Andrew Smith's Steel Soul

I mentioned Andrew Smith's Steel Soul earlier and because the project is so much a labour of love, a labour that emerges from a fascination with something that is out there in the real world, I put a few questions to him.

It also gives me an excuse to run a few more pictures; the one above is by Andrew Smith and the ones below are by some of the great industrial photographers; Maurice Broomfield, Walter Nurnberg and Wolfgang Sievers. 
 
Buy the book here. 

Where did you get your passion for industrial photography.

I think that it developed over a couple of years.

The first photobook that I ever bought was Robert Adams 'The New West'. I've no idea why I was browsing  the book shop shelves that day, as at that time I had a quite undeveloped interest in taking photographs.  The book was face out, and the simplicity, starkness, and strangeness of the cover just grabbed me. I bought it,  even though it seemed a bit hostile at that time. That book made me realise just how creative an outlet photography  could be.

This is where I first encountered industrial subjects, beautiful industrial subjects. This in turn led me to
the New Topographics, then onto the Bechers, John Davies, and then Maurice Broomfield, Wolfgang Sievers, Walter Nurnberg. I made the connections via the books and Internet searching etc.

During this period of time I also made the transition from point and shoot compacts to a DSLR setup. I think it was the 2nd   compact that I owned that let you get into the the manual controls easily, that really pushed me to get a DSLR.   Once the DSLR arrived I went out landscaping, I would just photograph anything, but one day I found an enclosure out  in the countryside that contained some kind of gas facility. I'm not really sure what it's actual function is to this day.  But that is definitely how it all started.



How did you make Steel Soul?

Steel Soul came about through a succession of pieces of good fortune.

The east end of Sheffield, the Lower Don Valley, is the area where the heavy steel industry was established, where it  grew to it's peak, and where it was eventually decimated. The area has been regenerated, so now there are the usual  drive-to leisure destinations, office space, retail parks, malls etc, but if you get out there and poke around industry past and present is visible.

In 2009 I took a lot of photographs there and made a hand bound book called 'Valley, that was now, this is then'. I got to  exhibit a number of these photographs in a disused shop window in the center of Sheffield. A curator who was putting together a group exhibition that was looking at how industry had changed the architectural face of Sheffield saw the work. I was asked  to contribute. The images that I hung were 3 nearly sequential photographs, a trilogy, of the buildings on one part of  Forgemasters site. The chief executive of Forgemasters became aware of the photographs, and his PA rang me to arrange a
meeting. At the subsequent meeting I was invited on-site to photograph the steel manufacturing processes.



Who are your influences?

I think my visual influences are many really, and not all are photographers, and sometimes it may be just a particular work or book. Things shift around,  there is so much to discover. I like Walter Nurnberg (Men and Machines), Wolfgang Sievers, Gerhard Richter's landscapes, Stephen Shore, Luigi Ghirri,  Gabriele Basilico, Vermeer, Robert Adams, Paul Morrison, Eric and James Ravilious to name but a few. I also like a number of the Cafe Royal books  that have been published recently.



What are the characteristics of great industrial photography?

I like industrial photography that has some intrigue. I like to look at what is being presented and to not initially have much of a clue as to what I am   looking at, or why I'm being required to look at it. I think the not knowing what, but being somehow fascinated, is testament to the skill of people like   Broomfield, Nurnberg, and Sievers. Of course we always find out eventually due to the text. I wanted to see if I could achieve a little of this with Steel Soul,  hence the separation of images and text (the simple descriptions are in a table near the end of the book). Perhaps the opposite of what I am trying to describe  are the images typically found in corporate literature, but these images are functional and documentary by their nature, and neccessary, and often beautiful.



How did Steel Soul get funded and published?

Steel Soul at the present time has 2 elements, the book and the exhibition. The exhibition, in the Sheffield Winter Garden, finishes on 15/06/13.  The exhibition was very generously funded by the Arts Council as it was a part of the Sheffield Galvanize festival of contemporary metal. This is a bi-annual festival that encompasses all the metalworking traditions within the city - cutlers, jewellers, silversmiths, heavy industry. This year is the centenary of the discovery of stainless steel in the city by Harry Brearley, so the festival has seen quite a lot of focus.

The Steel Soul book was funded and published by myself. Forgemasters have licensed a number of the images, this allowed me to finance the production of the  book. It's the 3rd book under my BYMYI imprint, the 2 others being 2 editions of the Vélo book that accompanied the Vélo project last year.



How will you continue the steel project?

I'm hoping to develop Steel Soul into a set of documents over time, so 'Steel Soul...photography from xxx'. We will see. I'm hoping that the Forgemasters  work may open a few doors and lead me to some new industrial subjects. I do have a few places in mind. I also have a number of other non-industrial projects
at various stages of development...although some do have an industrial element.


How do you find your work?

Steel Soul developed due to the good fortune previously described, but I suppose that most of the time the work finds me through what's going on inside my head.   For instance, the Vélo project came about from a combination of reading Tim Krabbé's book 'The Rider' many years ago, and then fantasising about my ideal of the ideal cycling photobook whilst out cycling one day. Ideas can come from what I'm reading, looking at, or listening to, people I meet etc.

Mark Hilton's Home Made 20 x 16 camera

I saw this on Source Magazine's website  (Congratulations Briony Oates) and was blown away and intimidated at the same time by Mark Hilton's home made camera - Miroslav Tlichy it is not.

I can think of a million different reasons why I don't build my own 20x16 camera, but I am still hugely jealous of somebody who has done so - and knows how to use it so beautifully.

Here's how he did it.

This is what Mark Hilton says about his work (and the 20x16 is the work)

I designed and built a 20x16" ultra-large-format camera that exposes onto direct positive black and white paper. It came about through a determination to find a far more involved way of creating photographs, inspired by the craftsmanship of early photography. It is also an exploration of trying to create a unique object, each photograph produced is individual and un-reproducable.

The photographs themselves are inspired by early romanticism, exploring the inner thoughts of an individual rather than trying to create a direct representation of the outer.

From Clare Strand to Eric Clapton in 3 Easy Steps

So I was writing about Clare Strand's Skirts series for the BJP (which I really like, especially after talking to her and seeing how they tie in to her other work and her particular way of working - which is organic and mysterious!)  and somehow I started imagining that the skirts look like cupcakes and chocolates.

That got me thinking about chocolates and then I started singing Savoy Truffle by the Beatles - so I googled that and suddenly I'm into Good News chocolates, which my nan ( that's her above, second from the left, on a temperance March in Chorley ) n used to buy me when I was a kid because they weren't as pricey as Milk Tray and they came in smaller boxes. They were a kind of starter chocolates.

And they are also what Eric Clapton used to eat - that's what the song is about. That's why they have the bit about having teeth pulled out, something that resonates both with me and my nan, who had them all pulled out when she was 20, as you did.

So there you have it. From Clare Strand to Eric Clapton in 3, 4 easy steps with a bit of dental history along the way. 

Crème tangerine and Montelimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
A coffee dessert, yes, you know it's good news
But you have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

Cool cherry cream, nice apple tart
I feel your taste all the time we're apart
Coconut fudge really blows down those blues
But you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

You might not feel it now
When the pain cuts through
You're going to know and how
The sweat is going to fill your head

When it becomes too much
You'll shout aloud

You'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

You know that what you eat you are
But what is sweet now turns so sour
We all know Ob-la-di-bla-da
But can you show me where you are?

Crème tangerine and Montelimar
A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
A coffee dessert, yes, you know it's good news
But you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle
Yes, you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

Andrew Smith, The Tramshed, Industry, Cardiff and Sheffield

There are any number of new photography festivals springing up around the world, but for atmospheric new venues there can be few places better than the Tramshed in Cardiff, part of the first Diffusion, Cardiff International Festival of Photography. 

This was the home for both Geoff Charles' Structures of Feeling (see above) and The Valleys Represented - an exhibition that had wonderful photography from lots of fabulous people connected with Newport (including Peter Bobby's High Rise - which manages give British tower blocks the Julius Shulman treatment).

 In the industrial setting, however, I was hugely taken with Maurice Broomfield's large prints. I was struck by how dynamic and theatrical they were, workers acting out for his immaculately lit picturesin the perfect setting.

A couple of days later I was contacted by Andrew Smith, who has made a book called Steel Soul - a book inspired in part by the great industrial photographers of the 1950s (more of whom before the summer shutdown).

Here are a couple of pictures from his Steel Soul, a work that is based on Smith's passion for steel, industry and the history of industry in Sheffield, the city where Steel Soul was made.

Alison Rossiter's Lament and Paper Packages

So the basic story of Alison Rossiter's Lament is they are a series of found  and chemically created images made from old papers that Alison bought on ebay.

That is the basic story, but within that story there lies a social, cultural and economic history that has echoes of the technological and aesthetic developments of photography in the first half of the twentieth century.

The story of finding and buying the papers is also fascinating,the packages the papers are contained in so beautiful and evocative of a different time and approach to the production of the photographic print, one that is slower, more considered and in keeping with Alison's background in both conservation and the darkroom, part of a photographic subculture where material, chemistry and tonality take centre stage.

Alison's work will be on show in Arles. Below are some of the paper packages on their way to a show at Marian Goodman in Paris - absolutely beautiful and all bought from ebay.

McCoy Wynne's Triangulation

I love maps and I love photography, so when you get a mapping project such as McCoy Wynne's (made up of Stephanie Wynne and Stephen McCoy)Triangulation, I know I'm on to a winner - especially when the project is so rigorous and ambitious in its outlay.

For Triangulation, McCoy Wynne are going to photographically map the triangulation points used to map the UK. It's a simple idea and one that resonates geographically - I can see the trig point on Solsbury Hill from my house - a place that my daughter always climbs and jumps off when we walk up there (like this... complete with light leak).

I saw McCoy Wynne's pictures online and then met Stephen McCoy at Liverpool Look 13 so I decided to ask the partnership a few questions - which they answered.

What is a triangulation point?

Triangulation points are concrete pillars built as a base for measuring theodolites and referencing lights. We are concentrating on the 314 "primary" triangulation points built between 1936 and 1962 by the Ordnance Survey for the "Retriangulation of Great Britain". Over 6,000 secondary triangulation points also exist.

Many people mistakenly think the function of the triangulation (trig) point is to mark the highest point of hills, but the trig points are placed in positions where at least two other points can be seen in order to form triangles for accurate measurement. An accurate base line was established ( a story in itself) and from this a system of triangles enabled surveyors to make very precise measurements of distance - essential to map making. 

The realisation that accurate maps were necessary coincided with the Enlightenment in the early 18th century - the move away from religion towards scientific method and measurement (Age of Reason) - and a recognition that error-free maps gave advantages to the user, whether they be the military, trade and the transport infra-structure, or road builders.

When did you get the idea for the project?  

We intend to photograph all 314 primary triangulation points from the Shetland Isles in the furthest North-Easterly reaches of Britain to the Scilly Isles in the south-west.

We have been interested in representations of the landscape for many years and have produced sets of work that deal with different aspects of interactions of people and the land. We began to think about mapping and the relation of abstract map view with the reality of terrain. The trig points were an obvious landmark, but we didn't want to just produce another typology collection of these pillars. We decided to use the trig point as a base for the camera and we placed the camera and tripod on top of the trig point. We formulated the idea around the same time as we started the project - about 3 years ago. 

Although we did try other options ( eg: photographing the cardinal points of the compass), we decided that 360 degree panorama was the most valid response to the visual experience of reaching the trig point.

Why is it an interesting project?

The viewpoint is predetermined by the position of the trig point and this reduces the aesthetic decision-making. Notions of what makes a good photograph, which are heavily effected by cultural and educational background, and compositional choices, are reduced. The viewpoint is not randomly chosen but was essential in the mapping of Great Britain.

The method allows us to move away from pictorial or romantic representations of the landscape into more descriptive typology. However, by combining the view of the trig point with the 360 degree panorama taken from the trig point, the visual significance is enhanced. 

The work will provide a comprehensive survey of the British landscape and deals with representations of the landscape, the layering of history, land use, ownership and boundaries.  

The project deals with aspects of mapping and even though the locations of the pillars is well documented, there is still a heightened sense of exploration and anticipation based on the uncertainty of access, weather conditions and the disparity between “the real” and the “abstract” of the map view. The final image is a further abstraction, creating a linear, ribbon like, prospect. The linear characteristic of the image relates to different map projections. We are all familiar with the aerial map of the Ordnance Survey, but some earlier maps are linear and based on routes and track ways, such as the Roman ‘itinerarium’, that shows the Roman road network from Europe to India as a single ribbon.

The work in the exhibition is a selection from those 30 trig points we have photographed so far, but we feel the effect of the work will grow as more trig points are photographed. The power of the work depends on how the varied landscape is unified by being portrayed as a series of strips.

The display of the work will also provide interest because we intend to display the photographs region by region in a relevant venue.

Techniques of mapping improved as technology improved. The majority of the pillars are no longer used in mapping, having been superseded by GPS, but those that can be accessed have become totemic as markers in the landscape. Many people use them as a target for their walk, as ‘touchstones’ on reaching their goal.

Photography is also linked to technology and we have fully embraced digital technology in the production of this work.

How long is the project going to continue?

We have to balance earning a living from our commercial photography practise with this personal project, so although we would like to instigate a more systematic procedure this will be difficult without any financial support. Therefore, we are not imposing any time constraints on the project. We will continue until we have finished even if it takes ten years to complete. Unfortunately the trig points are no longer maintained and some may disappear in the near future.

What are the challenges?

Time, money, travel, weather, access, sore knees. All technical problems have been solved. Fortunately, not all trig points are in remote places and long walks can be offset by some trig points being within a 100 yds of a car park. 

What does the project say about the UK

In one sense it is for other people to decide what it says about the UK, but ...Although we are perceived to be an overcrowded island we have been struck by the lack of people when we are out on the hills of Britain. However, these areas show evidence of the use of land by people over centuries, the layering of history. Often  the hills were used  as forts, lookouts, beacons etc. Modern water towers and communication masts have sometimes overlaid these historical uses. The hilltops use for surveillance, survey and measurement of the land, places them as integral to the structure of land ownership and control.

It also says something about the systematic nature of applied science existing in Britain at the start of the mapping of the country. Our current 'applied science' of satellite technology has and continues to extend survey and surveillance.

There is also an exhibition of some of the Triangulation pictures on show at The Cornerstones Gallery, Liverpool Hope University, Creative Campus, 17 Shaw Street, L6 1HP, from 7th June until 29th September 2013 as part of Look13 Photographic Festival. Two other photographers, Kevin Casey and Stephen King will also be exhibiting and the photographers are collaborating with three writers.

McCoy Wynne have been working with writer and journalist Kenn Taylor http://kenntaylor.wordpress.com/, his written piece will be displayed alongside their work.

Richard Mosse: Not Boring or Trite

I never liked Richard Mosse's infrared pictures of Congo. I always felt the pictures never quite matched up to the statement, that it didn't quite do what it said on the tin.

At the same time, it was one of those projects that everyone loved (reactionary opinions including my own opinion don't count in this paragraph). So much so that it was almost sacrilege not to like it. In film terms, it would be like saying you think Distances Voices, Still Lives is boring and trite, or that Apocalypse Now is the biggest load of guff going or that Stalker is, oh dear, what, let's use boring and trite again.

But Mosse's infrared film, The Enclave, looks amazing from this clip of the installation that will be shown at the Venice Biennale. I especially like the posturing of the rebel soldiers. Posturing and soldiers go together so well  and it is refreshing to see war broken down to its basics infantilism - a huge change from the rhetoric of heroism, bravery and sacrifice that we are so often presented with both verbally and visually.