Uni Progress Review 2, 2011.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- John McCrae, 1915.

Taken within a local abandoned home, these images revolve around the irony in which beauty can take shape within such desolated and uninhibited locations.  

Within this body of work, I focused on the use of natural beauty to shape my images. Due to the natural landscape being unforgiving and dominant, I decided to steer towards the progression of nature and the beauty it represents. 

As opposed to my previous work which dealt with quite linear interpretations of destructive qualities, I found myself taking a slightly different outlook to my interest, having natural creation relevant while working with unaffected forms and the progression of time.

I find the act of beauty transforming these locations as metaphor for life and death, dealing with the close irony between the two, and how it can be translated through the everyday.

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Bibliography

Adams, R. 1994, Why People Photograph, Aperture Foundation Inc, New York.

Baer, U 2002, Spectral Evidence: the Photography of Trauma, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States of America, p.7.

Barthes, R 1993, Camera Lucida: reflections on photography, Vintage, London, p.3-7.

Crespelle JP 1988, Monet: The Masterworks, Studio Editions Ltd, London.

Harrison-Lever, B & Jorgensen N 2002, In Flanders Fields, Sandcastle Books, Western Australia.

House, J 1977, Monet, Borders Press, Michigan.

Missingham, H 1978, Design Focus, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York.

Martyn J, 2006, Faces of the Living Dead, Melbourne University Publishing Limited, Carlton, Victoria, p.20.

Ross, R 2011, viewed 18 April, http://www.richardross.net/portfolios/12941-architecture-of-authority

Sontag, S. 1973, On Photography, Penguin Books Limited, London.

Tillmans, W. 1999, Soldiers; The Nineties, Walther Konig, Koln.

Currently Reading:

Berger, J 1972, Ways of Seeing, Penguin Books, London.

Curtis, D 1995, Touching From a Distance, Faber & Faber, London.

Future Reading:

Berger, J About Looking, Pantheon Books, New York.

Ross, R 2007, Architecture of Authority, Aperture, New York.