Friday 8 October 2010

Road 3

My practice continued to be a somewhat intuitive and personal one without the basis of any facts. The scenes jumped at me whilst I was out with my camera absorbing the general feel of my new neighbourhood. I had been reading Alain de Botton and was inspired by Baudrillard's philosophies e.g. technological progress affecting social change.























Looking at the 200+ images I had taken by now, themes started to reoccur: transport, surfaces, roads and the environment all played a vital role. I became interested in the planning process of the city and started to wonder if and how citizens shape
our environment. Rather then just being observant I wanted to find out how people are getting involved.

When following up the local newspaper, the councils website and the new book releases of: "A guide to new ruins of Great Britain", I came across a few web entries that had commented on issues visible in my photographs (although on a much smaller scale).

Some of those comments are an outlet for anger, some discuss sensible solutions to local issues and others are amusing. There is "The Case for Banning BBQs on the Beaches and in the Parks" or housing issues in the South East as well as the "Concrete way of access" a critique of disabled facilities along the beach.

A few of these online discussions have in fact resulted in small changes such as special BBQ bin/containers along the Brighton and Hove beach front,
however, little evaluation can be found on how useful these changes are. Overall, there seems to be a feeling of discontent.

My photographs seem to
capture this feeling of discontent although in some there is a glance of hope. The work aims to raise discussions about civic engagement: it's pleasures as well as it problems.

All Photography © Julia Horbaschk

References:
www.alaindebotton.com
www.getinvolvedinthecity.org.uk

Sunday 3 October 2010

Road 2

Road two is a little more diverse in it's approach.
A note of a missed delivery on Kings Road arches?
Hexagons drawn in an empty space on Hove seafront.
Discarded bag and cracked new asphalt hugging an old tree.

A more poetic approach, looking at my everyday environment rather intuitively.























All Photography © Julia Horbaschk