camera. In the Olympus I loaded Kodak Portra 400 film because it yields the cool, candid tones and colours I was after to portray a classical painting. I also chose a dull, overcast day to compliment to metal and machinery present in the area. I brought the digital camera because I wanted a backup in case anything went wrong with the film. I think these are my strongest images -

Scouting the area

Today I walked round the industrial area looking for locations to shoot. I saw some really interesting places that I could photograph that incorporate a dead pan and classic landscape style. The most significant find was a huge rubbish tip that looks similar to rolling hills. I plan to photograph it from a distance to render the rubbish almost unnoticeable, but just close enough so that after a while the viewer will realise what it actually is.