Sue G Digital Photographic Practice Learning Log
Monday 4 August 2014
Finding Vivian Maier....
Intrigued to see a review of a new film about this non-professional American 'street photographer', Vivian Maier. See http://goo.gl/0mkFC8
Again I've missed the showings but pleased to see that there will be a DVD out in November - can't wait to get my hands on it!
Looking for the light: Jane Bown (2)
I missed the cinema showing of this film so decided to buy the DVD as I didn't want to miss out! I wasn't disappointed -this documentary film by Luke Dodd and Michael Whyte is an excellent film in its own right but also a great introduction to the work of Jane Bown.
I enjoyed the mix of conversation, anecdote and reflection used to create a really thoughtful portrait of Bown. She worked for the Observer newspaper over six decades and the inclusion of many of her iconic photographs of the famous and well known personalities of the last century and this one are a real treat to observe on the television.
I like her images very much - her use of texture and shape really stand out. She started out as a photographer with no interest in people. Indeed, it was her study of the eye of a cow that gave her entry to the Observer which became her 'family' over the next sixty years. This study so impressed the Observer's picture editor that she commented ' if you can do a cow's eye, you can take a portrait'.
My tutor asked me a while ago why I thought that Bown was not better known and I mulled this over while I watched the DVD. Don McCullan said that she was not a competitive woman. And she was clearly not interested in photographic theory,developments or technology- she liked shape and texture which is clearly reflected in the amazing textural impact in her images. I think she treated photography and the Observer as her home,compensating perhaps for a very sad childhood. She was happiest moving about seeing things and taking photos...
Working in a mainly male environment, quietly determined with a no-nonsense style of working, she was self-effacing, an intuitive photographer who had no desire to 'promote' her work. I think that her body of work reflects a consistency of subject matter and approach and very little experimentation to draw attention from a wider audience. But maybe her view that ' photographers should be seen nor heard', explains best why she is not better known.
Revised photobook
There were two key
issues that I felt compelled to address after my tutor’s feedback and
reflecting on my own thoughts about this project. These were how to achieve a
‘constant’ look to the photobook and how to present these images in a way that
would prompt or trigger ideas for and emotion in the ‘viewer’.
‘A constant look’
Returning to the images I
agree that the final selection of images did not present a 'constant look' to
the photobook. Why was this? Some of those images had some considerable
post production treatment to generate a certain feel, for example, 'warm sunshine’,
the passing of time or an attempt to place the image back in time by
representing it as an image taken many years ago that had faded with time. Post
production treatment experimenting with techniques learnt during the
course approaches introduced a degree of inconsistency across the book. My
tutor felts that this colour rendering and use of grain 'detracts from the quality of the image (both technically and emotionally)'. For
the most part I have to agree though differing in respect of one image i.e.
‘Amateur artist on honeymoon’. This image of one of my Dad’s earliest pen and
ink drawings done on his honeymoon works better for me with the heavy grain…it
conjures up a feeling of artistic effort.
How to achieve a
constant ‘look’?
Initially I went back to the original images and
experimented to see if it was possible to process them to 'look' like old
photos in a way that would provide a consistency of ‘aged’ look. This proved
again to me that the images that I am using do not easily lend themselves to
creating the look of old photos right across the board.
On reflection I have concluded that I can trigger
memories of ‘yesterday’ through images taken ‘today’. This works for me in terms
of my memories. For others it is less simple, but I believe that the images are
not so specific that they cannot trigger thoughts, memories and emotions even
if these are not that personal to the viewer.
Photobook: version two
So I have reworked the photobook avoiding the highly glossy finish that neither I nor my tutor liked (I usually print my images on smooth pearl photographic paper and need to replicate this finish in the photobook). I have given this second photobook an introduction to give the viewers as my tutor says ' a bit of a clue ' My original instinct to write a short introduction to the photo book, setting the scene so to speak, which I originally considered and discarded, was right with hindsight. This introduction sets the scene for viewers – my intention being that the images they view will trigger the experience, the idea or emotion that Roland Barthes describes as the 'punctum' - the 'element which rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces one' ( Barthes, 2000, p.26 ).
This second
photobook with a number of revised images will be submitted with my assessment
material. The original images for these revised images will also be included in
my selection of prints for assessment.
Revised images:
P 705 |
P 701 |
P707 |
P704 |
Reading
Barthes,Roland (2000) Camera lucida: reflections on photography.London: Vintage books
Barthes,Roland (1977). Image,music,text. London: Fontana
Baudrillard,J. (2004) The Gulf War did not take place. Sydney: Power Publications
Brunelli,Giacomo (2014) Eternal London. Dewi Lewis publishing.
Burbridge,Ben & Davies, Celia (eds.) (2013) Family
Politics Photoworks Annual.20
Caruana,Juergen and Steinmueller, Uwe. (2010) Behind the image: research in photography.
Lausanne: AVA Publishing
Chandler,Daniel (2002)Semiotics.The basics. London: Routledge
Cotton, Charlotte (2009) The photograph as contemporary art.Revised 2nd ed. London:Thames
and Hudson
Evening,Martin
(2012) The Adobe photoshop lightroom 4 book. Berkeley,CA : Adobe Press
Freeman, Michael. (2007) The photographer’s eye: composition and design for better digital photos.
Lewes: The Ilex Press.
Gulbins, Juergen and Steinmueller, Uwe. (2010) The digital photography workflow handbook.
Santa Barbara: Rocky Nook
Hirsch,Marianne. (2012) Family frames photography narrative and post memory.
Revised.London: Harvard University Press
Hunter,Fil et al. (2012) Light: science and magic. An introduction to photographic lighting. 4th
ed. Oxford:Focal Press
Kerstgens,Michael (2014) Coal not dole. The miners’ strike 1984/1985. Berlin:Peperoni Books
Krijnen,Marloes
(ed.) (Winter2010) Foam international
photography magazine.
Amsterdam;
Foam magazine
La Grange,Ashley (2008) Basic critical theory for photographers. Oxford: Elsevier
Marien,Mary Warner, (2010) A cultural history. 3rd ed. London: Laurence King
Publishing
Richin,F. (2013) Bending the frame: Photojournalism, documentary and the citizen. New
York: Aperture
Short,Maria. (2011) Context and narrative. London: Thames and Hudson
Spence,Jo & Holland,Patricia (eds.) (1991) Family snaps. The meaning of domestic photography.
London: Virago
Sontag,Susan. (1979) On photography. London: Penguin books
Szarkowski,John. (2012)The photographer’s eye.5th ed. New York: Museum of
modern art
Unknown
Bown 1947-67 (2007) London: Observer Books
Wells,Liz. ( 2009) Photography: a critical introduction. 4th ed. London:
Routledge
Wells,liz. (2003) The photography reader
Thursday 19 June 2014
Visiting the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2014
One of my favourite exhibition events is the Deutsche Borse Exhibition, not least because it always makes me stand infront of the winner and ask myself 'why?' as I never seem to agree with the judges decision.
The Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2014 is awarded to a living photographer for a specific body of work in a publication or exhibition format which is judged to have 'significantly contributed' to photography in Europe between
1 October 2012 and 30 September 2013.
Four artists were shortlisted; Alberto Garcia-Alix, Jochen Lempert, Richard Mosse and Lorna Simpson. And the winner? Richard Mosse for his exhibition 'The Enclave' - a multimedia installation at the Irish Pavilion at last year's Venice Biennale.
His photographs portraying war-scarred landscapes in eastern Congo are eyecatching,intriguing and unsettling. They have an almost psychedelic appearance derived from a pink hue - he used out of date military infra-red film which used to be used to identify camouflaged targets. Reading Mark Brown's article in the Guardian at
http://goo.gl/NR4fjo it seems the colours were all about attracting people and keeping their attention so that they watched all the films in the exhibition. Obviously the Deutsche Borse prize exhibition can only show a small part of the prize winning body of work but what I did see may me wonder whether what Mosse's audience drew from this work. For me the colours were 'magical' but drew my eye away from the subject matter - more natural colours or even black and white would have worked better for me, allowing a greater opportunity to consider the complexity of war without the distraction of his colour scheme.
So what about the other contenders? The shortlisted works of Alberto Garcia-Aliz, Jochen Lempert and Lorna Simpson were all in black and white.
Lempert has used photography to study humans and the natural world since the 1990s; his work ranges from everyday views to abstracts. I liked what I saw but it did
engage me emotionally..
In a series called 1957-2009 American Lorna Simpson took images from a late 1950s photo album and re created them featuring herself.It is difficult to work out which images are the originals and which the re-enacted ones.Is this what she intended as the outcome or rather emphasising themes such as gender, identity through the contrasting versions? Hard to say, other than it raises the question of what is actually real here.
Lastly, Alberto Garcia-Alix's publication 'Autorretrato/ Selfportrait' - black and white self portraits offering insight into his life over four decades. Standing in front of images reflecting a junkie's life,I could see the intended 'drama' of the subject matter clearly, though again I didn't feel engaged.
So this year's Deutsche Borse photography prize did not disappoint as yet again I came away wondering how you can judge such a diverse range of work..and again not entirely agreeing with the outcome - though this time I could not choose a winner myself.
Wednesday 11 June 2014
Assignment 5 : The photobook - did it work?
Was the photobook the right presentation 'vehicle' for my project ? I think so. However, this was the first time I had created a photobook; it was a learning curve and the end product was not as successful as I had hoped. Both I and my tutor agree on this point.
So I shall redo the photobook now with a number of changes.
Firstly, neither I or my tutor liked the highly glossy finish. I usually print my images on smooth pearl photographic paper and need to replicate this finish in the photobook.
Secondly, the book needs an introduction to give the viewers as my tutor says ' a bit of a clue ' My original instinct to write a short introduction to the photo book, setting the scene so to speak, which I originally considered and discarded, was right with hindsight. I followed advice to keep captions simple trying where practicable to hint at what the image represented to me. With hindsight, I think the need that I felt to explain images suggests a lack of success in what I was trying to achieve'
Adding an introduction will provide set the scene for viewers whereby the images they view will trigger the experience, the idea or emotion that Roland Barthes describes as the 'punctum' - the 'element which rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces one'
( Barthes, 2000, p.26 ).
So I shall redo the photobook now with a number of changes.
Firstly, neither I or my tutor liked the highly glossy finish. I usually print my images on smooth pearl photographic paper and need to replicate this finish in the photobook.
Secondly, the book needs an introduction to give the viewers as my tutor says ' a bit of a clue ' My original instinct to write a short introduction to the photo book, setting the scene so to speak, which I originally considered and discarded, was right with hindsight. I followed advice to keep captions simple trying where practicable to hint at what the image represented to me. With hindsight, I think the need that I felt to explain images suggests a lack of success in what I was trying to achieve'
Adding an introduction will provide set the scene for viewers whereby the images they view will trigger the experience, the idea or emotion that Roland Barthes describes as the 'punctum' - the 'element which rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces one'
( Barthes, 2000, p.26 ).
Assignment 5 - achieving a constant look
This post production treatment experimenting with techniques learnt during the course approaches did introduce a degree of inconsistency across the book. How to get round this? how to achieve a constant 'look' ?
The images that I want to use do not easily lend themselves to creating the look of old photos right across the board; and given that I want the images I've taken today to trigger memories of yesterday, this suggests that I would be better sticking to printing images that I have taken in the here and now and leave them to jog memories of the past. This would work for me in terms of my memories. For others it is less simple, but perhaps the images are not so specific that they do not trigger thoughts and memories even if these are not that personal to the viewer.
Same image but different treatments to try and achieve the sense of hot sunshine within a glass greenhouse.....
P701 :: Cloudy WB |
P702:original image AWB |
However, if I were to opt for the idea that the images were taken a while ago and have changed over time, for example, started to fade or some colours fading, how would this be achieved, how would it look and could it or should it be applied across all images to provide the consistency that I feel is needed? Looking at the images above I think Image C comes closest to what I was trying to conjure up..This was achieved by using the cloudy white balance setting ( P701).
I also experimented with some differing approaches to 'aging' photos to see whether there was any approach that would work across.
P703 : Photochrome version |
I have come to the conclusion however, that this project is better served by using the original images to achieve a consistency of look rather than processing them to 'look' like old photos.
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