Projects and Stories
Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.
This week I thought I would delve into my new project and give you an idea of how I go about developing ideas for a new body of work. The project is just beginning and my ideas still evolving but I thought it might be interesting to document my journey from the start. I plan to write about my progress as the project develops and will be sharing something on this topic at least once a month. I hope you will find the subject interesting and my thought process and approach useful.
My project will focus on an area of coastline that lies about 2 miles from my home. It is somewhere that I have easy access to and is somewhere I know well, although I am sure I will discover plenty of new things as I explore over the course of the year.
The body of work I produce will be my story of this place, a place I have been returning to and photographing for years. It is a wild landscape shaped by the sea, a site of special scientific interest and a haven for wildlife. It is also a small but thriving community, a place that has become popular with holiday makers, wild swimmers and photographers. Perched on a sweeping bay at the edge of the North sea this is a transient landscape that is continually evolving and this is what makes it fascinating. As the place changes, so do its stories and this is what I plan to focus on with my image making.
But where do the stories of this place begin? On the beach where the water meets the land, scouring the shingle and depositing treasures from the deep? On the far distant horizon where the mist lies and the grey water obscures an ancient, forgotten land once home to our ancestors? Or in the row of houses that form a dividing line between the shingle ridges and the grazing marsh beyond?
I regularly see photographs of this place for it has become very popular with photographers who like to explore its shingle ridges, its wide open skies and its little cottage on the edge of the sea. But often the images I see don’t really scratch the surface of this place. They depict the same views and are taken from the same vantage points and that is all fine, (I have done it myself many times - image below) but now I want to delve deeper and discover the real story behind this little hamlet on the edge of the North Sea.
So where and how do I start? Well I figured the best place was just to get out with my camera, with no preconceived ideas and react to whatever caught my attention. Beginning any new venture can be difficult and sometimes the starting is the hardest part. Once you begin you create a momentum which can often be enough for a project to succeed.
On my first day out the wind was blowing, the sky was grey and there were frequent blizzards of sleet and snow. I also forgot my gloves which made photography more difficult than it needed to be!
The principal element that shapes this location is the sea so it seemed fitting that my first outing should focus on that, even though on a grey day it can look decidedly unattractive.
I have recently come across the work of Shetland based artist Ruth Brownlee who’s beautiful paintings depict the rugged seascapes around Shetland where she lives. Her work is very emotive and elemental often portraying stormy conditions and it is her ability to communicate this raw energy that really resonated with me. Her images inspired me to see what I could do with the camera and these are a few of the results.
All four images were taken on very windy days, but the first two were taken in blizzard conditions and the second two were taken before the sun came up on a very windy but perfectly clear day. I am not sure they have the same raw elemental mood as Ruth’s images but I like the colour pallet and the painterly effect.
Thoughts and project planning
I feel that the sea forms the basis of the story I want to tell with this project. It has shaped the coastline throughout history and continues to do so every day. But it has also shaped the lives of the people who live here and the wildlife that has made a home amongst the shifting shingle. It is undoubtedly a harsh environment but it is a beautiful one too and it is these contrasts that I am looking to depict. It is in these transitional zones where the stories are born.
This image was taken on the tideline and I feel it portrays multiple stories in one frame, perhaps posing more questions than answers and that is why I find it compelling. There are stories everywhere if we just look for them and uncovering some of them on this small stretch of coastline is what my project is all about.
Advice to get started
Read lots. Read about the location you want to photograph, online and in books and find out the background story. This will often inspire ideas and things you can go on to explore with the camera. Read other writing too that might have a loose connection to the subject or place. It’s amazing how many ideas can be inspired from articles that may not seem immediately relevant.
Leading up to this project I have read a few books which have really shaped my thinking and these include:
Tim Miller - Life on the Edge and Shingle Street Reborn
Blake Morrison - Shingle Street ( A collection of poems, my favourite being the Ballard of Shingle Street)
Julia Blackburn - Timesong, Searching for Doggerland.
Christopher Stocks and Angie Lewin - The book of Pebbles
Dorthe Nors - A Line in the World, A Year on the North Sea Coast.
Spend time in the landscape observing. Get to know your location intimately and ideas will start to flow based on what you find and connect with.
Get out and take photos. I try not to get too hung up on preconceived ideas and pre planned images. I like to try and react to what I find. Obviously if you are taking photos for a planned story you will need to give the storytelling some thought but I find that getting out regularly and taking photos will yield images that I may not have thought of initially.
Experiment and explore ideas inspired by other artists. I get inspiration from lots of different sources. There is a lot we can learn from following other artists on social medial, particularly painters and how they incorporate light into their work. Don’t dismiss other mediums as being irrelevant to photography - everything we look at has a chance of inspiring something within us.
Pick an idea for a project based on something that you love. Choose a subject or place that you feel passionate about. If it’s a place pick somewhere you can access easily, and find something about it that you want to explore. Ultimately for a project to be successful it needs to inspire in you an enthusiasm that you then feel compelled to share with the world.
My final piece of advice I took away from Alastair Humphrey’s book Local. When you are out in the landscape slow down, pay attention, look for the stories and research everything. There are stories everywhere and if you really look you never know what you will find or where they might lead you.
Thank you very much for reading and until next time, enjoy your photography.
Gill
This is another very interesting and thought-provoking piece Gill, thank you. Thanks too for the Alistair Humphreys Local book recommendation. I bought it after reading your piece last week and have hardly put it down! I will be very interested to see how your work at Shingle Street develops. I love the place too but find myself too often taking the predictable images.
A very interesting post Gill and another fine set of images, I am particularly drawn to the first one, it’s very painterly. Your project sounds just perfect, you’re very lucky to have such a beautiful stretch of coastline so local to you. Your article has given me that motivational kick to get on with my own local project, tentatively started last year, but left to simmer over the past couple of months. You give wise advice about doing background research on place, it’s so important and certainly gave me ideas on various approaches I can take at the time…I also found that learning about the history of the site inspires ideas as well as being fascinating. Good luck with your project, I’ll look forward to seeing how it progresses and changes over the coming months.