stage one complete

Stage One of A Day in the Light took place in Westport, Co. Mayo on the 28th July 2009.  10 workshoppers gathered for an introductory session on Monday 27th.  Participants shared images they have found inspirational and discussed ways in which the light and movement of the town might be mapped through photography.  After a walking tour of the town the group established their hq at McGings bar.

Sunrise was at 5.25am and sunset at 9.46pm.  

True to the character of the west of Ireland, the weather and light altered rapidly and drastically during the day, from dry and bright to overcast and wet, ending with a fantastic show of sunlight in the late afternoon and evening.

Each workshopper arrived at a method of work, ranging from a single view repeatedly photographed through regular time intervals, to shifting views, to the stalking of people on their smoking breaks.  No ray of light or pool of shade was left unexplored.

The sight of 10 photographers patrolling the town over 17 consecutive hours gave rise to plenty of discussion and there is now huge interest in the outcome of the now what? project in the town.  It is confirmed that the results of the workshop will be exhibited in the Westport Arts Festival in October, as well as in Dublin and Cobh.

With hundreds (possibly thousands) of images gathered it remains to be seen in Stage Two how these recordings will be edited, overlaid and manipulated to produced 10 pieces of work reflecting one day in the light.

Each workshopper will post their favorite image on this blog over the coming week or two.

the view from inside

Jeff Wall, A view from the apartment 2004-2005

Transparency in a lightbox 1670x2440

Source: www.tate.org

This is Jeff Wall's most recent work. The appearance of a mundane moment caught in time is a deliberate artistic device; in fact the shot took months to organise and set up. Of interest in the context of the workshop is how the view outside is captured. We often think of urban space as that space which is understood while moving through it, while in fact a greater amount of time is spent in observing the space of 'outside' from the interior spaces of the home, workplace, school etc

streets

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Untitled (Thousand) 980, Polaroid

Source: http://www.davidzwirner.com/

Philip-Lorca diCorcia is a photographer interested in documenting the relationship between people and the exterior spaces of the city. diCorcia's work method is to seek out a camera station point based on careful observation of a particular street, its light conditions and the potential for the movement of people through it. He then waits for the unpredictable element of the work to 'happen', that is, for people to move in and out of frame. The resulting works tend to portray urban landscape threaded by the movement of people going about their daily routines, but often subconsiously distracted as they negotiate and think their way through space. This photograph was part of the exhibition Thousand, comprising a selection of polaroids taken over almost twenty five years.

workshoppers

Alice
Amy
Ciara
Claire

Eoghan

Fiona

Lisa
Nora

Orla
Paul

programme for stage one

simon j kelly & partners studio space

Monday 27th July
1630 Meet at offices of simon j kelly & partners.

1630-1800 Introduction to the workshop.
We would like everyone to submit one digital image to us by email, which we will compile into a powerpoint slideshow for this session, so that all workshoppers can have an input and give us an idea of their area of interest.

If anyone is arriving by train, the 1240 from Heuston arrives in Westport at 1620. The office is located directly across the road from the station.

2000 Meet at the Octagon.
After finding your bed for the night and some food, we'll meet for a walk of the town, so that you can get your bearings and think about where and what you might photograph.

2100 McGing's bar on High Street

Tuesday 28th July
Dawn to dusk. Each particpant works solely (or in groups) to capture the movement of light, people and time during a single day in the town. Dawn is around 0530 at the moment and dusk around 2200.

2230 Meet afterwards at McGings bar on High Street

Wednesday 29th July
1000 Meet at Nicola's cafe for breakfast and review.
Any missing information can be gathered before the 1310 train departure.

Its worth thinking in advance about the settings for image file size and quantity of images you might need to generate, so that you have adequate memory storage cards. Obviously if you are borrowing a camera, practice using the settings in advance so that you are fairly comfortable with manual depth of field, aperture, shutter speed settings etc.

Here's a link to a map of Westport with all the above locations pinpointed on it.

sandymount collage

These studies of Sandymount Strand in Dublin are the work of architect and photographer Alice Clancy. The space of the strand is captured over 6 hours. Alice set up a vertical grid over a 180 degree angle of view and with each vertical segment capturing 15 degrees of view. Each segment is then divided in vertically in 4. A full set of images was taken every 10-15 minutes, using the fixed camera settings: f4.0, 1/60 sec, ISO 100. The final panorama was then constructed from the base images. Each vertical slice represents about 30 minutes of time, while horizontally, the images represent 6 hours passing. There are 60 images in the piece each taken with a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second, so the overall time encapsulated in the image is 1 second.

Alice's blog, Space Framed, which she created for a UCD seminar on photography is a great source of reference.

looking

The photographs are the work of American photographer Lee Friedlander. The role of the observer is captured and played with. The artist is the viewer but simultaneously, other actions of observation are taking place.

a day in the light

Westport, Co. Mayo 27th, 28th, 29th July
UCD, Dublin 10th, 11th, 12th August 2009

'a day in the light' is one of a series of workshops forming part of the now what? UCD architecture summer school during July and August 2009. The aim of the workshop is to explore the changing interaction of time, light and space through the medium of digital photography, using the contemporary Irish town as its subject.

Stage One of the workshop takes place in Westport Co. Mayo. We plan to invade the town of Westport and record it from dawn to dusk of a single day. Workshoppers will gather photographic raw material which will form the basis of a final piece of work to produced in the second stage.

Stage Two of the workshop will follow, two weeks later, in Dublin. Using digital manipulative techniques the raw images will be refined into a final piece of work.