Exercise: Part Three Introduction.

Exercise: Part Three Introduction.

Brighton Photo Biennial.

Jose.

• …the futility of trying to pigeon hole documentary photography.
• Sitting on a fence is hardly a comfortable place to be so i will take a stance here, for better or worse.
• …if a photograph doesn’t make the viewer feel anything, well, what is the point of taking it in the first place?
• Showing photography to the wider public is a form of communication, and you can’t expect everyone to agree with you.

Hereford Photography Festival.

Jose.

• They denote photographers taking firm control of their visual and conceptual output, with clear intentions and goals, avoiding the reactive method of classic documentary - hence the exhibition’s subtitle ‘beyond the decisive moment’.

Format Photography Festival.

Jose.

• The idea of authorship was challenges by Michael Wolf in his ‘A series of unfortunate events’. A collection of images regurgitated by Google Street View made up his exhibition.  His photographs - they’re not his, are they? - highlight nothing if not the fact that we are all looking at things.  It’s called scopophilia and it is hard wired in us.
• We don’t know any more who is observing and who is being observed.  Photographers in the shadows capturing the image of passers-by who are totally oblivious to the fact they are being watched.

Rob.

• Quoting Meyerowitz. ‘…there is no genius in photography, some have talent, some don’t’.

CliveW.

• …street photography is pure in the sense that it is the most democratic; you don’t need expensive equipment, glamorous locations or beautiful people to practice it in a sophisticated way.

In selecting these quotes I tried to choose those that stand alone from the exhibitions to which they refer; those that have a more general meaning in regard to photography.  

I have only seen the work of the named photographers in books or on-line so am not in a position to comment on how well, or badly, the images stood up to the test of exhibition.

Assignment Two: Single image narratives.

Assignment Two: Single image narratives.

With two exceptions the pictures I have produced for this assignment are very different in tone and message.  I am a great fan of Martin Parr and I hope four of the nine images reflect this.  I whittled my selection down to nine but could not decide which of these to delete.  

I have tried to capture images that contain a message beyond the obvious; a paradox or a sign that leads the viewer to look deeper.

The first two feature my grand children and were taken as part of a family photographs session I had with the family.  I used black and white with reduced tones to emphasise the action and not have the distractions of colour.  It was a decision I took at the time of taking the photographs but now wish I had used RAW colour and given myself the flexibility that would have been afforded. 

The first is grandson Thomas being fed by my daughter Mags.  At the time I didn’t notice the clothing tag and, unfortunately, it appears in every picture I took in the series.  

Unconditional Love.

The second is Thomas’s elder brother Oliver reading to his grandma.  This is a task he now enjoys.

Telling Tales.

The rest were taken on my travels.

This was taken at the Royal Marine Concert at Walmer.  I was looking for the out of the ordinary shot and saw the man in blue obviously distracted by something and looking in a different direction to the rest of the audience.  Camera up and click.  

One in a Crowd.

This is the ride that takes visitors around the grounds at Hampton Court.  I was experimenting with a very wide angle lens (14mm equivalent) that forced me to emulate Vivian Maier and get in very close to the subjects.   The nearest horse seems to be looking to the ostler for a command.

Awaiting Your Command.

Every year a travelling fair, with it’s mixture of rides and side shows, visits Walmer Green.  By blurring the motion and choosing the time of day I think I have captured the thrill of the ride.  The lack of people gives it an ethereal look.

Riding High.

To waste time before attending a wedding in Kings Lynn I went for a walk along the promenade  at Hunstanton.  I saw the elderly couple, him stripped off for the sun and her dressed for winter, on the other side of the road.  What made the picture was the presence, and reaction, of the street cleaner.  I just had time to snatch the shot before the opportunity past.  The snatched nature of the shot meant I was not able to obtain the best technical image but it was take or miss it.

Dressed For the Weather.

The Met. Office promise the UK a BBQ summer.  My son in law and I went to a beer festival at Hastings and the following image sums up the day.  The two flags were at the entry to the main beer tent.  There is no Photoshopping.  Other than close cropping it is as seen.

BBQ Summer.

I had my car serviced yesterday and rather than wait in the garage I went for a walk round a nearby estate.  At some time a small football/basketball court has been built for the use of the local youth.  I couldn’t include all the damage or litter but the picture below gives a good impression.

Olympic Legacy.

I work as a volunteer in a local community centre where, as part of work with children, we had a drumming class.  As expected it was very noisy, in fact too noisy for some of the participants.   I was taking pictures for our own publicity purposes but this one fits in nicely with the theme of this assignment.

Silence is Golden.

Conclussions.

Did I achieve what I set out to do?  Overall I think I did.  If I could turn the clock back I would use colour throughout but as I made the mistake of opting to record the first two images using the camera's black and white function I was stuck with the result.  They work well enough in that they are not just baby pictures but I will not make the same mistake again.  I removed the ability to work in RAW or change my mind and revert to colour.

As you can see the titles I have chosen are all well known expressions to which I have tried to give a new twist.  

Exercise: Sobol-Petersen-Moriyama Connection.

Exercise: Sobol-Petersen-Moriyama Connection.

I was aware of Moriyama’s work as a result of visiting the Kline/Moriyama exhibition at Tate Modern in 2012.  The connection between the two photographers was clear with Moriyama progressing the controlling style of Kline to a new level and adding an air of menace that Kline didn’t dwell on.  One notable exception to this being Kline’s image of a boy pointing a toy gun straight at the camera.

Sobol and Peterson have clearly taken their lead from Moriyama as Moriyama took his lead from Kline.  They have again moved it on and find no subject too odd or repulsive to photograph.  I find it interesting that Sobol went to Moriyama’s Tokyo to work and there produced I, Tokyo which contains images of unremitting grimness and at times runs close to pornography.   

Change the facial features for western ones and Peterson’s French Kiss follows this pattern of grime and ugliness.  Nothing that passes in front of the lens is taboo.  Willing or unwilling the subject is captured.

Working with small cameras, these street photographers can work fast and covertly so that their targets may not even be aware.  In some pictures the subjects are clearly aware, and almost challenge the photographer to take the shot.

The link from Kline through Moriyama and on to Sobol and Peterson is clear with each one adding to the work of his predecessor.  With the exception of Kline, they seem little interested in fine prints or polished production.  They all work in black and white, often pushing the film to obtain the image.  Nothing will escape their gaze nor be too sordid to photograph.  

I include six images without attribution, date, or title.  Who took which image?

    

References:

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/william-klein-daido-moriyama

[Accessed: 23rd. August 2015].

http://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/daido-moriyama-the-father-of-street-photography-in-japan/%0A

[Accessed: 23rd August 2015].

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/08/27/10-things-anders-petersen-can-teach-you-about-street-photography/

[Accessed: 23rd. August 2015].

https://www.facebook.com/JacobAueSobol

[Accessed: 23rd. August 2015].

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/12/26/11-lessons-jacob-aue-sobol-has-taught-me-about-street-photography

[Accessed: 23rd. August 2015].

Research Point: Street Photographers.

Street Photographers.

Vivian Maier. Born New York City, February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009.

Vivian Maier was a prolific picture taker working mainly in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.  Although she took somewhere in the region of 150,00 images she printed few and published none.  It was not till 2007 that this body of work was discovered and her talent recognised.

The first two things that struck me about her images where that they were taken from a low angle and the second was that they were all candid and taken from as close a position to the subject as possible.  The low angle was explained by a self portrait of her using a Rolleiflex TLR.  The subjects in for photographs did not all appear to be willing participants but their obvious resentment makes for some powerful images.  The pictures she captured of children, again candid shots, would now be difficult to take.  

In these published images is a record of place, work, people, life, and leisure.  This is what street photography is all about.

References:

http://www.vivianmaier.com

[Accessed: 22nd August 2015].

http://www.findingvivianmaier.com

[Accessed: 22nd August 2015].

Willian Kline. Born New York, April 19, 1928.

Until 2012 I had heard the name William Kline but had seen only small examples of his work.  All that changed when I went to the Kline/Moriyama exhibition at Tate Modern and saw his images at full size.  On this scale the works took on a physicality that they lacked when seen on the page.  By looking at his contacts sheets and editing marks, again at gallery size, I was able to see how different his working methods are compared to Vivian Maier’s.  He clearly manipulates his subjects and works with them to get his images and allows his documentary work and his fashion work to cross fertilise each other.

References:

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/william-klein-daido-moriyama

[Accessed: 22nd. August 2015].

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/28/william-klein-interview-sony-photography

[Accessed: 22nd August 2015].

Daido Moriyama. Born 1938 Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.

Most of Moyiyama’s subjects clearly know they are having their picture taken even if they are unwilling participants.  We have a mixture of candid and planned images, many with an air of menace and foreboding and a dream like quality leading to a surreal feel.  Even where young people are included their seems to be little pleasure or joy.  I have included two images that use a similar body pose: one of his famous dog and the second of a man.

References:

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/william-klein-daido-moriyama

[Accessed: 22nd. August 2015].

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/28/william-klein-interview-sony-photography

[Accessed: 22nd. August 2015].

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/03/27/5-lessons-daido-moriyama-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/

[Accessed: 22nd. August 2015].

Martin Parr. Born 1952, Epsom.

I have owned Martin’s book, Think of England”, for a couple years now having bought it for another course.  It is in itself both an accurate and a surreal look at England.  He records us through our pastimes, our dogs, our sun worship, our food, and that we do not not know which way up our flag should be displayed.  He has a knack of finding the ridiculous and making it look almost normal.  I love the image of the three beauty queens and the photographer.  Beautifully grubby.

References:

Parr, M. (2000) Think of England. 6th. Ed. Phaidon Press Ltd.

http://www.martinparr.com

[Accessed: 22nd. August 2015].

http://www.magnumphotos.com

[Accessed: 22nd. August 2015].

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/03/26/10-things-martin-parr-can-teach-you-about-street-photography/

[Accessed: 22nd. August 2015].

Diane Arbus. Born New York, 14th. March 1923.

Diane Arbus was a photographer who specialised in the avant-garde in general and the ugly and strange in particular.   Her pictures challenge the viewer with their starkness; often taken against a plain background and with the subject looking straight out at the viewer.

One of her most famous images is of the twin girls, so similar at first glance but so different when looked at closely.  One so bright eyed and confident and the other unselling and fearful.    

 Her perseverance to obtain the best image is reflected in her Child With Toy Grenade in Central Park.  This was the last in a series featuring the child.

Eric Kim quotes her as saying, “It’s important to take bad pictures. It’s the bad ones that have to do with what you’ve never done before. They can make you recognise something you had seen in a way that will make you recognise it when you see it again”.

Good advise indeed!

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_with_Toy_Hand_Grenade_in_Central_Park

[Accessed: 24th. August 2015].

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/10/15/11-lessons-diane-arbus-can-teach-you-about-street-photography/

[Accessed: 24th. August 2015].

Elliott Erwitt. Born July 26, 1928 Paris.

Erwin is the most humorous of the five photographers I have selected.  One cannot but be amused by his dog pictures.  Often taken from the level of the dogs eye they give a new slant on the world about us.  His other work can in turns be poignant, challenging, and funny.  I have shown a mixture below.

References:

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/09/23/14-lessons-elliott-erwitt-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/

[Accessed: 22nd. August 2015].

Exercise: What is Street Photography?

Exercise: What is Street Photography?

The link to lfph.org site is not working.  Tried for an hour to find a way round it but then gave up.

I found an essay by Eric Kim on this subject and will use it as my guide.

Reference:

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/08/07/what-is-street-photography-2/

[Accessed: 11th. August 2015].

For the picture taking exercise I picked the brief of sitting in one place for an hour and waiting to see what turned up.  The selected place was a bench in Deal High Street outside St. Georges Church.  The camera I chose was my smallest and most discrete, a Canon G12, set on AP at f8, and with all the sounds turned off.

I wanted candid shots and so hid the camera, as best I could, in my lap and took the images using the tilting screen.  I looked at the camera as little as possible.  

The results are below.  

Boy with dog.  

Spotted by a neighbour.

Lady reading newspaper.

Pushing the prams.

Snapped snappers.

In the hour I was seated on the bench only two people appeared to spot what I was doing, one, my neighbour is featured above; the second, the lady reading her newspaper clocked me after my forth shot of her.  

Not the most exiting pictures but they do reflect Deal High Street during the time I was there.  This a technique I will use again.

The two links suggested for further study are not active:

www.inpublic.com is shown as not in use and available to buy.

www.seconds2real.com is not responsive and will not open.

Research Point: Surrealist Connections.

Research Point: Surrealist Connections.

To tackle this exercise I made a grid with the names of twenty one artists along one one axis and a list of thirteen attributable qualities or features on the second axis.  This second list developed as I worked.  

My starting point was to look at the definition of surrealism.   The Tate defines it as: 

Surrealism was a movement which began in the 1920s of writers and artists who experimented with ways of unleashing the subconscious imagination.  In line with the exercise I have kept in the five photographers working before this time.

Three names were removed as they were more archivists that artists in their own right.  This left me with eighteen photographers.  

I spent two days looking at their work, not in detail, but looking for overall patterns in their work.  The result of this is the following list.  

• Stark                         11.
• Bleak                          9.
• Urban                      13.
• Not populated         4.
• Populated               10.
• Head on                    9.
• Angled                     10.
• Architectural         10.
• Camera effects        7.
• Dark room effects  3.
• Rural                         2.
• Control of subject   9.
• Intrusive                   3.

Before I stared this exercise I would have interchange the words bleak and stark but as I worked through the images I could discern a difference.  The Free Dictionary supplies the following:

Stark:

Bare, desolate, or unadorned.

Bleak:

Providing no encouragement; depressing.

My reading of this is that a stark view can offer hope but a bleak view offers no hope.

This was not intended as a detailed look at the work of the photographers mentioned in Canon Fodder, but the overall impression one gets when confronted by a body of their photographs.   

References:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bleak

[Accessed: 11th. August 2015].

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/surrealism

[Accessed: 11th. August 2015].

Exercise: Making Sense of Documentary Photography.

Exercise: Making Sense of Documentary Photography.

All photographs carry a message but not all photographs are truthful.  The photographer may have an agenda not shared with the subject.  The publisher of the photograph may have an agenda not shared with the photographer.  The viewer may read into the photograph something not intended by any of them.  Another layer added to the normal triangle of subject-photographer-viewer. 

The Farm Security Administration set out, according to Rexford Tugwell, a friend and adviser to President Roosevelt, to “put out positive propaganda” about the Resettlement Administration that ran alongside Roosevelts’ New Deal.  As part of this program Roy Emerson Stryker was employed to hire photographers to record the need for, and successes, of both the FSA and the RA.

From the outset the intention was to produce images that would support the work of the two Government agencies and ensure future funding.  How could this regime produce neutral images when the scheme was designed as a propaganda venture?  The photographers were already skilled in their different fields and were be well versed in the skills required to obtain a successful picture.  Stryker said of himself, “Perhaps my greatest asset was my lack of photographic knowledge. I didn't subscribe to anybody's particular school of photographic thought. I had what was then a strange notion--that pictures are pictures regardless of how they are taken”.  It would seem, therefor, that Stryker was happy as long as the image supported the need for ‘positive images’, and since President Roosevelt himself backed the project through his friend Tugwell all was well.

The only people who were not party to this were the subjects in the photographs; the very people most heavily effected by the failures of society.  Whether this led to their being exploited is a question too big for this Exercise.  Their images were certainly used by the FSA to obtain additional funding, but in turn the funding was being used to improve the lot of those being photographed.  

The subjects in the photographs were certainly manipulated by the photographers to obtain stronger images, but who would have been interested in weak images that held no message? 

Reference:

Introduction to Age of Lost Innocence. [Online] Available from:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma03/pricola/fsa/FSA.html

[Accessed: 08th. August 2015].