I found Schaewen's book 'Walls' in the library and took an instant interest in it. The book links to my work in the way that she has photographed a piece of subject matter that people see everyday but never really take any notice however when you photograph it and present it as a narrative it becomes interesting. There is a quote in the book that reads ''A subject that they look at everyday, but never see'' this represents that fact that although these things are interesting they have become such common place in society that people never notice them. Schaewen documents how nature and weather over time has effected the walls changing the texture of the wall creating new textures and patterns, she if finding new patterns and textures in an already existing piece of subject matter, this is similar to what I am trying to do in finding interesting geometric shapes in architecture and objects. The book contains photographs taken in Berlin, Barcelona, New York, Berlin and many more, the book flows so well you cant even tell which countries the photographs were taken in. The walls have changed from on type of art form to another, they were initially used as a canvas for painted advertisements and over time the wall has been subjected to the elements so the wall has been transformed making new patterns and textures. Each wall contains a different texture and pattern so she is managing to find different versions of the same thing, this is something I've been trying to do especially this last week I have focused on mainly photographing different types of steps and staircases finding how a simple design can be interpreted and presented in different ways.
The 4 photographs above show how the photograph work much better as a set that represent a narrative, individually the photographs don't really convey the message of the work. For the gallery showing I want to present around 6-8 photographs as that will express the narrative of my work far better than an individual photograph.
I chose to show the photograph above (New York, 1970) as it contains interesting lines created by shadows, much of the wall is a consistent texture however the shadows dissect it like the lines of a Piet Mondrian painting. Yesterday I went out photographing walls trying to find interesting lines and contrasting textures however my subject matter is more modern architecture than brick structures.
Schaewen's work has been influential as it has shown me that this type of work works better presented as a set as it successfully displays a narrative, it has also showed me that banal subject matter can become interesting when photographed and presented in narrative form.
