Theresia Brakenhielm

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The three images above are from Theresia Brakenhielm's book Stallflickor. The book contains a series of images in black and white that capture the spirit of the stable girl and from what I have seen of these images, they portray the life of a stable girl very accurately.

 

The first image on the left could look quite distressing to someone who isn't knowledgable about horses. The horse looks to be biting the girls head. His ears are pushed back, which is normally a sign of irritability in horses. From my own experience, this photo tells a different story. What you can't see is the girl could quite possibly be scratching the horses neck and the horse is grooming her back with his teeth. This is a sign of trust between the human and animal - something I hoed to shoe in my set of images for assignment five.

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I favour the second image over the three. It has an abstract look about it and is a close up view of the horse that is different to a generic photo which makes me understand why my tutor wanted me to look into Brakenhielm. She seems to have different way of looking at the horse and rider just like the look I was going for with my images. The horses eye is the most engaging part of the image for me. I always find a horses eyes mysterious and beautiful. You can tell a lot from a horses eye on how they are feeling. I then move over to the white hand upon the horses neck. There is a sharp contrast between the dark colourings of the horse and the white hand laid upon him, almost ghost like.

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The final image on the right is not too dissimilar in the way it has an otherworldly look about it. The rider looking through the window at the two stable girls and pony that have a supernatural glow around them. Again, this image takes on a distinctive way of photographing a subject and Brakenhielm has captured two viewpoints within the frame. The view through her camera shutter and the view of the stable girl through the window.

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Each of Brakenhielm's photos above are dark and full of contrast. The use of shadowing has given these images an eerie and almost haunted look but the way in which she photographs is not to dissimilar to my own set. Thinking outside the box and trying to get a different angle of horse and rider. There is a lot to explore in her images, they are full of detail and tell a story which makes them engaging and easy to pick apart.

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Our Forbidden Land

'Our Forbidden Land' is a series of work by photographer Fay Godwin who I touched on earlier in Expressing your vision. Fay Godwin is known as one of England's great walking photographers who is continually concerned for the well being of this country's land. The collection of photographs display her contempt for the privatisation of land. 

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'Our Forbidden land' exhibits the crumbling path ways of footpaths, sign posts against trespassing, barbed wire fencing and other barriers we come across in out country side. My set of images allude to such barriers, which my tutor picked up on. This has made me think whether I could include or change some of the images that refer a bit more to this kind of theme.

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Below are a few of my images that are relatable to Godwin's work. Some were not included in my original set of images.

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Each of the shots above contains a form of barrier, whether it be a 'private property' sign or an actual gate and fence. This reminds us that we are not as free as we think we are. There are more confinements in our world than we realise.

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Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was known for his conservation promotion of wilderness areas. He photographed landscapes in the American west and other protected areas. These places included Yosemite National Park where he would ultimately use these photos to promote awareness for environmental preservation. 

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Ansel Adams photographed a vast amount of landscapes with conservation and awareness in mind. I can see how my tutor could relate my work to his but for me I don't feel a connection to Adams work at this particular moment in time. Im sure in the future that could change but I feel that my assignment five set is much more responsive to that of Fay Godwin's work.

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