Lilserenity
Well-known
Hiya,
If I have duplicated an existing thread it's not through the lack of looking and I think on the whole this is the most appropriate forum section.
The premise of this thread is: Your photo projects for 2009, what subjects are you tackling this year? It doesn't have to be a new project solely contained within 2009, but something ongoing. Secondly, it would be interesting to hear what your motivation is behind it. And maybe thirdly why you are doing it, is there something you are trying to explain, like a story, or just to document it for what it is?
I just thought it would be cool to get an insight into what people are doing longer term rather than just the shooting this and that (which we all do!)
I have a couple of projects this year. One I won't discuss at length in here as its related to my walking but last year I started my South Downs Way project which I am still finishing and this year I am walking the North Downs Way (132 miles from Farnham to Dover in England.) That is very much a black and white landscape photography project.
The one I want to mention here is one of my urban projects.
Where/What? Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England
Milton Keynes in Bucks is a 1970s 'new town' in England which is basically a town created where one didn't exist before or in the case of Milton Keynes was created from several smaller townships and filled in between to create a new town. Milton Keynes is unlike any other British town/city in that it's based on a grid system (not quite as rigidly as the US for example) whereas everywhere else in the UK is very organic in its growth and not nearly as organised in how it has developed. Milton Keynes is a very unusual place as it's very forward looking in its architecture even 40 years after the initial development began.
Why? When I was growing up we used to live 'down the road' (about 15-20 miles) away in another town in Bucks and we would sometimes visit Milton Keynes which was very much still in its infancy when I was younger. I remember always being in 'awe' almost in some senses of this very different place of elevated central boulevards, greenery, glass buildings, grid roads - heck even in the street lighting was different to everywhere else!
Over the years I have been back numerous times and I can't say that I love the place, and sometimes I can't even say I like it even. It sits queasily atop the traditional image of a green and pleasant England with its steel and glass, asphalt and concrete. I'm interested in capturing this unusual location, and place and trying to get beneath this veneer if you will. I feel there is something very false and slightly loose and unhinged (no offence to residents of MK) -- I think this is something perhaps personal to me but I have never felt it like any other English town/city, it seemed to lack a soul or the sense that you could belong to the place. I am sure it's very different if you live there. But I guess I'm trying to explore the impossible by expressing my unease with the place through photography. Nothing like a challenge!
Also from a purely photographic stand point, I intend to probably shoot the majority of it using Fuji Acros 100 and with my M2 (and EOS 3 for night shots in some instances) with a 35mm, 50mm and 70-200mm lens but mostly the 35mm. I think the glass and concrete with the reflections of all that's around in black and white will allow someone to suspend their belief of 'what is' and hopefully I will be able to instill that this is a personal experience of a place.
There is more to this place and my relationship with it than I can give here really, but suffice to say I've seen some good and bad things in the place. I think it's the anti-thesis to where I do live on the South Coast of England in Worthing and the South Downs behind us, which I often lament as being the place where my sanity dozes peacefully occasionally aroused by the warmth of summer sun and the scent of warm evening beer, whereas Milton Keynes to me is the raw lacerated end of my nerves jangling on edge twitching and where insanity creeps.
End result? A lot of prints definitely but also a photo book accompanied by words, using one of the many Self Publishing/Print on Demand services now available.
So... now I have thoroughly weirded you all out 🙂 what are you up to this year and why?
Vicky
If I have duplicated an existing thread it's not through the lack of looking and I think on the whole this is the most appropriate forum section.
The premise of this thread is: Your photo projects for 2009, what subjects are you tackling this year? It doesn't have to be a new project solely contained within 2009, but something ongoing. Secondly, it would be interesting to hear what your motivation is behind it. And maybe thirdly why you are doing it, is there something you are trying to explain, like a story, or just to document it for what it is?
I just thought it would be cool to get an insight into what people are doing longer term rather than just the shooting this and that (which we all do!)
I have a couple of projects this year. One I won't discuss at length in here as its related to my walking but last year I started my South Downs Way project which I am still finishing and this year I am walking the North Downs Way (132 miles from Farnham to Dover in England.) That is very much a black and white landscape photography project.
The one I want to mention here is one of my urban projects.
Where/What? Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England
Milton Keynes in Bucks is a 1970s 'new town' in England which is basically a town created where one didn't exist before or in the case of Milton Keynes was created from several smaller townships and filled in between to create a new town. Milton Keynes is unlike any other British town/city in that it's based on a grid system (not quite as rigidly as the US for example) whereas everywhere else in the UK is very organic in its growth and not nearly as organised in how it has developed. Milton Keynes is a very unusual place as it's very forward looking in its architecture even 40 years after the initial development began.
Why? When I was growing up we used to live 'down the road' (about 15-20 miles) away in another town in Bucks and we would sometimes visit Milton Keynes which was very much still in its infancy when I was younger. I remember always being in 'awe' almost in some senses of this very different place of elevated central boulevards, greenery, glass buildings, grid roads - heck even in the street lighting was different to everywhere else!
Over the years I have been back numerous times and I can't say that I love the place, and sometimes I can't even say I like it even. It sits queasily atop the traditional image of a green and pleasant England with its steel and glass, asphalt and concrete. I'm interested in capturing this unusual location, and place and trying to get beneath this veneer if you will. I feel there is something very false and slightly loose and unhinged (no offence to residents of MK) -- I think this is something perhaps personal to me but I have never felt it like any other English town/city, it seemed to lack a soul or the sense that you could belong to the place. I am sure it's very different if you live there. But I guess I'm trying to explore the impossible by expressing my unease with the place through photography. Nothing like a challenge!
Also from a purely photographic stand point, I intend to probably shoot the majority of it using Fuji Acros 100 and with my M2 (and EOS 3 for night shots in some instances) with a 35mm, 50mm and 70-200mm lens but mostly the 35mm. I think the glass and concrete with the reflections of all that's around in black and white will allow someone to suspend their belief of 'what is' and hopefully I will be able to instill that this is a personal experience of a place.
There is more to this place and my relationship with it than I can give here really, but suffice to say I've seen some good and bad things in the place. I think it's the anti-thesis to where I do live on the South Coast of England in Worthing and the South Downs behind us, which I often lament as being the place where my sanity dozes peacefully occasionally aroused by the warmth of summer sun and the scent of warm evening beer, whereas Milton Keynes to me is the raw lacerated end of my nerves jangling on edge twitching and where insanity creeps.
End result? A lot of prints definitely but also a photo book accompanied by words, using one of the many Self Publishing/Print on Demand services now available.
So... now I have thoroughly weirded you all out 🙂 what are you up to this year and why?
Vicky
