Thursday 5 December 2013

Exercise: Analyse an essay on photography

For this exercise I had to read an essay from the course reader and answer some questions. I read the essay a couple of times and made notes, paragraph by paragraph, before writing up my summary (included at the end of this post). Once I was happy I had the gist of the essay down I tackled the questions.

In one sentence what is the central argument of this essay?

That a number of different critical ideas forming in the arts, film, and particularly the genre of documentary, helped to shape the discourse on black photography in the 1980s.  

The discussion in regard to photography is set within a larger socio-political framework. Do you feel this is justified by the evidence presented?

Yes, I do. A lot of discussion around representation and the nature of the truth of the documentary genre has a big part to play in any discussion on the subject of black photography. Likewise without a discussion around 'post structuralism' the analysis of the work of Robert Mapplethorpe would be difficult to unpick. Without the theoretical tools the analysis could not take place.

To what extent is the argument limited to Britain in the 1980s, and do you think it would be useful to refer to related movements in other countries?

Although the essay discussed identity and representation of black people in Britain at a certain time period the issues raised are relevant to all people everywhere - even now. The article, written in 1990, was attempting to sum up what had gone before in the previous decade. Changes in thinking since that time are not present in the essay so research on a wider scale would need to be conducted for a balanced overview of the issues. This would include taking into account current academic analysis on the subject of representation of black people in photography and documentary practice. 

It could be useful to make a comparative assessment of what is taking place in other countries in regards to the issues raised - even if only in passing reference. This could help to place the stance on the issues and photographers mentioned at that time into a wider socio-political context.

The essay raises the issue of eligibility - in this case, whether or not a photographer of black subjects should be black themselves. What are your views on this? What are the wider implications of this issue?

My view is that the individual has many sides to their personalities - some good, some bad, some contradictory. An individual cannot lay claim to represent the whole of a culture only an aspect of themselves within a particular culture. It can be argued that Mapplethorpe (as a white, gay, male) has produced work of black male nudes that are non conformist and contest a heterosexual binary gender system. One that had been adhered to by many black photographers at the time of the essay. Mapplethorpe is highlighting the existence of the heterosexual matrix and the absence of 'other' types of black men in photography.

It could be argued that a wider range of voices with differing opinion will help to break up the hegemony of a dominant patriarchal power structure. The representation of 'others' such as women, black, gay, and disabled people in this system could be shown to be stereotyping and non representative. The wider implications are that a post structuralist approach to representation (in all its forms) could help us strive for a more equal and fair society. 


    
My summary of 'The Vertigo of Displacement' by D Bailey and S Hall.

In the 1980s black photographers challenged and pushed the boundaries of photographic practice. Their aim was to question the representation of black people and the fixed meaning of images. Documentary photography at this time was undergoing a critical re-appraisal and the notion of 'truth' was challenged. Documentary had rested upon a foundation of realist classical texts that placed the viewer/reader in the essentialist position of guaranteed knowledge. For black photographers the challenge was to use the debate to replace negative images with positive ones. A campaign was started by organisations and individuals to provide access to the means of representation.

A further key element in the debate was the discourse around cultural studies and the issue of Hegemony. Black photographers began to explore the issue of control of language, representation and its institutionalisation - attempting to open up fixed positions of spectatorship. This was a move away from the documentary image and realism to a more avant-garde approach to disrupt the naturalistic ideology of truth by unseating the spectator from their position of guaranteed knowledge.

Post Structuralist theory moved the debate around representation of black people to the notion of the decentered subject. The theory argues that plural identities are always decentered and situational. That is, skin colour is only one aspect of being black, and that for instance, a black male may consider himself in different contexts mainly black, mainly male, gay/heterosexual, young/old. That being black does not override the other identities and that they shift along an axis such as class or gender and sexuality.

The decentered subject opened the door for the debate around the black photographer using an essentialist approach to represent all of black culture. This goes against the grain of post structuralist theory, arguing that black signifies a range of experiences and an individual black photographer can only represent a partial view of black experience. This view makes it equally possible for a white photographer with only limited understanding of the black experience being able to say something of significance to a black audience.

Using the theory of the decentered subject the author re-appraises the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and Rotimi Fani-Kayode. The former has been previously dismissed by critics as a white, gay, male, crossing the boundary of the dominant/subordinate cultural divide to photograph, appropriate, and fetishise the black male body. Similarly the work of Fani-Kayode, because of its obvious Mapplethorpe influence, has been seen as limited and restricted. The author argues that to only view the work of both practitioners in this way is an essentialist approach. That in one respect, Mapplethorpe does appropriate and fetishise the black male body. But, if the critic only looks at the work from this definition they are ignoring Mapplethorpes contestation of the dominant, one-dimensional, representation of black masculinity by a lot of black photographers. By using the decentered approach fixed meanings become unglued and parallel or opposing identities can co-exist.

A similar desire and contestation of the black male form can be found in Fani-Kayodes work. We can see that Mapplethorpe and Fani-Kayode both contest the dominant representation of black male masculinity while at the same time fetishising the male form. But, as a black photographer, Fani-Kayode cannot be accused of crossing the dominant/subordinate divide. So, if Fani-Kayode's work is to be assessed as valid from a decentered viewpoint then so must Mapplethorpes.

Ultimately the struggle for the means of representation still remain. If the representation of black society is controlled by a dominant power hierarchy and access to places where photographic work can be exhibited and discussed is restricted then you are 'not even in the game'. For those black photographers that make it through the gallery door it is necessary to ask what these photographers are doing in relation to discursive practices. There has to be a wide and diverse community that interrogates, evaluates and reconstructs histories that have previously ignored or misrepresented black society and there is a danger that the door will be closed after a small elite has gone through. (Bailey, 1990).



Reference:
Bailey, DA and Hall, S. (1990) 'The Vertigo of Displacement' in Bailey and Hall (eds) Critical Decade, Ten.8 Vo. 2/3. Birmingham: Ten.8.

Monday 2 December 2013

Heaven is a Place Where Nothing Ever Happens - experimental video

I've been working on a short piece of experimental film lately. I've always wanted to try out the recording facilities on my Nikon DSLR and also pick up some film editing skills. My first attempt used the cameras auto focus system. When I previewed the recording I noticed that the lens tracking can be quite plainly heard on the soundtrack - that seems a bit daft to me. What is the point in being able to record in HD quality video with a sound recording limitation like that? Perhaps I'm missing something. Anyway, I switched off the autofocus and tried again.

I made a short film on the south coast at Hastings and also incorporated some of my Holga stills from the same area. (using the Holga is my parallel artistic foray into using film cameras too!) I'm using iMovie for the post production and it seems quite intuitive for the sort of work I produced here.


 
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.mov from ammoniteM on Vimeo.


I wanted to encapsulate in my film some of the dreariness of the south coast at this time of year - where there never seems to be much going on. Although I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing - actually, I much prefer it really. Sometimes the coastal towns are far too crowded for my liking. I just think the place feels very different when there's hardly anyone about and most of the tourist businesses are closed. There is an air of melancholy that can be quite attractive and, as a photographer, I really enjoy having the time and space to explore when the towns are quieter. As I mentioned earlier I have also been experimenting with film for the first time with a Holga camera. The still images are of found objects and scenes that I felt compelled to record. I enjoyed sequencing them and working out how to include them in the film.

The films title is from a sign that I spotted on a Folkestone rooftop and I found the sentiment intriguing so I photographed it. It wasn't until later when I began to put the images together to make some kind of order out of my thoughts that I realised that the sign was actually an art installation that had been erected for the Folkestone Triennial. The work is called "Heaven is a Place Where Nothing Ever Happens" by Nathan Coley and my film could be considered an artistic response to the sentiment expressed in his work.

This film is a work in progress and I will be listing experimental pieces here under a new link on the right-hand sidebar of this blog so that I can keep them together and outside of the course assignments.

Edit: 4th December

The learning curve for just getting this film processed and uploaded has been high. There are so many settings to think about that are totally alien to me - bit rate for example. The first thing I noticed is that when the embedded video on this page is enlarged it becomes more pixelated. At first I thought I had made an error in one of my upload settings but when I go to the video's own page on YouTube it looks fine. In one way it's good that I haven't made an error, in another the quality of the film from this Blogger pages is not so good. I will now investigate Vimeo (my first choice anyway but had upload problems) to see if their embedded option is any better quality.

Edit:

New attempt using Vimeo to test quality of embedded video.


Friday 29 November 2013

Photography in a Connected Age - Study Day






I recently attended Photography in a Connected Age. A workshop consisting of lectures from practitioners of photography relating to photography in the digital age.

This event was attended by a number of OCA students as part of an official study day. We had a presentation from Roger Hargreaves who talked about the controlled use of social media by the Obama campaign using small compact cameras. He argued that it was an awareness of the importance of social media that helped Obama to win the election. The images shown during the talk gave an interesting behind the scenes insight into how much effort goes into American politics.

One of the lectures by Alexandra Moschovi seemed to revolve mostly around the use of the forthcoming Google Glass, a technology that intrigues me a little - but only a little...

Dr Loplop spoke about the spread of cat images across social media sites - illustrating how an image can begin life online quite innocuously as someones pet photo and evolve into more and more bizarrely manipulated combinations. I learnt a new word, 'lolcats' which seems to stand for cat images with funny text written across them. The talk was a strange and surreal experience but as a past frequenter of the website cats in sinks I'll think leave it there.

Jason Evans gave, for me, the standout talk - mostly about his practice. His determined energy for his work really brought his lecture to life. He seemed almost passionate and frustrated with photography in equal measure. I had always wondered what the coloured dots in many of his images were as he explained about the conceptual interpretation of the visual sparkles on water and light in a room at a certain time of day - How he liked to catch the essence of the things he photographs. His style of photography looks very fresh to my eyes and when studying other photographers (and my own) work afterwards, it can look staid by comparison. In my own work I am often drawn to this kind of image making and then frequently pull away in favour of more formal compositions. I've mentioned this before and I need to work through this and come to some sort of conclusion. As my tutor, Keith, once said, 'less is often more.'

Snippets of Evans politics and social conscience came through during the talk - he appears to have no time for the big corporations and money grabbing institutions. The teaching of photography in academia came under fire too. Being a student of photography this was very interesting to listen to obviously.

Evans spoke about the curriculum being far too narrow in its teaching. That all the universities and colleges were teaching from a set of academic ideas and theories arising from the 1970s and 80s. That they are outdated and have not moved on in their thinking. Which appears to be true to some extent. Certainly most of the critical theory for my current PWDP course contains these texts. I would argue though that as he was presumably once a student himself, then Evans has had this same foundation from which to build upon. A place is needed from which to strike out and question the nature of photography in order to move forward. As a mature student I enjoy reading these texts - it's all new to me and I get a lot out of them. Evans also admitted that he finds himself not suited to teaching in academia. That he has no interest in teaching photography using their narrow disciplines but rather prefers to help students find a way of learning a visual language in which to view the world. I think that's what he said, I was so engrossed in his lecture I didn't take any notes.

I feel I am learning a new visual language as I progress with this degree course. So, to be honest I'm not sure what he meant by that. Maybe the teaching is very different at other places. He gave a very interesting talk.

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Assignment 4

Today I began my research for Assignment 4. I will be looking at gender representation in photography. Mostly looking at it from the aspect of women as there has been much critical discussion around this subject.

I've looked at some of the relevant texts in the course reader. I decided to use the study method described in the course notes to paraphrase a paragraph at a time after a first read through. This enabled me to get to the gist of the text and has proved to be very useful.

Edit 23rd October:
Feeling a bit down today. Depression is something I have always struggled with. I've been reading essays from the course on the subject of the 'gaze' and making notes. I think I might only do a half day study today and slow down a bit to re-charge my batteries.

I've looked up some primary sources relating to the subject of gender representation and ordered them from the library.

My preparation strategy for my assignment is to do lots of research, make notes and then hope a topic or structure will somehow coalesce in my mind. This works for me visually with photography projects but I have a nagging worry that this isn't going to happen this time. Plan B is to do a bit more researching and reading and then contact my tutor with a plea for help.

That's it for now. I think a cup of coffee and a catch up with the Grayson Perry lecture on iPlayer is probably the best thing to boost my mood.

Edit 7th November:
I thought that I would be further on with my essay than I am. I had a huge amount of reading and research to do on my topic of gender representation in photography. There are so many side issues with psychoanalytic theory being one of the biggest topics to cover. I've read a number of essays including their primary sources. My tutor has also recommended a good book that really expands on a lot of the theories. It is hard going though and I'm having to stop at virtually every sentence to look up words that I've never come across before. I think I'm getting the gist of it though.

My research is mostly done and with half an eye on my end of November deadline I've begun to draw up an outline of my essay. I went back to the course notes and began by writing down a checklist of items that must be covered. Here's the list:

CHECK LIST:
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES
QUOTE PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKS/PHOTOGRAPHERS
EVALUATE ALL SOURCES
ASK THESE QUESTIONS:
  • WHAT IS WRITERS RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORK?
  • WHEN WAS THE ACCOUNT WRITTEN?
  • FACT OR OPINION?
  • OBJECTIVE OR BIASED?
  • IN A POSITION TO WRITE AUTHORITATIVELY?
  • WHAT RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE?
  • WHAT IS THE AUDIENCE AND HOW MIGHT THIS INFLUENCE THE ARGUMENT?
  • DON'T RELY ON WRITTEN SOURCES ONLY – EXHIBITIONS
  • MUST BE REFERENCED
THREE TYPES OF WRITING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY:
  • DESCRIPTION
  • INTERPRETATION
  • JUDGEMENT

CONCLUSION
REFERENCES



Once I had this down I turned back to my course notes and re-read the notes on how to construct the critical essay and transferred the information to my document:

TITLE
STATEMENT? – DEFEND
QUESTION? – ANSWER

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH - 150 WORDS
INTRODUCE THE QUESTION, STATEMENT

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND – 500 WORDS
DESCRIBE THE SITUATION/CONTEXT/HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

OUTLINE YOUR ARGUMENT – 200 WORDS
INTRODUCE THE ARGUMENT/ANSWER QUESTION
SUMMARISE AND INDICATION OF CONCLUSION

BODY OF ARGUMENT – 1000 WORDS
DEVELOP YOUR ARGUMENT PARAGRAPH BY PARAGRAPH
MENTION COUNTER ARGUMENTS, STATE POSITION
ANALOGIES TO PHOTOGRAPHY

CONCLUSION – 150 WORDS
RECAPITULATE AND SUMMARISE
DRAW CONCLUSION AND STATE HOW THIS AFFECTS OR IS RELEVANT TO YOUR OWN PHOTOGRAPHY


I found that by beginning my document in this manner I tricked myself into making a start - gets me past that blank page scenario!

There is always more research that can be done and there is a danger that it becomes a displacement activity for actually getting on and writing the essay. By creating a structure I put myself into writing mode.

Edit 14th November:

I'm really struggling with this essay. I've written about 1100 of the 2000 words so far and it is really hard going. I'm still on a first draft too so there is no end in sight for the next few weeks. I don't know why it it is but I feel like my thought processes are mired in treacle. I did loads of research on a topic that I find interesting and made copious notes so it should be such an easy matter to start pulling them together. I thought it would take me a couple of days to produce this essay but the actual writing is tortuous. I've only managed a couple of hundred words a day which is pitiful. I'm trying not to beat myself up over it though. I've put in place a couple of strategies to keep me going such as rewards for making a start each day - no matter how long it takes me to get some words out I allow myself a coffee and treat break or a trip into town when the sun is shining. I think I may have to pop out and get some fresh air today as well as I can feel my depression trying to get a grip and I'm determined to keep on top of it and not let my studies slip.

Edit 27th November:

It's finished! I did a re-read of my final draft last night. I was happy with it so I printed it out and asked my partner to have a read too. My tutor, Keith, advised at the start of this assignment that I get another person to have a look. Glad that I did as I had to make a couple of amendments just for clarity.  I spent today editing to lose a few hundred words - not easy! I'm still a little bit over the word limit. Then I checked the formatting instructions in the course notes and critical essay guide. I chose a font size, wide margins and double line spacing for my images and text so that the last few lines of paragraphs and image captions are not split across pages - I hate that. I still have until Friday to meet my end of month deadline so I think I will hang on to it and do another quick check tomorrow before sending it off.

I'm so relieved to get this essay off my hands to be honest. I spent far too much time on it. The writing just didn't come together as easily as I'd hoped. I never have a problem writing about my other assignments. I think my mood had a lot to do with. I've had a few mental health problems just lately and I've struggled.

Still, at least I don't have to think about the essay for a while now and can concentrate on catching up on pulling everything else together that I will need to get this course ready for assessment. I'm yet to start my final assignment so I don't think I will be any way near ready for March assessment - so it is looking like a summer assessment for the first time. I will start my next level 2 course in January, regardless. I still want to stay on track and try to complete a module a year.

Edit 6th January:

I'm a bit late in documenting my tutor feedback here as I received it before Christmas. On the whole the response was positive with some further research to be done (I have a book on order from the library and will post my thoughts here later) and there are a few minor grammatical errors to sort out.

I've also finished some background reading on women artists that I'd started well before my essay and took me a while to finish. My thoughts on it are here.

Edit 6th March: 

Today I began the edit of my critical essay. After a good few months break and with fresh eyes I was quite pleased with what I'd initially written. With that said I took into consideration my tutor's feedback and read his book recommendations. I've removed a couple of paragraphs from my essay to make way for some new thoughts. There were also a couple of reference typos to be amended. I think the changes have definitely tightened up the essay and improved it.

Edit 12th March:

I've undertaken some further research for my essay and written about the photographer E J Bellocq and his Storyville portraits. My thoughts can be found here.

My thoughts on the photographer Berenice Abbott can be found here.

Edit 17th March:

I've finally written the last draft of my essay. I've taken into account the points mentioned on my tutor feedback and incorporated them into my argument. This took me well over the word limit so a couple of superfluous (in the light of the new draft) paragraphs have been removed - I'm still over the word limit. I had a final look today and tweaked and removed some extra words - still over the word count though. I really don't think I can tighten up the essay any more so it is done and I can move on to other outstanding exercises for this blog in preparation for assessment. 

Monday 4 November 2013

A Workflow & Printing Workshop

I attended a one day workshop at the printspace on Saturday. The course aimed to instill a methodical workflow when working on digital image files to ensure a consistent and high quality output for printing. We began by learning about the importance of having our camera and monitor setup correctly (must get a monitor hood!) before moving on to configuring the Photoshop workspace.

Once all the basics were in place we then looked at our image files and workflow. My own workflow is not too bad - with the exception that I don't tend to mess around too much with colour correction or saturation. I am wary of these two settings because my colour blindness tends to skew any changes I make. The difficulty is that any subtle changes are not that noticeable to me so I can't see the point - and changes that I can see tend to look overdone. Luckily the camera's auto white balance does a pretty good job in most daylight situations and I rarely work with mixed lighting. I have picked up a couple of tips regarding how the colour balance and saturation sliders should be set for daylight images when printing. I will incorporate this info into my workflow and will review the results.

The course mostly seemed to firm up what I had learnt in the Digital Photographic Practice module which was good in the respect that I hadn't forgotten this knowledge and it was useful to run over it again and not let my standards slip.

I only use an outside lab as I cannot justify the cost of my own printer, paper and ink for my images. It is good to know I'm doing most of the right things like soft proofing and using paper profiles. I think I just need to practice, practice, practice, when it comes to printing. Because I'm conscious of cost (delivery charges being the downside of online labs) I probably don't print nearly enough to get my standards to a consistent level and to compare and contrast with different versions of the same image.

This is why I'd also find being part of a study group useful. To get advice and have a standard to compare with. On the whole I'd say it was a good day at the workshop and now I just need to do a lot more printing.  

Thursday 24 October 2013

Home Truths: More Thoughts

At the recent Home Truths: Motherhood, Photography and Identity exhibition I had a puzzling conversation with another student. Jason and myself had a difference of opinion over the series 'Annunciation' by Elina Brotherus. He felt that the images looked set up and therefore felt they weren't that truthful. The constructed nature of the images wasn't an issue for me. As I stated in my blog post at the time, the artist is perfectly aware that as well as recording her difficult experience with IVF she is also an artist making art. The reason I used the word puzzled is not that another student would see the same series of images differently from me but because I was curious as to where this difference in perspective comes from.

Then I had a lightbulb moment yesterday. I was reading 'The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes' by Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins. I was trying to absorb some of the authors ideas around 'the gaze.' The authors Lutz and Collins have broken the gaze down into seven categories - a typology of gazes. It is only two that I am concerned with here. The photographers and the viewers gazes can (as Lutz and Collins explain) mostly be seen as the same thing. The photographer makes an image from a particular point of view and generally the viewer sees it (on a purely visual level) in the same way. It is only when there is an anomaly in the image, a colour cast, a tilted angle, a shadow or foot, that the viewer becomes aware of the presence of the photographer in the making of the image. This is where the gazes separate out.

So, bear with...

When I read the critical essay it seemed to chime with my thoughts and clarify what I was trying to express about the difference of opinion between Jason and myself over the Elina Brotherus work. The sticking point for Jason was that in some of the self portraits a cable release was visible as it snaked out of frame and back towards the camera. He questioned why Brotherus would leave it there. This is where I think the intersection of gazes comes into play. I was looking at the images from the point of view of the combined gazes of the 'photographer' and the 'viewer'. I was consciously aware that the artist was making art around the concept of IVF. And at the same time I was unconsciously switching between the two gazes when becoming emotionally absorbed by the subject matter. For Jason, I think, he may have looked at the work with the single gaze of the 'viewer'. In other words he was fully absorbed in the subject matter of IVF and not considering the gaze of the photographer as artist. So for him the presence of the cable release caused him to be aware of the 'photographer's gaze' creating a disconnect and his analysis that the images were not truthful. Phew... Does that make sense?

If I am correct in my analysis then the multiplicity of gazes and how they intersect at the site of the image can be a very useful tool for analysing and evaluating opinion.

Edit 26th Oct: I made an error in my recollection of the student conversation. It wasn't Jason after all. I think it may have been Jonathan. Please see comment below.



Bibliography:

The Photography Reader by Liz Wells (2003). Part 7 pg 354. The photograph as an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geographic by Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins. 

Friday 18 October 2013

Home Truths: Part 2, The Foundling Museum



Tierney Gearon
I wasn't particularly taken with this work when I saw it at the Foundling Museum. Maybe it was because I was tired from the day and the walk from the Photographer's Gallery - I was by then all arted out I suppose. For 'The Mother Project' Gearon has chosen the subject of her elderly mother's dementia and how that plays itself out in the lives of Gearon and her children. The subject sounds interesting enough. I just wasn't particularly engaged by the photographs - that is with one exception. The image of Gearon's mother standing in the snow on a petrol station forecourt is superb - in my opinion one of the best images in the show at both galleries. I love the spontaneity of it. The mother is holding a cigarette (at a petrol station!) and she is grinning, tilted forward slightly, her eyes clenched with laughter. It is a captured moment of pleasure. This image, for me, doesn't seem to sit that well with the rest of the sequence. It feels visually different from some of the other portraits that have very plain backgrounds (green grass, blue sky) and they look somewhat contrived.

Miyako Ishiuchi
The artist has photographed her mother's possession after she passed away. The objects, a couple of lipsticks, a hairbrush in a glass, a dress, etc were framed in small Plexiglas cases. The piece felt quite sterile to me. I didn't pick up a sense of the person that owned and used these things. They obviously meant a lot to the photographer, but not to me. They were just things, in close-up, without any other background or visual clues to a life lived. Again, as with the Gearon work I liked the concept but not the images. Maybe if they had been photographed in another style I would have felt differently.


Ann Fessler
'Along the Pale Blue River' is a video piece that maps the journey of the artist to find her biological mother. The artist shot her own film and has included collage and archival footage too. There is a sense of not quite grasping the narrative as it unfolds. It feels ambiguous and slips away as if time lines past and present are merging and diverging. This was my favourite piece in the Foundling Museum. I thought the film was put together well and visually it held my interest. Fessler is engaged in uncovering the hidden history of adoption in her country as opposed to the official sanctioned view.

Since 1990, I have tried to shed light on this hidden history both through my own perspective as an adoptee and through the stories I have collected from the mothers - women who were shamed into secrecy and rendered invisible and voiceless. (Fessler, 2001)


After the show I was surprised to read on the OCA Flickr forum that the students seemed to hold the opposite view to me - preferring The Foundling Museum. At first I put this down to myself as I nearly always seem to have a differing view to art from the majority for some reason. I thought about the work I had seen and tried to analyse why I preferred The Photographer's Gallery. I thought some of it more challenging and explored the boundaries around the construct of Motherhood more successfully - bringing in unexpected elements of the 'outsider' to the discussion or exploring motherhood from a conceptual angle. With the Foundling Museum, although there were elements that I did like, the work was quite Humanistic, for want of a better word. It didn't really engage me that much except for a few pieces. I was satisfied with this reasoning and then very surprised to read on the Flickr forum a bit later some of the other students re-questioning their preference for the FM too. One student, Eileen, had nagging feelings that she may have liked it more because the work explored concepts that are more 'accessible and familiar'. This reasoning chimed with me and I agree precisely because the FM work to me is not familiar. I enjoyed this study visit. It has raised so many questions about how I and others approach art, the social taboos that make people angry, and what I learnt about myself. All thought provoking stuff.




references:

Fessler, A. (2013) Exhibition catalogue, Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood. London, UK: Art Books Publishing Ltd. 

Thursday 17 October 2013

Home Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identity - Study Visit



I really enjoyed this exhibition. From what I'd read it touched on some interesting themes and this was even before the work of one of the more controversial exhibitors had caused quite a bit of discussion on the OCA student forum. This all happened in the days preceding our visit and quite a few different points of view were expressed and countered. I always like to absorb what is being said - giving me time to think and reflect on my own position.

The reason I was so keen to visit the exhibition is that for my critical essay (assignment 4) I have chosen to write about gender representation in photography. The exhibition and discussion will provide a good deal of source material for my research.

Elina Brotherus
The visit was split into two locations, The Photographer's Gallery and The Foundling Museum. At the PG the first piece of work that really caught my attention was a sequence called 'Annunciation' by Elina Brotherus. It dealt with the difficult issue of IVF and the photographer had produced a series of images that portrayed her own journey along this path. There were a number of haunting self portraits showing the artist hunched over in a chair or huddled into a corner, her back to the camera. These images were interspersed with visual analogies to the peaks and troughs of the IVF process - branches of a tree laden with blossom, a bowl of flowers, medical supplies gathered on a sofa, a painted sign of a figure on the road with a small foetus added to it's white stomach. As well as the incredibly poignant story it was the visual language of portrait and metaphor (using mundane everyday objects) that really worked for me.

I had a discussion with another student about the work as he questioned the truth of the images as in some of the portraits a cable release could clearly be seen - indicating the set up nature of the work. In other words how can she be in emotional pain when she is posing for a self portrait and has arranged herself in the room to make the composition? This isn't an issue for me. The photographer is self aware enough to know that in the midst of recording her treatment she is also making art. The very fact of the visible cable release indicates that. There is nothing less truthful about pre-visualising an emotion, and then performing it for the camera. It doesn't make the situation any less real. I would say that as an artist the process is perfectly natural to her. So although the sequence feels very 'real' there is a conceptual element to the work that adds a layer of  complexity. And indeed, the title of the series 'Annunciation' indicates that there is also a religious metaphor. In the catalogue of the exhibition Brotherus writes that:

This is a series of false annunciations. It's about waiting for an angel who never shows up. At first we don't know if he's there, because he could just be hiding behind the doorway. Gradually, it becomes clear that he's not coming. (Brotherus, 2013.)

Leigh Ledare
The exhibition as a whole deals with the construct of 'Motherhood' and gathers together a number of artists that have questioned those cultural ideals. Some of the artist's work has pushed well outside the accepted boundaries that many societies would accept as 'normal' and as such have strained or broken social taboos.

One artist in particular is Leigh Ledare. The artist has photographed his own relationship with his mother. Their story "Pretend You're Actually Alive" told in Ledare's images, video, typed letters, and an old torn out image from a fashion shoot, comes across as having a twisted dynamic that involves a constant struggle between them for dominance and power. Looking at the images, some of them quite shocking, I see a young man that has grown up with a woman that wants to be seen as young, beautiful, successful and powerful. Her own notion of identity puts what she considers to be motherhood way, way, down the list. This in turn has meant that her son has scrambled for ever more attention and the pair have become embroiled in a power play. The mother takes lovers the same age as her adult son and openly exposes him to her activities. By doing this does it make her feel like she is still young? In turn Ledare has photographed their life and held a mirror up - to reflect back at her and expose the dynamics of their relationship.

Alongside the narrative element it is best to not forget that they both have artistic backgrounds. Ledare is a photographer and the mother was once a dancer. So there is definitely an element of performance and staging going on in these images. Some of the sexual scenes are most likely constructed. But undercutting all this is I feel a very real attempt by Ledare to convey an aspect of female identity that attempts to break the stranglehold on the concept of motherhood as only representing a sacred 'earth mother' or 'madonna and child' scenario. Ledare's images portray an aspect of motherhood that he knows from experience to exist - whether we like it or not.

The discussion on the OCA student forum regarding this work was fascinating. Some of the students rejected the work out of hand declaring it as sensationalist or not worthy of analysis. Personally, I found the dismissive attitudes (by some) to be an attempt to shut down the conversation and a real insight into how social taboos operate in society. The comments were almost as interesting as Ledare's work itself!

Janine Antoni
This work was more visually conceptual in nature than some of the others. Antoni had photographed herself suspended from the floor of a room in what appeared to be a kind of straitjacket/corset contraption that had long web-like tendrils that attached to the walls and ceiling. Her feet dangled above the floor of what looked to be a child's room with toys and a play design rug. Around her hips and thighs is constructed a dolls house with its wings open to expose the interior. This image was produced as a digital C type print on a large scale on glass. The rest of the sequence is much smaller and framed. These images show close-ups of the dolls house through which the viewer can see the bare skin of the artist's legs as they extend through the structure. Inside a real spider is constructing its web.

My first thoughts were that the artist is exposing the confining nature of 'motherhood' to be restricted and trapped in a role as it were. Upon reading the exhibition catalogue the artist is exploring a more complex situation in which although there are elements of being trapped she also sees the web as partly a support structure too and the dolls house as a metaphor for providing a place for another being to be grown and nurtured.

Ana Casa Broda
I think the work of the above three artists at the Photographer's Gallery were my favourite. Some of the others were more visually stimulating but the subject matter did not really hold my attention. Ana Casa Broda's 'Kinderwunsch' for example. The images were set out on the wall in a grid pattern and upon entering the gallery space they immediately caught the eye. The panels were without frames and mostly dark colours with a single white one amidst them that created a strong visual impact. The subject mostly seems to be the artist, as mother, sleeping as her child plays nearby. I felt nothing about these images. They seemed to just represent a 'normal' view of day to day motherhood that I couldn't relate to as they are outside of my experience as a child and a childless adult. I discussed this with Jason, one of the other students, and he felt the same about this work and wondered if it was because we were both male. This was an interesting point of view. I hadn't considered that there may be wider connotations - believing that the 'emotional baggage' that I brought with me when I viewed the work was mostly the reason for my indifference. We discussed this further during the coffee break, trying to get at the reason for our apathy. I wondered if I had children myself would I be able to connect more but Jason did and felt the same as me. Then Sharon Boothroyd, one of our tutors for the day joined in. As a woman and mother, Sharon also said that the images didn't particularly engage her - so the 'male' theory was well and truly blown out of the water too.

Interestingly, I was very surprised to read in the exhibition catalogue when writing this post that some of Broda's images represented repressed, unhappy, childhood memories (something I have plenty of experience of!) But, I picked up no evidence of that from the work itself. There was supposed to be some supporting text somewhere which I missed. To me, I think the work gave off a comforting, maternal, vibe. I intend to revisit the exhibition soon so will make a point to take more time with this work.

This post has already become far too long. I think I will break it down into two for the walk to the Foundling Museum exhibition.



references:

Brotherus, E. (2013) Exhibition catalogue, Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood. London, UK: Art Books Publishing Ltd. 


Thursday 10 October 2013

Exercise: An essay on reviewing photographs


Instruction:

'Read the essay Words and Pictures: On reviewing photographs by Liz Wells in your course reader.'

I used the skills I picked up on how to analyse an essay earlier in the course and put them to use here. Namely, I read the whole essay through once and then on a second read I noted down the salient points from each sub heading and paragraph as concisely as possible.

Origins of Essay

Wells notes the newsletter where the seeds of this essay were originally published. She acknowledges that the newsletter was 'an initiative to stress 'regional networks' and resist the hegemony of the metropolitan.' By doing this Wells is informing the reader that she is using Postmodern Feminist methods of critique whereby the critic/writer is self aware and acknowledges their own subjectivity, political bias, etc.

Words and Pictures

Wells states that it is difficult to describe visual art in words. Therefore the critic must be aware of his/her responsibilities to the audience and the artist. Once an exhibition is over the review will form a large part of the historical archive.

Contexts

The critic operates in a context of changing ideas of critical art theory and academic study. The art market and gallery also have their personal agendas. Sometimes those values compete with one another.

Reviewing Photography Now

Criticism has been undermined by Postmodernist theory. Feminist theory proposes a constructive role for the critic. To break down the old hierarchies by writing reviews that are self aware, come from many different critical positions, and take into account the artists cultural context.

Taste

Traditional power structures have been assailed by new modes of critical thinking - but they still exist. Moving forwards more enlightened thinking will prevail by not perpetuating a hierarchical intellectual order and bringing about a more creative, many positioned, approach to criticism.


I then looked at my notes to get an overall concept of the essay before answering the following questions:

What is the basic argument of Wells's essay?

That criticism should embrace the Postmodern and Feminist approaches to critique of art in order to break down established power hierarchies. Critics moving forward can be more creative and look at art in its cultural context through different critical approaches. This will 'counter status quo agendas.'


Is the essay's title a fair indication of the essay itself?

It is difficult to answer this. The essay is more about the historical development of the art critique and how critical theories from the time of Modernism have been put under scrutiny in the Postmodern age. How the Modernist theories were found to have been elitist and metropolitan and in the new era a more egalitarian approach is required if the status quo is to be resisted.

This to me is more of a political essay rather than a practical one. From an academic standpoint the title is understandable. It gives a nod to the title of the famous 'On Photography' essays by Susan Sontag. I would say that the title was written for its audience (an academic one) and therefore the title is perfectly suited to its content.

To what extent does the writer rely on Postmodernist doctrine?

I would say that the writer fully embraces Postmodern and Feminist doctrine, approves of it and uses it to illustrate her argument. The opening paragraph, "Origins of Essay' illustrates a self aware methodology and is keen to show us her political viewpoint. In saying this I guess the Postmodernist argument goes that ALL critics should do the same so that we are aware of the thinking behind a critics review rather than them making artistic pronouncements as 'fact' when the critic could possibly be clouded by their own prejudices.

Wells gives a breakdown on the critical development of Postmodernism and how this has affected criticism. She goes on to describe Feminism's suggestion of how criticism can be re-made and used to positive affect using many different viewpoints - explaining that this is to provide a more balanced view rather than an elitist one that entrenches power hierarchies and reinforces the status quo.

Wells also includes some text from Bill Jay's 'Occam's Razor' where the author takes to task the notion of female nudity in art as representing oppression and control by men in a paternalistic society. She refutes this argument putting forward her own ideas using contemporary Feminist theory.

The essay raises the issue of the qualifications and duties of a critic. How important do you believe it is for a critic of photography to have deep knowledge of the practice of photography?

I do think it is important where critics are concerned. We all bring our own knowledge, cultural experience and emotional/social baggage to the photographs that we look at. In some respects it doesn't matter that a viewer may be unaware of the artistic/theoretical intent of the artist. If an image speaks to them and brings about some sort of emotional or intellectual response then that is all that matters. But, a critic's review is another matter entirely. A review is expected to be written with the historical and theoretical underpinning of the work - placing it in a context against that which it can be measured. If that context is not understood then how can a critic judge a piece of work or an exhibition a success?

The duties of a critic as explained by Wells are also clear. The critic should openly make their biases known. This, coupled with their critical knowledge, will allow the reader of such reviews to be able to make a clear judgement on the value of the review itself. For instance, I would always take a review on photography (if there were ever likely to be any) by Brian Sewell the art critic with a pinch of salt. He is well known for his distaste of photography as an art form. He belongs to the old guard of considering painting as at the top of the fine arts with a few old blokes at the top of the tree like some sort of god-like geniuses. This view has been considered terribly old fashioned for many decades and is the kind of status quo power hierarchies that Wells is alluding to. I should imagine that Sewell will reject photography as art with his dying breath - The Postmodernist and Feminist approach takes this bias into account and puts it into context. We are then able to make our own judgement on any reviews that come from such sources.
 

Wednesday 9 October 2013

The Solitude of Ravens - Masahisa Fukase



The Solitude of Ravens is an amazing photo-book. I've written a brief description of my impression as the sequence unfolds:

Dark black birds, shadows, glimpses of human shapes in the dark. There is a brooding intensity to the images. The narrative is hard to unpick. As I thumbed through the sequence I had an impression of swirling flocks as they took flight to move across the sky before coming to rest again. The monotone images, often out of focus, show avian shapes, parts of legs, wings. As the birds fly there are other images - of people moving away through the dark, leaving their warm homes, some gathering to huddle at bus stops, almost like the birds as they scatter and settle for a moment in the tree tops. Together but alone. I see images of winter. A single window lit up but oppressed by the dark. Snow covered fields. Out of the mist a small boat is moving towards the viewer and the images change. They become sharper - showing us a town by the sea or a port. The birds flock and gather leaving a mass of footprints in the snow - a solitary bird lies dead in a drift. In another image a cat snacks on remains.

Curiously the sequence changes at this point. We see a naked woman lying on a bed. She poses for the camera but her eyes are closed. Her identity a mystery. An image of a blubbery looking fish, its dead  body swollen and gross. Back to the birds flying over the town by day. Factory chimneys pump smoke into the air as the birds swoop and flock. The town by the sea looks bleak and cold. The day is closing as the people return from work and school - back the way they came. We see images of water. A distant ship. A girl passenger on a boat - her hair caught in the wind.

A close-up of a large jet overhead its under body in dark silhouette. The shadows of ravens on the road as they fly low to the ground over the town. An explosion of debris as some sort of mechanical grabber pulls up bits of paper and earth and vegetation. A man sitting in the middle of a road bare foot and drinking. He's surrounded by rubbish strewn as far as the eye can see. A close-up. burning gloves in a bonfire the flames consuming them. A tramp walks away from the camera his body huddled in a large blanket.

I see two themes here. A personal one that relates to the solitariness of the birds and likewise humans that sometimes, for whatever reason, come unstuck from society - their flocks. These images feel bleak to me. The photographer is well known for missing his wife who divorced him. Apparently he became obsessed with the birds and took the images on many trips back to his home town. I get a strong sense of a man that is or has become separate from society and maybe overcome with depression or despair. He is saying, 'you too, could lose your way, your place. It can happen to anyone. Just like a bird that lies dead in the snow. The birds still gather to flock. They continue. In the end, we are all strangers.'

The second theme comes at the end of the sequence. Surely the plane overhead, the bird shadows in formation as they fly low to the ground, the explosion, burning gloves and aftermath relates to the atomic bombs that were dropped during World War 2. This is a wider theme looking at the populace as a whole - something that must have deeply affected a whole generation and their children.

This is a dark and brooding and above all very intriguing book.

Monday 30 September 2013

Omer Fast - An Artist Talk

For the first visit of the London and South East study group we (Siegfried & myself) attended an artist talk given by Omer Fast at The Imperial War Museum. The museum is showing his 30 minute video '5000 Feet is The Best'. It is a shame that all the members of our fledgling group could not attend (about 6 people I think at present) as it was a fascinating insight in the artists creative process.

Firstly I will say hats off to Siegfried for knowing that we would not have a problem getting into the sold out event. The talk was free but ticketed. We didn't have any but they just let us in anyway - something I would not have even thought to try before!

Omer Fast began by showing us a clip of an earlier piece of work 'CNN Concatenated' and talking about the events in his life that led up to the creation of the work. It was a video piece using CNN newsreader footage. The footage was cut a word at a time from different speakers. The words are then re-composed by Fast to create his own sentences forming a new grammatical structure - particularly effective was the use of indrawn breath to create pace and timing to show the beginning of the sentences.

Fast then spoke about trauma and how it underpins a lot of the work that he produces. He didn't specify whether this was personal or more general trauma although he did relate a family anecdote. He told us the story of a time when his father was a young boy who had run home bleeding after being hit in the head by a stone. When the boys father opened the door and saw the blood he slapped his son around the face. Fast tells us that his father shared this story with him and explained that the grandfather had been a Holocaust survivor and the violence was his way of dealing with what he had experienced himself. We were then shown a piece of work that grew from this anecdote in which his father narrates this story whilst we see a clip from The Terminator movie. The clip shown is a scene where the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) arrives at the house of Sarah Connor and when she answers the door guns her down.

I found this multiple layering of stories fascinating. It was very disconcerting to hear the fathers calm narration against the Terminator clip which is visually different but also connected in a way. In fact the beginning of the clip shows Arnie searching through the phone book for all the S Connors so he can annihilate them one by one. This seems to me to be a reference to the Holocaust part of the narration -  thereby combining the actual boyhood events with the father's later analysis.

Fast then goes on to talk about his interest in non-linear narrative and how he likes to use a doubling effect, voice overs, and dissected scenes to achieve this. The narrative thread skips around in time or duplicates itself with minor changes. As a viewer it is difficult to find a path through the work but it held my attention all the same. For instance in another piece 'The Casting' Fast takes an army sergeant's spoken narrative of two events, a war and a personal experience, and edits the soundtrack so that he is able to create new words and put them into the mouth of the narrator. This creates fictionalised events that seamlessly blend with the narrated memories. This time, unlike the 'CNN Concatenated' piece we do not see the narrator (therefore hiding the edits) but instead actors play out the unfolding story. I had no idea that some of the narration had been edited to create new memories until the artist explained this after the clip - it was so skilfully done.

I found the talk and Omer Fast's methods and process fascinating. I've been getting ready to make a short test video to go on my blog in the next couple of weeks. Nothing major, just some stills and video that I want to put together and experiment with. Seeing Fasts effective use of non-linear narrative has inspired me to experiment.

Thursday 26 September 2013

Curiosity - Art and the Pleasure of Knowing

Curiosity - Art and the Pleasure of Knowing is an exhibition that needs more than one visit. I went twice and thoroughly enjoyed myself both times. There was more than enough to see and I could easily go back again. Based at Margate's Turner Contemporary, the exhibition encompasses all manner of art and artifacts. These are collated around the idea of the cabinet of curiosities and collecting in general. The exhibits range from a case of beautiful glass-blown sea creatures, ethnic masks, photography, film, installation art, drawings and some stuffed animals. Personally, I have never thought taxidermy an appropriate pursuit to inflict on an animal but there you go.


Gerard Byrne - Three Connected Sites, 2001 - ongoing. And Figures, 2001 (stills)   

There was so much to take in and I will concentrate mostly on the photography. The first piece of work I want to talk about is by Gerard Byrne. His work 'Three Connected Sites' consisted of three gelatin silver prints - images of driftwood by the shores of Loch Ness contorted into strange shapes by weather and water. Byrne is interested by the matches or disparity between text, images, and reality. He has worked on a decade long project based on the stories and myths that have grown up around the Loch Ness Monster.  The black and white images in themselves are nicely done and are evocative of a cold and bleak walk along a Scottish shoreline. It is the knowledge of the intent of the artist that adds complexity. The images made me think about the strange contorted shapes and how these lumps of wood have most likely been the source of the myth of the monster. How images such as these are then represented through photography (as truth) by the media (either by accident or design). The way that the reading public is eager for such stories (regardless of truth or authenticity) and how easily myths can grow out of that is fascinating.

Incidentally, the presentation of the images is impressive. Byrne had put them inside plexi-glass boxes seamlessly fixed to the gallery wall. The effect was clean and simple and played into the exhibitions concept of collecting. There was also an accompanying piece of film 'figures, 2001' on 16mm film, again in black and white, that explored a field with a caravan and hinted at the slightly crazy concept of Nessie hunters.


Center For Land Use Interpretation - Los Alamos National Laboratory Rolodexes c.1965-78

My only analysis of a non-photographic piece of work is the collection of Rolodexes complete with business cards originally owned by Ed Grothus, a lab technician at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. As a set, the Rolodexes have a very strong 'Mad Men' vibe about them. They are cool objects to look at. If they weren't behind glass I would definitely have the urge to flip through the business cards inside. The cards (from the 1970-80s) are flipped open to present information about various contractors and suppliers engaged in business with Los Alamos. A slice of time is presented that engages the viewer to consider the process of Defence Spending, Industry, Capitalism, and how interconnected those forces are to powerfully affect economies and political agendas.

The exhibition catalogue 'Curiosity' gives some information about the aims of CLUI as an organisation:

The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) is a 'research and education organisation interested in understanding the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth's surface'. Since its founding in 1994 in Los Angeles, the Center has amassed a vast archive of images, data and source materials that are used to interpret humanity's imprint on the landscape as a 'cultural inscription', evidence to be read, decoded and understood. (Turner Contemporary, 2013.)


Corinne May Botz - The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, 2004

The artist has photographed the most bizarre dioramas created in the 1940s by Frances Glessner Lee. She was the first woman to work for the Legal Medical Programme at Harvard and used the dioramas, depicting gruesome murder scenes from real cases, to train detectives. The dioramas were built to the scale of one inch to one foot.

The images that May Botz has created are shot from close-up as if the camera is in the room itself - though it is obvious that we are not looking at reality - more like a dolls house. Not all of the diorama is shown. The selected scenes are lit as if real sunlight is coming through a window or a harsh shadow is cast from an overhead bulb that make the subject appear all the more real but yet unreal - almost like a Gregory Crewdson image. They are macabre. The images show the aftermath of a murder - with clues to be looked for. There is a body of a woman on the floor by an open oven - a tiny loaf of bread is visible. A cot in a bedroom with what shockingly looks like blood spatter on the wallpaper above it. The scenes were gripping but repellent. I was reminded of Weegee crime scene images but this time in full colour.

It is interesting how the context of the dioramas have changed from a tool to be used in seminars, to an archive piece that is still sometimes used for its intended purpose, and through to May Botz's photographs as a piece of artwork that sits in a gallery space.


Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin - The Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement, 2013

At first glance these dual exposure Polaroids are perplexing. The frame is split into two - depicting a left and right image. The subject appears to be of vegetation although the composition is not identical. One is generally darker than the other or has a colour cast to it. On reading the artists statement I was amazed to find that the Polaroid technology was used in Apartheid era South Africa. The equipment had a special flash setting for correct exposure of dark skin and was used to make ID card images.

Looking again at the images of twigs and bits of shrubbery I tried to analyse the artists intent and came to the conclusion that I was looking at the same thing in both halves - nature. It was only the use of the technology that changed their surface appearance and made the two images appear different. In other words we are dealing with the concept of "the other."


Nina Katchadourian - A Continuum of Cute, 2007-2008. Seat Assignments: Lavatory Self Portraits in the Flemish Style, 2011

Katchadourian had a number of different pieces of work in the exhibition. 'A Continuum of Cute' showing a selection of small animal images arranged on metal tiles, placed side by side, on a long strip of metal shelf is worth a mention. The tiles are arranged from the ugliest to the cutest as categorised by the artist. It was very tempting to re-arrange the tiles according to my own ideas. I like the concept and presentation of this work. There was a dynamism to the piece showing that photographs don't have to be just mounted and framed on a wall.

'Seat Assignments' is a series of work involving the artist in-flight and using her camera phone to create art with materials at hand. The work is still growing and has several categories to the series. The one on display at the Turner Contemporary was the 'Lavatory Self Portraits collection'.

...secluded in an aircraft toilet, Katchadourian swiftly improvised mock-Flemish headgear and ruffs, and struck uncannily apt and familiar poses, which she snapped with her phone. (Turner Contemporary, 2013.)

I love the performance aspect of this work. Using photography to capture the end result of an artistic process is something that I find very fascinating and something I may pursue myself in the future. The images themselves are very effective and clever self-portraits of an artist engaged in her own individual artistic practise.

I thoroughly enjoyed looking at her work and I've made a note to take a further look.

Unfortunately the exhibition has now closed but if it resurfaces anywhere else I thoroughly recommend a visit.





References:

Turner Contemporary Gallery, Margate, Kent. (2013) Exhibition catalogue: Curiosity - Art and the Pleasure of Knowing. South Bank Centre, London, UK: Hayward Publishing.





Thursday 8 August 2013

Assignment 3

My idea for the photo-story that forms this assignment involves events from my recent and distant past. I'll be mixing remembered events with metaphor so there will also be an element of ambiguity to the work. I will need to set up a number of staged images which will involve a lot of planning and buying of props - I'm quite looking forward to it!  I will also need to justify my use of staged images in what is essentially a documentary photo-story. With all the hoo-ha around the nature of the reality and truth of the documentary genre I think I can manage that.

I wanted to do a personal photo-story that dealt with the difficult subject of childhood trauma and how it affected me well into my adult life. I wanted to specifically look at the story from the angle of adult psychotherapy counselling and how I eventually came through those experiences.

I need to contact my tutor first of all. This assignment is to be negotiated as if it were a client/photographer relationship.

Update 05 August:

Phew, I got the green light from my tutor on this subject saying that he has every confidence in my ability to produce this work with the caution that the images that I want to make may be harder in reality to pull off. I've also given myself a get out clause of scrapping the whole assignment and starting again if necessary.

I began like I always do by making some sketches in my notebook and adding to them as the day and weeks pass. I will need a lot of props for my constructed images so I made a list and looked on eBay and in charity shops for the items I will need. So far my list includes:

  • a pair of mens slippers (tartan or check design)
  • 20 beer bottles
  • a cheap looking plastic flower in a holder
  • a box of tissues
  • a length of plastic vacuum hose
  • a scanned polaroid photograph of my father

Update: 10th August

Some of my sketches are really coming together and I've had some new ideas and updated or changed others. I've managed to get hold of the vacuum cleaner hose quite cheaply from an Amazon seller and a hideous blue rug that will be used to represent office carpeting.




The plastic flower was 50p from a jumble shop in town. In case you were wondering I was looking for the tackiest one I could find.



These items are to be used to put together a couple of scenes that I wanted to re-create in a psychotherapy counselling room. I had to move all the furniture in my guest room to one side and take the bed apart so I had a clear corner to set up. I put my blue rug down and arranged a chair, a small table and some other props. I put my camera on a tripod and used its interval timer feature and just kept experimenting until I had the image I was looking for. This involved several stops and starts and I assessed the work on my computer and then went back for a re-take.






Here are my final images. Note how I remembered to change clothes to indicate different sessions:





Upate 12-15th August:

The OCA Flickr group has set a challenge for us students. The idea is to create an image on the theme of 'The Nearest Faraway Place.' We are going to each make an image and attach it, concertina style, to one made by the previous student. The concertina of images is to be passed along the chain of artists around the world until it reaches the OCA headquarters.

Although not initially part of this assignment I realised that the image I have in mind would sit very well with what I am doing here. The majority of my work is interlinked and deals with similar themes anyway. My inclination for the challenge was to make an image of my bed. I wanted to take this idea further and create a sort of dream image to encapsulate the notion of a faraway place. The idea then spurred me on to re-create one of my favourite paintings "The Dream, 1910" by Henri Rousseau.





For my interpretation to work I needed to learn how to make Origami flowers. I've found a website that had videos on how to make them. I printed out some sheets of A4 paper with my "Looking out as a boy, looking in as a man," poem repeated across the page. If you want to read some background on the poem and the original work it was created for I've written about the images in my People and Place blog post here:

PaP blog post about my Untitled gallery work

The poem itself isn't referred to in the blog post or on the Untitled website where the images first appeared as a sequence. I was a bit self conscious about providing too much personal detail at the time and was happy for the images to stand alone and have a bit of ambiguity about them. I subsequently put the images into a Blurb book and included the poem. I've reproduced it here in case anyone wonders what the text is on the Origami flowers in the image:

Looking out as a Boy, Looking in as a Man.

Looking out as a boy
hands on a ledge
20th August 1976.

Growing out of the dark
to soak up the sun.

Looking in as a man,
curtains caught in the wind,
to find places that sing.

Setting up the bed for "the dream" image has taken all day. I arranged the bedding how I thought it should look to represent sky and jungle and used some OCA badges as place markers as I haven't made the Origami flowers yet. I made quite a few adjustments to positions of objects as even folds and creases in the bedding made a big difference to the final look of the image. I put the pillows into place to represent the sky and as a contrast to the paper sun - the contrast between them is quite good.





The origami birds and flowers are ready. The birds are for a different image.



 My finished image.




Update 17-18th August:

One of my new ideas was to make a spiders web. I did a google search and found some sites that had instructions on how to make the sort of thing I was looking for. The webs are made from strips of paper with my poem printed on them. Once it was dry I blue tacked it to the window of my bathroom and took some test shots so that I could see how the web looked in an image and made some adjustments.






My finished image:




Update 19-25th August:

I spent ages and ages soaking the beer bottles to get the labels off. A bit of a pain but I need to do this to get my images right. I have four images in mind. Two using the beer bottles without the labels and two just using the labels themselves. The carton of beer only came to eight quid but I'll be using them in four images so I think I got my moneys worth.






It took me a while to decide where to place these scales to get the camera angle. I wanted a fairly simple  and uncluttered background and had a choice of two bathrooms but in the end this looked the best. I just need to scatter my beer bottles now and get on the scales.





My final image:


All my pre-planning has worked out really well and my images are coming together fast - almost one a day! This is what I've worked on today. I put copy of a photograph of my dad inside a beer bottle. I did a test run to see if the printer ink would run - after a couple of hours the liquid was still clear.



The beer bottle would be going inside the fridge. A tripod was needed and some re-arrangements to the shelves. To make my constructed image I also needed some snack food to go in the fridge too.






Luckily I had to pop out in the morning to do some library research for amendments I'm making to assignment 1. This gave me the opportunity to pick up a muffin from Neros. This is the evidence from after the shoot!


My final image:



Today's shoot is taking place in my en-suite shower room. The space is a bit tight and can just about manage my tripod and camera with my 18-200 lens. The 18mm focal length is a godsend in this environment. The plan is to shred the labels that I previously removed from the beer bottles. The bits of labels are a metaphor for washing away the past.







I also conceived of an accompanying image that would show pieces of label after drying myself with a towel. I did a couple of test shots with a white and orange towel to check which would look best with the labels and sit well with the cubicle shot on a spread.







For the cubicle shot I placed a towel on the floor by the shower tray and used the shower hose to make the interior wet. I then removed my socks and stood inside so that when I re-emerged I could stand on the towel and leave two wet footprints - something I've observed many times and noted would be of use, visually, one day. I also threw pieces of label into the shower so that they would stick to the wet tiles.

My camera was already set up so I took a few exposure shots and checked the composition. The labels looked too uniform so I sprayed some more water to make them swirl about in a more natural way and ensured that most of the labels would be around the plughole as you might expect.

My final images:




Update 27th-30th August:

This is a pre-planned image I had in mind for quite a while. The image represents flashbacks to childhood events. The finished version looks a bit Crewdsonesque.





A test shot to plan where to stand and also a check for annoying details. My reflection in the microwave is removed in the final image.




My final image:



 A self portrait.



My final image:



I constructed a mobile to hang the origami birds from and then did some test shots to check DOF.






My final image:


Update 31st August:

I have all my staged images now. I just need a shot of the exterior of the counselling centre where I went for my sessions. Once I have that it will be on to making layouts for the photo-story spreads.

Update 3rd September:

My spreads have returned from the online printers. I'm mostly happy with how they came out. I will make a few changes for assessment though. I never seem to get my printing quite right first time. I definitely need more experience with this. I'm thinking of taking a course just to firm up my knowledge.  Here are the spreads in the correct sequence order. I think they came out all right in the end. The accompanying assignment essay is also completed so it all needs to be packed up and sent off to my tutor today.













Update: 3rd October.

I received my feedback for this assignment a couple of days ago. It was VERY encouraging. That is a good feeling to have and I can definitely feel myself becoming more confident with my work as the last two modules have progressed. There are no suggestions for changes although I do want to tweak the processing in a couple of images that aren't quite how I want them to look. I'm also attending a Printspace post-processing and printing course next month so that should iron out any issues with my methods.

I was given a weblink to research regarding the historic FSA images and how they have been re-evaluated over time. I mentioned the FSA in my research notes submitted with my assignment images. I will follow that up in a couple of days and then update back here.

Update: 17th Febuary.

My review of the recommended book, 'Killed: Rejected Images of The Farm Security Administration' can be read here.