How I make - ‘noticing eyes’
Sally Mann is a photographer who is known for creating beautiful, evocative and emotional images of her family and the landscapes that surround her in the deep south of America. In her memoir ‘Hold Still’ she explains the separation she had between her photography practice and her family life and that, “...it wasn’t until 1985 that I put on my photography eyes, and began to see the potential for serious imagery within the family.” (Mann, 2015, p.128). I like the way she highlights the act of mentally turning on certain receptors to enable you to be inspired by what you see. For my practice I would call it turning on my ‘noticing eyes’, being able to notice the tiniest details or the magic in the things I see around me. Currently, this is happening most often to me when I go on my daily walk along the canal tow-path and surrounding woods.
To be able to notice I have to feed myself with making, reading, reflecting, watching, visiting and listening. Taking photographs, drawing and making videos have also been helpful for noticing. I have to do at least one of these things every day in order to keep the momentum up. I know from experience that if I don’t keep up this momentum then I lose myself in self-doubt and l give up. To help keep up the momentum I also have to act on what I notice, pick up the plant, record what I saw, heard, visited and write down my reflections.
Throughout this MA I have been acting on my noticing by recording it all in a reflective journal, within three broad headings, ‘What?’, ‘So What?’, ‘What Next?’ (fig.21).
What?: A record of what I made, saw, visited, etc.
So What?: What other people have written about my area of interest and then my reflections on what they wrote.
What Next?: How am I going to act on the ‘What?’ and ‘So What?’, what have they inspired me to do next, a kind of ‘to do’ list.
I have enjoyed writing within my reflective journals and I hope to continue this, in some format, after my MA.
This way of working, therefore, has become my method of practice and I hold with me the following instructions:
Keep making: if you get stuck when making, then go and do something else, go for a walk or take a break.
Keep writing: if you get stuck when writing, then go and make something.
Keep thinking: if you get stuck when thinking, then go and read something by someone else.
Keep noticing
Keep aware of the happy accident
KEEP IT SIMPLE!
I think keeping aware of the happy accident is one of the most exciting things about making. It is also one of the hardest instructions to follow. Sally Mann links this idea to luck,
“I figured that luck, aesthetic luck included, is the ability to exploit accidents”
(Mann, 2015, p.262-263)
I think that a great deal of skill and experience is needed to embrace and utilise accidents, and get excited about them. Mann highlights this in the accidents that befall her photographic plates,
"I found myself praying for the angel of uncertainty. And many times she visited my plates bestowing upon them essential peculiarities, persuasive consequence, intrigue, drama and allegory".
I am maybe a bit too controlling to let every accident happen. I think, therefore, every now and again I need to remember the start of my MA, when I went back to the beginning and played and destroyed in order to loosen up. I should add to the list of instructions,
Keep playing and destroying
I have kept to my methodology of making and followed my instructions in order to create the final outcome for the Synthesis project. I have created a series of simple necklaces made from plant stems and flowers. I have used jewellery and textiles forming and finishing techniques in order to highlight the details of the plants that I find most beautiful.