Bio

“when you experience a world of culture you start feeling a desire for self-expression and you want to do something yourself”

Yuri Toropstov is a Russian Photographer who has worked on the theme of family. Yury was born in 1974 in a small village called Vladistov, at the time a special administrative region of to U.S.S.R, near the border of China and North Korea. Yuri is of Eastern Siberian origins, and grew up in the Soviet Union until the collapse of communism in Russia in 1991. Growing as an ethic minority in Communist Russia gave Yury a unique perspective of life. Yuri’s father died when Yuri was  1 year old, and he was brought up by his mother.

Yury left Russia in 1998 to study at the New School for Social Research in New York, winning a prestigious scholarship to study project management. He was inspired by the social changes taking place in Russia at the time. Yury travelled to America working as a translator of an Non-Profit Organisation. This trip greatly inspired him, broadening his mind to different cultures and ways of life as he states in a JEP newspaper newspaper article, “when you experience a world of culture you start feeling a desire for self-expression and you want to do something yourself”. At age 30, Yuri decided he wanted to become a photographer, and so he left his job working at the United Nations and became an assistant for a fashion photographer.

Since then Toropstov has been working as a documentary photographer based Paris. He has completed various projects, made into slide-shows, films and books. His projects include ‘Deleted  Scene’, ‘Why was I born in Russia’, ‘Define Retribution’ and ‘Marylin and I’. In 2014 Yuri worked for 6 months in Jersey as the ‘Archisle International Photographer in Residence’. This 6 month project was finalised  with an exhibition entitled ‘Fairyland’.

Yury’s ‘Fairyland’ Exhibition Display

Video of  Yury’s project ‘Marylin and I’. Yury tends to make video’s summarising all of his projects

Deleted Scene

“I never knew my father. There is not much one can do about that, you just have to find a way to live with it”

Deleted Scene is a photo-book by Toroptsov, recently completed. It is a collection of images, documenting the isolated and remote region  of Eastern-Siberia. In this project Yury combines a combination of landscapes which reflect the beauty of the region, along with subtle close-up images, giving a glimpsing perspective into the communities that live their. Deleted Scene is also a personal journey for Yury. His father died when he was only one year old and so at the time he knew virtually nothing about him as Yury reflects, “his untimely death turned him into an abstract character existing on the verge of oblivion”. Yury used this opportunity to learn something about the father he never knew, studying where his father grew up, incorporating old archival images of him into the photo-book.

The story also focuses on the chance meeting between Japapese film-maker Akira Kurosawa and Yury’s parents when he visited the village to shoot his Oscar-winning film ‘Dersu Uzala’. By sheer chance, Yury’s parents appeared on a small section of the film.

There is no text to this narrative, and so it is up to the reader to make up their own interpretation of Yury’s father based on the images they are presented with. I like this series a lot because it documents a very personal journey of the photographer to document a man he never got to know. The images ‘Deleted Scene’ are in many ways a collection of self-portraits that show Yury’s background, where he is from and his influences.

My initial impression of this story is that what is revealed is only very subtle. This idea reflects on the fact that there may still be a lot more that Yury does not know about his father, hinting a sombre reflection that the book can never be fully revealing as he will never meet  his father in person, but instead is a brief insight done with the limited resources Yury had to work with.

I like how Yuri has incorporated his family archive in this series. I find that he did it in a way that does not limit the narrative to focus entirely on the past but instead balances Yury’s search to find out about his father both through historical account as well as through observation of his present day findings.

Studying this book and Yury’s personal story has greatly inspired me in exploring my own theme of family. It is important to make my own work meaningful and personal to me, even if that means exploring subjects which are potentially difficult and emotional. I will search for a topic point I feel I can relate to personally, like Yury has done in this series.

Link to the  series on Yury’s blog: http://toroptsov.com/en/projects/deletedscene.htm

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. 

Bio

Richard Billingham is an English Photographer, born in Birmingham in 1970, the eldest of two children born to Ray, a factory worker and Liz, a housewife. Billingham is from a working class background, and when he was 10 the family faced great hardship when Ray lost his job, forcing the family to sell their home and move into council housing. Ray became an acoholic, forcing Liz to eventually move out. Richard’s younger brother Jason was taken into care, leaving Richard on his own to care for his father.

“Jason says Ray’s a Laugh but doesn’t want to be like him” – Ray with Jason 

Ray’s a Laugh

Billingham was a keen artist with a talent for drawing and painting. Billingham gained a place at the Bournville College of Art, studying painting. He decided to create a series of paintings based on his father Ray, documenting his struggle with alcoholism and depression for one of his exams. Billingham could not get Ray to pose for long enough, so decided instead to photograph Ray as an aid to help his painting, using cheap film and processing. When Billingham presented some of his paintings to an art examiner, he asked Billingham if he coud see the aids he used to make the images. Billingham showed the examiner his photographs and he was immediately impressed by what he saw, advising Billingham strongly to forget about painting and concentrate on photography instead.

Billingham’s art examiner was more impressed by the photograph used to base the paintings on then the paintings themselves

Over the course of the next 6 years, Billingham continued extensively to photograph Ray, as well as his mother Liz who moved back in to the family home, and his younger brother who returned from care. Billigham also transferred from Boruneville College of Art to the University of Sunderland, obtaining a degree in Fine Arts. In 1995, Billigham’s first photographic exhibition was held in The Antony Reynolds Gallery London. entitled ‘Ray’s a Laugh’. The series was recieved both positive and negative responses, but overall was an overwhelming financial and critical aclaim. The photographs from this  exhitibition was made into Billingham’s book of the same title, the defining work of Billingham’s career. This book shot Billingham to instant fame as a photographer. In 1997 ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ was  featured in a major exhibition entitled ‘Sensations’ at the Royal Academy in London.

Ray’s a Laugh was a brutally honest insight into the struggles of working class British life during the 1990s

One of the major criticisms Bilingham received for ‘Ray’s a laugh’ was the claim that his work was nothing more than a shameful exploitation of his family. Billingham was only 26 at the time ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ was released and so some critics, perhaps unfairly attacked Billingham, citing his work as ‘insensitive’ and ‘exploitative’. In reality Billingham had no idea how much success he would generate, and creating the series did in fact have a profound  emotional impact upon him. Billigham has defended himself over this issue numerous times, denying he exploited he parents.

Later Career

After this initial success Billingham explored landscape photography, incorporating his unique style to highlight the landscape of modern Britain with a similar sense of honesty and realism explored in ‘Ray’s a Laugh’. A series of Billingham’s landscape work was made into a book entitled ‘Landscapes: 2001-2003’. Other works credited to Billingham include; Fishtank 1998; 1998, Liz Smoking 1998, Tony Smoking Backwards 1998, Ray in Bed 1999 Playstation 1999; and Dewi Lewis, 2008.

Billigham is a lecturer in Fine Art Photography at the University of Gloucestershire and a third year tutor at Middlesex University.

www.saatchigallery.com/artists/richard_billingham.htm

Martin Usborne spotted Joseph Markovitch in a park in East London about 8 years ago. His main intention was to photograph Joseph to try and win a photo competition. However after speaking to Joseph and discovering some of his querks he decided to use him as a project, and make a book about him. I very much like this book and after reading the words and studying the pictures in detail, I feel like I know Joseph Markovitch quite well.

Joseph had lived in East London, Hoxton for 86 and a half years, and went on daily walks around the city. On these walks he would talk to many people as he loved to discuss his views on action movies, Nicolas Cage, how technology might blow up the world ext. He walked around the city in an oversized blazer which slipped of the shoulder and a plastic carrier bag in hand, which always contained a carton of orange juice.

Here are some of my favourite photographs from Martin Usborne’s book about Joe;

This is one of the first photographs presented in the book ‘i’ve lived in East London For 86 1/2 years’. It is captioned with Joe saying

‘A lot  of young kids do graffiti around Hoxton… it’s nice. It add’s a bit of colour don’t you think?’. 

I think that this photograph it really attractive because of the explosion of colour behind Joe and the spray painter. The painting of Donald Duck looks like it is reaching out and grabbing onto the two men which I think adds a comedic effect. From looking at this photograph you can tell a lot about what was going on at the time. The spray painter is still holding his can of paint and all of his stuff is still laid out on the pavement, which says to me that Joe went over whilst the painter was still painting and interrupted him in order to have a conversation with him.

Here are some other photographs of Joe;

Documentary Photography

Documentary photograph is telling a story through the use of photographs, it is a device that have been used for hundreds of years. For example biblical stories being told through Stained Glass windows, tapestries, illustrated manuscripts ext. Documentary photography’s main aim is to show the everyday lives of ordinary people, an example of this would be Martin Parr’s collection of work, ‘The Last Resort’. This is about  a seafront in New Brighton. The images taken for this collection do not show a stereo typical sea side with images advertising the holiday resort. But images that show a run down but still very much alive resort.

Street Photography

Street photography is an unbroken tradition stretching back into photography itself. Most street photographs like to take their photographs in populated and prouder urban areas; markets, high streets, subways ext.The father of street photography is considered as Eugene Atget, he was famous for his photographs of the streets of Paris.

Here is some of Eugene’s photographs;

However a more modern street photographer is Eddie Wexler. He wins several competitions with his work.

Social Documentary Photography

Social documentary photography is the recording of humans in their natural condition with a camera, it is a form of documentary photography. Often it also refers to a socially critical genre of photography dedicated to showing the life of underprivileged or disadvantaged people. It has been created to document social problems such as rural poverty. This genre is rooted in the 19th century by people such as Henry Mayhew and Jacob Riis. However a more modern social documentary photographer would be Leslie Alsheimer.

With images, she creates metaphors that honor the richness of life that accompany the enduring human spirit; celebrating life, play, family, culture and community through the joy, pain and love of everyday living.

Here are some of Leslie’s images;

I particularly like Leslie’s images because of the attention she pays to detail. For example all of her photographs are very rich with different textures. There is  heavy feel given to the photograph in the bottom by the stormy skies which is very contrasting to the flat, bare floor. This photo has also been constructed with lots of leading lines, leading the eyes to the brick cottage in the centre left of the photograph. I also like that all of Leslies photo’s are in black and white, which magnifies the detail even more.