Anyone who dismisses Flickr is bonkers. I've read of people (tutors and students) saying it's mostly derivative and no-one bothers with it anymore. Well, I find that not to be the case and have come across some incredibly talented people there. I have been following Chris Friel whose work I think is extraordinarily powerful. It's like he is making images that go straight to the unconscious part of ourselves, dreams and memories from all of history, not just one's own - I remember reading that it was now known that we carry memory in our genetic makeup which made perfect sense to me. I also think that this long historical memory is part of a collective consciousness and Chris Friel's images for me explore some or much of that. Last night he followed me back and sent me a link to all the people he is influenced by. I would never have had this opportunity otherwise, so thanks to Flickr for providing it.
I will write an entry of Friel's work another time when I have thought a little more about it.
In the meantime, I am also enjoying James Elkin's book, What Photography Is far more than I thought I would. When I have finished it I shall of course write about it here; but yet again this is something I discovered on Flickr. Although only because he was being accused of elitism by another person on the site. I should think he is extremely elitist but reading through the book he dismisses practically every photographer and every genre, for some purpose which I'll discuss later, but also to be provocative so I can't see the point in getting upset by him. It's a very useful book to be reading so soon after reading Camera Lucida.
Finally, before I go - I am feeling frustrated and torn between two different and seemingly opposing routes. I desperately want to continue heading in the direction I've been going and feel frustrated I'm not there (which is of course daft because where on earth is there? At the end of the rainbow no doubt!) but am also pulled towards something that seems virtually impossible anyway, so why am I even thinking about it when the blurry arty stuff beckons? Maybe because it is a possible route to earning something out of this venture. I am a little envious of photographers who are photographing issues and people to tell stories that need telling. I have been looking at some incredible work tonight and in the last few weeks by photographers and think that would be amazing to do. Far away though - as I have children who need me here. Maybe that's why I look at these people and think about it - a fantasy! Perhaps there may be a way to pursue such photography in a few years locally by which I mean the UK - there are after all plenty of issues here that need looking at. I'm not even sure as I write that that sort of photography is what I would want to do - perhaps I just feel I ought to. Something to think about in the months to come.
For now I do feel like I'm sliding about all over the place on legs that don't quite work in shoes that don't quite fit as I try to figure out where it is I'm aiming for. Or what is it. Of why I'm even doing it!
Tuesday 28 October 2014
Monday 27 October 2014
Light Part 4 Exercise 1 Part 2
I shot the first image (laid out in the middle of each image here so the sequence of ISO numbers make sense) in AV then switched to manual and changed the ISO to get exposures around the average so that I didn't need to change the aperture or shutter speed. (I noticed afterwards that using ISO is recommended in a later exercise too). All images are shot at 50mm with a cropped sensor.
Image 1 - f5.6 1/125s
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| 600 ISO |
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| 500 ISO |
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| 400 ISO |
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| 320 ISO |
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| 250 ISO |
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| This was the very first image I took of this scene which is framed ever so slightly differently than the five above and the one I liked most. It is taken at 400 ISO so the average and would have been set to AV. |
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| ISO 1250 |
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| ISO 1000 |
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| ISO 800 |
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| ISO 640 |
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| ISO 500 |
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| ISO 2000 |
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| ISO 1600 |
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| ISO 1000 (Oops - I seem to have missed ISO 1250 when doing this exercise! So this is darker than it might have been) |
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| ISO 800 |
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| ISO 640 |
Shot into the sun so all over exposed. These didn't really work at all but serve for the purpose of the exercise. I don't really get the shooting in the sun thing. I keep trying to get it right as I know people seem to like it and there are images with flare and golden streams all over the Internet but I never like the look of what I get when I try it. Maybe if I could do it with any success I'd change my mind about it - I do tend to underexpose as a habit and need to constantly be on the look out for that and I really like very light aity images that aren't over exposed. Perhaps that's what I should aim for in the assignment, or at least part of it. We'll see.
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| ISO 200 |
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| ISO 250 |
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| ISO 320 |
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| ISO 400 |
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| ISO 500 |
Here I like the one with the highest ISO even though I am sure it's quite noisy for those obsessive pixel-peeper types. I just the like the light and there was very little by the time I got to taking these - I had to stop soon after. Again the one in the middle was taken on AV and it was that setting I used to work around. Next time if I use AV I should then use exposure compensation + and - too to find an exposure I am happy with before continuing to bracket. (I don't think you can set the camera to bracket for two extra exposures on either side, can you, so must do it manually?) I tend to shoot in manual although have been advised to use AV for family shoots. I did for two weddings and I think that was the right thing to do but I felt a loss of control. Perhaps the more I relax in those situations the better I will be at judging whether AV is right or when to go into manual in certain scenarios. Or maybe I should become more comfortable with AV and exposure compensation by using it more because as I mention I do tend to underexpose. In fact sometimes I will think I have overexposed as that is what the camera histogram is telling me but then when I get home I find it's fine although high key - wow, I wish I were less all over the place!
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| ISO 1600 |
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| ISO 1260 |
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| ISO 1000 |
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| ISO 800 |
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| ISO 640 |
Sunday 26 October 2014
Horst P. Horst - V&A Museum 24th October 2014
I went to see the Horst exhibition as I have found the history of photography extremely interesting. My delight and captivation with Paul Himmel and Lillian Bassman was just the start of it. Since reading about them I have watched documentaries on Richard Avedon and Brian Duffy, and those, along with seeing the David Baily exhibition and reading about Diane Arbus mean I am beginning to piece together some history and development within fashion photography at least.
Horst, born in 1906 in Germany, worked at Vogue under Mr. Nast himself. The limitations of photography then plus Conde Nast's insistence that photographers used 10x8 plate cameras meant that Horst's work - focused on dresses - had to be shot in quite a specific way. For instance the lights, and there were lots of them, were extremely bright and tended to make the models' skin look lined and sallow. This explains why the faces of many of his models in the 30s (often not models at all but friends of people who worked for Vogue) were in shadow or hardly lit at all. He says in the V&A exhibition book that he 'tried lighting it (the face) from below or from the side, or sometimes straight on with just the eye of the cheek lit up' (1) which sounds rather surreal.
In fact many of his images are quite surreal in particular one of hands, which I believe is quite famous where some real hands are placed in a pattern with the hands of a mannequin; surely influenced by Dali and his cohorts. The fashion designer Schiaparelli worked closely with Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau interpreting 'Surrealism's shock value and translated it into headline fashions' (2) Horst photographed Shiaparelli's collections and continued the themes of Surrealism into the images.
Horst uses light to sculpt the picture he's creating. He is known for his lighting - dramatic shadows and chiaroscuro (strong contrasts) can be seen throughout his work, and his photographs of actors all look very much like stills from the film nior productions they would have been working on.
I was particularly amazed by the colour photograph section - Horst, along with Cecil Beaton was one of the earliest and most successful colour photographers and I know that the street and art photographers I've been looking at didn't start using it very much until the late 70s and 80s . The prints, many copies of Vogue covers from the 40s and 50s, are huge reproductions made possible by digital technology. When they were first produced colour slide film was used so no negatives were made at all and so not many of these images have been seen until the V&A show.
What I noticed was how fresh and modern they seem, despite the intervening Baily and Duffy years and all that has occurred since. In fact I would say that fashion magazines now are influenced by all that has been before including Horst and those that followed.
Some of the images had a softness and a sense of movement too which I was surprised by, but that is hardly surprising given that the models sometimes needed to try and stay absolutely still while they held poses for seconds at a time as the exposure was made. The movement is not like it is in Richard Avedon's work which has so much energy (very different tools available to him though); it is more subtle, hinted at. In particular I am thinking about images Dress by Jean Desses, 1952 (plate 157) and Dress by Henri Bendell, jewellery by Harry Winston, 1948 (plate 158) (3) which show some or more than a little blur. I liked this about these images as up to that point everything seemed incredibly still and almost statuesque in much of what I'd seen. My absolute favourite image is of Barbara 'Babe"Cushing Mortimer Paley, dress by Triana-Norell, 1946 plate 175 (4). I am not sure why I like this image so much. Perhaps because her face is partially obscured by her hand. The painted nails and cigarette emphasising her extraordinary eyes. She looks like a movie star of the era but was in fact a socialite and editor at Vogue, daughter of a rich surgeon and married to two wealthy men (not together of course!) Her beauty was enhanced after she had an accident and had to have corrective surgery. There is something so beguiling about the photograph - the lighting, the subject and the colour all work together to make it deeply memorable and striking.
In addition to the fashion photography Horst photographed nature, male nudes and travel photography. The photographs of men are quite abstract. There are no faces, no sultry eyes at the viewer, simply shape and form made with body and light, although it has to be said they are pretty homo-erotic. They are interesting for me to see in light of the work I did on assignment 2 using my body (clothed) and fabric to create shapes, along with my growing discomfort with the female nudes that litter art history as well as current photography practice.
Horst died in 1999 in the United States. Images of Catherine Bailey taken in 1989 are included in the book so he kept working until nearly the end of his long life.
1 Page 12 - Horst, Photographer of Style, Edited by Susannah Brown, V&A Publishing, 2014
2 Page 70 - Horst, Photographer of Style, Edited by Susannah Brown, V&A Publishing, 2014
3 & 4 Plates from Horst, Photographer of Style, Edited by Susannah Brown, V&A Publishing, 2014
Horst, born in 1906 in Germany, worked at Vogue under Mr. Nast himself. The limitations of photography then plus Conde Nast's insistence that photographers used 10x8 plate cameras meant that Horst's work - focused on dresses - had to be shot in quite a specific way. For instance the lights, and there were lots of them, were extremely bright and tended to make the models' skin look lined and sallow. This explains why the faces of many of his models in the 30s (often not models at all but friends of people who worked for Vogue) were in shadow or hardly lit at all. He says in the V&A exhibition book that he 'tried lighting it (the face) from below or from the side, or sometimes straight on with just the eye of the cheek lit up' (1) which sounds rather surreal.
In fact many of his images are quite surreal in particular one of hands, which I believe is quite famous where some real hands are placed in a pattern with the hands of a mannequin; surely influenced by Dali and his cohorts. The fashion designer Schiaparelli worked closely with Salvador Dali and Jean Cocteau interpreting 'Surrealism's shock value and translated it into headline fashions' (2) Horst photographed Shiaparelli's collections and continued the themes of Surrealism into the images.
Horst uses light to sculpt the picture he's creating. He is known for his lighting - dramatic shadows and chiaroscuro (strong contrasts) can be seen throughout his work, and his photographs of actors all look very much like stills from the film nior productions they would have been working on.
I was particularly amazed by the colour photograph section - Horst, along with Cecil Beaton was one of the earliest and most successful colour photographers and I know that the street and art photographers I've been looking at didn't start using it very much until the late 70s and 80s . The prints, many copies of Vogue covers from the 40s and 50s, are huge reproductions made possible by digital technology. When they were first produced colour slide film was used so no negatives were made at all and so not many of these images have been seen until the V&A show.
What I noticed was how fresh and modern they seem, despite the intervening Baily and Duffy years and all that has occurred since. In fact I would say that fashion magazines now are influenced by all that has been before including Horst and those that followed.
Some of the images had a softness and a sense of movement too which I was surprised by, but that is hardly surprising given that the models sometimes needed to try and stay absolutely still while they held poses for seconds at a time as the exposure was made. The movement is not like it is in Richard Avedon's work which has so much energy (very different tools available to him though); it is more subtle, hinted at. In particular I am thinking about images Dress by Jean Desses, 1952 (plate 157) and Dress by Henri Bendell, jewellery by Harry Winston, 1948 (plate 158) (3) which show some or more than a little blur. I liked this about these images as up to that point everything seemed incredibly still and almost statuesque in much of what I'd seen. My absolute favourite image is of Barbara 'Babe"Cushing Mortimer Paley, dress by Triana-Norell, 1946 plate 175 (4). I am not sure why I like this image so much. Perhaps because her face is partially obscured by her hand. The painted nails and cigarette emphasising her extraordinary eyes. She looks like a movie star of the era but was in fact a socialite and editor at Vogue, daughter of a rich surgeon and married to two wealthy men (not together of course!) Her beauty was enhanced after she had an accident and had to have corrective surgery. There is something so beguiling about the photograph - the lighting, the subject and the colour all work together to make it deeply memorable and striking.
In addition to the fashion photography Horst photographed nature, male nudes and travel photography. The photographs of men are quite abstract. There are no faces, no sultry eyes at the viewer, simply shape and form made with body and light, although it has to be said they are pretty homo-erotic. They are interesting for me to see in light of the work I did on assignment 2 using my body (clothed) and fabric to create shapes, along with my growing discomfort with the female nudes that litter art history as well as current photography practice.
Horst died in 1999 in the United States. Images of Catherine Bailey taken in 1989 are included in the book so he kept working until nearly the end of his long life.
1 Page 12 - Horst, Photographer of Style, Edited by Susannah Brown, V&A Publishing, 2014
2 Page 70 - Horst, Photographer of Style, Edited by Susannah Brown, V&A Publishing, 2014
3 & 4 Plates from Horst, Photographer of Style, Edited by Susannah Brown, V&A Publishing, 2014
Saturday 25 October 2014
The Family of Man
Every time I open a new book on photography I read something about The Family of Man exhibition, curated by Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1955. So now I have THE book where I can see all the images together in one place.
In his introduction Edward Steichen talks about "Photographs concerned with man in relation to his environment, to the beauty and richness of the earth he has inherited and what he has one with his inheritance, the good and the great things, the stupid and the destructive things."
The exhibition has a linear and I think quite pedestrian progression, starting with couples, lovers and then looking at marriage in various cultures and followed by pregnancy and birth, children, families, work, death, war, industry, religion, the youth and ending with images of government and specifically the UN. Although the exhibition according to Steichen is about all man (humans) and all religions I can't help but think it has a powerfully idealised American cultural flavour. It is certainly a very hopeful and optimistic collection of photographs even though it also shows some of the horrors of being human; war, death, immense sadness and suffering in some images. But the overall impression I get from it is one of optimism about the future and about the human family's potential ability to overcome the hardships of the war years moving forward. I suppose that reflects the feelings of society during the 50s from what I have learnt in documentaries and history books.
There are a wide variety of photographers included in the exhibition from very well known names such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Frank Capa, and Dorothea Lange amongst others, along with lesser known names such as Paul Himmel who I wrote about recently and some totally unknown names too. There are photographers and photographs from all over the world.
What I have noticed while looking at the images is that there is across most of them a simplicity and honesty which is not what we'd expect from photographic images we are faced with today. Today's photographs, perhaps what I'm talking about here is visual imagery, are so sophisticated, and often times manipulative and knowing. If you compare the family and children's photographs in this exhibition with the photographs you might expect from a family photographer today there is a huge difference. There is an expectation today that such photographs will be very glossy, perhaps have several filters, and quite fantasty-like, like photographs from a perfect dream almost. I have found it quite interesting to see these earlier, simpler examples of photographs and like them very much in particular ones by Conseula Kanaga, Wayne Miller, and Elliot Erwitt and plenty more too. I love the family group shots. They are very matter of fact. There are 5 family group shots from various parts of the world and not one of them looks fake, or idealised in any way - I am aware that earlier I said the exhibition as a whole was rather idealised - perhaps I should have said idealogical, but these family shots seem much less contrived than the ones I feel I ought to be aspiring towards today.
Once of my favourite photographs in the whole book is by Howard Sochurek from Life taken in India of a group of workers on some scaffolding at the entrance (taken from inside ) of what I think must a be a rail tunnel. The figures are silhouetted against the daylight and look tiny in comparison to the tunnel and construction process. I also think a photograph by Jerry Cooke, also Life, of a woman sitting with her head in her arms on a bench perhaps crying is very powerful and quite modern unlike some others.
All the photographs together feel like an important record of the time - a time that is not really that long ago but seems to represent the end of an era and also totally alien to ours. Life is so different now - it seems extraordinary somehow. As I look through the book I can almost hear one of those 50s clipped, quite speedy male voices that we are so used to hearing narrating news reels and documentary films from that era describing the images.
I have to say I really enjoy looking through this book. I find it fascinating and the photographs quite compelling.
The exhibition is still intact and has a permanent home in Luxembourg. I think I would love to go and see it if I'm ever there and who knows, may even go there one day for that reason alone!
Family of Man - Luxembourg
MoMA archives
In his introduction Edward Steichen talks about "Photographs concerned with man in relation to his environment, to the beauty and richness of the earth he has inherited and what he has one with his inheritance, the good and the great things, the stupid and the destructive things."
The exhibition has a linear and I think quite pedestrian progression, starting with couples, lovers and then looking at marriage in various cultures and followed by pregnancy and birth, children, families, work, death, war, industry, religion, the youth and ending with images of government and specifically the UN. Although the exhibition according to Steichen is about all man (humans) and all religions I can't help but think it has a powerfully idealised American cultural flavour. It is certainly a very hopeful and optimistic collection of photographs even though it also shows some of the horrors of being human; war, death, immense sadness and suffering in some images. But the overall impression I get from it is one of optimism about the future and about the human family's potential ability to overcome the hardships of the war years moving forward. I suppose that reflects the feelings of society during the 50s from what I have learnt in documentaries and history books.
There are a wide variety of photographers included in the exhibition from very well known names such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Frank Capa, and Dorothea Lange amongst others, along with lesser known names such as Paul Himmel who I wrote about recently and some totally unknown names too. There are photographers and photographs from all over the world.
What I have noticed while looking at the images is that there is across most of them a simplicity and honesty which is not what we'd expect from photographic images we are faced with today. Today's photographs, perhaps what I'm talking about here is visual imagery, are so sophisticated, and often times manipulative and knowing. If you compare the family and children's photographs in this exhibition with the photographs you might expect from a family photographer today there is a huge difference. There is an expectation today that such photographs will be very glossy, perhaps have several filters, and quite fantasty-like, like photographs from a perfect dream almost. I have found it quite interesting to see these earlier, simpler examples of photographs and like them very much in particular ones by Conseula Kanaga, Wayne Miller, and Elliot Erwitt and plenty more too. I love the family group shots. They are very matter of fact. There are 5 family group shots from various parts of the world and not one of them looks fake, or idealised in any way - I am aware that earlier I said the exhibition as a whole was rather idealised - perhaps I should have said idealogical, but these family shots seem much less contrived than the ones I feel I ought to be aspiring towards today.
Once of my favourite photographs in the whole book is by Howard Sochurek from Life taken in India of a group of workers on some scaffolding at the entrance (taken from inside ) of what I think must a be a rail tunnel. The figures are silhouetted against the daylight and look tiny in comparison to the tunnel and construction process. I also think a photograph by Jerry Cooke, also Life, of a woman sitting with her head in her arms on a bench perhaps crying is very powerful and quite modern unlike some others.
All the photographs together feel like an important record of the time - a time that is not really that long ago but seems to represent the end of an era and also totally alien to ours. Life is so different now - it seems extraordinary somehow. As I look through the book I can almost hear one of those 50s clipped, quite speedy male voices that we are so used to hearing narrating news reels and documentary films from that era describing the images.
I have to say I really enjoy looking through this book. I find it fascinating and the photographs quite compelling.
The exhibition is still intact and has a permanent home in Luxembourg. I think I would love to go and see it if I'm ever there and who knows, may even go there one day for that reason alone!
Family of Man - Luxembourg
MoMA archives
Wednesday 22 October 2014
Visual culture and visual language
The terms visual culture and visual language have been confusing me lately. I wasn't entirely sure what precisely is meant by either term. Although I'm sure my understanding of both will deepen over time, and following a fantastic conversation that took place over a day or so on Facebook in response to a post I made about Sebastião Salgado in a private group for Level 1 students, I do feel a little clearer about them. I was so pleased that my post prompted such a decent chat about Salgado's work. But I was even happier that I was able to ask questions which made me think about what a visual language actually is. I wish such discussions were built into the course. It's so helpful and really allows people to learn from others, think about things and also deepen their understanding too. It's a very tricky thing to do on FB or social networking - conversing without any knowledge of each-other and without the less than conscious signals and signs that we communicate with in person; it can feel dangerous and also lack a great deal of clarity at times but it is worth it.
I have also joined a Flickr group that meets up now and again which I hope will be useful.
The discussion on FB centred around the question about whether Sebastião Salgado's work warranted the following accusation taken from the end of a blog post by Jose Navarro on the OCA site which another student, Nigel Monkton had pointed me towards:
"Salgado seems to ignore the complexity of contemporary visual language. In today’s visual-led society, that’s more than just a little reckless."
I have to say I couldn't work out what the writer meant by this at all. After lots of input by the end I think he (and Nigel) are saying that the Salgado's work has some very out dated characteristics. In the end I asked Nigel:
"are you saying his work is old fashioned and the styling a bit like a scene from a Busby Berkley musical - famous for geometric choreography - which seems out-dated, twee, condescending, romanticised and imperialistic? Which if that were the case would indeed be 'reckless' as described in the OCA post?"
I’m not sure where I stand on Salgado but in the end the conversation wasn’t so much about him for me as it was about how we look at images and what we, and others, might take from them. I have become much more aware of the complexity of images although I feel far from being able to express myself further on this at the moment.
What I do know is that I do not want to over intellectualise my own work – not saying I want to dumb it down rather that I would hope that it comes from a more instinctive place than intellect alone. I was always accused of over intellectualising my work as an actor (or trying to anyway) and not responding more intuitively and I would very much want to be able to do that with photography – so I’m a bit worried about how all this thinking and understanding might affect what I’ve been doing so far!
The language that different groups use - actors, therapists, doctors, teachers and photography students can sometimes seem impenetrable even though the words themselves are familiar and it can take some time to fully appreciate what is being said when you're new to it. I'm very aware of this and think I need to really make sure I don't gloss over things when I've not fully comprehended what I'm reading/hearing.
I have also joined a Flickr group that meets up now and again which I hope will be useful.
The discussion on FB centred around the question about whether Sebastião Salgado's work warranted the following accusation taken from the end of a blog post by Jose Navarro on the OCA site which another student, Nigel Monkton had pointed me towards:
"Salgado seems to ignore the complexity of contemporary visual language. In today’s visual-led society, that’s more than just a little reckless."
I have to say I couldn't work out what the writer meant by this at all. After lots of input by the end I think he (and Nigel) are saying that the Salgado's work has some very out dated characteristics. In the end I asked Nigel:
"are you saying his work is old fashioned and the styling a bit like a scene from a Busby Berkley musical - famous for geometric choreography - which seems out-dated, twee, condescending, romanticised and imperialistic? Which if that were the case would indeed be 'reckless' as described in the OCA post?"
I’m not sure where I stand on Salgado but in the end the conversation wasn’t so much about him for me as it was about how we look at images and what we, and others, might take from them. I have become much more aware of the complexity of images although I feel far from being able to express myself further on this at the moment.
What I do know is that I do not want to over intellectualise my own work – not saying I want to dumb it down rather that I would hope that it comes from a more instinctive place than intellect alone. I was always accused of over intellectualising my work as an actor (or trying to anyway) and not responding more intuitively and I would very much want to be able to do that with photography – so I’m a bit worried about how all this thinking and understanding might affect what I’ve been doing so far!
The language that different groups use - actors, therapists, doctors, teachers and photography students can sometimes seem impenetrable even though the words themselves are familiar and it can take some time to fully appreciate what is being said when you're new to it. I'm very aware of this and think I need to really make sure I don't gloss over things when I've not fully comprehended what I'm reading/hearing.
Exercise 1 Part 1
4-6 photographs which are deliberately darker than average and say why in your notes.
1. I took this a couple of weeks ago (not with this exercise in mind) but I really like it - but maybe that is because my kids are in it! I've already posted it on this blog in a reflection post so I hope it's ok to post it here too. I deliberately under exposed the shadows to make the most of the light coming in on the older son's body. I like the mood with the dark shadows. I think I was certainly influenced by this image by Stewart Weir who was my tutor when I did an online course with the Photography Institute last year and who is doing a little bit of mentoring with me now to get my site looking better etc. I think Stewart's image is incredibly poignant and touching and the exposure contributes to that sense.
3. It was a very windy day and as I was driving to the park I kept seeing these amazing swirls of leaves which I wanted to photograph but when I got there this little patch was all that came my way. Anyway, I took two photographs and this was the better of them. The trees in the back are very underexposed so that they become just darkness which contrasts with the tiny highlighted specks of leaves flying about. I like the contrast and made more of it in Lightroom. It's a deliberately dark image - like in Snow White in the forest when she's running away from something frightening - she doesn't know what though.
4. I often walk along here and it's such a weird place. It's next to the municipal dump and I wish I could go in to get a better frame but it's blocked and no-one is allowed in. I knew I wanted to do a high key image of this place. It's so bleak and desolate right next to a bunch of very expensive development. I remember about a year and a half ago following a tutorial with Amateur Photographer and Martin Evening which showed you how to process a high key image and I think I pretty much followed that here - if I remember correctly. His image was of a petrol station taken with a wide angle lens from a low position. Maybe I should have thought more about my position here but I was very limited and had to take the lens hood off and stick my camera through some gates!
I will try to get another high key image or two to add here. I tend to underexpose and take dark photos I think for myself although not when I'm doing portraits mostly.
2. I love working in moody dark days where the sun only peaks through now and again and when there is a lot of cloud about. The cloud acts as a brilliant giant diffuser and this day was like that. I enjoy exposing to make the most of the clouds when there is light and shadow in them too. I liked the reflections on the surface of the water and knew I'd be converting the images I took. I published another one on Flickr but preferred this one as it's sharper and the dark areas cleaner.
3. It was a very windy day and as I was driving to the park I kept seeing these amazing swirls of leaves which I wanted to photograph but when I got there this little patch was all that came my way. Anyway, I took two photographs and this was the better of them. The trees in the back are very underexposed so that they become just darkness which contrasts with the tiny highlighted specks of leaves flying about. I like the contrast and made more of it in Lightroom. It's a deliberately dark image - like in Snow White in the forest when she's running away from something frightening - she doesn't know what though.
4. I often walk along here and it's such a weird place. It's next to the municipal dump and I wish I could go in to get a better frame but it's blocked and no-one is allowed in. I knew I wanted to do a high key image of this place. It's so bleak and desolate right next to a bunch of very expensive development. I remember about a year and a half ago following a tutorial with Amateur Photographer and Martin Evening which showed you how to process a high key image and I think I pretty much followed that here - if I remember correctly. His image was of a petrol station taken with a wide angle lens from a low position. Maybe I should have thought more about my position here but I was very limited and had to take the lens hood off and stick my camera through some gates!
I will try to get another high key image or two to add here. I tend to underexpose and take dark photos I think for myself although not when I'm doing portraits mostly.
Monday 20 October 2014
Sebastião Salgado
I was introduced to Sebastião Salgado a few weeks ago and, as any one would be, was immediately drawn to his very distinctive style, passionate approach to subject matter and his interest in nature. Salgado was born in 1944 and is from Brazil. He originally trained as an economist and worked as one for the International Coffee Organisation. In 2001 he was made a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and if you look at this TED talk you will see he is an ardent supporter and promoter of ecological responsibility.
His most famous work is a series of photographs taken in Serra Palada, Brazil in 1986 of humans which are rendered utterly ant-like by their numbers and close proximity to each-other. The mine was notorious for its inhumane conditions, violence and horror. The miners were apparently known as 'mud hogs', a self-explanatory description of dehumanised beings working for a pittance in a kind of hell on Earth.
Salgado has travelled extensively photographing people, animals and landscapes. His processing is consistent and whatever the subject matter his images are fairly easy to recognise as one of his. They are high in contrast, always black and white and many of photographs focus on large numbers of either humans or animals together - herds, groups, swarms going about their activities in large seemingly overcrowded groups. I am reminded of bees and colonies when looking at his humans - Church Gate Station, Bombay, India 1996, The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarata, Indonesia 1996, and images from the Brazilian mine for instance all portray human beings in the same way as wildebeest, penguins and large-horned cattle. When I look at these photographs I am reminded that we humans, so arrogant in our supposed superiority are in many ways no different to fruit flies although we have every opportunity to make our lives more meaningful - and choose not to. At any rate, the message from Salgado's work is that the ones in power choose to make the lives of those not in power less meaningful, perhaps even meaningless.
When I first started looking at Salgado's work I was reading The Bang Bang Club, a book about photo-journalists covering the lead up to the first democratic South African elections in 1994 and I mentioned one of Salgado's images to another photographer which immediately drew a comparison to Kevin Carter's award-winning image of a starving African child being watched by a vulture. The image was extremely controversial generating questions about the morality of taking such pictures rather than helping the child. Whatever the answer to those questions the truth is that the image generated a huge amount of publicity not only for Kevin Carter (who found it intolerable and committed suicide shortly after winning the Pulitzer prize) but more importantly for the famine happening at the time in Africa. Many of Salgado's photographs could elicit the same questions - is it right to photograph such suffering?
I actually found Salgado's image of a starving child far more devastating than the one of the child being stalked by a vulture. Somehow we human's have projected all the cruelty of humanity onto the vulture who may or may not have been waiting patiently for the child to die; who would never have tried to eat the child while she was still alive; whose species plays an important part in the ecological balance by eating dead animals stopping the rotting meat from causing disease in rivers and on the land; and now that they are being hunted for their own meat that need is not being met, so decomposing wildebeest lie, piled high, at the edge of rivers making the water unsafe for other animals. And it was human beings ultimately who ignored the starving child and allowed her to reach starvation point in the first place. Salgado's image (click through to Number 3) illustrates this clearly as a starving child crawls, dehumanised, more like an emaciated dog than a little girl and ignored by an adult who strides past. This for me more makes his image far more powerful than the vulture one taken by Kevin Carter.
Much of Salgado's work looks at human suffering and he took many such powerful and controversial images during the Ethiopian famine in the 80s. His latest work is called Genesis which looks at the beauty of the earth in light of its own suffering at the hands of human beings. As with all his work it is a long term project which he has instigated himself.
I very much like the composition in this (click through) image which is so interesting. I also like his portraits of individuals which have more impact for me than the ones I saw at the David Bailey exhibition which didn't really grab me.
I went to see some of Salgado's prints this morning at a small gallery in London where they are being sold and do wish I could afford one! I had to make do with the £10 catalogue - ah, well!
Added later: Since publishing this I have had a relatively extensive conversation on FB with other students about Salgado and it's been great to do so. I have realised in the last few weeks how much I rely on non-verbal communication (and trust my semi-conscious instincts) and really find it very uncomfortable to forge any form of connections without, making it difficult to converse about anything with any depth if not face to face but there has been a shift in me I think - for now internet communication is all I have so I am trying to make the most of it. Anyway, I was pointed to a blog post on OCA .http://weareoca.com/photography/cant-make-up-my-mind/ which is very interesting and discusses the beautification of suffering although in different terms and words. I have been thinking about the moral questions this poses a lot and the artistic ones too. I think it is fair to say that Salgado is probably doing things from place of goodness since he invests an awful lot of time and money into his charity, including reforestation in his home of Brazil. In the TED talk he comes across as a genuine and sincere human being. However, he is a very wealthy individual whose life is such that he can chose to travel where-ever he wants and photograph whatever he wants to photograph - namely the poorest people on earth who seemingly have little power and agency over their lives. He chooses to render these images in a way that is very beautiful - on the one hand this makes us think about the reality of those people's lives. On the other hand it would cost you £6000 to buy one of his prints and, if you could afford it, you would no doubt put such a print up on the wall of your very lovely house that cost 1000x that and feel terribly what... virtuous, superior, enlightened? Art created out of the suffering of others. While I was in the gallery looking at images of a woman holding her starving baby the people working there were discussing the merits of Harvey Nichols vs Fortnum & Mason's. The incongruity made me very uncomfortable but it is not their fault that Ethiopia happened... or is it - all of our faults for existing as we do and not doing anything about it.
In addition, the images I believe - although I could be wrong here as have relied on another student telling me (but he has sent me a link to something that describes Salgado's post processing I have yet to watch) are taken on a digital camera and processed to emulate certain film stock - of course I have no problem in itself with this. I do the same ticking the box in Efex Pro of various film simulations when converting to B&W but for me this adds to the worry that the veneer is somehow more important that the content. I'm being grossly unfair perhaps. To accuse Salgado of being more interested in appearance than substance is clearly wrong but the words I read in the article about Flickr - kitsch and tedious - keep popping back into my mind. Everybody talks a great deal about having a style of one's own - this seems to be the great aim of photographers: Chuck Close talks about photographers who are recognised by their style as having reached the pinnacle of their art - the holy grail in photography - in the BBC documentary I have mentioned in this blog before (will need to look up the title as it escapes me for now) and I can see that this is worth chasing but I feel that the pressure to find an aesthetic style rather than a style from within is a mistake. Seeing Salgado's work, it would be easy to feel that pressure but I think it would lead to a superficiality. I really like the message in Gregory Heisler's talk here that a personal style comes from taking photographs and eventually a style, which is more about how you see the world than how you process your images, will develop.
One of the sentences in the link I mentioned above from the OCA blog says: Salgado seems to ignore the complexity of contemporary visual language. In today’s visual-led society, that’s more than just a little reckless.'
I have been struggling to work out what this means. But perhaps I'm beginning to get a glimpse. I wish I had the time and space to begin Understanding Visual Culture before ending TAOP but that would be crazy for me! In the meantime for my own photography, I am beginning to see that sometimes (and I don't berate myself because I am learning and that is the point) my images are really about the look rather than anything else. And sometimes there is something deeper which is more interesting. I think in the end Salgado's images are certainly thought provoking, very beautiful and worthwhile but there is something very unsettling about the context too. What I need to think about is - is there something to be said for having a sense of tension between style and substance?
Further information:
Sebastião Salgado Website
The Bang Bang Club - Excellent account of war photo-journalism
Sebastião Salgado Catalogue © Beetles & Huxley, Swallow Street, London
His most famous work is a series of photographs taken in Serra Palada, Brazil in 1986 of humans which are rendered utterly ant-like by their numbers and close proximity to each-other. The mine was notorious for its inhumane conditions, violence and horror. The miners were apparently known as 'mud hogs', a self-explanatory description of dehumanised beings working for a pittance in a kind of hell on Earth.
Salgado has travelled extensively photographing people, animals and landscapes. His processing is consistent and whatever the subject matter his images are fairly easy to recognise as one of his. They are high in contrast, always black and white and many of photographs focus on large numbers of either humans or animals together - herds, groups, swarms going about their activities in large seemingly overcrowded groups. I am reminded of bees and colonies when looking at his humans - Church Gate Station, Bombay, India 1996, The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarata, Indonesia 1996, and images from the Brazilian mine for instance all portray human beings in the same way as wildebeest, penguins and large-horned cattle. When I look at these photographs I am reminded that we humans, so arrogant in our supposed superiority are in many ways no different to fruit flies although we have every opportunity to make our lives more meaningful - and choose not to. At any rate, the message from Salgado's work is that the ones in power choose to make the lives of those not in power less meaningful, perhaps even meaningless.
When I first started looking at Salgado's work I was reading The Bang Bang Club, a book about photo-journalists covering the lead up to the first democratic South African elections in 1994 and I mentioned one of Salgado's images to another photographer which immediately drew a comparison to Kevin Carter's award-winning image of a starving African child being watched by a vulture. The image was extremely controversial generating questions about the morality of taking such pictures rather than helping the child. Whatever the answer to those questions the truth is that the image generated a huge amount of publicity not only for Kevin Carter (who found it intolerable and committed suicide shortly after winning the Pulitzer prize) but more importantly for the famine happening at the time in Africa. Many of Salgado's photographs could elicit the same questions - is it right to photograph such suffering?
I actually found Salgado's image of a starving child far more devastating than the one of the child being stalked by a vulture. Somehow we human's have projected all the cruelty of humanity onto the vulture who may or may not have been waiting patiently for the child to die; who would never have tried to eat the child while she was still alive; whose species plays an important part in the ecological balance by eating dead animals stopping the rotting meat from causing disease in rivers and on the land; and now that they are being hunted for their own meat that need is not being met, so decomposing wildebeest lie, piled high, at the edge of rivers making the water unsafe for other animals. And it was human beings ultimately who ignored the starving child and allowed her to reach starvation point in the first place. Salgado's image (click through to Number 3) illustrates this clearly as a starving child crawls, dehumanised, more like an emaciated dog than a little girl and ignored by an adult who strides past. This for me more makes his image far more powerful than the vulture one taken by Kevin Carter.
Much of Salgado's work looks at human suffering and he took many such powerful and controversial images during the Ethiopian famine in the 80s. His latest work is called Genesis which looks at the beauty of the earth in light of its own suffering at the hands of human beings. As with all his work it is a long term project which he has instigated himself.
I very much like the composition in this (click through) image which is so interesting. I also like his portraits of individuals which have more impact for me than the ones I saw at the David Bailey exhibition which didn't really grab me.
I went to see some of Salgado's prints this morning at a small gallery in London where they are being sold and do wish I could afford one! I had to make do with the £10 catalogue - ah, well!
Added later: Since publishing this I have had a relatively extensive conversation on FB with other students about Salgado and it's been great to do so. I have realised in the last few weeks how much I rely on non-verbal communication (and trust my semi-conscious instincts) and really find it very uncomfortable to forge any form of connections without, making it difficult to converse about anything with any depth if not face to face but there has been a shift in me I think - for now internet communication is all I have so I am trying to make the most of it. Anyway, I was pointed to a blog post on OCA .http://weareoca.com/photography/cant-make-up-my-mind/ which is very interesting and discusses the beautification of suffering although in different terms and words. I have been thinking about the moral questions this poses a lot and the artistic ones too. I think it is fair to say that Salgado is probably doing things from place of goodness since he invests an awful lot of time and money into his charity, including reforestation in his home of Brazil. In the TED talk he comes across as a genuine and sincere human being. However, he is a very wealthy individual whose life is such that he can chose to travel where-ever he wants and photograph whatever he wants to photograph - namely the poorest people on earth who seemingly have little power and agency over their lives. He chooses to render these images in a way that is very beautiful - on the one hand this makes us think about the reality of those people's lives. On the other hand it would cost you £6000 to buy one of his prints and, if you could afford it, you would no doubt put such a print up on the wall of your very lovely house that cost 1000x that and feel terribly what... virtuous, superior, enlightened? Art created out of the suffering of others. While I was in the gallery looking at images of a woman holding her starving baby the people working there were discussing the merits of Harvey Nichols vs Fortnum & Mason's. The incongruity made me very uncomfortable but it is not their fault that Ethiopia happened... or is it - all of our faults for existing as we do and not doing anything about it.
In addition, the images I believe - although I could be wrong here as have relied on another student telling me (but he has sent me a link to something that describes Salgado's post processing I have yet to watch) are taken on a digital camera and processed to emulate certain film stock - of course I have no problem in itself with this. I do the same ticking the box in Efex Pro of various film simulations when converting to B&W but for me this adds to the worry that the veneer is somehow more important that the content. I'm being grossly unfair perhaps. To accuse Salgado of being more interested in appearance than substance is clearly wrong but the words I read in the article about Flickr - kitsch and tedious - keep popping back into my mind. Everybody talks a great deal about having a style of one's own - this seems to be the great aim of photographers: Chuck Close talks about photographers who are recognised by their style as having reached the pinnacle of their art - the holy grail in photography - in the BBC documentary I have mentioned in this blog before (will need to look up the title as it escapes me for now) and I can see that this is worth chasing but I feel that the pressure to find an aesthetic style rather than a style from within is a mistake. Seeing Salgado's work, it would be easy to feel that pressure but I think it would lead to a superficiality. I really like the message in Gregory Heisler's talk here that a personal style comes from taking photographs and eventually a style, which is more about how you see the world than how you process your images, will develop.
One of the sentences in the link I mentioned above from the OCA blog says: Salgado seems to ignore the complexity of contemporary visual language. In today’s visual-led society, that’s more than just a little reckless.'
I have been struggling to work out what this means. But perhaps I'm beginning to get a glimpse. I wish I had the time and space to begin Understanding Visual Culture before ending TAOP but that would be crazy for me! In the meantime for my own photography, I am beginning to see that sometimes (and I don't berate myself because I am learning and that is the point) my images are really about the look rather than anything else. And sometimes there is something deeper which is more interesting. I think in the end Salgado's images are certainly thought provoking, very beautiful and worthwhile but there is something very unsettling about the context too. What I need to think about is - is there something to be said for having a sense of tension between style and substance?
Further information:
Sebastião Salgado Website
The Bang Bang Club - Excellent account of war photo-journalism
Sebastião Salgado Catalogue © Beetles & Huxley, Swallow Street, London
Saturday 18 October 2014
Bruce Davidson
As I read certain names become more and more familiar. Bruce Davidson is one of them. After seeing the photograph referred to as "London. Girl holding Kitten" a number of times over the last few days in various places I thought I ought to look him up and find out more. I had seen some of his work before and especially in a Magnum book I own (currently and very frustratingly in storage) but I wanted to find out who this man is. Since doing so I have to say I feel like I have fallen in love with his work. I find the photograph of the couple in an image referred to as "New York. The Garden Cafeteria" more powerful than any of Diane Arbus' images I've looked at (sorry if that is heresy!) because it seems far less manipulative to me and contains a great deal more empathy for the couple as individuals rather than projections of some inner nightmare of the photographer's, and I think his subject matter, from the poverty in Spanish Harlem, New York to the Civil riots in Alabama, to the post war streets of London and the lives of New Yorkers in Central Park all so incredibly vital and important.
Bruce Davidson was born in 1933 and has lived and worked through the photography heyday of the 50s and 60s where so much important work seems to have taken place. He never stopped and continues to work (he has a Facebook page) and be exhibited all over the world. He has won plaudits and titles galore and is one of the prestigious Magnum photographers. He started taking photographs when he was 10 years old and eventually went on to meet Henry Cartier-Bresson when stationed in Paris in the army.
Works of note include 100th Street, Spanish Harlem: New York, The Dwarf, Brooklyn Gang, Freedom Rides, documentation of the Civil Right's movement and more.
I absolutely love The Widow of Montmartre for it's terrible sadness, depth, contrasts and extraordinary intense feeling that none of those words can begin to convey. I very much like the shallow depth of field too and the deep vignetting.
Links:
Magnum Photographers
Life Magazine
Wikipedia
Bruce Davidson was born in 1933 and has lived and worked through the photography heyday of the 50s and 60s where so much important work seems to have taken place. He never stopped and continues to work (he has a Facebook page) and be exhibited all over the world. He has won plaudits and titles galore and is one of the prestigious Magnum photographers. He started taking photographs when he was 10 years old and eventually went on to meet Henry Cartier-Bresson when stationed in Paris in the army.
Works of note include 100th Street, Spanish Harlem: New York, The Dwarf, Brooklyn Gang, Freedom Rides, documentation of the Civil Right's movement and more.
I absolutely love The Widow of Montmartre for it's terrible sadness, depth, contrasts and extraordinary intense feeling that none of those words can begin to convey. I very much like the shallow depth of field too and the deep vignetting.
Links:
Magnum Photographers
Life Magazine
Wikipedia
Personal images
I have been taking photos of my children as I have been given an exercise to do documenting my day every hour using only natural light unless I'm absolutely certain I must use flash and then I have to justify it. I've not done the exercise yet as I start then get distracted by day to day stuff so never really get beyond a certain time. However, I have nevertheless taken some photographs I quite like but don't really want to post them anywhere. Here is not open to the world though for now so I thought I'd pop them here and ask some fellow students for their thoughts.
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Wednesday 15 October 2014
Feedback A3
Overall Comments
Kicking
off with a Roland Barthes quote underlines the ambition you’re bringing to your
studies, SJ, and was certainly not something that came as either a surprise, or
was something I saw as a shallow attempt to bask in the reflected glory of the
ideas of one of the Big Hitters of theory! Rather, it’s a typically and
appropriately thoughtful way to get your third assignment underway.
In
spite of the reservations you point towards in your text, there’s a very clear
progression from what you did for A2 here, and one that nicely balances the
requirements of the brief with the direction your photography seems to be
taking you in anyway- not necessarily an easy balance to manage. This is an
assignment, like the last one, where you’ve stuck your neck out- commendable in
itself at this level of study, but it’s certainly not the only plus point of
what’s another intriguing and very promising assignment. There are ‘flaws’,
inevitably, but I’m yet to see any work that hasn’t been flawed at this
comparatively early stage, and by taking such chances rather than going with
the easy option, I think sooner rather than later you’ll start to see the
developments that for me are fairly clear…
Trying to insure I met most of the brief requirements as well as develop the work I'd begun in A2 was indeed tricky and to be honest I wasn't even sure if doing that was OK - and even now, I think, is that an OK thing to keep doing; to keep developing the ideas that informed A2 and A3. It seems to me the most beneficial way forward but it does worry me too that I'm being a bit narrow minded. However, when I look at the work I've done so far it does seem still to be preparatory work. Glad I didn't seem overly grandiose by quoting Barthes; but that thread within his book was really something I felt able to grab hold of and it seemed to speak to something that had been swimming around in my head.
Feedback
on assignment Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of
Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
In
terms of an overall set, this assignment continues on really well from the last
one in the sense that it has a strong overall impact, and is further evidence
of someone committing themselves to their studies, having some bold and
imaginative ideas, and experimenting to a hugely impressive degree for this
level of study. Although you’re clearly expanding on what you did for A2, in at
least one technical sense this assignment was perhaps more tricky than the last
one, in that the introduction of colour was something that brought an additional
set of things to think about. For the most part what you’ve done is effective,
particularly as you’ve not had a massive amount of time to put this together,
yet it still hangs together well as a set that produces a consistent mood and
is very expressive. I think the images that don’t show an entire face are a
touch more effective, subtle and understated- #8 Similar is fine in itself, but just seems to be a little too
direct compared to others in the set, which leave a bit more to the imagination
and seem more appropriate to what you’re reaching for. I agree and had I had more time would certainly have replaced that image along with some others. I did feel this was something that could have taken me weeks or months to do; balancing that work, however, with being a mum and everything else I need to do was not easy.
Contrast: red and blue is
really effective and eye-catching- a
good idea executed really nicely. Contrast:
red and yellow is nice composition- and idea-wise, and in terms of how it
seamlessly fits into the overall set, but I think the contrast between the red
and yellow could have been a touch more pronounced. Indeed, this is something
that I felt with other images where you’d prioritized reds and yellows. The
last image, for example, which I think as a whole is great, making fantastic
use of negative space to produce a particular atmosphere, seemed to be less
about the contrast between red and yellow per se, than the red being slightly
swamped by the yellow. My initial impression with this shot was that it
demonstrated a certain lack of control over white balance, and that the image
would perhaps have been a touch stronger had the yellows actually been closer
to whites, which would have made the reds- which seem to be at the emotional
heart of this image- pop out that bit more effectively. It’s these examples
that underline the difference in terms of technical difficulties between what
you did for A2, which obviously pursued a similar set of ideas but in b/w, and
A3, which introduced another layer of complexity. Overall, it’s hugely
impressive to see you take an idea you’d developed in a previous assignment,
and elaborate on it so that it fitted the brief of a subsequent piece of work.
Overall, I think it’s been a much tougher ask, and the control over colour
certainly isn’t flawless and can be just a touch chaotic… but it definitely
shows an artist, thinker and photographer who is increasingly finding their
feet. If you keep working as you are, the gap between your ideas and their realisation
will almost certainly narrow as you become more accomplished and confident.
As I was working I was aware that I was using auto white balance which, after lots of discussion, I will use with events and general family work. But I do think going forward when working on this sort of stuff I should be setting WB and paying more attention to it afterwards too. However, the type of thing you mention with the yellow and the white balance is really something that I think might be discussed in more regular tutorial type sessions which I'd expect to have if on a course that had a more tutor input while working on projects.
Re
your accompanying text, I found this rather interesting:
I know I cannot be accused of failing to
be creative. I am prepared to try things out and fail and try again to
find something interesting. I think I am creative but perhaps struggling
to find a way to express that adequately. I kept waiting to have a moment
where I knew what I was going to do which happened after weeks of thinking with
Assignment 2 - but that didn't really happen. Instead I went round and
round in my head, changing my mind, going back to what I'd planned, dropping it
again. I felt compelled to keep photographing these shapes and
expressions. By the end of it if I feel if I never photograph me again it
will be too soon.
This
passage is perhaps an extension of some of the email conversations we’ve had of
late, SJ, and it does raise a few points in my mind. When you’re looking to
produce work that is as personal and expressive as his been the case in the
last two assignments, it can be difficult to get away from some of the things
you’ve noted, particularly when you’re also trying to figure out the best way
to make the most of your gear. The nature of OCA study means that once you’ve
completed an assignment, you don’t necessarily get an awful lot of time to put
it to one side and reflect on it (as would probably be the case if you were
shooting entirely for yourself - I would never have stumbled across this work had I been shooting for myself. The structure and restrictions imposed by the assignment, along with the need to visit galleries and read certain books have all contributed to a sort of unconscious 'awakening' for want of a better word. I really didn't know what I expected to find when starting the course). So to be even attempting work of this sort
within such a limited time frame is commendable and impressive. I do know that
the work by Jessa Fairbrother that we’ve spoken about was something that was tweaked
and retweaked over quite a long period of time, for example, and with an equal
amount of doubt and uncertainty!
By the time I submitted the work I did feel it was a shame to have had so little time to develop these ideas, and am beginning to see that the process can take quite a while which I wasn't really aware of before. I do feel at the moment that what I have done is somewhat undercooked!
Overall,
this is another solid, intriguing, and extremely promising assignment, and I’m
very glad that you continue to take the tougher paths rather than following
easier options.
Glad to read this.
Learning
Logs or Blogs/Critical essays Context
Although
the content is always solid, thoughtful and highly promising, I think you’re
still figuring out the best way to present the materials you put together.
There’s certainly nothing ‘bad’ or overly taxing about using your blog, but I
think it could be just a touch more user friendly and easy to navigate. If you
decide to go forward to assessment, the assessor will primarily want to be able
to move from each assignment to the next without too much fuss, and also be
able access your research materials as easily as possible. At the moment, while
everything is labelled, with a growing amount of content I did feel the shift
from one section to the next could do with being a little more seamless, and
with less new windows opening each time a link is clicked- although it really
is a relatively minor issue in the greater scheme of things!
Do jump onto the forums and have a look at those by
your fellow students, so as to have a better sense of what works in terms of
accessibility, navigation, and presentation, and what is less successful.
Do I need to redo the blog entirely for assessment transferring all the material over to a better layout? This is something I do feel a bit uncertain about to be honest and wish there were more human guidance. I will look at other blogs and do follow several people already but I feel a bit overwhelmed as I don't really know how to rectify things which have been mentioned before. My 'work' site apparently also needs an overhaul which is to be expected but I feel a little lacking in confidence about how to go about fixing these web things.
Suggested
reading/viewing Context
The work that you’ve done over the course of the last
couple of assignments is interesting for a number of reasons, but is given an
added resonance when considered it in relation to the ubiquitous ‘selfie’. What
you’re doing here looks to express something rather different than the typical
selfie, of course, and you’re obviously turning the camera on yourself and
using a visual language that calls on cues and conventions from the world of
fine art. This
review-cum-article by Peter Conrad discusses the self-portrait across a
range of mediums and, I would hope, should give you some food for thought. I
haven’t read the book he’s discussing, but it seems like it could also be worth
a look…
I'm fascinated by the ubiquitous selfie and why it might have become such a phenomenon. The whole social networking thing is truly intriguing: it reminds me of people sitting on a bus talking far too loudly so that everyone else is forced to listen to their conversation wether they want to or not. I know selfie's (a truly horrible word!) are rather different to self portraits in one way but in another, aren't they just egalitarian self portraits?
If you’re interested in finding out more about what
some theorists have had to say about ‘what it is to be female in our society’, Gender Trouble by Judith Butler is a highly challenging,
seminal text. A little more accessible is David Gauntlett’s Media, Gender, and Identity, which could
be useful if you wanted to think about the relationships between images, media,
and gender identity. I get more than a sense that gender is a key part of what
you’re exploring, so keeping an eye out for literature and work in this area in
general would help.
In terms of photography, Sandy
Skoglund’s work has used colour in a rather different way to your approach
in this assignment, but is well worth a look- it’s complex, visually striking
work that expresses all manner of contrasting moods and ideas (particularly Revenge of the Goldfish, which still
stands as one of my favourite photographs).
Fantastic to be directed towards writing about gender and what it is to be female as that is exactly what I'm searching for but there is so much available it is difficult to know where to start.
Pointers for the next assignment
As a small pointer in terms of making things easier
for me, I do like to be able to copy and paste images I want to comment on from
students’ assignments, but it’s difficult for me to do this from your site as
the images are copyright protected. It’s no big deal, but it would make things
a touch easier! Sorry - this is down to habit when setting up galleries and strangely I did think about it yesterday, perhaps sensing some irritation about it across the ether! It's very easy to rectify and whilst I know it is my responsibility to submit work that is technically accessible it is the sort of thing that makes me wish there was a little more to and fro communication, such as I would expect on a course that was delivered more traditionally.
Beyond this- keep going. There’s a real sense of
someone exploring here, and while I can appreciate your moments of doubt and
uncertainty, these, I think, are par for the course to some extent when you’re
throwing yourself into realising your ideas in the way that you are. You’re
aiming high, and while you don’t always necessarily reach the levels you want
to with each image, it’s important to keep trying. As it is, you continue to
produce attractive, thought-provoking and incredibly promising work.
I’m going to suggest a little longer before the
next assignment, so that you’ll be able to sit with your potential ideas that
bit longer, weighing up what might and might not be working and worth pushing
on with. As ever, I’m happy to catch up for a chat if there’s anything you want
to discuss…
Very grateful for longer time. Also for the final sentence as this responds to the thing that I feel isn't quite right for me with the course. I totally appreciate the fact that OCA does not have the funding of the OU for instance and so courses are delivered accordingly. I'm not sure however, that I'm in the right place. It's a bit bewildering and quite alienating to be working on this stuff all on my own with so little guidance. I know I can go online and chat things through with other students on FB, and there are some really lovely people there but we're all at very different places and I don't think purely online relationships offer the right forum - we as a society are still finding our feet with navigating online communication (I certainly am) and whilst in some ways it's great, in others it's sorely lacking.
I was very pleased to have such a speedy and thoughtful response when I emailed you - thank you. But I do yearn for a classroom, some teaching time, proper conversations with people where body language and real live relationships also feed into the dialogue. I don't think I need or want to be spoon fed and as things stood at the beginning of this year the way in which OCA operates was ideal; but as I develop and begin to get a glimpse of what I might do and aim for, I'm starting to wonder if it may be more beneficial for me in time to be in an environment where greater support is possible. Although I did think that I'd start to concentrate more on commercial 'work' stuff next September when my littlest child begins nursery full time I am starting to think that I should find a way to commit to an offline course for two years if at all possible. I'm so pleased that what I'm doing elicits the sort of feedback I've had here and chuffed I've got a tutor that sees the potential. But I really am quite doubtful that I'll fulfil my potential doing this online, or at any rate without more regular group discussion, idea sharing and ongoing feedback. Gosh, I hope that doesn't sound dismissive of the the support I've had so far - it isn't meant to; just a recognition of what I think I'll need in time to come.
Thanks for really positive and encouraging feedback.
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