Having printed my pictures and sourced the frames I have now put my photographs on display in the clubhouse at the football club that I have been collaborating with. The space I have exhibited my work is a multi use utility room that initially I didn’t consider using. However, since lockdown measures begun to ease and the complex was able to be used again. The room has taken on a new life and is being used as a registration point for people entering the space. The room is used for participants to have their temperature checked and  have their details recorded as part of COVID measures, therefore the room will have a much larger audience than previously expected with people passing through on a daily basis. 

Having done my research and considering the space, I chose to make a range of small prints, evenly spaced out which requiring an audience to move around the room and stop to look at the images individually. Wells (2004:278) advocates this approach when she states ‘very small scale work, carefully mounted and framed, inherits the sense of the precious associated with miniature painting. It demands close up and detailed looking. Preciousness is emphasised if individual works are hung with space between them.’ Wells’ assertion provided a loose guide to placing my photographs ensuring that I considered the size of the photographs, how I would present the photographs in addition to how I would arrange and space the photographs. In conjunction with the limitations of room, the choices I made were simple but lend themselves well to what I had to work with. 

The motivation to place prints in opposite parts of the room was influenced by the ideas of Bishop (2005) who suggests that the ‘need to move around through the work in order to experience it activates the viewer’. As the space is in direct alignment with the subject matter of the photographs, the room meets with a type of union with the photographs. Footballs are stored in the room in addition to kits and trophies ready to be awarded. All of which are objects that may act to form traces of the game. This makes an interesting contrast to my photographs which illustrate the human element of the space as I chose to encompass the players and coaches in the work. 

I chose to place the photographs in black frames, partly to enhance the sense of the precious as stated earlier. Bishop also comments on the idea of creating a ‘portable window’. When reflecting on this, I felt that black frames sitting on a white wall would create a contrast that provides the viewer with a sense of looking through the wall such as a window.

I will collect initial feedback from the relevant stakeholders who frequent the building later this week and I will ask questions regarding their viewing experience regarding the framing and the spacing.

Bishop, C (2005) Instillation Art: A Critical History. London, Tate.

Wells, L (2004) Photography: A Critical Introduction, Third Edition. London, Routledge.