For Space and Place, I have located an area that I find incredibly interesting. Old Knobbley is an oak tree in Mistley, Essex about 25-30 minutes away from Ipswich. Over 800 years old, the tree and the area around it has a rather dark history; between 1645-1647 it’s thought that over 300 women were killed around the area, likely drowned in the pond next to it because they were thought to have been witches by Witch Hunter General Matthew Hopkins. It’s believed the tree was a sanctuary for said hunted witches, and I think that this location ties together both important facts and history from the East Anglian Area and my passion for the photographic scenes of people and their stories.
I personally really enjoy taking photographs of made-up scenes which are accompanied by a made-up story, inspired by the works of Linda Blacker and Kirsty Mitchell. Doing this type of work gives me some kind of escapism from poor mental health and everyday struggles, creating and immersing myself into my own make believe world makes anything in that world possible because it’s my story.
This is where i’d like the take my future photography and this location helps me take a different approach of tying in real life and history with what i’m used to. The series would be less fantasy and more of a retelling of a story to bring an audience to that time, in order to bring a very real feel to the image and make sure that it doesn't feel too otherworldly, because it was a very tragic point in time and shouldn't be glossed over. This isn't my story as such, like my previous photography, but a very real one that isn't perfect or controllable by me.
At the moment, the idea (which is very subject to change) is to have at least one character in the images, and to perhaps create a series about the dead ‘witches’ coming back to the tree, their sanctuary, at night or early morning when everybody has gone, and write a story in the perspective of the woman about how she’s watched the world change over hundreds of years (school trips to the tree, it being burned earlier this year etc), while still emphasising the importance of the location.
However, this is simply an initial idea and is likely to evolve over the duration of the module. I'm excited to see how my research will guide and inspire my future shoots and shape the idea. It will also be interesting to see how I, a woman hundreds of years later, retells the story of women hundreds of years ago and my emotional input.
I need to do plenty of research, starting with books about witch hunting and specifically Matthew Hopkins. I also wish to understand the history of the land and discover photographers who have similar concepts of history retelling itself.
I personally really enjoy taking photographs of made-up scenes which are accompanied by a made-up story, inspired by the works of Linda Blacker and Kirsty Mitchell. Doing this type of work gives me some kind of escapism from poor mental health and everyday struggles, creating and immersing myself into my own make believe world makes anything in that world possible because it’s my story.
This is where i’d like the take my future photography and this location helps me take a different approach of tying in real life and history with what i’m used to. The series would be less fantasy and more of a retelling of a story to bring an audience to that time, in order to bring a very real feel to the image and make sure that it doesn't feel too otherworldly, because it was a very tragic point in time and shouldn't be glossed over. This isn't my story as such, like my previous photography, but a very real one that isn't perfect or controllable by me.
At the moment, the idea (which is very subject to change) is to have at least one character in the images, and to perhaps create a series about the dead ‘witches’ coming back to the tree, their sanctuary, at night or early morning when everybody has gone, and write a story in the perspective of the woman about how she’s watched the world change over hundreds of years (school trips to the tree, it being burned earlier this year etc), while still emphasising the importance of the location.
However, this is simply an initial idea and is likely to evolve over the duration of the module. I'm excited to see how my research will guide and inspire my future shoots and shape the idea. It will also be interesting to see how I, a woman hundreds of years later, retells the story of women hundreds of years ago and my emotional input.
I need to do plenty of research, starting with books about witch hunting and specifically Matthew Hopkins. I also wish to understand the history of the land and discover photographers who have similar concepts of history retelling itself.
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