According to the internet, “Body Dysmorphic disorder is a mental disorder characterized by the obsessive idea that some aspect of one’s own appearance is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix it.”
Body Dysmorphic Disorder has so many ways it effects the victim. Somebody with Body Dysmorphia would think about their “real or perceived” flaws for hours each day. They can’t control their negative thoughts and don’t believe people who tell them that they look fine. Their thoughts may cause severe emotional distress and interfere with their daily functioning. They may miss work or school, avoid social situations and isolate themselves, even from family and friends, because they fear others will notice their flaws.
BDD is a body-image disorder characterized by persistent and intrusive preoccupations with an imagined or slight defect in one’s appearance. People with BDD can dislike any part of their body, although they often find fault with their hair, skin, nose, chest, or stomach. In reality, a perceived defect may be only a slight imperfection or nonexistent. But for someone with BDD, the flaw is significant and prominent, often causing severe emotional distress and difficulties in daily functioning.The causes of BDD are unclear, but certain biological and environmental factors may contribute to its development, including genetic predisposition, neurobiological factors such as malfunctioning of serotonin in the brain, personality traits, and life experiences (e.g. child maltreatment, sexual trauma, peer-abuse).
Body Dysmophia is a big issue, especially in teenage’s and young adults. Social media and the creation of the ‘ideal’ body image has effected the development of body dysmorphia. I want to use this social issue and process it so that I can express the concern through the use of photography. A creation of a ‘body suite’ could be used to represent what it could look like, in a symbolized way, to live with body dysmorphia. I would create a series of body suites using different materials, such as tights. A model would then wear the suites in a series of shoots to experiment which angles and positions are the best to highlight the context of the suites.
The images below are ideas of different body suites I could try recreate. I want to capture some images of the full body and some of just the face and other specific body parts.
I like the effect of the plain, simple background. I’ll use this idea in my shoot. The colour pallets have clearly been well planned. The fleshy tones with the browns and the pinks work really well, but I also like the bright colors in contrast to the dark background.
Your task here is to question photography’s ability to be ‘truthful’. You are required to write at least 1000 words as response to issues in representation, ethics and standards in documentary photography and photojournalism. Use questions below to prompt your answers and illustrate your essay with images.
CASE STUDY: Steve McCurry
TASK 1 REPRESENTATION:DEADLINE MON 30 OCT (after H-Term) The images of renowned photographer Steve McCurry, who made the famous and iconic image of an Afghan girl for a front cover of National Geography has recently been criticized for making ‘too perfect pictures’ which not only are boring but reinforces a particular idea or stereotype of the exotic other.
Read this article by Teju Cole in the New York Times Magazine which compares McCurry’s representation of India with a native photographer, Raghubir Singh who worked from the late ’60s until his untimely death in 1999, traveling all over India to create a series of powerful books about his homeland.
Taj Mahal and train in Agra, 1983. Credit Steve McCurrySubhas Chandra Bose statue, Kolkata, 1987. Raghubir Singh
Reference to Coldplay’s new video also highlight the idea of cultural appropriation that harks back to Britain’s colonial rule and exploitation of the Orient.
As a counter-argument, read this article on Petapixel in In defense of Steve McCurry’s images
Question : How is McCurry’s images different compared to Singh in the way that they represent Indian culture? Back it up with references to articles read and include quotes for or against your own view.
TASK 2 ETHICS:DEADLINE MON 13 NOV
As this debate about Steve McCurry was raging others began to look more closely at his work and a number of more serious and urgent questions were raised which in the end became a full blown scandal revealing methods used by McCurry in constructing his iconic images that goes against standards and ethics in documentary photography and photojournalism.
After the initial bit of articles were published in publications and blogs online, Indian photographer Satish Sharma made the following commentson his blog: Read his article in full:Eyesof the AfghanGirl: A Critical Take on the ‘Steve McCurryScandal’which has hyperlinks to most of the articles written in relation to McCurry’s recent controversial work and practice as a photojournalist.
Try and answer the following set of questions:
Q1: When technology makes it so easy to manipulate images, how much manipulation is acceptable? Q2: With viewers more sophisticated and skeptical than ever before, how can photojournalists and documentary photographers preserve their integrity and maintain trust? Q3: Who sets the boundaries of what defines photojournalism or documentary ethics?
Here are some of the key issues raised in the article:
Photoshopped manipulation of iconic images, by removing unwanted details or adding new material not originally in the photograph.
The controversy began with a so-called “botched print” as PetaPixel reported it citing photographer Paolo Vigilione who went to an exhibition of McCurry’s work in Italy and posted about what he had seen on his blog. While he “had no intention to attack McCurry” he certainly got the ball rolling on what has now snowballed into a full-blown controversy.
The images have since been removed from McCurry’s website as well as by Vigilione from his blog. These images were taken from the PetaPixel article:
A further cursory exploration into his work lead to the following few images that PetaPixel too published in its article. These images too have been removed from McCurry’s website, in fact the entire blog seems to have been removed.
Staging the shoot by arranging models and props, creating a scene (Tableaux) that fits in with a certain construction and representation of a certain stereotype and ‘exotic’ version of India.
Satish Sharma: I am not at all surprised at the digital manipulation (done by him) to create the perfect frame.
I have watched him rig (stage) his pictures. (He) Arranged the subjects (back then) because chromes (slide film) could not be that easily manipulated.
Sharma goes onto cite an important and iconic image, that of the railway engine in front of the Taj.
Regarding this image Sharma says:
This famous cover picture of his National Geographic story on the Railways was a special case that I remember. He actually had to reshoot it and got the railways to take the engine back again, because the first shoot was not sharp enough.
Further elaborating, Sharma writes:
For a shot of the kitchen in ‘The Great Indian Rover’ he actually had the railing around the work bench removed. I know because I was there. The last time I saw him he was arranging a picture in Delhi’s Lodi Garden directing a waiter where to stand.
Perhaps, most perturbing of Sharma’s claims is the following image, which also appeared in the same NatGeo issue of 1984 on traveling across India by rail:
Regarding this Sharma writes:
This apparently off the cuff moment was arranged too. The lady is the wife of a photographer friend and the suitcases the coolie (porter) is carrying are empty. They had to be because the shot took time and lots of patient posing. McCurry’s pictures have been called STAGED CANDID MOMENTS by Avinash Pasricha, a photographer friend who knows how he works because he helped him with the pictures like the one above. The lady is his sister-in-law
In a bid to investigate and ratify Sharma’s claims, a call was made to Avinash Pasricha, veteran photographer living in Delhi. He had the following to say:
Yes, from what I can recall, Steve used to stage quite a few shots back then. He needed help whenever he came to India and people obliged. Since my house was and still is centrally located in the city he would come here often. He was always passionate and longing to go out and shoot again. On one occasion that he had come, he told me of a particular shot that he wanted to take on how people travel in India. He requested my sister in law Vanita to accompany him to New Delhi Railway station.
On asking him about the suitcases on the porter’s head, he confirms that they are indeed empty.
A little bit of searching lead me to the lady in the above image, Ms. Vanita Pasricha, who briefly told me the following regarding the image:
This image is from about 32 years ago. He was a very polite man, a thorough gentleman who wanted a picture on how people travel in India. I went with him to New Delhi Railway Station in the morning for a few quick pictures. Those suitcases are my suitcases and that is my son Mithil that I am holding, who is now in fact 38 years old now. I only met him a couple of times, I did not even know whether the photo was published or not. It is only when my brother called from the states did I get to know that it was published in National Geographic.
The image was indeed published in the June issues of 1984 of NatGeo in the following form, according to this archived copy.
It was published with the following misleading caption:
TASK 3 STANDARDS:DEADLINE MON 20 NOV Consider his argument, that by categorizing himself now as visual storyteller, rather than a photojournalist absolve McCurry of accepting responsibility for following simple documentary practice i.e recording tings as they are, something he claims to always strive to according to this TED talk from just a few years ago.
Question: Compare McCurry’s practice to World Press Photo’s – the most respected organisation that represents photojournalism – Code of Ethics. In what way has he violated its rules?
For further context read A New Vision by its Managing Director, Lars Boering following last year’s controversy in relation to Giovanni Trioli who was forced to hand back his prize at the World Press Photo contest for his 10-photo series images “The Dark Heart of Europe,” about gritty town Charleroi in Belgium. Read this article in the New York Times for more information.
Two photographs that was part of a winning package at the World Press Photo awards. The image, of an intimate scene in Charleroi, Belgium, came under scrutiny over whether it broke contest rules. Credit Giovanni Troil
As interesting antidote to the critique of McCurry’s images comes from Robert Dannin, Magnum Editorial Director from 1985-90 during those years when these images were made. His repsonse raises more questions rather than answers — about Magnum Photos and its members, about National Geographic, and about the picture-agency business and its relationship to periodicals, book publishers, and other licensees. Read here on the blog: Photocritic International
Here are two brilliant articles by writers, academics and photographers. On his blog, Conscientious Photography Magazine, Jörg M. Colberg takes a reflective view on the McCurry scandal and asks:
“And what does it tell us about ourselves? What does it tell us about how we like to get the world presented? This is where each and every discussion of some “manipulation” scandals has completely and utterly failed to do anything meaningful: sure, you can pretend that photojournalists are those independent voices that solely determine both what’s in the pictures and what those pictures look like. But seriously, that’s as infantilizing as it is insulting — both to the photographers in question and to us as the larger audience.”
On his blog Dispothic, Lewis Bush questions the burden of truth that has come to define much photojournalism since the invention of photography, as Bush puts it, “The technology of photography was born in a century fixated on empiricismand on the belief that witnessing was the path to knowledge.” Bush concludes that the only way forward for documentary photography is to
“It is a burden of truth which rather than enabling important work often seems often to paralyze photojournalism’s most zealous adherents, leaving them unable to respond to many of the major problems which face the world today. As I wrote recently about the World Press Photo, journalists can no longer believe in the idea of objective photographic vision in an age when so many things that they need to reveal are constructed exactly to exploit or defy exactly such ways of thinking and seeing. Instead they need to embrace alternative forms of seeing and storytelling, ones where the potential for revelation lies in partly a readiness to embrace difference, subjectivity and in a rejection of simple ethical binaries and moral black and whites.”
Question: Consider if the notion of photographic truth is still relevant in a world where camera phones and digital technology allows everyone to be a photographer and to record daily life and human interaction?
People began to look more closely at Steve McCurry work and a number of more serious and urgent questions were raised which in the end became a full blown scandal revealing methods used by McCurry in constructing his iconic images that goes against standards and ethics in documentary photography and photojournalism. This led to Steve McCurry, losing his good reputation of being a well established photographer, which led to his career in photography coming to an end. One of the publics major problems with Steve McCurry was his use of Photoshop to manipulate photos. An example of this was the botched print photographers had seen at a show in Italy, it was first spotted by Paolo Vigione and he posted about it on his own blog.
He has noticed the manipulation, which had taken place in the photograph, which had left the bottom bit of the yellow pole where the man’s foot and leg should have been. It was clear he has moved the man back and reconstructed the pole, however hadn’t returned to the person after to eliminate any smudges, which in this case was the pole that comes out of his leg and perhaps reconstructed what was missing, such as his foot. Viglione says he ” Had no intention to attack McCurry, he simply wanted to show something ‘Strange’, even a little “fun” that he had seen. He even removed the post after it took off, but the public had already formed an opinion.
The original photograph was also removed from Steve’s website , people and publications across the Web quickly began digging to see what other McCurry images they could find that had been seriously altered. They did not seem to come up empty handed.
The two versions of an image below were found on Mr. McCurry’s website itself (the photos are linked to their sources), and our anonymous tipster told us the shot has been removed from the Magnum website. Notice the missing player in the second image:
Steve McCurry is known for staging his shoots by arranging models and props, creating a scene that fits in with a certain construction and representation of a certain stereotype and exotic version of India.
When Talking about Steve's work Satish Sharma Says:
" I am not at all surprised at the digital manipulation (done by him) to create the perfect frame.""I have watched him rig (stage) his pictures. (He) Arranged the subjects (back then) because chromes (slide film) could not be that easily manipulated."
When technology makes it so easy to manipulate images, how much manipulation is acceptable?
There has always been a conflicting discussion/debate in the world of photography, photo manipulation is becoming increasing more popular than before, which is the altering of a photograph using varies methods and techniques to achieve desired results. This could be by simply enhancing the image by adapting the light and colour of the photograph. However, it can also be manipulated by adding or removing objects from the photograph. I feel like this is okay for photographers to adapt their images in any way they want as long as they are not hiding the truth and the real purpose or story. This all depends what the photograph is of, this is because some photo manipulations are considered as forms of artwork while others are frowned upon as unethical, especially if the photograph is used to deceive the public, such as the use of photography for propaganda or to make a place, person or object look better than it is. This is used a lot in fashion photography and the model and celebrity world as their photos are consistently being manipulated to make them look thinner, more tanned, to remove wrinkles etc. I feel this type of manipulation is wrong. If you are adding or changing something, which was not present in the original scene you are then crossing the line from documentary art form into a fictional photograph, if this is used to tell a fictional story and is not claiming to be a true representation then I personally feel this is acceptable. The problem with Steve Mcurry was that he claimed his photographs were true representations of the places he was capturing as he was a documentary photographer. However, his photographs were heavily manipulated, which goes against what documentary photography is about. I think the line between documentary photography and photojournalism is often blurred, Steve McCurry was often considered a photojournalist as his work was featured in non-fiction publications. I believe this is why there was so much controversy when his unedited photos were presented to the public online. In an interview with Time, McCurry claimed that he is a “visual story teller, not a photojournalist” which would make sense if what he is doing is making beautiful images that tell a story of foreign lands rather than accurately documenting life in other countries, which is what he previously stated to do. In a Ted Talks interview, McCurry talks in detail about the context and rawness of each photo and claims to document things as they are. A direct quote being ” I believe that the picture should reflect exactly what you saw and experienced when you took the picture.” It is hard to form a for or against opinion on McCurry’s work and the man as a photographer, despite his seemingly contradicting public statements; because there is no right or wrong way to be a photojournalist or a photographic story teller and there is no one who decides who is and who isn’t either of these things.
With viewers more sophisticated and skeptical than ever before, how can photojournalists and documentary photographers preserve their integrity and maintain trust?
There are some ground rules to photojournalism, these are displayed in the Code of Ethics and rules of entry to the World Press Photo competition. These are not official rules of all photojournalism but they certainly display the wide opinion of what makes a photograph a documentation of truth.
The World Press states that photojournalists:
1. Should be aware of the influence their presence can exert on a scene they photograph, and should resist being misled by staged photo opportunities
2. Must not intentionally contribute to, or alter, the scene they picture by re-enacting or staging events.
3. Must maintain the integrity of the picture by ensuring there are no material changes to content
4. Must ensure captions are accurate
5. Must ensure the editing of a picture story provides an accurate and fair representation of its context.
6. Must be open and transparent about the entire process through which their pictures are made, and be accountable to the World Press Photo Foundation for their practice.
If these rules are broken for a reason, the photographer should maybe post to original photograph on the photographers website as well as the manipulated one, explaining their purpose of the photoshoot and they they chose to manipulate it, writing honest articles as well as providing viewers with honest images.This would be to keep there reputation in tact, this is not an easy job, to find and provide evidence of story’s, as its much easier to lie here and there or to stretch the truth to make the article more interesting or more aesthetically pleasing, doing this could boost your popularity but as documentary photographer Steve Curry who is a well respected photographer praised for his amazing photos found to have staged and manipulated photos which led to all his photos being checked for their integrity and his trust lost. This led to his loss in his career as a world wide photographer. This was because he did not remain faithful to these “rules” by staging and heavily manipulating photographs to the point where he edits out figures and structures and this often results in creating a different and completely false scene. The captions to McCurry’s photographs are often misleading, For example the photograph of a “porter” at a train station is carrying empty suitcases although the caption leads the viewer to believe his a genuine porter carrying full suitcases. McCurry simply creates a situation that can be found elsewhere, so the scene is not completely fabricated but this is an exaggerated version of a real occurrence.
Who sets the boundaries of what defines photojournalism or documentary ethics?
I don’t think there is a definite factor which sets these boundaries nor do I think these boundaries remain the same. I would say society chooses what is acceptable and what isn’t through opinions and expectations. However, this opinion is subjective to change and debate, for example, Gay marriage was seen as wrong from the 1970’s- 1999 whereas now it is accepted in society, which is an example of how opinions and boundaries have changed. This is the same with boundaries in photography as they are ever changing. It is often very difficult to define photojournalism as well as the line between what is ethical and what is not. There is a whole spectrum of forms of photojournalism, varying from those seen in tabloids featuring exaggerated stories of celebrities to unprecedented. There are numerous people and organisations which define a form of standard for photographers and photojournalists to keep in mind when conducting photoshoots and writing articles. The world press Photo website gives a very straight forward guideline or ‘code of ethics’ on for their photography competition as listed above.
The world Press’ photograph contest is an annual competition started in 1955 which covers a number of categories which are to cover pressing issues from around the world such as ‘contemporary issues’, ‘people’, and ‘daily life’. The photographs are judged by a highly acclaimed team of photographers who look for compelling photographs featuring inspiring and influential stories. The code of ethics gives a good example of rules that a good photojournalist would follow and helps the photographers assess the work presented. These rules are in place to promote more authenticity that will also raise a positive awareness and influence into our society. The code of ethics cover a lot of different areas in which a photograph could deceive the viewer such as making sure captions are accurate., often captions of a photograph can change the entire context of a photograph. The codes focus on transparency from the photographer and their work, world Press Photo focuses on a non-bias freedom of speech as well as transparency from photographer to viewer.
When taking these photos I focused on mainly exploring the idea of isolation. As this was already a large part of Davids personality before the accident. However when the accident happened he did not want to talk to anyone didn’t want to know anyone just wanted to be alone. The David we knew before was no longer there he had changed dramatically. The lone part to his personality had taken over completely. I wanted to capture this change in the photos I took. This is also why I like the photo of him sitting on the bench so much, as it already shows what I was trying to capture. Also by having those words ‘miss me’ on the back of the bench makes it even more prominent. As it’s almost saying he’s a different person to who he was before.
There are photos on this that I will not include in my final product as they do not fit the story I am telling. However, I did like the photos themselves. This is why I included them in this section. The photos I am including in my finals is the one of my brothers eye and the “miss me” photo I talked about previously. I liked the photo of my brothers eye, as its looking away from the camera. It shows a loneliness, this is also captured through the fact that there is only one eye shown.
As I have been generating ideas for my personal study surrounding the idea of relationships within my own life and my own family, I have also generated a few ideas which I believe I could draw into the study at some point to accompany other main ideas.
Although not familiar with the phobia as no one I know has this particular phobia, I believe it to be a very interesting concept which may work quite well as an underpinning theme throughout my project; I have started to research into the phobias of love and lonesomeness and I feel may be able to express these a ceratin way through my own interpretation of them – as this is only what I can do as I don’t know anyone with the fears but believe their relation to my main theme of ‘relationships’ could go hand-in-hand quite well as the two phobias are often scientifically linked with one another also. Although, I don’t have to directly or explicitly make it obvious or known that I am addressing the phobia in my own interpretation of it, it can be a concept that the audience eventuality realise as they progress through the book – or a concept that may be evident to certain people depending on the way they read visual prompts or it may only be noticeable to myself, however, would like to, in some way, represent what I believe a fear of love/loneliness may look like.
However, if I was going to show these phobias in some way in my project, I would have to be careful not offend anyone who may have it but would address it very carefully and very subtly to contrast the idea of cohesion and unity between the people you love – I first came up with the idea after realising the divorce of my parents would make an interesting starting point for a story about love and relationship. Love is such a strong concept that can unify people in ways which we like to think cant be broken but eventually, may become broken – in the process of breaking the people involved in the relationship whether it be romantically or emotionally with a relative. My efforts to re-build a relationship which feels like it has been somewhat lost with my dad also links to this idea.
(Words from fearof.net) The fear of love (or falling in love) phobia is known as Philophobia. The word originates from Greek “filos” which means ‘loving or beloved’. Individuals who suffer from this phobia fear romantic love or forming emotional attachments of any sort. Often this phobia is known to have cultural or religious roots, where the person may have been committed to an arranged marriage and hence fears falling in love.
This phobia is more common in women than in men. The condition can greatly affect one’s life to an extent that it becomes difficult to commit or form healthy relationships. Such people tend to live their lives in solitude.
Philophobia is an unwarranted and an irrational fear of falling in love. Sometimes, the sufferer does fall in love but it causes an intense emotional turmoil in his/her mind. There are many theories why this could happen. Therefore, there is a possibility of falling in love when you are a sufferer of this fear but it may still remain in your mind – the idea that you fear to form any sort of emotional connection with a partner and this may hinder your relationship as a result.
Symptoms may include:
Some people are so afraid of love that they cannot open up to anyone. They do have committed relationships, but cannot maintain any of them.
Their well being often depends on the responses they receive from the person they love. This can keep them high strung and anxious all the time. They may be extremely possessive or, conversely, they may drive away their loved ones with their detachment.
One also experiences severe anxiety owing to the pressures of commitment: restlessness, shallow breathing, rapid heart rate, nausea, chest pains etc are a few physical symptoms that can be attributed to Philophobia.
Panic and anxiety attacks are also common. These can be terrible since the sufferer often feels dizzy, or feels like running away, crying, shaking or sweating profusely or even feels as if s/he is fainting.
Autophobia, also called monophobia, isolophobia, or eremophobia, is the specific phobia of isolation; a morbid fear of being egotistical, or a dread of being alone or isolated. Sufferers need not be physically alone, but just to believe that they are being ignored or unloved.
Autophobia can be associated with or accompanied by several other phobias such as agoraphobia. This means people might be afraid of going out in public, being caught in a crowd, being alone, or being stranded.
Persons suffering from autophobia are unable to do many simple tasks that most can do easily. The fear of being alone also leads to bad relationships as the individual prefers abuse to being left alone – the area in which I believe I can link relationships with these two fears.
Physical symptoms:
Feeling unsteady, experiencing lightheadedness or dizziness
Feeling of choking
Rapid heart rate, palpitations or pounding heart
Sweating
Chest pain and discomfort
Nausea or gastrointestinal distress
Trembling or shaking
Numbness or tingling sensations
As this seems to be a more severe phobia in which sufferers may become suicidal or may begin to self-abuse themselves, OI feel like this may not be as very suitable concept to follow through with and may focus mainly on ‘Philophobia’ as I feel like I could represent this in a more interesting and abstract manner by using my knowledge of love and its power and then transferring this to a direct oppostite.
The process of worship is one recognized as a “feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity”. The term is usually associated with religion as people who are religious, worship a God or a Goddess. However, considering this sense of modern day worship by analyzing how, what, where and why we reverence the things we do. Recently, I have researched and discovered for myself the power and strength that the church withheld in history, however, as studies have shown, religion is in decline, particularly with the younger generations.
The slow abandonment of religion has left a void for people to fill their time and occupy their minds with. For me, I want to explore what the modern Western society has opted to worship nowadays and why people have chosen this activity to pass time, The questions I long to ask myself whilst working on this specific project are:
Do people worship subconsciously?
What do people worship?
Why do people worship the activity/pass time that they do?
A couple of days ago, I went to collect a ‘box of memories’ from my dad’s flat to help me with my research into my mum and dads relationship as well as their divorce. He has previously told me about this shoebox he has filled with memories he has form his time with my mum. This includes postcards my mum sent from France when she 18 and my dad was 20. This was in the very early stages of their relationship when they had only been going for about a year, yet the postcards were filled with very cute and sincere messages telling my dad that she missed him and she can’t wait to see him. These are resources I intend to use for my project where I will photograph them against a blank background to achieve a studio effect where all you are focusing on is the object. These postcards were from my dads memory box as I said and he keeps it in his garage shoved underneath all his other junk and is often forgotten about until discovered when rummaging through the mess every year or so but I an glad I have got my hands on this to use the appropriate resources suitable for the story I want to tell. The postcards sent by my mum to dad will help to show the relationship the once had by using physical information – a love letter essentially. However, this, I intend to photograph very soon. Meanwhile, I have come across a new object which has sparked my interest to talk about.
Retrieving the special box of my dad sparked a thought that my mum might also have one of these, even though she has never talked or mentioned it or something similar before, as well, I had never seen something like it before, I believe this to be because my mum now has a very strong relationship with a new man which is a prominent figure in my life also who has been present in my life for now thirteen years, however, I asked my mum if she had something similar and she told me “yes”. This was great news and I was eager to get my hands on it to see what was inside and if there was anything that went hand-in-hand with that f what I found in in my dad’s collection of good memories from their time together. As well, everything I found was also new to me as I was very young when they split so remember nothing apart from myself speaking to dad about it. All the objects were new and it was great for me to see them and learn the stories behind them. However, when we went looking in the loft for the box my mum thought she had kept in this particular place, we could not find it and we emptied the whole oft and looked through each and every box, yet the collection of nostalgic objects was not there. My mum, as well as myself, was mortified as it many I could not retrieve nay physical information and evidence form mum’s behalf of the great times my mum and dad had together apart from hundreds of photos of us as a family from me as a baby to me at 4 years of age. SAs well, it meant tat mum had lost this box she treasured and cherished because it was filled with memories from her youth – in the most happiest times of her life – when she met her first love, she married him and had a child with him – this was all gone. However, mum did have some images and cards from their wedding hidden somewhere else and this was where I made my amazing discovery which is perfect to begin the project/book.
Mum began to take all of these images of her and dad at their wedding out this small bag and within that bag, she picked out two cards – one form her to dad the day before their wedding and one from my dad to mum also on the before the wedding, and, by chance, the happen to be the exact same cards they both have to each other! I was shocked but also overjoyed at this because I knew it would be a great way to begin my project, epically after reading inside at what they had both written.
I believe this gesture from both of them and coincidence of this one in a million chance of them both giving the same card to each other, just with a different heart-felt message to one another shows the true meaning of love – that the two of them were in sync with one another and it shows tat perhaps they both knew what they other half would like – they both saw the card in shop and picked it up knowing that it represented them two as a couple and this coincidence shows the concept of love displaying the essence of unity.
I was desperate to photograph the two cards together and make some sort of image out of them! I wanted to create a diptych or one image of the two of them side by side and, although not yet finalised, I’ve got an image I quickly took of them together but the lighting is poor and the image above will not be my final due to the ‘slapdash’ finish of it. I also managed to get an image of the message inside each card. As well, for my final edit of this, I wish to have images of developed exposures from their wedding day alongside the one image of the cards to show the ‘starting chapter’ as such.
Inside the cards, both my mum and dad wrote a very loving and quite emotional message that came from the heart. In the card, they expressed their love for one another and their excitement to begin a new chapter in their life together – this idea of a ‘chapter’ is expressed not only from their words about their life, but it will make-up a ‘chapter’ in the book also.
My dad has never been one for being emotional with his words and is not the best at articulating himself, which I have grown to realise as I have grown up with him and his card was not as in-depth as my mums, which made me chuckle a little because this has not changed. However, although his straight-to-the-pint words are limited in comparison to my mum’s I had an idea to transcribe one statement/comment/sentence form each of their cards and insert this into the book along with the images. My inspiration for this idea came from Yoshikatsu Fujii’s book of his own parents divorce where he includes transcribed statements from his mum and dad to tell a story more visually.
Below is my mum’s card to my dad:“TO MY DARLING ALEX,
REMEMBER IT’S JUST YOU + ME – THAT’S ALL WE NEED TO KNOW. WE HAVE BEEN TOGETHER FOR 8 YEARS AND TOMORROW WE ARE STARTING A WHOLE NEW CHAPTER IN OUR LIVES – THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A DOUBT IN MY MIND THAT THIS IS WHAT I WANT – YOU + ME TOGETHER ALWAYS, I KNEW THAT SINCE I WAS 16.
YOUR MY NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD MY LITTLE ONE.
SEE YOU TOMORROW, DON’T BE LATE!
ALL MY LOVE + KISSES
KATHERINE
XXX”
The statement I believe I will use due to its significance is the point at which my mum says “you + me together always, I knew that since I was 16.” I think I would choose this statement because, for me, it is actually very relatable as I actually fell in love when I was 16 – my girlfriend now is my first love and this was the same for my mum dad – they were both each others first love so there is an uncanny similarity here.
Below is my dad’s card to my mum:
“TO MY DARLING KATHERINE
I LOVE YOU
HERE’S TO FRIDAY
THE BIG DAY
GOOD LUCK
HERE’S TO THE REST OF OUR LIVES TOGETHER
ALL MY LOVE, ALEX
XXXXXX”
From my dad’s card, I think I will choose to transcribe the statement, “here’s to the rest of our lives” because this was their plan and any other lover’s plan when they are about to marry each other and especially commit their lives to one another but it is a shame that at some point, the love does break down – not in all relationships, but many relationships end in a love which distances and becomes very difficult to express so this statement is very significant. However, I may not choose to transcribe any of dad’s statements from his card as the one from my mum speaks a lot.
The print on the card reads:
IN A WORLD OF RUSH AND CRUSH AND CROWDS,
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS — A TENDER WORD, A GENTLE TOUCH, A SMILE, A LOOK, A KISS…
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO FAITH AND TRUST,
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO WHETHER WE’RE GOING IT ALONE OR KNOW WE’RE IN THIS THING TOGETHER,
IN A WORLD OF HYPE AND HURRY,
IN A WORLD OF PUSH AND SHOVE,
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO YOU AND ME,
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO LOVE
The print on the card alone is very sentimental and is very heart-felt and it sums up love – that no matter what, you will always have on another – act as thought it is just you two in the world and nothing can stop you because love conquers all. I believe in this concept very much and hoe to show it clearly in my project.
During the October half-term, me and my grandmother visited Newcastle upon Tyne just to explore the North of England and go for a spot of shopping. Historically, Newcastle was a very Catholic city along with neighboring regions in northern England, however, despite a rise in irreligion throughout the United Kingdom, Saint Nicholas Cathedral still stands tall.
When in the building, the infrastructure established the cathedral as a powerful and prestigious building that had been inhabited for Catholic worship for over nine-hundred years. The strength gives us an insight into to the past as the cathedral was a dominant place in society.
Fulfilling my concept of subversion against religion, I organised for my grandmother to take a few images of me sat in the cathedral showing my middle finger to demonstrate my anger with the church for their ironic greediness and selfishness. As I am seated in the seats situated next to the main stage in which the cathedral is based around, where the service would take place, I feel as if I’m directly and openly demonstrating my frustration. Living up to my teenage stereotypes, I am dressed in mostly black, with my hood up in slightly “chavvy” clothing, coinciding with this concept of juxtaposition between youth culture and religion. A secret symbol in the image is the very faint antichrist drawn upon my face to demonstrate my religious anarchy. By editing the image to black and white, I strip the image of its colour and therefore the limited symbols of life that do exist within the church.
“TO MY DARLING ALEX,
“TO MY DARLING KATHERINE
