King Leopold II’s toy boat as a child

Cinquantanaire. Commissioned by King Leopold II also known as the “Builder King”.

Chinese Pavilion. Commissioned by King Leopold II initially as a Chinese restaurant.

Forêt de Soignes.

Leopold quarter. The quarter contains the European Parliament (with its building being known as the Espace Léopold)

Docks at Antwerp.

Reading room at the Ministry of Foreign Affaires. Location of the African archives.

Monument to the Fallen of the Belgian Colonial Effort.

Chocolate hands. Antwerp.

King Leopold II. Ostende.

Post 3

Post 2

Post 1

Alastair Thain

Assisting Alastair Thain

I wanted some experience working with 5x4 format so I got in touch with Alastair Thain who uses the same format cameras that NASA use to photograph the Earth from space. After using this huge camera my 5x4 doesn't seem quite so intimidating. 

The quality and detail you get with this camera is incredible. You can see just how big you can blow these images up without loosing any detail.

Alastair is a great photographer and is really supportive of young photographers starting out like myself. It has been a great experience and lots of fun.

www.alastairthain.com

Elephant post # 9

I wanted to focus on the regeneration work in the area and with the idea of quiet empty streets I decided to visit the regeneration team and photograph their 3D model of the future Elephant and Castle.

Elephant post # 8

                                                                                 I have found this Elephant project challenging having explored sound and testing my interview skills. I have found it difficult to illustrate the sound with images. With this in mind I have taken the project in a new direction. I have started to photograph Elephant and Castle early in the morning when there is no body around. Roads, subways, roundabout… places designed to facilitate lots of people and cars.

I really just missed taking pictures and love going out at 5:00am when the streets are quiet.

Elephant post # 7

Some residents from the Heygate estate which I interviewed in order to understand their “stories” about the regeneration in the area and how it will effect them. My intention was to incorporate this somehow into my audio walk and to illustrate the audio with images of the area afterwards.

Elephant post # 6: Work

Elephant post # 5

                                                                                                                                                     Some earlier photographs taken around the area

Major Project post 5: Flemish Painting- a closer look

Composition

To construct their picture space, they would use several zones of convergence, each with its own distinct vanishing point. They were particularly fond of setting their subject in a shallow architectural cube, within which they would place convex circular mirrors (see paintings by Van Eyck and Quentin Massey). These mirrors would gather and reflect dimensions of their surroundings that would otherwise go unseen, thus projecting and multiplying depth in complex ways.

Medium

The most original feature of Flemish art in that period, however, was not its method of spatial representation, but its use of oil-based paint. A technique which made possible tiny detail. It was this technical advance which lay behind the extraordinary flowering of the art of portraiture Flanders.  It also helped them both to portray the realties of everyday life, and to convey their theological message.

Themes

Themes were not usually selected by the artist themselves, but imposed by their clients.  Natural elegance and refinement, and it’s rich textures can be seen as the pictorial equivalent of the values of the European aristocracy.

A naturalism developed in Flemish painting in the early 15^th century

For example; Filippo Lippi is said to influenced by Flemish painting because he chooses, in Annunciation, to place the Madonna and child in a naturalistic, domestic interior rather than in an ideal or abstracted heavenly setting.

Scale

It was a large-scale art, that rose to the challenge inherent in its dimensions: but above all, it entirely superseded the essentially decorative approach of the miniaturists. Miniature work, by its very size, could only incorporate a few isolated details. Henceforth the subjects of art, although still predominantly sacred, would be approached in a comprehensively realistic manner. Painting was to be an art firmly rooted in the world. A pictorial revolution was born.

Portraits

No other school of painters had yet portrayed the face as the mirror of the mind with such precision, or modeled the contours of the skin so accurately.

Landscape

The introduction of landscape transformed the composition of great religious set pieces, such as Van Eyck’s “Adoration of the Lamb”.

Still life

At the end of the XVI century Antwerp masters developed the still life as an independent genre. Throughout the XVII century it spread from there to the north and became extremely popular. During this period several hundred Flemish and Dutch painters specialized in this genre, which produced countless masterworks of technical perfection and virtuosity. The early still lifes were not a casual (accidental) combination of objects, each item and each flower had its own symbolic meaning, and on the whole the ready painting was meant to say something important to the views. Unfortunately, we can’t read these symbols any longer, the symbols are often hidden from contemporary eyes.

Interior scenes like Van der Weyden’s “Annunciation” began to incorporate still life compositions.

With the still life painters, the golden age of Flemish and old Netherlandish painting came to an end. They were the last masters in an illustrious series of painters who set the tone for the art of northern Europe for two centuries without interruption. However, the prime of painting in the Netherlands was not yet over; the golden century had started, introducing the era of the Dutch masters.

Flemish Painting & Photography

In devoting themselves to the faithful copying of everyday life, their motive was always a spiritual one. For them, naturalism was itself a religious attitude, for they believed God to be present in every element of His creation. It was Jan Van Eyck who was to carry this passion for detail to its limits, even to the detriment of subjectivity and emotion, in both his major sacred compositions and his portraits.

I believe that had photography been available many of the Flemish painters would have been photographers. 

some examples

Major Project post 4

My subject matter, EU influences are relatively new institutions  which date from the second half of the 20^th Century, however,  they are set against a backdrop of a city which exhibits a wide cultural and historical past.  I have been deliberating, therefore, over how best to illustrate the past and incorporate that element into this project.

What I must be aware of is that although in recent history Brussels has become a city of importance and relevance by becoming the “Capital of Europe” this is not the only period in the World’s cultural history where Brussels has featured.  Between the beginning of the 15^th century to the 17^th century Flemish painting was of was flourishing and delivered to the world painters from Northern Europe such as Jan Van Eyck, Rogier Van der Weyden and Robert Campin.  Their paintings reflected a type of culture and social organisation very different from those prevalent today.  My aim is to refer subtly to this significant period of history and Belgium’s artistic importance throughout that time in this project.  I intend to do so by incorporating similar techniques to those used by my photography and by doing so hopefully I will be able to reflect the characteristic charm and social significance of these paintings.  I will start this task by analysing the Flemish painters’ use of lighting, colour, composition and narrative and applying these techniques to my own practice.