‘Pecking Order’.

January 16, 2012

I am interested primarily in documentary photography, or what documentary photography is, or whether ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ may be, can still be classified as such.
I am interested in subverting a subject through a number of levels of deconstruction and the take-away trays are I believe a useful starting point to this ongoing investigation and exploration.

Take-away trays are objects that are frequently spotted in any major metropolis. They are the consequence and the conclusion of an evening out. They are so common in Plymouth that they almost become invisible. The remaining contents of chips or a kebab form the staple diet of many sea and urban birds (Hearing Gulls, Black Back Gulls, Rooks, Feral Pigeons and Pied Wagtails) and they are to be discovered in abundance littered throughout Union Street, the main ‘entertainment district’ of Plymouth, particularly on Saturday and Sunday Mornings.

Instead of simply photographing these boxes in-situ, I decided, – since I have never made them before and with an understanding that graphically they could be of interest – to make photograms and therefore hark back to not only one of the most primitive forms of image making, but arguably one of the most objective means of image representation.
I liked the idea that I was taking something very unnatural – a polystyrene food tray – and making images that historically – take Anna Atkins as a useful reference – were produced using ferns, or leaves for horticultural studies.

I also enjoyed, in my own mind, imagining the seagulls consciously making specific shapes with clear artist determination and outcomes, much like Matt McCormick’s film ‘The Subconscious Art Of Graffiti Removal’; a spoof, ‘serious’ film, narrated by the serious and authoritative sounding Miranda July discussing how council cleaners in America were in fact producing abstract impressionist paintings when all they were doing was blocking out tawdry scrawls and tags.

Context is of key importance to my working practice, so too engaging an audience as wide as possible.
The photograms that were produced in the darkroom on 12×16 glossy paper were then enlarged to A0 and A1 and placed upon existing posters at the Palace Theatre in Union Street.

Their somewhat scruffy and not all together considered application (mainly through haste and fear of arrest) adds further levels of context and in some respects, the idea that these objects, the trays, are invisible, makes reference to the fact the Theatre is somewhat invisible and is being left to decline progressively, and it might be added, shamefully.

Indeed many of the feral pigeons responsible for the peck marks could well house themselves with in the building itself and therefore I have facilitated the pigeons to have their own work displayed upon their own walls.
I like this idea.

The following images are from the resulting series ‘Pecking Order’ showing 20 scans from the original photograms, together with the installation view of Union Street at the top of this post. Documentation of the book produced can be found in the ‘Books’ section.