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. 

 

As an interviewee Jane Bown reveals very little of herself as the photographer. She talks very sparingly of how she approached her images of people - we learn more from those who worked with her or who had their picture taken by her. She worked quickly using two cameras, two lenses, usually no more than two rolls of film and no light meter preferring to use the available light from the window- always in black and white. Not many of us could emulate this style of working! 
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 2^nd 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. 4^th 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. 3^rd 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.5^th ed. New York: Museum of modern art

Unknown Bown 1947-67 (2007) London: Observer Books

Wells,Liz. ( 2009) Photography: a critical introduction. 4^th ed. London: Routledge

 
Wells,liz. (2003) The photography reader

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.

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 ).

Assignment 5 - achieving a constant look

I think it fair to say 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.My tutor feels that this colour rendering and use of grain 'detracts from the quality of the image ( both technically and emotionally )'. 
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.  
                       

A:  Lightroom colour preset

P700: Daylight WB

                            

        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.

    

       



Tutor report (2) - Assignment 5 Challenging the interpretation concept ....

P682

The image above is a recapture of a photograph of my Dad working in a greengrocer's taken by a passing professional photographer sometime before decimalisation. The original was placed against a black background to bring out the lovely customer friendly quality that Dad had, so expertly captured in the original image. The image below (P681) is an attempt to recreate the original photograph  by a modern version which conjuring up the same sense of my Dad...

My 'model' here was a very patient and obliging Portsmouth market stallholder happy to help try to create the same pose...

P681

Tutor : The problem is will the reader realise it is a more or less random stall holder? Does this matter?  A very helpful and insightful comment. Looking back again at these two images I think it matters only in that the sequence of reading the images is perhaps the wrong way round which suggests a stronger link between the two men that was intended. Reversing the images would underline the idea of the modern image conjuring up the 'memory' i.e. the eye travelling left to right from the modern  to the 1950s picture and be more consistent with the rest of the work. Another reason for reworking the images into a new version and reviewing the captions.

P686

 'Amateur artist on honeymoon...'

An unexpected side of my Dad was an artistic streak that stretched way back to before the war. P686 below shows the earliest example that I have - one of two pen and ink drawings that he made on honeymoon.
I used a heavy grain to give an impression of a painting. Tutor : Do you think this is necessary? Has it worked?

 Here's the original  image without the heavy grain ...

                           

         I prefer the heavy grain version - it works for me as I think  it refers back to the 'artist' in that it looks more like a painting. However, the question being asked suggests that it might not work for  other observers. Should I then make a change here? My instinct is to stay with my original choice but I will revisit this when I review the concept of achieving a 'constant' look to the photobook. 

I 

Punctum v stadium - looking again at the final images

My tutor asks how does what Roland Barthes’s has to say about punctum vs stadium relate to the images in my project; in particular that image ‘Nearing Retirement’. An intriguing and very pertinent question that drove me back to Barthes’ work (2000) Camera Lucida  London: Vintage for a reread of his writing here.

I wanted to remind myself what Barthes had to say about how he was affected or not by the images that come under his gaze.

'Nearing Retirement '

First a definition of both:

Barthes distinguishes two elements in a photographic image- the studium- the factual content of the photograph which may ‘provoke only a general and so to speak, polite interest ‘(Barthes, 2000, p27) and the punctum. This he sees as breaking (or punctuating) the studium. He says ‘ This time it is not I who seek it out (as I invest the field of the studium with my sovereign consciousness), it is this element which rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow and pierces me’. ( Barthes, 2000, p26).

‘A photograph’s punctum is that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me)’. (Barthes, 2000, p.27). 

So I when I or another look at say the image ‘ Nearing Retirement’ what happens? For me there is a punctum as the flower itself is invested heavily with memories which come through my consciousness, in a sense ‘piercing’ it with a strong sense of connection to my Dad at a certain time of his life.

But I am the first to recognise that this may well not happen to any other observer as the punctum is going to be different for everyone – it may be there for some but not for others? So, you could, and maybe I do argue that you cannot consciously or deliberately create an image which contains both stadium and punctum. If this happens, it happens. Even if the observer can be headed in a certain direction by wording the caption in a more self- explanatory way, it still comes down to the reading of the image having a certain effect. In this case triggering memories held by the observer which I, as the photographer, are unaware.

So this particular image has a stadium but I think that only the observer can say whether it has a punctum. And this would apply to all the images in this project ……ideally they should have both elements and I conceived and composed them to achieve both for me as the observer. Self-indulgent you might say but again only other observers can really comment. And lastly, does the lack of a punctum detract  from enjoyment of the image critically or otherwise? 

References

Barthes,Roland. (2000) Camera Lucida. London: Vintage