Throughout the duration of the AS year I kept referencing back to the artist Cindy Sherman. A woman who found her voice within the photographic world during the 1970s when women were finally voicing their opinions in an artistic and creative way. I really enjoy Sherman’s set of ‘film stills’ that she created mainly during the 70s were she focused on the cliches modern women are faced with. To this I responded and came up with my own cliches as well as mimicking a few of Sherman’s. I believe that Sherman is a great photographer and knows exactly what she wants the spectator to get out of the images that she has created. She is the face of all of her images yet appears different in every one. This is one of her signature works were she plays dress up in order to create the best images possible for the spectator and without knowing that Sherman was the face of her own photographic work you would never have guessed it was her.
The images that Sherman creates are not reflections of herself but, I think, show as a reflect of our society and how we expect women to be and how we expect them to act. I believe that Sherman wants to bring across a message that women aren’t the way most people think they are and we can do so much more and have greater aspirations than living and working at home like our ancestors. Something that has really come to light in recent years is feminism. The right of equality of life for both men and women. Yet people like Sherman have been exploring this and working hard to open people’s eyes on this topic for many years. I am a strong believer in feminism and I think that now is the time were things are going to change dramatically with huge impact. I like the idea of sending out a message to the world through the art of photography and tableaux photography is an excellent way to create a staged way of documenting serious issues of our modern world.
Some of Cindy Sherman’s ‘Untitled Film Stills’
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Sherman was born in 1954 and is an American photographer and film director and is most known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman tends to work in different series of images and all of which are ‘Untitled’. I believe that she does this as a way of allowing the spectator to make up their own mind and form an opinion on the images themselves with an open mind and no preconceived ideas of how they should be looking at the images. I like this as most of her images speak for themselves and don’t really need any title or introduction to them. They are very hard hitting yet the spectator is about to form a completely independent view of each image, they are simply different representations of cliches and the way that women are viewed in society.
This is one of my favourite of Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills. There isn’t one thing in particular that I like about the image, I just enjoy looking at it. I love the amount of books everywhere showing that the subject is in a library somewhere. An effect element of this image in the direction that the subject is looking as she looks up the sky over her shoulder as if looking for even more books whilst choosing some already. I think the idea of mimicking the cliches women faced in the late 1970s an excellent documentation of the way society used to think and being able to compare it to our modern day society and how much or how little has changed over the past years. I like that all of the film stills are in black and white, this is largely to do with the type of cameras that were around in 1979 as they were all black and white, however I still think that it makes the images more interesting and allows the spectator something to maintain focus on rather than dotting around the whole image looking at all of the different colours of the books and what the subject is wearing. Something that I also enjoy about these film stills is that in every one of them Sherman is the subject. She seems to create a brand new character in every photograph and each time they are faced with a different scenario in a different environment, which is a great way of documenting what places in America looked like in the late 70s compared to what they all look like nowadays.
Tableau simply means staged. This is a type of documentary photography as the photographer may find the subjects in their natural environment but may ask them to pose in a certain way to make for a good photograph. It is the form of a ‘living picture’. Most photographers will use their own models who are carefully positioned and posed and can often be quite theatrical and staged in an attempt to create a meaning and bring across a message to the spectator looking at the images. Often props will be used as well as facial expressions. I like the idea of tableau photography as I am able to develop a story and bring in different characters for the spectator to interpret and view. I also like the idea that it is documenting the way people think. This can be more of a broad way of doing documentary photography but it does fit. Photographers are able to explore new things as well as make a visual documentation of the way our modern society thinks and the way some people feel within it. We are able to document the environment that we live in, in a more interesting way. Something that I have noticed in modern tableau photography is that everyone appears to be naked. Somehow I don’t think that I will be using this in my response to tableau photography just because I feel that there is no real need to be naked in images, I think that images are more effect in the art of telling a story through the emotion of the subject/character rather than the physical appearance of them.
Mary Ellen Mark was a 75 year old American photographer, who died in May 2015. She has had 18 collections throughout her career that have been published and is known for her street/documentary photography. A lot of her works are exhibited in galleries and museums all over the world.
The reason I chose to look at this artist was because she does street photography which I find very interesting. I like that she finds different people from the norm and embracing that takes a good photo of them. I think that I will keep the concept of candid photographs on the streets in one of my own ideas for this project. I like how all of her images are in black and white, early on in her career this will have been the only available filter to use but more recently I think it is used to add more character to the environment and the people who she is photographing. This allows the spectator to focus in on the people in the image rather than being drawn in by all of the different colours, distracting them from the possible meaning behind the images she creates. I believe that a lot of Ellen Mark’s work fits into the tableau category as a lot of the time the people are looking directly into the camera and with a neutral facial expression which Ellen Mark will have had to ask them to do. I do think that the people are genuine and she comes across all of these different people on the streets yet it does hold the element of tableau photography that I think a lot of photographers will use in documentary photographs to make it more hard hitting and to make it more personal for the spectator to really be looking into the eyes of the subject in the images.
After looking at a few pieces of Mary Ellen Mark’s work I discovered that she tends to make images of poorer people or those who seem troubled. For example there is one image where a small boy is sleeping in bed with his mother and father yet he is wide awake and looks crapped in the image. This shows that the family is poor and that they only have this one single mattress on the floor to share between the three of them and the boy is possibly troubled because maybe all he wants is his own space to grow and be happy. I feel like this young boy feels trapped by his parents but he can’t figure out a way to get out of it all and to escape into something better than the life he has with his parents. This could also be symbolic of how a lot of teenagers feel when they are finally growing into young adults but are still bombarded with pressure from their parents and still feel trapped under their wing even though they’ve been trying so hard to get away and create their own individual life. I like this image a lot because it really makes you appreciate what you have and allows the spectator to reflect a little on their own lives and the things we as humans always seem to take for granted, like having our own bed to sleep on each night.
This image creeps me out. I have no clue of what is going on in this image. I feel like the little girl really does not want to be there and is being held against her will by this freaky looking clown who is holding a gun! I just noticed that on his hat states ‘Captain America’, this could mean something. Captain America is a character from the Marvel comics. He is supposedly a hero who was frozen during the war and was to be brought back to life in the future to save America. Here the clown has a gun and looks as though he is casually aiming it towards the young girl, yet nothing seems forced. The little girl just looks as though she’s being in the photograph to please her parents and there is no real struggle. The clown looks extremely pleased with himself which creeps me out the most as I have no clue of what the motive of this image could actually be. Mary Ellen Mark could possibly be trying to say that this “Captain America” is just a stupid idea that would never work and that he would just become a clown for the government to play with and control. He would just follow orders and do as he was told no matter what the circumstance, hence the little girl possibly symbolising innocence. I really do not have a clue what is going on in this image and I think it is really random and difficult to figure out. Even though I did manage to create a possible meaning from this image I don’t think that it really has one. I think that this little girl was just at a circus with her family and the guy was dressed as the clown and then Mary Ellen Mark just asked them to sit together and she took this photograph, that is why he is not pressing her with the gun or holding onto her arm too tightly. They are just real people who were put into a real life situation together. The main thing I took from this was just a reminder of how much I dislike clowns.
An interview with Mary Ellen Mark:
Debatably one of the most famous photographs of the 21st century was hers of the ‘Migrant Mother’. This is a very powerful image that throughout the years has caused much controversy with the subject herself and the photographer.
This is Mary Ellen Mark’s most iconic image. Here the children look as if they want their faces to be covered, that they are possibly ashamed to be seen in the photograph. Whereas, the mother looks as though she has a lot on her mind and possibly battling whether or not it was a good idea to take her and her three children out of their country and migrate to another for safety. They are all very dirty looking, including the little baby that she is holding with her left arm. To me this image is very sad as if all the happiness in the world wasn’t anything compared to all the sadness. This image allows the spectator to take from it what they want as well as bringing across a strong message of how lucky we are to live in a safe place where we don’t have to run away in fear of civil war or attacks from the governments. It has been stirred that a reporter talked to the migrant mother who claimed that she didn’t actually want Ellen Mark to take the photograph of her yet she did it anyway. I feel like this is possibly true because why would a migrant want their photo all over America? She is trying to get away from all the drama of her own country she doesn’t need to start her new life with her children filled with drama of a new kind, being constantly bombarded with questions about how she felt in that image and what was going on at the time. This image really does make me thankful for the life I have, to not have to escape a country in order to keep safe.
Overall, I think Mary Ellen Mark has made many inspiring images that I want to try and follow in the footsteps of by possibly going to the streets and making images of people. I like the rawness of the images and having no plan until I am in a situation creating more spontaneous images rather than pre-planned and rehearsed ones.
Throughout summer I have been looking into our next topic, documentary photography. For this I wanted to find a way to bring in my own style and ideas without completely ignoring the original concept of documentary photography. To me documentary photography is simply taking photographs of a person’s everyday life, following them around and taking various action shots of all the elements of that person’s day. Documentation is an extremely popular media and I believe it to be something that we as humans have done for millions of years, even from the beginning when cave men made drawings on the stone walls, the carvings made by Egyptians to the stained-glass windows in churches. Documentation almost comes naturally to us. I believe that there is no perfect way to document something, however I do believe that documenting something visually is so much better than simply writing it down. I love watching videos diaries that people create and show the world from their perspective and those who document their day and what they have done. One YouTuber in particular that I really love is Jack Harries who has created a series of short documentary films as he travels the world and discovers new people and new places.
My favourite videos of his
The Rickshaw Run series:
24 hours in series:
The reason I love watching this style of film documentary is because it’s so real and exciting. I like seeing different cultures and people and being able to discover new places even if I am sat watching it over the internet and not actually being physically there. The way these videos are filmed are excellent as Harries created his own Steadicam from a first person perspective. He used a bike helmet, put two weights on the back and his Canon 6D on the front with a view finder too right in front of his face to create the most real reactions possible while seeing the world from his perspective. I really enjoy discovering different cultures and seeing different streets of the world without even having to spend any money at all. Visual documentary is a great thing and, I think, the best way to lock in mementos of our modern world for the future generations to come.
MEXICO. Oaxaca state. Tehuantepec. 1985. Children playing in a courtyard.
HAITI. Port-au-Prince. 1987. Fires set by anti-election provocateurs.
HAITI. Etroits, La Gonave. 1986.
MEXICO. Matamoros. Tamaulipas. 1978.
I find Webb’s images interesting as they are somewhat staged but also documentary. His images lean more towards the tableau side of photography as when he goes into a situation he gets real people and repositions them to make for a more interesting photograph.
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At first I struggled to come up with, what I thought was, an interesting idea. I thought that it would be challenging to come up with a concept and a meaning behind each photograph but then I realised that the whole concept behind this style of photography is not to have some amazingly moving concept or meaning, it is simply a way of remembering. A way to hold on to memories for longer than our minds could ever hold onto. I began to question how interesting ordinary people’s lives were, mainly my own. I thought that my life was very mundane and not worth the documentation but then I realised that we are all different and all unique and it would be very interesting to see how every ordinary person lives their private life. What actually makes us ‘ordinary’? I want to find something different, someone who stands out from the norm. This is when I realised that we are all very different the way we handle and approach things and I think that this alone could be a really excellent exploration of documentary photography. I want to follow ordinary people throughout their day and see how each one of those people do things differently.
I believe that there is a set of ethics that photographers must follow from a humanitarian perspective. Each other their images must be true to its surroundings and not suggest something that is completely false. I think that photography can be very honest as photographers are able to express themselves through their work as well as in documentary photography, getting a true and real message across for the rest of the world to view. Photographers are able to manipulate events by only allowing the spectator to see what they want them to see. This can simply be zooming more into the environment only just allowing what the photographer wants their spectator to see. There has been debates between staged photography and the photojournalists methods of only bare witness. I like both methods and think that as long as the situation isn’t completely fabricated and manipulated to make a person, town or country look bad then I think it is fine to ask your found subjects to stand in certain places in order for the photographer to make the best photo possible. sometimes I think it all depends on what is actually in the image itself, a lot of documentary/photojournalism photography do not focus on composition at all as what is actually going on in the image is the most important thing which is the message that the photographer is trying to get across.
Nowadays photographers have blogs and can share their images all across the internet as well as explaining the situation as background information on their individual blog. I think this is a very honest process and allows photojournalists to tell their side of the story and what was actually going on outside of the image that they took. This makes it easier to avoid backlash and inquiries into why the photographer took the photo instead of helping out in the situation.
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I think that nowadays we all think that only celebrities are worth looking at and that watching them living their ‘perfect’ lives will somehow make up for our very much mundane ones but here is where I think we as humans fail. We shouldn’t be continuously watching the lives of celebrities but we should focus on our own lives and living them the way we want to. I think that there is no such thing as the perfect life and no one on this earth is living it because obviously we all have our ups and downs. I will be exploring different versions of documentary photography including tableaux/staged photographs.
I also like that a lot of documentary photography is in black and white. This is done to make the images more shocking to the spectator and to really maintain focus on the people in the photograph as well as what kind of background the spectator might assume that they come from. I will use this method in a lot of my photographs as a lot of my ideas will look a whole lot better if produced in black and white, however I do have one big[ish] idea that I want to make in colour as I think it will be more interesting as well as keeping a record of the colours and fashions of the modern world.
Below are some images that I have looked at for inspiration –
There are different elements of documentary photography including tableaux photography. This comes from the documentary style but is more commonly known as staged photography. This is were the photographer may find the subjects in an area and re-position them to make for an interesting photograph or they could be completely staged and prepared to bring across a message to the spectator as well as documenting more serious issues of the modern world, for example feminism.
Tableau came from a French phrase meaning ‘living picture’. Here the subject will dress up, possibly using props, using appropriate backgrounds and poses in an attempt to re-stage past/original events. This style of art was going on long before photography came around as was done in paintings many years before. The 1970s saw the rise of a now famous photographer, Cindy Sherman who began to voice her own thoughts as women were now beginning to express themselves more freely in the public eye. I like this style of documentary photography as I am able to stage some interesting images as well as get across important morals that I believe in and I think this style of photography is a great way to make hard hitting images to start people talking and to open up people’s minds on subjects they may have never thought about in the past.
This is my first edit from the ‘air’ series. This was the picture that I took first. The zoom was larger and as I went on I decreased the zoom. The pictures from this experiment are quite different. We did about three different throws, therefore the results vary. Particularly in this one, the rule of thirds is quite good. The blanket intersects the lower horizontal line of the grid. This adds balance to the image, and directs me to look exactly at the blue blanket. Also the colour is important. The blue shaded windows in the background, balance the foreground to it. It almost reflects the colour.
For my third picture, it shows a further away shot. There is a lot of depth and certainly a lot of distracting features. The angle upsets the symmetry, but this is what causes the composition to be very interesting and amazing.
I’ve edited this image to increase the contrasting colours. There wasn’t much vibrancy, so I also altered it. Moving onto the compositional elements, I think that this photograph has got a great rule of thirds. Since the blanket is intersecting one of the two vertical lines, the images has a sort of balance to it. The leading lines in the background are very distracting. The rectangle and square shapes on the buildings create a very abstract view. I think that the curled up blanket, that’s soaring mid-air adds an interesting component to it. The off-balance distracts me from the solid background and I think that the difference is perfect. Also, the angle at which is the picture was taking is also quite intriguing. I was standing at the bottom of the staircase, whilst pointing my camera lens upward. The way in which it was taken really changes my perspective and even makes the blanket look bigger than it really is. It’s hard to tell if the blanket is closer to the building or to the wall. This picture has great depth. The background, middle ground and foreground are all filled with objects, therefore it has a three dimensional effect. The layers in the scene draws me into the image.
This in all, creates a series, which shows the blanket being thrown. You can see where the blanket starts, higher up in the left hand corer of the staircase and where it ends up. The result of this performance was very effective in my view. At the end, the blanket goes over the top of the wall, which I managed to capture at the last minute.
During our trip to France, we found a lost blue blanket on the ground. As an idea, we brought it around everywhere we went. We would place it on various objects and locations, as we saw them. I think that this documented a performance, as we showed the different settings we reached and incorporated the blanket into the journey. Below, is how it was originally found.
On the next part we travelled down a small alleyway and decided to place it on this doorway. I took this in a front on angle. I think that the blanket disturbs the patterns and symmetry. In result, it creates a very interesting shot.
I really like this image. This is because the rustic effect on the walls adds an antique aesthetic to it. The barrel in the background is also quite vintage. I like the contrast between the olden look and the newer aura transmitted from the blue blanket. It also appears quite unusual as it’s not normal to see a blanket perfectly tucked behind some signs. The depth of field is strong in my opinion. The elongated and narrowed view on the left hand side creates a lot of depth. There are so many leading lines. Most of my attention goes to the left hand side of the picture. I think it’s because of the direction of the vertical lines.
I edited the photograph above. I added a purple hue and decreased the vibrancy. For me, the only colours that are present are purple and the rest is in black and white.
Next, it was placed on a metal shape. The other one is visible on the right side. I like how it adapts to the rounded shape, and needs context to know what shape it actually is.
Then, we came upon this sign. The signs have been completely covered in graffiti and looks vandalised. I think there’s a great contrast between evil and good here. The signs are covered in dirt and are marked, whilst the blanket is clean and pure.
Lastly, we came across a construction site. The obstruction which was a hole was surrounded by a bright red gate and tape.
This is the sign that we put up. It was a little experiment that we did as a group to capture performances in different ways. The disposable camera was tied around a tree in the centre of the town and we put up a notice asking the locals to take a picture. It said “Bonjour! Nous sommes Jersey etudiants en photographie, et nous aimerions votre aide pour un projet. S’il vous plait pourriez-vous prendre une photo avec cet appareil? S’il vou plait ne pas supprimiere cette camera. Merci”. This translates into “Hello! We are Jersey students who are studying photography, and we’d like your help for a project. Please can you take a picture with this camera? Please don’t remove this camera. Thankyou”.
This is the first photograph of the sequence. It is simply a playground slide in the center of St. Malo’s walls. The camera was set up on a plastic train, just a few meters away from the slide. This provided stability and made sure that the picture was always taken in a similar position.
For the second image, we can see a girl appear. She is attempting to go down the slide. I like the fact that she displays a child-like behavioral pattern. Her head intersects the top third line of the rule of thirds and creates a good point to attract us. Also there is quite a lot of depth as there is shadows and objects in the fore, middle and background.
Lastly, this is the third image. The girl is just about to get off the slide after completing a ride on the slide. I like this because it captures the ending part of her performance. It demonstrates the movements of her shadow when she starts to when she finishes.
Above is a photograph from Tom Pope’s series entitled ‘Weak Anarchy’. Pope is hiding behind a tree. All that can be seen is a glimpse of his face and body, however it’s very blurred and he looks unidentifiable. The picture seems to have been taken during the night as there is a lot of bright white light reflecting from the leaves. Also, the light looks artificial. There are many leading lines which are very opposite to each other. First of all, the bricks are horizontal and therefore my attention goes to the edges of the photograph. The leaves from the tree are pointed in all directions and direct me to look further up. Since the brightest place of the image is Pope’s head, that’s the first place that I’m drawn to.
For my response, I’ve emulated his picture in a very similar manner. Whilst in France, my group and I, spontaneously decided to recreate this image. A girl can be seen hiding behind a large tree. Amazingly, there was also a high wall under the girl, which was very similar to Pope’s one. In my responses I have edited by doing several processes and have kept one in colour and one in black and white.
Above, is my first response to Tom’s Weak Anarchy image. I did some general edits to brighten and saturate it. I think that it has a very interesting rule of thirds. The shrubbery leaves the whole bottom third of the picture clear and occupies the top. Much like in his picture, my one exhibits very strong and bright sections of white light. The natural sunlight shining on the green leaves draw my eyes to those places and I think it adds intrigue to the photograph.
As my second response, I have shown a very similar outcome. This one, however I cropped this one in a farther away fashion, to show the whole environment around it. I made this one black and white to vary my edits. I think it brings out the shadows better and shows the highlights and contrasts more clearly. At first it’s hard to spot the person, which is why I believe it’s more interesting to look at. I like how the spaces in the tree’s create pockets of light on the floor. It almost looks like fallen blossom. The rule of thirds is quite unbalanced. This is because the main focus isn’t placed on the key lines of the rule of thirds. Therefore this is even more interesting and for me, the ambiguity of not fitting into the perfect grids, is great.
Above is a photograph that i took whilst i was in Portugal. It shows a young man, alongside his grandma and a middle-aged woman. The old woman, who lives in a small shed has a very intriguing habitat. The poorly clothed, but richly wise lady is sitting the single wooden bench which she has outside. She is holding onto some wooden sticks which are used as walking sticks. In all, this photograph portrays a lot of meaning and has a vintage effect to it. I only placed a dot onto the boy’s face because he was smiling whilst showing his teeth. This displays less of his raw emotions. Also, i wanted it to be mysterious.
Again, in the same location but further down, I found these sheds. Since Baldessari’s work includes portraiture and uses other people, i decided this one of a man would work well. The rustic and hand-built sheds add a country feel to this photograph. I used a white dot again to simply cover his face and hide his facial expression. All that can be seen is his head shape and hairline, whilst leaving the most important features to the imagination.
This is the last picture that i have included from my trip to Portugal. I found that there was a very weird but interesting compositions in this one. Particularly because the dogs are on the edges of the photograph. They almost go out of the shot. I think that the depth is very good here because of the sizes of the dogs. In reality they’re very similar in size, however the way that they are positioned, one looks larger than the other. Thee one on the right is closer to the stone wall, and the black and gold one is more in the center. I covered both of these dogs faces to emulate Baldessari’s work.
Above, is a picture which i took in France. Within it, there are five students from my photography class, which chose to disturb the normal conventions of society with a performance. They laid out a towel and crossed their legs. They then started to meditate. I like how the people in background seem astounded and astonished. I blocked out everyone’s faces to keep the theme of secrecy and disguise going through.
This is one of my favourite of Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills. There isn’t one thing in particular that I like about the image, I just enjoy looking at it. I love the amount of books everywhere showing that the subject is in a library somewhere. An effect element of this image in the direction that the subject is looking as she looks up the sky over her shoulder as if looking for even more books whilst choosing some already. I think the idea of mimicking the cliches women faced in the late 1970s an excellent documentation of the way society used to think and being able to compare it to our modern day society and how much or how little has changed over the past years. I like that all of the film stills are in black and white, this is largely to do with the type of cameras that were around in 1979 as they were all black and white, however I still think that it makes the images more interesting and allows the spectator something to maintain focus on rather than dotting around the whole image looking at all of the different colours of the books and what the subject is wearing. Something that I also enjoy about these film stills is that in every one of them Sherman is the subject. She seems to create a brand new character in every photograph and each time they are faced with a different scenario in a different environment, which is a great way of documenting what places in America looked like in the late 70s compared to what they all look like nowadays.
