Tag Archives: performance photography

Final presentation

Performance Photography: Final Outcomes

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#1
My first set of final outcomes are going to be put together on one window mount. This is where I edited a few photographs of mine and was heavily inspired by John Baldessari. I think that you cant really take away too much inspiration from him without somehow copying a part of his iconic images, especially with the dots in front of peoples faces.

#2
The next set of images that I am going to use for one of my final outcomes is two photographs from St. Malo. These photographs were inspired by Tom Pope and his set of images entitled Weak Anarchy. Here I decided to challenge what is morally right in society and see what the public’s reaction was to this. I did get a few weird looks when doing these performances and people also took some photographs. I will be putting these images together on a window mount.

#3
For this final outcome I took inspiration from Dadaism and photo montage. These photos are made up of one image each which I have just layered on top of one another and rotated them round to make an interesting photograph. Both photos come from the workshop day that we had with Tom Pope. IMG_662476656IMG_662476656

 

Planning, Research

Performance Photography

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Performance photography is a radical and unusual way to photograph. It is more of an art form and in some ways comes across as a political movement to try and challenge authority and the way we as a society think. Performance photography can tell a simple story in the way it is presented but a lot of the time these performances have deeper meaning. This style of photography is usually done outside where it can be viewed by the public. It is an act whereby the spectator will be whoever happens to be present when the performer decides to perform.

To me performance photography isn’t just doing something to entertain a large audience. It is doing something in the public eye but without drawing attention to yourself by calling people over but by just doing your performance and seeing how much of a gathering you manage to create and how interested people are in what you are trying to do. I think that we often need to find ways to challenge the way that society thinks and we need to push the boundaries of what is acceptable in our community too.

Mr T instruction, Planning

Chance, Change and Challenge

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For this particular part of the coursework we are looking at the three words ‘chance, change and challenge’. To me this is exactly what performance photography embodies. In order to make a great photograph/film you need to take a chance and try to anticipate what your audience are going to think. You also need to change your perspective of photography and not do what is expected, something that isn’t conventional to photography. You don’t need to concentrate too much on the composition of the photograph just as long as your subject is in frame. Finally performance photography is a challenge as it challenges the way I think and how I plan a photo shoot. This style of photography is all down to chance and how you as an individual photographer can create something great just on the spot in the environment you are surrounded by. I am excited to see how this project turns out as it does challenge the way I think about photography. Your work can either be really great or something that only the spectators who were there are able to see.

Mr T instruction, Research

Societe Jersiase Photo Archive 2015

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On Tuesday 9th June 2015 all the year 12 photography students were invited down to the Societe Jersiaise Archives to learn more about the photo archive we have on the island and as an introduction to the 2015 Resident Photographer Tom Pope.
Throughout this workshop we were put into groups to work with. At first we watched a presentation made my one of the people who work at the Archisle Jersey. In his presentation  he taught us that photography is a tool for questioning what art is and what it can be. This can be developed in art history and the sciences.

http://societe-jersiaise.org/photographic-archive

Photography is used for many things, such as; advertising/criminal/passport/travel/family/marketing etc.
The archives can tell a story about you, for example the photos you take and choose to save. The photos that you keep can tell a lot about your personality and what interests you. I like to print out my photographs so that I have a physical copy of them to look at as memories as I grow. I also have a huge archive of photographs on my old laptop and my new laptop. This is where I store the bulk load of photos that I have accumulated over my life and am still gaining more and more each day. I prefer to have physical copies of my favourite photographs so that I can access them and look at them without having to search through my laptops for a load of photos from years ago. I think this is because my family have so many photo albums filled with memories and good times. I like the idea of using photo archives as a way to reconnect with my past and to show how much I have changed and developed to the present day.

A man called Henry Mullins [1848-1873] had the first ever photography studio in Jersey! He was very successful as most people in Jersey came to him for their photographs to be taken. He took photos of the most wealthy who lived on the island, which has now become a large archive for the Jersey people of today. Mullins would put all of his images in rows of four with the persons title below so that he would know who was who which has proved very helpful today as we are able to look at these photo albums and see who was around this island many years ago.

mullins-1865

The man from the Jersey Archives also said that the Archives can show how portraits have changed and developed over the centuries. This allows us to see who was around in Jersey in the past. It also shows the difference in social classes from the past and now. It shows how the only people who were ever photographed in the past were of a higher social class whereas nowadays pretty much anyone is able to take photographs.

– photography is always contradicting itself
– Michelle Sank is one of the photographers in resident in Jersey a few years ago [2013].
http://www.michellesank.com

– Yury Toroptsov was the photographer in resident in Jersey last year and was very much influenced by the Battle of Flowers as part of his 6 month project in Jersey [2014].
http://www.toroptsov.com

In photography we need to learn to look beyond just what we can physically see in front of us and instead look at the connotation of an image or set of images. We need to understand what the subject can make you feel and how it influences you as an individual. We as photographers need to anticipate what our audiences’ are going to think and feel about our work.