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Ethical Concerns:

September 28, 2015 2873 Claudia Viveiros Leave a comment

I’m going to be analyzing a documentary picture with my own personal opinion. I’ll explain my own thoughts on the subject as well as commenting on the ethical concerns that apply the photograph. Ethics is defined as: moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior. It’s about recording truth, in the realest way possible. However it’s also about who’s truth, what we believe in and what’s acceptable, which is where the ethics come in.

In class, we watched a YouTube clip that was dedicated to this incident. The film was entitled The Falling Man.

Here’s the link to it: https://youtu.be/m3gbxJ4xUDE

‘The falling man’, that was taken on September the 11th. Here’s the picture by the iconic photographer Richard Drew:

Richard Drew is the man behind this shocking picture. It was taken on September the 11th, when the World Trade Center was a target of the various life-threatening terrorist attacks. That day was full of chaos and with that came a lot of reporters, snapping away pictures of the scene. Surprisingly, Drew’s ‘falling man’ was the most memorable of the lot.

The man in the picture, was seen falling from the North tower. His body was in an upside-down position. There is a question that remains however. Is it that the man fell as a form of escape from the fire, or did he fall accidentally while looking for safety. That will probably remain a mystery. However, when the picture was released into the media, by the photojournalist Richard, it ignited masses of attention. When it was uploaded onto the internet, the companies were bashed with negatives comments saying it was ‘tasteless and voyeuristic’. Therefore, they removed all their online records of it, making it know as, by Drew, ‘the most famous picture that no one has seen’. The unidentified man appeared to be falling in an uncontrollable manner. The ferocious amounts of wind filled his white top with ripples.

The falling man - closeup — ‘The falling man’ by Drew – closeup shot.

For me, it was good that Drew released this picture to the press. Although a lot of controversial situations occurred, it became one of the most powerful photojournalism pictures of 9/11. I watched the film linked above, called ‘The falling man’. I will be writing a short paragraph of my thoughts on it:

Most picture that were taken that day showed the amazing and heroic scenes, in which people were being rescued. All of the attention was being placed on the soldiers, firefighters and people that helped with the event and aftermath. Even though that was truly amazing, no one wanted to show the victim’s struggle’s. Here are some of the generically typical photojournalism photographs of the heroism that day:

To summarize, the world preferred to remember the rescuers rather than the explicitly graphic scenes of the victims that suffered during the explosions of the terrorist attacks.

What I find so breathtakingly amazing about Drew’s ‘Falling man’ picture is that he simply shows a man falling to his death. It truly expressed the depressions he might have been in and highlighted the disasters of that day. The fact that another humans valuable life was lost. Drew captured the horrible torture of the people that fell or jumped had to endure. It depicted the harsh reality of what it might have been like for the victims. He took various pictures of many people in the air, here are some:

Most reporters that were on the scene that day didn’t film the people falling in mid-air. Instead, they were asking spectators and eye-witnesses what their thoughts on the scene were. Personally I believe that they shouldn’t have done so, as it doesn’t show the truth of what’s happening, it’s simply an opinion. For example, this picture, where they only interview onlookers:

It’s much more powerful in my opinion, to show the victims and then let the world evaluate the case in order to make positive changes.

It’s sad to think that their only hope may have been to suicide and end their life’s then and there. It was the only thing that they had control on. They could either choose to stay and burn in flames, or jump and end it quickly. Is it that they’d wait for themselves to die, or would they end it themselves. Many were forced to jump, or accidentally fell and had no choice. The desperation was incredibly high, showing the moments of fear and bravery. It’s like when everything around them was out of control, they could at least control one thing.

The only picture that left the most memorable response that day was Drew’s. Compared to other pictures of 9/11, his photojournalism picture emitted the biggest impact on a worldwide scale. This image of ‘The falling man’ received the deepest and most heartfelt responses that were combined with anger and frustration. The picture highlights the insane choices that the victims were urged to commit. It made spectators put themselves in the victims positions. They began to question what they’d do and their personal choices if they were in that situation. Drew’s image showed the negative side of the event and prompted people to want to change the world for the better.

pict7 — Richard Drew – long shot – twin towers

Even though everyone was in denial that there were jumpers, Drew proved this. All of the broadcasts missed out the fact that people actually chose to leap, instead they said they were ‘forced out’. No one could seem to deal with the truth or confront it fully. Some spectators found that the specific way he died was not right. They felt uncomfortable seeing this. But as the man in the clip stated, the jumpers shouldn’t be excluded from the pictures, just because they died in a certain way. The falling man was symbol that demonstrated pure bravery on behalf of himself and the other jumpers. However, again he brought light to this subject and it was a real eye-opener.

Later they tried identifying the man, his white shirt resembled one of a waiter from the tower’s restaurant. They linked him to a man called Jonathon Briley. Briley’s family didn’t want to accept the fact that the falling man was him. They viewed the way he fell in a bad manner, they were quite negative about it. They stated it wasn’t the right way to die.

However, to this day ‘The Falling Man’ has never been properly identified. There is no proof that it was in fact Jonathon Briley. The ‘falling’ man will therefore always be a mystery, but it’s certainly a moment to remember.

Analysis, Exhibition, Record / Photoshoot, Research

Tom Pope Exhibition Visit:

September 27, 2015 2873 Claudia Viveiros Leave a comment

On Friday the 25th of September, our photography class visited Tom Pope’s recent exhibition. It was called ‘I Am Not Tom Pope, You Are All Tom Pope’. In the building, he had a total of 21 works. Here’s a picture of Pope giving a speech on his outcomes:

Tom quoted in this exhibition letter: ‘My practice does not make artwork for a community, it creates a community through the act of making’. I think what he means is that he brings people by doing what he does. He is probably inciting that he isn’t the sole producer of the work, rather, community members have a big part to play. In that, everyone’s brought closer together under the name of visual arts. Here’s the letter:

I Am Not Tom Pope, You Are All Tom Pope - Letter. — I Am Not Tom Pope, You Are All Tom Pope – Letter.

He also displayed a rather long film, around 20 minutes or so. Pope and many other volunteers from all around Jersey, helped to push a small boat across the island. The film was entitled ‘The Last Portage’. Portage defined as: the practice of carrying a water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. The boat was then placed on a slipway and pushed out to sea by Tom. The aim was for the boat to sail in the Atlantic ocean. Surprisingly, Pope then had to phone the coastguards to alert them that a ‘lost’ boat was at sea. The footage was displayed in a dark room, here’s a picture I took of the screening:

Tom Pope - The Last Portage. — Tom Pope – The Last Portage. – Film Presentation.

At the end of Tom’s presentation, I took some pictures. Here’s his collection from the first room:

This picture above, shows an upside down woman holding a reflected shoe on her heel. The background of the image is pitch black, so that the girls legs stand out. I think that this picture is quite bold. The subjects in this photograph are quite off balance. This is because there’s a massive void of empty space on the right hand side. For me, this creates interest and mysteriousness. Also the rule of thirds are rather strong. The legs intercept the two hot-spots and are aligned with one of the vertical lines.

This picture shows a portrait of a woman on the beach. She’s wearing a leopard skin bikini and has had a face altered on top of hers. The face is actually from the Jersey Archive and Pope’s cleverly placed it onto her body. I think that this hides her emotions and is a sort of disguise. Compositionally, it’s great. The woman is directly in the center of the frame and the sea behind her creates a vertical overlap with her. Also, her stance is strong and tall.

Tom Pope is actually featured in this one. This self-portrait shows Pope being painted by another man. His expression looks surprised and the painter looks focused. The way that Tom’s arm has been cut off on the right hand side, leads me to look at it. This image also has a pretty good amount of depth to it. The painter in the foreground creates shadows on Tom, which then creates shadows on the background wall.

Here, a man appears to be climbing on a statue. This was taken during the night, so it’s likely that a flash camera was utilized. In all, there is a lot going on in this picture. From the street signs on the side, to the cool statue and the man trying to stabilize himself. It looks like it was taken in an amateur man, because the elements aren’t that well aligned. Nevertheless, I believe that that makes it more intriguing.

Lastly, these two images were placed together. In the left one, a night scene has been captured, where someone seem to be holding a hockey stick. The man pictures was probably playing hockey whilst someone was snapping pictures. The image on the left is of a girl on a cylinder shaped structure. It looks as if she jumped on it and is now grabbing on. The way she’s holding on, somehow reminds me of a bear climbing a tree. The striped background works well, as it creates depth and leading lines.

If you notice, all of the pictures were framed with a bright orange frame. When asked why he did this, Tom said that he simply liked the color. He also said that it paint the pictures stand out and that he has presented his work like this in the past. For instance, when he photographed oranges, he’d normally frame in in that color. It could also relate to Baldessari’s work.

In this room, Pope had also displayed a blue podium. The color was bright blue and it stood out quite a lot. Pope stated that he chose this color to create a contrast against the white images on it. He said that it wouldn’t be as interesting to look at, if the podium was just plain white and i agree. The podium is cut at exactly one meter by one meter, making a perfect square. The way that he presented the images is also quite exquisite. Tom said that he would grab a picture and hold it up, at about one meter from the ground. He would then drop the image and simply leave it to land, whether it be upright or face down. Again this incorporates his love for performance photography. In this medium he performs something and records it, with the camera.

Here’s his collection from the second room:

Tom then gave us an insightful speech about his idea behind this part of the exhibition. There were various cutout faces placed on posts. The portraits were in black and white and so were the pieces placed on the tables. Pope said that the faces were actually from the archive. He added that this project was about distributing the archive out into jersey, which he did by photographing them. I think it’s great because he’s bringing the past and present together, to create new images.

Below are some close-ups of the masks. The eye’s have been cut out so that people can wear them:

On the tables, Pope displayed these pictures. He used a coin method to create these interesting holes. Basically there’s one picture on top of the other. Tom used a regular coin and placed it in a desired place. He then cut out the shape and left a gap for the photograph underneath to shine through. Again, a coherent theme of combining pictures is apparent here:

Analysis, Planning, Research

Artist references for family:

September 26, 2015 2873 Claudia Viveiros Leave a comment

In this post I’ll be exploring at least two photographers, that explore the theme of family. I’ll also be analysing some of their best images and commenting on compositional elements, the aesthetical components and others.

The first artist that I’ll look at is Larry Clark and seconds Sally Mann. Both of these photographers were mentioned in my previous post ‘film notes on family’. They both have very different styles, which can be seen in their work.

Larry Clark has got a very specific style in which he photographs family. His photography is described as Confessional. Confessional work is very personal and shows honesty. It’s also referred to as a diary. Clarke’s an insider and not an outsider, which gives him a great opportunity. The audience truly gets a feel for what it’s like to be in his family.

Growing up in a very poor environment, his mannerisms and behaviour were affected by this. He was always surrounded by junkies, hustlers and alcohol users. He quoted: Once the needle goes in, it never comes out’. Clark displayed a risky and shocking exhibition called ‘Tulsa’, which is where I got these images from. Some may say that it’s an exploitation. Most of these pictures were black and white, so this gives it a different ambience.

Larry Clark - Tulsa. — Larry Clark – Tulsa.

I think that this picture above is very deep. I believe that there is a lot of meaning to it. Clark’s captures a very chaotic and busy family scene. The trio in the bathroom seem to have chill expressions, yet their body language says differently. Also, the small child leaning against the wall, seems very stressed. The way she’s crutching the doll or baby shows that she might be scared. There seems to be a very good contrast here. The bright white wall separates the outer shadows in this image. There is also a man smoking a cigarette. For me this picture communicates a very distraught and bad environment. It may be unstable to have a child there, and it appears that they are party-goers that like to have fun.

Moving on, I’ve selected this image from the ‘Tulsa’ series again. This is a particularly famous example of Larry’s many photographs. For me, this whole-body portrait has a certain vibe to it. When looking at this, people could stereotypically assume the following keywords: gang affiliation, danger, self-protection, etc. The black and white tones give this picture a very soft look. Also the face that the man is played perfectly in the middle of the frame is aesthetically good. The rule of thirds are quite well aligned. The mans pose doesn’t necessarily look natural. It’s possible that Clark assigned the man this certain position. Nevertheless, the expression on the males face looks sincere. I think that Larry was trying to show the type of lifestyle that he lives in. The fact that he has a gun says quite a lot, so it may show his struggles and what lead him to that point.

Sally Mann, photographs on a very different way. She photographed in a Collaborative manner. Her and her three children would help her to make these pictures so compositionally beautiful. The people which she collaborated with, had to hold a certain expression, they themselves, had to make the effort. Mann lived on a farm and spent her whole life there. She produced a great variation of family pictures whilst she was there. Sally quoted: “it’s always been my philosophy to try to make art out of the everyday and ordinary…it never occurred to me to leave home to make art.”

Series 'Immediate Family'. Shot between 1984-91 on large format, timeless and magic. — Series ‘Immediate Family’ – Shot in 1984 – 1991. – Sally Mann.

In this first image, I can begin to analyse some common features. Mann always seems to photograph in black and white. She includes many sharp and soft contrasts which may have been created with natural light, since they’re outside.

To me, her photographs look very natural, yet also well planned out. Her family portraits have a professional look to them. The expressions on the members faces are distinct and look honest. Sally said: “Every image is in some way a ‘portrait’, not in the way that it would reproduce the traits of a person, but in that it pulls and draws, in that it extracts something, an intimacy, a force.”

Aesthetically, and this applies to both images, I think that Mann captures the true essence of natural moments. She manages to catch beautiful snippets, which are taken just at the right time. Her family has quite symmetrical faces. This is seen as attractive, on an international level, therefore her images work well. Although these pictures have been taken outside, there seems to be a very soft bounce of highlights. All of these elements add up to create an aesthetically pleasing image. Mann stated: “ If I could be said to have any kind of aesthetic, it’s sort of a magpie aesthetic—I just go and pick up whatever is around. If you think about it, the children were there, so I took pictures of my children. It’s not that I’m interested in children that much or photographing them—it’s just that they were there…”.

In the second image, a small child is seen laying on a man. She seems to be fast asleep, and the fact that she’s asleep gives her relaxed appearance. The holding of the hands represents love. The angle this is taken from, is quite high up, and it cuts of at her waist. I think that the photographer was trying to show a common situation, which normally happens on summer days, maybe that the child has had so much fun and is now tired, for example. Sally Mann quoted: “Some of my pictures are poem-like in the sense that they are very condensed, haiku-lik. There are others that, if they were poetry, would be more like Ezra Pound. There is a lot of information in most of my pictures, but not the kind of information you see in documentary photography. There is emotional information in my photographs.”

Analysis, Evaluation

Jeff Wall – Analysis of Work

September 26, 2015 Max Le Feuvre Leave a comment

This photograph by Jeff Wall, shows four people battling against a ferocious gust of wind. Wall is attempting to highlight the power of nature, and represent humanity as helpless to its force. It is a very dramatic image with papers from one of the men’s briefcase flying everywhere, and and all other men attempting to shield themselves from the wind. This is a tableau photograph however there are clear elements of this image that were not staged and so affect the composition of the image to some degree. I find the composition to be very effective, and the photograph is very visually striking.

Natural Elements of the Image

Lighting

The overcast day is out of the photographers control. It helps to make the image very dramatic because it establishes a dark and sinister mood, which is a cold, dramatic theme. The greyness from the sky gives an overall image which is low in saturation. This provides the image with a sense of subtlety as all aspects of the image blend in and compliment each other. Although Wall had no actual control over the weather in this image, I do believe however that Wall deliberately waited for such weather conditions as the achieve the effect it does

Wind

The wind is an integral part of this image, again outside of the photographer’s control. Likewise to the overcast day, Wall has chosen to photograph at the moment when there is a gust of wind, an important selection because it completely defines the image, as the whole theme and composition is based on the effect the wind has.

Analysis, Evaluation, Record / Photoshoot

Corinne Day Inspired Shoots – COMMUNITY

September 25, 2015 Jemma Hosegood Leave a comment

Before the school summer holidays, I briefly looked over ‘Corinne Days Diary’. Over the summer, attending parties throughout the summer and Reading Festival at the very end of the summer. Over these events i captured some images that represented a more PG version of Corinnes images.

Here are the images –

All of the above images were taken on disposables, i took 6 disposable cameras to Reading festival as i love the style the cameras produce. They give a rough old look which i feel matches this topic perfectly. One of my favorite images is the two below. These were both taken at Reading and i love the informal feel in both.

This image was damaged by water. It rained nearly every day at Reading and water got into one of the cameras. However i feel it has benefited the image as it has given it texture and an even older look. The floor looks very worn and tired, similar to the picture and the subjects in the image. The girl photographed was heavily intoxicated, taking a surprise image turned out to be one of the best images taken.

The next image has also been damaged by water and shock. Over the course of the week i dropped the camera numerous times. This resulted in a two of the images being split and merged together. However i loved this affect as it makes the image look older again and more interesting as you have to work out what it actually is. The two subjects in the photograph are also unaware the image was being taken, sharing a hug they are unknowingly being photographed.

This is also the other half of the damaged image.

Analysis, Evaluation, Research

“Heroin Chic”

September 24, 2015 Jemma Hosegood Leave a comment

Corinne Day flourished in the 90’s, her photographs brought to live the ‘look’ that was going around called ‘Heroin Chic’.

Heroin chic was a look popularized in mid-1990s fashion and characterized by pale skin, dark circles underneath the eyes and angular bone structure. The look, characterised by emaciated features and androgyny, was a reaction against the “healthy” and vibrant look of models such as Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer. A 1996 article in the Los Angeles Times stated that the fashion industry had “a nihilistic vision of beauty” that was reflective of drug addiction and the U.S. News and World Report called the movement a “cynical trend”.

Corinne photographed people such as ‘Tara’ who is the inspiration for her book ‘Diary’, Abusing drugs over a two year period. Corinnes images are very explicit in some as they show drug prep and nudity. All of her images produced the same aesthetic of hard core party scene images.

The look ‘Heroin Chic’ was categorized for people with pale skin, dark circles underneath the eyes and angular bone structure, typically female models. Corinnes images replicated this look as she photographed ‘Tara’ throughout her sober live and her drug live.

The two images above from Days book ‘Diary’, are two of my favorite. This is because they are the two photographs that have shown ‘Tara’ is her happiest state and her worst state. These images also show clearly the ‘heroin Chic Look’ as ‘Tara’ appears skinny, defined bone structure and also has dark/red circles under her eyes.

Analysis, Evaluation, Research

Can photographs change the world or people’s perceptions?:

September 23, 2015 2873 Claudia Viveiros Leave a comment

In this short reponse, I’ll be considering the question in the title. This is a very contraversial topic and many people have varied opinions on this. However, i can analyze some of the points that agree with each one.

A very famous photograph includes:

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.

Nick Ut, was the man that recorded this disturbing image. It was taken in South Vietnam. At that moment, war planes had accidentally dropped bombs over their terrain, which caused an outburst of people in shock. The children are seen trying to evacuate the place and have a look of terror on their faces. The girl is left completely naked after the acidic bombs erode her clothes.

Discussing mind-set, I think it’s extremely difficult to change someone’s. It takes a powerful and meaningful picture to get to some people. Nick Ut was asked the name of this specific image, and he said: “Terrible War.” A lot of people say “Napalm Girl” or “Napalm Photo”, but when I use the photo I say, “Terrible War.”

This is a link to a website that I found. It shows the 30 most influential photographs that people say changed the world: http://www.photographyschoolsonline.net/blog/2010/30-photos-that-changed-the-world/

Example of a strong picture on that list:

The 9/11 attacks; New York Times, 2001 There are many haunting images of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, but this one of a person standing in a gaping hole of wreckage, with no exit or hope of rescue, is one of the most wrenching. — The 9/11 attacks; New York Times, 2001
There are many haunting images of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, but this one of a person standing in a gaping hole of wreckage, with no exit or hope of rescue, is one of the most wrenching.

Lewis bush, a photographer and lecturer posted an article on his blog. He talked about the topic in which I’m addressing, whether pictures have the power to change the world or people’s perceptions.

Bush’s official website: http://www.lewisbush.com/

Bush’s blog post: http://www.disphotic.com/photographs-wont-change-the-world/

In the title of his essay, Bush says: ‘Photographs won’t change the world’. He goes onto say that there’s no real evidence that an actual picture can change the world. He says: ‘photographs are just bits of paper’. Bush states that pictures do help to ‘expose’ situations for what they are. Nonetheless, he say’s it’s always ‘incomplete and fragmented’. Bush says it’s not the same, to experience the situation in real life and look at it in a picture. For example, the picture of the drowned Syrian boy. Bush quoted: ‘This is not to say that seeing a photograph of a drowned child on a beach is the same as standing on that beach over that small body. But it is about knowing that somewhere a child drowned, and that his death is the consequence of other things which might be more within our power to change. Photographs present the idea that things are happening, or exist, or are possible’.

Lewis simply adds that photographs can’t drastically change someone, they also won’t completely make someone a saint. Picture can influence people in both ways, bad or good. Photographs can only change the world due to one link, says Bush: ‘in the unreachable recesses of the human mind’. Bush included that: ‘To claim that photographs, and by association the act of photographing, will in themselves change the world is disingenuous, a case of letting ourselves off the hook’. I believe that this is a very powerful quote. Bush very clearly exudes that there needs to be external factors, that work to make the world a better place and that the photograph should only remind us of the deterioration as a motivation. Bush ends with a slightly alternative view: ‘To believe that photographs can’t drive us to change the world is to believe in a futile, solitary, and self-fulfilling prophecy’.

For me, I believe that photographs have the power to change people’s perceptions .You have to feel very strongly and be motivated, as a human being, to change the world. Of course, strong and powerful pictures like Vietnam one, can leave a long lasting impression on people. Therefore, I think that, that’s what causes us to want to change the world. It cannot be done without being in a certain mind-set, which photographs ignite in us. As Lewis Bush says: ‘These things (photographs) can’t change the world, but they can change people, and people can change the world’.To conclude, pictures have the power to change our views, in result we act to change the world.

Analysis

FAMILY & FRIENDS DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY

September 22, 2015 Emily Vetier Leave a comment

In class we watched a documentary film called ‘The Genius of Photography’ and we watched the scene which is called ‘We are Family’. From this video i think that to take documentary images a key aspect is to try to get someone to open up, so then in the images you can reveal the real person. Through the images that you take you are trying to capture a feeling or an emotion that comes across in the images. For these types of images it is not about the lighting the photos that you take can look quite amateur, as long as there is some kind of meaning behind them. It can also be said that when you take a documentary image and you try to get your subject to pose for you and it is not realistic that the feeling that comes across from the image is the feeling that the person taking the photograph is feeling. So the photograph that the photographer takes project how they feel onto the subject, so in reality the image is of the photographer and not actually the person who is in the photo. When some photographers take images they like to try and give it a vernacular feel to it, this basically means traditional and that the photographer tries to take images how an ordinary person would take them, and not from a photographers perspective. This is how they make their images look amateur.

The first photographer that was mentioned in the film was Tony Vaccaro. In the late 50’s and 1960’s there was a lot of high gloss images of celebrities.

Tony Vaccaro says that celebrity portraits shows the photographers opinions on the celebrity and not how the celebrity actually views them self. As when the photographer takes the image they get the celebrity to pose and that shows the photographers views on them not their own views.

In the film one other photographer that was mentioned was Duane Micheal’s, he said that he doesn’t believe portraits and they do not tell you who the person is. I think that this is true as when you look at a portrait you cannot tell anything about the history of a person or anything about their personality. If there is a background to the image then you can maybe get the context of their life, but if not then i think the photograph is just a still image. This is why some photographers choose to take photographs of celebrities as they are pre-packaged as the media know about celebrities lives and they do not need to tell their story through one still portrait image. Pablo Picasso refused to get his portrait taken for many years until around 1966 and 1967 when he asked Tony Vaccaro to take a portrait image of him. Tony says that Picasso kept pulling different poses and Tony could tell that the images just didn’t show his personality, so he pretended to be fixing the light that was on his camera and when he was doing this Picasso relaxed and Tony took the photo. This image of Picasso was taken in 1968.

This image of Picasso shows a relaxed version of himself compared to the other portrait images that were taken of him, and that Picasso himself did not like. I think that by Clarke taking this image when Picasso didn’t realise it shows more of Picasso’s personality.

When taking documentary photography there are two view points that the image can be taken from, one is an insider, where you are apart of the culture or family of the subject that you are taking photos of. Or you can take an image from an outsiders perspective, this would be taking images of subjects who maybe do not come from the same background as you, and these people may be strangers to you. Taking photos like these can be interesting as you are documenting life from an outsiders perspective and this explore someone else’s life.

Another photographer that was mentioned was Martin Parr, his documentary photography is considered as dairy photography, this is because Parr kept a diary while he was taking his images. In Larry Clarke’s book called Tulsa there are sections in the book which show Clarke’s dairy and what he wrote in his diary. These images that are in ‘Tulsa’ are very intimate images and can be considered as an impolite genre. In these images there is drug use in the photographs, which makes the images intimate.

Nan Golding was another photographer that was mentioned in the video. Golding was a New York photographer who photographed her ‘own tribe’, this consisted of transsexual’s and images of drug taking and party animals. However Golding did not call them this she called them third gender, i think she did this so she did not discriminate them from everyone else. Golding took this images to show people how ‘third gender’ people live normal lives and she wanted this to come across in her photography. Golding considered her photographs as confessional photography and for this she was inspired by film makers when she took her images. Sometimes Golding puts herself in this images to tell a story, there is one famous image of Golding with a black eye that her boyfriend at the time gave her.

These images show part of Nan Golding’s life and show how her life was not always perfect. Nan said on the film that in a photograph there is an ‘ability to be present in the moment, but you can be there and get lost at the same time’.

Some photographers consider it that when you do not take a photograph then you do not remember the memory or the moment, so therefore they believe that is you don’t shoot you don’t remember. But also documentary photography can be seen that you only photograph what you want to remember, as sometimes you do not want to remember the memory. When taking these images it can be considered that you have to be in the mindset that you are going to take the perfect documentary image otherwise you will never take the perfect image. Black and white photographs are interesting as they show past to present in one image.

Richard Billingham is a famous photographer who photographed his drunk father, his father could drink uninterruptedly. When Billingham first started taking his photos they were to make art out of, he would use a triple print as he thought this made for more interesting paintings. So when Billingham was taking these images of his father he was not taking these from the eyes of a photographer but from the eyes of an artist. However Billingham was criticized as people said that he was photographing his parents for his own fame. Whereas i think that Billingham took the images so that he could understand his father and so he could be closer to him. I think that by him taking these images it made him more aware and try to understand why his father/family was like this.

On the other end of the scale, a photographer Sally Mann took idealistic images of her family showing them off in their best light. She took these images from an insiders perspective whereby she took image of the idealistic family life. She took these images in collaboration, as when she was photographing them she said that they need to ‘give you the picture’.

Analysis, Evaluation, Research

Corinne Day Diary – COMMUNITY STUDY

September 22, 2015 Jemma Hosegood Leave a comment

I have become fascinated by Corinne Day and her photography book ‘Corinne Day Diary’. I’m interested in the explicit nature of the book, exposing drugs, intoxication and nudity. These type of books interest me as I feel they push the boundaries of society and the photographers seem to not care what people think of them of their work, this therefore has interested me to study them . All of days pictures represent a feel of community to me, she is taking us through Tara’s community of friends.

Corinne Day is a British photographer whose influence on the style and perception of photography in the early 1990s has been immense. As a self taught photographer, Day brought a more hard edged documentary look to fashion image making, in which she often included biographical elements. Day is known for forming long and close relationships with many of her sitters (most famously Kate Moss), which have resulted in candid and intimate portraits. The most notable of these being the photographs of Moss in the 3rd Summer of Love editorial for the FACE magazine in 1990. Days approach as illustrated within the lifestyle and fashion magazines of the 1990s, came to be known as grunge and grew into an international style.

“Good friends make you face the truth about yourself and you do the same for them, as painful, or as pleasurable, the truth may be”

This is one of my favorite quotes from Day, as i completely agree with this. Your true friends and the community you surround yourself with, do have this affect on you as they can make you face things you wouldn’t normally, they encourage you to do this you may not also. You do the same for them as you know eachother the best so can influence them and yourself to do things.

Analysis, Research

Richard Billingham – Ray’s a laugh

September 22, 2015 Jemma Hosegood Leave a comment

Ray’s a Laugh is a portrayal of the poverty and deprivation in which he grew up. The photographs, which were taken on the cheapest film he could find, provide brash colours and bad focus which adds to the authenticity and frankness of the series. Ray, his father, and his mother Liz, appear at first glance as grotesque figures, with the alcoholic father drunk on his home brew, and the mother, an obese chain smoker with an apparent fascination for nicknacks and jigsaw puzzles. However, there is such integrity in this work that Ray and Liz ultimately shine through as troubled yet deeply human and touching personalities.

Some of the images in Billinghams project are seen and perceived as disturbing and sometimes sickening. This is due to the poverty and unhygienic conditions, However we can see in the images that Billingham loved his parents as he takes pictures of the good and the bad. Some of my favorite images are when Ray is seen laughing, as his face crumples up as he laughs. For example the cover of the book-

“” my father Raymond is a chronic alcoholic. he doesn’t like going outside, my mother Elizabeth hardly drinks,
but she does smoke a lot.
she likes pets and things that are decorative.
they married in 1970 and I was born soon after.
my younger brother Jason was taken into care when he was 11,
but now he is back with Ray and Liz again.
recently he became a father.
‘dad was some kind of mechanic, but he’s always been an
alcoholic. it has just got worse over the years.
he gets drunk on cheap cider at the off license.
he drinks a lot at nights now and gets up late.
originally, our family lived in a terraced house,
but they blew all the redundancy money and, in desperation,
sold the house. then we moved to the council tower block,
where ray just sits in and drinks.
that’s the thing about my dad, there’s no subject he’s interested
in, except drink.””

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