Submission – Martyn Rainbird

The corner of the room is dark, a shaft of blue light shines in through the curtains. A table lamp illuminates a wooden table. On the back wall is an orange glow emanating from a manger.

We are looking down on someone laying on a sofa, staring up into the blue light. He has his back turned to a bible that is opened on the edge of the table. A tether hangs motionless over the top edge of the manger, a short distance from the ground. A bridle is hooked from a vertical beam on the back wall. A black and white photograph above the manger depicts a horse and plough.

The expression on his face is ambiguous. There is a glint of uncertainty in his eye. His shirt collar is unbuttoned and his tie is pulled down to one side. He is unshaven and looks troubled. He has turned his back on the bookmarked page containing ‘I will trust and not be afraid’ (Isaiah. 12:2). A number of hand made bookmarks are scattered across the brick floor. They are written in the hand of a child.

My image is a constructed self-portrait. It is only when writing here that I re-acquaint myself with the lyrics of Michael Stipe, “That’s me in the corner. That’s me in the spot-light, losing my religion.“, from the album Out of Time. (REM, 1991). Is this image recording the moment I lost my religion or had I already lost it? Had it lost me? Or am I searching for it again?

Although my idea originated from the manger as a religious motif the primary subject of the final image is not religion, believer or non-believer. It is demonstrating the human condition of getting older, nostalgic looks to the past and questioning the point of working just to acquire possessions. Opening the bible is just another step in trying to find an answer and make sense of life.

This ambiguity is the strength of images such as Gregory Crewdson’s Cathedral of the Pines (Crewdson, 2017) and Beneath the Roses (Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, 2012). He has a feeling for locations and scenes. The situations are in his memory, an unconscious thought. It is a feeling he has inside which he wants to externalise. Like most artists, whether painters, photographers or musicians, very few want to give away the answer to their creations/questions.

My use of the blue spotlight and my ambiguous expression are my attempt at adding a psychological feel à la Gregory Crewdson. The bible, inscribed by my late Grandmother in 1975, is not only a religious motif but also a personal reminder of my childhood, and my early years at Sunday School. My aim is not to take a position on religion one way or the other. It is a reference to friends and family who have turned to religion for strength.

Although the immediate messages conveyed by the image relate to religion, another message I wanted to convey was of ‘work’. I am dressed in my office work clothes at the end of a long hard day. The heavy bridle hanging on the wall used by a workhorse ploughing the field. A photograph on the wall capturing the farmer and his horse working the soil. This is another nostalgic look in to the past but also conveys the never ending repetitive cycle of hard work. The farmer and horse have long since passed.

The tether is deliberately placed hanging above the ground. It would normally be firmly on the ground, keeping whatever is attached to the other end in place. Its use in my image not only represents a heavy weight bearing down, but also, by use of the shadow, connotes hanging.

The objective of this single image is to incorporate a story but have enough layers to not be obviously about one thing and open to a certain amount of interpretation. I also wanted it to be aesthetic so I used a cinematic device employed by Philip-Lorca diCorcia. He doesn’t look through the camera, it is not at his height. “It’s part of the reason people describe my work as cinematic. It’s a third-person point of view; not looking through the camera also makes me kind of disappear”. (DiCorcia, 2007: 94)

I have used these devices to create a narrative but there is no end or conclusion within it. I have combined a modernist ‘what is in the frame’ approach alongside an ‘external’, post-modernist element. Writers, theorists and critics have discussed and argued over these two styles for many years. In my view neither is right or wrong. Geoffrey Batchen has assessed this in great detail in his book ‘Burning with Desire’. (Batchen, 1997).

Batchen’s approach in his book is to look at the emergence of photography and the proto-photographers who all attempted to define what photography was. He then moves on to the various camps of modernism and post-modernism discussing ‘nature’ and ‘culture’. Does my image fall in to Nature or Culture? It is mainly ‘nature’ but there are ‘culture’ elements in the form of psychological and philosophical concepts.

Using Barthes’ attributes of studium and punctum (Barthes, 1980), my view is that the punctum is down to the viewer. What might be a striking anomaly or poignant item to one viewer will differ from another. Jacques Derrida (1981) felt that the two work together. They are not opposites. They co-exist. (Batchen, 1997:193). The hanging tether, for example, may be seen as being incorrectly placed to some but this was intentional as a sinister device.

The co-existence of opposites is an interesting observation in a world that is dominated by binary choices: vote to stay or leave; right and wrong; good or bad. No nuance or middle ground. Art images, however, do not necessarily have to be instantly liked or disliked, although they often are. Even if they initially are passed over as uninteresting, they are still available to be returned to once the viewer has broadened their knowledge and has more life experiences.

List of Illustrations:

Figure 1. Rainbird, M. (2018) ‘Out of Time’ [photograph] In: possession of: The author: Witham.

References:

Barthes. R (1980) Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, trans. Howard, R. New York: Hill and Wang.

Batchen. G (1997) Burning With Desire. Massachesettes: MIT Press.

Crewdson. G, (2017) Cathedral of the Pines. [exhibition]. London: Photographer’s Gallery. 23 June – 08 October 2017

DiCorcia. P-L. (2007) ‘Interview with Philip-Lorca DiCorcia’. Interviewed by Lynne Tillman. In: Simpson, B. (2007) Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Germany: Steidl

Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters (2012) Directed by Shapiro, B. [DVD] New York: Zeitgeist Films

Isaiah 12: 2. In: The Holy Bible. London: Collins. p. 609.

REM (1991) Losing My Religion. In: Out Of Time. New York: Warner Bros Inc.

Bibliography:

Howarth, S (2005) Singular Images: Essays on Remarkable Photographs. London: Tate.

Rainbird, M (2018) Gregory Crewdson. At: https://ocamartynrainbirdcan.wordpress.com/2018/03/17/gregory-crewdson/ (Accessed 05/04/2018)

Rainbird, M (2018) Teun Hocks. At: https://ocamartynrainbirdcan.wordpress.com/2018/03/23/teun-hocks/ (Accessed 05/04/2018)

Rainbird, M (2018) Religion and religious motifs in art photography. At: https://ocamartynrainbirdcan.wordpress.com/2018/04/02/religion-and-religious-motifs-in-art-photography/ (Accessed 05/04/2018)

Rainbird, M (2018) Assignment 5: On Location. At: https://ocamartynrainbirdcan.wordpress.com/2018/04/02/assignment-5-on-location/ (Accessed 05/04/2018)

Rainbird, M (2018) Assignment 5: Contact Sheets and Edit. At: https://ocamartynrainbirdcan.wordpress.com/2018/04/03/assignment-5-contact-sheets-and-edit/ (Accessed 05/04/2018)

The following annotated contact sheets show the progression and fine tuning of my three day shoot. My ‘On Location‘ post describes the process in more detail including lighting setups.

Although I had a description of what I wanted the image to convey there was still plenty of scope for additional ideas and props to come in to play. I reviewed my images regularly throughout with a more detailed analysis at the end of day 1 and 2 and half way through day 3. This allowed me to make changes for the next shoot. It also gave me time to reflect on what I had produced and how I was progressing in achieving an acceptable image in the remaining time.

DSC_7337 on Day 3 (Part 2) was my pick. This was selected because my expression offered an ambiguity in what I was thinking when looking in to the light. I ultimately favoured the poses where I had my back turned to the Bible. My gaze in to the light was a questioning look towards God. By staring up and away it extends the interest outside of the frame. Additional post processing to the image is detailed below.

Although my pose looking at the Bible was interesting it was too direct and also gave the image a closed feel. It also highlighted how small the space I was working in really was. My intention was to have a more open setting ‘a la’ Gregory Crewdson . Although this did not materialise it was improved by looking up and away

It wasn’t until around the 250th shot on Day 3 (part 2) that I had props in the right place and a lighting setup that I was happy with. Day 3 was also about getting my pose and facial expression right. I had spent very little time in advance on this aspect of the image. Although it was semi-autobiographical I was still acting out a part which I found very difficult. The lighting aspect was a technical challenge that I mostly enjoyed as I understood the basic principals. Posing, and capturing that on camera on the other hand was new to me. In fact it was made easier by having myself as the subject as I would not have been able to direct a model without getting frustrated which would have resulted in a poor final image.

My pose took the nearly the whole of the 300 images to get right. it was made more difficult as I had to have a slow shutter speed and I needed to keep as still as possible. As a result my poses were very stiff and unnatural. Of all the images I took I probably only had 6 that were in the running for my final pick and ultimately only 2 that were good enough to submit for a final assignment.

Admittedly I stopped shooting at the point I knew I had an acceptable shot but I was running the risk of finding an issue in the frame once I had left the rented cottage. I probably had another two hours left before I would have had to stop but I felt that I progressed well throughout the 3 days and never felt under time pressure.

All the work I had performed in advance certainly helped, especially as this was my first attempt at a studio lighting setup. Assignment 3 was my first indoor piece of work, but on that occasion I used available natural light. For this final assignment I had not only researched photographers but also lighting setups and equipment. Once I had decided on the combination of lighting I required, I purchased the equipment and then learnt how to use it prior to arriving at the location.

I took around 300 shots across the 3 days. Here are selection of those including the ones I have annotated above. I discuss problems and possible improvements in more detail in my ‘Student Evaluation‘ post.