Now that I have more of an idea of how I want to construct the sound of my piece, I had to begin to go about creating a clearer idea of what I wanted to photograph. I investigated into a variety of abstract photographers and found myself immediately intrigued by Gerco De Ruijter. He created a project where he investigated the textures of objects or landscapes.
He draws your attention to places or objects which would usually be over looked and unappreciated. Therefore I found this interesting as a concept. Despite the fact that the viewer cannot tell what the textures are this is effective as they the images have then created an entity in themselves. He creates a beauty in an object in completely unexpected places.
I really enjoy his work as I feel it is innovative in a refreshing way. Ruijter creates a intriguing images from tampering with the perspective of the human eye. Sometimes it can be seen that he zooms in to expose the texture of a smaller object, however he also uses aerial photography on huge landscapes across Iceland, The Netherlands to even places such as Dubai. It is his use of manipulated perspective, however, which I found was the concept behind Ruijter’s work which inspired me the most.
From his work I found myself on a journey to find out why we would find his images so fascinating and appealing. This lead me towards discovering the theory behind curiosity. It is the appeal of being able to discover and see an object in a completely new way which indices the individual to favour his work. George Loewenstein created a academic paper in 1994 titled ‘The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review And Reinterpretation’ which states why curiosity has been ‘consistently recognized as a critical motive that influences human behavior in both positive and negative ways’. He believes the reason behind curiosity ‘as a significant response evoked by literature and art’ is due to the ‘mystery’ which lay behind the work and in this case, curiosity can be seen ‘as a passion’ where a ‘motivational intensity’ lies beneath the surface as our ‘passion to learn’ and ‘understand’ images and art in new forms and different lights becomes prominent. This is why Ruijter’s work thrives as it can be applied directly to these psychological theories.
Therefore with this information I begun to think of different ways I could present this is my own work. I found Livia Marin who created the ‘Broken Things’ project. I found her work different but equally as compelling as Ruijter’s. Again I was intrigued by the ‘what if’ mentality behind her photography.
Her work reveals the pattern which is unleashed through the melting of pottery. This has, inevitably, destroyed the purpose for the pottery as to be used as plates or cups but they have now been reformed into something new as art which would not have been able to be seen if she had not destroyed them in the first place.
Despite how Marin’s work is different from Ruijter’s I still feel there is a similar theme running through. Therefore now I have a clearer theme of what I would like to investigate in my own work, I feel more confident with the mentality and meaning behind what I would like to achieve with my screen assignment.
Loewenstein, George, ‘The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review And Reinterpretation’, Physchological Bulletin 116.1 (1994): 75- 98