The River Cam is part of a longer term body of environmental and social documentary work in different media about ‘Cam Edgelands’ that is central to my practice going forward. The river is just down the road from my house and an area where in normal times I walk nearly everyday for exercise.
The A14 road bridge is one of a number of bridges across the river. On one side the bridge underpass dissects two areas of land that are used by travellers and migrant workers living on a Traveller site relegated to the margins of Cambridge. There is a well-established traveller community that has been there for very many years. Living on one side of the bridge, they use fields on the other side to keep their horses, using the underpass as a transit between the two. Before Brexit they were joined by migrant workers – particularly men – from Eastern Europe. It is unclear how much of the graffiti, litter and broken glass is created by either of these communities, and how much by other walkers passing under the bridge. Graffiti is certainly not confined to this bridge, but is evident in a range of styles also under the other bridges along the river.
The river itself is part of the University rowing Bumps course, and used by town rowers and also leisure boats.
The other side of the bridge is mostly farmland with a footpath linking the somewhat affluent villages of Horningsea to Fen Ditton.
It is a haunting, almost spiritual place. Large majestic concrete pillars with enigmatic graffiti create dramatic shafts of light in the early morning and sunset or dark shapes in the winter fog. Between shuddering bursts of traffic overhead, the water reflects and echoes the drips from the roof. The ever-changing artworks, puddle-life, scatterings of litter and sparkling broken glass tell stories, real and imagined.
I have nearly 2000 photographs of this bridge dating back to 2009, taken with cameras of varying technical quality and with varying technical skill on my part. But, together with my thousands of other images of other bridges and ‘edgeland’ features on this regular walk, the Bridge will continue to be an important ongoing part of my creative practice. There is also a potentially important local audience and market for physical images: photographic prints and art prints in different printmaking media, photobooks and sketchbooks eg as part of submission to Cambridge Open Studios, and more socially-interested Cambridge residents and tourists. As well as on-line presentation, interest from Cambridge Camera Club and other creative networks in Cambridge.
Thematically in this module, part of my motivation to focus on the Bridge in Assignment 5 is because it shows a body of work around peri-urban ‘sublime and grunge’ and concerns about poverty, alienation and pollution in the UK where I live. To balance work on these concerns in contexts like Kyrgyzstan where I am an outsider and where attention to the less than beautiful aspects could be misinterpreted as ‘rich world complacency and racist prejudice’ .
My ability to produce new photographic work of the Bridge has been continually disrupted over the period of this module. Firstly between March 2020 and May 2021 I was not able to go down the narrow river towpath to the Bridge because of Covid-19. The towpath was continually crowded in both Lockdown and more open times as one of the main places that local people went for exercise with very many runners and cyclists accompanying rowers, with very little social distancing and a lot of aerosols being expelled for long distance in plumes that are very alarming in cold weather. From May 2021 the area under the bridge was closed for repairs, and then towpath was closed for all of July/August for final works on a new cycle bridge across the river. The Covid pandemic also meant that it was very difficult to do the sort of documentary research I had hoped.
My focus in this module has therefore been on :
- Printmaking: Continuing experiments with photography-based print media: revisiting photoscreen and new images in solar plate.
- Photographic creativity: Web galleries that explore alternative perspectives on the bridge, and the way in which different narratives can be created through different selecting and formatting of the images and how narratives and moods can be enhance by different digital processing styles.
- Photobook Design: looking at different potential narratives and layout for Photobooks, continuing my earlier interest in juxtapositions and framing.
Slideshow of Page Spreads from Draft Photobook
For high resolution images and galleries of all the material presented here please see:
on my SMUGMUG portfolio site:
Photography-based printmaking
Printmaking: Photoscreen
Photoscreen gives a grainy, documentary feel because of the duotone dot process that is similar to newspaper printing. Though different effects can be achieved through the way the initial image is processed and degree of detail, particularly in the highlights and shadows, the shape and density of the dots, then exposure and inking processes.
For more detail and discussion of the development of the printmaking images and different effects of photo screen see:
Printmaking: Solarplate – new images
Solar plate gives a much dreamier feel. A double exposure solar plate starts with a fine mezzotint stochastic screen. This enables much finer detail. Again the effect depends very much on processing of the initial image – the pylon image on the left is very dreamy with more grain. The ‘underworld’ image on the right is much more contrasty, retaining details in the highlights and shadows.
Photographic Creativity
Five interactive web galleries have been uploaded with introductory text to my professional SMUGMUG portfolio site as part of my audience presentation and promotion.
See: https://www.zemniimages.com/Lost-Reflections-Projects-2021/Bridge-Edgelands-Cambridge-UK
For links to the individual galleries click on the titles below.
Bridge Edgelands: project evolution
In order to get an overview of the ‘spirit of place’, I started with a free brainstorming of what I thought were potentially the most interesting images and angles that I could use – with some processing in Lightroom and/or Topas AI and/or DxOFX and/or Photoshop to improve technical quality.
This led to an initial ragbag of images that did not have coherence in themselves, but sparked ideas on at least five very different narrative approaches with focus on:
- ‘Colour grunge’ traces of human activity: graffiti, wire netting, ‘horse has bolted’, dark reflections. With an overall dark mood of the mess that people leave when they live on the margins.
- ‘sublime light’ with geometric angles, colours and finding beauty in the everyday.
- ‘human stories untold’
- bleak mist and murk
- stark dark black and white.
I then decided to use the Creative prompts to explore a series of alternative narratives that would further extend my understanding of potential themes and styles. Before making decisions on themes and styles to combine in an overall narrative – possibly adding further images to fill any important thematic gaps in what I do not already have.
Alternative Narratives: Web Galleries
Aims
My next stage was to use the Creative Prompts to see whether and how they might help me to identify different themes, how the images might best be processed and ‘pushed’ to communicate these differences. To help me think more clearly what I want to say, and how I might say it.
!! Still to do – all these to be combined into one hyperlinked annotated pdf in InDesign with references to sources of inspiration and notes on different variants that were tried.
What I learned
As with single images, this process really helps to tease out different themes and start to indicate potential linkages. It also very much helped then to indicate different processing/style options to differentiate the themes and work out where images best ‘fit’ in terms of narrative.
1 Define it: Tony was here
Photo Essay 1 ‘Define It’ focuses on the things that immediately interested me about the Bridge: ‘grunge traces of humans’, graffiti, wire netting, ‘horse has bolted’, dark reflections. With an overall dark mood of the apparent mess that people leave in Edgelands. I started by eliminating from the initial brainstorming selection all images that did not conform to this theme and ‘grunge’ aesthetic. Then I reordered them in a rough narrative: starting on the traveller side of the bridge: ‘horse has bolted’ opening shot, bridge context shot, then Power Queen, graffiti, netting and wire, reflections and algae. Then some images of mangled bikes like Still Life on the other side. Finally some ‘dark reflections.
2: Make it bold: narrative in black and white
3: Let’s Look at the Real Thing: Angling
These need to be more natural looking – remove the saturated colour. Got mixed up in all the virtual copies.
4: Introduce time, motion and sound
5: What is the key moment/ 12 Combine seemingly arbitrary content
I decided to interprete this as a series of ‘decisive moment’ images that capture thinsg happening or chance juxtapositions.
The use of black and white means that the focus is on the action, rather than being distracted by colour.
I did not have many of these images – a gap that I would like to fill.
6: Create a variation
The series of misty winter images was the most obvious outlier. But I wanted to include these because they are so atmospheric. Showing also the way in which people continue to use the river in different ways in the cold – and polluted – weather.
7: Play, fantasy, dreams
Sections of texture, graffiti and algae growing in stagnant puddles suggest faces, figures and stories.
8 arbitrary
Arbitrary marks of water and chemicles.
9 erase distinctions between original and copy
Possibly some context shots of the edgelands around the bridge, and wildlife, particularly herons. I like this reflection shot where the reflection is what one sees first.
10: Consider again your motivation – golden light bridge
My fascination with the bridge is not only the social diversity and ‘grunge factor’, but also the beautiful light and shadows in the early summer evening.
11: Make it obvious: traces and litter
12: Make it ambiguous: Reflections
Feedback from Cambridge Camera Club on the Reflection series suggested that I crop in more closely for more complete abstraction. Something like the following.
Feedback from Cambridge Camera Club on the Reflection series suggested that I crop in more closely for more complete abstraction. Something like the following.
13: Remind Yourself: people I meet
Finally one of the real motivations is because the people I meet – even if fleetingly – under the bridge are people from very different backgrounds to my own. People who use the space for a wide range of activities. And who I would like to get to know better.
14 Bounce around at speed
Focus on traffic – much of it international – and all the movement, pollution and noise of heavy lorries at speed above that makes the bridge rattle. Contrasting with the apparent idyllic peace below.
Here I experimented with different crops – square to squash the contrast between moving lorries and under the bridge. Versus lazy long images that also show the space in which lorries are moving at speed. Then colour blur versus black and white.
15 We’ve got a problem Houston
Here I focus on conclusions about being an outsider. The barriers I face to actually really understanding peoples’ lives and what is happening under the bridge.
Audience Feedback: Cambridge Camera Club
I submitted selected images to Cambridge Camera Club from the Reflection series suggested that I crop in more closely for more complete abstraction. Something like the following.
Photobook development
I then start to bring the different themes together – making a decision early on to develop two quite different photobooks. One in colour and one in black and white.
In Lightroom I started by taking 3 images that I thought best represented each of the relevant creative collections, avoiding duplicates. Resulting in 18-26 images in one colour and one black and white set, again avoiding duplicates unless they were central. Then I took each of the two selections into the Lightroom book module to see how these images could be sequenced internally to create narratives and spreads. Adding a few new images or subtracting a few that really did not fit , with 20 images in each narrative.
Bridge Edgelands: moody black white and grey
Bridge Edgelands is quite a bleakly dreamy, abstracted book dealing with the wider ‘edgeland context’ – people walking, running, rowing and fishing in the fog, and pylon and netting reflections in puddles. As well as concrete pillars and the grit and grunge of netting and litter under the bridge. To this – depending on what happens after the diary – I may add some wildlife images of herons hiding in the reeds and icicles and water striations under the bridge.
The actual pdf export did not export the double page spreads. This produced some interesting accidental juxtapositions eg splitting the spread of the netting. I will look again at this and see whether some of these accidents should be retained.
‘Tony was here’: colour grunge
‘Tony Was Here’ is more of a social documentary narrative. The A14 road bridge dissects two areas of land that are used by travellers and migrant workers living on a Traveller site relegated to the margins of Cambridge. There is a well-established traveller community that has been there for very many years. Living on one side of the bridge, they use fields on the other side to keep their horses, using the underpass as a transit between the two. Before Brexit they were joined by migrant workers – particularly men – from Eastern Europe. It is unclear how much of the graffiti, litter and broken glass is created by either of these communities, and how much by other walkers passing under the bridge. Graffiti is certainly not confined to this bridge, but is evident in a range of styles also under the other bridges along the river.
This series focuses on an unknown event by people unknown where somehow the horses break free. The way the graffiti changes over time. And the inscription of someone called Tony (I know someone who walks along the river called Tony, but haven’t seen him for a long time).
!!!! need more history here when I can meet and talk to people again over the summer. Not sure I will ever be able to find the answers. But it will be interesting to see how things have changed.
BRIDGE: final current version
This final version (see slide gallery at the beginning of this post) drew on feedback on the web galleries from my daughter (Emma) for whom I have initially produced the book, and feedback on individual images from Cambridge Camera Club. At the time of writing this post I have sent it for printing to Blurb as a large landscape photobook – echoing the majestic size of the Bridge and my aim to take this aesthetic and some of the questions it poses to the coffee table. Aiming initially for a local and Cambridge tourist market and direct marketing to bookshops and through Cambridge Open Studios.
I was very selective in choosing photographs that showed different aspects of the bridge. Inspired by the photography narratives of Alec Soth, I selected them and organised them as a flow of interconnections with mini-narratives like that of the hole in the horse fence and also in terms of aesthetic flow between colour and monochrome. I decided to keep text to an absolute minimum, and am still not sure whether to add page numbers. I also use layout to break up the narrative into recognisable blocks – like the pages of photos of people. And the framing of the ‘Power Sex’ double page graffiti spread – like a painting on a wall.
I tested publication of the book in large landscape format on Premium Lustre paper as a birthday present for daughter Emma – also one of my critical and frank artist reviewers.
Link to Blurb book (opens in new tab)
Link to SMUGMUG Photobook slideshow and high resolution images (opens in new tab)
Assessment
For me this book works well. I was quite pleased with the image quality and physical feel of the book with this this size and paper. Though still a work in progress – some of the texture images could be further worked on to give greater contrast between ‘real’ and reflected elements. Once I have had audience feedback I may also revisit the narrative.
But as I completed it just before sending for assessment, I am probably too close to it to see things so clearly. I may not get the Blurb book until after sending my work for assessment, and much will depend on how the images stand up to larger page sizes and how the actual book feels in my hands when I get it. Probably some of the images can be further processed to emphasise particular textures. When I can go along the river again I would like more and better images of people taken with clearer narrative in mind – and where the blur on movement was not so accidental. Thinking through more the social narrative I want to communicate.
Taking things further: SYP and River Edgelands
COVID restrictions lasted longer than anticipated, when I was able to go along the river the Bridge itself was closed off underneath for repairs. And the long anticipated cycle bridge was delayed until end of August, with the whole footpath closed from mid July.
The Bridge is a place with many possibilities for further work, with a good potential local market and tourist market for socially engaged artwork. If I create feedback networks to identify more what is in demand.
As part of Sustaining Your Practice, as well as development of images in different printmaking and other physical media, and refining my photography and photobook ideas here, further work envisaged in the Bridge includes:
- sketchbook diaries using creative writing prompts on eg 5 senses – possibly to create text to include or to help me make visual decisions.
- I also plan to do some moving image work with audio recorded on location – traffic noise, people shouting and echoes, birds, splashes of rowers etc. Possibly adding also some Messian-style electronic digital music.
As part of SYP and in the longer terms the Bridge (one of several bridges across the Cam) will also form part of a larger and ongoing body of work around the changing river Edgelands. This will include other locations along the river, documenting changes after Brexit and exodus of Eastern European migrant workers from the Traveller site, effects of Lockdown on the way people use the river and the many changes that are likely following the final opening of the Cycle Bridge linking both sides of the river coupled with further intensive economic development connected to the new railway station.
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