Surrealism photography is known as a new form of reality and is heavily influenced by dreams. This is the world that we create in our minds, often we come up with these ideas when we are sleeping when we have no control over and often don’t make any sense. Surrealism is the unconscious mind and a world that we are able to share with others that they would never be able to imagine. The movement of surrealism was created in Paris 1924. There are so many surrealist photographer including Man Ray, Christopher Mckenney, Brian Oldham, Dora Maar and Eric Johansson. I love this style of photography as we are able to express ourselves in new and unusual ways that most people might see as odd yet they become poetic and fascinating to look at. One surrealist photographer that I really love the work of is Christopher Mckenney, it is so unusual and different to many other artists work I’ve seen before. I also really like the work of Brian Oldham as his work too is strange yet fascinating to look at.
I really like the style of photographs that artists create within surrealism. They are so interesting and unique. I love that we are able to create new worlds and enter new realms that we would usually not be able to conjure up in our own heads. These fantasy worlds are constantly changing and developing bringing in different types of utopia and dystopia into our minds. I love that surrealist worlds can be utopian and something that people aspire to want to be in and think of along with the opposite world of dystopia and how we are able to create imaginary worlds that are undesirable. Through this movement I want to be able to carry on my work created back in the summer and make an effective photo book from it. I want my work to evoke meaning and to generate a sense of intrigue with my spectators. I feel that surrealism is such a fun movement and you are really able to create pretty much anything that you want within the photographic world.
Tableau photography is also known as narrative photography. It’s a staged set of images that tell a story to the spectator. Famous photographers include Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson. I really like the idea of tableau photographs as through this you are able to create photos that you made up in your head and be able to become a whole new persona. This really interests me and I really like the style and work of many tableau photographers as well as many surrealism photographers. Through tableau photography we are able to tell new and interesting stories, either ones that are already around like myths, films or fairy tales or we can create new worlds and bring new ideas to life. I like to focus my own staged photographic work on movements such as feminism and show the stereotypes that are faced with women. I feel that tableau really benefits movements and photographers are able to express political messages that they feel strongly about.
mood board [Sherman + Crewdson]Tableau | My Thoughts
I love tableau photography and find it so interesting, especially from artists such as Cindy Sherman. Tableau photography allows photographers to generate a sense of narrative and gives them the opportunity to tell a story about anything they please. I feel that they are able to become new personas and create new and interesting tales. This style is very thought provoking and I feel that photographers are able to incorporate movements within their work. I want my work to provoke change and to change my spectators view on the world and make them want to make a difference. There is always opportunity within the photographic world to make something new and exciting. I feel that so many photographers are able to freely express themselves through their work and successfully stage their images to create unique and interesting images.
Documentary photography is what I see as true photography and is supposed to be series of images that tell a true tale about certain individuals lives. It is a way of putting aspects of different peoples lives on record and maintaining them in photographs. Documentary photography portrays real lives and brings to light some important issues that faces our society and those living in other countries. Journalists are some of the users of documentary photography as their work is seen as factual and there is also a code of conduct that journalists go through to ensure that they are telling the truth. I really enjoy seeing documentary photography as it speaks volumes to actually see how the rest of the world is and what people are going through and comparing it to my own life and privilege. I love the documentary work of so many photographers and have recently discovered the work of Andrea Bruce who makes some really interesting photographs. Much like the extraordinary work of James Nachtwey whose work is truly moving.
I feel that documentary photography is really important as it shows people in different parts of the world what is going on elsewhere. I find it so important in news and maintaining to true stories and sharing peoples extraordinary lives. I feel that documentary photography speaks volumes when done in the right way and shows the world hard-hitting issues of the world and allows spectators to make change and to think more openly. I think that I will take inspiration from the realm of documentary photography and the idea of truth telling. I want to use this in my own work and show my spectators the reality of what society is like and how it is effective everyone within it. I find that documentary photography can be so powerful and really make a difference in the world provoking change and making spectators want to find out more and to make a proper change to help those less in need and to change the way we work as societies, governments and policies.
For the exam project we have been given the title of truth, fantasy or fiction. I really like this title as I love making more surrealist style images and I feel that I will be able to experiment more with my photographs and my ideas.There is a wide variety of projects that I feel that I would be able to come up and feel that I will be able to make a strong response. Artists that come to mind are Christopher Mckenney and Brian Oldham who I studied back in the summer when artist Tom Pope came over as the photographer in residence for the Jersey Archive. I really like the idea of revisiting this work and adding and developing it as I feel that there was so much that I could do with this style and I want to experiment further with it. This is an exciting exam title for me as I really do like staging images and bringing narrative into my work. I want to make another film for this project and am starting to come up with some different ideas to incorporate with making a film as well as an effective book. I have ideas for both a short film and a photo book and have a clear subject/movement for my project in mind. I want my work to stand out but I also want to venture into a different style and a different topic. One word/phrase that I picked up on was ‘en plein air‘ which actually means to paint directly in nature. This is where artists use nature to create their work. For example, an artist will go straight to the natural world and paint in the environment or a photographer will go out into the world to make their images instead of staying in a studio. I really liked this idea and want to use this for my own work and to go to proper locations to make for more interesting photographs. This also reminds me of the work of Tom Pope and how he uses his environment and nature to make his images and takes inspiration from the world around him in his performances. Another link that can be made to ‘en plein air‘ is artist Claude Monet who made paintings of natural landscapes while in that landscape. His work is almost poetic and really stand out to me and I really like his work. When reading more on the exam paper I noticed the words ‘illustrative or political’ meaning behind them, which I really like the idea of and want my work to be strong and have proper meaning behind it. I think that this is really interesting and it does make me think more about my project and want to better myself to generate powerful meaning.
Claude Monet artworkTruth, Fantasy or Fiction mood board
My Thoughts | Truth
‘The quality or state of being true.’ This is the dictionary definition of the word truth. To me truth means being honest, it isn’t fake or misleading it is simple real. I feel that this is a really great topic as there is so much you can talk about and so many ideas can be explored through this. Truth is something very powerful, by telling the truth we are somewhat exposing ourselves or others, We don’t twist the reality of things or lie to get what we want. When thinking about truth I also came up with the idea of possibly finding the truth behind something, so investigating into something more and finding out more about it to bring a certain topic to light. This topic is more on the side of documentary to me as I feel that you are able to make more journalistic images or those that tell a true story. I want to tell a story about our society and to make it true to life.
Documentary [truth] photographyMy Thoughts | Fantasy
The options for this title are endless. With fantasy you are able to venture into your own world, to create images that are unusual. I feel that this particular topic would give you the chance to make different and creative images without having to worry about whether or not it is realistic or if it is true to the real story like a documentary. When I think of fantasy I think of new worlds, ones that surrealist photographers create to make their photographs. I feel that this word really embodies surrealism in photography as through this we are able to create new and exciting worlds that others wouldn’t even be able to imagine. I want to take inspiration from fiction artists including Linda Blacker with her fascinating staged images creating different and unique personas within her work.
Fiction could be anything from fairy tales to movies. It is similar to fantasy and the opposite of truth. Fiction is not real, it has been made up. I like this as I feel you would be able to make staged images based off of films or fairy tales as well as possibly myths or legends. When I think of fiction Cindy Sherman comes to mind as a photographer who stages all of her images from images she creates in her head. I like the idea of this topic and feel that again there is so much you would be able to create from it. I feel that this particular word would suit more for staged images made from films or fairy tales. I also think that photographer Linda Blacker would fit into this category as a lot of her work reminds me of fairy tales and is from a completely fictional world.
Tableau [fiction] photographyOverall | First Thoughts
I think that I want to combine all of the words together within my project as I feel that they will all be appropriate. A lot of my work will be focused on the word fantasy and creating surrealist images but behind my work will be truth about our society and how we live as human beings. I want this project to stand out and to be different from anything that I have done before. I don’t want it to become repetitive or boring for my spectators to see a similar kind of thing all the time. I really want to venture out in this project and try something that I only touched about back in summer. This will be an exciting opportunity for me to create and also to experiment a bit more with models, locations and in editing. I have in mind a photo book idea and really want to make it as professional as possible. Over the next couple of weeks I want to work towards this photo book and making strong enough images for it to be effective. I want to focus my work on nature and the natural world and how the human race is effecting that.
After receiving the title for this exam project I decided it would be best to break down all three of these concepts into their basic definitions
These three can be defined as the following …….
TRUTH = something which can be considered true/in accordance with fact or reality
FANTASY = something which is described, but is made up and never happened, usually seen as something impossible or improbable
FICTION = something which is described, but is made up and never happened
My Initial Thoughts ….
The Exam Project Handout gives a few paragraphs outlining different ways these topics can be interpreted. Straight away I was drawn to the final paragraph ……
“Written propaganda has been used to influence and steer public opinion with many political and religious movements claiming to possess the only true path or philosophy. Each movement has commissioned artists to embellish texts and illustrate their beliefs for public consumption and maximum impact. The communist and fascist posters of the early 20th century exemplify the power of this form of communication”
I find the theme of propaganda to be very interesting because I enjoy history a lot and have studied a bit about the role propaganda has had in shaping the course of the 20th and 21st Century. For instance political Propaganda throughout the 20th Century has proven to be an extremely powerful and manipulative tool that various Governments, ranging from the brutal autocratic regimes of Soviet Russia + Nazi Germany to supposedly free democratic nations such as U.S.A (particularly during the cold war) have used to their advantage to incite feelings of patriotism, loyalty, hatred and fear, among many other powerful emotions.
In is not an exaggeration to claim that effective Propaganda programmes have been effective to the extent of brainwashing masses of people in buying into the ideology of evil and hateful regimes which oppose standard moral standards of morality.
Propaganda has not just been used to aid political ideology. Companies large and small, have used manipulative propaganda techniques within advertisement – drawing consumers into buying/subscribing to a certain product through repetitive commercials, subliminal messages within advertising and celebrity endorsement, among many other ploys to draw masses of consumers in.
I find the role of propaganda therefore to be extremely interesting. Exploring this theme will enable me to explore how ‘truth’ and ‘fiction’ overlap. I will investigate whether propaganda really is just a really effective way of emphasising the truth? or in itself a mechanism for twisting the truth? or both?
Because propaganda is so hard to define and pinpoint I believe it will be a really effective theme to explore in this exam theme. The excess of propaganda which exists everywhere – both historically as well as present day will allow for an extensive exploration into its important and often overlooked role in society.
To emphasise the importance of propaganda I will ask the following questions . Some of these questions are largely open for debate, but make one think quite how scary the concept of propaganda actually is ……..
Is it really a coincidence MacDonalds is the largest restaurant chain in the world and has some of the most sophisticated methods of advertising within the last 50 years?
Is advertising in any way moral, especially advertising aimed at children?
Would the Cold War even have existed without propaganda to support the masses?
To what extent did the likes of Moa, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin use propaganda as a way of continuing their suppressive, murderous and terrifying regimes?
Did millions of people who volunteered and then died in various wars of the last century go into war through their own free choice/or were they lied to and deceived by Government Propaganda?
Should major religious organisation be held accountable for their use of propaganda to influence the minds of billions of people throughout the course of history ?
How may the 20th Century have been different without advances in propaganda/advertisement?
Is propaganda/advertising really that bad at all and in fact exaggerated by statistics + can it even be a force for good?
How has propaganda changed overtime and how will it be different in the future?
Summary
I have decided to go along the lines of this paragraph because I believe propaganda is an incredibly important theme to look into. It has undoubtedly shaped the course of the last 100 years because of its ability to ‘steer public opinion’. I want to use this exam time to challenge and break down the fundamentals of propaganda, looking in particular at how photography has been used as part of this trend, and particular how captions and slogans alongside images have influenced how the image is views and thus the audience impression of the intended information.
I believe that marketing of propaganda is in itself was of the most significant and important art forms of the last 100 years. Propaganda MUST be credited as a legitimate form of art because it is a creative way of expressing an ideal and leaves a powerful impact on the viewer. It is also evidence of the power art has not just as a form of expression but as a ploy for commercial manipulation.
My aim is to both embrace the techniques of propaganda but at the same time challenge its ethical and moral standing.
Over the course of my research I will begin to gather ideas of how I can respond, photographically to this theme. I don’t want to commit to an idea straight-away but instead develop a few clear concepts before deciding for sure.
Malcom X talking about the power Governments have in using media to “propagandise the nation”
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