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Every Monday, for a year, starting at one o’clock I intend to document all the found fire pits on South beach, Aberystwyth. I walk from the sea wall to the shore, from the shore to the sea wall, repeatedly, systematically photographing each fire from an aerial perspective, they are geo-tagged with a GPS device. It is a five hour meditative walk, that would take eight minutes traversed in a straight line.
On the beach I catalogue metaphors of mortality and immortality, contained in the changing state of materials, I feel a deep connection to a culture embedded in the horizontal line,
a culture that looks out, knowing it continues, out of sight.
208 fires photographed
Bank holiday Monday, its warm and there were a lot of people there, some, many looked at me strangely.
Even with the decision to only document the actual sites (which now seems so obvious). It is still very difficult to distinguish what is and isn't a fire, this project although seemingly objective is very subjective.
Although I have been trying reject the anthropological nature of the project in favour of a metaphor for mortality. I thought about the people that lit the fires, what drives us as a species and as a community to the edge of a world to light fires. Yes, at night its cold, but there is a relationship a similarity, in looking out to the horizon, and looking into embers. Watching braking waves and flickering flames. Gazing upon sparks and stars.
Yet again I'm documenting ghosts, the past, the presence and absence of people.
I met one of the customers from The Treehouse, she comes in on Tuesday morning with some friends, I call them “The Tuesday Morning scone crew”, they have been coming in for years, I think they are nurses, they are really lovely. I see her on the beach on Monday walking along the shore collecting something, she often sees me, she always waves. Today, she came to say hi and asked what I had been doing,
“its something about the rocks isn't it?”
“ Im archiving the fires”
“ah the fires” she proclaimed with a sigh of relief as if a puzzle had been solved. Reaching into her pocket she produced what I think is a small sample jar (possibly from the hospital) filled with sea glass,
“this is what I do” she showed me
“I think this one is an old glass bottle stopper, you can tell by the shape”
We looked for a while, then she said she would let me get on, she would be in tomorrow for scones and that she looked forward to seeing the photographs.
Perhaps we are a people that light fires by the water, and collect things from the beach, with a wonder of how the sea erodes time, the sea erodes glass.
Practical things to consider
Bring enough food
Always put something (preferable back) in the center of the photograph.
Concentrate on getting camera flat to the earth
New rules
If there are people sitting on the fire sits that fire doesn't get photographed.
Remember to take photograph of landscape for blog.
141 sites
the romanticising of death
Today, I lost all faith in the concept, it doesn't matter that once my matter was sand and rock, and again it will be. I don't remember being the sea, and the sea doesn't remember being me.
When we talk about death, it is to offer solace to the living, but does not relate to the reality of the situation, the dead are gone and never to return.
354 photographs taken
I went to his funeral on friday
I stood in front of his coffin and saw him shatter, the dust rise up and glisten in the sun.
The walk ended at sunset,
This is the first time with the GPS, the walk feels important.
This walk felt complete, the photographs have a uniformity in their composition and exposure. The geo-tag maps contextualised the walk, and I'm happy with the concept and its metaphorical implications.
New Rule
Don't forget pen
320 sites
We had some bad news this week, there has been a death close by. I thought about him as I walked. Placing little white stone markers on the sites, especially the smaller ones, felt poinient. As if the fires are graves, physical bodies disseminating.
Fire burns wood to smoke, to ash, to black, heat transforms grey stones to pink and orange. We, like fires are fleeting and eventually return to the sea.
Auto white balance worked really well, there is a uniformity to the photographs, that elevates the subject, the variables that can be controlled, have been, allowing the changeful nature of the fire pits to be revealed.
This is the first official walk, after three practise walk to iron out creases in the process. At first it seemed a shame, that many of the fires have diminished and disappeared. I reminded my self that this task is a exploration, not a foregone conclusion, it is to answer the question - "what happens if I document all the fires on South beach for a year"
things to consider
I am thinking that the fires should geo -tag, so that there is more of a physical context to the photographs. I am considering buying a GPS device.
New Rule
always bring a flask of coffee
281 Photographs taken
third practice
“It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms again.” - Mark Rothko
Today, I felt alive, as if I am awakening. It feels good to be making.
Need a hood for the camera screen
Need a website
Need shelves and boxes
Need a studio
Do I need a pedometer?
Need a flask of coffee
Need to hurry up - running out of light
Need to start at 1pm, so that when winter comes, and the sun sets earlier, there will be enough time to complete the five hour walk. The grids will show the change in light over the seasons.
It was grueling and exhausting but it is done
New rules
Set camera to Auto white balance. The dramatic changes in lighting conditions because of the clouds moving are hard to manually adjust to, I think that on Auto the subtle changes due to time passing will be evident when the photographs are shown in sequence.
264 sites
236 sites
