The community event that I have chosen is my year 13 sports day. All of the forms were asked to create teams, and each person would put their name down for a field and track event. This is one of the very few school events that Hautlieu do therefor everyone was asked to participate. Each form was designated a colour to represent them, and the form were told to wear these colours.
I mainly focused on photographing people. Here are my photographs from my shoot;
I am still trying to gain a firm idea of how I will go about the course of this project. I will be quite a challenge but I am hoping if I organise what I need to do and break it down I will be easier to tackle.
This is a summary of what I am doing
All in all I will have a lot of work to do. I am going to make the most of the time I have got to make an interesting and worthwile project which is personal to me. Completing the project will be quite difficult, my Nan does worry and get confused a lot (she’s 85). I have to do my best though to work with her in the project and slowly build up photographs of her, and take more risks in what I photograph as she starts to become more comfortable about the idea of being photographed. It might be quite fustrating at times, but I will do my best and work all the time to improve. This project is also new and a challenge for me.
Research and planning will be key. I will use the blog posts to track, plan and monitor. Staying on track will be very important if I want this project to develop and progress.
In most of my blog posts from now on I will try to link back to the project. This will be a good way of making sure that all the extra work I put in is actually relevant to what I need to do in the first place. Otherwise it will be a waste of my time, which I cannot afford to do.
I am just going to go for it and do my best. At the end of the day if it does not work out the way I was hoping, then at least I will have still learned a lot of interesting and revealing information about my Grandfather. I will try to be as creative and experimental as possible, taking risks and developing my own creativity in the process.
This image was taken at a large metal works in Siberia. The photograph is a new topographic styled landscape shot which Bendiksen has clearly taken influence from the work of William Eggleston, known for his dark portrayal of bleak landscapes. The image is very ambiguous because to some degree it shows the factory in a dramatic, romanticized manner, whilst at the same time it depicts the factory as grim and unpleasant. My judgement is that the image is a metaphor for evaluating Communist Russia (1917-1991), which on one hand was highly impressive in terms of what it achieved, but at the same time a regime which was responsible for great atrocities; death, persecution and mass suffering, in particular under the leadership of Joseph Stalin (1922-1953). Specifically this photograph explores the influence Communist Russia had over the industrialization of Russia.
Bendiksen explores this ambiguity by framing to image to showing factory as impressive, by arranging the image in a traditional landscape format. Bendisken still however through the incorporation of a low level of lighting and the red glow, giving an eerie mood, is highlighting the fact that despite this impressiveness, it still has a darker side to it.
The context behind this photograph is that Bendiksen was out photographing landscapes in the countryside. He then came across a piece of scrap metal, which was the left over of a Russian satellite. The two men on the top of the scrap metal are satellite collectors, people who make a living out of collecting and selling these pieces of scrap meatal. Suddenly as Bendisken was about to photograph the two men, standing on the large piece of scrap metal, thousands of butterflies suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Bendisken stated that “things came together .. you had the swarm of butterfly’s, you had the spaceship, you had the farmers, the stormy dark clouds in the background, the sun was just starting to break out. It was just a perfect storm of different elements.”
This photo relates to Herni Cartier Bresson’s theory of the ‘decisive moment’. Bendisken has combined his knowledge of composing photographs with an element of luck, being the light and butterflies. The result an incredibly powerful and raw image, with a sense of peculiarity which captivates the viewer into wanting to find out more about the context, and so delve deeper into interpreting its meaning. I almost find that this photograph is somewhat dream-like and separate from reality. This theme of being being dream-like is effective because it is able to serve as a metaphor for the scrap metal collectors optimists and dreamers, taking advantage of the rich opportunities that selling the remains of these magnificent displays of metal-work have to offer. This is an image which I find to be quite positive and uplifting, an image which symbolises hope in an uncertain future.
The image shows a snippet of a darkened room, with the subject appears to the concentrating on a task. On the television set, the face of former Communist leader Josef Stalin’s face can be shown. The presence of Stalin into the frame is very sinister as a result of this and the glim mood established through the green illumination of low level of lighting, it is a very frightening and unsettling. Without Stalin piercing into the photograph this image would not be as effective because it creates this added suspense.
This photograph directly explores the theme of Russia’s Communist past. Russia under Stalin regime was infamous as a society of excessive social control. Propaganda would appear everywhere. Stalin appearing on the television set symbolises this theme of social control, and serves to unsettle the viewer, reminding them of the horrors of Stalin’s regime and Communism.
Overall I find this type of image to be a more experimental side to Bendiksen’s photography. In terms of composition it is perhaps not the best image however I like the mood and feel that the image establishes.
From my photoshoot, I chose my best photographs, and edited them. Although this photo shoot is not part of my family project I used it as an experimentation. I took these photographs using my iPhone, however the quality of the photographs aren’t very good and some are blurry because the shutter speed is set to slow therefore when I do my project I am going to use a camera rather than my phone.
I edited these photographs by experimenting with the brightness and contrast, with the different colors and by cropping them. Overall I think this improved the appearance of the photos.
For my first shoot i took images one morning before school of everyone in my house to show how normal life is in my house in the week. For these images i experimented using flash in some of the photos, which i think makes the images look amateurish which i think looks quite interesting. I followed my parents round to take these images, but for some of my other images i am going to try and take them when my family do not know i am taking the images. 
I took this portrait image of my mum as she was showing my that something was in her eye, my mum did not know i was taking this image and so it caught her by surprise. I like this image because of the angle that it is taken as it is a very close up image. 
I took this image of my mum when my mum was leaving to go to work. When i took this image i used flash, this image was a spontaneous image as i was just following my mum around the house and i took it as she was turning around. I think that the dull lighting in this image makes my subject stand out because of the motorbike jacket which has been lit up. In this image the main focus is the bike jacket which is important as this my mum needs to wear this on her bike to feel safe as she cannot take the car to work. 
Through these images my main focus from taking them was to document my mums life and to show on an ordinary mundane day what happens in her life. I focused on taking images of her but also taking other landscape images of my house and of other people in my family to show what their life is like with the effect of my mum. These images are ordinary family images which show a routine of what happens in the morning in my house. I focused on taking images of my mum on her bike as this is what she takes to work, because of her anxiety she cannot take the car to work as she freaks out that she will not be able to get out of the situation.
Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist born in 1945. Much of her work is done in black and white overlaid with declarative captions. These captions are written in white on red backgrounds with phrases in her works often including pronouns such as ‘you’, ‘your’, ‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘they’ really personalising her messages towards the spectators. Her messages address cultural constructions of power, identity and sexuality. I like the concept of Kruger’s work as she brings clear messages to the spectator and tells them what they should see in the image. Kruger is a conceptual and feminist artist.
Kruger’s website: http://www.barbarakruger.com/
Krugers MoMA portfolio: http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/3266
I think that I will take inspiration from Kruger in my own work and add this kind of Dada style written text and imagery in my own photographs. This style also reminds me of propaganda and really sends out clear messages. It mainly reminds me of the Second World War when they would try to get women into the factories to help in the war effort and how they would influence people to become soldiers. I find this a very interesting concept and can be highly influential and effective if it is actually done well.
The Guardian article on Kruger: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jul/06/barbara-kruger-modern-art-oxford-review
“one of the best artists of the 1980’s without actually doing much that is new.” – Roberta Smith review
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is an influential movement that first emerged in the mid 1960s. It brought up ideas over the formal or visual components of traditional works of art. Conceptual artists will often challenge old concepts of things such as beauty, they question the conventional means by which the public consume art. Artists will often reject the conventional arts and use ranges of medias including maps, diagrams, texts and videos. Kruger is constantly making new images, she will find old archive images of something and stick a text in front of it with a clear meaning.
Feminist art
Feminist art emerged around the same time as conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s. This came about so artists could explore questions of sex, power, the body and how gender categories seem to structure the way we see and understand the world. This art also frequently involves text and performance elements. Kruger will often use staged photographs as backgrounds for her text and manages to find great photographs to make her images stand out even more.
Whose Values? project by Kruger and 400 students:
I do enjoy looking at Kruger’s work as a lot of it holds strong social messages. She tends to make her messages very clear and easy for anyone to understand as she has blatantly written them in found photographs. I think that I will use the idea of this within my work and incorporate it into my own work as well as experimenting with other works too. I want to be able to broaden my skills within photography and be able to make more artistic links within different forms of art and not just in the photographic sense. I think that I will be able to make quite a few different responses to Kruger’s work as I find this very interesting and unique in the photography world yet it seems so simple. Kruger took inspiration from magazines and made it her own, she believed that if they could do it and hold so much influence then she could do exactly the same thing. I am excited to respond to this body of work.
The Atlantic review of Kruger: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/08/the-unsettling-text-driven-world-of-barbara-krugers-belief-doubt/261348/
This image particularly interests me as the background image is a woman looking through a magnifying glass. The text fits with the photograph as it states that the world isn’t small if ‘you have to clean it’. I think that this is really effective as the woman seems as if she is looking for dirt to clean and that she has to look closely to actually clean up and that there is so much to clean in this massive world. I like the bold font with ‘It’s a small world’ and the rest of the text much smaller ‘but not if you have to clean it’. For some reason this stands out to me and kind of seems like Kruger was saying ‘It’s a small world’ quite loudly and proudly while saying the part in the smaller text under her breath as if making a sly comment. I think that this is a strong image and shows how women are expected to do the cleaning and look after the house etc. There isn’t much to this image as the text is very plain and simple. It is obvious and to the point, it doesn’t just suggest things allowing the spectator to make their own perception it literally tells them exactly what she was thinking and what she wanted the spectator to get from the image. These images aren’t her own but she uses old images to make new ones with her own original text in front of them.
Another image that stood out for me was this one above. I think that this is the perfect image to go with Kruger’s text as it is very bold in itself and stands out to me. I like that one half of the image is in black and white with the other half in negative. This shows two sides to the subject, one pretty and good while the other looks more scary and a little bit sinister. The message that Kruger brought across was ‘Your body is a battleground’, this really interests me as it is in front of a woman’s face and how possibly the struggles that women face every month with having periods and going through cramps and constant bleeding. This could be what Kruger means by ‘battleground’. It could also be through pregnancy and how women often go through the struggle of being pregnant and then having children and being expected to carry on with everyday life almost straight away. I like this image as it is bold and is open for spectators interpretation.
One other image that I like is this one above because it seems as if a little boy is being told that he doesn’t need to grow muscle as his mother pushes him down. The text really works with this image and is effective as it says ‘We don’t need another hero’. This could possibly be a message to young boys that they don’t need to feel that they have to fight in wars to be seen as masculine and they don’t need to conform to societies expectations of having big muscles and being strong and independent. It is almost as if his mother doesn’t want him to be another ‘hero’ because she loves him and doesn’t want to lose him like many other mother’s did during World War II. I think this is one of my favourite images as it is quite powerful and stands out to me. I think that the image and the text blend well together and almost look as though the image was made for the text and that is the way it was broadcast.
Family Photography
I have been looking through photographs from my childhood and the visits my grandparents made to Jersey at least twice a year. They would come over for special dates such as birthdays or to just simply spend time with us during the summer months especially. I have selected these several photographs as they symbolise everyday memories and the little details of my childhood that tend to reoccur. These photographs are of my father’s parents whereas my project I am focusing on for family is on my mother’s father. However, I think it’s important to look at other relationships in my life that have similar principles.
I particularly like the first photograph because you can’t actually see my or my mum’s face which helps focus on my grandfather more. It has an amateur feel to it and feels as though the memories have seep into the image itself. The second image again feels as though it were a snap shot, but I like this photograph as there are lots of little details which bring back memories when looking at this photograph which is a key quality photography holds. I also like the way the light is hitting my face almost blurring it out.
These photographs are quite powerful to me because my family life is extremely different from what it use to be like in these photographs. I no longer speak to my grandparents therefore I don’t have a relationship with them at all really compared to how it was when I was much younger. I also don’t speak to my dad so these images represent a time when I was close with him. This brings in the theme of memories again because the way things once were can’t always be the same again therefore memories are all we have left. I also think environments have an influential part in the emotions we feel towards an image. For example, the image below of my cat you can see the dining room table in the background, in the photograph below that one you can see the piano that my family had for many years. Although, these simple objects may not stand out they fill the image with memories of how life was when I was younger.
