Mike's OCA Learning Log: Assignment 5: In the style of an influential photographer

I have probably said this before but this has been the most difficult assignment to date as I found it very difficult not only to distil, in my own mind, the particular style of Fay Godwin, my chosen photographer, but to then go and take 12 photographs to illustrate this.

First of all, it is important to decide what we (I) mean by style. The course material, in the introduction to Section 5, "Styles and Themes", makes two interesting observations about the 'style' of Fay Godwin's work. With respect to the choice of subject, this is described as "quiet, unspectacular English scenes" and the format of her photographs is described as "both medium and 35mm" depending upon the subject. Ignoring the fact that much of her landscape work was carried out outside England - in Scotland and Wales, for example - there are clearly other ways of describing her style of photography.

In an attempt to further define Fay Godwin's style, I have borrowed some definitions of style from art history, set out by Heinrich Wolfflin in his book "Principles of Art History" as they have some relevance here. His three principal parameters of style are

Linear v Painterly - the extent to which a painting (or photograph, for our purposes) contains sharp outlines and elements which stand alone as opposed to having shapes melding together (almost towards impressionism)

Plane v Recession - the extent to which images appear to be set in one or more horizontal planes rather than having the eye being drawn into the picture.

Closed v Open - where the overall composition seems to point inwards in a self contained way (closed) giving the impression that the image itself is the most important thing rather than being drawn outwards (open)to hint that it is part of a (more important?) larger whole.

In looking at Faye Godwin's work in the light of this model, I would suggest that, more often than not, her photographs are linear, plane and closed. There are many photographs of monuments, isolated buildings, particular subjects (e.g. restriction notices to illustrate her 'forbidden land' series) for instance.

In choosing photographs for this asignment, I have tried to illustrate this analysis, although local availability of the type of landscapes photographed by Fay Godwin and the more open access to the countryside these days (although this may change under the currrent Government(!) have eliminated some of the subjects she chose herself. I was always mindful of the framing of shots so that some I have presented in a square format and most in black and white, to reflect the way she produced most of her landscapes.