Assignment 2: Photographing the Unseen
What can be deemed as unseen and worthy of photographic endeavour? This I grappled with for a few days before even beginning to put pen to paper. I tend to let the ideas form and dissipate, replaced by fresh ones, forming and dissipating again, a meditation if you will. After a couple of days of meditative; assignment, day dreaming some solid ideas began to form. My initial thoughts were related to the conveyance of feelings or emotions. Love, hate, anger, pain, annoyance, joy, fear, guilt, sadness, contentment, peace – all of these feelings remain unseen and could perhaps be represented in the form of abstract photographic metaphors. Taking love as an example, the obvious thing to do would be to photograph representations of a heart – or maybe even a real heart – obtained from a butcher’s shop. Add to this an image of a child’s dummy, and a picture of beach where an early sexual encounter occurred, perhaps even a football club motif and a story of love begins to form in image metaphors. Honestly though, the ideas all seemed a bit cliched, maybe even contrived, and this ran across the board for all of the differing feelings/emotions. There had to be another way of approaching this assignment.
Whilst driving to work, mulling over ideas for the representation of belief systems; the economic model of capitalism; belief in conspiracy theories; the ideas of isolationism and xenophobia; the new politics of lies, I started to develop a migraine (too much thinking perhaps?). As a child I used to suffer with full blown photo-sensitive migraines, which included nausea, tunnel vision, heightened aural and photo-sensitivity, numbness and excruciating headaches. Thankfully these subsided in my teens after self-medicating with THC (there must be something in it). I now, no longer self-medicate, and the migraines have returned, but in the muted form of ocular migraines. These have a purely visual effect, taking the shape of an initial spark of bright colourful light, which mutates into a crescent of kaleidoscopic, almost electrical impulses, growing within the field of vision, eventually dissipating after about half an hour or so. While in the spell of the visuals I’m rendered without proper vision and depending on the strength and time of the attack, can be left discombobulated, as though I’ve been hit about the head in a boxing ring, sometimes lasting up to 24 hrs.
I shifted my train of thought away from representing belief systems to that of migraines. Unsure whether this would be my final foray or whether I might return to some earlier idea or develop a new strand. This assignment is busy for the mind. I scribbled down a visual representation of the patterns and how they developed unsure as how to progress. I also researched auras with a view of copying them and enhancing, maybe even distorting their shape in photoshop with the aim of using them as an overlay’s. The overlays would form the point of focus on a wider, out of focus background, containing scenes and tasks of the everyday; hands in the washing bowl; on a steering wheel; typing at a computer and other such endeavours that become very hard to complete when the vision becomes assaulted with patterns of ocular interference. In so far as my own scribbling’s, I thought I could draw with coloured Sharpies on to clear acetate, photograph these and then photoshop them over scenes of the mundane.
Initial doodles.
Google search screen grab.
After completing further research into ocular migraines, I came across the above images on google. Needless to say, I was bitterly disappointed. Not only were some of the images similar in construction to my idea, I found them weak, there was no connection for me to them. Although, I thought I could maybe tell a story with the linking theme of how hard the every day tasks can become when in the grip of a migraine, embodied with the changing shapes and patterns of the visuals, I realised that maybe this would become to repetitive. I was not wholly convinced with the concept anymore. This may have potential in future, but for now I reckoned on shelving the idea. One other thing that helped me decide this wasn’t going to be a viable idea, was the thought of manipulating found images and how this might have potential copyright and plagiarism connotations. No, I decided it was time to re-think again.
The answer to my conundrum hit me in the face, almost in a literal way. I train in martial arts and one of our members is a veteran of the Iraq campaign of the early 2000’s. Martin has suffered with PTSD since being in Iraq, but it really came to the fore after he left military service. I’ve heard him talk a little about his condition and have always been intrigued, so I approached him with a view of seeking his collaboration and the aim of exploring his condition. Thankfully he agreed.
I was relieved to final have a concrete subject on which to focus on. PTSD is a very challenging condition for the diagnosed and also for their families. The condition has many facets to it, all falling within mental health parameters and can often lead to multiple aspects presenting at the same time. I wanted my process to be organic, not to force the project with a shot list but to connect with photographic metaphors in an in the moment by moment manner. What I mean by this, is to feel a connection with something that has a metaphoric resonance to my subject matter by chancing upon them rather than by searching them out. I figured I would make the work part portrait and part metaphorical. I also wanted to add testimony to the project and that could only come from Martin himself. So, it was, I set off on a Sunday morning to sit with Martin and find out more of his experiences by audio recording our conversation while taking his portrait and by making images of memorabilia related to his military experience.
Voice recording.
The session passed quickly, and Martin was very engaging, not shying away from any of my probing in relation to his experiences. I think it was as cathartic for him as it was enlightening for me, and supplementary to this visit he has invited me along to some group sessions to meet other veterans in similar circumstances – I look forward to further encounters with other vet’s and hope to expand on this subject. Happily, I managed to get the pictures I needed to form the core of the portrait side of the project. I have also come to realise that I needed to construct some images in regard to establishing some of the metaphors I need – organic has only worked in part, and I have an idea of what I want to shoot to form a symbiosis with the portraits. I thought it was important in regard to arrangement of the work that it focused on healing. It would be very easy to play to the negative aspects of PTSD, and, as you can see when viewing the contacts there are pictures of a kitchen knife. Martin told me of thoughts of suicide that he had experienced on several occasions and I had during my process thought of making that part of the story – Martin’s over that stage now and I realised that it would be more respectful to him to highlight the positive aspects of his martial arts training. Also, it is important that the that the recorded testimony appears in handwritten form as I feel this gives it more gravitas. This idea came from viewing Kaylyn Deveney’s project – The Day-to-Day Life of Alfred Hastings.
Kaylyn Deveney’s project follows the everyday life of Albert Hastings, building up a picture of the everyday occurrences, tasks and rituals that give his life some meaning. This evocative project gives insight into notions of loneliness, independence, the mundane and the repetitive nature of life, occurring with people experiencing the twilight years after the loss of a long-term partner. The text featured within the project are Alberts own interpretations of Kaylyn’s images and are in the main, literal readings of her work. They give insight into the differing interpretations and meanings of a collaboration such as this, his being an autobiographical point of view, whereas hers is the gaze of a stranger. With regard to my own project, I felt it was important to include Martin’s dialogue verbatim. I’ve generally abstained from using text in previous projects as I don’t like to lead the viewer by the hand in reading my work. This time though, I felt it was important to enable the work to have authenticity through highlighting the collaboration – it is after all a heavy subject.
Bibliography
KayLynn Deveney Photographer. (2019). Bert Grid — KayLynn Deveney Photographer. [online] Available at: https://kaylynndeveney.com/bert-grid [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019].
Project Three: Photographing the Unseen
Case Studies
I was hard pushed to make a choice between Peter Mansell’s work and Dewald Botha’s. I’m not being dismissive of Jodie Taylor’s project, I just have a familiarity with it in the form of my own assignment; The Square Mile, the first assignment completed for OCA. In the end I developed the greatest connection to Dewald Botha’s project; The Ring Road.
I guess I have a greater empathy with Botha’s notion of self-reflection, whilst searching for calm in a busy metropolis, of trying to find your feet in a new environment, where language and culture can stir up tumult of unsettling emotions. From my own experience there is solace to be gained from walking in new environs and calming down the thinking processes by seeking quiet. Walks of discovery can become a reflective process of self-discovery.
Regarding the idea of loss of authorial control when a viewer projects their own emotions and experiences on to our created work, I would argue that we don’t really lose control. We create work with our own views and ideas in place at the onset and this is where we take our meaning from whilst the work is being developed. On completion we may ourselves have evolved a different meaning from its creation. There is fluidity in the process as much as there is fluidity in other’s perceptions of the work. A viewer is entitled to their own ideas relating to work, as much as I am in its creation.
Bibliography
Dewald. (2019). Ring Road. [online] Available at: https://www.dewaldbotha.net/ring-road.html# [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Project 2: Images and Text
Exercise: Poem
I think the last time I read poetry was when my daughter had some homework for English Literature prior to sitting her GCSE’s – she’s now 21. As a young man I was taken by the war poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon and also Rudyard Kipling’s IF. I tried my hand at William Blake but for all of my efforts his work might as well have been written in Sansrkit. So, it was that I turned to an old favourite; Benjamin Zephaniah.
Money make a rich man feel like a big man
It make a poor man feel like a hooligan
A one parent family feels like a ruffian
An those who have it won’t give you anything
Money makes your friend become your enemy
You start to see things very superficially
Your life is lived very artificially
Unlike those who live in poverty
Money affects your ego
But money brings you down
Money causes problems anywhere money is found
Food is what we need
Food is necessary
Let me grow my food
An dem can eat dem money
Money can save us
But yet we feel doomed
Plenty money burns in a nuclear mushroom
Money can make you happy
Money can help you when you die
An those who have it continually live a lie
Children are dying
Spies are spying
Refugees are fleeing
Politicians are lying
An deals are done
An webs are spun
An no one keeps the third world on the run
An the brother feels better than the brothers next door
Cause his brothers got money an his brothers got more
The brother thinks a brother’s not a brother cause he’s poor
When a brother kills another that is economic war
Economic war we call it economic war
It may not be the east and west anymore
But the north and south third world far lord
Coffee an isle
That’s what it’s about
Economic war
Economic war
Shots fired from the stock market floor
So we work for a livin’
An we try an we try
With so little time for chillin’
Like we’re livin a lie
Money makes a dream become reality
Money makes real life like a fantasy
Money has a habit of going to the head
I have some for the rainy day underneath me bed
Money problems make it hard to relax
Money makes it difficult to get down to the facts
Money makes you worship vanity and lies
Money is a drug with legal highs
The parents of poor kids
Some are not coping
Some are just managing
Books that need balancin’ Property is theft
No money means death
You pay for your rent
An then nothing left
Some will pick your pocket
Some will pay to stop it
Those who will pay to stop it
They happy cause they got it
Some go out an fight for it
Some claim they got the right to it
An people like my grandparents
Live long but never side it
Money made me go out an rob
Then it made me go looking for a job
Money made the nurse
And the doctor emigrate
Money buys friends you love to hate
Money made slavery seem alright
Money brought the Bible
An the Bible shone the light
Victory to the penniless
The gospel shows us
We come to mash those market forces
The paper giant called market forces
I’ve always been taken by the honesty and sense of humanity in Benjamin’s poetry, but also his anti-establishment viewpoint.
I chose to illustrate the poem by focusing on a couple of lines from it that highlight the disparities between rich and poor. The first is the very first line of the poem ‘Money make a rich man feel like a big man’.
In the Eighteenth Century the pineapple was lauded by the rich strata’s of society to the point that they were shown off at parties as an example of a personal financial reputation. Often they were hired out to enhance peoples societal standing. Gold also acts as a symbol of wealth.
I next looked at the lines ‘You pay for your rent. An then nothing left.’ To me nothing represents poverty more than mould on the wall of a rented property. I think the images work as a set in representing some of the concepts within the poem. I had further ideas such as burning fake or play money; the use of poker chips to represent wealth or a trying to represent market forces by screenshotting analytical financial graphs presented in a multiple over-laid composite. In the end I was satisfied that two images were enough and that the use of direct flash also gave an aesthetic link.
Bibliography
Google Docs. (2019). Money-Benjamin-Lyrics+M-e-O. [online] Available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eHgzRUpZaIM_rrK_LVWM2GQsRo6izg55PyfmirF6o8g/edit [Accessed 19 Nov. 2019].
Project 2: Research Point
Sophie Calle
Sophie Calle is a French writer, photographer, installation and conceptual artist working with mixed media presentations often combining text, moving image and photography in her projects.
Her project Take Care of Yourself originated as an idea after she received a breakup email from her partner at the time which ended with the line that forms the title of the exhibition. Sophie forwarded the email to 107 assorted women chosen for a variety of differing professions or skills and asked them to give her their response to the text. The vast array of differing responses was either made into portraits, filmed performances or textual analysis.
The work is a very succinct study of human response to human emotion and in turn could also be seen as an exposé of individuality. I also feel that the project is a form of therapy and that by turning it into a project the artist can transform the end of the relationship into something that is more rewarding for her and perhaps use it as tool for transformation. The use of the transcripts, in combination with the portraits and filmed responses, act as a device for relay, enabling the viewer to establish their own interpretation of the narrative.
Sophy Rickett
Sophy Rickett is a British visual artist who predominantly works with photography, video and sound installations.
Her series Objects in the Field was made while she was on an art fellowship at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University. Whilst there she came across an astronomer called Dr Roderick Willstrop. During the 1980’s Willstrop designed and constructed a Three Mirrored Telescope which could produce analogue negatives from specifically tailored 5×4 film. The telescope could produce a maximum of 4 images a night and to affect the process became a labour of love for Dr Willstrop. Over preceding years, it produced a total of 125 negatives before being converted to digital capture.
For her project Ricketts managed to procure the negatives and using her own techniques and aesthetics has printed a variety of the images for display, in turn, countermining their original scientific intent. Added to the images are three passages of written text. The first deals with memories of childhood visits to the optician – of having her eyes tested and the use of associated paraphernalia. For me this text links to some of the circular images of the night sky and their similarity to digital retinal scans of today. This is an excellent use of relay and has ensured that I derive my own interpretation from the presented narrative. The next passage of text covers her interactions with Dr Willstrop and an overview of the science involved in the making of the images. This text seems to act more as an anchor by giving an explanation to the original creation of the work, but it also establishes that she is viewing the work on a more aesthetic level. The final piece of writing acts much more as a metaphor. For me this gives me a greater understanding of the work, or rather my personal understanding of it. I now see the work as relating to time. The fleeting nature of the scene that unfolds rapidly as she passes by on the speeding train. The subject matter itself and the representation of time and space. Finally, the childhood memories of time past and how these vignettes of memory never leave conscious.
Observation 87, 1991/2013
Bibliography
Paulacoopergallery.com. (2019). Paula Cooper Gallery. [online] Available at: https://www.paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/sophie-calle-take-care-of-yourself/press-release [Accessed 14 Nov. 2019].
Sophy Rickett. (2019). Projects + Work — Sophy Rickett. [online] Available at: https://sophyrickett.com/work#/objects-in-the-field-1/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2019].
Jeffreys, T. (2019). Objects in the Field – The Learned Pig. [online] The Learned Pig. Available at: http://www.thelearnedpig.org/objects-in-the-field/900 [Accessed 14 Nov. 2019].
Project 2: Image and Text
For this exercise I bought a physical copy of The Observer dated 27th October 2019. I did consider buying a right leaning newspaper to try and give some political parity, but… would rather have sandpapered my eyeballs instead.
Original headline: Greta Thunberg is old enough to scare the world. Are teens like her really too young to vote?
Alternative anchor: Their future is in our hands. Why not their own?
Relay: Who’s the child in the room?
Original headline: From a ‘great deal’ to a Halloween nightmare: how Johnson’s scare tactics fell apart.
Alternative anchor: Time is running out for the politics of fear…and for Johnson.
Relay: Who really is painting a new political landscape?
Original headline: England stride past All Blacks towards rugby’s greatest prize.
Alternative anchor: Dominant England give fans reasons to cheer.
Relay: How long will the joy last?
The words that are applied to images give meaning in forming a context to frame it in, but this can be so easily altered by reshaping the structure of the wording to give a completely different outcome. Often, syndicated news images are shared among media outlets and these images have differing connotations depending on the political stance of the proprietors. It seems to me that the best way of applying relay is to ask a question in the text as this insures ambiguity and differing interpretations.
Project 2: Telling a Story
The main thing that springs to mind when comparing W. Eugene Smiths ‘The Country Doctor’ with Briony Campbells ‘The Dad Project’ is the differing levels of emotional connectivity between the two photographers and their subjects, and the differing levels of sensitivity emitted through the works.
There are many factors at play that influence the differing approach of both photographers, but it mainly boils down to the way the photographers engage with their subjects. With Smith he has become a pure observer to the scenes playing out in front of him with minimal or no interaction with his subject – taking a more objective approach to his story. His subject (Dr. Ceriani) is so used to him being there that he ignores him.
Briony’s images on the other hand are full of emotion and tenderness, she is an active participant in the story and often features in the images herself. Her approach is more subjective; this subjectivity allows her to portray a sensitivity within her body of work, which in turn allows the viewer a greater level of connection to it. The collaboration with her father in making the work also gives the viewer a greater opportunity to connect, because through this act of collaboration it is as if we have been given permission by them to be a participant as well. Briony’s images certainly convey more feeling and often these feelings are hers.
Although the work is about the end of life, the story for Briony never really ends, she has the memory of the collaboration with her father and the closeness that the project gave them during his last year and also the document that allows his memory to be ever present.
Bibliography
Time. (2019). https://time.com. [online] Available at: https://time.com/3456085/w-eugene-smiths-landmark-photo-essay-country-doctor/ [Accessed 23 Oct. 2019].
Brionycampbell.com. (2019). [online] Available at: http://www.brionycampbell.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/The_Dad_Project_Briony_Campbell.pdf [Accessed 23 Oct. 2019].
Thoughts on Documentary, Photojournalism, Reportage and Art Photography
Prior to embarking on this module, my view of documentary photography was that it was as a way of depicting the real world and representing themes of importance, whether that be of a personal level to the photographer or relating to wider social concerns, events or place. To me documentarists were photographers such as, Lewis Hind, Paul Strand, Robert Frank, Chris Killip and the photographers of Magnum. After looking at work of contemporary documentary photographers such as Jack Latham, Max Pinkers and Alex Soth and working through the part one of this module, I understand it to be much more interpretive and as long as it relates to the real, ranging from place to events, there is no limit to creative interpretation.
Reading through the course notes, reportage is more closely concerned with a more subjective way of relating stories, implying the point of view of one person, whereas photojournalism is supposed to be a more objective form of relating to news imagery, although many factors can put a more subjective spin on fact, such as the complexities of political leaning of publications in which the work is seen or text accompanying the images. Art photography by far holds more ambiguity and allows a greater sense of creative licence from the image maker. There is much more freedom for the viewer to derive their own meaning from art photography.
Assignment 1: Tutor Feedback
In the main I’m genuinely please with the feedback from my tutor. Even though I have already completed the introductory module of EYV I still feel as though I’m finding my feet with regard to some areas of academia. I’m also mindful of the fact that I took perhaps, too long to complete the first module and need to make sure I stick to the allotted timeframes for completion of this first level. I take on board Matthew’s comments regarding engaging with critical analysis rather than description when it come to researching other photographers. If I had more time I would complete extra research and add it to my learning log but I have to balance that with other areas of study and running a business, it’s essential to me to complete the course, so maybe, sometimes, I have to sacrifice certain aspects to stay on track with my timings. There are many positives from his feedback and plenty of areas for me to improve on.
Project 5: The Manipulated Image – The Real and the Digital
Has truth ever been a constant in photography? Even in its earliest guise the photograph has been manipulated to enable myriad readings, whether that be actual physical manipulation of a negative or the subjective approach of the photographer to elicit a certain response from the viewer.
We can look at many photographs from the history of photography and see that even in the traditional form of capture (halides and emulsion) manipulation of a place or moment can lead to misrepresentation e.g. Fenton’s valley with or without cannonballs, the debate concerning Cappa’s Falling Soldier and also Joe Rosenthals reshooting of the Flag Raising Over Iwo Jima, all of which it can be argued, remodel truth. The advent of digital technology has only made the manipulation of truth more sophisticated. In August 2006 Reuters stopped association with one of its contributing photographers Adnan Hajj. He had been found to have excessively manipulated one of his images supplied to the agency. The image was of bombing that had taken place in Lebanon and he had manipulated smoke rising from the bombed buildings for dramatic effect; this was not the only time he had been found out. These examples relate to spot news where it is understood that images must be more objective and be able to represent truth. So, for the case of hard news illustration I believe it is imperative that there is no deviation from the truth and therefore no manipulation of the image that is presented in a factual manner.
Documentary, on the other hand is more about the telling of stories and can be viewed with a more subjective approach. In his book The Documentary Impulse, Stuart Franklin reminisces on a conversation he had with the art historian Olivia Maria Rubio, ‘The history of photography has already shown us that photography can lie … The idea that photography is the truth or the sole basis of reality has been surpassed. Reality is what we construct for ourselves.’ (Franklin, 2016, 193). He concludes his conversation with her by asking the question ‘Where do the boundaries of documentary lie?’ … ‘I didn’t say there were any.’ (Franklin, 2016, 195).
As an example of interpretive documentary story telling I looked at Jack Latham’s body of work Sugar Paper Theories. The photographic series tells the story of a 40 year old murder case in Iceland. Jack uses archive material from the time and combines it with his own recent photography and also illustration. The work is a very successful conveyance of an historic story that can only be delivered through his own interpretation. Although not specifically digitally altered, if it had of been, it would still be an effective form of documentary story telling. The aim of documentary is to tell stories. So, for me, if digital technology can enhance a documentary story then there is no need to dismiss it.
Stephen Bull states ‘…digital technology can be regarded not as representing a revolution, but as a gradual and continuing evolution in photography – and how it is thought about’ (Bull, 2010, 23). Photography is a technology, and like life, technology evolves. The evolution to digital is just another tool in way we convey our stories.
Bibliography
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Adnan Hajj photographs controversy. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Hajj_photographs_controversy [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
Jack Latham. (2019). Sugar Paper Theories — Jack Latham. [online] Available at: https://www.jacklatham.com/project/sugar-paper-theories/mwq1qn15us1wvn9py3utnajb4nap1u [Accessed 7 Oct. 2019].
Wells, L. (2004). Photography : A Critical Introduction. Routledge.
Franklin, S. (2016). The documentary impulse. New York: Phaidon.
Bull, S. (2010). Photography. London: Routledge.
Context and Narrative 