John Woodman
2021The Separation
John Woodman
The Separation is a reflection on light, duration and transformation. Filmed in one continuous take at a constant aperture, moonlight on the sea surface is intermittently revealed and obscured by clouds, presenting a reflexive and phenomenological viewing experience.
The Separation
Bridge
John Woodman
A 16mm film of the changing reflections of a bridge over the lake in the grounds of South Hill Park, Berkshire, which links a public thoroughfare. The film can be thought of as a metaphor for the representational process and the cinematic ‘apparatus’ itself, with the ‘bridging process’ connecting the ‘real’ bridge with its representation as a reflected image on water surface, the reflected image on water to camera and film emulsion, the projected film image to the screen and the screen to the film viewer in the cinema. To push this still a stage further, it acts as a metaphoric link between theory and practice (a stills sequence from Bridge appeared on the first page of the first edition of Undercut Magazine).
Bridge
Beech Tree
John Woodman
This two image comparative film celebrates a Beech Tree through changes in light, space and time, represented in the film in transitions between light and shade (LS) and visibility and obscurity (RS). The film is silent and made handheld over a period of 10 years from 2010-20
Beech Tree
From Four Seasons
John Woodman
From Four Seasons is a four screen time-lapse film made as comparative study of changing light and movement in a garden shot in four seasons. The camera was positioned to frame a garden space by dividing it into four quarter sections one shot in the Summer and the other 3 in the Autumn, Winter and Spring. Each section of the film was shot ‘in camera’ as a time-lapse over a 24 hour period, including the night, at 1 frame every 25 seconds, creating a distinctive filmic register and viewing ‘rhythm’. Each film section was first projected on its own as a separate quarter, each moving sequentially in a clockwise direction within the projection area. In the last part of the film the four seasons are projected together to make up a whole image of the garden space.
From Four Seasons
November Morning
John Woodman
Through a long continuous take filmed on a cold November morning in Cumbria, UK. The video presents the spectator with a ‘real time’ phenomenological experience of change, transience and transformation. As the mist begins to clear more of the landscape is gradually perceived. The mist also works as a screen to both reveal and obscure the intensity of the suns light. Eventually the mist returns and once again the video space is changed.
November Morning
Beech Tree-Appearance
John Woodman
The Tree is fast becoming an important symbol for the anthropocene at this time of increasing climate change and our diminishing biodiversity. This film was made over a 10 year period from 2010-20 as a result of close observation of a Beech Tree in different weather conditions.
Beech Tree-Appearance
