Philosophy of photography

A subject characterised by its contemporary and fast adapting nature, one might suggest that boundaries and limitations cannot be placed on such a diverse and abstract form of art. The issue of truth is continually confronted in the photographic world due to ever-changing ethics which cannot be defined. We are struck by supposedly powerful images which are ‘meant to bring the world’s attention to a certain point’, however, is an image really this instrumental? Are photographers able to capture a single moment which will affect the lives of innocent people and further more are they responsible for their art creation? Are they morally wrong for subjecting the horrors of war, disasters and tragedies to governments, leaders and the public? The ethics surrounding photography are fuzzy and difficult to depict. Ultimately an unfinished document which needs to be immediately addressed.

The Image

Views of the soul

The soul is possessed by different types of living things distinguished by their different functions. Souls of humans have intellect, self-motion and the capacity of nourishment and reproduction. Soul is the essence of any living thing. It is known as psyche and is the living force in a human being. The body and soul are not and cannot ever be separate entities; It is an inextricable union. The soul performs certain activities it is like an enlivener and capacitor. When a natural being is alive its parts are organised, they are as a whole. The soul provides a type of power, it maintains unity. 

Another view of the soul is suggested by Plato, he holds there are three parts of the soul; reason, appetite and spirited nature. The appetites hold all our myriad desires for different pleasures, comforts and satisfactions. Plato does not enumerate but does mention they can be in conflict even with one another. The spirited nature is the part that loves to partake in challenges and over come them. The use of the lexis ‘spirited’ is not the same as spiritual but rather is of the meaning power and lots of energy. The reason is our mind, our conscious awareness. This part is what calculates, thinks and weighs up what decision would be best. 

The soul is the perfect example of what links and binds families together. Souls are what each human possess in my view; the characteristics of a soul are innate within all of us. I think by exploring different theories of the soul I can begin to understand various interpretations of what makes us human. The human race shares hundreds of common characteristics yet we are all unique. As families we formulate ties with one another forming bonds which are difficult to break. Therefore I think souls represent an aspect of our being we all have and this links us together and creates a family even a community. This idea combines community, faith and family together. 

The soul can be seen as being a very spiritual idea and that’s why when I researched art and photography related to the soul I wasn’t surprised to see lots of various soul interpretations some linked to the Christianity perception, Buddhism perception, etc. 

I am not Tom Pope, you are all Tom Pope

On the 28th of September my photography class went to visit Tom Pope’s exhibition which was held in St. Helier. We had previously studied Pope’s work as he was working as our Photographer in Residence. Through this project we explored the genre of performance photography incorporating the ideas of playfulness and chance. Pope also produced a body of work from his stay on the island, furthermore, he included photographs from the archive in order to bring the history of jersey into his work.

Pope’s exhibition reveals a great deal about his personality and the way he works. Pope had a combination of both videos and photographs; to begin he had a video on himself attempting to stack dice on top of each other. Pope framed his photographs with the colour orange simply because he liked the colour and it represented no significant meaning. Pope regularly engaged with the photographic archive and through this he devised a game called fragments. Players are drawn together through different social groupings and given a circular chip which they are asked to flip. Wherever this chip lands a disc is then cut out of the photograph and given to the player. I like this idea particularly because it uses the archive photographs but involves the concept of chance.

Tom Pope took the group around his exhibition explaining the meaning behind many of his photographs and videos. I think Pope’s work including the faces of the past is very clever and is most defiantly the favourite part of his body of work. Pope took the photographs from the archive of a range of different people and made the faces into masks. Pope looked through approximately 15,000 photographs from the Societe’s image archive. He then extended this project through taking the masks out into modern Jersey and get the public involved. This is an interesting and unique way of expanding the use of the Jersey Archive, it helps get people involved in the history of their island. A great deal of his work in this specific event was inspired by John Baldessari.

As part of the project, earlier on in the year Pope asked people to help him push a boat from Gorey Harbour to St. Ouen. He began the challenge at five thirty in the morning and was joined by composers who improvised songs along the way. 

Photography has a variety of reasons to why it is produced; decorative, communicative, emotional etc. Humans have always used art as a forum to create images for political motives or social engagements. Imagining a society without the influences of photography, eliminates the social and educational essentials. In my opinion art can be an agent of world change and development. Through the changing of one opinion, several will change in effect, this then leads to social change. This social change is an uproar of emotion to the message the image portrays. Photography evokes a response for the viewer that being, excitement, boredom, confusion or curiosity etc. Documentary photography projects the truth to the front pages of newspapers, social media forums and news reports. 

This selection of images are photographs that have changed opinion, challenged governments and societies and developed the way individuals view issues. For example the first image ‘The Terror of War’, is a powerful illustration of innocent civilians in danger and being terrified in their own country. The second photograph addresses a completely different topic and perhaps more philosophical. The image title is ‘Earth Rise’, it gives you perspective to how small our earth is in comparison to the universal, furthermore, how small our presence is in the world. However, I think it also represents even though we a little we can have influence and inspire others; we are capable of making a difference.

Photography and war

Conflict photography involves photographing armed wars plus the effects it has on the places and people around it. During the early 1830s although the technicality of photography was limited the beginning of war photography emerged. It started initially in order to enhance the public awareness of conflicts and the strategies experienced. Photographers were not able to capture moving targets, therefore photographed fortifications, soldiers and land before and after the conflict. The first known war photographer was Josh McCosh a surgeon in the Bengal Army, he documented the Second Sikh war from 1848-1849. During the 20th century war photographers covered all the major war zones, many were sadly killed in conflicts. Robert Capa was famous for photographing the D-day Landings and the Spanish Civil war. Capa died in 1954 from a landmine in Indochina. One of the most influential images produced from a conflict photographer was produced by Joe Rosenthal, the photograph of the flag-rising in 1945.

Now a days photographers and journalists are protected in these conflict areas, by international conventions of armed warfare. War photography has become more dangerous due to terrorism. During the Iraq war, 36 photographers and camera operators were either killed or abducted during the war from 2003-2009.

Mitch Epstein- Family Business

Mitch Epstein is an American photographer that tackled a multimedia project about his father and their family furniture store and real estate business. The project includes photographs, videos, interviews, a personal essay and archival material. The photographing of William Epstein’s life is a reflection of the downfall of Holyoke, normally a lively and thriving town. The story questions how the American went wrong. I wanted to research this project because I like Epstein’s style of photography, he captures single moments in snapshots which are usually very bright and full of life; this is ironic considering it is based on a town which is struggling. I like the simplicity to his images, for example the suit case it a very interesting image as there is not a great deal to it yet it manages to tell a story. It allows the viewer to imagine the narrative or to create their own. 

‘As an artist, I wrestle with the challenge of how to bring meaning and new ideas to my work. To keep picture-making fresh and meaningful has been a fundamental struggle since my beginnings.’ 

‘I worked hard to find a balance between my ruthlessly direct approach to the work and the respect and empathy that I felt for my father as his son.’ 

Sally Mann

Sally Mann is one of  America’s renowned photographers famous for her black and white photographs of her young children. Mann was criticised for supposedly exploiting her children and being a bad mother. However in my opinion Mann’s maternal eye allows outsiders a glimpse into her and her children’s world.  

‘One of the things my career as an artist might say to young artists is: The things that are close to you are the things you can photograph the best. And unless you photograph what you love, you are not going to make good art.’ – Sally Mann

‘What is truth in photography? It can be told in a hundred different ways. Every thirtieth of a second when the shutter snaps, its capturing a different piece of information.’ – Sally Mann

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer and photojournalist. He is famous for his photographic projects that focus on photographing the social classes of Britain. Parr’s photography has an intimate, critical and anthropological nature on modern life. Parr has been a member of the Magnum photos group since 1994.

I think Parr’s work is a true reflection of the un-photographed perhaps ‘ugly’ side of society. He explores the unpleasingly aesthetics of daily life that we sometimes intentionally forget. The bright colours could possibly be a representation of our enthusiastic attitude to an imperfect world. Parr documents with a passion to uncover the concealed, photographing at unpredicted angles of imaginative concepts with the real people of the modern world. I like his style of photography because the subject does not have to be beautiful, he finds a way of bringing out the beauty in the images. His style creates unusual, critical and vibrant images that tell a story in each one.

Phillip Toledano

‘When I was six’ is a book  produced by Phillip Toledano based on the remembrance of his sister who died when he was six years old. The project is a work of memories, sadness and silence based on a profound absence of a family member. The book combines words and images, photographs that are new, old and found. Lots of the photographs are of items found in a box from the attic his mother hid away but still cherished, which he discovered after her death. Little momentoes that belonged to his sister such as; a lock of her hair, a fan letter written in crayon and a personalised pencil. All of these items create a narrative of remembrance, each photograph has an intense personal meaning attached to it. Toledano photographs them in an almost forensic way, as if it were evidence that she was alive. He is included photographs of planets and space travel, this is symbolic of his feelings regarding the absence of his beloved sister. Toledano wanted to represent a vast and empty world which his life became, possibly an untouchable and distant world much like death. 

I think Toledano’s ‘When I was six’ project has been influential when researching family themed photographers, he takes a different approach compared to other photographer and experiments with a difficult topic to photograph. I found the idea of memory inspiring as you are able to photograph memories that represent the individual that you no longer have. 

Another project of Toledano’s is ‘Days with my father’, a simple journal of intimate photographs of his father after his mother died in 2006. The images taken were of his father in his final years, focusing on their relationship and the importance of family. There were funny, sad and loving observations, an honest and emotional documenting of excepting and coming to terms with an aging parent.  ‘I like photographs to be unfinished sentences’- Phillip Toledano. 

Julian Germain

Julian Germain’s body of work ‘For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness’, is a detailed, honest and earnest portrayal of an old man’s life. Germain photographed Charles Snelling in the early nineties,  photographing this elderly man was the not the main premise to begin with, the companionship was the primary reason. Despite this Germain still managed to fill two third’s of a book with the images she produced. The other third Germain used scrapbook albums, the design of the pages reflected a true representation of the actual albums for example yellow pages and dog-eared covers. The scrapbook allows an insight into Snelling’s life before Germain began photographing him, his beloved wife Betty who died was the central figure. The authenticity of the book is one outsiders are not able to capture. The snapshots have a cinematic feel to the image and through using scrapbook images a sense of time shifting is brought to the project.