Ugo/methods/session2

EDITED SESSION 2

1 I started with analog photography. I am taking photographs using the whole surface of the film. To use the whole film as one photograph i am rewinding the film in front of the lens with the shutter open. In my first trials i used and old minolta srt101 because it allows you to control the rewinding and the shutter manually. As expected there is a lot of blur. More precisely motion blur, because in a way, with the rewinding gesture i transform my still photography camera into a moving-image camera. I am therefore taking photographs with a moving image camera.

2 The medium format experiments: not being afraid of breaking and mistreating the clean and technical imagery. I built a medium format camera that doesn't have a shutter. On previous experiment i remarked that the shutter played an important role in the selective process of the subject. But what is happening when the camera doesn't have a shutter? The process of selection is transferred to

3 Fixity in photography and the impact on defining reality, identity as a fix and certain concept. Breaking the idea of a static use of photography and reality.

4 The gesture: Rewinding

My axes of research are now:

How do we experience time in photography? How do we explore the transformation from fixity to movement? The precise instant when still image become motion-picture? (Marker, C. (1962). La Jetée) How do we represent, interpret or record the fluid character of time and space?

Coming soon

UN-EDITED SESSION 2 Ugo (a) Text Interview by Marieke What are you making?   

Photographs using film and I'm trying to work around the concept of time and space in photography. [note for when you come to work on this text: before you tell the reader about the concepts around it describe what it is in more detail I'm trying to use the whole film with the making of pictures. I'm also writing a text exploring the concept of fluidity. The movement is also an important aspect thematically so the result is sometimes a figurative picture. So it becomes recognizable when the speed of the film is at the same pace as the object. For example the camera works really well in the train. The first result I was happy with I took in the train. When the landscape was passing by I rewinded the film and stop some elements of the landscape.

Your process is a lot of trial and error is that because it is a new method or not many other people have tried it?

The process is very relatable to slit scan. But the idea behind the project is how do we catch impressions and emotions continously. The visual perception of photography: how can I record without stopping? I will explore this till I have result I'm positive about and then I will transfer it too digital. So I can make bigger or longer pictures, or a livefeed.

Why are you making it?  

It’s blurry. It’s more anthropology based. Like the economy and the fast pace of life. We have to become kind of flexible. Modernization pushes us to always go further. The book I’m reading is liquid modernity. He uses the concept of liquidity. We are not solid like we used to be. 2 references are impressionism like Monet he painted really long pictures. It connects with the ratio of film. This was also linked with the modernisation. I’m trying to project how we would think in 200 years. When we have unlimited imagery, resource and life online. It’s like working around infinity. 

What about physics?

I will have to go through a certain amount of physics and philosophy. The normative system of photography, framing, old cinema, old tv etc. How do we get out of old norms? Time imprinted on an old film. That can be potentially unreadable. Even the cave paintings have a way of movement in their storytelling. The first access you have to history is a timeline and you can copy that with a film. You can highlight things and write information in them. It's related to the way we teach history. As a way to represent time and understand it. It's a line. Why is time linear in one way? In cinema you can make cycles, repetitions. Fernand Braudel, one of the historians to work on time. This has been used in sociology. Personal and psychological time. He researched how times can be layered: Time of society, time of planet, historical times. The way you perceive time and the difference between how society perceives time. They will obviously create different choices. In terms of developing or creating a project for example.

Does t relate to other things you have done? 

The emergence of cinematic time: Book.

The relation to my work is called layered identity. The conception of fixity we fix the portrait and that relates to social identity. You try to develop yourself and who you are through biographical facts. Layered on top of each others. Then this picture arrives and is linked to your identity and it influences you as a person. This will be time control for your identity. This image barely gonna change, every 10years maybe. But you are actually always changing. You can change appearance, gender and who you are . So photography doesn't say anything about this. It can't really grasp a person. Imagine a passport without biometriques and social informations. No name, size, eyes colour, date of birth, place of birth. Identity is fluid. That doesn't mean the form changes but it is still in movement. The relation to space is the impact of building your identity. So the space also controls you.

Could you show someone's life or identity in a way like this?

How do you present identity? It's just a word we put meanings on. It's just a way to understand yourself and each other.

 How is it different to other things you have done?      I have to spend more time with time. I'm allowing things to be less figurative. It allows me to be more abstract than before. My own perception is more present it is more personal.   What are the most significant  choices have you made recently? Stop working in hospitality/ restaurant director. Allowing time to my practice  

Look to what is already in the work. What is the pattern in the work, repetition, discordances. Connecting research strain and pratical research How do i make a minimal gesture, what can i make in two hours to go forward to my subject.