Scott Conorroe 1974 -

Conorroe is a Canadian landscape photographer with an eye for the diverse. In 2001 he received a BFA at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and an MFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2005. His work contains various series of images such as By Rail, By Sea and At Leisure. He has exhibited in several countries around the world besides Canada. He became one of PDN’s 30 emerging photographers in 2010.

His images appeal to me as I like the way he shows how humans interact with their environment such as an image which shows residential tower blocks alongside railways lines. None one of his images actually show humans in them, but the viewer knows there are there  His series entitled At Leisure contain shots of buildings which are usually very different types architecturally, whilst others in this series show recreational spaces in built environments that seem out of order, unfitting or just weird. A good example of this is an image which shows a large, empty area of concrete marked out with parallel lines while five tall, thin palm trees stand the middle looking completely out of place.

I can take inspiration from Conorroe’s work as I like the tones he uses in his work and how he can relay what he wants to say but without making it obvious. I feel I will be able to create similar images as in London there are plenty of buildings which contrast old and new designs close to each other.

MY MIND MAP OF INITIAL IDEAS AND INSPIRATIONS

William Henry Fox Talbot, "An Oak Tree in Winter." 1842 - 1843

William Henry Fox Talbot was one of a small group of individuals who experimented with light sensitive chemicals and optical devices in the 1830’s. He is fundamental to the birth of photography and was responsible for inventing an early form of photography that used paper for both the negative and positive print. Talbot’s ‘An Oak Tree in Winter’ is one of the first images to be fixed with a hypo (fixing agent) solution and represents a crucial development in the history of photography. In 1839 his process for fixing images on paper treated with silver chloride was made public. His original images, however, were fixed with a salt that did not actually remove the silver chloride. This left the image unstable and still sensitive to light. In 1841 he began printing more stable images by using hypo which removed all of the silver chloride. These produced a softer image often compared to drawings or watercolours and any number of prints could be produced from the negative.

Looking at the image of Talbot’s ‘An Oak Tree in Winter’ the first thing I see is a majestic oak tree that we know is shot in winter due to the tree not having leaves on it. I can sense that early morning feel which makes it comes across to me as peaceful and calm. However, giving the image more thought, I began to realise that the photographer was using this image to convey a meaning and this makes me completely different.

Talbot has chosen to centralise the tree in the shot to capture the whole width and so that the height of the tree is captured too. He has distanced himself just enough so that the branches and twigs on the branches are still clearly visible. The scene looks as though it has been shot early morning on a bleak day. The grey dismal sky is providing a perfect backdrop for the interesting shapes of the branches.

Talbot has told his story by making one tree the main focus of the image whilst smaller trees can be seen in the background. This gives the appearance of the tree being more powerful and stronger than the other trees. It could be that Talbot was trying to convey to the viewer that the individual, powerful tree represented an individual, powerful man – maybe Talbot himself or perhaps what was happening at that time politically.

I feel that Talbot has chosen this type of tree deliberately as the Celtic culture believed passionately that the oak represented strength and power. Living up to 200 years and having an enormous height and width would support this belief. The Celts were said to have had a thirteen-month calendar with a different tree represented each month. The seventh month was named Quercus which is the scientific name for the oak, and symbolised power, rulership, justice, honesty and protection. Talbot photographed this tree around 1842–1843 which was a time when these traits, especially power, were important to men.

During the time Talbot took the photograph there was a lot of unrest amongst the people of England as although the rich were getting richer, the working class were suffering great hardships. Trade Unions were beginning to voice their opinions on behalf of the people. Workers began to show their dissatisfaction by striking; the industrial revolution was well underway with various Acts of Parliament becoming law in favour of the workers. It was a time of the underdog at last being given power, which could account for Talbot’s image of the powerful oak tree rising up representing the power beginning to rise up from the people.