Decay presentation

Decay
AS PHOTOGRAPHY EXAMINATION

February 2012

Saturday, 28 January 12

Decay

Many photographers have focused on aspects of decay
that would otherwise have remained unnoticed. Mood,
colour, texture and the effect of light have all been
observed and recorded. Consider the work of others and
respond in your own way to some aspect of decay.


Aaron Siskind
Chicago 30

What has interested the photographer here and how has he attempted to record his
impressions?


Chicago 27, 1960

“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching,
of loving. What you have caught on ﬁlm is Jerome 21, Arizona, 1949
captured forever... it remembers little things,
long after you have forgotten everything.”
Aaron Siskind


Paul White Great Frampton
Mansion, Llantwit Major, South
Glarmogan 2009

Since 1993 I have been
photographing close-up, large
format photographs of weathered
walls. Some were taken in busy
streets in cities such as Swansea,
Nottingham, Bristol and Brighton
whilst others were taken in rural
Wales in empty cottages, farms
and mansions.

These abstract photographs are
inspired by the American Abstract
Expressionist painters from the
1950's but especially by the work
of American photographer Aaron
Siskind.


Keith Arnatt - Untitled, from the
series The Tears of Things
(Objects from a Rubbish Tip)
1990

in 'Tears of Things' (Objects
from a Rubbish Tip) 1990-91,
Keith Arnatt depicts single
items on a makeshift plinth: the
head of a doll, a brush with
some of its bristles caked in
gunk, a cracked red lightbulb
covered with a ﬁlm of brown
dust, a doll's torso with a foot
thrust forward covered in black
gloss paint.


Keith Arnatt - Untitled, from the series The Tears of Things
(Objects from a Rubbish Tip) 1990


Keith Arnatt - Untitled, from the series Pictures from a Rubbish Tip, 1988-1989

The series 'Pictures from a Rubbish Tip' (1988-89) is a body of work devoted to
images of decomposing food, some in their plastic wrappers, some naked; all of
which have a delicate, almost transcendental, beauty. Arnatt uses the medium of
photography with the sensibility of a painter. Colour is important to him, and this
comes out in one image depicting a strip of bacon and a piece of eggshell against a
backdrop of plastic partially obscuring a pink floral pattern behind. But it is not the
inventory of items depicted which makes this picture arresting, it is, rather, a certain
undefined quality, perhaps the way the light falls on the objects, or the way the plastic
conceals and mutes the things behind, in this instance, making a composition of
rubbish appear as if painted in the manner of a Flemish painting. Perhaps it is
because the effect of making what could be described as dirty plastic appear as fine
gauze or muslin, or the care with which these items of rubbish are composed: each is
attributed with a value by its relation to the others. What ever it is, Arnatt has
transformed the unwanted into something, at least pictorially, highly desirable. But
when Arnatt plays directly with the ambiguity of objects, as he does in his series
'Canned Sunsets' (1990-91) the transformation from literal into figurative seems
contrived by comparison.


"it has always been an
obsession for me to
venture in forbidden
places: I did it as a kid –
I’m still doing it now
(where as many others
just stopped when they
grew up). I love to
rediscover what has been
forgotten, to relive what
has happened, to listen to
sounds that no longer are,
to just sit down and
imagine what the ghosts
that are still around are
telling me, showing me…
Henk van Rensbergen Catching this inside a
http://www.abandoned-places.com camera, on negative black
and white or colour slide
isn’t easy. I need to be
alone to be able to
concentrate and translate
that feeling."


"To some degree you must know the theory behind the shutter button – that will
give you the freedom to express what you want to express. Measuring light and
exposure are things you can learn. Using a tripod, knowing the limits of your
lenses, depth of ﬁeld are things you must understand and apply to get results. On
the other hand you can talk about composition or sharpness but in the end it’s up
to the photographer to actually play with his composition and eventually break the
rules to achieve something surprising …"


Robert Polidori from the series Chernobyl 2001


Sigmar Polke, Untitled
(Palermo) 1976

Polke, who died last year,
used his camera like a
sketchbook; and he treated
his photos like paintings,
experimenting with, altering
or deliberately bungling the
development process to
create unusual visual
effects. Most of his prints
are creased and stained.
Everything seems
unﬁnished—not in the
sense of lacking anything,
but in the sense of still
being in play.



Sigmar Polke Daphne 2004,
440 photocopied pages

Questions to ask yourself:

How many interpretations of the word ‘decay’ can you think of?

Can you think about all the ways that a photograph could record
both the process and products of decay?

In what sense is decay an inevitable feature of existence?

How can photographs themselves decay? How could you explore,
encourage and exploit this process?

How is the art of photography partly an attempt to prevent decay?


Decay presentation

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