Feb 2013 Professional Practice 'VL' Jessica Potter talk.
Jessica Potter is a photographer nearing the end of a seven year period of education and development which started with a BA course and has led to a practice led PHD.
Her work is very closely connected with the relationships between text and image and the writings of French twentieth Century writers such as Jean Paul Sartre http://www.sartre.org/.
Jessica explores how to exhaust an image with accompanying audio or written words phrased initially in a monochrome descriptive tense. This methodology stemmed from an interest in the unease she felt between the relationship between text and images. This investigation started during her BA.
She was also interested in landscapes, edges and boundaries thematically. Especially the public space and it's usage, this included a fascination with observing and recording those frequenting the space.The methods used to create the images were analogue using both 35mm and 120 roll film and when faced with fellow members of the RCA where she had progressed too, she felt very technically inexperienced. The images themselves are not beautiful or aesthetically pleasing because it's the narrative that seems to be more important. Potter has referenced Sartres book 'Being Nothingness' and 'Nausea', especially interested in "The look" or "The relationship between one person and another". Potter also described the benches she enjoyed to work from, or to photograph as "like cameras themselves". This phrase related to the way the bench was positioned like a viewfinder directing the sitter in a defined and specific way. It was whilst focusing on the park benches that her writing of the descriptive text increased. Audi work was produced to support the visual and written text, spoken by a male voice in a monotone fashion. Some work related to a series of benches surrounding a pool, and the drain hole was described in relation to Sartre and in a somewhat sublime way, although I felt the images didn't translate and communicate that message to me.
Moving on from parks the next body of work related to the high-street and was black and white unlike the colour bench series. The narratives revolved around specific rules Potter self imposed to create the work. These rules included for example, photographing as a subject was leaving the frame, or reached a certain position in the frame. The images are a visual representation on a 'public space of encounter' and the supporting descriptive text is designed to explore the concept of 'Taking the image to the point of Exhaustion'. The ideas behind the work again are connected back to Sartre by Potter, with a nod to Walker Evens previous work created in 1946 recording workers (in Fortune magazine). Evens wanted to be a writer and created work that became a typology Potter stated, and that is where the connections between their work merges. Potter uses text with and theory given as much status as the images themselves. Potter described her series of 12 images (the number of images on a 120 roll film in her medium format camera) as a "visual sentence".
Following on from parks and the street, Potter decided to explore the allotment as an alternate public space to photograph. Exploring mounds of organic matter and ideas like "what is the difference between a mound and a heap?" Potter explained that again these explorations could be linked back to French 20th century writers or poets especially the "20th New Novel or nouveau roman" movement.
Jessica Potter is a photographer nearing the end of a seven year period of education and development which started with a BA course and has led to a practice led PHD.
Her work is very closely connected with the relationships between text and image and the writings of French twentieth Century writers such as Jean Paul Sartre http://www.sartre.org/.
Jessica explores how to exhaust an image with accompanying audio or written words phrased initially in a monochrome descriptive tense. This methodology stemmed from an interest in the unease she felt between the relationship between text and images. This investigation started during her BA.
She was also interested in landscapes, edges and boundaries thematically. Especially the public space and it's usage, this included a fascination with observing and recording those frequenting the space.The methods used to create the images were analogue using both 35mm and 120 roll film and when faced with fellow members of the RCA where she had progressed too, she felt very technically inexperienced. The images themselves are not beautiful or aesthetically pleasing because it's the narrative that seems to be more important. Potter has referenced Sartres book 'Being Nothingness' and 'Nausea', especially interested in "The look" or "The relationship between one person and another". Potter also described the benches she enjoyed to work from, or to photograph as "like cameras themselves". This phrase related to the way the bench was positioned like a viewfinder directing the sitter in a defined and specific way. It was whilst focusing on the park benches that her writing of the descriptive text increased. Audi work was produced to support the visual and written text, spoken by a male voice in a monotone fashion. Some work related to a series of benches surrounding a pool, and the drain hole was described in relation to Sartre and in a somewhat sublime way, although I felt the images didn't translate and communicate that message to me.
Moving on from parks the next body of work related to the high-street and was black and white unlike the colour bench series. The narratives revolved around specific rules Potter self imposed to create the work. These rules included for example, photographing as a subject was leaving the frame, or reached a certain position in the frame. The images are a visual representation on a 'public space of encounter' and the supporting descriptive text is designed to explore the concept of 'Taking the image to the point of Exhaustion'. The ideas behind the work again are connected back to Sartre by Potter, with a nod to Walker Evens previous work created in 1946 recording workers (in Fortune magazine). Evens wanted to be a writer and created work that became a typology Potter stated, and that is where the connections between their work merges. Potter uses text with and theory given as much status as the images themselves. Potter described her series of 12 images (the number of images on a 120 roll film in her medium format camera) as a "visual sentence".
Following on from parks and the street, Potter decided to explore the allotment as an alternate public space to photograph. Exploring mounds of organic matter and ideas like "what is the difference between a mound and a heap?" Potter explained that again these explorations could be linked back to French 20th century writers or poets especially the "20th New Novel or nouveau roman" movement.
No comments:
Post a Comment