Art Moorhouse Exhibition open in London

Dominic Pote May 8, 2014

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Exhibition of over 20 works opening in central London

From Wednesday the 7th of May I have a solo exhibition at Art Moorhouse in London. The exhibition titled Spaces is a selection of my work from over the past 13 years with over 20 pieces on display in the ground floor Arts and Business gallery space of Sir Norman Foster's building Moor House in the heart of London city. The exhibition is a collaboration with Full Circle Art Consultancy and ArtMoorhouse and more information about the exhibition can be found on the Full Circle website:

www.fullcircleac.co.uk/full_house/spaces.php

or:

www.artmoorhouse.com

Exhibition runs until June 5th. Viewing is by appointment only - to arrange a viewing please contact Full Circle or myself.

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Salutogenic Design

Dominic Pote December 6, 2013

Salutogenic design in healthcare

I have recently been reading about the theory of salutogenesis, in particular salutogenic design, and would like to share this interesting and pertinent theory. The term ‘salutogenesis’ was developed in the 1970’s by Aaron Antonovsky, a professor of medical sociology. It is derived from the Latin salus meaning health and the Greek genesis meaning origin, so it could be phrased as the 'origins of health'.

The study of health rather than the study of disease

The salutogenic approach to healthcare looks at the origins of health as oppose to the pathogenic approach to healthcare which looks at the origin (or causes) of disease (pathos). Salutogenic theory looks for the root of unhealthiness rather than just treating the disease.

"Visualize a river with a bend. Downstream, where the river has become very turbulent, we find people desperately struggling to keep their heads above water. Using a great variety of weapons, the disease care professionals, with great devotion, skill and arduous effort, seek to save those in danger of drowning. We pay almost no attention to, and invest few resources in, this school cogently points out, what goes on upstream. We do not ask: Who or what is pushing these people into the river?”

Aaron Antonovsky, Lecture at the Congress for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Berlin, 1990

Illustration of Antonovsky's salutogenic theory

A sense of coherence

]According to Antonovsky’s theory of salutogenesis, a strong sense of coherence (SOC) promotes good health. Antonovsky divided the notion of SOC into three components; comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. Undoubtedly meaningfulness is the most important of the three as one requires a sense of meaning in their life in order to persist, to carry on and face challenges which life presents them with. Given a sense of meaningfulness, one is motivated to comprehend and manage events in their life.

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A science for positive health

This is a school of thought centred on well-being, healing not just the body, but the soul. The advocates of the salutogenic model are not against the pathogenic model, but believe a combination of the two approaches is required to develop a greater understanding of both health and disease. The pathogenic approach focuses on treating or curing the disease, while the salutogenic approach focuses on well-being, promoting and maintaining good health. Salutogenic research has been carried out widely in the medical world but only in recent years is the theory slowly beginning to penetrate practice in the real world and become a part of healthcare policy. In the field of healthcare design, salutogenic theory is becoming incorporated into architecture. It is at long last becoming widely recognized that healthcare buildings need to be uplifting, welcoming spaces, promoting health and well-being, creating positive spaces with light, colour and fresh air. Tragically, the architecture of our healthcare buildings of the past century have offered quite the opposite.

Salutogenic Design in contemporary healthcare architecture:

salutogenic-design-carol-r-johnson-associates

Above Left: Credit Valley Hospital, Ontario, Canada, by Farrow Partnership ArchitectsAbove Right: The Dana Farber Cancer Institute by Carol R. Johnson Associates

While we are all aware that our physical environment has an impact on our mental well-being, much of the public architecture of the post-war years in the west has not been created with our human needs in mind. The scientific and evidence based research which is being carried out by sociologists, medical professionals and designers to promote the salutogenic model will hopefully justify what Bill Millard refers to in his article in Architect Magazine, as common sense:

“In some respects, salutogenesis applies simple common sense to the relationship of environments, bodies, and minds. What makes it a coherent school of thought is its reliance on interdisciplinary research, connecting biomedical knowledge with an explicit mission to place human well-being—not financial imperatives—at the center of creative strategies.”

Bill Millard, Architect Magazine, January 2012

Film Photography, Long Exposure and Walter Benjamin

Dominic Pote October 28, 2013

The longest ever exposure?

Following on from my last blog post which looked at long exposure photography and the writings of Walter Benjamin, I would like to share the work of Michael Wesely, a German photographer who makes incredible exposures which last up to 3 years! His photographs reveal the developments of Berlin, a city which has changed dramatically over the past decades. In just one of Wesely's photographs he shows the destruction of the old and construction of the new, all within a single frame and captured on one piece of photographic film. Michael Wesely has been using his non-digital, film photography process since the 1990's using mostly black and white through to recent years when he has also used colour. From 2001 - 2004 he documented the demolition and reconstruction of Moma (The Museum of Modern Art) in New York.

Changing position of the sun recorded on film

Wesely's photographs are far removed from the modern snap-shot and could be said to reinforce Walter Benjamin's notion of 'aura'. They reveal the transitory nature of urban construction, an absence of human life (since we move too much to register on the film!) and at the same time reveal the movement of the earth over the year(s) through the light lines which record the different positions of the sun throughout the seasons.

More about the interesting work by Michael Wesely can be found here:

http://www.wesely.org/wesely/gruppe.php?var=potsdamerplatz

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/119

Download two photography essays by Walter Benjamin...

From feedback from my last post, many people were interested to know more about Walter Benjamin so I have posted his two essays on photography for download here. Click this link to download the essays (no registration required)

http://www.dominicpote.co.uk/walter-benjamin/

The aura of long exposure photography

Dominic Pote October 23, 2013

Long exposure photography and the notion of ‘aura’

When I look at early portraits such as those by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, I cannot help but feel that they capture an essence, an honesty that the modern snapshot so often fails to achieve. I see a sense of time and what Walter Benjamin referred to as the ‘aura’ of the person. There is a softness in the eyes, simply caused by blinking during long exposure photography and there is an absence of mimics and grimaces since any momentary facial movements could not be captured. So the face is captured in its most natural state in contrast to the modern snap shot which we are all too familiar with –in which we are often captured in unflattering split second mimics.

“The procedure itself caused the subject to focus his whole life in the moment rather than hurrying on past it: during the considerable period of the exposure the subject as it were grew into the picture, in the sharpest contrast with appearances in a snapshot…”

Walter Benjamin, A Short History of Photography published in 1931

Above left: David Octavius Hill with Robert Adamson. Lady Elizabeth Eastlake. c. 1844

Above right: David Octavius Hill (Scotland, 1802—1870) and Robert Adamson (Scotland, 1821—1848), Portrait of a Lady, c. 1845, salted paper print from a calotype paper negative.

Through the dissection of time, time itself is absent

The short exposure enables us to capture 'reality' - or as I might call it, a 'slice of reality' - in detail, but I feel it also removes a dimension of reality - the dimension of time. Time does not stop in our experienced reality and we are not able to stop a fraction of a second in our minds as the camera does. Time by its very nature is continuous. The short exposure reveals to us what we are actually unable to experience with our eyes, but through this dissection of time, time itself is, in most photographs, absent. The long exposure on the other hand allows movement to leave its mark, suggesting the passing of time which is closer to our experience of time.

“If, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which casts its shadow over you, you experience the aura of those mountains, of that branch. This image makes it easy to comprehend the social bases of the contemporary decay of the aura. It rests on two circumstances, both of which are related to the increasing significance of the masses in contemporary life. Namely, the desire of contemporary masses to bring things “closer” spatially and humanly, which is just as ardent as their bent toward overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by accepting its reproduction. Every day the urge grows stronger to get hold of an object at very close range by way of its likeness, its reproduction.”

Walter Benjamin – Art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1936

Riva Degli Schiavoni, Venice, 2007

Attempting to capture the aura of a place

“the withering of the aura thus corresponds to the destruction of the depth of subjective experience in modernity.”Walter Benjamin

When I first began taking photographs seriously I was often disappointed when returning from a shoot. Although I may have captured that place technically well and shown in a few images how it looks, I never felt that a photograph captured how it really felt when I was there.

In the same sense that Walter Benjamin wrote about the aura of people in portraits, I feel that landscape too has an aura. I want to capture a feeling of place and for me the obvious approach was to allow more time to be recorded by the camera. When walking through a landscape (or a city) I do not want to stand still and frame a moment but rather to allow the place and my journey through it be recorded on the film. I hope that through the long exposure onto film and my movement with the camera through a space, time is captured not as a momentary fragment, but as an impression which reveals the aura, the essence of that place.

uk-panoramic-landscape-photography-oxenhope-moor

Oxenhope Moor, Yorkshire - from the Uk Landscapescollection

Read more about David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson:http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=1293

Read about Walter Benjamin here:http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/walter-benjamin-art-aura-authenticity/

View more work from my Venice serieshere

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photography workshops

Dominic Pote October 9, 2013

Photography Workshops and Talks

Over the years I have been asked to give talks about my work to various groups of people ranging from school children to the elderly, in places ranging from community centres to corporate offices. I have organized pinhole photography workshops for primary school groups, taught creative photography modules for A-level students and run community engagement arts projects.

Following on from this, I have now decided to offer photography workshops and photography talks which can be booked by the hour, day or as a series of workshops. Rather than offering fixed workshops, I hope to develop the format and content of each workshop/talk depending on the needs and interests of each group.

Follow the link below to download a Pdf document which outlines what I could offer for photography students from Further Education through to Higher Education. I feel that there is a need to connect students of photography to the world of professional practice which awaits them and I hope that I can offer some insights which may help them on their way. Ideally each workshop can be custom designed to suit the needs of each course/student group. Workshop fees are negotiable, depending on number of hours/days/sessions and on any travel and materials required.

www.dominicpote.co.uk/contact/workshops

If you would be interested in arranging a workshop or presentation for your school, company, club or community group, please get in touch.

Creative Photography and Pinhole Photography workshops for schools, clubs, corporate groups, camera clubs and community groups. Talks and workshops about my fine-art panoramic photography, experimental photography, pinhole photography, landscape photography, non-digital photography, photography field trips, career development workshops for art and photography students, portfolio reviews.

Please enter your email address below to receive updates about art and health and related topics by Dominic Pote Fine-Art Photographer

Artwork for Palliative Care Hospice

Dominic Pote July 4, 2013

Park Lime Pits

“We used to play here as kids, paddling in the water, catching sticklebacks. There were never any adults around, just us kids playing around, carefree. Then later in 1957 this was my courting place as it was for many couples who wanted to go somewhere quiet to get away from it all. We would walk down from Ryecroft down the path by the cemetery. It was known then as the Sixty Steps and would take you down to Park Lime Pits.”

Park Lime Pits was specifically made as an artwork for palliative care. This piece was made as a commission for the St Giles Palliative Care Hospice in Walsall. Through visits to the “Friday group” at the Day Centre, I got to know some of the people who were about to move into the newly built Palliative Care Hospice.

Park Lime Pits was a local nature reserve, one of which many of the people at the hospice had stories to tell. For one elderly lady it was a place where she once used to meet or ‘court’ with her partner in the evenings, another remembered spending days playing down there with other children, trying to catch fish and generally messing around freely in the pond. For others it was a place to go for a quiet walk, to spend some contemplative time.

A place of sanctuary

To me, this place did not hold any of these memories, I was very much an outsider, not even a local. I visited this small nature reserve, centered around a large pond, many times over a period of 5 months. I walked around at sunrise, at sunset, on winter mornings and summer afternoons until slowly I found the view I wanted to capture. It was very obvious view from the main approach along a footpath down to the pond, but somehow that was the essence of this place, the discovery of a pool of water in a wooded hollow in the landscape. There was a feeling of something hidden within the landscape, a place kept safe, private, away from the open skies. From the stories people shared with me about Park Lime Pits, I felt that it was a magical place, a place of innocence and freedom. A place where time did not matter. Time here, whether it was now or 50 years ago, was one. This was a place of retreat, of sanctuary.

Embracing the notion of memory with artwork for palliative care

Making artwork for palliative care was quite a different experience to other healthcare commissions I had worked on. Most of the people I talked to about this place will probably never have the chance to visit it again in their lifetimes. This had a sobering impact on me but also made me want to really capture the essence of this place. So it was so important to capture it just how it was for them, and how it is for them- still vivid in their memories.

I was planning to photograph this location for the main reception of the hospice and knew that it had to be a vertical image and that it would be a light box. I wanted it to have the feeling of a view into another world, like a sneak preview of a hidden garden, a rich habitat of fervent green undergrowth and tranquil waters. The fact that in reality now it might have been a pond with the occasional shopping trolley, car tyre or beer can, really did not matter. This piece was to be about memory and in honour of real human memories, those which live on beyond the everyday experience of life.

artwork-for-healthcare-buildings-st-giles-hospice

Park Lime Pits, 300 cm x 120 cm Light Box, installed in the reception of St Giles Palliative Care Hospice

While this image was my preference for the reception of the hospice, I wanted to first get feedback from the people whose memories it was to represent. At the Day Centre, there was an overwhelming vote for this image and subsequently the Creative Development team, NHS steering group and the architects all agreed that this was the piece.

More images from this commission can be seen here:

http://www.dominicpote.co.uk/commissioning-artwork/walsall-commission/

Click on the logos below to go to the Walsall St Giles Palliative Care Hospice and the Walsall Creative Development Team website:

walsall-arts-into-health-logo

Art for Hospitals – the healing process

Dominic Pote June 7, 2013

A case study on the benefits of art for hospitals

The relationship between art and therapy has existed since the beginnings of humanity. In ancient times the figure of the healer and artist would often overlap.The shaman in many primitive cultures would play the role of a healer and incorporate art such as dance, visual art, music, etc. in his healing processes. It was believed - actually throughout the whole human history - that soul and body were connected and the attempt to heal the body was not done without an attempt to heal the soul. There is an ancient Roman and Greek proverb: Mens sana in corpore sano (in Greek: Νοῦς ὑγιὴς ἐν σώματι ὑγιεῖ - "Healthy spirit in healthy body"). Even in Christianity the first icon-painter, St Luke the Evangelist, was also a doctor.

Our physical health goes hand in hand with our mental and emotional health. We need to be healthy, but we also need to feel healthy. Art is connected to the human spirit; we are creative beings, whether it is to create or to experience a created work. Art gives us strength, inspiration and a feeling of being alive. All this applies to all kinds of art and creativity in general, but even more so to visual art. Out of the five senses, the sense of vision is the most developed one in humans. Have we not heard the expression: "The eyes are the windows of our minds"?

So while it may seem that the idea of art for hospitals is something new, it is in fact an old concept which has been somewhat abandoned in recent times and only just making a come-back.

“There are ample reminders of art placed in hospitals in previous centuries. William Hogarth's 18th-century painting "Pool of Bethesda" still hangs on the grand staircase of Bart's Hospital. But paintings were often banished from the wards by the post-war trend of brutal minimalism that swept through hospitals and other public buildings. It is only in recent years that hospitals have witnessed a modern renaissance.”

Dr Lee Elliot Major, The Independent, 2008

Hogarth's Painting "The Pool of Bethesda" in the stairwell of Bart's Hospital, London

The Burns Centre, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham - bringing a sense of light and nature into the clinical space

The Burns Centre before installation of artwork

Above: before and after artwork installation

I was commissioned alongside two other artists (Kate Green and Mark Renn) to make a body of artwork for the new Burns Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. The new hospital, completed in 2010, is a modern state-of-the-art building in many respects but due to its design with internal courtyards, some departments such as the Burns Centre found themselves relocated to new spaces with little or no natural daylight. The 15 spacious and private patient rooms all have windows but only to the internal courtyard where daylight hardly reaches. Artists were therefore brought in to bring a sense of light and the outdoors into the Burns Centre. The function of the artwork was intended to have both environmental and psychological benefits.

Speaking to staff and patients, I soon realised that there was a desire for light and nature, particularly horizons and long reaching views which they were otherwise deprived of during their stay. Many critical patients stay from days to weeks or months in the department and for many it is a place of rehabilitation after serious surgery. For many the corridors of the centre are the areas in which they begin to walk and get out and about again for the first time. My brief was to make artworks for these corridors.

Artwork to help the rehabilitation process

The artworks I made act as 'way-markers' not only for navigating around the centre but also as individual ‘goals’ for rehabilitation patients to reach as they become more mobile. It was therefore essential to discuss the project with patients before making the work. Patients spoke of wanting to see nature, to see a big horizon, trees, water and the sky.It was decided to make the body of photographs within the catchment area of the hospital, therefore keeping it local and also with the addition of plaques with maps, hopefully each of the photograph represents a ‘real’ place that they can go and explore for themselves one day. Both patients and staff were happy to talk about places they would go for walks and time out and I soon had a long list of places to visit. I hope that with my artworks I offer the patients not only photographs of these places but also how it feels to be there.

Winter Woodland, 2012 A plaque was made for each piece to identify the

location and to encourage people to go and

find places for themselves

Cool colours for Burns Centre

Colour was an important factor to consider when making work for the Burns Centre. Since many patients are coming in having suffered burns from heat or fire, a cool, soothing colour palette was desired. Thankfully it was winter and I was able to take advantage of the frosty mornings and even some snow on the hills around Birmingham.

Psychologists report on impact of artwork in hospital

From the early stages of this project a psychologist was involved to assess the improvements made. A survey was carried out before the art was installed and then three months later. Before, staff reported that patients would complain about the blank walls, lack of things to look at and absence of daylight. After the installation of artwork, there was a noticeable difference in the comments from patients and staff, a general consensus of a better feeling.

As a result of the project, comments such as "the rooms were boring and offered little distraction", coming from patients and staff, were reduced by more than three quarters.

Some of the comments recorded in a survey before and after the installation of artwork:

Time 1 – prior to artwork installation

Time 2 - after artwork installation

“Boring, nothing to look at”

“It’s a talking point”

“Blank walls need brightening up”

“The pictures give a bit or respite from being stuck in a room”

“monotonous”

“The pictures have a calming influence on the corridors and reception”

“Lack of distraction”

“Patients are walking up to pictures in corridors”

In terms of improvements to the clinical environment, the report suggests that as a result of the artwork, patients and staff were beginning to feel more positive about their surroundings. Besides the visual, 'decorative' function of my work, I do hope that the presence of my work will also offer spiritual healing to some people, to offer contemplation, to inspire imagination and ultimately to give hope.

When I sometimes receive feedback from patients who contact me, explaining how my work helped them during their stay in hospital, it all seems worthwhile. If art can supplement the healing process, then surely it has a place in our hospitals as it does in our lives.

artwork-for-healthcare-buildings-clent-hills-sunrise

Original limited edition photography - what is a limited edition print

Dominic Pote April 23, 2013

Original Limited Edition Fine Art Photography

Thoughts on Limited Edition Photography

Like many photographers working today, I produce my prints in limited editions. The practice of editioning photography is one which has developed from nineteenth century printmaking, where only a limited number of prints could be made from a plate before print quality would begin to deteriorate. So what is the idea of 'original limited edition photography'?

Photography - an image endlessly reproduced?

Photography by its very nature is endlessly reproducible and so there is no difference in quality from the first print to the hundredth. However, photographers using the medium as an artistic expression hope to retain an element of originality by restricting the number of prints they make. There are valid arguments against the editioning of photographs, many of which I sympathize with and still often contemplate. There is the view that limited editioning is market-driven, encouraged by galleries to promote sales. There must be some truth here too.

Limited edition – preserving the originality of a piece of work

From my point of view, I make limited editions partially to offer the collector a unique investment in my work, but also it is about protecting the originality of what I do. There are days, weeks even months behind the capturing of some of my photographs. Photography is essentially about time, but I want to show something of that which is beyond the constraints of time. For me it seems appropriate to make limited editions, not to restrict the sharing of my work, but to preserve the ‘magic’ of an unrepeatable process. Perhaps unlike the technically concerned photographer, I relate more to the traditional painter, rooted rather in time as an experience and as a means of expression, than in time as a framed, captured split second, frozen by technology and always reproducible, mass producible, transferable.

Limited edition or open edition?

However, as I said, I do still ponder upon the notion of original limited edition photography and have been interested to read various views on this, many of which can be found on blogs and forums. The practice of open editioning is an interesting one, as it does not define a limit, whilst still ensuring the collector receives a signed, numbered print. Whilst most of my photographs have limited editions available, some have sold out and some are near reaching the end of their edition. I wonder now how I would feel if somebody really wanted to have a print of one of my sold out photographs. I would not print beyond my agreed limited edition size, as this was the promise. However, as an artist I do want to share my work with those who appreciate it. Does the limited edition system not go against this ethic? I am not going to alter my existing editions as this would be wrong, but I do wonder how to proceed in future. Could perhaps a hybrid system be the best, in which I could offer both a limited edition at one size and an open edition in another?
I would be interested to read your comments.

Some Quotes I like....

“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
―Edward Weston

“A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is thereby a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.”
― Ansel Adams

“We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”
―Andy Goldsworthy