Bench 2014

Reflective summary

BENCH is a selection of photos taken along the River Cam where I walk nearly every day. It is a beautiful place where I have walked for nearly 40 years. I started taking photos regularly – at least once a week – from when I started the course in November 2014 through to just before May 21st 2017 – the day of opening of a new rail station that is likely to significantly alter the area. Increasing the litter – but maybe more attention will be given to clearing it up for possible tourists from London.

The images constitute one of a number of possible series from the thousands of photos I took over the period. I have many others of the seasonal changes in the landscape, including tree management, animals and birds,  impact of sporting events and particularly of the life around the three bridges over the Cam – sites of graffiti, reflections and various activities. I will work on these further planned as a series of books around human impacts on the urban ‘idyll’ fringe. For more of these images see my website: http://www.zemniimages.com .

Initially a book called ‘Flowers’ came to mind  because suddenly at the beginning of Spring the numbers of crisp and chocolate wrappers shining in the grass escalated as people came to feed the ducks and swans. I started to track the litter – how long did it stay, how long did it last. And how did its content change with the seasons. But casually thrown litter carried by wind was less interesting than the more concentrated litter, and other signs of activity, around the benches.

Originally I had planned to cover all 10 benches up to Baits Bite Lock, but reduced this to 7 to the key bend of Grassy Corner as the sites of most interesting activity. So I started to look much more intensively at these and chart what happened to particular objects, when new ones appeared and so on. Though there are gaps when I was away for travel for my work.

This project draws heavily on reading for this course, in particular Edgelands, Justyn Partyka  with his sharp images of crows on barbed wire in East Anglia and Paul Hill‘s work, including White Peak Dark Peak and images of rotting rabbits. Also New Topographics and Late Photography  I considered converting the images to Black and White, but decided to maintain the colour of the collaged patterns of bottles and cans. The project also draws particularly on my work on Grassy Corner in Assignment 3 From Spaces to Places and my experimentation with Photobooks and tutor comments in Assignment 5 Perspectives on Kyrgyzstan.

An assessment of the individual images and page spreads is given below.

The course as a whole significantly expanded my ideas of what ‘landscape photography is’ (See Course Review).  I still remain attracted to the beauty of the river at those few times when there are few people. I feel resigned rather than welcoming of the increasing crowds and lack of space. But doing this project has made me much more observant of human activity – rather than just trying to ignore it, and to bring ideas I had on social/environmental documentary to the heart of my landscape photography.

I plan (once I have a revised version and possibly one or two of the three ‘Bridges’ books) to approach Waterstones and/or Heffers in Cambridge to see if they might be interested – they do stock local books on Cambridge. This one (or the series) might have a local/tourist market if it is engaging enough for an ‘alternative’ readership (their main in-store clientele). The books they currently have on Cambridge are pretty mundane.

Assessment

This is the first print version mock-up. I needed to see things first in print as a book at this size to clarify things – as with the other books in Assignment 5. All will be discussed with potential readers, then revised and published on-line – for myself and people I work with if not for anyone else.

The book itself was produced in Lightroom, following on from my exploration of book options that I looked at in Assignment 5, taking on board my tutor’s suggestions to reduce images. For ease and speed of first printing I continued to use Blurb – with 40% discount. But in future I plan to look more at using InDesign (issue being how to calculate the depth of the spine), and also other printers – currently things are too expensive.

Some general issues

I chose a small square format because I wanted to be able to emphasis the abstract dynamics of some of the images. I did consider a large coffee table book – as a contrast to the normal glossy landscape books. But this would have been very expensive, and the images would need significant work to make them good enough for the high resolution at this size. Something I need to improve in future – maybe get a better camera, or use a tripod though this has practicality issues as the most interesting images were inevitably accidental discoveries on my regular a relaxing walk around work, not specific expeditions. I do though have a tendency to use too narrow a depth of field and need to really learn more how to make those decisions. Sometimes there is just not much light and I don’t like to use flash or reduce image quality.

I need to think more how to increase the contrasts between the different benches. I wanted to limit myself to 3 and maximum 4 spreads per bench, and I think this was correct. At the moment the narrative/layout sequence follows too much of a pattern. This may involve changing some of the images for others that I have, or different cropping and combination on the page.

I also need to sharpen the text. I prefer to just have one short set of text on the second page, retaining all the white space, rather than splitting it as in Bench 1. The text needs to explain enough of the images, but not overdo it to leave the images to speak for themselves. As I am very close to the images, I need to have some detailed feedback from readers to see how they interprete them.

I was trying to present the images of litter as still life, and downplay contrast between the more obviously ‘beautiful’ images and those of human activity. But I need to see how to increase the edginess of some of the images and spreads eg the black dress. And the newspapers.

Some of the images still need editing work in Photoshop and/or Nik Effects now I have actually seen them in print – to either increase contrast between in and out of focus areas, or select sharper images. For some of them the depth of field is to shallow – to really focus on specific parts of the image and need better cropping. Sharpness and effect was not always apparent on screen before seeing the actual size of reproduction, and in relation to other images on the page. The page divide in some of the spreads also needs adjusting.

The cover: My name on the front cover needs to be clear and I should increase diagonals on the image. The back cover I like as one of the very few images with a person in it (apart from Bench 1 and the vague rowers at Grassy Corner). But I would like to find one with the person walking away.

Sections:

I was not sure whether or not to put page numbers??

I also need to sharpen up the end text – re-reading Edgelands,  Paul Hill’s work and Justyn Partyka’s photobooks.

But I needed to see it first in print. And get some feedback.

Bench 1: Railway Bridge

On the whole I think this section is quite successful.

But I want to combine the text to put it all on the first page. And make some reference the changes that will take place over the next few months either here or in the endpiece.

Image 1 is a bit washed out and I would like to substitute an image with no people in.

Image 3 I could increase the sense of forbidden darkness in this image through some selective sharpening and colour adjustments – the focal point is the path at the back, led by the trail of cigarettes and blue bag. But I think increasing the contrast in the foreground – without sharpening or changing the background – would give greater depth. Contrasting with the uncut fence barrier in the lefthand image.

Bench 2: Fields

I like this section but the font and colour of the dates on the dishcloth series need some attention. Maybe some allusion to the first sight of ‘wild things’ in the text.

Bench 3 ‘Rithy City’

Here the ‘wild thing’ is really lurking. But the big image 7 in the centre of the spread needs recropping or changing (I have others) so the focal point is not in the page join, and the differences in focus are effective rather than distracting. Image 8 needs much more thought to how it will look on a spread. It was difficult to show that this is obviously the stash left by a rough sleeper for future use or collection.

Bench 4: Stable

I need to think more about image 5. Probably do a full page spread, but include more of the image to make the hat off centre and not on the fold. I have a number of different options. I also have more on the details of the sponsor of this bench, with images of the plate that might be more interesting than just the scuffed arm.

Bench 5: Bend

I like the black dress series, but have more I could choose from to increase contrast of textures and decay now I have seen what things might look like. Again I need to think more about the text font and colour. Maybe even have a central gap with text on either side of the central image. I think Image 3 and 8 could be combined into a 2 image spread. I have other images that might go with the plastic can holder of other litter in the brambles.

Bench 6: Brook

In the main spread I could follow the pattern of putting dates. Though mostly winter because summer things are more hidden behind the weeds. That might be something to include as contrast.

I like the set of square images as a layout, but need to make sure they are all in focus and increase the range of items.

I like the edginess of the final image of the coat by the ‘unknown girl’.
Bench 7: Grassy Corner

I want to change the sequence here, putting the signs and snail first.

The spread with the bench needs to leave out the middle image. The idea is to contrast the two ends of the bench with their different bunches. I have quite a few alternative images here that could be lined up as a spread. I think the final spread is OK as the end – this heap was the same day as the flowers. Somehow I need to indicate that as contrast.

Evolution of the project

BRIEF:

The assignment should address the notion that the landscape is an evolving, dynamic system. You may wish to confirm, question or subvert this assertion.

Produce a series of images that responds to the idea of ‘transitions’ within the landscape. Record the changes that a part of the landscape undergoes over an extended period of time. You may want to revisit a very specific view, or you may choose to explore a particular part of the landscape more intuitively.

You may wish to photograph at very specific intervals (monthly, weekly or even daily) or your routine may develop by other means. The quantity of work you submit will depend on your particular strategy.

The work must include a reflective summary (300 words) on how your project developed and how or whether it has affected your ideas around landscape

E1.5 Visualising Transitions

I intend to do this assignment on the River Cam where I walk every day. This has many resonances with ‘Edgelands’. This stretch of river has changed a lot over the past 30 years since I first walked along it in the mid 1970s.

Firstly with the building of the A14 road bridge, that has changed the whole feel of the place from a wild walk to something in-between with noise pollution, but also added interest of graffiti under the bridge. About 5-6 years ago the towpath was  ‘improved’ to the surface to enable the cyclists accompanying the University rowers to ride faster. This has significantly increased the numbers of people using it. To the extent that afternoons and weekends during term time rowers and their cyclists completely dominate the whole space, and local people tend to only go at limited times in the morning and sunset.

There has also been considerable population growth, both from a traveller’s site that has now become a permanent site housing also migrant labourers from Eastern Europe working on nearby farms. The area is  just behind the Cambridge Science Park which is one of the fastest growing high tech industrial parks in Europe. So there are also many well-paid more affluent joggers and walkers. In addition to the rowers, there is also an angling club that takes over the weekends over the summer. And some of the travellers sometimes fish (probably illegally) for their supper. As a consequence of all this amounts of litter have increased dramatically.

At the same time the river is still a very conventionally picturesque and beautiful place, with sunsets, reflections and swans. There is also a lock and a weir. The river is managed by Conservators of the Cam, and there are periodic campaigns by local people to protect the wildlife. There is also a series of benches, many of which have been donated as memorials to people on their favourite spots. There are very dramatic changes through the day, and also the year with different weather. Usually there is beauty somewhere, I still need to look for sublime.

I plan to start this with Exercise 2.5, making text a key element of the work. From this I will select a number of different views and do a map with associated concept maps, echoing some of the titles in Edgelands. Probably:

– rail bridge

– meadows

– the bend

– pylons

– benches

– wooden bridge

– road bridge

– boats

– stumps

– Bait’s Bite weir and lock

I will aim to photograph them over a whole day one Sunday and one weekday a month starting on January 1st 2015 or the weekend immediately after. The aim will be to show different ways of viewing each of the spots. I want to experiment with different lenses, shutter speeds, sometimes using flash – probably one of the days I will do the whole walk with set technical constraints eg using only one lens, put the camera on a fixed manual  focus,  to see how different a series can be depending on technique. I also want to look at post processing with some panoramas, photomontages and collections and also some superimposed images like Ian Brown.

The aim will be partly to explore my own feelings about my environment – why do I find some things in the landscape beautiful and not others? why do I prefer the quiet times – can I find things to enjoy also when it is busy? It will also be a study of the interrelationship between people and the landscape – including conflicts between users and the rubbish and litter…

For some earlier images – focusing particularly on beauty and picturesque see

Frost on Monday

Bridges

Snow Walk

Winter White on Black

Further thoughts from Assignment 2

My thoughts on this project have now become more focused after inspiration from the New Topography movement and psychogeography, textual approaches and a rereading of Edgelands. Coupled with observation of the site and too much travel to start seriously on the project in January 2015 as planned.

I think as a coherent body of work within the timeframe available to me it would make sense to limit my study to just the area around the A14 road bridge – its graffiti, pylons, farm and the view beyond. This offers more than enough material and variation in mood to make a poignant portrayal of the contradictions, melancholy beauty and dereliction of an Edgeland site. Showing its shifting populations, different uses and class conflicts. I am also planning to include some text. I feel there is a potential for quite an interesting book here.

I will aim to photograph at different times of day and in different light and weather at least twice a month – having already started in August. Building on earlier work.

See my Transitions August folder on zemniimages

But I need to think through a lot more what I am trying to convey, or discover, with these images. Are they primarily aesthetic/deadpan? or social landscape and commentary? Do I want to present them as a series montage of images per month to show the differences between the months, like the set of images of different stages of ‘Going North’ or a series of montages of different subjects with one image a month? Or a slideshow or set of large prints? Do I just keep shooting what I feel attracted to or now start to be more focused? Or some combination of both?

It might be extremely interesting to really experiment with different techniques and interpretations of the same thing. Looking very carefully at composition, focus and ideas of ‘the gaze’ to show radical transitions in the interpretation by the viewer the more one looks. Eg very bland, minimalist ‘boring’ through to fascinating and beautiful all in the same view. Including variatiins over time.

I am also interested in the layering of images and memory. Maybe compare HDR with normal shots. Very long exposures on the water etc. to really explore a wide range of possible interpretations. See where it leads. And then select.


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The river Cam is a beautiful place where I have walked for nearly 40 years. But it is in many ways a barometer of changing social divisions and trends between traveller and council estate residents, and affluent middle class and university outsiders. It is also a place of increasingly intensified public use, particularly during the COVD pandemic when it was difficult to walk at all because of the many unsocially-distanced new joggers along the narrow tow path. There is also now a new ‘modern’ cycle bridge parallel to the railway bridge linking Chesterton to Fen Ditton as part of a new ‘Chisholm Trail’ cycle route. This will reduce some of the pressure and the cycle route will be interesting to explore. But the character of the area is rapidly changing.

This body of work continues landscape drawing, painting and printmaking work since 2009, particularly two earlier photobook projects:

The project here continues my interest in ‘life seen from benches’, focusing particularly on the old railway bridge and new cycle bridge seen from Bench 1. The aim is to complement the existing photobooks, widening my vision and deepening my understanding of documentary of the place through developing new skills:

  • Bench Diaries: diaries from the 7 benches sketching, iPhone documentary and writing from life
  • Building Bridges: using existing and new photographs of the railway and cycle bridges sequenced and composited in Premiere and After Effects, including sound.

Insights and any photographs from the project here will then contribute to finalising the ‘Bench’ and ‘Bridge’ Photobooks after completion of this degree in the light of contributions and feedback from local people as well as other audiences.

Project re-starting Spring and Summer 2022 after long COVID and construction-related restrictions.

Bench Diaries: Life Sketchbooks

This project will start in Spring 2022 with a sketchbook diary of pencil and ink and wash sketches of life and landscapes from each bench along the towpath. Linked to Illustration Sketchbooks Assignment 5.

Sketchbook pages will experiment with different ways of representing time through processes of building up multiple images, erasure and sequencing.

Building Bridges: experimental iPhone video

This project will focus on Bench 1 next to the railway bridge and new cycle bridge with existing photos since 2009 and new still images and video, linked to Moving Image Assignment 4 projects. This will explore layering, blending and compositing to document processes over time.

Bench: Photobook 2022

There is significant potential for local sales of Photobooks, printmaking and art locally, in Cambridge shops and Cambridge Open Studios and other events.

Revised photobook informed by the 2022 sketchbooks and video revisiting photo series since 2009 together with new photographs. Some of the sketches might also be included and/or promotional video footage uploaded to social media.

In Search of the Wild:
Edgeland Writings and/or large Photoscreen Posters with text

This is a longer term project as a book and/or series of large wall posters.

Juxtaposing manipulated ‘edgy’ photographic images and/or screenprints from the river Cam, manipulating and juxtaposing images with challenging captions, poems or short text I aim to create contradictory meanings about our relationship with the natural peri-urban environment. Underlying the interpretations will also be questions of the ‘female gaze’ – what difference might my gender make to the questions and responses.

The aim will be to stimulate thinking about the future, not just highlight the present and past. I envisage this as an ongoing body of work beyond 2023, developed with a local audience in Chesterton and members of the Cambridge Camera Club focusing on what we might want as ‘Building Back Better’.

My original idea involved 6 well-known ‘English’ poems but could be my own writing in a similar vein:

  • ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ Wordsworth (focused on litter imaginings of flowers and animals)
  • ‘On a lane in Spring’ John Clare (looking at water pollution)
  • ‘Tyger Tyger’ William Blake (mystery of the one wild patch where deer are said to roam – though I have only seen one and I think they are now gone)
  • ‘Xanadu‘ Samuel Taylor Coleridge (uses photos of the underneath of the A14 road bridge as another imaginary place of mystery and imagination – I have many pictures of stories told in pealing paint and gathering mould in puddles)
  • This sceptred Isle William Shakespeare (looks at ideas of identity and invasion/intrusion using photographs of cans left by Polish beer parties, exclusion of travellers and migrant labour from a designated traveller site contrasted with power graffiti left by University rowers).
  • ‘Jerusalem’  William Blake (uses pictures of pylons and power lines across the landscape)
Task

Within a series of up to 12 photographs, explore a landscape, or a small part of a landscape, which you believe to have some kind of significance. This may be a landscape with which you have a personal relationship, or it may be somewhere that is more widely known. You may wish to begin your research with your findings from the local history exercise (3.5).

The objective of this assignment is to engage with the question of how a ‘space’ becomes a ‘place’. Your project should put into practice the idea that a ‘place’ is a constructed, subjective term that, for whatever reason (political, industrial, mythological, environmental), is imposed upon, or becomes associated with, a particular ‘space’. This may be a very specific location, or it may be a more generic type of space.

You’re free to approach this project with whatever strategy you feel is appropriate to your subject matter. Introduce your work with a supporting text (around 500 words), as in previous assignments.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In this Assignment I look at the way in which a particular place along the River Cam – Grassy Corner has become distinguished from other places along this space – other equally picturesque but unmarked twists and turns, other benches, other places used by runners, rowers and fishers. This is a confluence of specific geography on both sides of the river, interests of different classes of Cambridge society and different river users.

bumpscourse

See https://photography.zemniimages.info/wp-admin/post.php?post=59&action=edit

Potentially there is nothing particularly spectacular about Grassy Corner – just one of many twists in the River Cam. It is not even the most picturesque.

Bench7_GrassyCorner_seconds-18

Though, like most places along the River Cam it can be extremely beautiful when photographed in particular light and weather conditions.

wintertrees-126

Bench7_GrassyCorner_views-3

I first became interested in Grassy Corner as one of a series of locations of benches along the River Cam where I walk every day and which I had selected as a possible subject (among other possible subjects along the river) for the final Assignment on Transitions. But the more I observed Grassy Corner itself, and the more I researched around it as part of the local history project, the more interesting it became for the way in which this rather ordinary-looking place has become meaningful and marked in different ways by different groups of people using the space.

It is unclear how long this particular spot along the river has been marked as a ‘place’ – it is a narrow bend between the on the River Cam between the Plough Reach in Fen Ditton and Chesterton Fen. Parts of Chesterton itself were settled during Roman Times and there are many iron age and Anglo-saxon remains in the area. The River Cam was an important riverway – from medieval times Stourbridge Common a little further upstream hosted Stourbridge Fair – the largest market in Europe. There was a pub over the river from the 16th Century and ferry over the river.

But like most of the landmarks in and around Cambridge, it was Cambridge University that made Grassy Corner more important. From at least the 19th Century  – 1827 – it became a key site for viewing the Cambridge University May and Lent bumps student rowing races. In the 1890s a well-known Cambridge photographer -Thomas Stearn, who pioneered the use of modern photographic techniques, photographed the river and boat races from Fen Ditton’s river banks and had a photographic studio at Grassy Corner – in 1995 this  was rebuilt and restored to its 1892 state. A photograph he took of the race looking across the river from Grassy Corner can be found at:

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1149753

Compare this with my photo above of the pollarded willows – the very same willow trees but more closely pollarded?

Today Grassy Corner is very clearly a ‘place’. This remains largely linked to the University – and also now town – rowing clubs and their races. This has led to a whole row of very prominent signs – change left signs for rowers and Keep Left signs for the Cyclists so they don’t collide with each other while following the rowers. These signs can be seen from a very great distance, and somewhat spoil the ‘picturesque’ views, unless very carefully cropped out or hidden by shadows at sunset.

There are also many concrete posts around the bench. Their purpose is unclear – possibly some were posts for barges along the towpath. Other markers along the towpath are to mark staged in the races themselves. They are currently painted bright magenta – the colours of the winning boats (men only???) I am told. But Caius college won the 2015 bumps and their colours are blue and the magenta colour has not been changed now for years.

There has been a bench here for very many years – certainly since I moved here in 1984. But the current new metal bench was put here in memory of Rebecca Jane Chamberlain. For me the bench started to seem special when I found  daffodils attached to the bench in April. One set had faded, others that had been in the plastic bottles attached to the other end of the bench had already gone. Someone must visit very regularly. I found this really poignant. In my research for this assignment I found  number of articles about her death can still be found on the Internet: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134038/Cambridge-University-student-21-killed-car-crash-way-rowing-training-camp.html  Rebecca was a keen rower, killed in a car crash in April 2012 at the age of 21. Finding this out now makes this bench particularly special – though other benches also have commemorative plaques that I will look up in future.

The bench is also a sitting place for walkers and runners -one had carefully placed their can. Others have lost keys. Others use the bench as an exercise place to stretch their muscles – leaving dirty, muddy marks behind. The gateposts are a prime spot where pieces of dropped clothing – hats, gloves, babies clothes – are placed for other walkers to see in case they have lost them.

The bench is located also at the end of a path leading to Grassy Corner Caravan Park – a traveller site that has now become a prime location for development with the expansion of the Cambridge Science Park and forthcoming new station on the Kings Lynn to London main line. This was purchased and refurbished in 2013: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/11m-project-buy-refurbish-Fen-Road-travellers-site/story-22364004-detail/story.html . In the summer there are also many migrant labourers from Eastern Europe who come to work on the local farms. There are frequent rumours of crime, vandalism and fights between the different communities. The bench – located by the river safely at the end of the path and far from anyone else – is used as a party place at night – bottles and cans are scattered behind the bench and do not appear to even be cleared. The glove on the post appears to point accusingly up the path to the caravan park as the source of all evil around the bench.

The space that is Grassy Corner has therefore become ‘a place’ through the ways in which different groups of people use and mark it off from other spaces. As a photographer I have learned a lot through thinking about what and how to photograph it in order to highlight specific features:

  •  the picturesque through careful cropping out, timing, lighting and weather choices
  • class differences and proprietary marking by the University of this like many other spaces
  • memory of the dead and place for contemplation
  • the ugly through closely focusing on litter and cloudy streams

The space that is Grassy Corner is all these things at the same time – many places co-existing in one space that the process of ‘landscaping’ has helped me to explore, unravel and communicate.

Other images of Grassy Corner

For links to large format files of all the images see:

http://www.zemniimages.com/Photography/Landcape-Photography/Cambridge/Grassy-Corner/


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