Final piece

Please view here:
http://vimeo.com/32439409

Final Statement

Jenny Hall

http://jenny2809.blogspot.com/

I began by examining our human relationship with nature. Using video in an observational way, I chose to film that which could be argued as Romantic landscapes with aesthetic qualities similar to that of Turner or John Martin. One of the ideas of the Romantic is its overwhelming power of nature. The camera was set up like that of those in nature programs, hidden and camouflaged so as not to disturb the natural flow of the environment.

Video worked well for my piece as my aim was to capture the subtle things in landscape we wouldn’t usually notice, eg a bird flying past or an autumn leaf falling to earth. This relates to Graham Gussin’s “the Fall” in which an object makes impact with a lake on a wide panned out shot of a landscape.

However, I deliberately kept a clue of human presence in the shot, relating to Casper David Friedrich’s paintings. These clues were some stones in the foreground, which at first appear natural, but studying them reveals where they have been shaped by human intervention.  I did not make them the focal point of the shot though; I kept the focus on Nature. The ambiguity of the stone natural or human presence blended the two worlds together, rather than segregating them as the placement of the stones suggest. This hints at the idea that nature and humans share this planet.

The surface of the water being disturbed by rain, or something landing in it, encourages the viewer to look and take the time to notice things. My work aims to make the viewers aware of their own viewing.

Statement Attempt 1

From an observational viewpoint, I chose to use video on what could be argued as Romantic landscapes with aesthetic qualities similar to that of Turner or JohnMartin. One of the ideas of the Romantic is its focal point on what is complex in the world such as the overwhelming power of nature. (Brown,2001) The camera was set up like that of those in nature programs, hidden and camouflaged so as not to disturb the natural flow of the environment

Video worked well for my piece as my aim was to capture the subtle things in landscape we wouldn’t usually notice, eg a bird flying past or an autumn leaf falling to earth. This relates to Graham Gussin’s “the Fall” in which an object makes impact with a lake on a wide panned out shot of a landscape.

However, I deliberately kept a clue of human presence in the shot, relating to Casper David Friedrich’s paintings. These clues included a metal railing, a wooden bridge and a ruined chapel. I did not make them to focal point of the shot though; I kept the focus on natural.  This was done by the surface of the water being disturbed by, rain or something landing in it distorting the image of the human. However, the image of the natural was also distorted, blending the two worlds rather than setting them off against each other. Hinting at the idea that nature and humans share this planet

 Bibliography

Brown, D.B (2001) Romanticism, Phaidon Press

Final ideas for shooting

Being going to Church Stretton to shoot a lake i know of in the mountains. I did this to get a surface area to reflect off of. And cause i know their are details of human presence their that don't take over the landscape like a wooden bridge and some chapel ruins
With it being high up, their was a certain quality to the light as the air was thin. On day of shooting the mist was low so it added to the that quality
I was aiming to blend the two worlds of the natural and human together with the focal point on nature and the power given to nature. I did this by allowing the presence of humans to only be visable reflected on the waters surface. As the water was disturbed the image was distorted. However the image also contained reflections of the surrounding trees, so i a way the two worlds were blended, hinting at the idea that the natural and the human world are all part of the same Earth