On a serious case of artist's block after seeing the work of Ai Weiwei

Writer's block

I have developed writer's block

I don't know what to say

Camber Clouds with no deep meaning

And underneath, the cause of this?


The art of Ai Weiwei

Dogs allowed from 1st October

His work is full of purpose


With meaning through and through


But I do random shooting....

 it's the best that I can do.

Interpret as you will

If you ask me for my meaning


I get tied up in knots;


It all gets rather heavy


And I seem to lose the plot.

Most times I take a picture


with no intent in mind


It just feels right to do so;


I'm not the arty (f****)  kind.



************

Enough said; hopefully I'll get over it soon.

And I have no regrets at all about seeing Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy.

It was so good that I am going to go back and see it all over again tomorrow.

sand in my eyes and wind in my hair - a summer storm rolls in at Camber Sands

dark clouds on the horizon

Last night I was home alone at Camber Sands on the hottest day of the year.

The TV was broken  ( thanks to 4G ) and I was internet free, so after a swim in the sea and a lie on the sand in the sun followed by  a shower and some food, the night was still young.

What to do?

Some grey clouds appeared at my window on what had been a cloudless day.

I decided to investigate with my camera, as the beach at sundown can be beautiful.

In the car park grey clouds appeared overhead and I climbed the dunes to see what was on offer.

From the top the colours were more reminiscent of the Hebrides and little people played on.

I sat down on a clump of marram grass and said hello to the flying ants. They persuaded me that I needed to go lower, down onto the beach.

Add caption

Some different clouds started appearing in the sky.

A family played on.

The clouds got bigger and bolder.

storm clouds arriving

I spent ages trying to capture a streak of lightening. I captured just one of the many flashes and streaks that hit the water.

lightening at Camber Sands

        

Suddenly it became clear that the clouds were moving really fast, and the seagulls were screeching as a strong wind came up.

There was a roaring noise and everyone started running towards the dunes.

time to run

As I ran up the dunes I wished that the sand blowing around me was not a problem for my camera, which had to be quickly put away.

I could barely see; there was sand in my ears, eyes and face whipping over the dunes towards the car park, and providing what one man happily advised me was a free exfoliation service. It hurt!

As I reached the top and over to the safety of the car park I saw the black clouds heading over Camber.

Storm clouds over camber Sands

I ran home and waited for the rain………

The moral of this story?

If you don't go out you won't get the pictures!

Thank you 4G.

Pillow talk and Equivalents; Stieglitz and clouds

I have just been introduced to Alfred Stieglitz's  'Equivalents'; a series created when his mother was dying, with the intention of showing that it was not , as had been suggested, the hypnotic power of Stieglitz over his sitters that created the power within his photography. By photographing clouds, over which he had no control and which are free to be experienced by anyone, he hoped to disprove this theory. I described one of my images of chaos in the woods as self expression. A friend repsonded with a mention of Steiglitz and his series of clouds.

Abstract cloud photographs were created with the described intention of allowing the viewer to experience the equivalent emotion to that which the photographer experienced.

What emotions does the image below convey? And how can I know what effect it will have on different viewers. The idea that the viewer will experience the same emotion as mine is not something that I would ever have considered to be likely.

bed © caroline fraser 2012

I know that I felt angry about this discarded mattress, and a desire to express my feelings about the littering of my favourite place; but what makes an image powerful enough to create equivalent emotions in the viewer? Surely it depends on who we are and what we believe.

And why didn't I feel the angry about the abandoned pillow that I described in an earlier post?

the abandoned pillow story

I followed the changes to a pillow left in the undergrowth. It remained there for several weeks just off the path where I walk dog. Through rain and snow it lay undisturbed, and then one day, just as quickly as it came, it was gone.

 I am fairly sure that the kind people who do litter picking will have removed it to a more appropriate place, but in a way I have missed it and the chance to consider why it lay where it did. Nestling in the ivy it had a certain beauty of its own. Despite my indignance that someone would abandon it in the woods, I came to enjoy the flights of fancy that it triggered as I trod through the mud. I was unable to feel anger, only thoughts about what words I might use to describe it's presence ....

a place to rest © caroline fraser 2012

Pillow talk




If I were to rest,


here,


in these woods,


my head on
cool cotton 
polka dot
remains of another's life


What dreams would ensue?
Would I dream differently?
What would I become?


Who would I be?


























It seems to me that it is unlikely that another passer by will experience an equivalent emotion on viewing this image of the pillow. Does that make the image less worthy? The untold story remains untold; we can only create our own stories from what we see.