Our daily routine has become mechanically ingrained into our sub consciousness that we barely notice the changing scenery in which I have hoped to address in my response to the ‘Environment’. During my train journey I witnessed how the landscape was continually shifting and became fascinated by how I was being transported through the land without having to move. The views outside the glass window I felt was not appreciated enough for its beauty where my tourist status did not replicate the same feeling as other passengers.
For my outcome I have produced three photographs taken through the window of my train journey expressing the changing landscapes.
It wasn’t until investigating Roger Fenton’s ‘Mill at Hurst Green’ where his impassive visit to the scenes of the country side, catalysed the formation of my idea.
It was from here that I became interested in seeing myself as a guest in the environment where the habitat existed to accommodate my travel. I began experimenting in taking photographs combining both the interior of the train and exterior of the landscape to inform viewers of my setting.
With this primary concept I also looked at photographer Ori Gersht’s series ‘The Clearing’ which explores the essence of time and history, taken on a moving train surrounding the area of ‘Kosov’ in the Ukraine.
Gersht shoots continuously through the windows, transforming the snow filled country side into large blurred movements becoming unrecognisable. The viewer is not entirely sure what they are looking at where the long exposure has opened the film to record the most time and carrying the most history and should therefore be obvious but instead Gersht has made the familiar, unfamiliar.
This series also resonates with the human experiences of the Jews in WW2 travelling by train to the concentration camps. ‘From this research I began to consider time in my own photographs. How could I represent the motion of time as I was travelling through the environment?
I also finally looked at photographer Naoya Hatakeyama’s ‘Slow Glass’ series.
Photographing through the glass window of his car Hatakeyama represents the glass as a portal into another world and separates the two different environments just as the window view through the train. This study made me consider depth of field where in Hatakeyama’s ‘Slow Glass’ series the city behind the window is blurred to focus on the tiny raindrops on the glass. I wanted to expose both the interior and exterior which I initially found difficult, but choosing to shoot only on cloudy days enabled me to record both the landscapes and interior of the train. I experimented with the shutter speed to show motion in my photographs were I found a speed of half a second was effective enough to express the movement.
This unit enabled me to explore the landscape in a different perspective rather than see a typical postcard picture. I wanted to visually engage viewer’s attention to a new way of understanding the environment they are surrounded in and appreciate the diverse habitation that we have constructed and adopted. I choose to shoot both the interior and exterior to build a stronger relationship with viewers as they find themselves in similar settings without consciously knowing. Also I felt that this effectively communicated my journey through the environment illustrating my own vision. Overall the most difficult challenge was to translate my idea into reality where recording in two different settings proved more of a challenge than originally thought.
Contact Sheets
Developing Images
Contact Sheets
Developing Images
My Final Images
