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Preliminary work - Summer Solstice Journeys - a series of photographic journeys - © Lloyd Godman
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This series
of works originated from my many early morning walks along the beaches
near my house. Often I would walk the shifting sands and the schist rocks,
with a camera, often I would watch the patterns of waves breaking, the
patterns of tide marks, the patterns of clouds across a rising sun. And
always far out in the ocean was pyramidal form of Green Island rising
above the skyline. While the images I took were interesting, I always
had a deep feeling inside there was more to this place and the ritual
of my walking that I had not yet discovered. Initially I used a 35mm camera
and then around 1996 I began using a 6x6 cm camera. |
Lloyd Godman 11/4/1987 |
While
the 6X6 cm format offered a larger negative size and consequently
more detail, it also offered a different frame format to design
the image in. It had the tyranny of the symmetrical nature of the
square rather than the rectangle of the 35mm format to deal with.
I became fascinated with the nature of time and space and experimented
with image sequencing.
The
stability and balance that a level horizon line gives a photographic
image is often an essential part of the design. I had learned that horizons
that slightly tilt can produce a sense of awkwardness in an image and
if the image is to be taken on a lean it should look deliberate
and be at least 15-20° off line.
I
soon developed the idea of deliberately tilting the camera on a 45 degree
angle to create lozenge or diamond shaped image, with the island in the
corner of the frame, but positioning the camera in such a manner
so as the square frame was balanced on the fulcrum became a difficult
task, and was even more unforgiving. The visual potential of the images
became evident but it so did the need to adequately solve the problem
of a level horizon line. |
Lloyd
Godman 1/2/1988 |
Lloyd
Godman 1/2/1988 |
Eventually
I made a small device with a level that fitted on the side of the
camera which allowed me to very quickly set up the camera on a tripod,
level the camera and lock it in position on a tripod. I became conscious
of the angle of the sun in relationship to the island and began recording
the time the images were taken and the compass bearing through the
island to the sun.
Lloyd
Godman 78 degrees east 7.48am 17/10/188 |
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As I
spent more time taking photographs using this method, it became obvious
that the furthest position I could shoot from and still keep the sun
and the apex of the Island in axis, was on the longest day or summer
solstice. And from here the idea of a summer solstice sojourn was
born, where I would photograph the sun in axis with the island as
it rose from the ocean and traversed across the sky.
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