Self Assessment for Poster One (Pathway Stage)

Self Assessment for Poster One (Pathway)

NAME: Sutton Auckett

TUTOR: Eric

VIVA GROUP: Cage

1.      What is your current area of interest (be specific and refer to themes, materials, methods etc.) (Min 100 words)

At the moment I am eager to look at and explore further the use of long shutter speeds and exposures in the landscape. This has mainly consisted of trees and static objects up till now, revealing the environment which is around in cycle. Recently I have been drawn to expand this technique further from taking a look at a contrasting angle of objects or people moving within the environment. I want to convey images that look distorted or as if something was missing. At the same time I want to emerge myself within these surroundings and almost become part of the landscape itself.

2.      Reflect on what you are planning to explore and develop over the next six weeks (min 75 words)

Over the next six weeks I will be going out and taking further photographs within various settings and weather conditions. I find that the best conditions for long exposures are grey and overcast days, which enables the camera to work for a longer amount of time, capturing more movement still with a similar aperture size. I would also like to experiment and find out whether a really long exposure would look better than one that was not quite so long, and what the difference in the final result would be. I intend to capture vast sceneries with my digital SLR as well as my film camera; developing and experimenting in the darkroom using dodging and burning. It would be good to play around with darkroom prewashing as well.

3.      What do you intend to do next year, why and where?

Next year I intend on going further up the education line. I want to carry on and improve my knowledge and skills in the subject area of which I love, as well as gaining experience from other practitioners and lecturers. Plymouth would probably be my first choice; nevertheless I think it is important for me to live near the coast as I have grown up in this kind of environment and is a huge inspiration for me. Having a countryside surrounding near the university would be great, because It would mean that I would be free to wonder and explore the natural environment in hiking and taking shots. I feel a strong need to pursue Photography as more than just a hobby.

Bardsey Island - Birds and Wildlife on the welsh Island of Saints..

This evening I attended a talk at Arundel Wildlife Wetland Centre. It involved a lecture about a very small island off the coast of Wales. The talk was given by Andre Cleave, an environmental enthusiastic. Over the years much of his time had been spent on concrete writing,  photography and tours leading around the world. These included guides of trees, wild floers, seashore life and birds. He is highly respected by the National trust and RSPB groups, as well as being appointed and MBE in 1995 for services to environmental education. Andrew has travelled all over the world, mainly in Europe but also parts of the Mediterranean region and Galapagos. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to attend a talk and pay simply £2.50.


The Island of Bardsey is associated with "The island of currents". It is roughly two miles off the coast of Lleyn Peninsula and from what Andrew was saying it is hard to get to and back. Nevertheless it is considered a pilgrimage for many wildlife photographers because it provides an island formed of natural stopping for off site migrant birds all year round. I was told it was such a small island that in fact it only covered an area of approximately 440 acres of land. An island also know for the deaths of twenty thousand saints buried underground; many people used to move to the island to die a long time ago. 

The image shows the vast minority of Bardsey Island

Many of the birds Andrew Cleave talked about I had never heard of before. Nevertheless I felt that I needed to start somewhere if I had an interest n wildlife. I was told that land birds such as blue tits and woodpeckers were not important on the island, as rarely came. On the other hand I was shown fantastic photographs taken by himself of red shank, oyster catchers and yellow wagtales, all of which were becoming scarce in breed. Turnstones were one of the common passage migrants he had seen from many of his visits to the island. They were winter visitors and few lingered during the summer period. They feed on seaweed to get iodine and other minerals, as soon as they start to fatten up they move on.


It was really interesting to find out that Bardsey Island was actually one of the few bird observatories in the UK. All of the sites contribute important data on migration and population for many species; large numbers of birds are caught and ringed every year. A desolated place with no population but only a few workers to run the wildlife centre. A lighthouse is also kept running and it was incredible to hear that it was the only square lighthouse in Britain. Although it is most notorious for killing birds because of its brightness and shock to the birds when flying to migrate.


Andrew then went on in the second half of the lecture to talk about life by the water. A main factor was about wildlife by the sea. Bardsey Island has a colony of about 100 pairs of razorbills and can live to up to 50 years. They regularly return to the same rock they laid their eggs and only one large egg is laid every year. Very interesting because the egg is not looked after particularly well just left with no nest etc. 300 Guillemots and many puffins can also be found on steep slopes. The final breed he was very interested in talking about was the Manx Shearwaters. These birds waddle along because their feet are too far back from their body. They also come back to the same nest every year in the summer and migrate to places like Brazil in our winter. A single egg is incubated for up to 40 years and live along time after when hatched. Other birds that do the same are storm petrels. He went on to talk about rare wild  fungi and  wild mushrooms that could be found.

The image of a razorbill perched on a rock at Bardsey Island

A magnificent bird that I discovered from
Andrew. The photograph shows how the
Manx Shearwater is having trouble walking

From looking at the slideshow I was really intrigued and amazed about how desolated a place could be. I thought this talk would tie in with my kind of project brief because I have looked at desolated places and trees before. I think living on this island would also give a sense of loneliness of which I try and convey my photographs. I really enjoyed myself simply listening for a few hours and hope to return for another lecture about a different subject sometime soon.

An influential Website I found..

Today I was searching around the world wide web, trying to find artists with a similar nature to me. I came across this website called "Photoslaves". A site that seems to be updated rarely, that works in the form of a blog. Nevertheless since looking on this website it has opened me up to photographers that I have never even heard of. As well as including information and pictures about Michael Kenna and Matin Stavars (two of my favorite photographers), it also includes many more who use long shutter speeds. 

Here I have found Adam Clutterbuck a landscape photographer who seeks out strong and stripped down compositions. He was grown up in the west of Cornwall so it is not surprising many of his images are taken at the coast. 

Another Photographer is David Burdeny who makes his own black and white prints in makeshift darkrooms under his bedroom closet. Once again he uses long shutter speeds to capture the movement of water and the land. Stunning compositions captured on medium format cameras.

This website has been one of my favorites to look at during the course of this year.

http://photoslaves.com/

http://photoslaves.com/gallery/

Painting at work...

Frequently I am asked at work to do some maintenance and painting after the kids have finished on rides and just before it starts to get dark. Previously I have repaired, sanded and painted the top of the bandstand at The Worthing Lido. Last year I also painted a fruit bowl upon the top of the roof. I have been carrying on with the second every so often. The photograph below shows my progress do far.

The second fruit bowl on the East side nearing completion.

The other day I was asked to complete an fill in the worthing motto in Latin. It had been displayed as part of the emblem on a side wall facing the pier. It has also been painted before but parts had come off, so i was asked to go over it as best as I could. As soon as I looked at the wall I could see that It had been rushed previously and hence lettering was wrong in the style of Times New Roman. I got to work and just had to make do with what was there.

Just before finishing the last word in Latin I saw a man looking over me, and approached me by saying; "You do know you have done the letters wrong". I knew exactly what he meant. The previous person had done the letters such as "X" and "M" with the bold line first and the thin line second. (It's a bit hard to explain)

Anyway I had an inspirational ten minute talk with this guy about calligraphy and graphic design. He asked me whether I was a professional and I told him that I was still in education and planning to go to university next year. He recommended looking at SCAT, Somerset College of Arts and Technology as that was where he went when he was younger. I expect this bloke was retired now. 

From carrying on talking personal he kept asking me questions if I had heard of Company's such as WPP, a leading advertising and marketing service that he used to work for. I was fascinated and truly inspired by his words. This guy next went on to say that his last piece of work he was commissioned for was a font for a bottle. He went on to tell me that he was the guy who created the label font for San Miguel and Cobra beers.

I had loved talking to this bloke and could have talked to him for hours. Sadly he had to go because his wife was waiting for him. He shock my hand and told me his name was Bob. A fascinating day and I was astonished how successful he had been.

Brighton Photo Fringe Open'11

I went to see the penultimate day of the Brighton Photo Fringe Open'11 exhibition at the Phoenix Gallery. It was on from 19th November to 18th December and I thought It would be a good idea to go along before it ended. The exhibition brought together a diverse group of artists to explore different perspectives on critical issues emerging from contemporary photographic practice.

The exhibition space was very small in itself however there was a vast amount of space to view the artists work. I had never came to this exhibition before but it really caught my eye to want to come back again. The space was very clean and open. The various rooms built into a walkthrough contained different types of imagery, from photographic sculpture to illusional pieces.

The first lot of work I saw was by Alexander Nicholas Gehring; an interesting approach to photography using only the shades black and red. They were all created from C-Prints in 2011 and consisted of very bold and contracting streaks of red light upon a dark room or background. They were certainly my favorite pieces of work in the gallery.

The next section of the Open'11 Gallery contained three A0 photographs and a pile of A4 sheets of paper. From looking at the photographs I could see that they were very pixilated and included a lot of noise distortion. Later I found out that they had been printed on Xerox paper. This meant that they would have been cheaply produced and for some specific reason. I personally really liked them because they were not sharp in the slightest, they almost conveyed lovely texture.

There were also several other places within the exhibition space that I looked and viewed. There was one section that did not involve photographs but objects, i don't know whether this was part of the Brighton Photo Fringe gallery but i found it interesting. It contained a brief description and some "Practical Electronics". I had done an A level in Electronics so I was quite amazed to see a series of old equipment. 

I had a great time looking around and wanted to come back again somewhen. I was going to head of to a "New Art Exhibition" by the famous Ronnie Wood, but when I got there I had run out of time and it had already shut. That exhibition was in one of the shops in the lanes but also ended over the weekend.

"Gathering" at Fabrica 16th November 2011

As I was in Brighton and heading back to the station, I thought it would be a good idea to quickly look what was happening at Fabrica. I walked in to find a huge two sided screen of which one side was blank. It seemed to play a movie that was created by Melanie Manchot called "Gathering". The artist was both interested in incidents that examined collective identities, codes and behaviours in public space. Melanie wanted to examined mass democratic expression to parade and protest that swept across Europe and the Middle East from anti cuts protests in the UK to the Arab Spring.

I sat down in the dark with a huge projection infront of me.It took a long time to try and understand what the film was all about. The first was called "Walk Square 2011" and focused upon 1000 kids and 13 schools all gathering in one area of space. The key area seemed to be a huge "Gathering" somewhere where public would be able to see them. I believe It was set in Hamburg. 

The first film clip "Walk (Square)" showing from far away onto the crowd.

Everyone was rotating in a circle. The camera angle was very far away and gave an unusual touch to me because you could hear the sound of the crowd as if you were standing in the centre of the circle. Suddenly the sound drops to silence and the camera view starts to pan around from the perspective of the middle of the circle. Soon after the sound picked up and everyone had smiles upon their faces as they start to walk round in a square. I was very confused by the next action because the kids disperse and a line of different sized rectangles appears upon the ground. It looked as if everyone has a piece of chalk to hand. It was as if the power of a human action when directed was put towards a common goal. 

I was then asked to move round to the other side of the wall to see a different projection. This second film was entitled "Celebration (Cyprus Street)". It was inspired by traditional street parties in London's East End, developed over a period of six months with residents. It was commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella and supported by Arts Council England.

It was filmed by a single tracking shot, capturing the rich diversity of the East End following four centuries of immigration. The sound starts to get louder as conversation grows throughout the street, no one is noticing the camera action. At this point it made me realize that both films seemed to be in contrast with each other. The first film was about leading as there was a person showing people where to go; and this short clip was about following others and their actions. There was also no seats compared to before. I noticed that everyone suddenly stopped and the street start to turn around to have a picture taken. I was given a strong sense of insecurity with the fact with such a life sized amount of people were all looking at you as if you were about to do something big. I had to leave the room.

Soon after I was asked to fill in a short questionnaire and I was handed a leaflet. I soon found out that Both of Melanie's work had been showcased internationally, with solo presentations at Haus am Waldsee in Berlin, Manchester and various other places. I was fascinated and really enjoyed seeing her work. I was amazed my peoples reactions around me and I was intrigued to how she managed to direct so many people together.

What Northbrook Has To Offer (Part 2)

This is my long awaited second part of one of my blogs about Northbrook College and the BA (Hons) courses that I could if I wish apply for. In this blog post I thought I would spend a moment to talk about a degree run at West Durrington campus called Contemporary Photographic Arts. 

On Friday 4th November I left class early to attend an open day with David in Fine Art. After this I thought it would be a good idea to wait around for half an hour and go and look at this photography degree. I thought that I should check out what Northbrook had to offer because if it felt right it meant that I would not have to spend as much money moving away from home.

I was a little disappointed to find out that I was the only person in the open day talk who had actually turned up. Nevertheless It meant that I could talk informally on a one to one basis with Paul Grivell, the course tutor. This meant the course talk was a lot less time than the previous. When I stepped in the room I realised I had been there before and then remembered last year I went to the same talk because I wasn't really sure which course to choose here at the college.

From Paul skipping through the slideshow, the overview of the course seemed to be bringing critical theory and contemporary photographic practice together in order to challenge and question photography as a whole. I thought this sounded quite interested and I was given a leaflet with all the basic course information. Here I found that the Photographic degree would be very broad, working with digital and analogue techniques using photography and moving image meant there would be a wide range of forms to play with.

The course had been split into three years and covered much of the same outline as the Fine Art degree. The first year would be a lot of research and written presentations as well as an exploratory stage at the beginning of the year. This meant that in the first month you would be able to play around and document findings from using various mediums. The theme would be set and you would wok from it. For the second year you would advance on these skills and ending the year you would showcase your work in a public exhibition or space. A few examples were shown on the slideshow of people hiring out a shop window to create a 24 hour exhibition; others did the same with a car parking space. In the final year students were expected to know what area they wanted to work and things start to become more specific. All work and exhibition space was up to you, the student could set their own theme based upon their genre of work.

Paul talked about his own individual work and I thought this was good. If I was going to do a degree in a subject I want to see that the tutors themselves have a passion for the subject, as well as having interests outside of just teaching. At the end of the three years I was told that many of the undergraduates went to be free lance or pursue within their medium as well as some completing a masters. The entry requirements were stated as 160 UCAS points. I thought this was possibly quite low, nevertheless It meant that because of being educated in the same college I could quite easily get onto this course. This was an option.

To conclude this Photographic Art degree, I would say that It was a great course in general. The facilities were actually quite a lot better than I originally thought they would be. I underestimated this course so much that much of the equipment and studio space was actaully better than other university visits I have been to. I loved the fact that only a hand few of students could get onto this course; a maximum of 15. This was great news in my eyes because it would mean that you would get a lot more support and acknowledgement from tutors, instead of being one in the sea compared to being one of 300 in Brighton. The only downside that I had with this course nevertheless was that I didn't think it was in the prime location. If this course would have been in london or a big city I would certainly go for it. I also felt that even though I loved the teaching staff at Northbrook College I felt It would be time to move on from Worthing. This could be a safe or a last resort if I do not have a fourth or fifth choice on my UCAS application.