Falmouth MA Photography

Final Major Project // Project Development // Gallery and Print Page

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Along with the Book, I decided to have a few select prints. I chose to use three made later in the project as I feel it they most represent where I am now with my work. In addition to the book, I think that this extends my audience reach and interaction with my work.

I used a different platform from my website as it is easier for people to order and track their prints. For me, it's easy to manage orders and inventory.

With my chosen three prints, I decided only to have 15 of each available as I want to keep the number of prints released to a minimum.

Link to Print page

Figure 1: Screen Shot, Gallery and Print Page, 2020

Figure 1: Screen Shot, Gallery and Print Page, 2020

 

Final Major Project // Project Development // Instagram

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For the past few weeks, I have gone through my prints and negatives, slowly narrowing down what my final book will be. I made a dummy book, which helped refine my selection to clearly portray my journey with this project. Below are screenshots from my Common Ground and Plant-based Developers highlights on Instagram where the audience can see more of how the project was developed.

Figure 1: instagram screenshots of book development, Stevi McNeill

Final Major Project // Project Development // Dummy Book

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Figure 1: Book Layout Draft, Stevi McNeill

After making my photo selects, I have started making a dummy book. Having the images together in book form has given me a better sense of how they fit together to and how the book will flow.

Having photos together like this makes me feel that each section/ different area represented could be its own book, but for the sake of time and I think this is something I will explore at a later date.

The progression of images I feel is very fitting and fully represents my experiences in the last six months. The latter half of the book does have a different mood to it, and I did struggle with feeling content about putting those in, but again I want this to be more about the representation of my journey, and it fits to with that.

As I decided not to make more than one book at this time, I thought of adding chapter title pages to represent the area to give to notify the reader a shift in location, and possible ease the transition in mood towards the end of the book.

 

Figure 2: Book Layout Draft, Stevi McNeill

Final Major Project // Project Development // Plant Based Developer // Take one.

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Figure 1: American Lake WA D7, 2011. Brandt, M., 2020. Works • Lakes And Reservoirs

Figure 1: American Lake WA D7, 2011. Brandt, M., 2020. Works • Lakes And Reservoirs

At my last meeting with Wendy, I mentioned my interest in looking into alternative film developing processes, and she mentioned Matthew Brandt. His project Rivers and Lakes where he takes a photograph at a lake or river then he takes some of the water back with him to then soak his chromogenic print in the water.

He states;

Representation has always had this subject/object dilemma. It is usually when photography becomes standardized that the veil becomes invisible, and a more direct link to the subject is established…but this notion doesn’t really appeal to me so much. I am really trying to make the veil of photography a little more opaque. - Matthew Brandt

As a photographer, who has always wanted a clear connection between image and viewer so they get the best representation of person or place as I can give, I find this statement interesting. He is masking his images/ subjects to create this very surreal abstract images that take on a life of their own, but I also think that because he is using the water from these lakes and reservoirs, I feel that he is creating an accurate representation of these places, even though the images he has made have been distorted.

 
Figure 2: Crackling Lake WY 5. Brandt, M., 2020. Works • Lakes And Reservoirs

Figure 2: Crackling Lake WY 5. Brandt, M., 2020. Works • Lakes And Reservoirs

 
 

Though I am not after an abstract aesthetic in my work, I am interested in using organic material from locations I am documenting, so I have considered looking into plant-based developers.

Figure 3 : Kale and Reddish leaf developer. Stevi McNeill 2020

Figure 3 : Kale and Reddish leaf developer. Stevi McNeill 2020

 

I have wanted to experiment with plant-based developers for a while, so for my first batch, I made, Kale and Reddish leaf developer, as it was on hand and wanted to see if this was going to be a reasonable addition to my project.

recipe:

  • 700ml of tap water

  • 2 handfuls of chopped Kale and Radish leaves each.

  • Boiled water let steep for 12hrs

  • 1/4 cup Washing soda

  • 5g Vitamin C

  • Pre soaked film for 1 min

  • Dev time 12 min

  • Fix time 7 min

The film was way underdeveloped, so I think with the next roll I will double, possibly triple my developing time, hopefully getting some positive results.

Figure 4 : 35mm film developed Kale and Reddish leaf developer. Stevi McNeill 2020.

Figure 4 : 35mm film developed Kale and Reddish leaf developer. Stevi McNeill 2020.

I have also come across other organic developers via Dagie Brundert that I want to try and compare over the next few weeks.


Rosemary
Boil 2 little twigs fresh rosemary in water for about 10 mins, steep 1/2 hour)
10 g vitamin C
50 g soda – 22°, 40 min

Beer
500 ml beer
12 g vitamin C
50 g soda – 30°, 15 min
(I tried: Budweiser, Old Speckled Hen, Guinness, Stauder, Oldenburger OLs)

Black Tea
500 ml black tea (strong, 7 ts, steep 15 min)
8 g vitamin C
45 g soda – 22-23°, 30 min


References:

Brandt, M., 2020. Works • Lakes And Reservoirs — Matthew Brandt. [online] Matthew Brandt. Available at: <https://matthewbrandt.com/lakesandreservoirs> [Accessed 1 August 2020].

Museum, G., 2015. [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVOqkkxksWE> [Accessed 1 August 2020].

2015. [online] Available at: <https://www.nps.gov/sajh/learn/historyculture/english-camp.htm> [Accessed 12 July 2020].