Summer of Scottish Heritage - Summer Project.

My Summer project took place in Inverness in the Scottish highlands, where I set myself the task of a landscape project. The landscapes were not supposed to just be generic hills and trees, but I wanted my photographs to show the historical side of Scotland and showing where everything began. The visit was also a chance for my parents to drum into us where we came from, which doesn't sound great, but I've always been proud of where I came from and Scotland is where I have always thought of as my home, and after taking this trip I really got to know Scotland for what it truly is, and I'm hoping my landscapes will tell the story too.

As you do when you walk around places as beautiful as this I took thousands of photographs, so I narrowed everything down to my final images, that I think are suitable landscapes to represent Scotland, which can be found in this post, and after my essay (also part of the summer project), and the landscapes I took to support it.

Landscapes -
The photographs below are my final landscapes and a little bit of background so you know what they are about.


 Urquhart Castle - 

On our first day in Inverness, we walked two miles from Drumnadrochit to Urquhart Castle. In history,  Urquhart Castle was blown up by William of Orange in 1692 to stop it becoming occupied by the Highland tribe the Jacobites, and after the attack the castle was never re- built. The ruins are now owned by National Trust Scotland and is a large tourist attraction for Inverness as it looks out over Loch Ness.

    Glen Affric - 

 Above is a series of photographs I took after each other of Plodda Falls, just outside the village of Tomich. 

I set my camera so that it would take a sequence of photographs just seconds apart. When I went back through the photographs I could see the photographs in my head in a quadriptych sequence to show the way the water fell in a short space of time.

This photograph was taken looking down onto the waterfall. The view from the top and the bottom of the waterfall was absolutely breath taking and I think that photograph looking down the waterfall shows how beautiful it really was.

A photograph of my brother on the rocks on the water at Dog Falls, a bit further down the road from Plodda falls, still at Glen Affric.

  
  Fort George - 

After the battle of Culloden in 1746, and defeating Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite army, (see post below) the British Government built Fort George under the orders of George II  to make sure there was no more unrest for the Jacobites. Fort George is still a working army barracks, as well as being open to the public to visit and get a better idea of 18th century army life. The first photograph above shows a landscape looking out from one of the Fort walls over the water at the top of the walls at Fort George. The second photograph is a landscape including some of the cannons used again on the top watch tower walls when Fort George was first built, and the third is a Landscape looking over the walls to the area where you can now watch for dolphins and whales.

Loch Ness

The first two photographs show a view of Urquhart Castle from across Loch Ness. The final photograph isn't actually part of my landscape project, but this duck swam most of the way across the Loch...then sat on our boat the rest of the way, which I found quite funny! 

Loch Ness is the biggest lake in the UK, and near Urquhart castle holds the deepest point at 227m (almost 755 ft). Overall, Loch Ness holds the greatest volume of fresh water in the UK, more than in England and Wales together. There is also the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, and the search for this creature goes back to 1934. Many people have witnessed something described as a 'Whale like object' but nothing has ever really been proven. There is also the tale of the Christian missionary to King Brude of the Picts driving away 'a certain water monster' in the River Ness, dating back to 565 AD. 

A Landscape looking out from the house we were staying in, and faint rainbow.

Finally, on the drive back down we pulled over and stopped to have a look at Glencoe. (My dad wanted to stop on the way up but it was raining, this is Scotland, remember!) Glencoe is one of Scotlands most historic and scenic Glens, and is also famous for being the set location for one of the Harry Potter films. 

Evaluation 

When my parents first told us that our holiday for this year would be at Loch Ness I honestly thought they were joking, but they weren't. But I went because I knew Glasgow because it's where I'm from, but I never new Scotland. I'd never really seen the trees and the hills and the water and learned the history, and all of it was really amazing and some of the scenery really was breath taking. These were also the kind of holidays my parents took as children, so it seemed like a right of passage too. I took so many photographs, but for my project I chose the ones that I felt reflected the places I went the best. My favourite thing about some of these photographs is some of the cloud formations, they're amazing. My favourite place was Culloden Moor, just because of all the history behind it which all really stuck in my mind. I never used to like Landscape photography much, but setting myself this small project has shown me that Landscape photography can be interesting if you learn about the history of the Landscape itself, and I'm glad I chose to focus my project on an area that I wasn't so comfortable with, and in the future I'm looking forward to exploring more landscapes in different places and in different genres within the subject. 

Summer of Scottish Heritage -Summer Project - Exhibition Review - National Trust Scotland,Culloden Moor

This is the wall at the entrance to the Culloden Moor exhibition centre in Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. Before I entered the centre I knew I was Scottish, I knew that there had been battles in history that were both won and lost, but after going through this exhibition and walking along the battlefield, I felt about where I came from a lot differently.

                                   

If you aren’t really into history, then let me outline for you what I learned about the battle of Culloden; Most people go into the exhibition thinking this was a battle between the Scottish and the English for possession of the throne, but people don’t see it for what it actually was – a British civil war.

The battle was between two political groups; The Jacobites lead by ‘Bonnie’ Prince Charlie, made up of Scottish highlanders along with some Irish and French influence, and the British Hanoverian Government army lead by Prince William of Cumberland.  Most people are lead to believe that the British Government was an English army, but I learned that there were some Scots among them, meaning that within the battle some men were fighting against their own brothers, cousins and other family members. 

On the 16^th of April 1746 the Jacobites, tired and hungry but also driven and full of angst gathered at their lines (marked with a blue flag, which are still there today)  ready to fight, and the British Government army at there’s (marked with a red flag). The Jacobites finally charged at the Government army and as they got closer opened fire , to which the Government fired back with their canons and the battle began. Eventually the Jacobites were forced to retreat their forces and return to their lines but despite that, the Duke of Cumberland gave the order to his army to have ‘no mercy’ .  Nobody was spared.  In the space of forty five minutes in battle, around 2000 Jacobite soldiers were killed and 50 on the opposing side with around 300 men on the government army left severely wounded; the battle was over, and the Jacobite uprising had fallen.

The exhibition centre takes you on a series of events leading up to the battle, so you can understand more about it, eventually leading you to a room which shows four separate screens (one on each wall). On each wall appears both sides and before you know it you are in a 360 degree view of what the battle was like, and if that doesn’t speed up your heart rate I don’t know what will. The exhibition also shows you an interactive plan of the battle, paintings and drawings made illustrating the events, and some of the weapons and bullets found on the battlefield itself. 

Outside the exhibition centre you will see this wall which has bricks sticking out.  This isn’t just interesting architecture, each of this outward bricks is for each of the Jacobites who died here in the horrific battle of Culloden, at the very end of the wall there is a gap and then a further 50 bricks for each of the Government army soldiers who also died on the battlefield.

I found the exhibition centre overall a very interesting visit. The exhibition itself is fantastic and educational, but as soon as you step on to the battlefield there is a really eerie feeling, it’s the kind of feeling you get when you go to places like this, knowing how many people died in a battle that is very significant in British history.

Below are some landscapes from Culloden which relate with the rest of my project; 

A copy of the Declaration of Arbroath, signed in 1320 at Arbroath Abbey asserting Scotland's right to be an independent country - why the Jacobites fought AND something my dad made me put on my wall after our trip to Culloden. 

The stone says this is where the 50 British Soldiers were buried but historians have found that there is no trace of them actually being there at all. 

The Landscape above shows not even half of Culloden Moor Battlefield.

A memorial for all the Jacobite soldiers who died in battle on the day. 

A British line flag still blowing in the wind today.

Moving Image - Cancer Research

As part of our overall assessment, we had to do a collaboration on a moving image piece. The brief said 'make it something you're passionate about', so I got together with Natalie Adams and we came up with an advert for Cancer Research. We both decided that this was something we were both passionate about, and I know for me this disease has affected my family more than once. My Grandpa, fought with Cancer twice in his life not so long after each other, even though it wasn't the cancer that sadly took my grandpas life. I know that Natalie had similar experiences, so we decided to promote Cancer Research in hope that they can find a way to stop this horrible disease. We wanted to make the idea simple, so we talked about symbolism. We decided on a stock motion of an apple, watching as it has chunks taken off it and changes its colour, which represents the Cancer and then watching it build back up into it's full form, representing the cure, showing that Cancer can be beaten with the help of donations from the public. We enjoyed making this video, and we wanted it to be used for a good cause.

(Music by Jonathan Martin.)

Still Life - Toy Story Sins

I had a still life brief as part of my assessment to create a still life piece that could be used commercially. I began to look at Vanitas Still Life that began centuries ago and has been used in different ways ever since. Vanitas, means vanity and I knew for a fact Vanity is one of the seven deadly sins - something else that has been used commercially for years on end. So I decided to rein-act the seven deadly sins with Toy Story characters because they are well known, and I wanted to give my project some humour. I decided to use the toys for a campaign for keeping children young, as I know many people are shocked at the way children act these days. I hate to see and eleven year old girl acting and dressing like she's twenty three, because my early childhood was amazing, and I don't think that anyone should miss out on that. These are the photographs I ended up with. I had to try and make them both humorous and quirky so it did appear a challenge at times! I do think that some of my ideas worked better than others, in my opinion the strongest images are for Lust, Sloth, Anger and Gluttony; but I think it's just a matter of opinion and what different people find funny, but overall I'm pleased with my outcome. 

Anger

Envy 

Gluttony

Greed

Lust 

Vanity/Pride

Sloth

New York City - April 2011

Going across to the Statue of Liberty, the smoke blew out from the top of the ferry and I managed to catch it at this moment. I feel it gives the photograph a haunted feeling as the twin towers are no longer in the landscape.

One side of Ground Zero; a photograph of some memorial left for the service workers who lost there lives or went missing on that tragic day. 

The photograph above is a memorial created by the city to show there apprieciation for all of the Police, Firemen and Paramedics that lost there lives or went missing during the events of 9/11.

The Brooklyn Bridge.

A view from the Empire State Building.

Fortune Cookies from China town! (white balance is a bit off in the last photograph, I know!) 

'Top of the Rock' from the top of the Rockefeller Centre at night

Finally, Central Park. I found the memorial benches really beautiful, especially the 'Will you marry me?' bench.  My trip to New York taught me that they really are the surviving city and going to Ground Zero was a very surreal experience but I'm glad I did it because going there helped me understand a bit more about the effect it had on the City and the rest of the world. New York is a great experience, and I would tell anyone to visit if they could, but I would also say that it is one of these places you have to see for yourself and make your own mind up about.