Category Archives: Contextual Research M5

M5 – Contextual Research

Art Installations

Posted on by

Northern Lights installation at York Minster

York Minster is becoming well known for its spectacular light installations, with the works of Jason Bruges featuring in 2016 and more recently the Northern Lights installation in June 2018.

Designed by artists Ross Ashton and Karen Monid from The Projection Studio, and featuring recordings from the York Minster Choir, the Northern Lights installation transformed the Minster’s cavernous Nave with images and audio inspired by its stained glass and stone.

The past eight days has seen a return to the Minster for this installation which was, once again, a complete sell-out.  Monies raised by the events are going towards the £11M, 20-year campaign to protect and preserve all 128 of the Minsters stained glass windows.

Not only does this gives an idea of the vast scale possible for stained glass art installations, but it also highlights the popularity of such work.  Furthermore, it emphasises the importance of having the right venue: I am determined to ensure that my work is exhibited within Christ Church Cathedral, the most well-known and most visited chapel within Oxford.

York 02

A woman looks on as an art installation is projected on to the interior of York Minster ahead of their Northern Lights opening. ‘PA Photo.

York 03

A woman looks on as an art installation is projected on to the interior of York Minster ahead of their Northern Lights opening. ‘PA Photo.

York 01

A woman looks on as an art installation is projected on to the interior of York Minster ahead of their Northern Lights opening. ‘PA Photo.

Stained Glass in advertising

Posted on by

Peju Winery ‘The Stained Glass Collection’

It is always of interest to identify new ways in which stained glass images are being used commercially and I am definitively detecting a upsurge, which is pleasing.

Today, the Napa Valley, California winery Peju announced ‘The Stained Glass Collection’, a  limited production estate wine collection inspired by the 10’ x 20’ 1906 stained glass window that is the centrepiece of their tower tasting room. Designed by the company Franz Mayer of Munich, the window was purchased by the owner of the winery at an auction in San Francisco (having originally been commissioned by a wealthy industrial tycoon in Southern California).

Peju Tower

Peju Winery (2018) Tower Tasting Room stained glass

The $1,320 15-bottle Stained Glass collection includes 3 bottles each of the following wines:

  • 2017 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon,
  • 2017 Persephone Cabernet Sauvignon
  • 2017 Persephone Cabernet Franc
  • 2017 Proprietary Red Blend
  • 2017 Calistoga Cabernet SauvignonPeju Winery.png

Art Installations

Posted on by

Where Light Falls – Coventry Cathedral

The use of high resolution stained glass images projected onto buildings is becoming more commonplace with York Minster leading the way (HERE) through the creative brilliance of artist Ross Ashton and Karen Monid, together with The Projection Studio.

Historic England, working with the Poetry Society and Double Take Projections have created two free experiences of light, history and poetry:

  • St Paul’s Cathedral – Thursday 24 – Sunday 27 October 2019
  • Coventry Cathedral – Thursday 14 – Saturday 16 November 2019

Next week sees the opening of the Coventry Cathedral experience.  Using the buildings as the screen for these impressive installations, Where Light Falls tells the story of those who fought to save the medieval Cathedral when it was bombed in the German raid of 14 November 1940.  The spire of the old cathedral will be the focus of animations inspired by stained glass.

Such installations continue to remind me of the pertinence of stained glass window photography and its appreciation by the public.  While I cannot possible create art installations of this scale, it is always good to know what could be achievable were pockets sufficiently deep.

Light projection onto Coventry Cathedral

Historic England (2019) Where Light Falls – Coventry Cathedral

Download the Where Light Falls 2019 information booklet HERE.

Project Development

Posted on by

Designing New Glass – update

615 - Chapel of St Nicholas - DCP Glass

Dominic Price (2019) Vidimus of the proposed central West Window

The upcoming renovation and refurbishment of the Chapel of St Nicholas allowed my the opportunity to design a replacement for the central of the three plain glass windows, discussed here.  My original idea for the outer two windows was the production of a simple, complimenting design.  However, as we approach Remembrance Sunday and thoughts turn to those who lost their lives in conflict, I was inspired to propose an something more fitting: within the chapel there are large memorials to those former pupils who lost their lives in The Great War and in the Second World War.  However, there are some twenty names missing – those who lost their lives in the Boer War, the Zulu War and in conflicts after the Second World War.  It would seem appropriate to dedicate the space within the two windows to the memory of those currently not listed in the chapel.

Once my coursework is completed, this will be my immediate focus.

Ethical Responsibilities

Posted on by

Stained glass theft reaches record levels

A recent article in The Telegraph by Yohannes Lowe (HERE) highlighted a sharp rise in the theft of historical artefacts from churches, with stained glass windows being stolen by organised gangs to sell on the black market.

Figures from the Church Conservation Trust (CCT) revealed that 2018 saw the highest number of recorded incidents wince their records began in 1999.

A fundamental part of any photographic work has to be ethical responsibilities of the photographer.  Having catalogued and detailed all of Oxford’s chapels as well as many of its finest examples of stained glass, I wonder the appropriateness of publishing a book that would prove invaluable to those for whom theft-to-order from chapels and churches routine.

Most of the Oxford chapels are in secure locations and all are within an urban area well patrolled by police with relatively low crime figures.  Here there has been no recent history of crimes targeting churches, so I am confident that my book will not prove a threat to the very thing I hope to help popularise.

Seeing through the sea

Posted on by

‘Sea-thru’ removes water from underwater images

A key part of my work is colour-matching.  When possible I take a follow-up visit to a chapel with a digital copy of the processed stained glass image so that I can compare the image in situ.  While it is essentially impossible to create a matched set of colours (as the colour temperature of the daylight shining through the glass is so changeable), I do endeavour to ensure that the intensity and saturation is appropriate when comparing one colour with another.  Being able to apply an algorithm to ensure colour accuracy would be a fantastic bonus.  It is a process that has been developed for underwater photography…

Scientific America recently published an article about oceanographer and engineer Derya Akkaynak (University of Haifa, Israel) who created an algorithm that can ‘remove the water’ from underwater images.  Such images typically suffer from colour shift that increases with depth as well as light backscattering that creates a haze.

2019111924-SEA-THRU-social-BeforeAfter-2(1).gif

Derya Akkaynak (2019) Before & After “Sea-thru”

The process was detailed in a paper presented in June (Akkaynak Sea-thru Paper) and requires distance information to work: multiple photographs of the same scene are taken from various angles, which are then used to estimate the distance between the camera and the objects in the scene, from which the water’s light attenuating impact is removed.  The process could prove invaluable for oceanographic researchers.

Ocean Vision. Scientific American 321, 6, 16 (December 2019)
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1219-16

Death of a Legend

Posted on by

Legendary photographer Terry O’Neill dies, aged 81

Terry O'Neill

Richard Young / Shutterstock (2018) Launch of Terry O’Neill Leica MP

Famed for his photography of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the modest photographer Terry O’Neill said last month that gaining his CBE “surpasses anything I’ve had happen to me in my life”.  Collecting the award for services to photography from the Duke of Cambridge was his last major public appearance.

His images are some of the most collectable photography in the world and the list of celebrities with whom he has worked ranges from royalty and presidents through to top sports stars, pop stars a legends of the screen, including The Queen, Nelson Mandela, Sir Winston Churchill, Bobby Moore, Franz Beckenbauer, Pele, George Best, Brian Clough, Muhammad Ali, Imran Khan, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Terence Stamp, Jean Shrimpton, Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Amy Winehouse, U2, Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, Sir Michael Caine and Raquel Welch, to name but a few!

Terry O'Neill - Bardot.jpg

Terry O’Neill (1971) Brigitte Bardot with Cigar, Spain

Sacré Bleu – The Greenhouse

Posted on by

Stained Glass Art Installation

While researching the possible options for display and exhibition of my stained glass images, I stumbled once again across the work of Tony Heywood and Alison Condie, first seen as part of the Barbican exhibition.  Definitely not what I have in mind for my work, but an interesting and contemporary take on the artform.

Sacre Bleu 01

Artist Unknown (2019) Sacré Bleu – The Greenhouse

Currently residing in Connaught Village in the City of Westminster, the installations is described as… ‘A greenhouse constructed from salvaged 18th and 19th Century stained glass, reconfigured to create a magical place of mythical creatures and folkloric hybrids – part plant, part human, part insect which combine to  honour an archaic, more primitive world.’

It is illuminated from within at night, but in the day, there is an incredible juxtaposition with Porchester Place that towers behind it.  Within the greenhouse, the floor is paved in mirrors that help give the impression of being immersed within a stained glass world.

Sacre Bleu 02

Artist Unknown (2019) Sacré Bleu – The Greenhouse

The visual effect is stunning and I still await the printed proof from Washington Art Glass that will help me decide whether ceramic printing on glass is a sensible route for my work.  Additionally, I am still awaiting the receipt of my two LCD panels from Canvia that were to provide me with an alternative to printed images in an exhibition.

Sale Time

Posted on by

Surprised by value of camera

Experience has taught me just how quickly the price of professional camera bodies fall as soon as the replacement is released.  For many years I have maintained two Canon pro bodies: one the current model and one the previous model.  The reality is that I rarely use the second body, but it is there as a emergency spare and for remote use during sporting events while I carry the newer model.

With the time pressure of the course deadline now ostensibly over, it provided the chance for me to sell my Canon EOS-1D X, now seven years old, to set aside the money as a down payment on the forthcoming new model.  Typically the body drops from the original £5600 to well under £1000 after seven years.  Anticipating much the same, I was delighted after negotiation to secure £1500 in addition to a £300 discount on the Canon EOS-1D X MkIII when it comes out in March  – a very pleasing result.

Canon 1D x Mk III (PNG)