In photographic intent I endeavor to reach an embodiment of otherness.
In purpose, I try – more often than not failing – to convey no message, only asking for consideration of different perspectives on the societal themes I explore. It starts with the viewer listening to the dialogue in the image, a simple invitation to join in. My images are boundaries between different points of view. They are visualizations that accommodate differing information spaces, each of these spaces a different existence. Visually I try to speak of ‘grace’, through a gaze of acceptance that strives to free itself from judgment, power and exploitation. But neither my thoughts nor my images are ever free of these burdens. The mask of acceptance that I wear creates an acknowledgment of difference. An apparent objectivity exists only in the presence of its companion subjectivity.
Fig. 1 Gordon Sutherland, 2018, Untitled Work in Progress. [Unpublished Digital Infra-red Photograph IR 590]
There’s no hiding from the fact, my images are grounded in the Dusseldorf School of Bernd and Hilla Becher. In approach and construction they are documentary photographs, a form of preservation photography. Everything that can be seen was there, even if my interpretation of ‘the instant’ is in itself a question: how long is an instant?
In the above image of More London (Foster & Partners) – from an unpublished mini series realized over one morning in summer 2018 – my intent was to visualise the dialogue between nature and the built environment in the context of global capitalism (Fig.1). The subject matter, perspective and compositional elements of the image release it from the power struggle between nature and capitalist development, although the overall series has a more dystopian, linear narrative on exploitation of resources in a non-circular economy. This image emerges, naturally, at the mid-point of the narrative.
I work at the crossover between architectural photography, social documentary and fine-art photography exploring buildings and infrastructure as an art-motif for awakening social conscience. My approach is influenced by many photographers, however the two most influential are James Welling, in particular his use of colour theory in the series Glass House, and Hélène Binet, from her embodiment of religious – arguably masonic – and cosmic motifs and references in her photographic oeuvre. The resonance of these works on my personal, indoctrinated world views emerges throughout my photographic practice, much of which is highly autobiographical.
Fig. 2 Gordon Sutherland, 2018, Untitled Work in Progress, 2018 [Unpublished Digital Infra-red Photograph IR 590]
In an unpublished mini series of images taken over one afternoon in the National Theatre, London, my intent was to ask the viewer to question the intent of the – in this case brutalist – architecture. By considering the interplay between the weight of the construction material and the diffusion of light into ‘spaces’ encumbered by inertia I ultimately explore greater themes: how theatrical work can pose questions around prevailing cultural norms. In this image at the entrance to the theatre, ‘lightness’ and ‘heaviness’ are given equal space within the image, the concrete pillar almost floating between the two (Fig.2). For the viewer who is interested, both in the architecture itself and in its photographic representation, there emerges an intentional dialogue on the role of theatre in balancing the forces at play within a cultural hegemony. The series is conceived as a linear narrative, in the tradition of architectural photography traceable from the current day to Frederick H. Evans body of work in the late 19
th Century.
Fig. 3 Gordon Sutherland, 2018, Agora Simone Veil & the Willy Brandt Building, European Parliament Complex, Brussels. [Unpublished Digital Blended Spectra Photograph]
In the unpublished series
this time I’m voting I carried out a photographic enquiry of the interplay between architecture, surveillance and technology in the public space of the European Parliament Complex in Brussels, Belgium. The series informs my final major project with working title ‘The Digital Divide’ which interrogates the human condition in face of the information age, in particular the concept of digital existence within smart cities. The image of the central square of the European Parliament Complex in Brussels (Fig.3) explores the power play between institutions, media, surveillance and the individual. The objective stance belies the photographic intent of the image which depicts the possibility of a dystopian future in which people constitute controlled and surveyed media in the public space. As such the image veers towards monologue than dialogue and, as the rest of the series, is a departure from my normal photographic practice.
Fig. 4 Gordon Sutherland, 2017, Braigh Craobhach [75 x 50 cm (30 x 20 in.) fine-art giclée inkjet pigment print] (Private Collection, Athens)
From the series
Another Path (Sutherland 2017) the image
Braigh Craobhach (Fig.4) is distinctly representative of my photographic intent. Using acrylic filters and photographic gels in the naturally occurring colours of the Inner Hebrides in Scotland, combined with long exposure photography, I aimed to deconstruct the processes of encroachment in the villages of the Highland clearances. The series has a linear narrative which develops according to the extent of the encroachment.
Fig. 5 Gordon Sutherland, 2018, Knightswood Flats, Glasgow [60 x 90 cm (23.6 x 35.4 in.) fine-art giclée inkjet pigment print] (Private Collection, Brussels)
From the series
Looking for Daylight (Sutherland 2018) the image
Knightswood Flats, Glasgow (Fig.5), is typical of my photographic intent as an invitation to dialogue. In this case a discussion into the relationship between people, the built environment, modern day infrastructure, and the natural environment. The objective stance in the image belies the message given by the compositional elements and their relative placing within the image. The series
Looking for Daylight can be read either as a linear narrative depicting the history of architecture in Glasgow, or seen in their post modern non-linear narrative they constitute photographic plates to illustrate the science fiction novel Lanark: A Life in Four Books by Alasdair Gray, and the two cities of
Glasgow and
Unthank in which it is set.
The photographic journey to here has been a development of self-expression coupled with a conviction for dialogue and acceptance without judgment. My most recent project, this time I’m voting, constituted a visible departure from that intent, with less subtle messaging. At any rate, the cultural and personal context cannot be entirely separated unless the photographer is a machine – and even that is open to debate. The image, or the photographer, remains a burden. The one does not escape the other.
The exploration of my visual voice continues through extension of Guattarian philosophy at today’s confluence of the environmental crisis and the information age. By exploring critical contextual theory and contemporary visual culture I am preparing for the next stage in informing my degree major project through exploration of surveillance and data flows in digitally connected cultures.
This exploration emerges ahead of a photography project this coming summer in Tokyo as part of the Surfaces and Strategies module.
For this reason my starting point for exploration of context and visual culture is art and religion in Japan, building on the perspectives and photographic practice already explored from my very own, personal western perspective.
Sources:
Sutherland, G. (2017) Another Path. [Online] Available at http://www.irrationalangle.com/another-path/ [Accessed 7 February 2019]
Sutherland, G. (2018) Looking for Daylight. [Online] Available at http://www.irrationalangle.com/looking-for-daylight/ [Accessed 7 February 2019]
Gordon Sutherland - Photography Research Journal 