When we were going around St. Malo we found a small childs blanket left on the floor with the name Charlie James and the date 10-04-14 sewn on. We picked up the blanket and placed it in different locations to give different meanings for the viewer to think of.
I like this set of images because of how they can be interpreted and how they all have a slightly sad and lonely feel to them.
We then left the blanket hanging on a railing, which was a couple of streets down from where we found it.
For our first photography study we went on a trip to St. Malo. The trip consisted of 4 main shoots, during the shoots we split up into 4 groups of around 10 people accompanied by 1 adult.
For my first group shoot we started off by walking around inside the walls of st.malo up towards the north wall. Early on we found a set of steps that thought would be aesthetically pleasing to do a performance photography shoot. i stood at the base of the stairs and angled my camera to face the peak, I then positioned the girls to stand in a zig zag, unexpectedly a ball was found so i asked the girls to throw the ball between them. Tom pope the artist we were with then suggested the idea of rolling the ball down the banister so the video could be easily looped. we therefore did so and the result was excellent. After we did this shoot we then carried on walking up the stairs and came to an area that was a busy public walk way, there were some old empty boxes nearby so we had the idea to ask one of the girls to hide inside the box and pop out when a member of the public walked close by. we did this in order to see peoples reactions.
we then positioned ourselves across the street in order to not let the public know they were being recorded to get a natural reaction.
we came to an area just up the road from the walk way that had traffic cones laying in the road, two of the girls without comand picked up the cones and put it on their heads, this was a chance act and as i wasnt recording i asked them to reinact what they did exactly.
Just up the road from this coned area was a multiple walled area shown below, i had an idea as a performance photography piece for the girls to position themselves behind different areas of the wall and ‘pop up’ randomly, the video which is currently being edited was then looped to create an infinity affect. This then concluded the end of the first shoot.
SECOND SHOOT
Shorty after a brief rendezvous at the meeting place, the second shoot started. directly next to the meeting place there was a merry go round, we all decided to go on it and video the experience from the horses. The video is still being edited but here was the making of it.
We then had the idea to go and buy some yellow roses from the supermarket and hand them to random people as random acts of kindness. This shoot was by far the hardest to conduct and capture as some people didn’t understand and thought they had to pay for the flowers. Capturing peoples reactions was hard as well, some people noticed the cameras and became shy or would smile and wave at the camera, this therefore was not a natural reaction but one provoked by the cameras presence.
We then thought of the ball we had found earlier on in the day and thought of an odd idea to use it in a public place, we originally wanted to conduct a fake rugby game in the middle of the street. As this was to difficult for multiple reasons, we decided to pretend that the ball was very heavy. this was the result of the piece.
Our trip to St Malo on the 17th of June 2015 with guests Gareth Syvret and Tom Pope, developed or aim to succeed the expectations of the locals in a foreign arena. In our small groups, we came up with several ideas to incorporate this enigma. Our first idea was using Sian. Sian bought 24 yellow roses at the local Market and our idea was to hand out the flowers in order to receive the reaction of the public. This was very successful in a way I felt encapsulated the senses of community and relationships.
Sian holding the yellow roses.
One of our targets for receiving the roses.
This experiment suggested positive, as many people where up to the challenge of exceeding this performance. In awe to Tom Pope, this idea of performance has given challenge by testing the public’s response. Chance has been established through the duration of the performance as many people changed their mind about receiving the flower. This then enabled the way we change our approach to people and the way we dictate our performance in order to receive a more positive outcome.
A woman happily receiving her yellow rose.
I was really happy with this photograph partly because you can clearly see the reaction upon this woman’s face. I am glad that our aim was established and that the roses gained a positive and interesting experience. I felt this interaction was key and I’m glad i challenged this.
Our next task was to use a blow-up ball through a mundane environment. The main aim was to characterize a movement which would represent a normal and sophisticated stance that we would use to challenge and chance the public community passing through this area and time. This movement was simple, the ball would roll down the metal railings and eventually, be passed back up to the top in which the movement would start over again. This action was repeated, and half way through, members of the public passed through and reacted in a surprised, un-realistic way. However, because we didn’t take much notice and reacted as if there was no abnormality, the action was suppressed as normal. This was also dictated through the way we kept quiet; regarding nothing abstracted or influenced our performance.
This technique proved very successful. I felt the aim was fulfilled due to the ordinariness, and the pace was very smooth and interactive. I feel an element of change was anticipated due to the challenge towards the transitions of normal and abnormal. I feel as a group we turned an action so simple to an action worth meaning, that the typical and mundane values where transgressed and pushed to the extremes.
Here is a link to the video of the Blow-Up Ball:
The next task we took was during our experience in St Malo’s local supermarket. The aim was to venture up and down the aisles of the market and pick up various items from the different shelves. This was among the public circle and wasn’t staged to the extreme. This was all captured on video and when one of us shouted ‘slow’, the movements of normal pace turned into slow-motion, leaving the only the public to react in a surprising and humorous way.
Surprisingly, the people of the public didn’t know quite how to react and in this in fact made them not appear in the video at all due to them realizing the performance and warding off because of it. The avoidance in such a public and mundane place ensured to us that we had really challenged and changed the transition of normal to radicalized, proving our performance as successful.
Setting up into our positions.practicing the repetitive actions.
Here is a link to the video of our Slow-Mo Market Dash:
The next task was to challenge the reaction of the public further. We directed one of our group members, Molly to climb into a small cardboard box. She then placed herself with our instruction in the middle of a busy pavement, central of St Malo’s town. We captured on video the audiences reactions and how they were challenged with the change of normality. This idea of chance was established too, as people who walked past gave molly the chance to perform.With the influence from Tom Pope, the suggestion of how if there wasn’t any people there would probably be no chance of any performance, so concluding this the location of this act gave this performance a chance to challenge the change in the public arena.
Molly waiting for her performance to start.Molly hiding in the box.
I felt this performance was very successful, and from the video you can clearly see the aim of this action being established. The feeling of change from normality to becoming surprised was clearly evident, and from the video this challenge was successful as we changed the normal transitions that wouldn’t of been there if our performance didn’t take place in that moment of time.
Last Tuesday we had a workshop with Tom Pope, the current photographer in residence of Jersey. The first half of the day he had a presentation and talked through his previous works, and then in the second part of the day after lunch, we went and did some activities. One of the man aspects he is exploring is play and so we partook in some photography related games.
The first was a game where we were given an orange, which we had to throw between ourselves (in pairs) and whoever hadn’t thrown the orange had to ‘catch’ the orange in a photo as close as they could to the camera.
The second game was where, in pairs again, you each hold your own cameras, but without your finger on the shutter, and you put your first finger of your left hand on the other persons shutter, the aim is to try and take as many selfies on the other persons camera as possible, whilst trying to prevent them from taking photos on your camera.
On Tuesday the 9th of June we went to the Societe Jersiaise, to learn about the archive which can be seen as a visual history of Jersey. We then met the photographer in residence which was Tom Pope, who is a performance photographer. In Tom’s work he likes to push boundaries by doing something that is seen as socially unacceptable however isn’t against the law he does this in public spaces and wants to get audience’s participation.
One of the first activities we did with Tom Pope was, we got into pairs and throw an orange at each other with the aim of taking a photograph of the orange as close as possible to the camera. The main idea behind this activity wasn’t to necessarily get a good photograph of the orange but to show the performance/ act and push the boundaries of social acceptance. The second activity we did with Tom Pope was a ‘selfie war’ where in pairs you had to take as many selfies on your pairs camera while trying to stop your pair from doing the same thing but on your camera.
At the begging I struggled to understand why Tom was incorporating performance into photography, and how his short clips were seen as photography. By the end of his presentation I think I got a better understanding of why he was doing this as he explained the concepts behind each of his ideas.
12:00 pm – 1:15 pm: After a quick 15 minute break Tom began his section of the workshop, which lasted for approximately 90 minutes. Tom began the talk by informing us of the style of photography that he took part in, being ‘performance photography’, as well as his influences and inspirations as he went through the beginnings of his artistic development from studying at university. Tom spoke of how he likes to be very subversive with his photography. This means that Tom likes to create situations and act in a manner which is considered socially ab-normal, strange and non-conformist. Tom uses subversion as a device to create satire as a means of testing social boundaries and limits. Tom is a contemporary photographer and he spoke of his desire to move away from traditional methods of photography which he remarks as “valid and respectable but limited in it’s artistic direction”. Tom described the influences he draws from his photography including Dadaism and The Situationist International Movement
Tom then spoke more specifically about some of his projects in which he has complete. These include, going from London to Belgium with a Grandfather Clock, riding a tandem bike with his friend across English in complete silence, and pedaling a stationary bicycle in the middle of a busy London Street. I find Tom’s work to be very appealing because his ideas are very original, philosophical and creative. As a working example Tom got us to play a game that involved us all throwing a scrunch up piece of paper at him whilst he took an picture. Tom explained how this ‘performance’ relates to the theme of chance within photography, because there was know way of knowing how the picture would end up like.
2 pm – 3 pm: After a 45 minute lunch break we ventured down to Liberation Square with Tom to play a series of games related to performance photography. We played 3 games in total.
1- Orange Throw and Catch – The first game was an activity that required us to throw a orange ball in mid-air to a partner. The other person was then required to take a picture of the on-coming orange just before catching it. It was a very fun game to play because there was a element of difficultly which you had to work hard to master to game. Also it was something that I had never really considered playing before and so it was interesting to try something completely new and different.
2 – Selfie battle – The second game was a more physical game that again required two players. You had to point your cameras to each other and have you finger on each other shutter releases. The objective of this was to attempt to take as many selfies as possible in your opponents camera whilst prevented your opponent from taking any in your camera. I found this to be an extremely fun game because it was very entertaining both to play and watch. The ‘competitive’ nature of the game made everyone more keen to win, but in an enjoyable sort of way.
3 – The third game that we played consisted of working in groups of 4 or 5. In our groups we had to take it in turns to each decide an activity that everyone else in the group was doing. We then took photos of one another whilst we were partaking in the activities. This was interesting because people interpretations of and motivations to carry out different instruction varied greatly.
Overall a enjoyed the day greatly. It was very interesting to learn about the work of the Societe Jersai as well as the work of Tom Pope. The biggest lesson that I learned from the day is that photography is far more varied and complex in its meaning than simply taking visually good photos. It also has a great deal to do with intent (artistic value and meaning), which helps to give photography as an art form, an actual purpose and relevance within society.
Below are the performances we did within the first hour of our day trip in St Malo. I think this was the shoot where we collected the most images and had inspiration as we ended up with quite a few different finished products. I also took some stills from each of the videos which I found to be the most interesting.
#1 This performance was inspired by Tom Pope’s Weak Anarchy. As you can see this is very weak anarchy with the subject jumping over the off limits tape and sitting in the little crevice that they are keeping the public from running in. The subject then walks out of frame. It is simple but is a small way to go against the norm and to challenge the way people think by doing things that aren’t necessarily the right thing to do or what people are used to seeing.
#2For this performance we also adopted the idea of weak anarchy and tried to see the reactions of the public. I came up with the idea to climb onto this window which has been barred over. I thought that the message of the window says that people aren’t allowed out but then I thought maybe it was there so people cant get in. This is why I decided to climb it and stand in various positions and in different ways to make for an interesting image. This barred window made me wonder what was inside it and why it had been barred up in that way. I thought it would be a fun experiment.
#3Here I challenged myself to see if I could throw a small wheel, which Tania and I found, over the wall. On the other side of the wall was a small car park so we knew that no people would get hit by it. It did take me a few tries but finally I managed to throw the small wheel over the wall and triumphantly walked away.
#4
Pushing the limitations of the public. Here we decided to interact with the public and tried a few different things in order to get a reaction out of the public. Some worked better than others.
#5
Hiding in a bush. Here we took inspiration from Tom Pope, Weak Anarchy and basically did the same thing but instead of doing this to challenge the rules of private property, we decided to challenge the public and see what they thought of it. I simply walked into the bush, I got quite a few odd looks and some people took photos.
The first was a game where we were given an orange, which we had to throw between ourselves (in pairs) and whoever hadn’t thrown the orange had to ‘catch’ the orange in a photo as close as they could to the camera.
