Art Drop #11: Designography

Making art before it disappears, forever.

Step into this space and what do you see? Most people will see a kitchen under construction. I see potential. There are photographic opportunities for me here in the shapes, textures and tones visible on the unfinished walls, and possibly with the plastic covering the cabinetry too. I don’t necessarily know what I’m going to do with the photographs, but there’s a tractor beam at play that compels me to create something out of a scene like this. It may as well have a big sign on it that says:

SHOOT IT OR LOSE IT

Our future home and studio in western Massachusetts has been under construction for the past year (nearly done, as you can see above) and on every site visit we have been solving problems, chatting with our project manager, and – true to who we are – documenting the construction with our cameras. Most of the pictures were made for posterity and to share with our family and friends, but a few of them are… something else.

A photograph I saw recently by

Yasumi Toyoda

(in The Art of Suggestion) really got me looking at some of my construction photographs in a new light. I have been shooting details that caught my eye, with the simple intention of sharing some of them here or on social media – but the significance of them started to hit me.

This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime construction project for us, and these late-stage details are only visible right now. Once the last coat of paint dries and the project is complete, it’s too late. No more interesting construction details. There is something very urgent and slightly melancholic about that for me, and while our home and studio will certainly be a canvas for us and our work, I think I just assumed all of that would come later. But it doesn’t have to be that way – the creativity can begin now, not when it’s finished and we move in. So given what we have planned for the coming months, this art drop felt like perhaps our last opportunity to forge something out of our home’s current unfinished state.

ART DROP #11

I’ll just say right now that I’m not really sure how this piece will be received, but I’m running with it because I made it for myself first and foremost, and it encapsulates a lot of what I’m interested in. It’s a bonus if anyone else also happens to like it. And so here is Under the Plaster, a photograph that captures a corner of our kitchen before the plaster is applied by a guy called Mike – a plasterer that we are yet to meet but hails from England apparently. Hopefully I will get a chance at some point to talk with him about tea, marmite and the weather – as we British people do when we get together (allegedly).

Under the Plaster, by Tom Bland

Under the Plaster
West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA
by Tom Bland

This picture filters the graphic designer genes I was born with (Hi Mum & Dad!), strands of visual influence from my uncles and their own work, and stirs in some inspiration from David Carson, and Neasden Control Centre (Hey Stephen!).

It’s the kind of photograph I often find myself instinctually making, but have never really known how to categorize. What do you call a photograph that is more like a piece of in-camera graphic design or illustration? Calling such images ‘abstract’ has never really sat right with me, but for simplicity’s sake at times I have had to do so. Even if we embrace the idea that not everything needs to be labelled, I still need to assign some kind of descriptor to photographs like this for my own benefit. I’m considering designography. I asked ChatGPT about this term (see footer) and it seems like it might be appropriate even if the heavy manipulation isn’t really applicable. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them – leave a comment or hit reply.

I find these kinds of scenes very interesting, where the elements are all in place (found) and my role is limited to composition and managing light. I prefer making designography that way, at least that’s how I feel at the moment. If I was to add a visual element to a frame like this, or rearrange the parts if they were moveable, I think it becomes something else.

Prints of Under the Plaster are only available until April 7, 2024, with no further production of this work for at least a year. To learn more about the paper, sizes, and pricing click the button below to visit the art drop page on our website.

Look out for our next newsletter later in the week when we’ll present some more construction details that have caught our eye. What do you think of this new art drop? How does the term ‘designography’ resonate with you?

Thanks for reading!

Tom

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Brief discussion with ChatGPT about designography. Generally, I am polite to the AI. Are you?