Book Review: "H is for Hawk" (Helen MacDonald, Jonathon Cape; London, 2014)

I first heard about this book when I chaired a talk by Conor Jameson, a highly skilled naturalist and writer who recently had his own book on Goshawks (“Looking for the Goshawk”) published by Bloomsbury Press. Jameson’s book concentrates on studying the habits and detailed behaviour of this truly wild raptor, visiting the places where it lives and talking to the people who know most about the species (including Helen MacDonald). Jameson had read her book and strongly recommended it: a few months later it won the “Costa Prize” for a work of non-fiction and Helen MacDonald was parachuted into the limelight, achieving a degree of fame and (one assumes) fortune.

I should start by saying that my interest in this book at the outset lay in its natural history content: goshawks are almost impossible to see, never mind to photograph in the wild. I wanted to find out more about them and was interested to understand their role in falconry.  Nevertheless, this book does have some relevance to my course work, as I will show later. Essentially the book sets out to describe MacDonald’s training of a young goshawk, acquired shortly after the sudden death of her father, and how her communion with this bird helped to alleviate the grief that she felt over her father’s loss. Running in parallel with her own story she recounts the bumbling efforts of the novelist T H White (1906-60; author of “The Once and Future King”) who, unlike MacDonald, was not a skilled and experienced Falconer, to train his own Goshawk.

A number of issues quickly became apparent as I read this book. Firstly, MacDonald is a brilliant and gifted writer, with a distinctive literary style. Her sentences are often short and terse, making her story very readable, and her subtle use of descriptive prose makes scenes come alive vividly in my mind. Secondly, her description of working with and training the hawk, using all the experience gained from her work as a falconer and the knowledge gained both by detailed research and by quizzing experts in her field, must surely create the most perfect handbook for anybody wishing to follow in her footsteps by becoming a falconer. A detailed bibliography offers the reader further research options. Thirdly, it is clear from her writing that, whilst she may be academically brilliant, she is also somewhat eccentric; perhaps a difficult person to understand, to be with or to like. At the time of her father’s death she had no family, job, partner or home. It is to her credit that this “part autobiography” does not shirk from these details.

I did have some problems with the subject matter. We all deal with grief differently: my father also died suddenly and unexpectedly when he was too young. However, I overcame the grief within a few weeks and, although I had to deal with the consequences of his death for many years afterwards, I did not return to that initial state of grief. MacDonald appears to be in a perpetual state of grief, only seeking solace and ultimate salvation (many months later) through the flying of the hawk. Events may well have occurred exactly as written, but at the back of my mind there was always a feeling that her retreat into the world of her goshawk, the curative power of wild nature in the form of the goshawk and her return from this spirit world with the realisation that she is once again human and the grief has gone, fitted rather neatly into her circumstances at the time.

One literary prop that makes this book stand out amongst its counterparts is the running of her autobiographical story alongside a potted biography of T H White, concentrating on his unsuccessful battle to train his goshawk, “Gos”. She presents a vivid portrait of this troubled author as she constantly and expertly switches between her story and his through the middle sections of the book. She quotes regularly from his autobiographical work, “The Goshawk”, and it is interesting to compare his rather stilted prose with her own flowing style. Both authors train their goshawks in an attempt to escape from their own, rather different, worldly problems, to escape the challenges of the present (and, in the case of White, the past) by taking on a new challenge.

What makes this book stand out amongst its counterparts? Undoubtedly it is her nature writing, her passion for looking at life from the goshawk’s point of view, for moving into, understanding, breaking down and finally escaping its instinct-driven world, for both creating and analysing the bond between human and wild animal and finally for expressing the beauty of the natural world that both share, which raises this work to a higher level. Her training of the goshawk not only gave her the chance to put aside the grief at her father’s death but also to demonstrate, both to herself and the reader, how a close bond with the natural world can enrich the human soul.                       

Conclusions and Learning Points

“H is for Hawk” is part biography, part autobiography but predominantly a very powerful piece of nature writing, which explores the bond between people and wild animals in a similar manner to Gavin Maxwell’s “Ring of Bright Water” or Paul Gallico’s “The Snow Goose”. Her ability to show how nature can connect with the human soul establishes her as one of a (sadly dwindling) group of outstanding nature writers (Richard Mabey immediately springs to mind), but her mastery of the written word and obvious research skills must also provide a platform for her, if she wishes, to become a successful writer in a number of other genres, including fiction.

My specific learning point from this book was in the expert way in which MacDonald expresses how nature (and in particular wild animals) can stir the human soul. This achievement must be incredibly difficult: very few nature writers can accomplish it successfully. I have striven to express the empathy that people have with wild birds in my major project, by photographing the interactions between birds and the people feeding them. Birds are, as MacDonald describes, instinct driven. They can learn to overcome their fear of man and accept the food on offer, because they need food to survive. On the other hand people feeding birds can feel and express emotions relating to altruism, satisfaction, success; even fear. If I can express these emotions (which I also feel when feeding wild birds) in my photographic output in a similar manner to the way in which MacDonald uses words then the question “what do wild birds do for us?” can be successfully answered.

Book Review; "The Polaroid Book" (Taschen, 2012)

Although I have used Polaroid film cameras before, I have never owned one. The beauty of a Polaroid camera is that once you’ve taken a photograph with it you only have to wait for a few seconds in order to get a printout, which gradually appears as if by magic. If the print is not what you want then there is nothing to stop you taking the photograph again. The disadvantage (at least for the casual user) is that, because there is no intermediate darkroom stage, the photograph cannot be modified.

The “heyday” of the Polaroid camera probably occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, when many of the world’s foremost artists and photographers took up the camera in order to create instant art. Edwin Land, the inventor of the camera, encouraged keen young amateur and professional photographers to go out and be creative, using Polaroid cameras. The work that they brought back was sorted and the best material was archived. Working with, amongst others, Ansel Adams Land established an archive of thousands of high quality Polaroid photographs, from various sources, in Waltham, Massachusetts. This book features a varied and interesting cross section of some 250 reproductions of prints from the archive.

I did not have to study the book for long in order to realise that many of the featured prints were not mere snapshots, but carefully designed works of art. Take Peter Beard’s print, “Iman” (Image 1) for example. This appears to be a double, triple or multiple exposure which has been cleverly collated to produce a work of art that asks far more questions than it answers. A darkroom expert or digital photographer skilled in the use of “Photoshop” techniques would struggle to produce an image such as this (assuming, of course, that Beard has not simply used his Polaroid to photograph the completed work!).

Image 1: Peter Beard; “Iman” (1987)

Featured Polaroid artists include Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Chuck Close, Elliott Erwitt, Robert Frank, David Hockney (for a collage of Polaroid prints), Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton and Andy Warhol. The range of subject matter and styles is huge, taking in virtually every genre although, not surprisingly, portraits and self-portraits form the biggest set. Within this set, however, the photographers have used imagination and skill to produce some stunning results, such as Arno Minkkinen’s “selfie” (Image 2).

Image 2: Arno Rafael Minkkinen; “Self Portrait, Foster’s Pond” (1989)

Whilst Minkkinen’s photograph has been carefully set up, many other images “capture the instant” rather well, which is what Polaroid photography was (is?) all about. However, my enjoyment of this collection came from trawling the images for ideas for my own work and admiring the skill and creativity that went into their production, in all parts of the world. Karen Kommer’s night-time images of pavement shadows and reflections (for example Image 3) score on both counts, whilst Ferdinando Dolfo’s daytime street scene (Image 4) also holds my eye.

Image 3: Karen Kammer; “Fantastiche Verteilingen" (1980)

Image 4: Ferdinando Dolfo: “A Philosophical Walk” (1983)

This collection (which was edited by Barbara Hitchcock, the director of cultural affairs for the Polaroid Corporation) demonstrates how photographers from all walks of life can take to and develop a new medium (in this case the Polaroid camera) in order to produce works of great creativity and originality. Developments in Polaroid photography over the 40 or so years since the technique was invented have encouraged devotees to use far more sophisticated photographic techniques than simple “point and shoot” and the results are, in some cases, stunning. The onset of digital photography, with its instant readout on the back of the camera, has to some extent overshadowed Polaroid photography in recent years. Nevertheless there is still a place for the Polaroid camera today and it has many devotees: the images in this collection demonstrate why.

·      Action Point: inspired by Images 1-4, I should aim in the next year to produce a layered photo-collage, an original self-portrait, an atmospheric night-time shot and an image where a road sign plays an important role in the composition. To increase motivation I should try to have a purpose for producing the images – perhaps incorporating them into OCA project work and/or photographic competition entries.

Book Review: “Why it does not have to be in Focus (Modern Photography Explained)” by Jackie Higgins

After many years of battling for recognition modern photography has now come to be appreciated by the art world as an art form in its own right, rather than simply as a means to document the world as we see it. Artists are turning more and more to photography as a means of self-expression, national museums employ photography curators and major photographic exhibitions at large museums and galleries such as Tate Modern in London are becoming commonplace. Contemporary artists are experimenting with photography in many different ways, each trying to find their own particular creative niche. This book attempts to explain the philosophy and artistry that lies behind one hundred photographs produced by one hundred (mainly) contemporary artists, what inspired them to produce their work and how the photographs were created. In so doing, Higgins hopes to enlighten and inform the layman (such as myself) about what makes the world of contemporary photographic art “tick”.

Whilst Higgins emphasises the contemporary nature of the works in this book she also pays homage to many of the pioneers of modern photographic art in the form of works by William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Martin Parr, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall, amongst others. Their classic and sometimes controversial works provide a solid background for the work of the younger artists featured here. Henri Cartier-Bresson’s classic “Decisive Moment” photograph “Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare” (1932) is also featured! There is plenty of variety in the work of some of the younger and/or less well-known artists. We have examples of extreme under- and over-exposure, completely blurred and incredibly sharp and detailed images, examples of “photograms” taken in the absence of a camera, severely pixelated images and photographs that have been over-painted. Some images are part of a series, whilst others are “standalones”. Some images apparently have no photographic merit, whilst others have aesthetic appeal. Of course, aesthetic appeal is to some extent in the eye of the beholder: what appeals to me may not appeal to another reader and vice-versa.

The photographs are grouped in different sections, entitled “Portraits/Smile”, “Document/Snap” etc. It must have been a struggle for Higgins to categorise some of the images at all, whilst others could have been placed in two or more sections. Each is accompanied by short passages of text (a) documenting the artist’s approach, process and technique, (b) locating the image in its historic and artistic context and, most importantly, (c) explaining why the photograph is an important work of art. Other text boxes provide relevant quotes, references and additional incidental information. To see how effective this approach is, let’s have a look at a couple of self-portraits, by Anne Collier and Gavin Turk (below) featured in the first, portrait section.

Anne Collier

Gavin Turk

I enjoyed studying American photographer Anne Collier’s work, “Mirror Ball”. The multiple surfaces of the mirror ball, being at slightly different angles to the camera, display fragments of her face which the observer struggles to piece together. Higgins says essentially the same thing, before concluding her brief explanation of the photograph’s significance as follows: “The work recalls the curator James Lingwood’s description of our desire for unity of our ‘self’ as an ‘ungraspable phantom’. With the mirrorball, Collier creates a self-portrait that reads as an abstraction, shattering any illusion of a coherent, stable identity”. Really? Why does this make the photograph an important work of art?

British artist Gavin Turk’s self-portrait, “Portrait of Something that I’ll never really see” (above) has no impact on me. As Higgins says in her explanation of its significance: “His closed eyes suggest that the photographer chose the wrong microsecond to trip the exposure” before quoting Turk’s explanation: “I tried hard to appear without expression, leaving my eyes closed so they became the focus. The eyes act as a full stop”. Higgins then concludes: “This simple gesture frustrates the viewer’s attempt to read the portrait for personality”. To be fair, Higgins quotes Turk elsewhere as saying that he was trying to make a piece of work “that was simple and only a fraction away from an ordinary picture” and that the portrait would “never really” reveal any more with his eyes left open (I disagree). However, my point is that the explanatory notes fail or, at best, only go part of the way towards enlightening me as to why many of these works of art were created. As a consequence I was left to reflect on my tutor’s comments that it takes several years for a student such as me to fully understand the significance of contemporary works of fine art, including the above examples.

Whilst I struggled to rationalise the work of some of the featured photographers, a number of the images did stand out and were enjoyable to study. Whilst the idea of photographing both urban and rural landscapes through a rain-spattered or misty vehicle windscreen is not new I did enjoy looking at Iranian photographer and film-maker Abbas Kiarostami’s atmospheric landscape (“Untitled”, from the series “Rain”), an image that encourages the viewer to interpret the interrupted view beyond the droplets and streams of water on the windscreen.

This book presents an excellent introduction to the work of some of the best known practitioners of modern photographic art over the last 50 years, together with a selection of work from some younger “up and coming” photographic artists. Some of the featured images are guaranteed to inspire and assist in the generation of new ideas for current photographers who wish to find their niche in the world of modern photographic art. The work of artists of particular interest can be researched in more depth (references to some of their best known work are given). However, I do not believe that the explanations provided by the author will enlighten the lay photographer or convince them that their photograph “does not have to be in focus”.

Learning Points, Future Work and References

The featured artists have all developed novel and distinctive (if sometimes controversial) styles that have, at least partly, been responsible for them achieving artistic and/or commercial success.

It is perhaps as difficult for an expert to explain why a photograph or photographic style is important or relevant within the field of modern photographic art as it is for the layman to understand why.

I should re-appraise Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled Film Stills” series, perhaps the most influential photographic story board ever produced and a series that must surely be of benefit in designing my own major project story board.

I should consider whether any of the techniques used by the featured artists could be of benefit for my own future work, both within and outside my OCA course work.

Book Details (Amazon) with customer reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Does-Not-Have-Focus/dp/3791348515/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401314460&sr=1-1&keywords=why+it+does+not+have+to+be+in+focus

Book Review: “Spill” by Daniel Beltrá

The work of Daniel Beltrá first came to my attention when his photograph, “Still Life in Oil” (see below) won him the “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” award in the prestigious international “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” competition in 2011. His portfolio of six images, “The Price of Oil”, documenting the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, in which 11 people lost their lives and five million barrels of crude oil were released into the environment, won the corresponding “Wildlife Photojournalist of the Year” award. This book, Beltrá’s first, features 27 of his photographs documenting the Deepwater Horizon disaster, together with a short essay (“Sublime Melancholy”) by Barbara Bloemink.

Beltrá is a Spanish freelance photojournalist with a particular interest in covering environmental issues. He now works in the USA where he regularly undertakes commissions for Greenpeace. He is also the featured photographer for my critical essay (Assignment 3), so naturally I was very interested to purchase and study this book.

All bar one of the photographs in the book were taken from the air, over a period of one month, looking down on the attempts to deal with and disperse the massive oil slick. The exception (“Still Life in Oil”) shows oiled brown pelicans awaiting a second bout of cleaning (below) and brings home the consequences of the disaster on the natural world. This image was, in my view, a very necessary part of Beltrá’s award-winning six image portfolio. At the time, Beltrá described this image as “an icon of the disaster”.

Daniel Beltra

The remaining images could be viewed as “landscape abstracts”. The colourful patterns created by the oil, the chemical dispersants used to treat it and the flames caused by burning it, the boundaries with unaffected areas of ocean, the passage of ships through the affected area, the effects of waves on the oil and dispersants and the reflections of sunlight produce some beautiful, stunning results. Sometimes there is no evidence of man’s presence, whilst in other photographs small boats, helicopters or (in the case of the image below) a relief well disturb the apparent tranquillity of the scene.

Daniel Beltra

Of these images Beltrá has commented that: “It’s a route to understanding that doesn’t depend on shock………if the image is aesthetically appealing, people are likely to stop and look at the caption”. His earlier appalling yet aesthetically appealing aerial images, showing the destruction of rainforests and their replacement by palm oil plantations, convey a similar message.

The beautiful photographic illustrations in this book (many spread across two pages) strengthen, but do not add to the environmental message carried by the original set of six images. The photograph of the pelicans becomes more of an “outlier” in this set and I wonder whether Beltrá took any other photographs presenting the environmental disaster from an alternative perspective. As time goes by and memories fade, this collection of photographs, beautiful as they are, will lose a lot of its power to persuade and to provoke change. Indeed, perhaps only the pelicans will remain to warn us of this example of the side-effects of man’s desire to control and dominate every aspect of the natural world. The essay by Barbara Bloemink emphasizes this point, using the history of the development of marine art to demonstrate how the balance of power between nature (the sea) and culture has shifted: where once we were in awe of the power of the sea, now we have the power to wound and damage it. Soon we will have the power to control every aspect of our environment, including the sea. However, by mistreating and neglecting this environment we will surely destroy the planet and take ourselves with it.

The photographs in this book demonstrate how a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing series of images can successfully raise the profile of serious issues within the public domain. Indeed, this approach could be more effective than the alternative of scaring us with images of destruction. The photographs are great to look at (and even better when witnessed in an exhibition rather than over two sides of an A4-sized book), but I am a little surprised that only one image, of the oiled brown pelicans, offers a different perspective on the tragedy. Is this an effective counterbalance to the aerial photos or, indeed, should it have been excluded from the book? I’m not sure.

Learning Points, Future Work and References

Finding ways of making documentary images aesthetically appealing often strengthens their interest. Beltrá produced a set of six images for the “Wildlife Photojournalist of the Year” award consisting of five aerial images and one of the oiled pelicans. The pelican image provided a strong counterpoint to the less challenging aerial images: I have noted this for my major project work. Objects (e.g. boats) that are very small within the frame can nevertheless be a dominant feature in a photograph, particularly when they are disturbing an abstract pattern.

Daniel Beltrá web site: http://www.danielbeltra.com/

Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Beltra

Book Details (Amazon):

 http://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Beltra-Spill-Barbara-Bloemink/dp/0957427247/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401313182&sr=1-1&keywords=daniel+beltra

Book Review: “Dominant Wave Theory” by Andy Hughes

I first came across the work of English photographer Andy Hughes towards the beginning of the current course, when I was looking for a suitable subject / topic for my major project. I had long thought about carrying out a project on the small strip of land around our coastline that is under water at high tide and exposed at low tide: a provisional project title was “between the tides”. During my research I discovered Hughes’ book “Dominant Wave Theory”, which consists of over 150 photographs of items of consumer waste set within a beach landscape. Having completed his training at art college Hughes moved to Cornwall in 1993, where he has photographed and surfed ever since. He was the first “artist in residence” at the Tate Gallery, St. Ives. Whilst surfing and also walking with his dogs along the beach he was exposed to human society’s flotsam. Rather than trying to ignore it he joined an organisation, “Surfers against Sewage” and also started to systematically photograph items of rubbish that he found on the beaches of Cornwall and (occasionally) around the world, where they were found, with sand, sea and sky as a backdrop. This book is the result of his labours.

There are many consistencies about Hughes’ images of beach rubbish. All are produced in square format, from ground level, with the rubbish on the (usually sandy) beach in the foreground, with sky and (sometimes) sea in the background. Occasionally out-of-focus people and other man-made objects can be seen in the background, but the (often colourful) rubbish is usually the dominant feature. In some images the subjects produce a simple geometric pattern; in other examples (as in the image below, which features a crushed and contorted empty blue bottle) a more complex shape is produced.

Andy Hughes

Hughes makes good use of dramatic natural lighting, but also uses artificial lighting to add to the drama and enhance form, colour and texture. Although photographed where it was found his rubbish appears to have been carefully arranged within its “micro-landscape” to produce maximum impact. The conformity of the square format images is occasionally broken by one of Hughes’ panoramic photographs of beach landscapes, spread over two pages. Whilst glass bottles (and particularly their bases) appear to be the most-photographed objects Hughes has found a huge variety of rubbish, including plant pot saucers and rubber balls, during his travels.

The photographs are accompanied by five short essays by different writers that place the work within its artistic and environmental context. By photographing his rubbish from ground level Hughes embellishes his objects with a kind of sculptural grandeur that belies their humble status. By combining the rubbish with attractive beachscapes in carefully lit situations he manages the seemingly impossible task of producing aesthetically pleasing images from a load of old junk. However, whilst this was an undoubtedly important aim for his six year (1999-2005) project the images are fairly and squarely targeted at raising awareness of the increasing damage to the earth’s environment that is being caused by man’s wastefulness and carelessness.

Hughes’ images work, both as a series of linked images (that would make a great subject for an OCA “major project”) and as a strong environmental statement. There is much to admire in the colours, shapes and textures of the subject matter, as well as the often dramatic landscapes within which they are planted. However, whilst many of the images are aesthetically pleasing in their own right it is the way they work together to deliver an environmental message that is most effective.

Learning Points, Future Work and References

The images in this book provide an excellent example of a portfolio of work which is consistent and aesthetically pleasing. In addition, the work carries an important message. The positioning of the subjects, the emphasis on colour, texture and form and the effective use of both natural and artificial lighting all add to the appeal of the images, which also work strongly together. All this has been noted as being of relevance to my major project work.

Andy Hughes web site with more images from the book: http://www.andyhughes.net/blog/?p=14

Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Hughes_(photographer)

Book details (Amazon) with customer review: http://www.amazon.com/Dominant-Wave-Theory-Andrew-Hughes/dp/1861542844