A photographic celebration of the Derby Makers needs your help
gryf...@hotmail.com
Hi all,
I spoke to a few of you on Wednesday about this and hopefully a group of you will want to take part. A photographer, Tim Mitchell, would like to create a portrait of you all next Wednesday 20th July. I'll leave it to him to explain it much better (and in far more detail) than I could but I hope some of you will want to get involved and celebrate the brilliance and ingenuity of your marvellous group!
Hope to see you next Wednesday.
All best,
Gemma
So,
I’m one of the creative partners on the Open University’s Stories of Change project.
"The project aims to help to revive stalled public and political conversations about energy by looking in a fresh way at its past, present and future. The project stems from the cross-party commitments to decarbonisation that sit at the heart of the UK Government’s Climate Change Act (2008). It draws on history, literature, social and policy research and the arts to encourage a more imaginative approach to current and future energy choices. Stories of Change is a collaboration between the Open University, the Universities of Bath, Birmingham, Exeter, Sheffield and South Wales, and the arts organisations TippingPoint and Visiting Arts.
Here’s the beta site for the whole project:
Here’s the current blog for the Derwent strand of the project:
https://storiesfutureworks.wordpress.com
The Future Works strand of the project is based at the University of Sheffield and will uncover accounts of the relationship between energy, industry and landscape in the English Midlands and Derwent Valley region. Future Works is sparked by popular interest in industrial heritage and landscape, as well as widespread concern about the future of energy, work and making, in a region that has good claim to being the hearth of industrial manufacturing. It will gather communities together at a series of factory sites in or near the Derwent Valley to develop accounts of past, present and future energy system changes as they affect the workplace.
The project will forge connections with three distinctive communities that have been under-recognised and under-researched in relation to energy debates: apprentices (through SMEs, factories and research centres); employers and employees (through unions, the Chambers of Commerce and businesses); and volunteers (through industrial heritage and museum organisations). The research team together with its Project Partners will work to develop energy stories with the three communities (both past accounts, present experiences and future projections). We aim to invite a sense of shared ownership of the dilemmas and choices faced by a range of present-day industries large and small.
As a photographer, I’m interested in finding ways to visually represent the people and places of the current Derwent ‘energy landscape’ and to load these images with symbols and evidence of past and future Derwent, layered into the photos.
I see the Silk Mill and the Derby Makers as representing and re-evaluating the past, present and future of the Derwent region.
With this in mind I would like to try and make a playful but technically challenging portrait of some of the Makers (whoever is happy to partake) in the style of Joseph Wright’s 'A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery' painting and others with similar single, central and partly hidden light source:
A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Philosopher_Lecturing_on_the_Orrery#/media/File:Wright_of_Derby,_The_Orrery.jpg
An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Experiment_on_a_Bird_in_the_Air_Pump#/media/File:An_Experiment_on_a_Bird_in_an_Air_Pump_by_Joseph_Wright_of_Derby,_1768.jpg
These are atmospheric painting which reference the technological enlightenment of the times. An obvious connection with Silk Mill and Derby Makers!
The resulting portrait would then be used within the Stories of Change project, hopefully accompanied by some text by or about the Derby Makers.
That would be on the website and in the project book publication.
I will bring my photographic flash lights to light the scene atmospherically (central hidden light, lighting faces and another subtle light on the workshop background) but I am happy to collaborate with the Silk Mill and the Makers in deciding the narrative, composition and technology visible within the shot.
When I originally discussed the idea with Daniel and asked “What from the collection or the makers could we use to create an updated version of the Orrery with it’s central light source” he mentioned a railway lantern (i think) and a pico projector.
We could always use one of my lights to create the central light source as long as we had an object to hide it within/behind/under.
I think this would be a great opportunity to create a compelling and dramatic portrait of you all, in a way which speaks about the work you do and the heritage of the region.
Here’s a link to some of my work with artificial, stylised lighting:
Bear in mind I’m not proposing to do these kinds of portraits but to very much copy the style of the Wright painting mentioned above.
http://timmitchell.co.uk/index.php?/projects/streb-dancers/
Hope this helps.
Best
Tim
Paul Stevens
Hi Gemma, I'll be there on Wednesday for the photo thing. But can't make Thursday again. The builder is running late. Can you let Sally know please with my apologies.
All the best
Paul
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gryf...@hotmail.com
gryf...@hotmail.com
Gemma
Morgan Barke
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