Niki Feijen Photography of Isolation and abandoned objects.
The context behind the photography of abandoned places and
objects by Photographer Niki Feijen is to captivate and conveying the sense of
‘lost’ moments or memories of old frozen in time, through the use of subject
matters such as furniture, ornaments, beds, chairs and clothes. The visual
connotations are to represent the nostalgic emotion where one revisits places
from the past, an urban exploration of the homes that were left untouched since
their owners had departed.
(1a)
(1b)
(1c)
Looking into the photography book of Niki Feijen’s “Disciple of Decay”, the composition and
subject matters plays a key role in capturing the essence of isolation and the
hauntingly beautiful landscapes of homes and objects that were once filled with
life, laughter, joy and personal associations. Delving back to the past by revisiting places of old
that we once lived in brings in the emotion of nostalgia, where we reflect on
the simpler times we have when we were in our youths.
Nostalgia is one of the strong emotions I always go through
as I often reflect on my memories through old objects or revisiting places I
have not been for many years that makes me who I am as a person. I will deconstruct
the photography of Feijen to explore the effect of how composition, lighting,
framing and context can tell a story or narrative through various photographic
techniques. Loneliness also ties in with the emotion of nostalgia where
singular objects often conveys the sense of isolation, the refusal of letting
go of the past or to leave a mark behind as a reminder.
Quick photographs exploring composition and object placement using the rule of thirds. Framing is also key as minor details in the background or
foreground can contribute heavily on how you want to portray the object or
environment, including negative space.
While the framing and composition are important to capture
the essence or moments in time, I will attempt to take some of Feijen’s
photographs and manipulating the composition by altering the shape and size of
each photograph. Changing the size or making the photo to focus on one
particular object and excluding the rest can help to express the importance of objects
and ornaments that will represent nostalgia, as they are normally associated with
personal attachments to the past. Colouring is also something that I think will
play a role as a visual language to make the viewer feel personal towards the
subject matter in a way that they will too, reflect on their past or childhood.
Cropping out sections of some of Feijen’s photographs to see
if the alterations of the composition has an effect on how we perceive its
context. Shifting the framing and the focus could change the way how we observe
and interpret the imagery, as it can change our perspectives on what is
important within the camera frame.
Desaturating the colours of the photos to black and white,
as greyscale photographs generally associates and represent the ‘past’,
memories of old, or to document our history.
Applying a similar formula from Feijen’s photography of visiting
old places, I had revisited my old hometown where I had spent the first 8 years
of my life. I had brought with me an old clock which was given to me by my late
grandfather many years ago when I was a child. The old clock, out of other
objects that I could have chosen, is perhaps the most symbolic, as it
represents the ‘time’ of my childhood (the clock representing time) and the
nostalgia. It was a little difficult trying to incorporate both the object and
the setting itself, as it was hard finding a right location to situate my
object in. The locations I visited in my hometown are the areas I closely grew
up with, and I desaturated the colours to black and white or to a singular hint
of colour to represent the ‘past’. The aim of the object is for it be on its
own in an environmental setting that I once grew up in, which will enforce the
idea of nostalgia, by combining the visual elements of the object that
represents the ‘time of childhood’ and the familiar setting from the past.
My conclusion to the investigation in Niki Feijen’s
photography in capturing the sense of nostalgia through the use of objects/ornaments
to represent the past. Following the earlier photo experiments in using a
familiar object from childhood, I combined the idea of changing the surrounding
environment to greyscale gold to represent the warm, fuzzy feeling of nostalgia
of my hometown, with the idea of leaving the object in the photo unchanged and
unedited, as a visual connotation to represent its relevance to my childhood
that makes me who I am as a person. This idea is informed from photography that
combines black and white photographs with colours, where certain objects remains
in colour, similarly in the film, “Schindler’s
List”, by Steven Spielberg, a black and white film that shows a scene with
a girl in her red ‘coloured’ coat, a visual metaphor that is symbolic to
represent the innocence of the people.
(2)
The location of my conclusion could have been better,
however I chosen an area where there is decay (to reflect on Feijen’s
photography of decaying environments) to represent the aging hometown that has
not changed over the years since I have left.
References
(1a) Feijen, 2013
(1b) Feijen, 2013
(1c) Feijen, 2013
(2) Spielberg,
1993
Bibliography
Feijen, N. (2013) Disciple
of Decay. Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The Art of Urbex.
Schindler’s List,
1993. Film. Directed by Steven SPIELBERG. USA: Universal Pictures, Amblin
Entertainment.
