Research Task 1
For our first piece of homework to research we had to pick a specific photograph from the library to look at in detail, I found what I was looking for in a photography book, called ‘reGeneration: 50 photographers of tomorrow, 2005-2025’ and on one of the pages I found a photo that stood out to me taken by a photographer called Christoph Bangert, a German photojournalist and this was the image I found and used. (50 photographers of tomorrow)
The image is of a Palestinian home, in 2003 badly damaged by Israeli fire, with what looks to be either a woman, or child stood at the window of the house, at the bottom right of the picture. When we found the image we were then asked to look at some specifics with the image, which, are listed below.
- Who is the photographer?
- When was the photograph taken?
- Where was the photograph taken?
- Why was it taken? (what’s the narrative behind it)
- What is it an image of?
- Lastly what ‘genre’ of photography does it belong to?
All these questions were quite straightforward to answer, as I managed to find them all in the book that covered the image.
This was a list of photography groups that we were asked to look at to to see what kind of benefits they had for students and who they were as well.
The Industry
AOP (Association Of Photographers)
This is an organisation formed in 1968, with the aim of helping professional photographers to find work along with providing opportunities for students to learn from professionals as well, while also providing benefits for students as well, such as being recognised, as a member of the community while covering insurance of the event of camera equipment suffering damage in country or abroad along with discounts on photography books .
BIPP (British Institute of Professional Photography)
This is a recognised international organisation that has been supporting photographers since 1901. The goal of this organisation, is to branch out aspiring and amateur photographers with professionals to learn from and gain experience in the art of photography. There are also benefits provided to students, such as discounts provided for training, goods and services along with copies of photographer magazines and regional and national events.
RPS (Royal Photographic Society)
This organisation is a charity that exists in order to increases the knowledge of the photography industry and to promote high achievement standards and encourage a wider appreciation of photography, branching out out wide for learners and professionals to meet. While also providing benefits for students, such as only having to pay £55 a year along with benefits, such as being able to attend exhibitions at The Royal Photographic Society in Bristol along with free monthly magazines and meetings with local members.
Contextual studies
For this topic we looked at history of art, and how different aspects of it all went together, such as photography, art, re pro graphics and others, though admittedly at first when looking through the whole thing, I was confused as to how the whole topic of modernism, politics, art and such related to photography, which I discovered I was not alone on, though as time went on I finally managed to get a grasp of what it was we were doing and then proceeded on with the work seeing how all the aspects collided together at times. The main apsects throughout the lesson every week we had to look at was.
- Historical context – the history of design and art.
- Social context- – Relating art and design to society.
- Context of ideas movements and tendencies in art and design and the social world.
- the context of art relating to design, and design related art.
- the main point of contextual studies is to orientate you and your work on these contexts.
At the start of the task we had been given images to look explaining what they can convey, along with names provided of the artists for me to do research into, though the first two we received didn’t have any names at all, but I noted down that for the first image which was a compilation of words plastered all over it, I thought it was quite chaotic and random with all the words in different fonts and sizes with random bits of imagery. When looking at the second image which was of a house there was more order to it, as a house is typically built to exact measurements and specifications, while also blending together nature and man made.
Hannah Hoch:
Hannah was a known female artist within the Dada movement for her work Cut with the kitchen knife, it had reflected her view of political and social issues during the time after the first world war had ended. With the rise of the old Weimar government, followed by the uprising of a new left-wing communist party called the Spartasists. this whole thing was to illustrate how the government had become bloated, while also making point of gender issues in post war Germany and a male dominated government. But all in all this art work was a representation of the chaos of the German government at the time after losing the first world war. Her work would have link to photography due to the fact that her work was made up of different photographs all put together forming in a way a collage which reminds me of the design of an old green day album and a lot of other punk albums.
https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/dada/hannah-hoch/cut-with-the-kitchen-knife/
Modernism
this is a term that refers to a global movement that gained a lot of traction in the early twentieth century after the first world war, the main aspect was that it was applying order to chaos along with aspirations, hopes and realities of modern society. It was also an area of experimentation as well, as it allowed a lot of artists to use their work to represent how an era of industrialisation and fast social change leaving behind old moralities. This became quite a trend with photographers, as it influenced their work with social, political and artistic views. This gave a lot of photographers a more creative view on how they can create new photographs.
Herbert Bayer:
Herbert was an American Austrian photographer, painter, graphic designer. He became affiliated with the Bauhaus studying under them for 4 years after he became hooked to it after reading the Walter Gropius manifesto, but he left the Bauhaus to become an art director but his years of training in the Bauhaus drew on aspects of surrealism in a modernist form. For example his self portrait in 1932 drew upon the aspects of surrealism and unconventional perspectives and cutouts, as shown in the image as it looks like he is removing a piece of himself from his arm, as it gave off an impression of something that would be in a dream reflected in a mirror providing a disillusion of reality.
Le Corbusier:
Le Corbusier a Swiss born but later became a french national in 1930. Corusier’s work was one that tried to apply order to chaos for example his plans for Vosin Paris, which was meant to be a possibility to apply order to chaos with everything being built symmetrically and exact, this was all formulated from his experiences during the second war in German occupied France which were such chaotic times that they would be a catalyst to the formation of his work. This would have a link to photography, as this image was taken of the model design of the city.
George Grosz:
This man was a German artist who developed his skills from weekly drawing classes, he started by doing drinking scenes of Eduard Von Grützner, along with imaginary battle scenes, though after joining the German army in 1914 and being exposed to the chaos of the first world war it influenced one of his later pieces of work after the war called Explosion which represented the failure of control and communication and showing the full chaos of the first world war. this would link to photography, as when you look at black and white images of the first world war especially during battles you could see chaos and destruction, but the black and white doesn’t allow much to be perceived whereas with the use colour it allows more of a reality to be seen, This is what George captures quite well with his paintings.
Joiner Photography
For this topic I was given the task to research into joiner photography and once understanding it we were to create a piece of my own joiner work. I looked into what it was and who created it which was part of the task.
Joiner photography is the use of multiple images merged into one forming one complete image, as it often comes in the form of someones face with certain details being photographed and enlarged such as an eye, nose, mouth, eyebrows and such all these components can be merged to create a joiner image
David Hockney:
David Hockney was a well known artist and photographer and is known, as the creator of Joiner photography, though while he is a skilled photographer he was always more of a fan of art, as he has said that “photography is only good for mechanical reproduction.” This was to say that all photography is the same, as photographers can take a hundred shots of the same thing expecting something different like the slightest change in details and that in reality they all turned out to be the same and that nothing made them distinct from each other. Though by using photography to help develop his paintings, he did come across a new way of using them when he had a collection of polaroid images that he was using to create a painting and noticed how he unintentionally created something different which is what sparked the whole idea of joiners Photography.
the whole idea of joiner photography was that it was essentially a culmination of different photos of the same topic but all culminated together to form one image, which for obvious reasons would often look like a chaotic pile of images clumped together but there was some form of order to them in what they had formed, as there was always a theme and look going for it.
https://photomuserh.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/david-hockney-photography-will-never-equal-painting/
Self imagery
This was a task set to us by our tutor for Planning a Photography Project which was the art of taking a self image that quite a few photographers have done, I have done some research into a few well known photographers to understand the different ways that self imagery works.
Robert Mappelthorpe:
He was a well known photographer who’s style was often that of nude photography which was considered controversial as his photography was always in black and white and he often pushed the boundaries of censorship, as there were cases were his work would be considered inappropriate which was shown when an undergraduate student at the University of central England was writing a paper on him and tried to get some of his photos from one of his books developed at a chemist, only to have the police get involved and saying the book should be destroyed but lost the case, as the university said it was a violation academic freedom.
As the years went on though Mappelthorpe would eventually be diagnosed with HIV, which at the time was quite a big killer, though it did have an influence on one of his self images, as there were two that were quite interesting to look at. The image on the left was a James Dean style with a cigarette, leather jacket and messed up hair while the one on the right was extremely different having a black background with only his head, hand and cane showing almost like he was looking death in the eye.
Vivian Maier:
Vivian was a unknown street photographer when she was taking photos in her spare time, as she worked as a nanny and throughout her time shooting photographs none of her negatives had ever been developed or published until 60 years later give or take her photos were found in 2007 in their negative formats kept in boxes and suitcases by Ron Slattery and Randy Prow and would be published in 2008 and got the recognition they deserved being shown all around the world.
Vivian’s style was always that of self imagery as all her shots had her taking a photo of herself in shop windows or mirrors, admittedly that does sound a bit dull but the results that came out of it were quite interesting, as with some of her work she created some pretty impressive effects especially with these of mirrors, as she created this image that looked like self reflection in a way with a use of two mirrors, one at the back and one at the front creating almost like a vortex effect whereas the other with her stood at window in some was has a ghost life effect with her reflection, as you can see it showing up but at the same time very faded.
My self image:
When making my self image I was the middle of another lesson doing a shoot at the top of the stairs on our departments floor, when we had taken a break I used my camera to take a quick photo of my reflection in the window as it gave off almost like a spectral figure that could be made out from the dark tones of my clothes and hair. The idea was inspired by Vivian Maier’s work, as she did a very interesting take with how she would do her self imagery. When I showed the image to my tutor he was quite impressed with the work, he said it was different to what I would normally do and recommended I play round with it in photoshop, as he recommended it would look good in black and white, so taking that advice I then used photoshop and played around with the brightness and contrast, then turned it black and white and it came out quite well, as you see a more detailed appearance of me against the bricks.
Wednesday 25th of September 2019
the very first lesson of Research methods was an introduction to the aesthetics of dissent along with being given a task for next week which was to bring in a photograph I have taken along with another one by a photographer that relates to me.
the first thing we did was to look at a zoomed in image to they and perceive what we were looking at, as a few questions popped into my mind about it due to the actions and expressions that were being shown in the image from what we could see
- What happened?
- why are they scared?
- why are they huddled together?
- Where was it taken?
- When was it taken?
- Whats so special about this photo?
When zoomed out we could see that everyone was huddled together into a group like they had been cornered by something that had them filled with fear and possibly anger, as shown by the expression on the woman in front wearing the red top along with confusion and fear from the child right, but they were all gathered together like they were trapped by something.
after we asked our questions we were then told by our tutor this image was taken before these people were killed which surprised me and the others. This event was known, as the My Lai Massacre.
My Lai massacre, March 16th, 1968:
This was known, as one of the most horrific acts murder committed against civilians during the events of the Vietnam war, where Charlie company massacred 500 people who were made up of old men, women and children. Unfortunately during the massacre the woman and the little girls were raped and mutilated. This event was covered up by U.S. Army officers but that only lasted a year before the photographs had emerged of what happened causing international outrage, as this field the whole anti-war sentiment. The images that had emerged were taken by Ronald L. Haeberle who was a former United States army photographer that captured the whole thing, as it occurred and the photos showed just how horrific the whole thing was because describing it is one thing but seeing is another. This shows the power of photography. When our tutor showed us the image of of the bodies after the massacre pointed out how the two photos we looked were like before and after images, which is what they were, as we had viewed the results of the massacre.
Wednesday 1st of October 2019
One thing from of photography that often captures the raw reality of the topic that is being photographed is candid shots, as they are not staged and people tend not to be aware they are being photographed and is a form of fly on the wall photography making everything more natural and less staged, which is how it tends to look when you take a photo and someone looks at the camera. This is often how it is done when documenting everyday life, which would be to show the reality of how things were, which we have seen with the works of Martin Parr a well known documentary photographer.
Martin Parr:
Matin Parr is a British documentary photographer taking photos from the age of 14, as that was always his interest. One of the things he does is take photographs that are serious but are disguised, as entertainment, making them acceptable to the audience but at the same time showing there is a lot going on that isn’t that well seen, almost like reading between the lines.
As a photographer he was called the David Attenborough of the working class, which was personified in his book, ‘The working class the last resort 1982-1985’. In this book he is documenting the working class during the summers from 82 to 85 at the seaside in new Brighton. (reference)
When this book was published he was attacked by a few critics saying that his work scrutinised the working class when in reality all he did was capture a social class on enjoying leisure where they could, which even at the time would be difficult under Thatcherism, which is shown in a lot of his images. This book also highlights the declining interest in visiting the British seaside, which was often a popular thing to do, go down to the beach, enjoy the sun, get an ice cream and some fish and chip but at the time it was a lot cheaper for holidays abroad, which lead to a decline in seaside goers. A lot of his images show that there were loads of people all over the place, while at the same time showing loads of rubbish, such as wrappers, cups, paper, boxes and such that seemed to be left behind on the floor or floating about in the water that people were swimming in.
Another thing that his work shows was just how many people flooded New Brighton in the droves, as shown here at swimming baths where it is practically flooded with people basking in the summer heat and cooling off in the pool.
In some ways this would be considered demonising the working class deliberately catching people at their worst where you see all the food containers wrappers and all sorts along with people being over crowded. When in reality he was showing it how it was at the time.
Introductory task:
For this task we had been asked to provide two images in the session session one being an image that we took that felt were proud of and one image taken by another photographer that we had been interested in and explain the kinds of research required to create them, the type of research required to investigate them, along with the contexts of, which they were made.
The first image on the right is my self portrait I was quite proud of it, as it gives off a spectral like effect, which I have noticed with a lot of Vivian Maier’s work, as some of her self imagery has a very ghost like effect from the reflection of the glass. The Research that would go into these would involve going out and looking round at different windows or mirrors to see what captures a the best reflection or create such spectral effect especially how in Vivains image it hard to tell her exact positioning, as it possibly involves the use of both windows and mirrors, which was an interesting style, as I liked as I wanted to try and capture that spectral effect.
Wednesday 9th of October 2019
Interviews and Oral Histories:
This is in regards to a fact that imagery and text can go together, as each image tends to have a story behind it which isn’t an unheard of thing, as there are a lot of photos that are taken for a specific reason and this was shown in an interview with a woman named Eva who struggled to remember a lot about her childhood, as she was suffering from dementia at the time of the interview, as the image was of her in a ballet outfit and it helped her remember some things from that time even if they were a bit vague.
this form of imagery and text has always been a common use in nearly every form of media be it from newspapers, magazines and such, as the image is representative of the subject that is being talked about at that moment, but at the same time with the merging of text and imagery also shows that things aren’t always how things appear to be as shown in an image, as an image alone can be taken into multiple different contexts and could veer far away from the original context that was trying to be put forward.
Wednesday 30th of October 2019
Library Task:
For this task we were to find an image in a library book and mention three things that we had learned about this image. Before the start of our lesson we had brought in the photos that we had found in our book in the library along with the three things that we had learned about them when finding them. This is image is called, ‘Chicken Soup and Crackers’ from the book Regeneration 50 photographers of tomorrow taken by Jaret Belliveau. This was taken in 2004, as part of a series called Familial Endurance, which documented his family in their own environments, though this project would have a bit of an alteration after his mother was discovered to have cancer, as the stages of the cancer were documented and the impact it had on the family.
Nina Berman
Nina Berman is an American documentary photographer that we had looked at in our lesson, as out tutor had some of her images that we looked at and saw almost like a blending of the militarisation of America and how it seemed to fit in with everyday life, as if the two had melded together.
the first image we looked at was zoomed in, as we all had to try and guess what it was they were looking at, at first I thought it was somewhere like Blackpool as it looked just as rough and crowded on the beach, as the people on it were looking at something, but when we zoomed out the image was revealed to be a B2 stealth bomber flying by that had caught everyones gaze, as it is almost like the world of peace clashes with the world of war.
The second picture we looked at was of a child looking at apache gunships flying by while having a picnic, which I think also correlates to the idea of the militarisation of the United States and how it seems to blend with everyday life in a way showing how strange America really is that two polar opposite things can be merged together.
The third image was of two marines who seemed to be stood for photos with a woman and a child which was during fleet week, though at the same time due to the American second ammendmant it could also suggest the arming of America reinforced by the image of two American civilians holding M16 A4’s, plus it could also be considered controversial, as well to see a kid holding a weapon due to the rising tide of school shootings in America.
The fourth image shows a load of American flags beneath an image of Donald Trump with almost like a subtile hint towards the wall, like how the president was proclaiming to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, this is almost in a way like a subliminal message.
This is all documented in the book Homeland which analyses the militarisation of America ever since September the eleventh which has been quite militarised for a while now.
the next part of her work that we ended up looking at was regarding religion, as we were now looking into mega churches and their popularity in America such, as this one here with a statue of Jesus with a cross at his knees with his hands in the air with two blasts of water in front with what I think may be some over exposure from the light sources in those blasts that could have been done deliberately. In order for her to her research and for her images she had gone to these megachurches in order to taker these photos.
the next shot we looked at was the inside of a megachurch whose design seems more akin to that of a concert venue or stadium where you would see musicians perform. This could also be used, as an example of how much money the church seems to possess when they are supposed to give money to charities to help others, which in a way it would suggest that the church take a huge chunk of that money and put in their pockets.
the next shot shows two kids leaving a megachurch walling past a cartoon image of two kids holding flags, with one being the American flag and a flag with a cross on it in a black square in the corner. In some ways this could be considered a form of indoctrination, as it is trying to sway kids into the religion and that the blurriness of the image could be representative that kids don’t fully understand the church or what it is they are being inducted into.
Megachurches:
Entire industries have been created to design, build and supply these churches.
Think tanks exist to plot their rise, lighting and rigging companies are booming to popular talking wall video screens and catwalks. Christian bands perform U2 style music beneath strobe lights and fog machines. Publishing companies package Biblezines that are christian magazines for teens.
For a task we had also been given two images to research, which was what looked like a deformed pepper and the picture of a woman’s back and we were tasked with looking into 4 specific things about the images.
- What photographs communicate (what ideas, sensations and emotions they create)
- How are these effects created? what kind of photographic language, methods and techniques are used to create these effects?
- Make a list of all kinds of things the photographer would need to know and do, to create such photographs.
- How many of the things you have listed above do you think are part of the research?
Wednesday 6th of November 2019
Mystery Photographs:
Today we are looking into the information we had discovered for our mystery images to see how much we could find on the topic of the images and so far we found out some interesting things, as others had photographs from people like Man Ray, Louis Deggarte, Lee Miller and such. Though my two images were taken by Edward Weston, though I was nervous to present what I had learned, as i was not a fan of doing presentations but luckily overcame it to do this as it was swotting that I had to do.
When my presentation came around I put forward what I had learned about the pepper, as I had been unable to find any information with the woman, though what I did discover about the pepper was that when shooting Edward made use of a tin funnel, to create a natural light and 3 dimensional effect along with a six minute exposure and F/240 aperture. I also found that in a way the pepper communicates the idea of individuality and the feeling of special/unique and an emotion of loneliness and one of a kind.
Wednesday 13th of November 2019
Photographic contexts:
We have been looking at a scene from the film Playtime by Jacques Tati , where the main character is in a dull clinical waiting room with black and white photographs , which at one point had red dots glowing on them with photos at a high angle like the faces are looking down at the main character and following him around the room, making the character feel like eh was unworthy and an odd one out whereas the other guy who came in and sat down with a newspaper who seemed like he was more fit for the job.
This image was taken by Scott Edelman in Romania From the orange revolution during the reign of Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. The design of the image shares some similar qualities to that of propaganda material used by the U.S.S.R., as they both portray their leaders Nicolae Ceausescu and Jospeh Stalin standing above others almost like it was godlike in a way, as if to show that they were being worshipped, like they are the supreme Leaders.
This image was taken by Walker Evans in 1936, of a furniture store sign near Birmingham this would be an image of an image which was an advertisement of a living room furniture set advertising the idea of a trend of furniture design that was popular at the time, as a way of swaying you mind into that mindset of buying that furniture to be like others, as a way of fitting in.
This image was taken by Richard Billingham in a Zoo where the shot is of a monkey enclosure with people observing the monkeys from behind glass, as the monkeys were also observing the people in a way showing that they do not believe they are in the wild, as the painting on thew wall was fake and they saw the people, as the things to observe.
Wednesday 20th of November 2019
Photographs in Context:
before the start of our lesson today we had been given a task the to bring in one image of an image with some notes about it in relation in the context of an image of an image so for this I chose to take a picture of a T.V. screen in the Blackburn mall, as it is still an image but in a digital format and due to where it is and the size of it anyone walking by and seeing the advert can have that subliminal thought of wanting a new car, as the idea of something being new always sways peoples minds.
Wendy Ewold:
This photo was called trying to be a lady, this along with other photos was part of a running theme where she took different shots of school kids and had them placed up near the school to show the effect in an urban area. When making these photos she worked with the kids she photographed and using text exploring the perceptions themselves, community and home. Ewolds project moves beyond the boundaries of the gallery walls into the public area expanding the term on site to a literal context.
Gottfried Heinwien:
This work was called, ‘Selektion’, as the image makes the children look malnourished and ill while looking like they were covered in what could be either white paint or disguised, as chalk . This shows could possibly show the exploitation of children, as they probably weren’t aware of how their images may end up being used and in what context.
Helen Levitt:
She was a New York photographer who managed to capture children’s creativity on the streets showing how their imagination fuelled their creativity, which she wanted to capture, as shown here from the drawings this child created on the wall of what looks to be a box person and another box person with hair.
Wednesday 27th of November 2019
Engaging the subject:
Humphry Spender 1910 to 2005
Mass observation was a form of photography where he and a few various other people who were socialists observed people in Bolton to see how working class are represented and what the middle and upper class people don’t understand or see. They would also take notes and payed working class people to observe things such, as normal behaviour or anything unique. Their actual notes are at Worktown archives and the university of Sussex
They eventually became a funded opportunity by the government and middle class, but this unfortunately ruffled the feathers of the founders a bit. These people then became known, as Hoopers snoopers as they worked for MP Henry Hooper.
The shots that we saw are by Humphrey himself, as the first two were both candid of a man in a pub looking off somewhere and the next shot being from a very low angle as if the camera was hidden meaning the man was unaware of these shots being taken, but in reality his camera was on the table and he just kept taking shots with the camera positioned.
The next shot is also candid, as it is in a cafe as everyone was just minding their own business and getting on with what they were doing be it making food or eating it, as it was taken with an overhead view almost like a fly on the wall perspective, as you are observing what is going on. The majority of Humphrey’s images that we see are in pubs and café, as we see a few and more realistic feeling of how people interacted in those days.
From Mass observation notes:
Passing down the street observer saw a man of 30 running across the road, through the entrance of this pub, up the steps and shouting. the next second the sound of breaking glass. The man then come tumbling down the steps with another man on top of him. They begin to fight in the middle of the street… (later) a sergeant with a stick and a P.C. came up… “whats the matter? What is it about? Now then, come on there, get out of it, get out of it!”
Anthropology on Photography:
The science of human beings especially: the study of human beings in relation to physical character, environmental and social relations, and culture. The photographic anthropologist observes and studies others.
Ethnography on photography:
this is a form of Anthropology as it involves you actually working with the community and getting involved and experiencing what they experience in order to get an understanding of everything that gets done.
Auto ethnography:
It is looking at yourself as part of a social group, as part of a social situation of our lives which makes auto ethnography, as you are looking at yourself in regards to this. it is a form of quantitive research in which an author uses self-reflection and writing and photography.
Three image proposal task:
For the final task we were asked to create a 3 image proposal project regarding a selection of photographs that I would want to take for future work.
The idea was the merging of man made and nature, which I thought would be an interesting concept as the images I took were around an Allotment near where I lived, and it was early in the morning while it was still bit frosty with the sun shining, as originally I wanted to show the clash of man made vs nature but after some reassessment, I want to show the how the two have merged together making something different as at the is allotment I wanted to capture it’s merging by showing more of the allotment and what goes on there, such as growing vegetables and feeding animals along with some beautiful scenery.
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