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Mr T instruction

Explore theme of Community

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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?

ATL15_XXX Atlantus - Wall DEF 2 Promo

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.

Atlantus Gallery
Atlantus Blog
Atlantus Film

Atlantus 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)

Look up also Picture Agencies/ Photo Collectives:
Sputnik Photos, Document Scotland, A Fine Beginning (Welsh Photo collective), Magnum Photos, Institute, Agence VU, Panos Pictures, World Press Photo

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.

An interview with Alec Soth and Aaron Schumann. Link to his website

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)

Analysis, Evaluation, Planning, Research

David Moore – Family Artist Reference

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From the book ‘Photoworks’, David Moore explores the life of ‘Family and Community of the 1980s‘ Britain. In his project ‘Pictures from the Real World’, Moore elevates the routines of his daily life, stories of his relatives overthrowing the mundane home-based lifestyle of his childhood. Contextually, you retrieve a sense of history from his work, the muted colours which are harsh and sharp reflect the quality of the photography: initially captured at the time of documentation.

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The front page of a local newspaper tells of an ongoing trade union struggle, but the reader, as you can see, has resigned to the sofa. Moore doesn’t strike as the familiar photojournalistic depictions of factory closures and striker – police confrontation out of his private lives of struggling families behind those battle lines.

Moore’s family which he depicts ceases unease about the more politically manifestations of collecting working class identity. Moore hoped to reinforce the socially stabilising cement of the traditional family structure, strong, and able to stand on his feet financially, then they could have only been perplexed by reality. This brings to question issues relating into Moore’s work. The reader asks themselves: how half hearted were the governments attempts to do much about the social revolution? And what was the scale and speed of change of this lifestyle? I believe that from Moore’s images, you understand the struggles and imperfection of living a working-class lifestyle in the 80s, never the less thought out willingly that this is the only life they’ve ever led.

David Moore’s Pictures From the Real World reminds us that the stock images that are endlessly reproduced this family and life in 1980s Britain was more often captured what was exceptional rather than commonplace about that decade. Moore’s photographs show

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Here is a link to an article written by ‘The Guardian’ Entitled: “Photographer David Moore’s dingy, deteriorating Derby is the real deal”.-http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/apr/10/photographer-david-moore-real-world

“This chronicler of 80s working-class England peers behind closed doors to capture a community indelibly marked by Margaret Thatcher.”

Sean O’Hagan, the producer of this Article writes on the chronicles of  Moore’s life. My most favoured quote:

“That it does stop is down to Moore’s social conscience, which is on the side of the marginalised whose lives, under Thatcher, were rapidly becoming more precarious – and have remained so ever since. You could say that Moore’s photographs record the the beginnings of a new social class recently dubbed the precariat.”

 

Exhibition, Mr T instruction

TOM POPE EXHIBITION

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We went to go visit Tom Pope’s exhibition down at the royal spare where he showed off his pieces of work. Tom took us around and explained to us the meanings behind his images. First off we walked in and there was a video Tom playing with dice that was on a TV screen, this was on repeat so that every time you started watching the video you saw it from a different point each time. In this video Tom was trying to place 5 dice on top of one another by angling them so that they all stayed up and did not fall back down again. In the room there was other images that were placed on the walls that were in orange frames, Tom said that they were in orange frames just because he likes this colour and that this had no significant meaning to his images. DSC_0424 edit DSC_0409 edit DSC_0408 edit DSC_0406 edit DSC_0407 editThese are some of the photographs that Tom took that was on the walls. In these images Tom went out into the community and took images of people in Jersey, in some of the images he told the person how to take the photograph if he was in it, but in others he left it up to the person taking the image, which to Tom meant that in the photograph was a part of Jersey community.

In the next room we went into there was a room with different masks in, theses masks were of faces of people from the archisle that Tom took out and blew up to life size sizes and placed a string around the back to make them into masks.

tom pope

In this room there was also photographs on tables that had been cut up. These images had been blown up from the archisle and Tom on many of his workshops and through meeting people got them to throw a coin onto it and where the coin landed he made them a badge for the person to where, Tom did this with people that were from the Island Games also, which means that Tom’s badges are all around the world now. In another room that we went into there was photographs from Tom’s series called ‘high and low’ in these images Tom took images out of the archive of people doing the high jump but also took images of people doing the limbo, he placed these images so that the pole was in the same place and they all made a perfect line. In this room there was also a photograph on a piece of wood called from Jeffery’s leap, Tom took a piece of wood and kept throwing it over Jeffery’s leap, he did this repetition 12 times because he used a film camera called Hasselblad only took 12 different shots. Tom had this inspiration from John Baldessari who has done something like this before.

Analysis

Sally Mann

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“In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality” – Alfred Steiglitz (quote used to describe this photograph)

This photograph was taken by Sally Mann of her eldest daughter for her publication Immediate Family. This photograph can be seen as controversial because it’s of a girl who looks around 12 years of age holding a cigarette. I think the controversy makes the photo more powerful because it draws your attention. The girl is holding the cigarette in what can be deemed as an ‘adult pose’ which could also be described as the girl ‘playing adult’.   The background is blurred you can just make out that they are in woods outdoor type of environment.  This is done to make to main focus of the photograph the girl. There is also a strong contrast between black and white this makes the subject stand out more. In this photograph we don’t know what happened before or after, I think in this case the less we know about what is happening the more interesting the photograph becomes.

sally_mann_01

 

Exhibition

Tom Pope

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Before the summer holidays we met Tom Pope for the first time at the Jersey Societe where he talked about his projects planned for the summer. I recently visited his exhibition in town where his final work was shown. There was a several different works that all were associated with Jersey as an Island.  Overall I found Tom’s work very interesting as it was created off of a contextual background, I liked seeing how he worked the Jersey archive into his projects.

The Film

The main piece of Tom’s work that I found interesting was the film. This was presented on a projector down in the ‘dungeon’. Tom’s film was about his adventure that he had where he travelled across Jersey with an old fisherman’s boat that he had bought locally. His Journey started at the Hungry man, and finished out at St Ouen’s bay with a beautiful sunset. Tom had a group of constantly changing people who helped him push the boat to the other side of the island. Alongside this group of helpers, Tom organised for some local musicians to come and play along side him as entertainment. He also encouraged the public to come and take part.

IMG_7892
Here is a photograph of Tom’s film being presented in the dungeon

I really like the experimentation that Tom used in his video through sound, it was all sounds that were relevant to the action going on in the film. For example the sound of footsteps, or the sound of drilling when making the wooden crate with wheels on (which the boat rested on so it could be pushed easier). I think that the use of sound made the video more exciting as a viewer as it is appealing to more than one of the senses, hearing, as well as visual. Because of the use of sound, I found that this film differed from Tom’s usual style of work as he usually does not edit the video’s and just presents them as they are filmed. I think its interesting that Tom has experimented with editing the video, and shows that his work is beginning to change as he experiments with new presentation tools.

Throughout the film, black and white images appear, These images had been selected from the Jersey archive by Tom, and had given him inspiration to create the projects that he did. I really like that Tom’s projects have more depth to them, and hold some context of Jersey’s history. A further way that Tom used the Jersey archive in his work was his Badge Project.

The Badge Project

Tom Pope enjoys using the element of change and playfulness through his work, to make it more exciting and random. A project where he expressed these ways of working was through his Badge Project. Tom looked at over thousands of photographs in the Jersey Archive and selected some that particularly took his eye. These photographs he copied and enlarged.

“Many of Pope’s works are interdisciplinary, combining performance, photography and moving image” -Gareth Syvret

Tom bought these archive photographs out to different events with him and asked members of the public to flip a disk onto one of the photographs. Wherever the disk landed, he would use that circle of the photograph and make it into a badge. Tom did this project as he wanted to start getting old photographs from the Jersey archive back into everyday life. So rather than doing this in a more traditional way he decided to do it in an abstract way of creating an accessory.

I like the selection of images for the project, because they are all in black and white, therefor give that ‘old photograph’ feel. I also think that these photographs come from a range of different times which makes the project even more abstract and intriguing for me. All of the photographs were presented in a pile with the cut out badge holes in them. I like that the images presented at the exhibition were the original photographs used in the games however I didn’t like they way they were presented. They were all in a pile, therefor you couldn’t see any of the images except the top one.

An interesting way that this project could have been developed, would be if the old archive images were connected, in a visual way to recent photographs. For example the badge project to have also been played on recent images, to bring the whole collection of Jersey’s images together.

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This is one of the archive images that Tom had selected for his badge project. You can see were parts of the image have been removed to make into badges

Here are some other images taken from Tom Pope’s exhibition;

Mr T instruction, Research

Standards and Ethics in Documentary Photography

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Photographers actually have a code of ethics when making documentary photos. This mostly consists of photographers not taking advantage of a staged photo opportunity. This is only for photojournalists as they are simply supposed to be bare witness and should not manipulate the scene to make for a more interesting and visually pleasing image. I think that this is the best concept for photojournalists as they shouldn’t manipulate the truth as it is news reporting and will be shown across the world as fact. I believe that this method of photojournalism is important to be followed and agreed upon in the photographic world. I think that this code of ethics does not apply to documentary photography in itself as I think that photographers are able to make stronger images if they are able to slightly manipulate and remould the way the photograph is going to turn out. Documentary photographers are able to collaborate with their subject in order to make great images, like asking them to look directly at the screen emotionless. Photographers are able to send out a message to the world and to challenge spectators views on different issues including, political, social and economic ones. For me tableaux photography has no limits and no rules, it is completely staged and the photographer has complete control. Here photographers are able to freely express themselves often with hidden meaning that includes the political, social and economic meanings behind them.

Agreement made by photojournalists:   https://nppa.org/code_of_ethics

I believe that there is a certain point in documentary photography where it can all become too real in that the photographer might be photographing during a war and suddenly they come across a soldier covered in blood. The question is should they make the photograph or should they try and help them? There has always been a lot of controversy with this topic but for me I believe that taking that one photograph can change the world. The photographer doesn’t need to make the photograph and walk away as if there is nothing going on, they have the opportunity to share the torment and the troubles that these individuals go through in order to reach a broader audience. It is one thing to hear someone say that a small child was washed up on the shore but it is another to actually see it. These kind of documentary photos really put your own life into perspective, they provoke change making more and more people want to go out and help whether that be raising money or changing who they vote for or even going out to that country and personally helping those in need. So yes I think that that photo should be taken because through that single image we as a society are able to provoke change in the way people think. Spectators will see these hard hitting images and want to make change. Without these images we wouldn’t be able to really visualise what others across the world are going through. These types of images may anger people and make them wonder why someone who make an image rather than help a person but ultimately they will be the ones getting the message out and getting more people to help.

The link below is from a photography competition. The photographer used a drone with a camera attached to this to make these images, they are supposed to represent the drones that the US send out intelligent airstrikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. These attacks have been going on since 2002 and have resulted in large numbers of fatalities, this includes hundreds of civilians. These images were made across the US that are usual airstrike locations and events abroad [funerals, groups of people exercising or praying and weddings]. This photographer made these images to get the message across to the US of what they are doing to average and innocent civilians in their own country doing their own thing. This reminds me of the image of the young girl with her clothing burned off by the acid bomb attack America made on Japan, but more this image reminds me of the Banksy version of that photograph.

Banksy’s image is world known and really sends out a message to the rest of the world as this young girl is crying and screaming as her clothes and skin are being burned she is holding hands with Mickey Mouse and Ronald Mcdonald who are known to the world as American ‘icons’ in that people would associate them with America. I think that this is a very strong image and makes the spectator rethink and understand that what the US was doing was affecting innocent civilians and not the people that it was actually aiming for. This is where Tomas Van Houtryve’s work ties in as he is showing that the places that he has photographed with a small drone and his camera attached to it is what the US is attacking in other countries. It doesn’t make sense and is constantly effecting innocent civilians lives. I think that these images are very strong as the shadows on a lot of the images are so huge and the people are so little, I like that it has a political meaning behind it in the hopes for change and for America to stop ruining innocent lives as the places the US has and is bombing are the places that many Americans enjoy everyday of their lives and do not know what it feels like to feel that they cannot express themselves or go to pray in the fear that they will be killed by US airstrikes.

Thomas Van Houtryve work: http://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo/2015/contemporary-issues/tomas-van-houtryve

Exhibition, Mr T instruction

Tom Pope Exhibition

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On Friday 25th September our group went down to the old police station in town to see Tom’s exhibition. This was interesting to go and see as we have worked with him on a workshop earlier in the year as well as going to France for the day with him and the Archisle people to explore performance photography. Here we were able to express ourselves in the public eye, this was fun and we got to see what it was like to be a performance photographer like Tom Pope. Most of Pope’s work is based on weak anarchy that he has already explored, as seen on his blog. Pope wants to challenge the way people think and to challenge authority by doing things that aren’t necessarily illegal but they are deemed as unacceptable. I think that this is a vey interesting concept and think that Pope can work with so much for this too.

Pope’s Weak Anarchy: http://www.tompope.co.uk/weakanarchy.html

Pope’s Archive Exhibition: http://www.tompope.co.uk/iamnottompopeyouarealltompope.html

Tom took us through his exhibition explaining the meaning behind a lot of his work. Most of his work was inspired by John Baldessari as well as using his film camera for his photographs. The best part of the exhibition for me was the room filled with cutout faces of people from the archive. I found this really interesting to go around and look at all of the different people that lived in Jersey at some point throughout history. I think that this was a really great idea as well as Pope taking these cutouts around with him and randomly asking people that he met to wear one so he could make a photograph of them. I thought this was a really great way to spread the archive and get it out and around to the people in Jersey.

John Baldessari

Baldessari Portfolio:  http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/304

Pope was inspired by Baldessari’s work, including his work on throwing a ball up in the air editing it together to make three balls inlined with one another up in the air. This is where Pope did a small workshop with us when we tried to throw oranges at one another and catch it while making a photograph. I think that this was a unique way to respond to Baldessari’s work. In Baldessari’s image it looks as if he was throwing oranges which is where I think Pope gained inspiration for his mini workshop challenge. This was fun and a unique way to make photographs which allowed us to broaden our minds when it came to performance photography as well as just photography in general.

John Baldessari work

Another aspect of Baldessari’s work that has inspired Pope was the specific use of the colour blue. This makes his images stand out and capture the spectators attention straight away as the colour blue is very inviting. Pope applied this to his exhibition using it as a background for the images that were done in threes [like Baldessari’s image of the balls in the sky] and he dropped them onto the table. They fell in their position by chance and Pope changed this everyday for his exhibition so that they would constantly be changing. I found this interesting and fun to look and and try to spot the copies of each photograph from the archive. These images were taken from the archive again to bring it out from where it is hidden, into the public eye and so that as many people as possible are able to see these images.

One particular image that I really liked was titled, Jeffery’s Leap. Here Pope went to a cliff edge, with a wooden board and threw it into the ocean while someone else made the image. Pope went out to the bottom and got the board back. He then printed out the image 12 times to go along with the film camera that he has, Hasselbald, that has 12 exposes. This was interesting as Pope is using old film cameras instead of modern digital ones, meaning that the one photo that is taken at the time is the only one and it has to work straight away because film is very expensive to buy nowadays. Now Pope printed it out 12 times, he drilled a hole and added a bit of string to the board so that he could retrieve it easily when throwing it in. He added one image at a time and screwed it down then throwing it off the cliff and into the ocean. Each time he added another of the same image until all 12 had hit the water. Whatever had happened to them while hitting off rocks and being thrashed about in the ocean was how it was going to look and end up. This was all by chance and whatever the turn out was, was what Pope was going to add to his exhibition. I really liked this part of the exhibition as it was interesting to hear the story behind it as well as it looking really great and standing out almost like it was on a canvas, compared to the rest of the images that were all in orange frames.