Critical Strategies

• What is the topic – i.e. try to define it in words?
• Why am I interested in the topic?
• Why is the topic important or relevant?
• How will I reflect these ideas to the viewer?

Area of focus: Rye Harbour

Points of interest:

• The palimpsestuous landscape
• Landscape as a negotiated space
• Littoral drift
• Iconic structures
• Precession of simulacra
• Landscape as time and the temporal disconnect between humankind and nature.

I’m interested in Rye Harbour because it is one of those special places that has an atmosphere you can sense, that goes beyond the immediate view. Therefore the question is how to describe this. Photographic representation can transform the scene using light, lens, angle, contrast and perhaps colour selectively. How to employ these to convey atmosphere?

The atmosphere is protected by the fact that this is a nature reserve with salt marsh, reed beds and shingle habitats – so it is if you like a rarefied atmosphere. The history of the place is relevant in understanding how it has come to be and why it is important.

The area is unusually flat – this represents a challenge that in the words of motivational speakers I need to view as an opportunity – for example the iconic elements such as the Red Hut and the Old Lifeboat Station are viewed from

While researching the history I discovered how much the landscape has changed – great storms changed the course of the River Rother and rewrote the coastline, a war with France that seems to have been drawn out far longer than I had appreciated, along with historic relationships with France in the area led to this being a weak spot which experienced many attempts at fortification and defence. Silting up of the estuary, developments in both warfare and diplomacy left many of these defences high, dry or ultimately pointless. Littoral drift continues to challenge the coastline but is battled by the annual mechanised movement of huge amounts of shingle. Hence the reserve exists in its current form by human consent, both an appreciation of the space and an understanding of how and why to preserve it.

Behind all this I am interested in the disconnect in time as experienced by humans and nature. Humans describe things in hours/degrees minutes and seconds (even locations) – not sure if this could be used? Trees live for hundreds of years. Nature as a whole evolves over millions of years.

A useful book recommended by my Tutor may be Yosemite in Time. This is about rephotography, but as the title suggests contains interesting quotes such as “Landscapes most crucial condition is considered to be space, but its deepest theme is time”. (p18). This gets towards what I am trying to describe, a flat but strangely atmospheric landscape whose shape has shifted through time. Time (as discussed in the book) is not linear, but can be seen as a series of forking paths. These paths can be considered as still photographic moments. It is interesting that a map of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, a landscape to some extent preserved in time now, might look like a series of these paths, at the junctures of which sit iconic elements that represent key moments in time (Castle, Martello Tower, Old Lifeboat Station, Pill Box, Red Hut).

Can I use still photography to describe such a place or does it necessitate a more dynamic approach (i.e. moving image)?

RELATE TO LEARNING OUTCOMES VIA QUESTIONS AND USING KEY WORDS

On satisfactory completion of the unit you will be able to:

1. Examine your emerging practice through a considered body of self-directed work.
2. Apply relevant research methods and subject knowledge to test, inform, and develop your work.
3. Present informed connections between your research and practice interests.
4. Articulate your creative ideas and critical thinking using suitable communication methods.

I have highlighted the key words for me. I am not sure how useful this is as an exercise, except perhaps to make you really think about what is required. There are arguments for including many of the words – for example I decided to leave in creative (ideas) and critical (thinking) but left out things like emerging, relevant, informed and suitable as those are reasonably obvious.

I have rephrased the outcomes as questions below – currently somewhat generic, these could be adapted to be more specific to my project?

1. How is my photographic practice explored in my body of work?
2. Which research methods have I used to progress my work?
3. What are the connections between my research and my photographic practice?
4. How have I communicated my creative ideas and critical thinking?

How can I describe Rye Harbour as a constructed landscape negotiated between human and natural agencies through time?

The best way I can find to do this is to use a similar method as Sohei Nishino but potentially include archive photos for example of the islands being built in the Ternery ponds, Castle Water being dredged for gravel and then converted to reed beds, the shingle on the beach being moved to counter littoral drift, …