my condensed journal manifesto university project

Hayley Bennett Condensed journal Manifesto project Photo 202



Was it worth the risk By Hayley Bennett



Introduction My condensed manifesto journal Within this document is a range of self It incorporates the significant stages directed research, evidence of of Idea development. This includes participation in self directed work, and site specific research on Cornish reflection on process from each mining and heritage and culminates in shoot. a collection of selected images, together with critical reflection. This condensed journal Additionally, there is an exhibition incorporates sections derived from my booklet and a final evaluation of the practice journal. The condensed book project. contains the most significant sections and completed work from the This has been designed like a photo manifesto project. book by using the content page and page numbers to navigate the journal The condensed book is with titles to also help the reader to presented as a publication and know what the page is about. includes artist and theoretical research as a framework for the Manifesto materials.

Page 19-20 Pages 27-28 Pages 5-6 Pages 7-8

Contents Pages 1-2 Manifesto statement and poster Pages 5-6 Herd and Hilla Becher research Pages 7-8 Fyodor Telkov research Pages 9-10 Catherine Hyland research Pages 11-12 Further research - theory Page 13 Further research - history of mining in cornwall Page 14 Further research - effects of mining on the environment Pages 17-18 Photoshoot 1 Pages 19-20 Photoshoot 2 Pages 21-22 Idea development Pages 23-24 Photoshoot 3 Pages 27-28 Exhibition brochure Pages 29-30 Final outcome display inspiration Pages 31-32 Final piece - exhibition Pages 33-34 Critical evaluation

My Manifesto Statement and poster My work is based on subjects that I will also research and find out more personally link or meaningful to me as about the mining in my local area well as subjects I'm interested in that using books and online sources for will tell a story or narrative using this project I will be using film to analogue and alternative techniques document this as well as to make documentary projects. experimenting with ideas of how I can present and make my work For this project I was inspired by my interesting. local area and seeing mining structures and quarries almost The changes I would like to see is for everyday I will be looking at the others to view the work and get them history of mining in this area and the to think about mining and other effects effects this had on the landscape. it could have on the environment this projects is also about me expanding The research that will underpin my my knowledge of the history in my project will be how mines and quarries local area By using my creative affect the landscape such as practice to explore and research into environmentally as well as looking at this subject it will help me to other projects photographers have understand and expand my done about mining and the landscape knowledge. to help me develop my project. 1

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Artist research and theory 4

Artist research Bernd and Hilla Becher Hilla Becher was a German artist who I chose their work because I was one half of a photography duo with immediately thought of Bernd and Hilla her husband Bernd Becher for forty Becher when starting this project as I years, they photographed disappearing find their work really interesting with industrial architecture which included their use of layout using typography to water towers, coal bunkers, gas tanks make their images more striking and and factories around Europe and North stand out by placing them together America. making the viewer look closely to spot the similarities or differences. Their common themes were overlooked beauty and the relationship between I chose to research their work because form and function. Both subjects of the industrial images they took of addressed the effect of industry on mining towers and buildings which economy and the environment. inspired the idea of using and experimenting with typography in my Their work had a documentary style as work as well as the idea of displaying their images were always taken in black my work in this way for an exhibition. and white which never included people. They exhibited their work in sets or typologies grouping several photographs of the same type of structure together. They are well known for presenting their images in grid formations. 5

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Artist research Fyodor Telkov - 36 views Fyodor Telkov Draws inspiration from that are scattered all over the country. Katsushika Hokusai’s engravings of I came across this body of work which I Mount Fuji in Japan, creating a painterly find really intriguing and different to other image of Degtyarsk in Russia. Which work iv seen such as using reflections was until relatively recently a prospering from shop windows, pocket mirrors and mining town. The production of copper water this is something I haven’t thought ore was once a booming industry but it of or would use but could make my has had a serious environmental impact images more interesting. on the town. I chose to research his work because of The waste heaps reminded Fyodor of how he's thought out the box to Mount Fuji in Japan which has become document the mining town as well as the world famous from Katsushika Hokusai’s effects of mining on the environment and engravings as well as inspiring Fyodor to residents by using items and elements create a project about the life of people around him to frame the clay tips and near the waste heaps which included reflections instead of taking an image of researching the impact of these the clay tip he uses reflections to make mountains of dead rock on residents. the image different and more interesting The waste heaps are visible from almost to look at. He is a good example of how I any point in Degtyarsk and many citizens could make my work different or think live near them and towers over the town. about using things around me to frame In a way the images of waste heaps is a and make my images more interesting metaphor for the post-Soviet economy and stand out. and the current situation of monotowns 7

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Artist research Catherine Hyland - Lithium Mining Catherine Hyland documents the I found this project by Catherine in a Soc.Química & Minera de Chile SA in way soothing due to her almost pastel- Chile’s Atacama desert which is the like Colors but also how Hyland uses world’s largest source of lithium. composition such as the placement of the horizon which provides a sense of Catherine’s photographs tell the story of scale or magnitude of the project. which turning the mineral salt suspended in make them stand out and more powerful underground reservoirs of brine into the in Color rather than black and white. “oil-slick” metal you’ll recognise in your phone battery via a system of pumps I found her work really interesting as it's and evaporation ponds. The series also about mining lithium rather than clay or conveys the strange crust-like surface of tin so it was interesting to me to see the the earth and the ombre ponds that differences but also the similarities but make the desert look like the surface of also her approach to highlighting the the moon or the set of Logan’s Run. effects of mining on the environment and the residents of the town. Her use Catherine’s interest in the area sprung of composition has given me ideas and from the idea of Atacama as a tamed inspiration for my work and how I could landscape. use the composition to show a sense of scale and think about where I want my But the impact of lithium mining, on the horizons in my work researching her people living in the Atacama, and on the work was relevant to my project environment is vast. The already limited because she looked at the effects of water supply is being depleted without mining on the environment which is a much thought of the long-term key aspect to my work consequences on the complexity of the environment 9

“The land has been taken over by this sudden boom in a lithium trade that fuels our digitally dominated lives, but there’s an undercurrent that this boom is transient, that there are longer running narratives, both human and geological, at play. There is enough lithium in the Atacama to make batteries for 400 million electric cars, but taking the long view, that’s not very many. We will consume, the cars will come and go, the lithium will run out, the mines will close, the land will remain.” - Catherine Hyland 10

Further research Theory During this module we also had a suggest the unideal, the utilitarian, and contextual studies module where I wrote also a state of otherness these objects an essay on How do photographers inhabit (Wells, 2011). respond to post-industrial landscapes? In another section of her book she talks During this essay I researched and about The industrial landscape becomes looked at some theory that was relevant more of an area of specific focus to my project. because they removed away from the idealised rural to a more industrial rural I looked at Land Matters by Liz Wells a which incorporated mining structures, section from her text below mills, and power stations, chimney stacks, and gasometers. These objects For example, ‘landscape’ was used to seemed to suggest the unideal, the specifically refer to inland scenes, as utilitarian, and also a state of otherness opposed to ‘seascape’. Additionally the these objects inhabit (Wells, 2011). terms ‘cityscape’ and ‘urban landscape’ or ‘industrial landscape’ became more 11 specific in the descriptions of how landscapes were considered. The industrial landscape becomes more of an area of specific focus because they removed away from the idealised rural to a more industrial rural which incorporated mining structures, mills, and power stations, chimney stacks, and gasometers. These objects seemed to

I also looked at some more theory this profit elsewhere; and ‘shadowed time about Post-Industrial Landscape ground’, landscapes reminiscent of Scars by Anna Storm in her book She events of violence and tragedy. (Storm, considers the resulting scars in the 2014) landscape as ‘sacrifice zones’. This raises interesting ideas for This research into theory has helped me photographers in terms memory and develop and look into deeper ideas on nostalgia as well as loss: the landscape and are relationship to it as well as post industrial scars it has Scars, wounds and other organic also helped me by giving me a deeper metaphors have been used in heritage understanding into the theory and its or societal contexts before, primarily to importance as well as the themes I describe large scale transformations of spoke about and how much useful natural landscapes. There are also information I can pull from my research. concepts that resemble the idea of landscape scars, but with a more explicit indication of the fact that affluence inevitably comes at a cost, that is, concepts that denote something exclusively negative. Among these could be mentioned ‘sacrifice zones’ environments that have been deliberately damaged for industrial purposes in order to generate economic 12

Further research Brief history of mining in Cornwall For this module I decided to research the miners left Cornwall to seek their fortunes in history of mining in Cornwall as its relevant to other mining areas across the world. the subject of my project. I looked at lots of With the China clay industry huge deposits research but these are the key points I found were found near St Austell these China clay the most interesting and important. In the deposits are the largest in the world with 120 eighteenth century copper mining was of million tons of China clay that has been much greater importance than tin; by the extracted but reserves in the ground will last early nineteenth century Cornwall was the at least another hundred years early in the greatest producer of copper in the world twentieth century there were around seventy producers of China clay in Cornwall. But With the discovery of huge deposits English China Clay was acquired by Imetal of elsewhere in the world in the mid nineteenth France for £756m in 1999 and the company century, the price of copper fell By this time operates today under the name Imerys eighty the best Cornish deposits had been percent of the China clay produced today is exhausted and mining in Cornwall was in a used in paper, twelve percent by the ceramics perilous state. However tin had been found in industry and the rest in products such as some of the deeper Cornish mines but to paint, toothpaste, rubber, plastics, cosmetics, access the tin ore miners had to go to deeper pharmaceuticals, cork and agricultural levels which they did successfully in many products. mining areas. 13 Tin now fuelled a second mining boom the industry could not fully replace the importance of copper mining but was on a smaller scale and required a smaller workforce. However as with copper the cheaper deposits of tin were found overseas especially in South America and south-east Asia by the end of the nineteenth century tin mining had severely declined. Many mines closed in the 1890s giving rise to the “Cornish diaspora” as

Further research Effects of mining on the environment For this module I decided to research the species who are dependent on them for history of mining in Cornwall as its relevant food. The acidic water released from metal to the subject of my project. I looked at lots mines or coal mines also drains into surface of research but these are the key points I water or seeps below ground to acidify found the most interesting and important. groundwater. One aspect of the effects is air pollution Mining also causes damage to land such as when unrefined materials are released when the creation of open pits and piles of waste mineral deposits are exposed on the surface rocks due to mining operations that can lead through mining. Wind erosion and nearby to the physical destruction of the land at the traffic causes such materials to become mining site. Such disruptions can contribute airborne such as Lead, arsenic and other to the deterioration of the area's with animal toxic elements. These can damage the species many of the surface features that health of people living near the mining site were present before mining activities cannot and cause diseases in the respiratory be replaced after the process has ended system. such as the removal of soil layers and deep underground digging can destabilize the Another aspect of the effects of mining is ground which threatens the future of roads water pollution mining includes metal and buildings in the area. contamination and increased sediment levels in streams and acid mine drainage. Mining leads to a massive habitat loss for a Pollutants released from processing plants, diversity of animal species ranging from soil underground mines, waste-disposal areas, microorganisms to large mammals. Endemic active or abandoned surface or haulage species are most severely affected since roads are the top sources of water pollution. even the slightest disruptions in their habitat Sediments released through soil erosion can result in extinction or put them at high cause smoothing of stream beds. It impacts risk of being wiped out. The toxins released irrigation, swimming, fishing, domestic water through mining can wipe out entire supply and other activities dependent on populations of sensitive species. such water bodies. High concentrations of toxic chemicals in water bodies pose a 14 survival threat to animal life and terrestrial

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Photoshoots 1,2 & 3 16

First photoshoot This is my best images from my first images but at a higher resolution as well photoshoot using a Nikon FG camera as experiment with the tonal values to with a 36-72mm zoom lens I went out to make the landscape lighter but the sky this shoot with a rough idea of photos I darker or have a little bit more tone so wanted to get but was to mainly test the its not as white but also to see if I can film camera I haven’t used before. bring out the clouds in my images. This location is in the clay country in St Austell and was on a clear but cloudy day overall the shoot went well and got the images I wanted to achieve although the images them sleeves come out well and was happy with the outcome of the shoot the quarries in the landscape came out darker than my other shoots but the sky in my images are very light in future shoots I will try to make sure my landscape isn’t as dark and the skies aren’t as white. For my final outcome if I decide to use some of these images I will rescan my 17

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Second photoshoot This is my second shoot for this project take which helped me achieve getting as I was working on film I had 36 what I planned exposures and instead of shooting the whole roll of film when doing the shoot some images of the sky came out white with multiple location I broke them down so you couldn't see the clouds and didn’t and did smaller shoots. have much tonal value but some came out with nice tonal value in the sky below These are my best images from my is an idea of how I can fix this but also try shoot or the images I think worked best to get both the sky and landscape the and could use for my final piece. These right exposure while taking my images. images focus more on the details of the buildings rather than the building in the I also made another mistake which was I landscape as well as landscape images did my first shoot on 100 iso and didn’t of quarries. I like the contrast in my work change my cameras iso to 400 which i as you have the buildings and abstract used for this shoot and the next shoot so structure of tin and copper mining and my film was overexposed by 2 stops then more landscape images of the clay mining having the 2 industry's in one To fix the sky being to white I could of project and displayed together. used a filter on the top section of lens for the sky to be exposed properly using a After getting my images back and looking graduated neutral density filter The how the shoot went I think it went really second fix was I over exposed my film by well and got the images I planned from 2 stops but emailed the company that doing a test shoot/scouting the location develop my film they replied back saying and knowing what images I wanted to they would alter the developing time by 1 stop. 19

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Developing my idea After sitting down in a group and about how I will fix the issue of the 2 discussing and showing are work their different aesthetics which I quite liked. was a few things that came up for me to think about and develop my work I looked at different ideas that I could further such as with my images as you use for my final outcome I knew from can see on the other page you have the start I wanted to present my work my landscape images and portrait in a grid formation like the Becher’s images which look different because who I researched at the beginning of some our landscape and some are the project. more close ups of the buildings which is more abstract they also have By having all my landscape images in different aesthetics. one grid and the portrait images in another gird the 2 different aesthetics Then it was suggested I could look at of my images will be separate but will doing an article that includes my be displayed together side by side. research and has my images as the different aesthetic wouldn’t be a problem if I did my work this way and could work better than a piece of work on the wall but it also got me to think 21

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Third photoshoot This is my third and favourite shoot for Nothing went wrong in this shoot if there this project mainly because of the was anything maybe just using a tripod location I went to iv never explored or for longer exposures such as taking a photographed before and was happy photo of the inside of the clay dryer but with the exposures as well as the sky as it was dark I needed my tripod which I had goof tonal range compared to my didn't take. first shoot. 23 The location was St Dennis near my grans house which is surrounded by quarries and old tin mining structures some of the skies in some images could have been a little darker or have more tone but this will be easily sorted when it comes to doing high resolution scans that will be used in my final piece. After the last shoot and over exposing my film I made sure I changed the iso to 400 so all my images came out fine I also got a lot of the images I wanted to get or achieve from previous visit to scout location and decide what images or shots I wanted to take.

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Final output 26

Exhibition brochure This is my exhibition brochure I chose out of the multiple ones I looked at and this was the design/layout I chose which would work best with my work this brochure was inspired by a exhibition brochure I have at home from jack Latham's exhibition in bristol called sugar paper theories. 27

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My Display inspiration These are my 2 main inspirations for my final piece which iv decided will be printed on one sheet and not single image in frames to the right is Harry’s work from the first year which was displayed in a grid formation and looked amazing presented and in large scale. on the right is the Becher's work that's also been put in a grid formation which works really well with the work I decided to try this as i've never made my images into a grid on one large bit of paper and want to try something new and experiment with something different as well as challenge myself. Bernd and Hilla Becher 29

102 project by Harry McCallum 30

My final outcome Exhibition This is my final outcome which we worked. I also like how my work stands displayed in our photography out from the grey wall compared to classroom for the first time since the having a white wall to display my work pandemic as a class we prepared the on. space and helped each other to hang are work. After displaying are work we all presented and talked to the others in I displayed my 2 grids side by side our class and I had some really good hanging from a rail with clear string/ feedback overall I'm happy with my finishing wire and bulldog clips I also outcome and achieving the outcome I decided to add a label next to my work wanted by challenging myself to do as I though of the curatorial aspects I something new and learn new skills wanted to do at first because of the position of my work it was at the back of the room and in a shadow so we installed some lights so my work had a spotlight to brighten it up. Overall the whole process went really well and I'm happy with how my prints have come out and how ell putting my images into a grid formation has 31

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Critical evaluation My manifesto was about looking at the know how or what my final outcome effects of mining on the environment would look like but during the project which was inspired by where I live and after doing research and crits I started to familial connections to the industry iv get an idea of what I wanted my final expressed this in my work by outcome to be it started as me thinking of photographing the decaying buildings making a book and then printing my and large quarries where you get the images out as 8x10 prints and then put sense of scale of mining in cornwall but them in frames but then after thinking also the effects it has by the end of the about it I wanted to challenge my skills project my work started to also look at and try something new and wanted to try how natures taken back some of the to make a grid formation on one sheet of buildings and clay tips in the landscape. paper that was inspired by Harry’s work in the first year and Bernd and Hilla The aims I had for this projects were to Becher's work where their images are achieve and hit the learning outcomes as presented in a grid formation. In this well as produce a detailed body of work project I also wanted to push my with experimentation and research into knowledge as well as trying a new history of mining in my area as well as outcome/presenting it in a new and looking at theory and effects mining has different way as well as making a label to on the environment another aim is to go with my work like they do in galleries. make a detailed main book, exhibition brochure and condensed journal. I achieved the objectives from my project proposal and hit the learning outcomes. At the beginning of this project I didn't 33

Thinking about how my project will be community infighting. read or understood by an audience I didn’t make it obvious so that the Overall I'm really happy with how this audience can look at my work and try to project and my final outcome went. I've find the meaning behind it and interpret it learnt a lot from workshops and trying in their own way. Then when they read new techniques as well as the research my exhibition brochure they would go that helped shape my work and expand back and look more closely at the work. my knowledge although I did have some issues I solved and fixed them. My project relates to some aspects of culture and society. For example, mining can have good or bad impacts on local communities which include increased employment opportunities and support for local businesses and organisations but it can also negatively affect people by forcing them from their homes and land, preventing them from accessing clean land and water, impacting on their health and livelihoods. An example of the cultural impacts of mining are that have left native tribes plagued by contaminated waterways and forests, health problems, upsurges in violence, destruction of local traditions, and 34