After finishing his one year internship at Magnum Photos, Bendiskon travelled to Russia in an attempt to pursue a career as a photographer. At this point the USSR had only been abolished as little of 10 years before and the people of Russia were starting to adjust to life away from Communism after over 70 years. Bendiksen decided to photograph different parts of Russia, documenting this tranisition, aswell as remaining traces of the previously exisiting USSR.
Narrative
Bendiksen begins the narrative with eerie images of the Russian landscape, and silhouette styled portraits of unaware subjects. Straight away within the story the viewer is immediately connected to the theme of loneliness and isolation. Arguably this connects to the context of the narrative, being the documentation of how Russia is adjusting to lfe outside of communism. These types of image are a metaphor for the Russian people’s sense of insecurity and search for a new identity in a time of great social change. The opening images also show Russia in a very glim perspective: showing dark, depressing and cold scenes.
Throughout the narrative, subtle hints to traces of Russia’s Communist past are present. Relative to Bendisken’s poetic style, these hints are very covert. The references to communism, for example the image which include framed photographs of Lenin and Marx, help to build up the context of the story, allowing the viewer to develop a degree of understanding and empathy for the communities he photographs.
As the story progresses, Bendisken photos begin to reveal more about the communities. He starts to include images moving away from a candid style, progressing onto more formal portrait style, in which he engages and interacts which the subjects more. Also Bendkisen begins to include images of the communities engaging in events and activities, such as dancing, hunting and military training. The images gradually become more revealing about the people and the communities in contrast to the initial sense of mystery.
The images are all connected through the theme of community. Oppose to photographing individuals, large masses of people or families, Bendiksen has based the series on photographing small communities throughout Russia. One community in particular that Bendiksen has photographed is a community of Satellite collectors; people who make a living out of selling scrap metal from fallen satellite ships and rockets from the Cold War. The inclusion of this story I find works very well because it links the theme of past and present: the fallen satellites are metaphorically a trace of Russia’s communist past, and the community of collectors symbolise how Russia is moving on from this past, whilst remembering it at the same time.
The viewer is drawn to be empathetic towards the communities. The communities are shown in a very respectable light, seen as honourable for carry on with great optimism and positivity despite the uncertain political and economic times. The series champions the Russian people as brave and resilient, holding on to their patriotic, cultural identity in a forever changing world. Community in Russia is also shown to be fragile and Bendisken documents this vulnerability through the dark and reflective moods he establishes in some of his images, especially early on.
Style of Photographs
Bendiksen’s unusual style of photographing is apparent throughout the book. His style is very photojournalist and he makes little attempt to interfere with the frame, allowing for a spontaneous and natural flow to emerge through the images. The role of a photojournalist is to document the world from an objective, distant perspective. This sense of distant and separation from his subjects is clearly shown. Bendkisen’s photos are very mysterious, often images of lone, unobserved subjects. As a result, the mood established in ‘Satellites’ is very chilling and dark, reflectingg the grim, barren landscape of Russia. I find Bendiksen’s style to be very subtle and poetic in meaning. In contrast to photographers such as Richard Billigham and Bruce Gilden, who shoot images which are deliberately upfront, snap-shot styles with bold composition: Bendisken has a much more observed and laid back approach. Carefully considered, well balanced composition is key to Bendiksen’s work.
What I find effective about Bendisken’s work in ‘Satellites’ is the way that he is able to balance technical composition with subjective aspects of mood. Bendiksen’s photos still have a structure composition whilst incorporating an natural mood, sometimes photographing in midst and darkness. It is this naturalness, along with visually well executed photographs which enable Bendisken to effectively tell his story in the careful, delicate poetic manner he does so.
How will this influence my own work?
The main influence that I will take from studying this series is the style of photography I will use. Recently I have been exploring the work of Richard Billingham, and so my photographic responses have recently been reflective of his style, taking snap-shot style photographs. However in order to create greater subtly in my project I will start to photograph more in the manner of Bendisken, balancing attention to composition whilst still allowing some freedom to create images of bold composition to create a raw and authentic mood.
Claude Cahun was a French artist/photographer who moved in 1937 to Jersey Channel Islands during World War II. Cahun was a surrealist and had many political and personal movements behind her work. I really love the idea of having a strong political message behind my work as through photography were are able to visually represent what a lot of people wouldn’t dare to say. We are able to send out strong messages that makes the world stand still. This only happened to Cahun after her death. She was a lesbian together with her half sister. During Nazi occupation in Jersey Cahun gave out anti-Nazi leaflets in attempts to demoralise the troops trying to get them to leave the island. The pair also created notes on a bit of tissue with a drawn picture and always written in German to insinuated that it was a German officer writing them. Cahun was arrested along with her partner and were sentenced the death penalty. Although, the pair escaped with their lives as the island was liberated before the sentence could be carried out. This was unfortunate for Cahun as she actually wanted to be a martyr.
Claude Cahun self-portraitClaude Cahun’s father
The image above shows Cahun looking very masculine and a lot like an image of her father. i find this image very interesting as she does look like a man as she has no hair and more masculine features. Cahun had a good relationship with her father and, in some ways, idolized him. She shares the same beak shaped nose as her father and seems to identify with him through this image. It is very simple but is a bit of an enigma. I think that if a spectator was to look at this image they would not be able to tell that the subject is a woman and just think nothing much of it. I find this image strange and I want to find out more as to why Cahun saw herself this way and felt that her way of identifying herself was through her male role models. I can see that possibly this images represents standards, how men are typically seen as having short to no hair and wear quite baggy clothing and suits whereas the norm for a woman would be to have long hair that is always made presentable and pretty long dresses to go as well as makeup. I can see that Cahun doesn’t identify with the stereotypes put on females and wants to break that stereotype by being radical and different to everyone else. She seems to go against the expectations of women and how they are supposed to be.
“There are very few Jews in the islands. The two Jewish women who have just been arrested belong to an unpleasant category. These women had long been circulating leaflets urging German soldiers to shoot their officers. At last they were tracked down. A search of the house, full of ugly cubist paintings, brought to light a quantity of pornographic materials of an especially revolting nature. One woman had her head shaved and been thus photographed in the nude from every angle. Thereafter she had worn men’s clothes. Further nude photographs showed both women practicing sexual perversion, exhibitionism, and flagellation.” – German Soldier’s report on finding Cahun and Moore, 1944 (The Guerilla Girls 63)
For a female to be a photographer back in the 1930 Britain and Jersey was something very strange as women had only received the right to vote in 1928 [above the age of 21]. A lot of people were sceptical of this kind of job especially for a woman as they were still seen as child-baring, stay-at-home-mums. For Cahun to be a lesbian would have been a very radical thought. From the years of 1558 Queen Elizabeth I introduced laws against gay men, she did not include women in this law because she did not think that they would do such a thing so being a lesbian wasn’t actually illegal or seen as a crime because it was so rare and unexpected. Cahun would have had a hard time being accepted within society because she was an open homosexual. Her photography work has only really been noticed more recently after she died in 1954.
At first looking through Cahun’s work I couldn’t really understand why she is seen as a feminist as well as from her history she didn’t have a good relationship with her mother but tended to identify more with her father and male role models. I had a think about her work and came to realise that Cahun is challenging the social norms that men and women face. She wanted to challenge the way women are seen, the way women are supposed to present themselves. I really like this idea as I believe that we should not be defined by gender but we should be able to mould ourselves in any way we deem fit instead of trying to conform to social stereotypes. For example, my little niece is expected to wear pink clothing because she is a girl which to me is so stupid because a colour shouldn’t define a gender nor should we shun people for wearing that certain colour. I like Cahun’s work as she wants to challenge the way society thinks. In many of her images she wears male clothing and picks up male norms, she tended to pick up more of an eccentric lifestyle compared to others during that time.
“She rejected all conventions of her culture and time, especially those regarding sexuality and the performance of it.” – Feminist Art Archive review
Andre Breton link to Cahun
Andre Breton
Breton was the founder of the surrealist movement back in Paris along with a few other artists and writers which was influenced by Karl Marx. Breton defined surrealism as “psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express – verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner – the actual functioning of thought.” Breton proposed that artists will often bypass rationality and reason by expressing and accessing the unconscious mind. This allowed artists to think outside the norm and to create new realities within their own work. Andre Breton took interest in Cahun and her work although she would never actually directly associate herself with his movement and actually became wary of any direct association with any label or group. Cahun was an individual who wanted to remain unique and stick to her own ideas of creativity rather than belonging to any group or movement. Cahun refused to be limited by certain labels of females, lesbians, writers, a photographer, a Jew or even an artist. Cahun rejected all familiar and generically given conventions of life and adapted her own unique way of living, the way she wanted to live.
“Individualism? Narcissism? Of course. It is my strongest tendency, the only intentional constancy I am capable of.” – Claude Cahun
Cahun’s work is very unique and stands out from the norm of what spectators would expect from a photograph. I think that a lot of her images are made with the intent to show that women can look like men and that it isn’t a negative thing because in reality we as humans are all very similar. Cahun has many works with a shaved head, making her look a lot more like her father who she really looked up to. I find this interesting as this at the time would have been so unusual and masculine looking whereas now so many young women are shaving their heads and look very beautiful. I think that Cahun has helped this to become more of a norm by challenging the way spectators think and making them see certain aspects of gender stereotypes in a different light. Much like other feminist/tableaux photographers, like Cindy Sherman, Cahun tends to look different in each set of images. I think that photographers use this as a way to allow more spectators to identify with them and to show characters instead of just repeatedly seeing images of the same person. I like the idea of creating a character within each photograph and dressing up as someone else to portray a new and unique story for each set of images.
The image above really interests me because at first glance it is actually quite scary looking. The way Cahun has positioned herself isn’t at a flattering angle and the black eyeliner around her eyes makes her look like more of an enigma and interesting character. I like that this image is very simple and only has a medium close up of Cahun herself looking masculine and a lot like her father. I like that this image is in black and white as it becomes more effective as well as there only being black and white film cameras around when Cahun was a photographer. This allows the spectator to focus in on the subjects face and really try hard to see what is going on in the photograph and it also makes the dark makeup on her face stand out more. This particular image is like a standard portrait image but Cahun has changed it by facing her body away from the camera and only turning her head round as if glancing behind her to see what is happening. I like this image because it is strange to look at, I’m really interested as to why Cahun chose to make this image. It shows the masculinity in her facial features while hiding her more feminine side of her chest area. I would like to respond to Cahun’s work with some unique surrealist photographs, responding the social norms faced with modern women and challenging them in a new and unique way much like Cahun has done.
Another image that I find very interesting is this one above. To me the subject is showing her true self and how it different she is to the norm while holding a mask that she possibly feels that she has to wear. The subject doesn’t look happy at all, as if she’s been covering up for so long and has always felt that she needs to conform to the ways that society has taught her and pushed her to be. The mask seems to be a physical representation of this pressure from society. The subject looks quite strange to me, she has hearts drawn onto her cheekbones and her hair is weirdly curved, however I actually really like it and find it unique. This image challenges the ideals of beauty, which seems to be shown on the mask. I really want to respond to Cahun’s work with more up-to-date versions of her images, even though a lot of pressures and socially accepted norms from back in the 1920s and 1930s still remains today with ideals of beauty actually being remoulded and shaped differently. I have gained a lot of inspiration from Cahun’s work and think that I can reflect this in new ideas that I have come up with and will begin working on.
I find this image extremely interesting. Cahun looks like a man, she looks nothing like what society expects a woman to look like and I find this very interesting. Cahun wanted to challenge the way people saw men and women and I think she would have seen our current world as a newly successful step. At the time these images would have been so radical and outrageous as women weren’t often seen as being able to creatively express themselves, unlike nowadays where men and women go against societal norms and do whatever they please. I think the reasoning behind each of Cahun’s images is very powerful and does really reflect the pressures that men and women both have to suffer through within our society. Although her work was made almost 90 years ago, it is still very current and still manages to fit in with our modern society. That is why I like this work so much because it is still relatable and still makes sense to this day. Cahun didn’t know that her work would one day be widely known but I think that she would have been extremely happy, especially with the way society has remoulded and is now a lot more accepting of people that don’t quite fit in any category, the misfits.
Feminism in photography really stems from tableaux photographers including Cindy Sherman as a movement to further progress understanding of unfair societal, economic and political differences with the way men and women are treated. I really like tableaux photography as the photographer is able to tell a story that is completely staged and they have complete control, it is almost like making a film but in stills and each image tells a strong story on its own or even within a series of images.
Suffragettes movement
The Suffragettes movement in Britain came around in 1872. Suffragette is simply a woman seeking the right to vote through organised protest. Women were actually banned from voting in Britain from the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act. The suffragette movement was a political one creating organisations including the National Society for Women’s Suffrage. Suffragettes used peaceful protest in speech, they were expected to stay at home look after the children and cook and clean. During the First World War 1914 suffragettes put their movements on hold to help out and work in defence manufacturers and made a large contribution to the efficiency of defences and other supplies made during the war. After the war women began to fight more violently for the right to vote and would smash windows and blow up post boxes. The most famous suffragette act was by a woman called Emily Davidson who stood out on a national horse racing day to raise the flag of ‘Votes for Women’ in front of TV cameras that were to be broadcast all over Britain. She was hit by a horse and died due to fatal skull and internal injuries. She became a martyr to the suffragette movement. This made headlines unlike other protests where the government and police had silenced the press. Thousands at tented Davidson’s funeral and the suffragettes movement was now being recognised. In 1918 the coalition government passed the Representation of the People Act giving women certain women over the age of 30 the right to vote who met minimum property qualifications. Finally, 10 years later, 1928, the Conservative government passed a new act giving the vote to all women over the age of 21. The movement of the suffragettes gave women the power to know that they were worth more than just living at home and they were worthy of an education. Without these women in Britain women wouldn’t have the positions within work places that they are able to have today. This movement saw a more equal Britain and women were now treated less as housemaids and more like they should be treated, as equals. I really do think that not many people know about what suffragette women went through and the brutality and force that men had over women. The story of the Suffragettes, to me, is the almost untold story of British history. However, a film titled ‘Suffragette’ has been released that explains what one group of women did to further the movement in the early 1900’s.
British Suffragettes
British Suffragettes
British Suffragettes
What is feminism?
Feminism could only come about after the Suffragette movement as women were only then starting to get a voice and being seen more equally. Here feminism came about because men and women are faced with unfair standards and stereotypes. Feminism is the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. This movement does not see women as more important than men but it sees them as equals. In recent years it has become a very controversial topic of which some people are saying it to be a ‘man hating’ movement claiming that women ‘are more important and that men don’t face problems’. This is the wrong perception of the movement as there are male feminists. People tend to get it confused because of the name of the movement suggests feminine which is obviously associated with women. Feminism urges to change stereotype, objectification and derogatory lexis that mainly women face day to day. For example, if a woman were to sleep around she would be labelled as a ‘slag’, ‘slut’, ‘whore’ etc unlike a man who would not even be labelled or even be called a ‘lad’ by friends. This is an hypocritical and unfair label that women are constantly faced with. However, there are many other aspects to feminism that seek the equality of life for both men and women. Another example would be that if a male is seen to be sad or to show emotion he is ‘probably gay’ which is completely wrong as women are allowed to be emotional. There are so many unfair and unrealistic stereotypes faced with men and women which feminists are trying to change. Many photographers use this within their work to further the movement of feminism.
Celebrity feminists
Tinie Tempah
Benedict Cumberbatch
Emma Watson
Tom Hiddleston
Douglas Booth
Eddie Redmayne
Ed Miliband
Simon Pegg
Joseph Gordan-Levitt
Feminist photographers include Cindy Sherman, Claude Cahun and Barbara Kruger. Feminism is becoming more and more widely known as more people are beginning to see the unequal stereotypes and labels put on men and women. I love that through photography artists are able to express themselves freely and show spectators physical representations of what women actually have to deal with day in and day out as well as men. I believe that women are still somewhat underrepresented and a lot of people see feminism as a negative thing and shameful. This is what Suffragette women also went through because they were at a different mindset from the rest of society. It takes time and I believe that through generations we become more understanding and openminded about societal issues such as feminism.
I am excited to explore this topic further to gain a broader understanding of feminism and the way men and women are treated differently within our society. I will be responding to various photographers work as well as making my own work. I feel that there is still so much to learn and so many aspects of feminism that are untold in photography.
The video created by Amber Rose is obviously an over exaggerated way of expressing her views on what is commonly known as the ‘walk of shame’. This label is only given to women who have one-night stand yet men are not faced with this same label. This just shows the double standard that our society has for men and women. I like this video because it juxtaposes the way people actually think when they see a woman walking down the street in the same clothing that she wore the night before. People will automatically label women that do this and give them derogatory labels like ‘slut’, ‘slag’ etc. Some people see it as wrong and disgusting for a woman to do this yet if a man were to do it it would be seen as fine as it is his body and he should be able to do as he pleases with it. I think this video is really effective and Rose has made the seriousness of this issue more comical and blatantly easy to follow and to show how ridiculous slut shaming and labelling women is.
Feminist protestors at the Suffragette London movie Premiere
This past week the film ‘Suffragette’ came out and premiered in London. Here feminists from the activist group Sisters Uncut lay on the red carpet where the stars of the film were and held signs that said ‘We are suffragettes’ and ‘dead women can’t vote’. Their movement puts emphasis on domestic violence and the protest was organised because cuts had been made to domestic violence services. This movement focuses on how women are abused as well as men. It is good to see that the there are still activist groups fighting for equality in political, social and economic aspects of modern life.
Sisters Uncut protest at Suffragette London premiere
Sisters Uncut protest at Suffragette London premiere
Feminism in photography can be hugely influential as many people identify with more visual aspects of it and find it easier to relate and get their head around. There is so much to feminism and a lot of photographers will tend to focus on social aspects of this because it is what becomes more effective and is the one aspect of modern life that really is backward and unjust.
Martin Toft and Gareth Syvret came together at the Jersey photo archive and decided to embark on a project comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences with Jersey and New Jersey. New Jersey was actually named after the small island of Jersey when a British man named James who visited Jersey and was warmly welcomed and treated as an honoured guest before moving to France. The Governor of Jersey at the time was called Sir George Carteret and James wanted to honour him when he found the colony and decided to name the State New Jersey. Toft’s project explores the idea of how two places on the opposite side of the Atlantic ocean perceive each other within archives and cultural memory. I like the idea of this project because I feel that not many people from New Jersey know the origin of its name and don’t even know that Jersey exists. Toft decided to do this as there has been no archival evidence of the link between Jersey and New Jersey.
“I must admit…I prefer the winter to summer on the Jersey Shore…quiet, cold, friendly.” – Martin Toft
Instead of creating one large exhibition with framed and printed photographs Toft and the Societe Jersey decided to create a newspaper that would be sent out to different places in the world where spectators could create their own exhibitions wherever they are. To make an exhibition you would need two copies on the newspaper. This newspaper was created by a professional company in order to get it to the highest of quality and so that it would work all spread out. I think that this is more interesting than a regular exhibition as the spectator is able to read it as a newspaper with all of the text and then they are able to make a small exhibition themselves and being able to see the photographers larger. The newspaper is more of a DIY concept allowing spectators to piece everything together themselves. There were 3,000 copies of the newspaper printed and were sent out to different places in the world including schools in New Jersey. This newspaper will be put into the archive as a part of Jersey history and in hundreds of years to come spectators will be able to look at this newspaper and see the link between the two and how possibly different that link will be in the future.
Jersey, Channel Islands
New Jersey, United States of America
Toft explored many different places around Jersey and went to St. Ouens manner were Sir George Carteret lived. It is an 11th century castle. Toft’s project focuses on the West Coast of Jersey facing America and the East Coast of New Jersey that faces Jersey through the Atlantic ocean. Through visits to and from New Jersey and Jersey Toft discovered that Jersey was much more rural whereas New Jersey is a lot more urbanised. They seem to be binary opposites to one another. Toft successfully shows the political, social and economic difference between Jersey and New Jersey including the people, landscapes, industries and identities. The Atlantus Project makes connections with memories, the archives and photographs two lands on opposite sides of the Atlantic ocean.
I like to compare images from Jersey and New Jersey to compare and contrast them. Looking at the two images above I can see how the two aren’t so different in that they are both facing the ocean, obviously Jersey is an island and totally surrounded by the ocean whereas New Jersey is facing the Atlantic ocean on one side. I think that we can identify the two together through the love of surfing and how surfing often brings people together. I like that these images show the similarities within the beaches of both Jersey and New Jersey and how they can be brought together this way. I particularly like the New Jersey image here as the surfer looks as if he is getting ready to go when Toft approached him to make a photograph and she almost looks very natural and as if was already positioned there.
Jersey, Channel Islands
New Jersey, United States of America
These two images really stood out to me and I wanted to put them beside each other because I wanted to see the difference between the way the channel islands deal with guns and the way America deals with them. I really do think that America has a gun problem with mass killings every single month. The image to the right shows a New Jersey man holding his riffle gun in his back garden so casually. In America guns are allowed and people seem to be able to get licenses so easily. Unlike, Jersey Channel Islands were you must be in a club to get access to a gun. This is obviously more expensive and organised with officials and people there to take care of the guns in a safe environment where they are only able to shoot at objects that are prepositioned and ready for them. I find this so interesting as there is a ‘Chief Range Officer’ watching over all of the people on the shooting range in the Channel Islands whereas in America they just have them in their homes with no one there to ensure safety. I think it is so crazy to see these photos side-by-side because of how different they are. The people of America can so easily access guns and carry them around anywhere they please in contrast to the Channel Islands were you must be watched over and stay within the grounds of the actual riffle club.
For some reason I love putting these two images beside each other. I think I decided to do this because they were both wearing similar hats. I find this interesting because they are two completely different men with completely different backgrounds, the American being a Vietnam veteran and the British [Jersey Bean] being a semi-retired fisherman. The fisherman wears a camouflage hat while the Vietnam veteran wears a camouflage jacket. It is weird to think that camouflage has transitioned from being a way of blending in with the environment to actually becoming a fashion statement, not that the fisherman is making a fashion statement. I think both men will use the camouflage pattern to blend with their environment but more likely the war veteran would use it more effectively. I like these two images as the spectator is able to look at the two men and see two completely different and unique stories.
Jersey, Channel Islands
New Jersey, United States of America
These two images are similar in that they are both on beaches. The different is that the American teens look as if they are just chilling and hanging out as it seems to be getting cooler, possibly getting later in the day. Compared to the Channel Islands photo which seems to be midday and all of the teens have just been out for a swim. These images differ in the youths and just the groups of people that are hanging out on the beaches. I like these images as they show different communities in two different places and environments.
New Jersey, United State of America
This is my absolute favourite image of the entire project. There is just something about it that I really like, it is easy to look at and the subject is very interesting. I think the colours work really well in this image, with the green really standing out and flattering the skin tone of the subject. This woman is very beautiful and looks really good in this image, she is interesting making the spectator want to know a little bit more about her. I think that the composition of this photograph is great as she is directly in the centre making her the key subject. I think that the green and the colour of her skin really makes her stand out against the light sand and the light blue cloudy sky which is really effective and draws the spectators attention to her. I don’t really have a main reason for liking this image apart from the fact that it is just very interesting to me and I enjoy looking at it and trying to find out more and more about the subject and the plain environment surrounding her.
Overall, I think that the Atlantus project successfully shows the links that Jersey has with New Jersey and how their communities vary in similarities and differences. It is interesting to see the historical links between the two as well and how Jersey actually has a State in America named after it even though it is such a small island. I really like this project as it allows more people to learn more about the Channel Islands as I feel not a lot of people in New Jersey and around the world even know that it exists.
Mark Power in an English photographer born in Harpenden, England 1959. He is a Professor of Photography in The Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the University of Brighton. Power embarked on creating The Shipping Forecast between the years of 1992 and 1996. This project involved travelling to and photographing all 31 areas covered by the Shipping Forecast broadcast on BBC Radio 4. I like that this work is very specific and structured so Power knows exactly where he is going to be making his photographs. This particular project was published as a book and was a touring exhibition across the UK and France. Power drove around in a car for the entire project taking inspiration of works from Tony Ray-Jones.
Mark Power [1959 – present]Tony Ray-Jones
Tony Ray-Jones was an English photographer who inspired Power. He died in 1972 at only age 30. Ray-Jones was a documentary photographer who took interest in photographing the way of the British and wanted to delve into this more in depth. He wanted to look at his own society in a new way by using irony, compassion, nostalgia and humour. He became hugely influential on the development of British documentary photography from the 1970s through to the present.
“My aim is to communicate something of the spirit and the mentality of the English, their habits and their way of life, the ironies that exist in the way they do things, partly through their traditions and partly through the nature of their environment and their mentality.” – Tony Ray-Jones
I particularly like this photograph with the small boy lung down on the beach seemingly tired. It looks as if he is fiddling with the sand instead of playing with the digger toy next to him. The spectator is able to see that this young boy is getting tired and just wants to chill out so he decided to lye on the sand and just wait for his parents to come and get him to go home. I like this image because it is simple. The subject is what the spectators eyes will be drawn to straight away as he is the only object around other than the sand and the background beach houses. This image is from the series The Shipping Forecast and mainly based on the beaches of each weather forecast location covered by BBC Radio 4.
Another image that I like is the one above because it really is a candid action shot. It brings in some nostalgia for me of when I was younger and when my parents used to have to lift me up from the waves coming for me when I was too small to stand against them myself. I really like this image as it does bring back some funny memories with my family. It is an image that I think a lot, if not everyone, can relate to at some point or other in their lives. It is such a simple image but holds so many memories and good times. The subjects in this image don’t necessarily matter, it is more about what they are doing and what the image is bringing to the spectator. The wave looks so huge compared to the little boy who would defiantly been taken under by it yet it in comparison to the woman holding him the wave doesn’t seem so big, it looks a lot smaller and less intimidating. The wave does look very powerful in this image and that it could knock the both of them down. I also like the woman in the background who doesn’t look phased at all by the wave as she just seems to be walking straight through it. This image shows many different emotions with the small boy looking scared/worried and the woman in the background looking chilled out and not bothered. This image reminds me of all the times as a young child that I would overdramatise everything and that most things seemed like a big deal whereas now they become meaningless and are not to be dwelled on. That comes with age and maturity but I love that this image shows that, in a way. This is a great documentation of families on the beach and how usually people are. The woman doesn’t have her bikini strap on obviously she has been trying to tan and not get a paler line along her back from the straps when her son/possibly brother asked her to play in the water with him. The young boy is wearing armbands, learning how to swim and he also has goggles. This images makes me think of how when you were young you didn’t really care about anything, in the way you looked or the way people saw you but as you get older you tend to care a whole lot more about your image. I do really like this image as there is a lot going on and the spectator is able to access memories just by looking at this particular image.
Tom Wood is a British community photographer. He was worked on photographing the working class in Liverpool for many years. Originally Wood was trained as a painter at the conceptually orientated Leicester Polytechic from 1973-1976. He first explored lens-based media through extensive viewing of experimental films. Wood’s approach to photography is more fluid than other current conventions of post-Conceptual photography and photojournalism. Wood works will colour negative film and has done so since 1976, using bother black and white and colour in different locations. This is interesting as a lot more photographers are going back to using film cameras instead of digital ones, especially documentary photographers in order to make the more real and raw images possible. Wood is currently working as a part time lecturer in photography at Coleg Llandrillo in north Wales and is 64 years old.
I find the Men/Women series very interesting as it is a collaboration of all of Wood’s work and simply separated into two books, one filled with the images of men and the other of women. I find this concept interesting as to why he would separate the two by gender as a way of possibly showing the difference and the divisions within the two genders. I think that this would have been the easiest division for Wood to make as he made his photographs in the UK back when there weren’t many different people in cultures or religions etc. He basically made photographs of British people getting on with their everyday lives. I think that this is a really good way to document different communities and by going round photographing in the same place a lot of the time he is getting familiar with the people that live around there making them a lot more comfortable with him being around them and making candid and staged photographs with him.
For some reason this image stood out for me and I love the way it looks. The two women are posing for the camera as they sit on the bonnet of their car. The pair are covering in makeup, wearing fake tan and wearing heels and massive earrings. I don’t have a particular reason for liking these images accept for the fact that it interests me and that there is a lot going on in it. The position of the two women is perfect and the facial expression almost suggests that they have a sassy attitude, they seem to enjoy posing for the camera. I like this image as well because of the entire background, the fashion and the way people were back when this photo was taken is completely different to how people are now. I just find that there is a lot going on in this image and spectators will have plenty to look at and interpret for themselves what they think is going on and who the subjects are. I like that this images shows older people in the background sitting on benches just enjoying the view compared to nowadays where so many people are constantly on their phones and laptops that they forget to look outside and just take a moment to relax without having to worry about their electronic devices.
I like the collection of Wood’s work as it is just great documentation of life in Britain from years ago and the community surrounding those people. I like to see this to compare and contrast my own community and how it may differ from these ones and how things have changed and how people are a lot different now. Even though these photos aren’t from too long ago, so much has changed and developed that we have become different beings.
Another image that I really like is the one above of a group of teenage boys. I find it interesting to see the on trend fashion back when this image was taken and how nowadays people are bringing this back as more of a vintage or retro look. I enjoy seeing these documentary images as it shows the kind of people living in that community and I can relate this to people I see now in my own community. This photo also reminds me a lot of the film Stand By Me with a bunch of boys who look similar to these ones and go on an adventure. The subjects are unconventional in that they are unlikely models but they seem to all look very good in front of the camera in the way that they are conveying the story. They look like a bunch of boys who were just hanging out in their local community when Wood approached them and asked to make a photograph of them. They’re just normal young boys having fun within their community and hanging out together, sharing their experiences. I think that I would like to explore more in depth the different teenage communities within our society and what they actually do in local places instead of seeing the negative things that minorities of teenagers do broadcast on the news and in newspapers. I like Wood’s work and find it very interesting and just great documentation of Britain in the past.
Over half term I plan to take photographs for the theme of family of my mum in her different working environments, by taking photographs of her through out the day from when she wakes up getting ready for work to her working without interfering, taking photos of the buildings/ houses she works in from different angles, people she interacts with and objects and interesting belonging’s within the buildings. I’m aiming to photograph 3 different locations during this period. My mum works part time in wealthy households during the day and occasionally receives shifts at an old people’s care home and at night she works at the Town Hall.
Divola is a contemporary American photographer, born 1949. He often takes landscape photographs in different areas of community and looking at the edge between the abstract and the specific. Divola doesn’t tend to use people in his images and will make photographs of the landscape that surrounds them instead. I like the idea of this as it shows the environments that are surrounding us that we can often ignore or not notice but when it becomes the subject matter we are able to completely focus in on the environment around us and share that environment with others. I find Divola’s concept interesting as through is images spectators are able to see different communities environments and are able to compare the differences with their own environment. This would also make some interesting documentary photographs as it is showing how we leave within modern day society.
Something that I noticed in some of Divola’s photographs is that he makes images of the abandoned places within our community, the places that seem to have been forgotten and disregarded. I find this very interesting as it shows the more negative side of our community and how we are humans will just leave things to rot instead of actually trying to resurrect it and help make it better. I think that I will be able to respond these images in different locations around Jersey and think it will be a fun shoot to do as it is something we are all aware of but tend to ignore for no particular reason. I think that Divola’s work is quite unique for documentary photography in that he doesn’t use people to tell the story, the environment speaks for itself. His work is very abstract and to the point. I like that he doesn’t need to use any people to tell his story and that each of his images work as stand alone ones. They can come across as quite hard hitting with the state of the place he is in looks. Each images looks as if people have come in and destructively ruined this environment which shows the kind of people that are living within that community.
This particular image really interests me as it looks like a beach house with a beautiful view of the ocean and the sunset. I find that this image is beautifully lit as well as looking brutally destroyed. I enjoy looking at this image because of the background sunset. This photograph stood out to me initially because of the sunset but then I looked closer and saw all of the windows have been smashed with glass covering the floor and an old-fashioned suitcase sits open on the ground. This makes me intrigued as I wonder what went on in this environment and who could have possibly done this. One theory I have is that it was the ocean that thrashed against the glass breaking it as the glass is on the inside of the house. Another theory is that people came in and decided to wreck the place. I wonder why there is a suitcase there and that maybe someone living there just left it behind. There is so much going on in this image allowing the spectator to look around as if they are in the room and looking at the environment surrounding them. This image is part of the series called ‘Three Acts’. They are unique to any other documentary photos I’ve seen before and stand out to me as they the photos are not ones spectators would usually expect to see. This image is taken from the series photographed in a condemned neighbourhood bought by an airport to serve as a noise buffer for new runways. The buildings are all destroyed and Divola decided to make images as evidence of violent entries by vandals by shattering windows as well as doors torn from their hinges. After watching some videos of Divola I discovered that he was the one actually vandalising these houses and adding colour by using graffiti which is becoming a popular art nowadays.
“Once seen, the work of John Divola is not easily forgotten.” – David Campany
After watching the video above I had a closer look at Divola’s photographic art work and found that a lot of it I could relate to performance photography and the work of Tom Pope and John Baldessari capturing something midair and throwing things around and just capturing it. I also found out that Divola could only shoot those images at certain times of the day so that he could get the right lighting and that he would always revisit the same places and keep on going back to them adding different works of graffiti each time as well as noticing other vandals workings. I found this video very useful and interesting to find out more about Divola’s personal opinion and the message he was trying to get across. I enjoy looking at his work and think that if I was to respond to this I would more likely just visit certain places and photograph them every so often and not touch them to make it more authentic and not to vandalise any of these places any further.
![Mark Power [1959 - present]](https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo16a2/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/10/Ouside-In-A-Magnum-Photo-Showcase-Mark-Power-Portrait-3-1024x681.jpg)
