Structure

After that little rant, here is what I have come up with to date (so you know I haven't completely gone off the handle and am crying in a fetal position on my bed)... it's pretty primitive and contains quite a few 'unknowns' but seems to be taking form.

Title: Unknown [previous title "The Texture of a Town"]

Abstract: the explanation of the relationship between
architecture - collective memory - storytelling - photography...
or is it...
collective memory - architecture - photography - storytelling?
And though it is linear, I can see how this can also become something cyclical

Images: My aim is for 60 images, organized in groups or on their own, no captions or explanations, only titles such as "Triptych #1 (train bridge)" or "Untitled #1 (Porch)"... whether or not I will be able to produce quite this many is still to be determined.

Quote: Overarching quote that combines all three ideas - photography, architecture & storytelling for the beginning of the thesis and then one on each topic at the beginning of each following chapter. Here is a possibility for the overarching quote:

• Even so, photography offers the possibility to freeze aspects of reality of architecture and light that might vanish when contemplated in the flesh. It is also true that through photographs fiction is greater, although reality might be more surprising (Elias Torres).

Introduction: We'll see....

Chapter 1 | Storytelling
Quote: Maybe from the storyteller or Bachelard (Bachelard my be far-fetched & not really pertinent)

• I was deeply moved by the thought of that being, those beings, in the unhealthy forests of eastern Cusco and Madre de Dios, making long journeys of days or weeks, bringing stories from one group of Machiguengas to another and taking away others, reminding each member of the tribe that others were alive, that despite the great distances that separated them, they still formed a community, shared a tradition and beliefs, ancestors, misfortunes and joys: the fleeting, perhaps legendary figures of those habladores who - by occupation, out of necessity to satisfy a human whim - using the simplest, most time-hallowed of expedients, the telling of stories, were the living sap that circulated and made the Machiguengas into a society, a people of interconnected and interdependent beings (Vargas Llosa, 93).
• [Fire] links the small to the great, the hearth to the volcano, the life of a log to the life of a world (Bachelard, Psychoanalysis of Fire).

Ideas: Narrative vs. Imagery, the importance/use of storytelling in history (not too anthropological), personal accounts (the theory of architecture as storyteller)

I would also like to include one or more stories from Eavesdroppings... maybe throughout this section would be a good place for it... or in the introduction, when speaking of storytelling and Galt and what not....

Chapter 2 | Photography
Quote: I am thinking either Szarkowski or Klein

• A picture is taken at 1/125 of a second. What do you know of a photographer's work? 100 photographs? Let's say 125? Well that's a body of work. That comes to all told one second. Let's say more like 250 photographs. That would be a rather large body of work. And that would come to two seconds. The life of a photographer, even a great photographer, as they say... two seconds (Klein, Contact).
• The function of these pictures was not to make the story clear, it was to make it real. (Szarkowski).

Ideas: Pattern, the struggle of narrative through photography, photography as marks, traces or footprints.

Chapter 3 | Architecture
Collective memory is included in this ... or should Collective Memory have a chapter all on its own? It seems to be the topic the binds all the others together.
Quote: Aldo Rossi on collective memory or permanence, maybe? I'm re-reading it right now, so we'll see... also this is clearly the most uknown chapter... surprise!

[I'm not sure if I will make these chapter titles any more.... profound, inspirational or descriptive.. for now I'm sticking with the simplicity of it all.]

Conclusion: I'll let you know when I know.

Addendum: If I manage to get an exhibition space for July, the plan is to talk to the people that come in and ask them if the photos make them recall any stories, events, memories etc. I would like to then include these stories in the back of the thesis along with a small image of the photo they are refering to. I would also like to inlude images of the exhibition... or is that too much?

Appendix: I am considering the idea of including my daybook, or excerpts from it, in this section. Perhaps a few photo 'constructions'. I'm not sure if this is necessary (or even beneficial) yet, so we'll see.

Any thoughts?

Formulating an Abstract + some Advice

Questions to help formulate an abstract:

• What am I doing?
• Why am I doing it?
• How am I doing it?
• What do I hope to find?
• What will the significance be?

What am I doing?
I am taking pictures of Galt.
The object of study can be the subject of study - architecture.

Why am I doing it?
I wish "Why not?" could count as an answer....
I am doing it because I want to take beautiful photographs. I want to explore the city and document it, find places that are poignant, unexpected (or expected), have something to say, or sit quietly in the background. I want to record history. There are a lot of "I want"s in this paragraph.. the simple answer really is, "Because I want to."

How am I doing it?
I am using a 35mm Pentax and a 120mm Mamiya, black and white film (100 speed) and developing the images in the darkroom myself. I wander around the town, trying to explore different areas and document them. I return to places I believe have character that perhaps I haven't been able to capture yet or places I would like to visit in various lighting conditions. There is no set way in how I explore the town. It's a bit of a meandering wander - I end up where I end up.

*In the last couple days as I have been posting negatives and other images on this blog, I have realized just how much time I have been, am now and will be devoting the actual enlargement of these negatives in the darkroom. Having gone through about 30 photographs in a matter of hours, touched up quickly, fixed scratches - it really made me look hard as to why I have decided to physically and manually (and painstakingly) develop my images. For now, my answer is - for the craft. It really is about the priviledge of being so closely involved with the images - of spending hours in a dark room perfecting each corner of a photo until it all comes together to form the final print.

What do I hope to find?
I'm not sure if there is anything in particular that I am looking for. I think the idea is more about bringing together a cohesive image or depiction of the town - by seeing photo after photo, I hope to take viewers on a walk through the town, follow in my footsteps and see (through my eyes) what I have seen.

What will the significance be?
This is the question I am having the most trouble with. In the grand scheme of things, this is not a redesign for the better of a city core.... or research into social housing and making the lives of people better. It is art for art's sake, as well as, being about the town. It is about presenting Galt to a greater audience and in a different light than perhaps it has been perceived in the past (see the last quote at the bottom of the post).

Advice
At my Mx reviews last fall, there were a couple quotes by the professors, during my crit and the one previous to it, which I wrote down. I can't remember who it was that said what, but some I remembered, so I credited.

About progress...
"become OBSESSED" Geoff
"Don't be good. Everything/everyone is a subject" Don to me
"Project the project forward - don't be meek. 'Here's my MASSIVE idea'"

About the outcome...
"What do I want the result to look like?" (work backwords)
"Who's work do you most wish your work could be like?"
"Which project do you most desire yours looked like right now?"
"This isn't your last project, it's your first project." Geoff

About titles...
"'Adaptive reuse' is a healthy meal. 'Wallowing in shit' is a feast!'" (Don)
"Think of a name you could put in italics"

My favourite quote was from Geoff, and it really hit home in terms of what I want to achieve:
"Tell the town what it has not seen of itself."

Why Photography?

From M3...

tex·ture [teks-cher]
noun, verb, -tured, -tur·ing.

–noun
1. the visual and especially tactile quality of a surface: rough texture.
2. an essential or characteristic quality; essence.
3. the quality given, as to a musical or literary work, by the combination or interrelation of parts or elements.

In photography, texture plays a vital role to the quality and composition of the image, just as pattern, light and tone do. And though it is obvious as to how photography helps capture the physical texture of materials, it may be less obvious as to how it captures texture as history.

I chose photography because of the inherent characteristic of a photograph as an index, a trace of the past. It is proof to the existence of something. Photography I believe is appropriate when studying the history of Galt, from its inception until the present time. The photograph allows me to capture solitary instants within the flux of time that when brought together provide the viewer with an aspect of time.

Previous Abstract

date | 13.02.09
working title | the texture of a town

Texture – more than just the tactile characteristic of a surface – refers to the multitude of facets contained within any one place, whether it is a single street or an entire city. The threads of history – success, tragedy, progress, development, industry – intertwine to create a story that solely and inherently belongs to that particular site. This texture of a place refers to “the quality given, as to a musical or literary work, by the combination or interrelation of parts or elements,” or more simply put, its essence.

Within the framework of the photograph, texture as tactile quality and texture as essence are unified. Through a historical, as well as, photographic investigation of the town and its history, this thesis attempts to tell the story of Galt, Ontario – from exponential growth and success, through neglect and decay to recovery.

This paragraph will be a quick description of the town’s history, starting from its beginnings almost 200 years ago, through impressive growth, producing top-quality materials for the war effort, textiles and machine parts continuing through to the implementation and success of the steam and electric rail.

Then it will mention post-war Galt and the closing of the rail system. It will finish with mention of the amalgamation with Preston and Hespeler in 1973 to create Cambridge, the official cessation of the existence of Galt.

A quick mention of improvement projects and businesses/ cultural institutions that have invested money in the area recently, such as the School of Architecture, Biennale etc.

The photographs contained within this work are not intended to pass judgment, but rather, to act as accompanying material in the narrative of how a mid-sized city in southwestern Ontario came to be.

“The photograph does not call up the past
(nothing Proustian in a photograph).
The effect it produces upon me is not to restore what has been abolished
(by time, by distance) but to attest that what I see has indeed existed.”
- Roland Barthes

I just want to take pictures

After five years of undergraduate study at the UW School of Architecture, the last thing I wanted to do for a Masters thesis was design a building. I figure/hope I'll be doing that for the rest of my life, anyway, so why not do something else I am passionate about, but have not really had time to pursue?

I began M1 in January 2008 thinking "I just want to take pictures" .... then I spent a year trying to justify WHY I was taking pictures, what it had to do with ARCHITECTURE and what it all meant. After a very confusing couple terms trying to figure what Barthes could have possibly meant by "cameras are clocks for seeing" and how photography is related to time and death, I find myself, once again thinking "I just want to take pictures".

So here I am, March 2009, a year and two months later, finally doing what I came here to do. This blog will serve as a way to share my work with you and for you to tell me, HONESTLY, what you think. I will post photos, written work, problems I am encountering. My photographs are taken with one of two cameras - a 35mm manual Pentax and a 120mm Mamiya - and I develop the negatives and do the enlargements myself.

My timeline for this thesis is nearing its end (say 3 months about?) so please enjoy your time here and check back often to see much progress! And, as will apply to each and every post, please don't be shy to tell my what you think.

a.