Waiting for Summer

Waiting for Summer

Saturday 20 December 2014

Feedback and response to Assignment Two: Photographing the unseen - Wonder

Fantastic and encouraging feedback to Assignment Two from my tutor :)

I had fulfilled the brief and produced a tightly edited set that illustrated various conflicting interpretations of the concept of "wonder" in street photography style, with a recommendation for future work to explore the idea of focusing on one aspect of an idea and pushing deeper within the same idea, rather than laterally around the idea (I will try to do this for Assignment Three).  My tutor recommended I research Dana Popa's "Not Natasha" series for a deep and personal insight into trafficking to get an idea of researching deeper into a theme, which I will in preparation for Assignment Three.  She mentioned the risks of choosing a travel theme for an assignment but this had been a consistent approach.  I will however be attempting this again in Japan for Assignment Three?

From a technical perspective, the feedback I received was that the images are strong, with colour and depth of saturation making them stand out.   The focus is good and detail unusual for this stage of my development in street photography, with compelling compositions and the impression of being close to the communities I photographed.  The tight editing had worked well and something to remember and keep up for future assignments.

To be honest, this is better feedback than I could have hoped for!

The only picture my tutor did query was Picture 6 - the dog and the shadow:


With this photo, I was trying to achieve a sense of mystery.  While I was shooting it I had held the position for about 15mins over the real dog - I was practicing exposing for highlights against shadows, and was waiting for something interesting to happen while watching the shadows change.  Finally a second dog came into view, but of course all you can see of the second dog is its shadow, which at first is confusing as it looks like the real dog has its shadow in the wrong place.  But, at the time, when this great dog-shape came into view through the view finder, it actually felt quite sinister - it completely changed the light for one thing, but it also felt like the shadow dog was creeping past the sleeping dog.  When I then put together my series and paired it backwards with the policeman looking alarmed and forwards with the child hiding behind bars, I was trying to get a sense of a frightening aspect of wonder across.  I do have some other mystery shots I could substitute - but I felt that this one worked the best in terms of the peeling onions and transition from positive to negative concept of wonder.

Finally, to explore street photography further, she recommended researching further:

  • Joel Sternfeld
  • Stephen Shore
  • Saul Leiter
  • William Eggleston
  • Helen Levitt.
I'm already familiar with Saul Leiter, although I haven't previously mentioned him in my blog, but the others are new.  I will certainly research these photographers!

Sunday 30 November 2014

Part Three - Putting yourself in the picture: Project Two - Masquerades: Exercise 2 - Childhood memory

This exercise asks us to recreate a childhood memory in a photograph.  I explored this topic quite deeply in the Digital Photographic Practice module, which I did not complete and therefore have not submitted for assessment.  Rather than repeat the exercise, I will refer to this one instead, the work for which can be found via this link: http://jointheaadpp.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html and then following the various links under Assignment Three: Monochrome.  The photography was executed in May 2014, so still relatively recently and consisted of trying to rediscover my childhood memories of Felixstowe, where I spent my childhood holidays with my grandparents, parents and sister.

Here are my further thoughts about this exercise:
  • The memory involved me directly and was all about my own fondness and attachment to the place that houses the memories of my grandparents.
  • I did not include my adult self in the photographs; this about what I had seen with my eyes as a child and wanted to see again as an adult.
  • I neither recreated the memory literally, as I was prepared for a) time moving on and b) not recreating scenes. I was just revisiting locations that I associated with those memories, nor did I recreate it metaphorically.  I think the end result is actually like a retrospective documentary.
  • I did accompany the images with text; I put together a presentation which I have uploaded below.
  • The photographs mostly resembled my memories; I was surprised at how little had changed and also that the scenes I visited where in such a good state of repair.  Felixstowe had obviously taken care of itself!  But, one noticeable difference, which is predictable, is that the buildings were a lot smaller.
  • If I went back now to repeat the exercise, with the same focus on location, the subject matter would be the same, photography might be better compositionly (think I've improved!) but would I have got the same amazing sky?  Actually, I intend to go back to Felixstowe in 2015, but to carry out some seaside street photography, rather than recreation of memories.  
Here is the presentation I created:

























Sunday 23 November 2014

Part Two - Narrative: Reflections

Wow - my feet haven't touched the ground!  But instead of feeling tired, as I did at the end of Part One, I feel inspired, energised and ready for Part Three.  I did have a bit of a blip though during Part Two, maybe a part of the come down from my trip to India, but I went through a bit of block with my course work, as in not wanting to do it.  I kept asking myself why I'd chosen this academic route, when basically all I want to do is get out and take photos!  I've resolved that now (yesterday actually), the bigger picture is that one day, I'd like to make a living from photography, and that will include teaching, so I need the broader understanding and skill set and have to be careful not to lose sight of that.  I do however need to revise my timetable a bit, as I'm not getting out as much as I'd like, and at the end of the day, I need to practice to progress my personal ambitions.  I currently allow 2-3 weekends a month to complete my course work, and then I read/research/surf on my daily commute.  I think I need to try, as hard as it is, to "work after work", to put in one evening a week for course work.  That means also putting it on my office calendar to avoid staying late at work.  I will start doing this in the New Year, and this will free up a bit more time at weekends for practicing my street photography :)

So, during Part Two I have (in no particular order):
  • Taken part in a week-long Street Photography workshop in Varanasi, India with Maciej Dakowicz 
  • Learnt a lot about different ways of supplementing images with text and what that achieves
  • Learnt about loss of authorial control
  • Learnt about the difference between relay and anchor text
  • Understood how images can be ambiguous if not supported by text
  • Learnt about photographing the unseen
  • Met Dougie Wallace again at his Shoreditch Wildlife launch event
  • Reviewed 2 exhibitions
  • Read 0 photography books!!  (ooops.....)
  • Won a photography competition at work!  Yay!
  • Had one of my photographs used by Maciej Dakowicz on his website :o)
But, most importantly, a while ago, I wasn't sure where my photography was heading.  I was flitting between street, travel, wildlife, landscape, conceptual, art, documentary, trying out photojournalism....I had no idea where I was going.  Following my experience in Varanasi, I now known for certain exactly where I'm going.  I found this blend of street/travel photography very exciting and challenging - and this is what I want to do - every day that I can!

Finally, I need to do something about the tag list for this blog -it's getting a bit long....not quite sure what to do about it, but I'll give it some thought.

Fotoura - Street Awards 2014 Exhibition

I stopped by the Fotoura Street Awards 2014 Exhibition on Friday:


I had offered to take a photography for Larry Hallegua, who was one of the finalists.  Hallegua was previously a participant on a Maciej Dakowicz workshop, so this gives me great hope!!

Here is Hallegua's series as exhibited:


I really like the way the series is constructed with the linkage in theme and composition between each photograph.  The "wish I'd seen that" shot for me is the third one, of the two airline pilots/stewards playing with their phones hiding behind their luggage and hats.  I love the confusing illusion Hallegua has created.

I also enjoyed looking at another finalist, Gareth Bragdon, who I've been following on Flickr for a while:


Bragdon creates a bizarre, mysterious, sinister almost ghoulish world in his photography and it's just wonderful to look at.  How he sees a situation and translates into these strange scenes is just amazing.

Congratulations to both of them!


Websites

Assignment Two - Reflections

I took a gamble with Assignment Two in shooting it overseas knowing that I would not be able to go back and reshoot in the same location.  My tutor warned me about this, however, as the direction I want my photography to progress with is exactly this blend of street/travel photography, I am going to have to learn to get it right on location.  In fact, this is the kind of pressure that many commercial photographers and photojournalists are under each time they shoot, so for me this is a reality I will also have to live with and should therefore practice.  And I will do it again and again, as this is what I want to improve on, and I have decided that I will try to shoot Assignment Three in Japan over Christmas in Street/Travel Photography style.

I think though, the gamble paid off.  I have a series of 7 images that I believe fulfill the brief.  The assignment specifically mentioned that the series must be visually consistent and tightly edited, and I think they are, or at least I tried to achieve that.  The colours/tones are very similar: mostly cool with the exception of the orange in the sunrise picture which punctuates the start of the series.  In addition, each photograph leads into the next: they are all visually connected with each other by colour/tone or also by an element within the frame:
  • In photos 1 & 2, both men are covering their faces
  • Photo 3 provides the head and upper torso that is hidden from view in photo 2
  • In Photo 3, the man is peering into the room in photo 4
  • Photos 4 and 5 both have an activity taking place inside a rectangle - similar compositions
  • Photo 5 the man is looking out of the frame slightly alarmed at the dog in photo 6
  • In photo 7, the child is looking back at the dog (also looking alarmed).
I could have used more than seven photographs, but the other three I had did not really add anything more to the story.  This was definitely a case of less is more! 

Presenting these images for an assignment though was also an emotive decision.  I had such an amazing time during that week with Maciej Dakowicz, that there was no way I was not going to use the images!  But, I hope it works out as a complete assignment - the emotional stakes are quite high, so I will be disappointed if it's not a success!

In terms of the Assessment Criteria, here are my thoughts:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

During that week in India, I found that my technical and visual skills progressed way beyond my expectations.  I was so happy with the process that I booked another workshop in Myanmar in March again with Dakowicz as I wanted to take it further still.  I learnt so much about exposure, composition, story telling, observing, and so on, and I think it is reflected in these images.  I also became a lot braver about being closer to people when I took photographs.  I also learnt from Dakowicz how to put a portfolio together - how images need to connect with each other, and this has also been demonstrated in this assignment.

Quality of outcome

I'm happy with the quality of outcome - of course I am - I've never produced anything like this standard of work before (hope that doesn't sound too immodest but I'm still on a high from the whole experience)!  The images are all clear, correctly exposed, no noise etc.  My only concern is with the text - should I have captioned the images or included more text?  I think the approach I took is the right one, I do want the viewer to wonder what is going on and think about their own reaction of wonder, without too much guidance, but I'm not 100% certain that I should not have included more guidance text.

Demonstration of creativity

This is definitely my most creative piece of work yet and I believe that personal voice is now starting to show.  The best thing though is that I have "found myself".  I've realised that I can combine my two biggest passions in life: travel and photography, and that my photography now has some direction.  In my Reflections to Assignment One, I mentioned that I felt that various strands of photography were emerging.  That's all over now.  This experience was so exciting that I cannot bring myself to photograph anything else at the moment, and certainly not every day urban scenes.  I can't wait to be able to have another experience like this.  I get an adrenalin rush from Street Photography anyway, and I think it's time now to just focus on that, and combine it with travel where I can.

I am aware though, that, although the way in which I've used these photos is original, on account of the assignment directions, but, overall, my images from Varanasi look similar to other photographs I've seen taken by other people, and of course they are inspired by the style of Dakowicz.  They are original for me, but overall, I need to step up still in finding more a more unique perspective.  These broadly look like many people's travel photographs, so I feel like I'm just on the first step of the ladder now.  But, I am thrilled though that I've found my ladder!  I think it might have always been there, and I have spent the past six months intensely focusing on Street Photography, but until now, I wasn't really ready to rule out other avenues.  But I am now :)

Context 

Research for this assignment was limited to the work directed by the course materials.  I got a really good sense through the projects, exercises and research points of what photographing the unseen can mean, i.e. through gesture, traces, metaphoric illustration, so I hope that this has come through in this piece of work.

Overall

Overall I am extremely pleased (as you probably gathered....sorry....) with this work.  I think where I may get some learning points / constructive feedback will be in how I put the series together - were the photos in the right order - does the onion layers idea come through?  Have I really captured the concept of "wonder"?  Is this too illustrative and not sufficiently metaphorical?  And also whether I should have used more text/captions.  I will be interested to see my tutor's response and whether the ambiguity I tried to achieve came through.

Websites:

Part Two - Narrative: Project Three - Photographing the unseen: Exercise 1 - Non-visible themes

This exercise is about our reactions to three cases studies by Level 3 OCA students presented in the course materials, who have explored metaphorically non-visible themes:
  • Peter Mansell
  • Dewald Botha
  • Jodie Taylor.
We are asked to consider our reactions to these projects, as in which resonates most, and how we feel about the loss of authorial control that comes when the viewer projects their own experiences and emotions onto the images we've created.

My reactions to the three pieces of work are set out below.

Peter Mansell

I found Mansell's story very moving and tried a google search to find more images but unfortunately to no avail.  I haven't been in Mansell's situation, nor do I have a personal relationship with someone who has experienced such a traumatic event, so can only sympathise rather than empathise, but I can see that self-expression through art/photography can be a therapeutic process.  I found it interesting how Mansell documented aspects of his life, e.g. the space his wheelchair occupied rather than him sitting in his wheelchair.  Somehow, this seems to be more moving than a self-portrait.  It gives you an idea of the planning and logistics of living with a wheelchair - you need to make space.  I wondered if it was also a metaphor for time as well - how much extra time does Mansell need to factor in to get from A to B?

Dewald Botha

Botha's work resonated very strongly with me and from two, maybe three, different perspectives.  His project "Ring Road" documents metaphorically his reactions to living in China and his search for "beauty and relief" in a place of "busy-ness and intensity".  Firstly I worked in Dakar, Senegal for four years (over 20 years ago now) and to describe that experience as intense and claustrophobic would have been an understatement.  It was during that period that I first became interested in art and took up painting, plus I also read and read and read as a form of escapism.  I did take photos during that time - but these were tourist shots - I was not a student photographer then!  Secondly the exercise of walking and capturing is a process I have been through recently through my participation with the Bleeding London project, however, this is a documentary process not a quest for peace.  But, I realised post-hoc that my recent submission for Assignment One, could well have been a subconscious expression of frustration with the state of my local neighbourhood.  Thirdly, my life at the moment is crazy.  Both home and work calendars are back-to-back - one meeting after the next - one event after the next, and I spend a lot of time commuting, rushing, and generally living at 100mph trying to combine work, OCA, home, personal practice, and last year, I went through a period of time (during DPP) of feeling drawn to negative space images in a search for peace and tranquility.  That is no longer the case though now, I now work with the momentum and ride the crest of the wave, rather than trying to retreat from it.

Jodie Taylor

I also found that Taylor's work resonated with me.  My third assignment for DPP was on a very similar theme in which I revisited the town of Felixstowe and photographed places that I remembered from my childhood holidays with my parents and grandparents, and submitted the final body of work as a presentation.  All the posts relating to this piece of work can be accessed by following this link to my DPP blog http://jointheaadpp.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html and then clicking on each separate link under Assignment Three. 

Authorial control

How do I feel about the loss of authorial control that comes when the viewer projects their own experiences and emotions onto the images I've created?  If I'm honest, I don't really feel anything, other than this is inevitable and part of the process.  If you take the view that art, and in our case, photography, is a form of expression and communication, there have to be two people minimum in that relationship: the communicator and the receiver.  The creation of the art is only complete, once there has been interaction or reception, and the translation or interpretation into personal experience or resonance on the part of the audience is just part of the process.

I think that for a photograph to be appreciated, it has to mean something to someone, and there therefore needs to be that reaction.  It may not be the reaction that the author intends, in which case, yes, there is a loss of authorial control, but I see it more as the continuation of the story that may have several directions of travel.  Someone is able to take that form of expression and make it their own.  In fact, I do feel something, I feel that it means that the piece of work is successful.  If it means something to somebody, if someone can apply some meaning to my expression then my work is successful.  It may not be the reaction that I intended, but seeing as that is something that I may never be able to control (beyond guidance through the use of text), I'm not going to worry about it.  I will just be pleased that there has been a reaction.

References
  • Boothroyd, S. (2014) Three Case Studies. The Open College of the Arts course materials for Context and Narrative, pp 62-68
Own work referenced

Saturday 22 November 2014

Part Two - Narrative: Project Two - Image and Text: Research Points - Discourse between viewer and creator

Take Care of Yourself and Objects in the Field

In Part Two we investigate the use of "relay" in contemporary photographic practice.  As a research point, we are asked to examine:
  • Sophie Calle's Take Care of Yourself, and
  • Sophy Rickett's Objects in the Field
as examples of works where differences in understanding create a discourse between the viewer and the creator.


For a start, the two pieces of work are very different.  Take Care of Yourself is an emotional response to the experience of being "dumped" electronically; the artwork represents catharsis, which later takes a life of its own as it becomes a body of art in its own right.  Calle photographed over 100 professional women reading the email she received from her boyfriend dumping her, and asked them to analyse it according to their job: basically ripping him apart.  The photographs then became an exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2007. 

Objects in the Field has an entirely different motivation.  It is an astronomy documentary project recounting her experience as Associate Artist at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.  During this time, she collaborated with Dr Roderick Willstrop, who invented the Three Mirror Telescope.  Rickett redeveloped some old analogue negatives produced by the telescope enhancing the tonal qualities in the process.  An auto-biographical text also accompanies the images (see Photographer's Gallery) starting with her account of having her eyes tested, and then a brief reference to the sky, followed by her experience of working with Willstrop, and ending with an a fragment of a story about two boys standing on a sea wall that she observes from the train she is travelling on.

How do I feel about these two very different pieces of work?  For a start, neither are a narrative in the traditional sense.  There is no beginning, middle and end, but there is a story that emerges.  In Take Care of Yourself, a portrait emerges of the perpetrator seen from 107 different viewpoints, which becomes blurred with reaction to break up.  She doesn't talk about the man himself, but through the women's reactions and descriptions, e.g. in The Guardian article, he is described as a "twisted manipulator".  This is an account of shock, suffering and recovery, in a non-linear way. It is auto-biographical, but not in first-person; more in the reaction of others.

Objects in the Field, like Take Care of Yourself, is an auto-biographical piece; it recounts the experience during a period of time of a collaborative working relationship with the visual output of the images of space objects.  And again, it is not a narrative in the traditional sense, but more of a layered account combining extracts from different periods of time, with the artist's Institute experience.  Through the accompanying text, Rickett links this experience with different time dimensions (is this a parallel with space dimensions??) from her childhood, that appear unconnected but in fact serve to illustrate incompleteness in understanding and interpretation.  In life are we only exposed to fragments of stories?  Do we have know the full story?  The result of this is an ambiguous dialogue between the diary and the images.

My reactions to these pieces of work are quite different.  I am intrigued by Take Care of Yourself and would like to see the entire exhibition or catalogue.  I have heard several times that in photography, taking the photograph is only half the story; the rest of the story is dependent on the viewer's reaction, and that part of the story is subjective and will therefore differ between viewers.  And this is a prime example.  From what I read in the Guardian article, and can imagine, the 107 reactions will be different, informed by the women's profession and personal experience, and therefore this character study will have 107 facets.  And in a way, Calle is no longer the author, the piece of work has a life of its own.  In a way she has controlled the situation of being dumped by releasing control of the storyline, so in fact the story is that of perception rather than fact.  It left me wanting to know more about Calle and her work.

On the other hand, I struggled with Objects in the Field: I didn't feel particularly interested by the subject matter.  If I'm looking at pictures of space, I want to see bright colourful nebulae.  Space is a violent environment and I want that to see that captured.  This project seemed to be more about the equipment and the collaborative experience referenced back in time to seemingly random episodes.  I got the metaphor, but didn't feel anything positive about it: too technical, too scientific, and not enough drama.  Although I did wonder why she had chosen the time-lapses that she did?  Are there deeper metaphors that I didn't pick up on?  Is the trip to the optician a euphemism for learning to see?  Were the boys on the sea wall illustrating the fragility of life?

One in 8 Million

I had a brief flick through the One in 8 Million project on the New York Times website.  I like this project - I'm constantly amazed how diverse human beings are and how in a modern age of travel and migration we live in different environments to those of our ancestors.   I enjoyed the images with the accompanying text explaining who the people are.  I would like to see a similar project conducted in London in an environment where everyone has similar jobs, e.g. Canary Wharf, but different home lives, with different responsibilities, realities, histories, and secrets.  To prove the point that you cannot and must not judge by appearance.

The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings

A different form of narrative again and on the subject of aging and living alone, in The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings Deveney has combined tiny glimpses of the subject's life with very brief notes.  The look like very good quality polaroids with handwritten captions by Hastings, except much better quality than polaroids and they are not 'snap-shotty' in the very least.  What we have is a narrative about the relationship between the photographer and Hastings, a friendship, a non-chronological diary, a story without beginning or end.  Yet what we get is an insight, windows, information about the day-to-day but not on any specific day or time.  I particularly like the photographs that show traces e.g. the one of Hastings selecting his TV viewing.  Although Hastings is present in the image, we cannot see his face, but we see evidence of his habits, his routine, his preferences.  I also found out from Carol Street's blog, that Deveney had added poems and drawings by Hastings, along with family photographs to the overall project.  What a wonderful thing to create!  Although the theme of the project is about living alone, through the collaboration between photographer and subject, and the resulting friendship, I image that Hastings did not feel so alone in the end. And I like the use of square format as a technique for excluding superfluous information.

Gentlemen

The first thing I thought about when I saw this piece of work was Jeeves and Wooster, and then Downton Abbey.  Slightly worried, that a university eduction was about to be wasted on me.... then I read Knorr's notes on her website about this body of work and that she meant it to be humorous.  Feeling slightly relieved, and looking through the images, I didn't really focus so much on the patriarchal statements, but more on the decline of "English" standards.  Although of course the patriarchal society aspects are pretty obvious too.  The use of combining a short statement of text with a square image is very effective.  Knorr gives us what we need to know only, in this series of tightly controlled and stereotypical images.  I think the text really supports the imagery - they work together.  Without the text, you would get a sense of pomp, form, tradition, control, but, with the text you really get a sense of absurdity, sterility, and a time from which society has moved on.

The Photograph is My Proof

Looking further at the theme of pairing individual images with text, I had a look at the single image: The Photograph is My Proof by Duane Michals.  The image made me wonder a few things:
  • Why are the couple looking directly at the camera?
  • Why does the author not trust his own feelings sufficiently and needs proof to show?
  • What has happened since to make him go back to the photograph and reassure himself that there was a time when "things were still good"?
  • Why are they sitting on the very edge of the bed against the wall like that?  Seems a strange place to sit in the middle of a loving moment....
  • Was the happiness real at the time, or has the author idealised the situation retrospectively?
Without the text, I don't know what this photograph would say.  The text adds meaning, time (past), feeling, and story.  You know from the text that something has changed.  That the author is experiencing emotions of insecurity or doubt.  It is also very easy to romanticise a past event when a present one isn't working out... how real was this situation?

Use of images and text

This research has shown various ways of combining text and imagery including:
  • Diary references
  • Photograph annotations
  • Captions
  • References to emotions/time
  • 3rd person interpretations
  • Use of other art forms, e.g. poetry, personal photographs.
Which technique is the right one to use would depend entirely on the situation itself.  A point of reference for future work!

Anecdotally, referring to the course materials that follow about selecting a subject, I have been told repeatedly recently to photograph what interests me, but to try to find more original viewpoints.  What interests me is how people act and react in spaces, the manifestation of random events within a frame.  Therefore, from my perspective, narratives happen in the moment, rather than retrospectively.  I seek to capture chance occurences that tell a different story and reality to the one that somebody else, may be even standing next to me, would tell.  How I would combine that with text I don't know, but time will tell!

References
  • Boothroyd, S. (2013) Sophy Rickett and Sharon Boothroyd, Photoparley, Nov 2013.  The Open College of the Arts.  Appendix to the ‘Context and Narrative’ course notes
Websites
Previous related work

Feedback and response to Assignment One: Two Sides of the Same Story

Delighted to receive very constructive feedback to Assignment One, with the decay aspects working better.  The main learning points being to avoid being too literal in interpretation and try to be more organic.  The examples I chose to illustrate the two sides of the town were a little obvious and clichéed, and did not show enough difference between the two sets of photographs, although my tutor did mention that some of the photographs worked well.  Had I used different approaches/techniques, I might have captured a more distinct view.  Annoyingly, I considered this, and then rejected it to avoid a clichéed response!

My tutor recommended that I try to rework some of the assignment to show more polarised view and perhaps present the images in different styles, e.g. a facebook style approach to the positive and retaining the square restricted view of the negative.  She also suggested that I actually didn't need the captions, as the photographs spoke for themselves and adding them ended up restricting me somewhat in my approach.

I think that what I will try to do is to reshoot in May/June before I submit for final assignment.  Feltham becomes very garish in the summer and this will help more with snapshotty style imagery.  I also think I might reshoot the whole lot in street photography style, rather than looking at urban structures and try to focus on people's behaviour within the space, rather than looking at structures.  This is the direction my photography is now heading in!

Saturday 15 November 2014

Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age

I went to the Constructing Worlds: Photography and Architecture in the Modern Age exhibition last night at the Barbican.  I went as it was an opportunity to meet up with my friend Gill Golding who is an urban visualisation photographer.  I'm not particularly interested in architecture, but I am interested in seeing how people live and how they interact with space, culture and anthropology.  But, thanks to Gill explaining things as we walked around (which completely changed the whole experience from knowing nothing to being informed about what I was looking at!), I now have a much greater appreciation of architecture as art and its relationship with photography and space.

So what was the exhibition like?  Actually, it was great and there was a lot to see.  It had been extremely well curated and followed a logical and (mostly) chronological sequence from 1930s to the present day, and there were some very interesting contrasts and juxtapositions, both within each photographer's series, and in between photographers.

The real highlight for me was the work by Nadav Kander who had images from two series on display taken in the 2000s: Chongqing Municipality and Hubei Province.  I found the Chongqing Municipality in particular an astonishing set of images.  Amazingly gentle exposures in contrast to the ugly constructions depicting life by a polluted river.  In Chongqing IV (Sunday Picnic) a family are having a picnic by the water's edge; they all look to be enjoying themselves with the exception of one person set apart from the main group who is glaring at the camera.  The construction of this image is beautiful; the eye takes you from the family through the bridge supports to the back of the image where everything is soft and delicate despite being ugly and industrial looking.  In Chongqing XI, there is the same soft exposure, but the scene looks very polluted; a lady is wearing a face mask, yet people are fishing in the river.   A delicate scene showing vast spaces, yet with an enormous bridge construction going on in the background.  Huge photographs showing huge ideas!

More about Nadav Kandar is available from Sean O'Hagen's review in The Guardian from 20 October 2010. 

Of the other photographers displayed, I have made some notes and asked a few questions:
  • Berenice Abbott
    • 1930s New York images showing the contrast between poverty and power, old and new, extreme height vs ground level, social change, grid structures, unemployment, American economy, industrial development (cars / bridges)
  • Iwan Baan
    • Scenes captured in 2000s of Torre David in Venezuela depicting an interesting and normal life of the building's infamous squatters: parties, balloons, barbers, dogs.  Nice perspectives but I prefer significantly the visualisation of this community by Alejandro Cegarra.
  • Bernd and Hilla Becher
    • I loved these images.  Documented over five decades, a showcase of twenty one water towers showing a variety of architectural styles, with consistent vertical and central framing and soft monochrome mid-tones.  The positioning of the foreground made me feel that I could walk into the images and in to the towers!  (Some of the towers looked like weird space craft).  This series reminded me of the Israeli Watchtowers body of work by Taysir Batniji.
  • Hélène Binet
    • Taken in 1990s of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, these were beautiful abstracts of light and shade, again with strong graphical shapes, but showing a great sensitivity.
  • Walker Evans
    • 1930s images from America's "Deep South", also showing social change but behind that of New York shown by Berenice Abbott.  I wondered if the Frame Houses from New Orleans are still there post Hurricane Katrina.  Evans images gave an insight into the daily life of the inhabitants, the simplicity of their religion (i.e. very simple and humble structured churches unlike other religions), and the shocking nature of terminology like "Negro Housing" showing that segregation was still an aspect of life back then.  I was particularly struck by the image of Floyd Burroughs and his very striking eyes.  It reminded me of the Afghan Girl image by Steve McCurry (in Portraits) - a worn and tired face, but piercing eyes looking straight through you.
  • Luigi Ghirri
    • 1980s images of a cemetery which to me seemed more like a storage unit or even a prison BUT these images were made beautiful by the presence of squares of light in each image.  I really liked the abstract and graphic shape design of the images.
  • Andreas Gursky
    • What can you say about Gursky that hasn't already been said?  Enormous and strange (altered reality) but interesting!
  • Lucien Hervé
    • 1950s images of concrete and boxes, which seems strange given the heritage and beautiful architecture of the location of the architecture (India), but when you realise how the light interacts with the buildings, you understand that in actual fact, the architecture is a canvas for the light creating beautiful abstract scenes of light and shade.
  • Nadav Kander
    • (see above)
  • Luisa Lambri
    • I didn't get these series from 2000s.  One abstract is nice, but why four that all look the same?
  • Simon Norfolk
    • Shot over the past 15 years or so, these images of Afghanistan and Bagdad are very interesting showing the post-war effects, and the incongruence between modern life and a war-ravaged scene.  Glimpses of a modern life inherited from the very regime (the West) these locations were at war with.
  • Bas Princen
    • Princen's images were fascinating.  Taken in 2009, Princen shows five different cities in such a way that the context is altered - showing the urban structures in semi-urban spaces.  In Cairo for instance, which essentially shows how the space of an urban wasteland has been used, there is so much to see.  You begin by feeling overwhelmed, not knowing where to look first.  Finally you focus on the distant and soft buildings in the horizon searching for an anchor, somewhere to start.  Then you start to notice details: animals on rooftops, people sifting through rubbish, laundry drying, satellite TV discs (modern poverty), there is just so much to see.  In Istanbul, there is a real juxtaposition of old vs new, straight vs muddled, again lots to look at.  In Dubai, a beautiful, yet absurd black dominant structure and then workers around it all dressed in blue, reminding us of the context. In (ring-road) Cairo - very different - juxtaposition of construction yet herding animals.  Finally, in Amman - what happened?  Did the land collapse neatly at the edge of the buildings, or did they decide to construct right on the edge of a landslide?
  • Ed Ruscha
    • Aerial photographs from the USA taken in 1960s, showing enormous spaces and what shapes look like from a height - you would never appreciate this driving around at ground level!
  • Stephen Shore
    • 1970s images of everyday USA scenes, except that to me, these look like TV sets, open air museums - almost "Toy Town" like structures.  But as the exhibition progresses, it seems like we are moving more into a civilisation that we recognise.
  • Julius Shulman
    • 1960s images of case study houses and in particular #22 - a very strange set of images.  For a start the people in the images look like "Stepford Wives" characters!  None of them are looking at the camera - they appear to be the American idea of the perfect couple with the perfect house.  The photographs themselves are very neat - clean straight lines, right angles, sharp corners, space, balance, sparseness, steel, precision.  It seems as if the people aren't allowed to change the concept of space; even the shadows are perfectly angular!  The whole effect seemed very contrived, but what a view from #22 over Los Angeles!
  • Thomas Struth
    • Struth's collection from 2000s was a series of typical street scenes from various parts of the world.  I enjoyed looking at these - I found that by the end I was trying to guess the location before looking at the caption!  I liked the way that one photograph led to the next through use of consistency of composition and similar lines.  Strange that these streets were deserted - in some photographs - the only evidence of people is the car number plates that would be attributed to living people.  The contrast between the cities is also interesting: neat Germany, precise Tokyo, untidy Naples, historic St Petersberg, and then almost Soviet looking Geneva and Dessau, and in Pyongyang no gaps between the buildings.  These were very interesting.
  • Hiroshi Sugimoto
    • A very strange set of out of focus iconic buildings shot in 2000s, which left me cold.  Might have been better in colour maybe, but these images did nothing for me.  
  • Guy Tillim
    • A series of photographs from modern Africa shot in the 2000s; broken dreams, dull colours, depressing scences, graphic shapes, stark bareness.  Not the colourful, noisy, chaotic Africa that I've seen for myself.
 More information about each of the photographers is available from: http://www.barbican.org.uk/media/events/16264gallerytexts-updatednov2014.pdf.

Websites:

More about Maciej Dakowicz Photography Workshops

Very very proud that one of my photographs is now featured on Maciej Dakowicz's Photography Workshops website.  This was originally taken as a joke / souvenir shot but really pleased it's been used as a banner!


Here is the original:


Websites:

Monday 3 November 2014

Part Two - Narrative: Project Two - Image and text: Exercise 1 - Newspaper articles

Exercise 1 of Project 2 (Image and Text) requires us to select some pictures from a newspaper and write some captions.  For my pictures, I have taken screen shots from the BBC News website, with links to the actual items below.

Image [1]


Possible captions:
  • New waterways created
  • Green space preserved as City expands

The article was in fact about Greater Manchester being made a "northern powerhouse".

Image [2]


Possible captions:
  • Thousands attend Communist Party annual conference
  • Chinese politicians sworn in for new term
The article was in fact about anti-corruption investigators in China confirming the reported seizure of the equivalent of $33m in cash at an official's home in May - the biggest such haul to date.

Image [3]



Possible captions:
  • Free Sgt. Tahmooressi NOW!
  • American people campaign for the release of Sgt. Tahmooressi.
The article was in fact about the campaign for the release of a US marine imprisoned in Mexico for driving a vehicle loaded with firearms across the border has been released.

In the first two examples, without the captions, you cannot tell what the article is going to be about.  In both cases, I found captions that were not representative of the real article.  The captions therefore in these cases would be anchor captions, i.e. they would control the meaning of the image and prevent it being interpreted. 

In the third example, even if you don't know what the article is about - it is pretty easy to work it out.  The picture already gives you most of the story.  The accompanying text would therefore provide more information to enable a full understanding. 


Links to news items:

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29459243 accessed 3 November 2014
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-29845257 accessed 3 November 2014
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29858652 accessed 3 November 2014


Part Two - Narrative: Project Two - Image and text: Exercise 2 - Illustrating a poem

Exercise 2 of Project 2 (Image and Text) requires us to chose a poem that resonates with us and interpret it through photographs by giving a sense of the feeling of the poem and the essence it exudes.  The poem I have chosen is called Varanasi, The Holy City and is by S.D. Tiwari.  I have contacted Mr Tiwari for permission to reproduce the poem in full in this post, but while I am waiting for a response, here is the link:

http://allpoetry.com/poem/9310815-Varanasi--the-Holy-City-by-S.-D.-Tiwari

As the title suggests, the poem is about the Holy City of Varanasi in India, which is situated on the Ganges, India's holy river.  The first verse of the poem describes the holy act purification of the soul by bathing in the Ganges, a shrine for Hindu people.  The second verse describes the morning rituals, the mantras and hymns that pilgrims sing, and the fact that by virtue of being there and participating, you are already in heaven.  The third verse goes on to explain that Budhism was also founded in Varanasi and great artistic creations have taken place.  So in essence, the poem to me speaks of the cycles of purification, state of heaven, birth and the subsequent enlightenment that we can achieve.

My photos that illustrate this cycle (all shot in Varanasi) are:








Websites:

Friday 31 October 2014

Thomson Reuters - Survival of the Greenest - Winning Photo

Thrilled to win first place in the Survival of the Greenest category in the Thomson Reuters 2014 World in Pictures competition (for Thomson Reuters employees) and also the Employee's Choice award.  My photograph will be exhibited on the Canary Wharf and Times Square Jumbotrons on Thursday 18th December!


And here is the view from that day in Canary Wharf and Times Square (via webcam):




Dougie Wallace: Shoreditch Wild Life

Hot on the heels of Stags, Hens and Bunnies, Dougie Wallace has produced a new collection entitled Shoreditch Wild Life.  I was lucky enough to attend the launch party exhibition a couple of days ago and secure a signed copy of the book. 

And if you thought Stags, Hens and Bunnies was outrageous, this takes it to a whole new level.  An amazing collection of day and night scenes from Shoreditch showing as the title suggest a very wild side....from daytime garish colours and cheap glamour to night time seediness.  Stunning, "in your face", messy images, many slightly wonky (assume deliberate) - giving the feeling of chaos, rawness, putting the viewer directly in the moment.  The way the work is put together also is interesting; the pictures gradually get more and more outrageous - almost forming a narrative.  Towards the end of the book, there is a picture of people asleep in a pub - the party is now over.

Amazing.  I would love to put together a body of work like this.

One question though - why such a small book - these would have been much better presented in an A4 size format.  They are too good to be kept small.

Websites:
References:
  • Wallace, D. (2014) Stags, Hens and Bunnies. Stockport: Dewi Lewis Media
  • Wallace, D. (2014) Shoreditch Wild Life. UK: Hoxton Mini Press

Assignment Two - Photographing the unseen - Wonder

What does WONDER mean?
  • to be filled with amazement, admiration and awe?
  • to think or speculate?
  • to doubt?
I wonder.....


1


2


3


4

 
5


6


7


Maciej Dakowicz Street Photography Workshop in Varanasi, India

I just got back from a week-long street photography workshop with Maciej Dakowicz in Varanasi, India.  What an experience - in many respects!  Firstly my street photography progressed further than I could ever have expected or hoped for (to the point where I'm now thinking I need to delete all the old rubbish off my Flickr account!), and secondly I had an amazing travel experience to what must be one of the strangest places in the world and thirdly I've made some great new friends from Poland, Thailand and Austria, who I really hope to see and shoot with again.

So what was it like?  Well to start with, Dakowicz worked us incredibly hard.  All day, every day.   Even one day when I had a cold starting and felt really rubbish and had cried off for the morning, I got a text an hour later to tell me to get out, meet up with the others and shoot.  This continued momentum for the whole seven days meant that we made steady progress.  Every day we shot, edited, reviewed and learned from mistakes.   Dakowicz took turns to shoot with us, so we got to learn from his approach first hand, see him take shots and then look at the back of his camera and realise that a tiny tweak here and there, a single step forwards, backwards or sideways, or a tiny tilt to the camera can make a massive difference.

Some of the technical aspects that Dakowicz taught us I had been told before, but going through these aspects again, putting them into practice straight away, checking and correcting in the field, getting feedback the same day, and then trying again the next day, meant that they truly sank in.  I also think I understood more about the technical points as in really understanding how important it is to get them right and what a difference a tiny error can make to the whole picture.  And what a significant improvement a tiny correction can make to the whole picture.

I also realised that my preference for square format, might actually be due to laziness as it is easier to shoot squares than rectangles.......Dakowicz taught us (and insisted on) filling the frame and getting it right in shooting (no cropping)!  

So of all the learning points, here are those that resonated most with me (all shot with Nikon D810 and 35mm lens):

Exposing for highlights


Capturing a "moment"


Layering your subjects with no overlaps



Getting close to take portraits


Finding humour


Putting the subject inside frames


Creating a mystery


Spotting an illusion


Using backgrounds


Putting the focus point in the correct place (subject of story)




Using colours effectively


In addition, I also learnt practical things, like how to carry my camera and rucksack in a way that gave me freedom of movement with no neck ache and other annoyances (how did this take so long to work out?), and also how to approach and engage with people.

Finally, and this was very useful for my coursework, we learned how to construct a portfolio, how individual images need to work with each other, how to keep colours and tones consistent in a collection of photographs, and to use the same format (horizontal rectangles - not verticals or squares - within the same series. 

What would I change for next time?  Only practical things.  For a start, I wouldn't take my 24-70mm and 70mm-200mm lenses.  I didn't need them and they were heavy additions to my baggage.  I only needed my 35mm lens.  I would though take my Nikon D5000 plus 35mm lens as a back up.  I was worried the whole time about what would happen if my main camera failed (which it didn't) so I would prefer to have a back up camera next time.

Another practical issue - take cold relief and vitamin C.  I was prepared for all manner of illnesses and first aid situations, but not a cold, and this is and was the most likely thing to happen!

I already booked my next workshop for Myanmar in March 2015 and I can't wait. 

For more images, please see:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/124157193@N07/

And also Assignment Two!

Websites: