You can also find it here in the TO DO folder on Silverstore
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Documentary & Narrative\TO DO
Use following colour code: GREEN = all complete YELLOW = incomplete and write what you need to do to improve RED = not done at all
Some of you are doing really well at staying on task with work and others are falling too far behind. For those of you who only have done a few blog posts your Study Periods will be used for extra lessons. I WILL COME AND FIND YOU!
However, extra sessions are available for everyone to come and work in my classroom
Objective: Explore theme of Community in Documentary Photography
DEADLINE: Wed 21st October
Case Study: Atlantus – A Transoceanic Journey
In January 2014 I embarked on a major transoceanic photography project in collaboration with Gareth Syvret at Archisle: the Jersey’s Contemporary Photography Programme hosted by the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive. Prompted in part by the 350th anniversary in 2014 of Sir George Carteret naming of the State of New Jersey, USA after Jersey his island home in 1664, the project asks how two places that share a name on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean perceive each other within archives and cultural memory? Essentially Atlantus is a story about communities on the west coast of Jersey and the east coast of New Jersey. In five stories responding through image and text to the people, politics, landscapes, industries and identities of these places the Atlantus Project connects memories, archives and imagined lands on opposite side of the Atlantic World. Atlantus is a transoceanic story in which estranged lands of incomparable scale come together in poetic gestures that ask: what’s in a name?
A multi-functional newspaper and DIY exhibition
80 pages
56 colour and 5 monochrome ills.
5 stories
As a photographer you have to think about your audience and how you would like people to engage with your story and project. Produced as a multi-functional newspaper and DIY exhibition you can read Atlantus as a newspaper and with two copies you can create your own exhibition display.
Blog: Produce a number of posts that show evidence of the following:
Task 1: Consider different approaches and aesthetic considerations used to tell this story; classic documentary (i.e. camera bearing witness) compared with staged photography (Tableaux). Identify different types of images produced in Atlantus e.g. a combination of portraits (formal, environmental, observed), landscapes and still-lives (interiors/ objects). Consider the editing, sequencing and grouping of images and how they relate to the text, story titles and use of image caption. Provide further context by comparing Atlantus to works or specific photographs from other photographers/ artists. Situate it within the history and theory of documentary photography
For more background information visit online gallery with a wider selection of images and project blog. Two films are also available for viewing, the first one include sound and interviews with some of the main characters from our story and in the second one you can browse the newspaper.
Your task is to tell a story in a series of images and finding your own voice. How you are going to that in a unique and personal way is essential for you to achieve top marks. There are many different ways and approaches to achieve this. Below are a small section of photographers who are storytellers within documentary practice.
Task 2; Artists references: Select at least one photographers who are exploring the theme of community in their work. Select key works and analyse images in terms of style, form, approach, subject-matter, aesthetics, meaning and what story/message the photographer is trying to communicate.
Alec Soth (Sleeping by the Mississippi, Niagara, Broken Manual, Songbook), Rob Hornstra (The Sochi Project), Chris Killip (Isle of Man: A book about the Manx), Mark Power (The Shipping Forecast), Martin Parr (The last Resort), Lars Tunbjork (Country besides itself), Oliver Chanarin and Adam Broomberg (Ghetto), Stephen Gill (Hackney Wick), David Goldblatt (In Boksburg), Josef Koudelka (Gypsies), Robert Frank (the Americans), Bruce Davidson (East 100th Street, Central Park, Subway), Esko Manniko (The Female Pike), Mary Ellen Mark (Ward 81, Falklands Road), Ken Schles (Nightwalk), Tom Wood (Bus Odessey, All Zones off Peak), George Georgiou (The Last Stop), Robert Adams (The New West), Lewis Baltz (The new Industrial Parks Near Irvine), John Divola (Three Acts), Gary Winogrand (the Animals), Sebastio Salgado (Workers), W.Eugene Smith, Anders Petersen (Cafe Lehmitz), J.H Engstroem (From Back Home – together with Anders Pedersen), Jon Tonks (Empire), Ken Grant (Flock), Vanessa Winship (Schoolgirls, She Dances on Jackson, Black Sea), Lauren Greenfield (Fast Forward, Girl Culture), Ricardo Cases (Paloma al aire), Heikki Kaski (Tranquility), Robert Clayton (Estate), Jason Wilde (Silly Arse Broke It, Guernsey Residency, Estuatry English), Tom Hunter (Le Crowbar), Valerio Spada (Gomorrah Girl), Pieter Hugo (Permanent Error, Nollywood), Alejandro Cartegena (Carpoolers), Janet Delaney (South of Market), Martin Gregg (Midlands) , Lorenzo Vitturi (Dalston Anatomy)
See this folder with artist that exhibited as part of Guernsey Photography Festival 2014
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Documentary & Narrative\Research\GPF Open Call Submissions\COMMUNITY
Task 3: Photo-Assignment 2: Explore the theme of Community and make a set of 5 images/ or a 3 min film.
Finding your voice and unique way to tell a story: As a photographer you are always looking for photo-opportunities and for stories that only you can tell. Try and find a personal angle on a story which will make it unique and choose a subject you have access to and can photograph in depth. It could be that you, or someone you know, have a passion for something outside work; a hobby, sport, pastime where you could photograph ‘behind-the-scenes’. Record events e.g. cultural festivities (Battle of Britain), sports competitions, protest/rallies etc. You could also expose something hidden or reveal something about our society and a particular group of people across class, gender, race or ethnicity. Maybe you live in a rural area and wants to highlight life in the country-side, photographing farm communities or parish life. Or, explore the town of St Helier with its hustle and bustle of life on the streets. You could also photograph a particular place, site or landscape which shows traces of human activity in what we refer to as Aftermath Documentary. Look at everyday life and the familiar from a new angle. Be curious and make the ordinary look extraordinary.
Task 4: Editing/Evaluation:Upload pictures from photo-shoot and process in Lightroom. Put contact sheets and edited prints in your blog. Annotate and evaluate pictures.
Presentation: Print out your set of 5 images and present in class for a group crib (Wed 21st October)
For further starting points and inspiration see these videos, read articles , and visit websites and do your own independent research.
Video with Lauren Greenfield on her 6 year project, Girl Culture. Link to her website
Rob Hornstra and writer Arnold van Bruggen spend five years working in the Sochi Region where the 2014 Winter Olympics where held. Here is a link to The Sochi Project
In this video, Mary Ellen Mark describes capturing iconic photos, pushing one’s limits and finding intimacy in a shot. Link to her website
South-African photographer David Goldblatt on his celebrated work and photo book, In Boksburg. Link to his website
J.H. Engstrom discussing his recent project and photo book Tout va Bien which won him the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2015.
Interview with British photographer Chris Killip. Link to his website
2.Photo-Assignment 2: Explore the theme of Community and make a set of 5 images/ or a 3 min film.
As a photographer you are always looking for photo-opportunities and for stories that only you can tell. Try and find a personal angle on a story which will make it unique and choose a subject you have access to and can photograph in depth. It could be that you, or someone you know, have a passion for something outside work; a hobby, sport, pastime where you could photograph ‘behind-the-scenes’. Record events e.g. cultural festivities (Battle of Britain), sports competitions, protest/rallies etc. You could also expose something hidden or reveal something about our society and a particular group of people across class, gender, race or ethnicity. Maybe you live in a rural area and wants to highlight life in the country-side, photographing farm communities or parish life. Or, explore the town of St Helier with its hustle and bustle of life on the streets. You could also photograph a particular place, site or landscape which shows traces of human activity in what we refer to as Aftermath Documentary. Look at everyday life and the familiar from a new angle. Be curious and make the ordinary look extraordinary.
3.Editing/evaluation: Upload pictures from photo-shoot and process in Lightroom. Put contact sheets and edited prints in your blog. Annotate and evaluate pictures.
Presentation: Print out your set of 5 images and present in class for a group crib (Wed 21 October)
The Guernsey Photography Festival and Raven Russia Ltd are proud to present a major photography competition designed to promote the work of Channel Island and university students. The winners will be given the opportunity to gain valuable exposure by exhibiting at the next Guernsey Photography Festival in September 2016 (exact dates tbc).
COMPETITION CATEGORIES
Students 14-16 years old – Y 10 & 11 (Channel Islands only) Prize £250
Students 16+ years old – Y 12 & 13 (Channel Islands only) Prize £250
Students in Higher Education (worldwide) Prize £1000
The winners will also receive a selection of prizes courtesy of7dayshop.com
Submit 6 images and a 250 word statement
Get more information and read competition rules here
Tom’s new solo exhibition, I Am Not Tom Pope, You Are All Tom Pope, taking place at The Old Town Police Station, 11 Royal Square, St Helier, Jersey. There will be a private view 6 pm Thursday 17th September.
A participatory performance will take place in the exhibition space at 6 pm Thursday 24th September: Terminating Martin Parr’s Liberation Photographs: a collaborative project between Tom Pope, Martin Parr and Archisle.
The performance offers you the chance to destroy a Martin Parr photograph and potentially save one! If you’re interested in destroying a Parr photograph, for more details please visit:
Task: Write a review of Tom’s exhibition where you describe your own feelings and opinions.
Try and choose 1 or 2 specific works that you either like or dislike and provide reasons for critique.
Your analysis must be both an emotional and intellectual response to his work in the exhibition.
Include information and context from Tom’s talk about his work at the exhibition space. Research and theory is central to Tom’s practice. Make links to some of the artists that Tom mentioned such as John Baldessari, Marcel Duchamp and Yves Klein
For further context you must also read the exhibition text written by Gareth Syvret, Curator and Programme Leader at Archisle.
Include direct quotes from this text in your own analysis and provide further commentary.
Contextual Study: Your first task is to describe the genre of documentary photography. In class last Friday we discussed a few issues around aesthetic, moral and ethical considerations when you are depicting truth, recording life as it as and using your camera as a witness. We used current news images as case studies, such as the drowned Syrian boy (read article here) and to continue the debate I would like you to read the following articles when you are considering writing your response to the task on documentary photography.
Visitors at the Visa Pour l’Image festival in Perpignan, France, where a searching debate about the ethics of photojournalism is unfolding.
Currently, the International Festival of Photojournalism, Visa Pour L’Image is in Perpignan (South France) where a debate about ‘Standards and Ethics’ in photojournalism is raging. Here is an article published in New York Times yesterday which features different views on how much manipulation is acceptable in making images when you consider yourself a photojournalist. The debate is between staged photography and photojournalism claim to only bear witness.
Task 1: Read the article carefully, especially the views expressed by festival director, Jean-François Leroy, Lars Boering, Managing Director of World Press Photo and Canadian documentary photographer, Donald Webber who served as the chairman judging the Documentary section at the contest earlier in 2015. Consider the questions below and write a paragraph or two where you try and include direct quotes from the article and comment in your own words as a response. For further context, make sure you follow hyperlinks in the article to take you to other sites and comments.
Q1: Who sets the boundaries of what defines photojournalism? Q2: When technology makes it so easy to manipulate images, how much manipulation is acceptable? Q3: With viewers more sophisticated and skeptical than ever before, how can photojournalists preserve their integrity and maintain trust?
Link to NPPA (National Press Photographer’s Association) Code of Ethics. Compare views expressed in the article above with these.
Link to article about the photographer who took the photos of the dead Syrian boy where she speaks about why she took them.
A photograph that was part of a winning package at the World Press Photo awards. The image, of an intimate scene in Charleroi, Belgium, came under scrutiny over whether it broke contest rules. Credit Giovanni TroilFrom La Ville Noire by Giovanni Troil
Last week we also discussed if photographs can change the world. Again we looked at a few examples, notably Nick Ut’s famous image from the Vietnam War.
Vietnam Napalm 1972 South Vietnamese forces follow after terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong
Task 2: Consider if photographs can change the world or change people’s perception? Here is a a blog post by photographer and lecturer, Lewis Bush where he discuss the above in light of recent images of dead Syrian refugees in Europe. Include quotes in your answer.
Objective: Explore theme of Family in Documentary Photography
Blog: Produce a number of posts that show evidence of the following:
1. Contextual study: Describe the genre of documentary photography and illustrate with examples – make a moodboard. Try and elaborate on associated sub-genres such as photojournalism and street photography as well as comment on documentary’s central aesthetic, political and moral associations, such as depicting truth, recording life as it is and camera as a witness. See my blog post Standards and Ethics for more details.
American photographer Alec Soth on his approach in photography
Photographer Rob Hornstra on documentary, story-telling and slow journalism
Rob Hornstra and writer Arnold van Bruggen spend five years working in the Sochi Region where the 2014 Winter Olympics where held. Here is a link to The Sochi Project
British documentary photographer Chloe Dewe-Matthews
2. Artists references: Select at least two photographers who are exploring the theme of family in their work. Select body of works/ personal projects and analyse images in terms of style, form, approach, subject-matter, aesthetics, meaning and what story/message the photographer is trying to communicate.
For example look at the work of photographers such as: Richard Billingham (Ray’s a Laugh), Larry Sultan (Pictures from Home), Nan Goldin (The Ballad of Sexual Dependency), Sam Harris (The Middle of Somewhere), Yury Toroptsov (Deleted Scene, The House of Baba Yaga), Elinor Carucci, Jo Spence, Nick Waplington (Living Room) Wendy Evald (This is where we live), Inaki Domingo (Ser Sangre), Dragana Jurisic (YU: the Lost Country), Diana Markosian (Inventing My Father), Mitch Epstein (Family Business), Nicholas Nixon (the Brown Sisters), Stephen Gill (Hackney Kisses), David Spero (Tinkers Bubble), Tina Barney (Friends & Family), LaToya Ruby Frazier (The Notion of Family), Sian Davey (Looking for Alice), Jen Davis (Eleven Years), Corinne Day (Diary), Thomas Sauvin (Beijing Silvermine), Rachel Glass (The Domestic Aviary) Mariela Sancari (Moises), Ron Haviv (Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal) Jowhara Alsaud (Heir/Loom), Alexandra Davies, Arno Brignon, Mateusz Sarello (Swell), Sean Lee (Shauna), Maria Kapajeva, Alfonso Almendros (Family Reflections), Andrei Nacu, Laia Abril (The Epilogue), Rita Puig-Serra Costa (Where Mimosa Bloom), Philip Toledano (Days with my Father, When I was Six), Cyril Costilhes (Grand Circle Diego), Tiago Casanova (Pearl), Ahmet Unver (Far Away)
See this folder with artist that exhibited as part of Guernsey Photography Festival 2014
M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Documentary & Narrative\Research\GPF Open Call Submissions\FAMILY
Here are a few videos:
In this clip Sam Harris talking about his new book In the Middle of Somewhere which are following his family life over a 12 year period
For the last 12 years, American photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier has photographed friends, neighbors and family in Braddock, Pennsylvania. But though the steel town has lately been hailed as a posterchild of “rustbelt revitalization,” Frazier’s pictures tell a different story, of the real impact of inequality and environmental toxicity. In this short, powerful talk, the TED Fellow shares a deeply personal glimpse of an often-unseen world.
Here Yury Toroptsov talks about the 3 storylines that are interweaved in his new work and book Deleted Scene. Link to his website
3. Photo-Assignment 1: Explore the theme of Family and make a set of 5 images/ or a 3 min film
You can explore your own family as an insiders point of view, or you can choose to photograph someone else’s family as an outsider. This could include extended family such as grandparents, uncle & aunties etc. Your photographs can show an everyday family event e.g. breakfast, dinner, watching TV, playing games, private moments, social interaction etc. You can also choose to follow one person and record their life in private and how they interact with other family members. Or, make a set of portraits of each member of your family. The rules are that you must make images within the confines of your family home, this can both inside and outside,. Think about making a number of different shots, portraits (formal/informal, environmental), still-life (interiors, personal objects), landscape (house, garden etc) Explore different ways of framing shots using wide-angle and standard lens, explore different angles and points of view (low, high, canted, straight on). Remember to adjust camera settings and exposure for different lighting conditions.
4. Editing/evaluation: Upload pictures from photo-shoot and process in Lightroom. Put contact sheets and edited best prints in your blog. Annotate and evaluate pictures.
Presentation:Print out your set of 5 images and present in class for a group crit (Mon 14th Sept)
“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
Robert Capa, photojournalist. Hungarian (1913-54)
Welcome back after Summer Break!
In the A2 coursework module this term you are going to explore Documentary andNarrative in photography. The aim of this module is to combine your knowledge and skills of portraiture and landscape to produce pictures which are telling a story of people in the environment based around your chosen theme of FAITH, FAMILY & COMMUNITY
Click here to get full overview of the module and what you are required to do this term. Read first 22 slides:
This module will explore different approaches to story-telling across different genres such as contemporary documentary, tableaux photography, photojournalism and street photography,
This unit requires you to produce a workbook with research, analysis, photographic responses, experimentation and make a number of final outcomes, such as designing a photo book, newspaper/magazine double-page spread, podcast/ film and final prints, .
Read Tom Pope’s new blogspot about his planned epic film: Pushing the Boat Out
The film will see Tom, with the help of the Jersey community, push a 13.7ft boat across the island and out to the Atlantic ocean.
Here is what Tom has to say:
‘On July the 16th, starting from Gorey harbour i will set off with the boat heading West to St Ouen’s Bay. The underlying principle of the film is centred on how it’s an impossible task for me to complete alone. As a photographer and performer it will not be viable to record the process of pushing the boat across Jersey while actually doing it. I will require assistance from the public if i want to succeed in moving the boat and recording the performance. The resulting video footage will be used to create a 20-25minute film.’
Objective: Contextual studies and developing final ideas
There is now 3 weeks left of this module and it is time for you to begin to develop ideas for final outcomes.
From the Planner Summer 2015 it states that you MUST Produce a number of posts that show evidence of the following:
1. Research: Look at a number of different starting points for developing your own ideas. In particular other artists within performance, photography and video for example see ppt: Performance and Photography, Photomontage and resources from below. Choose at least two artists references.
2. Analysis: Select key works for further analysis. Describe techniques used, interpret meaning, evaluate aesthetic quality. Make links to art history e.g. concept of Dadaism, Photomontage, Futurism, Surrealism, Experimental filmmaking/ Avant-garde cinema, Situationism, Psychogeography, Performance art/Live art, Neo-dadaism, Conceptualism etc.
3. Planning: Write a manifesto with a set of rules (6-10) that provide a framework for your final project. Describe in detail how you are planning on developing your work and ideas in the next two weeks. Think about what you want to achieve, what you want to communicate, how your ideas relate to the themes of Chance, Change and Challenge and how you are going to approach this task in terms of form, technique and subject-matter. Illustrate your ideas with examples, mindmaps, moodboards etc. You can work individually or in groups.
4. Friday 3rd July Group crit:Critical reflection and presentation of your work/ ideas
5. Upload and process images/video using Lightroom/ Photoshop/ Premiere.
6. Final outcome: Edit, experiment and evaluate with a number of different creative outcomes using still images or video. Produce a number of posts that illustrate your working and thinking process, using screen-graps, images and annotation.
7. Create a title for your work and write an artists statement.
Review, reflect and describe the ideas, influences and meaning behind your final outcome. Reflect also on what you have learned during this module on Performance and Photography and evaluate how successful you were in realising your ideas and how it relates to themes of Chance, Change & Challenge.
8. DEADLINE Friday 10th July: Feedback and creative input. from Tom Pope and Gareth Syvret. Make sure you have work ready for presentation!
HELP & SUPPORT:
A list of art movements that you may use as contextual research. Many of them also produced Manifestos:
Dadaism, Futurism, Surrealism, Situationism, Neo-dadaism, Land/Environmental art, Performance art/Live art, Conceptualism, Experimental filmmaking/ Avant-garde cinema (those studying Media make links with your unit on Experimental film)
Here are a list of artists/ photographers that may inspire you:
Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Yves Klein, Bas Jan Ader, Erwin Wurm, Chris Arnatt, Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, Francis Alÿs, , Sophie Calle , Nikki S Lee, Claude Cahun, Dennis Oppenheim, Bruce Nauman, Allan Kaprow, Mark Wallinger, Gillian Wearing, Marcel Duchamp and the Readymade, Andy Warhol’s film work, Steve McQueen, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Marina Abramovic, PipilottiRist, Luis Bunuel/ Salvatore Dali: , Le ChienAndalou, Dziga Vertov: The Man with a Movie Camera
A few Youtube clips (view at home or in class on teacher’s computer)
John Baldessari: I will not make any more boring art
Vito Acconci
Bruce Nauman: Art Make-Up
Yoko Ono: Cut Piece
Martha Rosler: Semiotics of the Kitchen
Gillian Wearing: Dancing in Peckham
Mark Wallinger: Hymn
Chris Burden: Shoot, 1971
Joseph Beyus: , I Like America and America Likes Me
Workshop at Société Jersiaise Photo Archive 9th June 2015
Using the Photographic Archive as a Resource for Research and Ideas
Picture Research Exercise
At the beginning of this workshop your group will be assigned a photographer from the archive. Your group’s task will be to research the work of this photographer and to select a photograph by them that illustrates performance in some way and or the theme: CHANCE/CHALLENGE/CHANGE. Think Laterally!!!!
Choose between one of these names:
Laurens, Phillip Morel
Ouless, Clarence P
De Faye, Francis George
Dale, Edwin
Baudoux, Ernest
Dunham, Percy
Smith, Albert
Guiton, Emile F
Foot, Francis
