Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer and peace activist also known for her avant-garde art, music and filmmaking. Ono was married to John Lennon until he died in 1980. She was born in 1933 and is now 82 years old. Ono brings feminism into a lot of her work by focusing on the way society perceives them and tends to challenge the way her spectators think and often does performances with audience interaction.
“This society is driven by neurotic speed and force accelerated by greed, and frustration of not being able to live up to the image of men and woman we have created for ourselves; the image has nothing to do with the reality of people.” – Yoko Ono
“We’re here on this earth to unravel the mystery of this planet. The planet is asking for it.” – Yoko Ono
I like the idea of Ono’s film where she asks audience members to one by one join her on stage and cut off a part of her clothing. Eventually she is sitting basically naked. To me this represents the way society picks at women and ends up leaving them with nothing. I find this a really great concept and brings in audience participation as well as bringing to light serious issues such as the way women are treated within our society. I think that this piece is very strong and really does speak volumes. I love that Ono got the audience involved really making it an event to remember. Ono has some really great work which would be interesting to respond to as means of public participation and performance photography. One thing in particular that I enjoy about the film ‘Cut Piece’ is that Ono just has a neutral facial expression, she isn’t sharing her inner emotions with any participants or with the audience. I like that as this allows the audience and spectators to make up their own mind of what is going on and their own personal opinions and views on what is going on. This project shows the vulnerability of women with the audience cutting up her clothing piece by piece. She is motionless throughout possibly showing passiveness and how women are expected to be that way and just allow others to use them and take things away from them, more mentally than physically. This is a really strong body of work and shows true vulnerability in a completely great and artistic way which is something that I really like about Ono.
“A dream you dream alone is only a dream, A dream you dream together is reality.” – Yoko Ono
Recently I have seen quite a few videos of women going into the streets wearing nothing but underwear and a sign, holding a pen in each hand. The signs invite the public to draw a heart anywhere on her body showing that all shapes and sizes of women are beautiful no matter what society tries to imply is right. I think that these videos are very moving and really does show how accepting we can be as a society and that we just need that little push with movements such as feminism and artistic movements in order to gain support and understanding of current social issues of the way men and women are expected to be. This reminds me of Ono’s work as she completely relies on public participation and cooperation within a lot of her work. I really love these kinds of videos as they make me happy and feel less self-conscious of my body knowing that people will accept you no matter what you look like. Through public acts like these we as a society realise that focusing on the way someone looks physically is wrong and can really damage a person mentally. It’s things like these that make me happy to be a part of this generation as we have come so far, with so far to go, and are constantly finding more creative ways to show people that everyone should be accepted and self love is not something to be ashamed of.
More recent work of Yoko Ono. This is mainly to do with music but has a creative meaning and concept behind it which is actually very interesting to watch. Some of the stuff that Ono has created seems very strange and random but then she turns it almost comical and funny, I really like that about her she doesn’t take herself too seriously but does come up with good meanings behind her work with good concepts.
As previously mentioned, I am constantly getting inspiration from the works of Cindy Sherman, specifically her set of Film Stills 1977-1980. Sherman has influenced many tableaux photographers and has become iconic in the movement of feminism. Sherman is an American photographer and film director, known for her conceptual portraits. She was born in 1954 finding her feet in photography in the 70s when she produced her first set of Film Stills. Sherman works in series, usually photographing herself in a wide range of different costumes and makeup changing her identity to create a new persona for each photograph. She will often shoot alone in her studio not knowing exactly what images she wants to produce, she will assume multiple roles and is the author, director, makeup artist, hairstylist, fashion designer and model.
In the past I have gained a lot of inspiration from Sherman’s Film Stills and am still finding inspiration from these images. I like the idea that Sherman looks different in every image and she becomes a new persona each time. I want to use this for my own experimentation and be able to tell a story myself by becoming each character and looking different in each image. I think that her work is very strong and there is always something going on. Sherman tends to find humour in types of people and she will mimic them within her work and exaggerate certain traits that they have. I find this very interesting as Sherman does not care if she offends people and will just do to make for some good images. A theme that I’ve noticed with Sherman’s work is that she uses a lot of makeup and props to change the shape of her body as well as many wigs. I really like this as she is able to tell so many different stories within her work as a tableau photographer.
“Cindy Sherman represents everything that is wrong with the contemporary art world.” – Bloomberg Business review
I think that Sherman really stands out in the photography world and has really furthered public knowledge of the unfair advantages and disadvantages faced with men and women. Sherman tends to focus in on the stereotypes of women and she likes to recreate a persona of a person she has possibly seen and exaggerates them to make for more impact and to stand out against other photographs. I really like this concept as she is showing spectators the problems within our own society of how we treat women and how we expect them to be. I think that it is so wrong that women have one set of rules while men have another, it is unfair for both parties as we are all human we all share the same kind of emotions and yet our gender seems to have an effect on the way we show those emotions and the way we treat others. Sherman’s work is very strong and bold, she doesn’t tend to hold back at all and has many over the top nude photographs where she creates a new persona and she makes her own props of different parts of the female anatomy to make for a more interesting photograph. I believe Sherman uses nudes within her work as a way of showing what society expects of women and I can also link this to many painting where women are used as objects to be seen and painted as sexual figures.
This image really shows the cliches faced with women perfectly. The subject is looking glamorous wearing a pretty skirt and makeup while picking up the grocery shopping showing how women are, within society, expected to do all of the cooking, cleaning and household chores while still looking good. I think that this is a strong images as Sherman’s facial expression doesn’t look pleased at all, she looks very miserable as if she doesn’t want to be doing all of the household work. This image shows how society has treated women in the past and how it still treats them to this day. Spectators are able to see how women are represented unfairly and what are expected of women yet not expected of men. I really like this image as it is very strong and shows the strain put on women within our society. I just really like this image and the way it looks with all of the props and the position of the subject is really interesting to me. I love Sherman’s work showing the cliches women faced in the 70s and it shows just how many of those that women still face today. It is interesting to see how little has changed since the 70s and how women are still perceived in the same way and still face the same unfair expectations.
Another image that I find very interesting is the one above. I really like this image as Sherman is posing almost like a Femme Fatale from film Noir films. She looks like a damsel in distress and needs a man to come and save her. Sherman shows the spectator the expectation of women having to look glamorous all of the time and ready to do anything that her man wants her to. This image is very interesting as it shows the cliches faced by women, like all of Sherman’s photographs. I really like this image because it is obviously staged and something that you would expect to see when someone is mocking another person as a damsel in distress. This photograph interests me as the subject is wearing somewhat provocative clothing and posing in such a way that the spectator would think that she ‘was asking for it’ even though no matter what the woman looks like or is wearing she is never asking for it. I think that this is a strong image and interesting to look at.
I love this image. There is something about this photograph that really draws me in and makes me want to analyse it further to learn more about it. The lights in the background of this image draw me in as you would usually expect those kind of lights to be behind the camera not in front of it. I like that the subject is looking directly into the camera with only her head as the rest of her body is facing away from it, this seems as if she was possibly sitting on the floor with those big lights doing her makeup and then turned around to look because she was being disturbed. I know that Sherman makes all of her photographs without a clear plan as to what she wants but only a clear plan on who she wants to be. Sherman makes her images alone in her studio yet it doesn’t look that way and every photo is different and unique in itself. I like the subjects outfit, it looks as though she is getting ready for a night out or possibly to do a performance. One of my favourite photos from Sherman’s film stills, there is nothing specific about it I just really find it interesting to look at and I enjoy looking at it. Something that I also noticed about Sherman’s Film Stills is that they are all in black and white, much to do with the time she had a film camera in the 70s where colour hadn’t been introduced yet but they look really awesome and it just adds more atmosphere and effect to the image. The spectator is able to focus in on the subject and what she is doing rather than getting distracted by all of the lights and colours surrounding her.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
Claude Cahun was a French artist/photographer who moved in 1937 to Jersey Channel Islands during World War II. Cahun was a surrealist and had many political and personal movements behind her work. I really love the idea of having a strong political message behind my work as through photography were are able to visually represent what a lot of people wouldn’t dare to say. We are able to send out strong messages that makes the world stand still. This only happened to Cahun after her death. She was a lesbian together with her half sister. During Nazi occupation in Jersey Cahun gave out anti-Nazi leaflets in attempts to demoralise the troops trying to get them to leave the island. The pair also created notes on a bit of tissue with a drawn picture and always written in German to insinuated that it was a German officer writing them. Cahun was arrested along with her partner and were sentenced the death penalty. Although, the pair escaped with their lives as the island was liberated before the sentence could be carried out. This was unfortunate for Cahun as she actually wanted to be a martyr.
Claude Cahun self-portraitClaude Cahun’s father
The image above shows Cahun looking very masculine and a lot like an image of her father. i find this image very interesting as she does look like a man as she has no hair and more masculine features. Cahun had a good relationship with her father and, in some ways, idolized him. She shares the same beak shaped nose as her father and seems to identify with him through this image. It is very simple but is a bit of an enigma. I think that if a spectator was to look at this image they would not be able to tell that the subject is a woman and just think nothing much of it. I find this image strange and I want to find out more as to why Cahun saw herself this way and felt that her way of identifying herself was through her male role models. I can see that possibly this images represents standards, how men are typically seen as having short to no hair and wear quite baggy clothing and suits whereas the norm for a woman would be to have long hair that is always made presentable and pretty long dresses to go as well as makeup. I can see that Cahun doesn’t identify with the stereotypes put on females and wants to break that stereotype by being radical and different to everyone else. She seems to go against the expectations of women and how they are supposed to be.
“There are very few Jews in the islands. The two Jewish women who have just been arrested belong to an unpleasant category. These women had long been circulating leaflets urging German soldiers to shoot their officers. At last they were tracked down. A search of the house, full of ugly cubist paintings, brought to light a quantity of pornographic materials of an especially revolting nature. One woman had her head shaved and been thus photographed in the nude from every angle. Thereafter she had worn men’s clothes. Further nude photographs showed both women practicing sexual perversion, exhibitionism, and flagellation.” – German Soldier’s report on finding Cahun and Moore, 1944 (The Guerilla Girls 63)
For a female to be a photographer back in the 1930 Britain and Jersey was something very strange as women had only received the right to vote in 1928 [above the age of 21]. A lot of people were sceptical of this kind of job especially for a woman as they were still seen as child-baring, stay-at-home-mums. For Cahun to be a lesbian would have been a very radical thought. From the years of 1558 Queen Elizabeth I introduced laws against gay men, she did not include women in this law because she did not think that they would do such a thing so being a lesbian wasn’t actually illegal or seen as a crime because it was so rare and unexpected. Cahun would have had a hard time being accepted within society because she was an open homosexual. Her photography work has only really been noticed more recently after she died in 1954.
At first looking through Cahun’s work I couldn’t really understand why she is seen as a feminist as well as from her history she didn’t have a good relationship with her mother but tended to identify more with her father and male role models. I had a think about her work and came to realise that Cahun is challenging the social norms that men and women face. She wanted to challenge the way women are seen, the way women are supposed to present themselves. I really like this idea as I believe that we should not be defined by gender but we should be able to mould ourselves in any way we deem fit instead of trying to conform to social stereotypes. For example, my little niece is expected to wear pink clothing because she is a girl which to me is so stupid because a colour shouldn’t define a gender nor should we shun people for wearing that certain colour. I like Cahun’s work as she wants to challenge the way society thinks. In many of her images she wears male clothing and picks up male norms, she tended to pick up more of an eccentric lifestyle compared to others during that time.
“She rejected all conventions of her culture and time, especially those regarding sexuality and the performance of it.” – Feminist Art Archive review
Andre Breton link to Cahun
Andre Breton
Breton was the founder of the surrealist movement back in Paris along with a few other artists and writers which was influenced by Karl Marx. Breton defined surrealism as “psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express – verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner – the actual functioning of thought.” Breton proposed that artists will often bypass rationality and reason by expressing and accessing the unconscious mind. This allowed artists to think outside the norm and to create new realities within their own work. Andre Breton took interest in Cahun and her work although she would never actually directly associate herself with his movement and actually became wary of any direct association with any label or group. Cahun was an individual who wanted to remain unique and stick to her own ideas of creativity rather than belonging to any group or movement. Cahun refused to be limited by certain labels of females, lesbians, writers, a photographer, a Jew or even an artist. Cahun rejected all familiar and generically given conventions of life and adapted her own unique way of living, the way she wanted to live.
“Individualism? Narcissism? Of course. It is my strongest tendency, the only intentional constancy I am capable of.” – Claude Cahun
Cahun’s work is very unique and stands out from the norm of what spectators would expect from a photograph. I think that a lot of her images are made with the intent to show that women can look like men and that it isn’t a negative thing because in reality we as humans are all very similar. Cahun has many works with a shaved head, making her look a lot more like her father who she really looked up to. I find this interesting as this at the time would have been so unusual and masculine looking whereas now so many young women are shaving their heads and look very beautiful. I think that Cahun has helped this to become more of a norm by challenging the way spectators think and making them see certain aspects of gender stereotypes in a different light. Much like other feminist/tableaux photographers, like Cindy Sherman, Cahun tends to look different in each set of images. I think that photographers use this as a way to allow more spectators to identify with them and to show characters instead of just repeatedly seeing images of the same person. I like the idea of creating a character within each photograph and dressing up as someone else to portray a new and unique story for each set of images.
The image above really interests me because at first glance it is actually quite scary looking. The way Cahun has positioned herself isn’t at a flattering angle and the black eyeliner around her eyes makes her look like more of an enigma and interesting character. I like that this image is very simple and only has a medium close up of Cahun herself looking masculine and a lot like her father. I like that this image is in black and white as it becomes more effective as well as there only being black and white film cameras around when Cahun was a photographer. This allows the spectator to focus in on the subjects face and really try hard to see what is going on in the photograph and it also makes the dark makeup on her face stand out more. This particular image is like a standard portrait image but Cahun has changed it by facing her body away from the camera and only turning her head round as if glancing behind her to see what is happening. I like this image because it is strange to look at, I’m really interested as to why Cahun chose to make this image. It shows the masculinity in her facial features while hiding her more feminine side of her chest area. I would like to respond to Cahun’s work with some unique surrealist photographs, responding the social norms faced with modern women and challenging them in a new and unique way much like Cahun has done.
Another image that I find very interesting is this one above. To me the subject is showing her true self and how it different she is to the norm while holding a mask that she possibly feels that she has to wear. The subject doesn’t look happy at all, as if she’s been covering up for so long and has always felt that she needs to conform to the ways that society has taught her and pushed her to be. The mask seems to be a physical representation of this pressure from society. The subject looks quite strange to me, she has hearts drawn onto her cheekbones and her hair is weirdly curved, however I actually really like it and find it unique. This image challenges the ideals of beauty, which seems to be shown on the mask. I really want to respond to Cahun’s work with more up-to-date versions of her images, even though a lot of pressures and socially accepted norms from back in the 1920s and 1930s still remains today with ideals of beauty actually being remoulded and shaped differently. I have gained a lot of inspiration from Cahun’s work and think that I can reflect this in new ideas that I have come up with and will begin working on.
I find this image extremely interesting. Cahun looks like a man, she looks nothing like what society expects a woman to look like and I find this very interesting. Cahun wanted to challenge the way people saw men and women and I think she would have seen our current world as a newly successful step. At the time these images would have been so radical and outrageous as women weren’t often seen as being able to creatively express themselves, unlike nowadays where men and women go against societal norms and do whatever they please. I think the reasoning behind each of Cahun’s images is very powerful and does really reflect the pressures that men and women both have to suffer through within our society. Although her work was made almost 90 years ago, it is still very current and still manages to fit in with our modern society. That is why I like this work so much because it is still relatable and still makes sense to this day. Cahun didn’t know that her work would one day be widely known but I think that she would have been extremely happy, especially with the way society has remoulded and is now a lot more accepting of people that don’t quite fit in any category, the misfits.
Mark Power in an English photographer born in Harpenden, England 1959. He is a Professor of Photography in The Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the University of Brighton. Power embarked on creating The Shipping Forecast between the years of 1992 and 1996. This project involved travelling to and photographing all 31 areas covered by the Shipping Forecast broadcast on BBC Radio 4. I like that this work is very specific and structured so Power knows exactly where he is going to be making his photographs. This particular project was published as a book and was a touring exhibition across the UK and France. Power drove around in a car for the entire project taking inspiration of works from Tony Ray-Jones.
Mark Power [1959 – present]Tony Ray-Jones
Tony Ray-Jones was an English photographer who inspired Power. He died in 1972 at only age 30. Ray-Jones was a documentary photographer who took interest in photographing the way of the British and wanted to delve into this more in depth. He wanted to look at his own society in a new way by using irony, compassion, nostalgia and humour. He became hugely influential on the development of British documentary photography from the 1970s through to the present.
“My aim is to communicate something of the spirit and the mentality of the English, their habits and their way of life, the ironies that exist in the way they do things, partly through their traditions and partly through the nature of their environment and their mentality.” – Tony Ray-Jones
I particularly like this photograph with the small boy lung down on the beach seemingly tired. It looks as if he is fiddling with the sand instead of playing with the digger toy next to him. The spectator is able to see that this young boy is getting tired and just wants to chill out so he decided to lye on the sand and just wait for his parents to come and get him to go home. I like this image because it is simple. The subject is what the spectators eyes will be drawn to straight away as he is the only object around other than the sand and the background beach houses. This image is from the series The Shipping Forecast and mainly based on the beaches of each weather forecast location covered by BBC Radio 4.
Another image that I like is the one above because it really is a candid action shot. It brings in some nostalgia for me of when I was younger and when my parents used to have to lift me up from the waves coming for me when I was too small to stand against them myself. I really like this image as it does bring back some funny memories with my family. It is an image that I think a lot, if not everyone, can relate to at some point or other in their lives. It is such a simple image but holds so many memories and good times. The subjects in this image don’t necessarily matter, it is more about what they are doing and what the image is bringing to the spectator. The wave looks so huge compared to the little boy who would defiantly been taken under by it yet it in comparison to the woman holding him the wave doesn’t seem so big, it looks a lot smaller and less intimidating. The wave does look very powerful in this image and that it could knock the both of them down. I also like the woman in the background who doesn’t look phased at all by the wave as she just seems to be walking straight through it. This image shows many different emotions with the small boy looking scared/worried and the woman in the background looking chilled out and not bothered. This image reminds me of all the times as a young child that I would overdramatise everything and that most things seemed like a big deal whereas now they become meaningless and are not to be dwelled on. That comes with age and maturity but I love that this image shows that, in a way. This is a great documentation of families on the beach and how usually people are. The woman doesn’t have her bikini strap on obviously she has been trying to tan and not get a paler line along her back from the straps when her son/possibly brother asked her to play in the water with him. The young boy is wearing armbands, learning how to swim and he also has goggles. This images makes me think of how when you were young you didn’t really care about anything, in the way you looked or the way people saw you but as you get older you tend to care a whole lot more about your image. I do really like this image as there is a lot going on and the spectator is able to access memories just by looking at this particular image.
Tom Wood is a British community photographer. He was worked on photographing the working class in Liverpool for many years. Originally Wood was trained as a painter at the conceptually orientated Leicester Polytechic from 1973-1976. He first explored lens-based media through extensive viewing of experimental films. Wood’s approach to photography is more fluid than other current conventions of post-Conceptual photography and photojournalism. Wood works will colour negative film and has done so since 1976, using bother black and white and colour in different locations. This is interesting as a lot more photographers are going back to using film cameras instead of digital ones, especially documentary photographers in order to make the more real and raw images possible. Wood is currently working as a part time lecturer in photography at Coleg Llandrillo in north Wales and is 64 years old.
I find the Men/Women series very interesting as it is a collaboration of all of Wood’s work and simply separated into two books, one filled with the images of men and the other of women. I find this concept interesting as to why he would separate the two by gender as a way of possibly showing the difference and the divisions within the two genders. I think that this would have been the easiest division for Wood to make as he made his photographs in the UK back when there weren’t many different people in cultures or religions etc. He basically made photographs of British people getting on with their everyday lives. I think that this is a really good way to document different communities and by going round photographing in the same place a lot of the time he is getting familiar with the people that live around there making them a lot more comfortable with him being around them and making candid and staged photographs with him.
For some reason this image stood out for me and I love the way it looks. The two women are posing for the camera as they sit on the bonnet of their car. The pair are covering in makeup, wearing fake tan and wearing heels and massive earrings. I don’t have a particular reason for liking these images accept for the fact that it interests me and that there is a lot going on in it. The position of the two women is perfect and the facial expression almost suggests that they have a sassy attitude, they seem to enjoy posing for the camera. I like this image as well because of the entire background, the fashion and the way people were back when this photo was taken is completely different to how people are now. I just find that there is a lot going on in this image and spectators will have plenty to look at and interpret for themselves what they think is going on and who the subjects are. I like that this images shows older people in the background sitting on benches just enjoying the view compared to nowadays where so many people are constantly on their phones and laptops that they forget to look outside and just take a moment to relax without having to worry about their electronic devices.
I like the collection of Wood’s work as it is just great documentation of life in Britain from years ago and the community surrounding those people. I like to see this to compare and contrast my own community and how it may differ from these ones and how things have changed and how people are a lot different now. Even though these photos aren’t from too long ago, so much has changed and developed that we have become different beings.
Another image that I really like is the one above of a group of teenage boys. I find it interesting to see the on trend fashion back when this image was taken and how nowadays people are bringing this back as more of a vintage or retro look. I enjoy seeing these documentary images as it shows the kind of people living in that community and I can relate this to people I see now in my own community. This photo also reminds me a lot of the film Stand By Me with a bunch of boys who look similar to these ones and go on an adventure. The subjects are unconventional in that they are unlikely models but they seem to all look very good in front of the camera in the way that they are conveying the story. They look like a bunch of boys who were just hanging out in their local community when Wood approached them and asked to make a photograph of them. They’re just normal young boys having fun within their community and hanging out together, sharing their experiences. I think that I would like to explore more in depth the different teenage communities within our society and what they actually do in local places instead of seeing the negative things that minorities of teenagers do broadcast on the news and in newspapers. I like Wood’s work and find it very interesting and just great documentation of Britain in the past.
Divola is a contemporary American photographer, born 1949. He often takes landscape photographs in different areas of community and looking at the edge between the abstract and the specific. Divola doesn’t tend to use people in his images and will make photographs of the landscape that surrounds them instead. I like the idea of this as it shows the environments that are surrounding us that we can often ignore or not notice but when it becomes the subject matter we are able to completely focus in on the environment around us and share that environment with others. I find Divola’s concept interesting as through is images spectators are able to see different communities environments and are able to compare the differences with their own environment. This would also make some interesting documentary photographs as it is showing how we leave within modern day society.
Something that I noticed in some of Divola’s photographs is that he makes images of the abandoned places within our community, the places that seem to have been forgotten and disregarded. I find this very interesting as it shows the more negative side of our community and how we are humans will just leave things to rot instead of actually trying to resurrect it and help make it better. I think that I will be able to respond these images in different locations around Jersey and think it will be a fun shoot to do as it is something we are all aware of but tend to ignore for no particular reason. I think that Divola’s work is quite unique for documentary photography in that he doesn’t use people to tell the story, the environment speaks for itself. His work is very abstract and to the point. I like that he doesn’t need to use any people to tell his story and that each of his images work as stand alone ones. They can come across as quite hard hitting with the state of the place he is in looks. Each images looks as if people have come in and destructively ruined this environment which shows the kind of people that are living within that community.
This particular image really interests me as it looks like a beach house with a beautiful view of the ocean and the sunset. I find that this image is beautifully lit as well as looking brutally destroyed. I enjoy looking at this image because of the background sunset. This photograph stood out to me initially because of the sunset but then I looked closer and saw all of the windows have been smashed with glass covering the floor and an old-fashioned suitcase sits open on the ground. This makes me intrigued as I wonder what went on in this environment and who could have possibly done this. One theory I have is that it was the ocean that thrashed against the glass breaking it as the glass is on the inside of the house. Another theory is that people came in and decided to wreck the place. I wonder why there is a suitcase there and that maybe someone living there just left it behind. There is so much going on in this image allowing the spectator to look around as if they are in the room and looking at the environment surrounding them. This image is part of the series called ‘Three Acts’. They are unique to any other documentary photos I’ve seen before and stand out to me as they the photos are not ones spectators would usually expect to see. This image is taken from the series photographed in a condemned neighbourhood bought by an airport to serve as a noise buffer for new runways. The buildings are all destroyed and Divola decided to make images as evidence of violent entries by vandals by shattering windows as well as doors torn from their hinges. After watching some videos of Divola I discovered that he was the one actually vandalising these houses and adding colour by using graffiti which is becoming a popular art nowadays.
“Once seen, the work of John Divola is not easily forgotten.” – David Campany
After watching the video above I had a closer look at Divola’s photographic art work and found that a lot of it I could relate to performance photography and the work of Tom Pope and John Baldessari capturing something midair and throwing things around and just capturing it. I also found out that Divola could only shoot those images at certain times of the day so that he could get the right lighting and that he would always revisit the same places and keep on going back to them adding different works of graffiti each time as well as noticing other vandals workings. I found this video very useful and interesting to find out more about Divola’s personal opinion and the message he was trying to get across. I enjoy looking at his work and think that if I was to respond to this I would more likely just visit certain places and photograph them every so often and not touch them to make it more authentic and not to vandalise any of these places any further.
I came across the work of Kristen Lewis when looking for family photographers. I looked into some of her work and found it very interesting. Lewis is a photographer from South Eastern Connecticut. Her mother was a photographer and her father a musician. Her work is the normal everyday, action shots. This work allows the spectator into the lives of another family, showing all of the different emotions that the family goes through together. I think that her images are very real and are good documentary photographs. It looks very real and as if she really did follow the family around while they were doing their thing. One particular set of images that stood out for me where her ‘Vacation Sessions’ shoot. This is where a family went on holiday and Lewis simply photographed the ups and the downs that they went through just like any other family.
Lewis has a variety of different documentary shoots, with one being titled Vacation Sessions. Here she follows round families and just captures moments in their everyday lives. I think that these are interesting photos for the family to look back on as well as for the spectator to see into the lives of another famiy. It also shows the ups and downs of traveling with children and a lot of the shots seem very real and captured in the moment. Some of the shots I think Lewis has readjusted and asked for subjects to collaborate with her so that she can make a great photograph. I think that this shows off documentary photography well as this is what it is all about and I like the idea of showing normal families lives and what the kids and the parents go through on a daily basis.
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Disney World: Orlando Florida
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
I like Lewis’ work as it is very simplistic in that it is just documenting the vacations of different families, showing the ups and the downs. I think that the images with the children are strong as they show thier raw emotions and the spectator is able to tell straight away the mood and atmosphere within the shot. There are a lot of water based shots, the reason being because each family is on vacation and that is usually what families do, parents relax round the pool while the kids run around and play in the pool. I think it is interesting to document as most spectators are able to relate to this either in rememberance of when they were young and loved to run around making imaginary worlds and making friends or even relate to the adults just having a moment to themselves to sit back and relax while sunbathing and reading.
Vacation Sessions, Charleston, South Carolina
I chose to analyse this image as I think that there is a lot going on in it. The father has been blinded by his son sitting on his shoulders as the father reached out to hold his other son. The emotion in their faces, from left to right, are full of joy and laughter, to slight concern and confusion. I like this image because of the range of emotions within it as well as it simply being a captured moment of a family on vacation. I feel like we’ve all experienced a moment similar to the one captured in this image, either being dragged through the water by an older siblings or blinded/being blinded by another family member. This image is very positive and happy making the spectator happy too.
Bruno Barbey is a French documentary photographer, born 1941. He photographed many wars throughout his career as a documentary war photographer. Barbey has published many books over the years, about 23 published. He has also created some short films throughout his career, including contributions for a BBC production called Assignment in Morocco.
Barbey has made a huge body of working in documentary photography. He often tends to go into the environment and asks the chosen subjects to look directly into the camera. It seems that he doesn’t tell them what to do or positions them differently to how they actually were. I think that his work is really good but none of it really stands out to me and I don’t really think that they effect me that much. I see these images but don’t really feel anything towards them, I am indifferent towards them. I feel that the images are necessary in the aspect of documentary photography and that they do document soon to be historical events but I just don’t really feel anything. None of the images are very hard hitting, they’re great images though. To me his work is more about the community and individuals living in the countries where these wars are going on. I feel like his work is aimed at communities within these places to show the effects that are going on in these wars rather than documenting the same war photographs that many war documentary photographers have. I like the idea of this and think that the images are effective and good but I am just not particularly interested in them all that much, there isn’t one image that really stands out for me as truly brilliant and amazing.
I decided to go for this image as this one, for me, is the most natural and behind the scenes. This is an image of soldiers relaxing possibly getting ready in anticipation ready for battle or an after battle reward with a cigarette. I think that Barbey asked to make this image and the soldiers didn’t know how to react and so just smiled and carried on about their business. I do like this image as it shows more soldiers in the background as they sit, looking as if they are possibly preparing something. I like that this image is in black and white too, this was most likely taken on a film camera as that is what Barbey used, especially because of the time that this image would have been created [before the digital age]. I think making war images black and white really takes the spectator back to the time that it all happened and remembering it as a memory, which black and white is often associated with in film etc. I think that this is one of Barbey’s better and more interesting photographs as it stood out for me among all of the rest of his images.
A photographer that I came across while researching tableau photography was the tableau photographer David Hilliard. He was born in 1964 and is American. He is a fine arts photographer, mainly known for his panoramic photographs. Taking inspiration from his personal life he creates great images of his natural surroundings. Most of his scenes are staged, mixing with fact and fiction.
I found Hilliard’s images very interesting because of the panoramic style which is unique. I think that I will respond to some of these images creating my own scenarios while following the panoramic idea. I like that there are white lines separating the single image into a series of three almost. This gives the spectator more to look at and makes for a more interesting photograph. The images could have been taken each individually and then put together during the editing process but I think that it would be more likely that a single image was taken and the white lines were added in afterwards. Something about the lines really draws the spectator into the image and makes you focus in on the central part of the image first and then allowing your eyes to wonder round the background of the image and take everything in individually.
This is one of my favourite images of Hilliard’s as I really like when photographers use the ocean as a means of the background of their images. I think the blue of the ocean really stands out and, to me, is very therapeutic and calming which is what the young boy seems to be too. The young boy on the right hand side of the image almost looks fed up, as if he’s been trying to jump in and capture the boat but every time something is pulling him back and he just can’t reach out and grab it, tiring him out. The boy on the left hand side looking back at the boy as he pushes off with his paddle looks confused possibly, as if he was waiting for his friend to come and join him on the boat and doesn’t understand why he didn’t get on it. It almost looks as if there is only one person in this image, possibly linking to surrealism as if in a dream-like state. He can’t catch up with himself and feels lost deep down. That is what I took from the image from first look at it. I like that tableau photography can do this, it allows every spectator to interpret the image and look at it in whatever way they like. I think this allows the spectator to actively engage with the art and opens up for discussion too.
![Mark Power [1959 - present]](https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo16a2/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/10/Ouside-In-A-Magnum-Photo-Showcase-Mark-Power-Portrait-3-1024x681.jpg)
