Theme refinement etc.
A personal take on the theme
This week I started with an important question: What does sense of place mean to me? And what is it exactly that I want to capture in this project?
What sense of place means and feels like is personal to every person, it depends on where and how you grew up and the experiences you have had along the way. There will be overlapping elements, for example me and my sister share a lot of the same nostalgic memories but we also both remember things differently sometimes. We often talk about our time as kids and sometimes we don’t agree on how things happened and then we always wonder how that’s possible. It could be age difference or just the fact that each person experiences things in their own way.
Throughout this project I will be looking into different artists that use nostalgia and sense of place as an inspiration for their work. I will try to use their work as a learning source and also let them inspire me to look at the world in a different way.
I read this on a website called Aesthetica Magazine
What is the ‘place’ we are talking about in sense of place? To me it can have different meanings, you can look at it from a very literal point of view and say it’s the place you are Geographically. A place you are visiting and experiencing for the first time or perhaps your home town that you have not been to in a while. But it can also mean the place you are mentally in when visiting these places, how they exist in our mind.
When I visit Valkenburg (where I grew up) I have a sense of nostalgia of all the good things that happened but I’m also forced to deal with memories of this place that are harder to deal with. Walking through the woods and parks I used to hang out with my childhood friends and sister brings back my inner child and a lot of joyful memories but it also brings up a longing for things to go back to simpler times.
I also read this article on sense of place.
The photographer (Jamie Konarski Davidson) wrote the following: “One definition of "sense of place" is a conscious awareness or sensation of a physical environment, region or location. This incorporates the emotional response to the place as well as its physical nature.” He also says our emotions help us capture places that are important to us in a more personal way and helps others experience similar emotions. And when we visit a new or foreign place it is harder for us the capture the essence of that place.
In this video Graeme Williams takes a closer look into Rinko Kawauchi’s photography and what makes it so magical. Rinko Kawauchi uses photography to capture life’s precious moments and to figure out the reason why she is alive.
She believes that it is through being a photographer that she is able to survive in this world. Kawauchi tells us that nature is showing her things that make her feel something that she is trying to capture in that specific moment. And that when she is in her state of extreme focus she is connected to an unconscious world.
I recognize myself in this way of thinking, though I can only wish to ever reach Kawauchi’s incredible way of perceiving the world.
For me personally it’s that I need to use photography to stay present and to experience what is going on around me. If I don’t do this, I easily get lost in the hustle and bustle of day to day life and my motivation and inspiration slowly start to fade. I need to remind myself of the small things in life that we all seem to take for granted most of the time, and photography is as Kawauchi has said, most definitely an amazing way to do so.
So, reflecting on what sense of place means to me, it’s definitely not just one thing. It’s about experiencing and being present with a place and the things we feel in that moment. About searching for magic in small moments like how light reflects on water and always keeping an eye out for interesting incidents of light. Whether it’s trying to capture the smaller, unseen things or the story and atmosphere of a bigger picture, it’s all about living the moment otherwise we can’t understand it and we will struggle to convey this to others.
I'd look into the meaning of saudade.