REPORT: Fay Godwin was born in Berlin. Her father was a British diplomat, so her family moved all over the world. Her mother was an American artist so she always had art in her life and she began photography in 1966 to take pictures of her children. She loved to walk through the remote areas in Britain (where she settled as an adult) and that provoked her interest in landscape photography. Prior to becoming a Fellow of the National Museum of Photography, she was awarded a Major Arts Council Bursary and had many other major accomplishments in her lifetime. Almost all of Godwin's photography is black and white. She liked to capture remote and unseen landscapes. When looking at her photography, it provokes thought, wonder and sadness. Her pictures, especially when black and white, are in a state of melancholy. In her urban photography, a lot of the time she captures what isn't perfect. She took pictures of places that looked left behind, creating a poetic loneliness. Literature was a very influential part of Godwin's life and it showed through in her photography. At the start of her career, she photographed authors. When looking at her work, it takes "a picture is worth a 1000 words" to a whole new level. Each image is like its own poem in itself. In some of her pictures, there is a deep sense of loneliness; it seems like photography is how she expressed her emotions and that feeling is passed on to the viewer. The lack of people in her landscapes shows just the remains of human life from a very topographical sense. Fay Godwin has influenced my work in many ways. Times right now are tough, especially in the Skyline community and photography is an art that can be used to express emotion. Sometimes I write or sing, but other times I take pictures, and Godwin shows ways to capture sadness in photographs. She looks at things from different perspectives then most and that is something I try to do as well. Fay Godwin's poetic and emotional take on photography inspires me. sources: www.djclark.com imagesonline.bl.uk theguardian.com
ARTIST STATEMENT: When taking these pictures, I had to really focus on the angle they were taking. Using a landscape photographer as someone to recreate their pictures with was kind of a bad idea because it was hard to find things that resembled Godwin's pictures. I had to drive around in the country side until I found a similar landscape for the first one, but had to edit the clouds in. For the second one I had to really try to get it from a similar angle as the original photo. In photoshop, it was difficult to recreate the same kind of black and white that was in Godwin's work. I didn't quite get there, but I tried my best.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST: In the first photo, the shades of black and white are very similar, but in the other two not as much. I couldn't find the same landscapes that Godwin photographed because she took hers in Europe, so it took a lot of looking around to find something similar enough. The angle I took the pictures from were only the same in the second two pictures. In the first, I couldn't get low to the ground because if I didn't go on to private property grass would be in the way. In the last picture, I didn't realize it was a brick tube thing instead of a tree, so that's an issue but what can you do?