General Comments
This proved to be one of the best study visits I have attended. We visited only two exhibitions and one symposium and there was plenty of time to chat with other students and discuss what we had seen and our reactions. (The symposium followed the time set aside for this chat and there was time set aside for a further period of reflection at the end of the day). It has always been a feeling of mine, and it is certainly true in my case, that many study visits try to cram too much viewing into the time available at the cost of thinking and discussion time. At large events, such as that at Derby, there are hundreds of images to see and after a time they merge into one and I have reached saturation point. At this visit there were a limited number of images in the Asco visit and the Geoffrey Farmer exhibition was a whole series of statuary and made objects and no photographs.
The Building
The day we visited Nottingham Contemporary was its 4th Birthday and I understand that it was 3 years in the planning and building. It is without doubt a striking building that cannot be ignored not least because it is so at odds with its surroundings. I knew the area very well, my first job after leaving school (1956) was with the Royal Exchanger Assurance Company who had offices at 7 Low Pavement (now part of the Marks and Spencers store) and I sometimes spent my lunch hour exploring the area around St Mary's Church and the Shire Hall (now a museum). I also have a family connection to the Lace Market as my maternal grandmother worked for a number of years as a lacemaker both in the district and at home. The houses of the rich merchants and factory owners who made their fortune from Nottingham Lace are still in the area together with the Churches their money built. The houses are now largely Chambers for Barristers and their clerks (the Shire Hall was where the Quarter Sessions and Assizes were held prior to the creation of Crown Courts as we know them today) but retain their facades and stand in stark contrast to the modern building in their midst.
I suppose if you do not wish to create something that is sympathetic to its surroundings then it is more satisfactory to create something that makes a statement about its modernity.
Internally the same 'brutal' approach continued and whilst the space is cleverly used, and there is plenty of it, I was left with the feeling that I had wandered into some abandoned warehouse that was being squatted in by a band of artists and stallholders. For photography, where the images are framed and behind reflective glass, the lighting leaves much to be desired. There comes a point where seeing yourself as a more than ghostly image in the display becomes a nuisance and I found myself constantly shifting my position in an attempt to reduce the excessive reflections. Also the very high ceilings provide poor acoustics for specific purposes such as the guided tour where the guide's narrative is difficult to follow.
It is perhaps appropriate at this point to mention the staff - the people who man the galleries. I spent a lot of my time talking to them. Without exception they showed a considerable depth of knowledge and enthusiasm about the works being shown. They were an invaluable resource for learning about the different elements but also, because of their previous training, they were able to provide context that helped understanding.
Asco
Asco, an artist collective, was created in the early 1970's by four Mexican Americans - Harry Gamboa jr., Pattsi Valdez, Gronk and Willie F. Herron III. At this time America as a whole was being riven by the controversy about America's involvement in the Vietnam War. It was also a time of unrest and dissatisfaction with agitation by various movements seeking betterment of the lot of women, youth, ethnic groups amongst others. There were also often violent reactions including riots to police brutality and other examples of violent state control. In the case of Mexican Americans they felt that, like their black counterparts, they were, as an ethnic group, taking more than their fair share of drafting into the armed forces that was more easily avoided by white middle class Americans. All groups of protestors felt that in some way they were excluded from mainstream politics and society.
The term Asco means disgust or revulsion in Spanish and relates to the reaction of the group and others to the perceived oppressive regime they felt was suffered by the American/Mexican community. Through their photographs and actions they tried to express this disgust. At this remove, some 40 years on, it is difficult to judge whether they were successful or not in achieving their stated aims. Other photographers experiences, such as photojournalists, suggests that the answer would be No. Don McCullin whose work covers most of the major conflicts since the Second World War in the Western world came to a negative conclusion about his impact upon war and conflict. In the catalogue for the 2013 Visa Pour L'image held in Perpignan McCullin admitted his distress and weariness: he saw that ultimately his efforts and commitment had served no purpose (p96). Perhaps it is the lot of photographers, who believe that their work will help to change the world in some way, are always destined to become a footnote in the history of the world with their only claim to fame to have been the start or instigators of some movement in photography. In the handout we were given by the Gallery staff in the exhibition areas relating to the two exhibitions on show one can read the following about Asco:
"Their way of parodying pop culture (fashion, rock music, the movie industry), its gender politics and distribution strategies (public access cable tv, zines, fotonovelas) make them in retrospect, important forerunners of postmodernism and post-punk culture in general".
What of the images themselves. Again we see them through a culture some 40 years into the future from the time these images were created. They failed to involve me emotionally and I found myself applying modern day critique of the photograph as an object rather than an image that was attempting to convey a message. It was difficult to see beyond the off key colours as though the images were enlarged copies of prints that had been stored for decades with the resultant damage to the ink structure. They were in a sense unreal and not part of my world now. I had seen similar images of the unrest in America on my TV only a few hours after the event and in retrospect the sheer volume of images had inured me to their message. It had about the same impact as watching a war film at the cinema. These images had about as much impact as heroic paintings of war - they offered some insight but left no lasting impression.
Having said that there were three images that were linked to each other. The artist portrayed felt that he was being held back from creating the work that he considered was his purpose by a 'doll' that in some way prevented him from achieving his aims. In the three photographs we are offered a view of how the doll was part of his world and in the final photograph we are shown the doll in flames. He was destroying the block to his ambitions. Seen individually the photographs were simply of interest but once I understood the link they became a powerful message. Here lies the problem for all photographers who wish to convey a message - how much text should be provided to encourage the viewer to see what you want them to see. I have to confess that on first viewing I had failed to see the message and found the images puzzling. Later I was talking to one of the gallery assistants who explained the connection to me and all was revealed.
Later in the afternoon we met as a group over a cup of coffee and a common theme was the block experienced by students as they tackled specific assignments and I was reminded of the three pictures seen only a few minutes before. There was a general agreement about how difficult it was to move forward as though something was holding us back. I had never thought of it being anything other than my own reluctance to place my knowledge or lack thereof in the general domain. Certainly I had not created a 'doll' although my internal reasoning constantly sought excuses/reasons outside of myself without any 'target' for the causes. I am not too sure that setting fire to an effigy of my tutor would have helped me move on but who knows!?
Geoffrey Farmer - Let's Make the Water Turn Black
Unfortunately the exhibition, which combines artefacts, music and light to create the complete show was not working, so we were only able to see the artefacts created by Geoffrey Farmer. However it did give us a chance to see the creation without the distraction of other things going on around us. Not that we could necessarily understand the whole show but we could see the placement of things within the exhibition space. I was reminded of the Clock in the Victoria Centre in Nottingham that was designed by Ronald Searle. On the hour it comes 'alive' with wheels turning, flowers opening, and music playing. Seeing Farmer's exhibition allowed led me to imagining a workshop in the world of Searle where all the pieces are laid out before assembly so that whilst, perhaps, sense can be made of the whole, each individual piece is wrapped in its own mystery inviting the viewer to try to work out what each part does.
I could not help thinking that the creation would have benefited from allowing young children to play, unfettered, in this wonderful fantasy world.
The Symposium.
The symposium was entitled "The Poetics and Politics of Disgust". To quote from the Nottingham Contemporary website: "Through reading and discussion, four sessions led by Tracey Potts of the University of Nottingham Centre for Critical Theory address disgust within art, theory, and the social realm, bringing in references from theories of abjection to TV documentaries". Unfortunately we only attended one session and we seemed to have missed half of that session. It would seem unreasonable to draw conclusions on the whole programme from a very limited part. Hopefully other speakers were more competent than the one's we had to endure. I have to confess to two pet hates in listening to presentations - one is where the presenter simply reads, almost without taking breath, from a prepared script and the second is saying "quote"......."unquote" whenever using a quote from another person. The first speaker was guilty of both and the second was a 'reader'. The overall quality of the presentation was severely damaged by the first speaker being unable to answer a question from one of her peers and instead of stating so tried lamely to talk her way out of it finally saying that "perhaps she should have thought of it."
At the first opportunity I left the theatre as did others. However the first speaker did raise an interesting point. She showed stills from a performance art presentation where the artist had tried to forcibly feed himself hot dogs having swallowed tomato ketchup which he had also smeared onto his body together with mustard. We were told that this was a comment on the consumerist society. His 'stuffing' of his face apparently reached the point that his body was attempting to vomit the whole mess. In the presentation there was comment on the disgusting nature of what the artist was doing i.e he was being disgusting; and the reaction of the audience who were disgusted by the performance to the point of feeling the need to vomit. Apparently the artist had first presented this spectacle to a small invited audience of his friends. This proved to be so stressful that he stopped giving live performances and produced a video. We, as an audience, saw only two stills.
The question was asked whether the method of presentation affected an audience's reaction - was the disgust greater in a live performance than in a video? Certainly I was not disgusted by what I was being shown on the screen - in some ways I found the whole thing risible. The interaction between the artist and a live audience is necessarily more intense than say a video or still portrayal. We can feel as well as see the whole performance and our bodily reactions will become affected by our natural reaction of disgust at such behaviour. Further seeing and hearing someone retch and gag is likely to provoke a sympathetic reaction in ourselves.
To sit and watch a video is a common experience for most of us and modern presentations have pushed further and further the realism in what we are shown. It is not unusual now to be shown the gory details of a murder close up and even post-mortems are offered in every minute detail. We learn from this a technique, unique to ourselves, that protects us from the reality. It is though through many years of experience of watching television we have discovered a way of strengthening our ability to see as unreal anything that is shocking. Such reaction applies to even real events so that our sympathies and emotions are dulled. Any video presentation is going to suffer from this deadening of our visceral reaction.
Stills are even easier to reject as unreal and therefore containable by our emotions and empathetic reaction. The famous photograph of the young Vietnamese girl running, screaming from the pain of napalm only impacts upon us the first time we see it and then only initially because to accept the reality of what we are being shown is to risk madness because only madness can cope with insane actions.
There is much more to consider from the day but this is only likely to happen over a lengthy period of time as the lessons seen, but not necessarily understood, come up against life's experiences.
Friday, 15 November 2013
Thursday, 7 November 2013
Instinctive or Controlled?
Currently I am studying the background and work of Gregory Crewdson. What is evident is the amount of control he exercises over the content and final production of the image. This led me to thinking about whether his work is photography or something else but also where he fitted in, if at all, with our general ideas about a 'photographer'. It occurred to me that the term 'photographer' includes a wide range of individual approaches to photography and that it could be usefully considered as a normal distribution curve.
with the baseline ranging from instinctive to total control where the two end terms relate to the photographic type as judged by the work of the individual. It is important to state that the judgement relates solely on what we perceive when we examine any particular photographer's work. It would be wrong, in my view, to extrapolate from the person's work to a general statement about his/her personality type. If there is any reality in what I am proposing then the majority (approx 70%) of photographers (here I am thinking both professional and amateur photographers) lie in that area where photographs are chosen and the photographer has some control over the resulting image.
Lets first deal with the question - "Can Crewdson's work can be considered to be photography?" Of course the answer lies in how you define what is a photograph. A suitably broad answer would include everything (A photograph is a photograph because I describe it as a photograph!). Perhaps a more limiting answer, and probably more acceptable to most, would be the definition Roland Barthes provides in the book Camera Lucida. (1. Barthes R (1980) . Camera Lucida. Translated edition (2000) London Vintage). Barthes in “Camera Lucida” (p76) argues that it is not possible to deny that the subject of the photograph “has been there”. It is this unique property that is the essence (Barthes uses the term ‘noeme’ ) of Photography. He gives the noeme a name: “That has been”. It is argued that a photograph is a photograph because it shows something ‘that has been’. what we see is a photograph because all the elements within that photograph "have been". Although much of Crewdson's work can be described as created, what we see existed in front of the camera at the time the shot was taken and that what we see is a 'photograph' because all the elements "have been".
It is probably an injustice to describe the images Crewdson creates as a single frame from a movie film but in essence that is what they are. The result, although a single image, is the coming together of Crewdson's original idea, created by a specialist team and using up to 60 people with all the paraphernalia (scenery, location, and lighting etc.) of the movie set. Crewdson has almost complete control of everything except the weather conditions when shooting outside. There is a moment in the DVD Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters (I have only scene a trailer as the DVD itself is only available in the format used in the States which is not compatible with UK players) when he says to crew members - "Look at that sky. It is the best sky we have ever had". The climatic conditions are the one uncertainty in his world at the time of shooting so although he may be very close to the 'total control' end of the continuum he is not quite there. Where the set has been created and photographed in a studio then he can exercise total control but this is only part of his work.
Early photographers necessarily had to exercise a great deal of control because of the limitations of their equipment and processes. However as exposure times fell then they had greater degrees of freedom in the images that they could create. For an early example of someone who would exercise total control one has only to look at the work of Julia Margaret Cameron (1815 - 1879). She was given a camera by her daughter in 1863 when she was 48 years old and she records that the first print with which she was satisfied was taken in January 1864. In broad terms her work can be divided into two main groups - portraits and creations based on religious or literary works. In portraiture she would ask that her subjects patiently wait as she made numerous exposures that necessitated her preparing each wet plate separately. Cameron's control here lay in her almost obsessive desire to get the perfect image. For her allegorical work she exercised the same control whilst insisting on a specific pose that reflected the original work. One of her most famous images is Beatrice Cenci:
with the baseline ranging from instinctive to total control where the two end terms relate to the photographic type as judged by the work of the individual. It is important to state that the judgement relates solely on what we perceive when we examine any particular photographer's work. It would be wrong, in my view, to extrapolate from the person's work to a general statement about his/her personality type. If there is any reality in what I am proposing then the majority (approx 70%) of photographers (here I am thinking both professional and amateur photographers) lie in that area where photographs are chosen and the photographer has some control over the resulting image.
Lets first deal with the question - "Can Crewdson's work can be considered to be photography?" Of course the answer lies in how you define what is a photograph. A suitably broad answer would include everything (A photograph is a photograph because I describe it as a photograph!). Perhaps a more limiting answer, and probably more acceptable to most, would be the definition Roland Barthes provides in the book Camera Lucida. (1. Barthes R (1980) . Camera Lucida. Translated edition (2000) London Vintage). Barthes in “Camera Lucida” (p76) argues that it is not possible to deny that the subject of the photograph “has been there”. It is this unique property that is the essence (Barthes uses the term ‘noeme’ ) of Photography. He gives the noeme a name: “That has been”. It is argued that a photograph is a photograph because it shows something ‘that has been’. what we see is a photograph because all the elements within that photograph "have been". Although much of Crewdson's work can be described as created, what we see existed in front of the camera at the time the shot was taken and that what we see is a 'photograph' because all the elements "have been".
It is probably an injustice to describe the images Crewdson creates as a single frame from a movie film but in essence that is what they are. The result, although a single image, is the coming together of Crewdson's original idea, created by a specialist team and using up to 60 people with all the paraphernalia (scenery, location, and lighting etc.) of the movie set. Crewdson has almost complete control of everything except the weather conditions when shooting outside. There is a moment in the DVD Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters (I have only scene a trailer as the DVD itself is only available in the format used in the States which is not compatible with UK players) when he says to crew members - "Look at that sky. It is the best sky we have ever had". The climatic conditions are the one uncertainty in his world at the time of shooting so although he may be very close to the 'total control' end of the continuum he is not quite there. Where the set has been created and photographed in a studio then he can exercise total control but this is only part of his work.
Early photographers necessarily had to exercise a great deal of control because of the limitations of their equipment and processes. However as exposure times fell then they had greater degrees of freedom in the images that they could create. For an early example of someone who would exercise total control one has only to look at the work of Julia Margaret Cameron (1815 - 1879). She was given a camera by her daughter in 1863 when she was 48 years old and she records that the first print with which she was satisfied was taken in January 1864. In broad terms her work can be divided into two main groups - portraits and creations based on religious or literary works. In portraiture she would ask that her subjects patiently wait as she made numerous exposures that necessitated her preparing each wet plate separately. Cameron's control here lay in her almost obsessive desire to get the perfect image. For her allegorical work she exercised the same control whilst insisting on a specific pose that reflected the original work. One of her most famous images is Beatrice Cenci:
© V&A Museum
Cameron posed May Prinsep a relative of Alfred Lord Tennyson as Beatrice Cenci illustrating the story of the girl who killed her father and was subsequently executed.
A more recent example is the work of Maisie Broadhead who produces modern interpretations of old masterpieces by such artist as Vermeer and Velasquez. One example is the work shown as part of the Seduced by Art Exhibition held at the National Gallery from 31 October 2012 - 20 January 2013. The two thumbnails below are taken from the book - Hope Kingsley (2012) Seduced by Art Phtography Past and Present London National Gallery Co. Ltd that for those who were unfortunate to miss the exhibition is an invaluable resource.
The top image is by Simon Vouet entitled "An allegory of Wealth (La Richesse)" about 1635. Oil on Canvas 170 x 124cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The lower image is by Maisie Broadhead "Keep them sweet" 2010 Digital C Print 145 x 106.5cm Represented by Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London.
All aspects of the photograph were under the control of Ms Broadhead although I say this with some doubt having recently spent an afternoon photographing young children who were a little bit older than the two in the image!! Perhaps it would be unfair to place Broadhead at the far right of the baseline.
At the same exhibition was an image by Jeff Wall ("The Destroyed Room" 1978 printed 1987 Cibachrome transparency in fluorescent Lightbox 158.8 x 229cm National Gallery of Canada Ottawa that was inspired by Delacroix,s "The Death of Sardanapalus"). Wall has stated ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yG2k4C4zrU) that he sees but does not photograph until he has re-created what he saw in the Studio. Presumably he is in a very similar position to the painter who is at liberty, when painting, to move the relative positions of the various elements to create a more idealistic scene. I would suggest here that Wall can assert complete control over all aspects of the shoot and therefore can be placed on the far right of the baseline.
Where then do we find phtographs at the 'instinctive' side of the distribution. Three examples that came to mind were war photographers, street photographers and wildlife photographers. In both situations the photographer is faced with a multiplicity of opportunities that may vary only slightly from all that surrounds the 'best' image. The greats of the trade instinctively (without conscious thought) take the right one. The instinct is probably a combination of training and experience, 'something' tells him/her that this is the shot, but the reaction is instant and defies rational thought. Some have the question mark as to whether the photographer was just lucky, as in the following shot
entitled South Vietnam National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoe Loan executes a suspected Viet Cong member 1968. Taken by Eddie Adams it is a Silver Print and is ©World Press Photo/The Associated Press New York. Yet it can be argued that Adams experience told him that something dramatic was about to happen so the shot was taken.
Wildlife photographers spend many years learning and assimilating the movements of the wildlife they photograph. In this image Michael Nichols working for the National Geographic Magazine catches the magic moment between these two Serengeti lions.
Again I would argue that the many years of experience led to an awareness that created the opportunity for the image.
The next image is a mix of conflict and street photography Don McCullin took the image in Londonderry Northern Ireland in 1971 and shows the moment British soldiers commit themselves to 'battle'.
McCullin's instincts have been honed over years of being in the middle of conflict.
Are there lessons to be learnt from such an analysis of types of photographer? Probably only at the individual level for only the individual can decide what sort of personality he brings to his/her photography. It may help someone to decide what type of photography they are best suited for so that they can direct their learning and gain experience in the type that best suits them and in which they will be most comfortable.
Monday, 4 November 2013
Agreement with Tutor
Have reached agreement with my Tutor on the 'contract' for this Course. I can now proceed to plan ahead on the main topics of photography which are - Portraiture (formal and informal); the changing built environment; the abstract image; and landscape/seascapes of East Anglia. In addition there will be a Critical Studies element for each of these assignments. The fifth assignment will be a critical review of a relevant photographer. Assignment 6 will be the submission of the final project together with a self assessment of how I feel that the final result matches up to the original proposal. Throughout the whole process there will be the need to write a learning log ( in my case a blog) which will include not only a proposed plan of work to achieve the requirements of each assignment but also a discussion/description of what actually happened on the way.
Sunday, 13 October 2013
Why Monochromatic?
It has been suggested that I should think about why I have decided to concentrate solely on black and white images for this, the last , of my Courses as I work towards obtaining sufficient credits to apply for my degree. I have long been of the opinion that human beings are rarely the organised thinkers that we say we are and that much of our decisions are based on largely irrational thought processes that we then rationalise to ourselves before presenting them to the world. If this be true then what follows is, hopefully, the rational explanation of why I came to the decision that I did which, in reality, was a combination of conscious thinking and unconscious wishes and desires.
As a child all the photographs that I saw were black and white including those in newspapers such as the Picture Post. When I began to take photographs I used black and white film because colour film was difficult to obtain and was seen to be expensive. As I became more serious about my photography I continued to produce black and white images although I did dabble in colour photography on occasion but it remained something of only mild interest, largely because I developed my own images in my darkroom and black and white images seemed to be easier to obtain an acceptable finish. I don't claim this to be true just that that is how I felt. In simple terms I enjoyed black and white photography and I have little doubt that my memories of those times was a significant part in my decision about what I wanted to do in Advanced Photography. We are a product of our experiences and we tend to follow those memories of happy times when making choices.
More recent influences was being a member of a number of Photographic Societies and seeing work by other members whose primary output was monochromatic. Some of the work was quite exceptional and I often felt that I would like to produce work of a similar standard although at the time I worked almost completely in colour. It is difficult to put into words a personal reaction to any image that grabs your attention. I am drawn by the apparent simplicity of the image that belies the complex interaction between the range of tones across the image which produce the final picture. There is a clarity about the 'message' that one does not always see in colour images where the blocks of colour compete for our attention and the message is not always clear. In a monochromatic image we are drawn into a world that is familiar and yet strange because, in presenting our world as black and white, there is a conflict with the world of colour that is our everyday experience. We are invited to think about what we see.
When I am visiting a Gallery or an exhibition I am conscious that I will spend more time looking at a black and white photograph than a colour unless the latter is exceptional. When visiting the National Portrait Gallery recently I found greater enjoyment in the many monochromatic portraits than those in colour. There is a drama about a black and white portrait that is almost impossible to capture in colour without the very real risk of it seeming unreal. Again this is a product of background rather than specific based learning.
As I consciously thought about what I wanted to do for Advanced Photography I knew that I wanted to use the experience of the Course to broaden my knowledge of photography further. I also needed the challenge of doing something where my experience was limited. I was also aware that black and white photography had 'lost out' to colour as the dominant element in major and minor exhibitions throughout the World but that there was a groundswell of opinion for its return as evidenced by the decision of the Arles Festival 2013 to devote a large amount of exhibition space to monochromatic images. I felt the need to understand why; not only why the return to acceptability but also what is was in contemporary photography that was contributing to its wider acceptance.
In summary I am a product of my past and in making decisions my past has a strong influence on the final decision. Combine this with my need to face another challenge that was demanding of my time and skills the decision was probably inevitable.
As a child all the photographs that I saw were black and white including those in newspapers such as the Picture Post. When I began to take photographs I used black and white film because colour film was difficult to obtain and was seen to be expensive. As I became more serious about my photography I continued to produce black and white images although I did dabble in colour photography on occasion but it remained something of only mild interest, largely because I developed my own images in my darkroom and black and white images seemed to be easier to obtain an acceptable finish. I don't claim this to be true just that that is how I felt. In simple terms I enjoyed black and white photography and I have little doubt that my memories of those times was a significant part in my decision about what I wanted to do in Advanced Photography. We are a product of our experiences and we tend to follow those memories of happy times when making choices.
More recent influences was being a member of a number of Photographic Societies and seeing work by other members whose primary output was monochromatic. Some of the work was quite exceptional and I often felt that I would like to produce work of a similar standard although at the time I worked almost completely in colour. It is difficult to put into words a personal reaction to any image that grabs your attention. I am drawn by the apparent simplicity of the image that belies the complex interaction between the range of tones across the image which produce the final picture. There is a clarity about the 'message' that one does not always see in colour images where the blocks of colour compete for our attention and the message is not always clear. In a monochromatic image we are drawn into a world that is familiar and yet strange because, in presenting our world as black and white, there is a conflict with the world of colour that is our everyday experience. We are invited to think about what we see.
When I am visiting a Gallery or an exhibition I am conscious that I will spend more time looking at a black and white photograph than a colour unless the latter is exceptional. When visiting the National Portrait Gallery recently I found greater enjoyment in the many monochromatic portraits than those in colour. There is a drama about a black and white portrait that is almost impossible to capture in colour without the very real risk of it seeming unreal. Again this is a product of background rather than specific based learning.
As I consciously thought about what I wanted to do for Advanced Photography I knew that I wanted to use the experience of the Course to broaden my knowledge of photography further. I also needed the challenge of doing something where my experience was limited. I was also aware that black and white photography had 'lost out' to colour as the dominant element in major and minor exhibitions throughout the World but that there was a groundswell of opinion for its return as evidenced by the decision of the Arles Festival 2013 to devote a large amount of exhibition space to monochromatic images. I felt the need to understand why; not only why the return to acceptability but also what is was in contemporary photography that was contributing to its wider acceptance.
In summary I am a product of my past and in making decisions my past has a strong influence on the final decision. Combine this with my need to face another challenge that was demanding of my time and skills the decision was probably inevitable.
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
Antoine Gonin - Arles Festival 2013
Gonin's exhibition is from his series entitled "Empreinte". I have chosen it to comment on because I don't really understand it. I found the following on his web-site www.antoinegonin.com that offers an explanation.
"His “Empreinte’ series marks the coming together of his landscape work. Free of any documentary-like intention, it lends itself freely to a hallmark of a much more personal nature, and is host to many abstract, graphical and poetic compositions which together reveal the mark that human activity has left on nature. Thus, his pictures are at once the imprint of how man has modified the landscape, and the singular nature of his regard."
One image in the series is titled "Oregon 1 United States 2012". At first sight it is a black and white image of white lines of varying curvature against a black background. There is no discernible pattern nor structure to the white lines and it was only when I applied the knowledge that this was a landscape image that I came to the conclusion that the lines are traces of wheel tracks across a field. At this point I found my previous knowledge kicking in as I found that I wanted to know how big the field (or part of a field) was that I was looking at. I was trying to make sense of what I saw by fitting the image into a framework that I understood. I find that this is my usual reaction to abstract work. Rather than seeing it for itself I want to impose my world onto the image.
In his book "Camera Lucida" p7 (Barthes Roland (1980) Translation edition (2000) London Vintage) Roland Barthes writes of his desire to be "a primitive, without culture" when trying to discover the essence of the Photograph. When looking at a photograph our culture, our prior knowledge, acts as a filter between our 'looking' and our 'seeing'. This is what happens with all photographs but for me and probably others when what we are looking at does not fit into any previous known structure we try to force it into a known framework. By becoming a 'primitive' we have no prior knowledge, no culture so that we see the image as itself. In practice this is very difficult if not impossible because our culture provides us with a language that not only allows us to think about the image but also to explain it to others. Is it possible to understand without language? If I talk to an expert about this image and ask him what he 'sees' he can only communicate with me in a common language that is a product of our common culture.
I say earlier in the blog that the quotation from his web site "offers an explanation". I doubt if it does.
"His “Empreinte’ series marks the coming together of his landscape work. Free of any documentary-like intention, it lends itself freely to a hallmark of a much more personal nature, and is host to many abstract, graphical and poetic compositions which together reveal the mark that human activity has left on nature. Thus, his pictures are at once the imprint of how man has modified the landscape, and the singular nature of his regard."
One image in the series is titled "Oregon 1 United States 2012". At first sight it is a black and white image of white lines of varying curvature against a black background. There is no discernible pattern nor structure to the white lines and it was only when I applied the knowledge that this was a landscape image that I came to the conclusion that the lines are traces of wheel tracks across a field. At this point I found my previous knowledge kicking in as I found that I wanted to know how big the field (or part of a field) was that I was looking at. I was trying to make sense of what I saw by fitting the image into a framework that I understood. I find that this is my usual reaction to abstract work. Rather than seeing it for itself I want to impose my world onto the image.
In his book "Camera Lucida" p7 (Barthes Roland (1980) Translation edition (2000) London Vintage) Roland Barthes writes of his desire to be "a primitive, without culture" when trying to discover the essence of the Photograph. When looking at a photograph our culture, our prior knowledge, acts as a filter between our 'looking' and our 'seeing'. This is what happens with all photographs but for me and probably others when what we are looking at does not fit into any previous known structure we try to force it into a known framework. By becoming a 'primitive' we have no prior knowledge, no culture so that we see the image as itself. In practice this is very difficult if not impossible because our culture provides us with a language that not only allows us to think about the image but also to explain it to others. Is it possible to understand without language? If I talk to an expert about this image and ask him what he 'sees' he can only communicate with me in a common language that is a product of our common culture.
I say earlier in the blog that the quotation from his web site "offers an explanation". I doubt if it does.
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Gilbert Garcin - Arles Festival 2013
I do not remember having seen any of Garcin's work before so it was something of a shock to come across his work at the Arles Festival. As far as I am aware his approach is unique and certainly is set apart by him using himself as the main character in a series of montages that make a statement about his take on life. He describes the individual works as 'small philosophies'. It is well worth visiting his web site at www.gilbert-garcin.com where you can see virtually all of his work. It is impressive.
Although I comment on three of the works in this blog the choice was difficult. Whilst there is a unifying theme (Garcin) throughout his work each is unique in its own way. The first image I wish to say something about is 'When the Wind will come 2007'. It is a simple montage having two elements - a dandelion 'clock' and Garcin. The 'clock' is about three times the size of Garcin with the seed head about one and a half times his size. A seed has fallen to the floor and Garcin is looking at it. The photograph is cleverly lit with the 'clock' brightly lit as is the seed on the floor. Garcin is lit from the side so half is in shadow. It is the lighting that, for me, creates the biggest impact as it draws the viewer's attention to the subject matter. We, the viewer, are left with the task of deciding the point of the picture as the title is enigmatic and we are given few if any clues as to what Garcin is thinking. In many of his images Garcin is actively doing something that seems to have relevance to what we see (the image) and what we are told (the title) but here he is stationary.
My second choice is 'The Decisive Choice 2006'. In this image Garcin is walking carrying a suitcase, head down looking at the road in front of him. The road enters the picture to the bottom right. A couple of paces from him the road divides with one part steeply rising to disappear at the top left hand corner of the image. The other part curves and then dives down with a slight twist leaving the image at the bottom left hand corner. In this image we have two 'no-no's' of composition. Both parts of the road take the viewer's eye out of the image. We cannot argue that they take us into the picture because the figure is walking to the left so that this too should lead our eye out of the image. Yet this does not happen and one has to ask why? I would suggest that this is because we go back to see if there is anything that tells us what the decision made by the figure will be. i.e. which path is he going to follow? We are captured within the image because at the time we see the image the choice has yet to be made. Far from being a compositional error there is an increase in tension because of the unresolved future of what we see - it is brilliant.
My third choice is 'Driven ambition 2003'. In this image the action takes place in the bottom third of the image. We have two human figures. The first is female and who is standing on the first on the left of seven blocks that go across the image the gap between each block increasing as we move to the right. The second figure, Garcin, has jumped from the second block and is about to land on the third block. His position seems precarious and the viewer wonders whether he will land successfully or fail in his ambition at this early stage. Again the tension in the image is created by the unresolved crisis as Garcin teeters on the brink of disaster.
In the first image an air of uncertainty is created by the relative sizes of the main participants. There is uncertainty in the next two but by including unresolved elements Garcin increases the sense of tension for the viewer. Both are very clever use of understated clues within the image and require a level of understanding of these clues from the viewer.
Although I comment on three of the works in this blog the choice was difficult. Whilst there is a unifying theme (Garcin) throughout his work each is unique in its own way. The first image I wish to say something about is 'When the Wind will come 2007'. It is a simple montage having two elements - a dandelion 'clock' and Garcin. The 'clock' is about three times the size of Garcin with the seed head about one and a half times his size. A seed has fallen to the floor and Garcin is looking at it. The photograph is cleverly lit with the 'clock' brightly lit as is the seed on the floor. Garcin is lit from the side so half is in shadow. It is the lighting that, for me, creates the biggest impact as it draws the viewer's attention to the subject matter. We, the viewer, are left with the task of deciding the point of the picture as the title is enigmatic and we are given few if any clues as to what Garcin is thinking. In many of his images Garcin is actively doing something that seems to have relevance to what we see (the image) and what we are told (the title) but here he is stationary.
My second choice is 'The Decisive Choice 2006'. In this image Garcin is walking carrying a suitcase, head down looking at the road in front of him. The road enters the picture to the bottom right. A couple of paces from him the road divides with one part steeply rising to disappear at the top left hand corner of the image. The other part curves and then dives down with a slight twist leaving the image at the bottom left hand corner. In this image we have two 'no-no's' of composition. Both parts of the road take the viewer's eye out of the image. We cannot argue that they take us into the picture because the figure is walking to the left so that this too should lead our eye out of the image. Yet this does not happen and one has to ask why? I would suggest that this is because we go back to see if there is anything that tells us what the decision made by the figure will be. i.e. which path is he going to follow? We are captured within the image because at the time we see the image the choice has yet to be made. Far from being a compositional error there is an increase in tension because of the unresolved future of what we see - it is brilliant.
My third choice is 'Driven ambition 2003'. In this image the action takes place in the bottom third of the image. We have two human figures. The first is female and who is standing on the first on the left of seven blocks that go across the image the gap between each block increasing as we move to the right. The second figure, Garcin, has jumped from the second block and is about to land on the third block. His position seems precarious and the viewer wonders whether he will land successfully or fail in his ambition at this early stage. Again the tension in the image is created by the unresolved crisis as Garcin teeters on the brink of disaster.
In the first image an air of uncertainty is created by the relative sizes of the main participants. There is uncertainty in the next two but by including unresolved elements Garcin increases the sense of tension for the viewer. Both are very clever use of understated clues within the image and require a level of understanding of these clues from the viewer.
Sergio Larrain - Arles Festival 2013
Born 1931 in Santiago, Chile, Larrain took up photography following a family visit to Europe and the Middle East. He lived in London in the late 1950's for a year and in 1960 joined Magnum Photos carrying out a number of commissions for the Agency. He returned to his home Country in 1963 settling in and photographing extensively Valparaiso where in collaboration with the poet Pablo Peruda he produced an extensive photographic essay. This work was eventually published on the occasion of his work being shown at the Rencontres d'Arles in 1991. The exhibition at Arles in 2013 is a retrospective of his work . He died in Chile in 2012.
My overall impression was one of the simplicity, almost naiveté, of the images as though Larrain had grabbed at his camera and taken the shots almost on instinct. Some have parts of the image that are out of focus and yet this lack of focus adds to the effect of the image rather than detracting from it. Despite the perceived simplicity there is a sense of strength almost power that grabs your attention. You find yourself being drawn into the image either because of the angle from which it was taken or because you feel the need to explore the detail - to try to make sense of what you see before you. Here was a man who clearly understood the conventions of photography but who was secure in his own beliefs to do what he wanted.
'Passage Bavestrello, Valparaiso, Chile 1952 is an image that at first glance is simply of two young girls walking through a passage. The strength of the image lies in the position of the two girls drawing the eye into the picture. The young girl in the foreground is in shadow and slightly out of focus and detail is unclear. There arises in the mind of the viewer why is she carrying the bottle in her left hand and what does it contain? The second girl is in the sunlight and although she has her back towards us we feel that we can 'know' more about her. The much sharper definition of her image makes her the focal point. Both girls are walking away from the camera which adds to the interest.
The rest of the image is a combination of light and dark with the shadows having, in the main, sharp edges indicating the 'brutality' of the architecture. It does not give the sense of being somewhere where one would feel comfortable. Yet the shapes created by the shadows add significantly to the whole effect.
The second image that particularly caught my attention was 'Chiloe Island Chile 1957'. My interest was aroused because almost two-thirds of the image is black with no detail at all. The rest of the image is difficult to interpret in terms of what the viewer is seeing. What can be seen is three young children apparently asleep on some sort of platform/shelf/table. Of the child on the left we can see most of the lower part of his body from the back; the second child appears to be squatting but again we can only see the lower part of his body apart from his right arm and hand but my interest was piqued because he is in the process of picking up (or possibly putting down) some object; the third child is again seen from the back and we see his bare feet and his posterior. All three are bare footed and that, together with the quality of the clothing that we see, suggests considerable poverty. There is a sense of complete exhaustion in the position of the three and I found the whole image disturbing and challenging.
The tonal values across the image are well represented and the quality of the image is such that one feels that one could feel the texture of the clothing. It was an image that stayed with me.
The third and final image that I have chosen from those that I saw is 'Bar, Valparaiso Chile, 1963'. It is so different from the other two both in terms of subject matter but also in the quality of the image. What we see is a young lady facing the camera although looking to the photographers left with a half smile on her face looking somewhat wistful/thoughtful. Her hands are clasped tightly in front of her suggesting tension and a certain level of discomfort; although what is the cause of this discomfort is less than clear. The other two main elements of the image are three crates of 'Limon' Soda and a head and shoulders shot of a man in profile. What is surprising is that most of the elements of the image are out of focus to varying degrees as though the image was 'snatched' quickly. This probability is also suggested by the very poor overall lighting with ugly shadows distorting the woman's face.
His work raised the question for me - Why do we adhere to the 'established rules' of photography when breaching the conventions leads to challenging and exciting work? I have heard often the statement that we cannot break the rules until we fully understand their purpose but at what point does this happen - if ever. Not the understanding but the acceptance by others that doing your own thing is not only healthy but part of 'growing up.
My overall impression was one of the simplicity, almost naiveté, of the images as though Larrain had grabbed at his camera and taken the shots almost on instinct. Some have parts of the image that are out of focus and yet this lack of focus adds to the effect of the image rather than detracting from it. Despite the perceived simplicity there is a sense of strength almost power that grabs your attention. You find yourself being drawn into the image either because of the angle from which it was taken or because you feel the need to explore the detail - to try to make sense of what you see before you. Here was a man who clearly understood the conventions of photography but who was secure in his own beliefs to do what he wanted.
'Passage Bavestrello, Valparaiso, Chile 1952 is an image that at first glance is simply of two young girls walking through a passage. The strength of the image lies in the position of the two girls drawing the eye into the picture. The young girl in the foreground is in shadow and slightly out of focus and detail is unclear. There arises in the mind of the viewer why is she carrying the bottle in her left hand and what does it contain? The second girl is in the sunlight and although she has her back towards us we feel that we can 'know' more about her. The much sharper definition of her image makes her the focal point. Both girls are walking away from the camera which adds to the interest.
The rest of the image is a combination of light and dark with the shadows having, in the main, sharp edges indicating the 'brutality' of the architecture. It does not give the sense of being somewhere where one would feel comfortable. Yet the shapes created by the shadows add significantly to the whole effect.
The second image that particularly caught my attention was 'Chiloe Island Chile 1957'. My interest was aroused because almost two-thirds of the image is black with no detail at all. The rest of the image is difficult to interpret in terms of what the viewer is seeing. What can be seen is three young children apparently asleep on some sort of platform/shelf/table. Of the child on the left we can see most of the lower part of his body from the back; the second child appears to be squatting but again we can only see the lower part of his body apart from his right arm and hand but my interest was piqued because he is in the process of picking up (or possibly putting down) some object; the third child is again seen from the back and we see his bare feet and his posterior. All three are bare footed and that, together with the quality of the clothing that we see, suggests considerable poverty. There is a sense of complete exhaustion in the position of the three and I found the whole image disturbing and challenging.
The tonal values across the image are well represented and the quality of the image is such that one feels that one could feel the texture of the clothing. It was an image that stayed with me.
The third and final image that I have chosen from those that I saw is 'Bar, Valparaiso Chile, 1963'. It is so different from the other two both in terms of subject matter but also in the quality of the image. What we see is a young lady facing the camera although looking to the photographers left with a half smile on her face looking somewhat wistful/thoughtful. Her hands are clasped tightly in front of her suggesting tension and a certain level of discomfort; although what is the cause of this discomfort is less than clear. The other two main elements of the image are three crates of 'Limon' Soda and a head and shoulders shot of a man in profile. What is surprising is that most of the elements of the image are out of focus to varying degrees as though the image was 'snatched' quickly. This probability is also suggested by the very poor overall lighting with ugly shadows distorting the woman's face.
His work raised the question for me - Why do we adhere to the 'established rules' of photography when breaching the conventions leads to challenging and exciting work? I have heard often the statement that we cannot break the rules until we fully understand their purpose but at what point does this happen - if ever. Not the understanding but the acceptance by others that doing your own thing is not only healthy but part of 'growing up.
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
Visa Pour L'Image 25th International Festival of Photojournalism - Perpignan September 2013
Was fortunate to be able to visit this exhibition which was on from August 31 - September 15th 2013 in Perpignan. I was in the South West of France for the Arles exhibition (see previous Blog) and Perpignan was within reasonable travelling distance. I was really glad that I went. It is perhaps unfair to compare Photographic Festivals with different aims but the difference between the Perpignan Festival and the Arles Festival was so great that it was difficult not to be aware how much better organised and presented was the Perpignan material. This may have something to do with the personality of the Director - Jean-Francois Leroy. In the Festival Catalogue ( VISA POUR L'IMAGE PERPIGNAN 2013. Snoeck 2013. pp 6 -35. see also http://www.visapourlimage.com/news/5907.do) there is a record of a conversation between Leroy and two Journalists. The conversation provides a wealth of information about the history of photojournalism and the changes that have occurred over the period of the Festival and is worth reading for that alone. The section that points up the value of a strong personality in charge reads:
Q: You've drawn criticism over the past 25 years, and one charge is that you're an ayatollah in the photo business. Do you want to talk about that?
A: I was nicknamed "Ayatollah" who called me "the ayatollah of pictures with meaning". I'm sorry, but I took that as a compliment. Okay, I can speak out, speak up, and loud. Yes, I have said things, and afterwards wished that I hadn't, lots of things.
I will comment on individual photographers and their work in separate blogs but given the many thousands of students studying for a degree in Photography and dreaming of a career in that field I found the following comments in the hand-out leaflet for the Festival sobering. When the Festival began magazines "offered assignments to produce their own reports, agencies were flourishing, talented photographers worked happily and good humoredly, with proper payment for their work..... that was another era, a different world, a time now past. Today, while some magazines still produce reports, there are fewer and fewer of them, and budgets are getting smaller an d smaller. Many agencies have disappeared or, even worse are but a mere shadow of their former selves. What about photographers who make a decent living from their work? There must be only a couple of dozen at the very most." It continues : ........ there have never been so many people aspiring to be photographers...It is easy to achieve technical proficiency, but it is quite different when it comes to being a proper journalist. Not everyone can tell a story as it is.....what news story do you want to tell? Where did it happen? When? Who are the people in the pictures?"
Q: You've drawn criticism over the past 25 years, and one charge is that you're an ayatollah in the photo business. Do you want to talk about that?
A: I was nicknamed "Ayatollah" who called me "the ayatollah of pictures with meaning". I'm sorry, but I took that as a compliment. Okay, I can speak out, speak up, and loud. Yes, I have said things, and afterwards wished that I hadn't, lots of things.
I will comment on individual photographers and their work in separate blogs but given the many thousands of students studying for a degree in Photography and dreaming of a career in that field I found the following comments in the hand-out leaflet for the Festival sobering. When the Festival began magazines "offered assignments to produce their own reports, agencies were flourishing, talented photographers worked happily and good humoredly, with proper payment for their work..... that was another era, a different world, a time now past. Today, while some magazines still produce reports, there are fewer and fewer of them, and budgets are getting smaller an d smaller. Many agencies have disappeared or, even worse are but a mere shadow of their former selves. What about photographers who make a decent living from their work? There must be only a couple of dozen at the very most." It continues : ........ there have never been so many people aspiring to be photographers...It is easy to achieve technical proficiency, but it is quite different when it comes to being a proper journalist. Not everyone can tell a story as it is.....what news story do you want to tell? Where did it happen? When? Who are the people in the pictures?"
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Arles - an exhibition in crisis?i
I visited the Arles' photographic exhibition - "Les Rencontres ARLES Photography - Arles in Black" on 9th and 11th September 2013. I came away, particularly on the first day, with a sense of something being not quite right. It was difficult to pinpoint the reason although I did realise that I had made the journey with high expectations and, perhaps not surprisingly, these had not been met. I have decided to direct my efforts in Photography3 - Advanced Photography to Fine Art Black and White Photography and the Arles exhibition promised, at least on paper, to provide an opportunity to see some of the very best of this type of work. Were my expectations reasonable? They had been built on the remarks of the Director of Rencontres d'Arles who writes (Exhibition Catalogue "Les Rencontres ARLES - Arles in Black". Verona June 2013. p. 12. English Edition)
I suppose the key paragraph in this selective quote is the third one. Who could not fail to be excited by such a prospect? Whose expectations could not be raised by such promises? Unfortunately the reality was far from the promise. There were very few "genuine pearls"; there were "discoveries" but whether they were worth the effort of making the discovery remains open to question; and "treasures from the past" seems to be the opportunity to present material that in some cases dated back to the 1930's. How these help to understand where black and white photography is today or where it may be in the future was not immediately evident. [I would like to stress that many of the images presented as "treasures of the past" were very good or even better but I would suggest that they were not representative of where black and white photography is today indeed how could they be. Certainly they could have been a significant part of a black and white programme of twenty years ago.]
Perhaps I should have taken more notice of the final part of that paragraph "....it goes without saying, a few exceptions in colour". It depends what is meant by "a few". Of the 28 photographers exhibited in the main sections of 'Them'; 'Myself'; 'There"; and 'Album', 15 of them (I have unfairly lumped together the 12 photographers who were responsible for the 'Transition' images all bar one in colour) offered black and white images or monochrome whilst the remainder, 13, offered colour images. Hardly what one would call a few. Arles was far from black.
Even this did not fully explain my feeling of unease. The more I thought about what I was experiencing the more I came to realise that there was something Kafkaesque about the whole show. On the surface all seemed well but to the jaundiced eye it was all a facade that attempted to hide that part of the show that was far from that advertised. Too many images failed to live up to their star rating and the whole was less than its parts. Poor lighting where most images suffered from reflection and glare suggested lack of attention to those small details that can make or break a photographic exhibition. Oddly the buildings in which the exhibitions were held were, for me, the hit of the show and I spent almost as much time exploring their charm as I did looking at the photographs.
Why do I feel that Arles is in crisis? There are all the signs of an organisation that is overly bureaucratic and that there are a number of factions that fail to work together. One has only to look at pages 58 & 59 to realise what a very big organisation it has become. None of this bodes well for the future where the need is for a strong CEO who has a minimum number of staff to carry out the task and who has total control over everything. Democracy is not the best way to achieve a great exhibition.
"It may seem paradoxical that, in the spirit of discovery, the Rencontres d'Arles proposes a radically black and white vista in 2013.........
What place does black and white photography still hold today? Realism or fiction, poetry, abstraction or pure nostalgia?
By deciding to radically dedicate the 2013 edition to this aesthetic form, genuine pearls are offered to us: discoveries of course, but also works by renowned artists that have never been shown until now, along with treasures from the past. Many of these exhibitions are genuine events, in the form of conceptual installations, classic prints and, it goes without saying, a few exceptions in colour.
Those who've known the period when greys reigned supreme will see that the freedom of genres, often advocated in Arles, allows a black and white programme that is different from what it would have been twenty years ago....."
I suppose the key paragraph in this selective quote is the third one. Who could not fail to be excited by such a prospect? Whose expectations could not be raised by such promises? Unfortunately the reality was far from the promise. There were very few "genuine pearls"; there were "discoveries" but whether they were worth the effort of making the discovery remains open to question; and "treasures from the past" seems to be the opportunity to present material that in some cases dated back to the 1930's. How these help to understand where black and white photography is today or where it may be in the future was not immediately evident. [I would like to stress that many of the images presented as "treasures of the past" were very good or even better but I would suggest that they were not representative of where black and white photography is today indeed how could they be. Certainly they could have been a significant part of a black and white programme of twenty years ago.]
Perhaps I should have taken more notice of the final part of that paragraph "....it goes without saying, a few exceptions in colour". It depends what is meant by "a few". Of the 28 photographers exhibited in the main sections of 'Them'; 'Myself'; 'There"; and 'Album', 15 of them (I have unfairly lumped together the 12 photographers who were responsible for the 'Transition' images all bar one in colour) offered black and white images or monochrome whilst the remainder, 13, offered colour images. Hardly what one would call a few. Arles was far from black.
Even this did not fully explain my feeling of unease. The more I thought about what I was experiencing the more I came to realise that there was something Kafkaesque about the whole show. On the surface all seemed well but to the jaundiced eye it was all a facade that attempted to hide that part of the show that was far from that advertised. Too many images failed to live up to their star rating and the whole was less than its parts. Poor lighting where most images suffered from reflection and glare suggested lack of attention to those small details that can make or break a photographic exhibition. Oddly the buildings in which the exhibitions were held were, for me, the hit of the show and I spent almost as much time exploring their charm as I did looking at the photographs.
Why do I feel that Arles is in crisis? There are all the signs of an organisation that is overly bureaucratic and that there are a number of factions that fail to work together. One has only to look at pages 58 & 59 to realise what a very big organisation it has become. None of this bodes well for the future where the need is for a strong CEO who has a minimum number of staff to carry out the task and who has total control over everything. Democracy is not the best way to achieve a great exhibition.
Thursday, 22 August 2013
We are on our way
Gathered all the necessary material for the preliminary work and will post it off to my tutor.
The Course material was a surprise but at least there is a sense that I am going to be seen as a 3rd level student and that much more is left to myself both in the approach and subject matter. I am hoping to pursue a project centred around Fine Art Monochrome Photography but feel I need to establish in my own mind what is meant by the term Fine Art. I have therefore proposed to my tutor that I complete my critical review as my first 'assignment' as this should provide me with the necessary information.
I am also hoping that I will not have to go for a particular genre of photography at the beginning so that I can experiment with a number of genres to see which works best. It is important that I use this early phase not only to tackle those areas that I am comfortable with but also those that I tend to shy away from. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to explore more adventurous photography combining a number of styles within one image.
The Course material was a surprise but at least there is a sense that I am going to be seen as a 3rd level student and that much more is left to myself both in the approach and subject matter. I am hoping to pursue a project centred around Fine Art Monochrome Photography but feel I need to establish in my own mind what is meant by the term Fine Art. I have therefore proposed to my tutor that I complete my critical review as my first 'assignment' as this should provide me with the necessary information.
I am also hoping that I will not have to go for a particular genre of photography at the beginning so that I can experiment with a number of genres to see which works best. It is important that I use this early phase not only to tackle those areas that I am comfortable with but also those that I tend to shy away from. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to explore more adventurous photography combining a number of styles within one image.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)