The Place I Long For, The Place I Yearn represents the duality of my heritage. It is a photographic journey of my route from Manchester to Mountmellick, Ireland. I have concentrated on thresholds of all kinds to reference the concept of borders and to reflect my feeling of belonging in the in-between space. This is also what influenced the composition of this book; not only has the book been bound to have two sides of the journey that meet in the middle, separated by a border; the order of photographs reflect the journey chronologically with them meeting in the middle both physically and through the photographic content.
Research
This piece began with my trip to Ireland which was encouraged during my mid-unit review and which I also felt necessary to immerse myself back into the culture. It was also important to relive the journey across on the boat and document it and as I hadn't been on the boat in many years it was interesting to see how little had changed.
There was a significance in the form of travel being the ferry not only to relive the journey I would take as a child when visiting family multiple times a year, but also as the vessel is the bridge that connects the two countries whilst also bringing you away from eachother, again, referencing thresholds and places of transition/ waiting. Another reason for the boat was when I was researching liminal spaces, a ferry kept resurfacing as a place with multiple areas of liminality with its corridors and stairs and the sounds the boat makes.
I would say this was the most important task of my research thus far as not only could I visit family, I took the time to experience the journey and document my feelings throughout.
During my trip to Mountmellick, I visited the embroidery museum. the most influential aspect of Mountmellick as a town throughout history was its involvement in the textile industry. This is what gave the town its name of 'the Manchester of Ireland' which is why I thought the research into the embroidery was so necessary. To understand the craft that connects my two hometowns.
The embroidery has a standard of white thread on white cloth with intricate details of mostly nature-based imagery. I was so interested in the white on white to have such detailed embroidery on something you can hardly see. I also think this adds to the beauty of it.
This is what inspired the way I designed the cloth of the book.
To learn such a skill takes years of dedication and I did not want to disrespect the trade by trying to rush the process by learning it within weeks or months. This is something I will learn throughout my future years.
Process
Learning new software: InDesign to create the layout of the book. Having some images overlapping the middle of the page to represent crossing over thresholds.
Deciding how to bind the book: I did a perfect bind which was a new method I hadn't tried yet. I was originally going to have just two separate books that go alongside eachother, however decided it was too simple and separated the two identities too much. I wanted to bring them closer to eachother yet still have a border in-between.
I decided to have the books back to back with the hard cover extending between them, simultaneously dividing them and connecting them reflecting the physical space that separates and connects them.
This reflects in the order of the photographic content as the images in the first book start in Manchester and end on the boat and the other side of the book the images start on the boat and end in Mountmellick, reflecting the physical journey I took.
Wanting to put symbols on each cover to represent each culture, deciding to screen print them on as a way to use the process to really spend time with the book as an attempt to hold onto both aspects at the same time. The symbol for the Manchester side is a beer mat that is part of my collection from Manchester pubs. The symbol on the Ireland side is a scan of the Mountmellick embroidery.
I wanted the finish on the prints to have a textural element to them to reflect the raised feel of the embroidery so I used thermography powder and a heat gun on the wet ink to form the raised effect.
Further Development
Digital Collage 2024
Digital Collage 2024
Digital Collage 2024
Digital Collage 2024
Returning back to my roots of collage, I did a miniseries of collages using the photographs I took on the trip. I aimed to use the images that included a threshold of some sort and replace what would have been through each one. This is a more surreal take on crossing borders and connecting two places.
Another development I made during the trip was two more photographic series'. One being me carrying the original sacred heart of Jesus photograph from my England home with me as a way of holding onto one side of my culture during my trip. I chose this object as it is something that is present in many Irish homes yet it is something very specific to my English home as it is not used as much here.
The other photographic series consisted of only the interior of a cabin on the boat. I brought with me the large format print of the sacred heart object. The reason I got the cabin was because I was replicating the idea of a home environment, to have a bed is one of the most homely, comforting things one can have in a home, so I wanted a way of expressing my desire to have a home directly in-between my two homes. I brought the large format print as a memoir of something I knew belonged in both homes and as a comfort knowing they both sill exist there without me having to witness their existence.
