I created this book to express a journey that I took around Birmingham. I systematically recorded the journey by taking a photograph of my surroundings at 5 minutes intervals. The camera was angled upwards towards the sky, as this was my perspective throughout my journey. The book folds out to give the viewer a sense that they are entering into a different place and going on the same journey that I went on. This book has been selected for both the Tate Britain archive and the Regional College of Art archive. I have also used the same system and form to create a book based upon a journey in Edinburgh and I have sold copies of both books at various specialised artists’ books fairs.
After constructing my small 5 Minute Systematic Journey Book, I created a large-scale version. The idea behind this was to make the book more life size making the viewer feel as if they were actually at the places I photographed along my journey, also inviting them to interact with the piece as it obstructs their personal space.
Taking the ideas around my previous 5 Minute Systematic Book further, I chose to go on the same journey but document it in a different way. Rather than looking up, this time I took photographs looking forwards, backwards and to the left and right of me whilst standing in the same positions as I did to take my previous books’ images. I also made my own fish-eyed lens for the digital camera, which created three circular areas to express my surroundings. The fish-eyed lens effect creates the idea whereby it looks as though you are peeking out at the world that I was in.
Birmingham Cathedral is located in the centre of Birmingham. It is a beautiful structural form, which is so large that it is difficult to appreciate it all in one go. To communicate this idea I took a photograph looking upwards every 20 steps whilst walking around the Cathedral. When expressing the images in the book I included those which emphasised the idea of looking right and the left, leaving blank what was in the middle, inviting the viewer to put the pieces together and visualise what I saw.
Birmingham Cathedral is located in the centre of Birmingham. It is a beautiful structural form, which is so large that it is difficult to appreciate it all in one go. To communicate this idea I took a photograph looking upwards every 20 steps whilst walking around the Cathedral. When expressing the images in the book I placed the images towards the centre of the book and folded the pages to create a structural form. The folds are reminiscent of a steeple or spire of a cathedral or church. The book appears to tower up in its shape just as a building does.
These sets of accordion books were made around the idea of using the window of an underground train as a frame in which a composition could be placed. I used every stop as the system whereby I took a photograph of whatever appeared through the window frame at each stop. The images created were unpredictable and express my short tube journey. The images were random selections of billboards on the London underground, recreating an existing piece of design into a new design.I created a set of 5 books whereby I traveled across zone 1 along 5 different lines that I happened to use on a particular journey in London. The lines I used were the Northern Line, Central Line, Bakerloo Line, Victoria Line and Jubilee Line. I timed how long it took to get from each stop to the next, keeping the information within the book factual to put emphasis on my systematic approach, which adds interest to the unpredictable nature of the imagery that is formed as the outcome.
I went on a short walk and took photographs of the point at which the tops of buildings touched the sky every 3 minutes. This book expresses my quick journey, producing images that are totally unpredictable. I made this book from newsprint paper to represent the ‘grimeyness’ of the buildings and city around me, which adds to the experience of viewing this book.
I screen printed the negative spaces formed within the images from the Newsprint Horizon Book, putting emphasis on the hand-made qualities it creates, making the sky and details appear black and the buildings appear white. I wanted to express the same systematic journey in another form that was an abstract representation.
Using the images of the horizons that I used as the documentation of my walk in the Newsprint Horizon Book, I created a new city sky line by piecing the separate horizons together which had formerly been 3 minutes walking distance apart in my systematic recording. In creating a new skyline I have constructed a new place that does not exist.
This book was created whilst I was organising an event based upon the theme of ‘Creatures’. The event included an exhibition room where I displayed this Creature Book. The images created worked to a system whereby I took a 15 minute walk on a sunny day with a friend. We stopped at every shadow we came across on our journey and I photographed the image of my friends shadow merging with the existing shadow on the ground. This system transformed the shadows into creature-like forms. The large-scale sizing of this book adds to the sinister nature of the images, as they appear larger and life-like.
This set of 8 books conveys a walk I went on to Birmingham Cathedral. I photographed every signpost I passed along the way and in addition to this I angled my camera in the direction of each arrow on each particular signpost, expressing the space around me. I came across 7 signposts on the way. The last book folds out to reveal a full image of Birmingham Cathedral, which was my final destination.
