Further experimentation … on my last visit to Rye Harbour I climbed up the hillock in which the Martello Tower is set (in an indentation in the middle, presumably a defensive formation). This is one of the fewer elevated positions in the landscape and from here I could look back on the village of Rye Harbour. A second version of the Red Hut has been built in a garden behind the back of the car park, possibly on land belonging to the RNLI by the sign in the garden. This allowed me to develop one of the creative strategies based on chance.
I attempted to take a picture of the original hut in the same position in the frame, and adjusted this in post, correcting the colour tones to be as alike as possible (which I think really helps the slightly surreal, gentle nature of the shift between the images). The terrain is very different here (i.e. flat) so I did not get the exact angle right although I am not sure that matters too much – it is clear on second glance the huts are different. What makes the image compare interesting for me is that it is a way of describing the human impact on the environment around the hut (although the environment around the original hut is also very managed, of course).
I’ve tried this as both an image compare and a looped video (GIF of sorts) …
I like this quite a lot although the issue is that it is a one off, not something worthy of a final project … I have spoken before about there not really being a single way of representing things, and that it could be best to present several projects from different angles – a kind of one person group show. However I have also discussed the downside of this, in that the artist/work seems to lose focus (although innovative presentation could perhaps deal with this?) … something to think on and discuss …
However thinking of developing this further, and looking at the work of William Christenberry (who photographed huts and built models of them) I found this on the internet:
So exploring play as a creative strategy, I could make a model (this is perhaps too small but might serve as a template) and photograph it in different places around Rye Harbour (with the hut always in the same place in the frame). This could be used to extend the series. Interestingly the model hut has different window and door details (i.e. the black stripes) suggesting these may have changed when the hut was refurbished. Talking to my son, who likes to make models, they can be weathered using special chemicals. The model could therefore change slightly in different positions, or could feature in its own series in which it is weathered. This would need to be filmed from the new model to the most weathered and then reversed.
One issue with placing the hut in the landscape would be the scale – for example the model hut on the beach would make the pebbles look like giant boulders. This may not be a problem – I noticed that having the two huts at slightly different angles actually improved the image compare/GIFF, since it was obvious I had not just used manipulated the images in post. However, using processing to add the model hut to a landscape is also an option, although I feel it changes the meaning and impact of the work.
BLACK AND WHITE
I’ve also continued to work on the b&w set.
The first couple use leading lines to reach structures – in the first case a WWII pillbox and in the second the new Discovery Centre (I like the way the light square shines in the picture window and tonally echoes the culvert leading to it).
The third image also uses perspective, and is taken in one of the culverts near the Discovery Centre. It is as much a record of this summer’s drought as anything – the lines lead nowhere, and while context could develop that I suspect that is as far as it will go.
However if there is a theme emerging with previous images it is of structures (such as the breakers and above an extension of a kind of walkway) designed to control erosion, built by humankind in its battle with the shifting landscape, and when photographed at the right angle meet the horizon line where sea meets sky and seem to literally be the end of the sea, holding it back … again not sure if this is enough for a series. I also experimented with using a red filter in post on the first wall image (as opposed to using the colour channel adjusters). The channels seem to introduce a lot of noise, so it might be another approach, but it is a more brutal tool which reduces options after it has been used.
Following the creative strategy of revisiting/remaking work – I returned to make a second version of the wall, positioning the dividing vertical in the middle of the frame for emphasis as with the similar images – this I think works better although the light was better the first time round.
I also made more images with the Old Lifeboat Station in the background, repeating the teasle idea from the other side and also looking at using the groins to create leading lines to the building. Christenberry recorded time passing as the subjects of his photographs decayed into the landscape. Here it is slightly different – the buildings have been icons maintained in a protected area where the landscape has shifted around them. Christenberry’s approach to rephotographing was non-systematic and as a result has been interpreted as lyrical. But it does show that exploring things from different angles is a valid strategy that reveals more than a single snapshot. The relatively flat landscape at Rye Harbour allows me to include these iconic structure in many different ways within the landscape, and to some extend to play with perspective and different lenses to create a variety of juxtaposed scapes.
So the question again emerges as to whether one series is the right answer – I can imagine for example a set of images of the dead seabirds in a grid. This grid could then be seen as an element in a greater series, which may in itself contain elements grouped according to themes. Put together, these themes build to a bigger picture of the whole story? I’ve discovered the birds’ deaths were probably caused by bird flu.
In similar ways grids or groups or even installation pieces such as the red hut video loop, each part of a greater whole that would constitute an exhibition, could be devoted to a structure to create more nuances portraits of place. This in itself is a type of art, in my belief, related to curation – Wolgang Tillmans is an interesting artist wrt this: https://contextandnarrative515050.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/wolfgang-tillmanns/.
The final image above is of a “lost” breaker, starting in the middle of nowhere and disappearing into the shingle slope. I’ve thought it quite a good metaphor for the way the landscape keeps shifting although I am not sure the “lost” element is clear enough from this image. Stepping further back made it look more lost but the frame did not retain any tension in the organisation of the elements – something to work on further maybe. The usual 1/3 vs 2/3 sky vs land balance is changed above to 50/50, which I think alerts the viewer to something strange.
I’ve included below all my contact sheets to date from Rye Harbour to show how my thinking has developed – as I shoot in RAW it should be noted that this retains the colour detail (although I try to pre-visualise in b&W when I am working in this way and use the backscreen display to help with this).
A key issue at this point is perhaps whether to focus on Rye Harbour, using diverse curatorial strategies such as grids and video installations to present its iconic aspects in different ways, or to expand the work to the rest of Romney Marsh which would give me more subject matter to explore the aspects of the palimpsestuous landscape such as littoral drift…
Level 3.1 Learning Log 
1 thought on “3: Rye Harbour continued”