Uni Module 1 – Project 3 – Interdisciplinary Photography

The brief with this project was to combine photography with another discipline. With this one I wanted to concentrate on the environment, but also I have not long obtained an infrared camera, so I wanted to have a play around with that and the effects it creates.

Initially I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to photograph, and after several trips to the local park with my camera, and looking at the photos I had created, I noticed that we have a lot of influence on the trees around us. We chop and shape them to how we please – if it’s the wrong place, we cut it down, or cut down parts of it so it’s how we like it. If we want the trees to grow a certain way, we manipulate them when they’re young, training them to grow a certain way. We cut down parts of the woods to create space rather than using some open space already available. Some of the cutting had been recently done, and made the trees look violated due to the brutal cutting, leaving them looking rather exposed. We can’t just enjoy being in nature, we have to change it so it meets our ideals of what a park or woodland should look like.

These images are jpegs straight from the IR camera, I kinda liked the timeless feel these images. Infrared works rather well when the days are drab like the winters we have in the UK, but also they work really well when the sun is out and a nice blue sky – needless to say, this IR camera, my new favourite toy! I know it’s not for everyone, but I seem to have a thing for such types of technology… I will no doubt experiment with some different types of IR photography, as the idea usually isn’t to leave them like this Usually, either convert the photos to black & white or play around with the colour spectrum to get the cool colours associated with IR. But colour added nothing to this project so best to leave it out (that and there is like no colour in the UK in February!).

Here is my photographic response, titled “Against Nature”