In April 2021, I was awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant to research the impact of environmentalism on people of colour, a subject that is new to me but it is something that I had been wishing to investigate in my practice. I have spent this time researching and engaging with this topic.

My aim was to use the time and funds to reflect on how I can facilitate a workshop for communities of colour to process their thoughts about climate change and the implications this has on their lives. I have been using my experiences by exploring London’s various woodlands and parks as a place as a case study to understand the themes that I wanted to explore as part of my grant.

This felt appropriate before I engage in activities/workshops with other people. I wanted to know exactly what I wanted to do and what the implications would be on my practice. My blog reflects my thoughts and different approaches I have been engaging with over the course of the 8-9 months since I was awarded my grant.

A revelation of sorts

Marie Smith September 26, 2021

My last blog was a revelation, or actually, a form of clarity that came to me that I had been failing to articulate. The lack of being able to articulate the problem or the next stage of the process had been making me feel lackluster and confused. So writing my blog about Yan Wang Preston’s work was a great initiative and also enabled me to formulate where I wished to see my process heading.

I must also remember that my process does not necessarily need to end in a resulting ‘product’, although I am still making collages and sequences as part of my WIP series, they are themselves a reflection of my process/product adding to the conversation and it is good to see my gaze shifting and becoming more attuned.

There are elements of the series Whispering for help, that can translate to any future projects I do, in particular, if I do choose to work with communities of colour or if I seek to work with specific individuals. Again, I am shifting my focus to providing and not concentrating on the process which only signifies for me the unnecessary pressure I am putting on myself to create something coherent to show people.

I have been viewing nature as an objective space, whereas really it’s more subjective, in particular, if I am trying to ascertain my relationship with it. This means that it cannot be objective and also this means that I have been projecting what I want and what I anticipate rather than seeing and experiencing the landscape for what it is.

The separation between myself, and using my camera as a tool of experience means that I have not been negotiating my relationship with the space beyond seeing the place ‘for me to explore or to assert’ my sense of belonging’ rather than a participant. That’s the essence of the relationship. That is what I have been missing and failing to translate. This means that I can be very intentional now and also think about how I can apply sustainable darkroom practices that are specific to my relationship with the participant.

I am glad that this revelation has come to me now, and I feel a sense of ease and weight being lifted as I now have the language to move my processes onto the next stage of development. Also, perhaps I can now go on making more photos which more intention knowing that I have a framing. I can now think about how or if I want to implement text in the work in some ways.

I boiled some corn on the cob husks yesterday, to use as a developer, a very new experience and I will try it with one roll of film to see how it goes, apparently, sweetcorn has a high phenol count but we’ll have to wait and see if that translate well as a developer.

WIP Sequence, Self-portrait with a landscape from council estate I live on in London, September 2021, ©Marie Smith