When I read the brief for assignment one I decided I would like to retrace somewhere I knew very well and that is Luxulyan Valley & Prideaux. This also gives me chance to base the photos around my childhood and to give viewers and insight into where I spent a lot of my time as a child and why these places mean so much to me.
Whilst looking through the practitioners recommended to me there was two that particularly caught my eye.
Firstly, Tom Hunter whom is a Professor at the University of the Arts, an artist who is specialised in photography and film. In 1994 Tom Hunter graduated from the London college of printing with this famous work, The Ghetto, this is now on display in the Museum of London. The reason Tom Hunters work appealed to me was because he explored his Neighbourhood and reconstructed stories and memories through his photographs which, is something I am aiming to do with my series of photos within this assignment. Tom focuses on using other worlds as well as our world/times to create mythical and psycho geographical landscapes. Although, I was not wanting to embrace the mythical side I did like his idea of embracing the ancient world and linking this to modern times, this gave me the push to look into the history of Luxulyan Valley so I too could try and capture the history within my photographs.
Whilst continuing to research more of Tom Hunter, I wanted to see whether there were any other photographs that could inspire me more. This is where I found his gallery and an album called ‘Findings’. In these series of photos Tom has captured what was once someone’s working life – similar to what I want to try and capture at Prideaux. Tom explains this album as capturing the ‘disappearing world – illuminating and documenting a special place’. The photos he had taken were of a working place that his Grandfather was involved in. Similarly, Prideaux is a place that my Father as involved in before all of the racehorses were sold. I really liked Toms thoughts behind these photos and hope to use these to expand my ideas for my series of photos.
Aside from Tom Hunter, the other photographer who I was interested in was Jodie Taylor. Jodie Taylor is a third year student with the OCA and was working on her advanced project. Jodie captured her childhood through a series of photographs that helped to form and create memories from her past. What really captured me about Jodie’s work was that her pictures weren’t particularly scenic they were photos of graffiti on garages, photos of overgrown back alleys yet the photos could tell you a story and you could almost visualise your own childhood there. This gives me confidence to go and take photos that are memories to me of my childhood regardless of whether they are of beautiful surroundings or not.
Next, I researched Luxulyan Valley. To really get the information within my photos of the history within the Valley I felt I needed to educated myself further on what the Valley use to be used for. I knew there was a lot of history held within it and often wondered what some of the buildings were and what they were once used for. I knew there was a group called friends of Luxulyan Valley that help to look after and maintain the area so I looked them up and saw that Stephen Austin wrote an article on the history of the Valley in 2008. The valley itself was used for variety of jobs. It was no good for farmland as it was too deep, although now I see there are some ponies grazing in the side fields. It was far to steep to build any housing estates on and it was too rocky to stream tin – but that did not stop it from having its uses. In Prideaux right near the valley there is a 2000 year old hill fort and deep in the valley appears to be some mediaeval dwellings. In 1730 vessels weighing a massive 80 tonne would moor at the Bays within the valley but unfortunately due to the tin streamers working at the top on Goss Moor it soon got filled with rock, sand and soil which, resulted in them no longer being able to stop there. The shoreline was pushed back 2 miles right back to Par Beach and over 500 acres got filled in with sediment. As Stephen Austin explained a man called Joseph Treffery inherited the Valley, he took on the challenge to build two inclined railways which lead to the mines. He then build the famous viaduct which is, 650ft long and 100ft high this was completed in 1842. Beneath the viaduct lay the waterchanel and water level was maintained by the 34ft wide waterwheel. This is what created the waterfall that my sister and I loved so much. The valley is also well known for its china clay and china clay trains weighing 1400 tonne still pass through the valley today.
Austin, S (2008) Luxulyan Valley – An Historical View. http://www.luxulyanvalley.co.uk/history/ (Date accessed: 17/04/2019)
Hunter, T http://www.tomhunter.org/info/ – (Date accessed: 16/04/2019)
Hunter, T http://www.tomhunter.org/gallery/findings-2/(Date accessed: 16/04/2019)
Taylor, J (2013) Memories of childhood https://weareoca.com/subject/photography/photography-and-nostalgia/ Date accessed: 16/04/2019
Heather Wade OCA Blog 