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Documentary vs Tableux

September 11, 2017 Adam Seal 1 Comment

The definition for Documentary Photography is: “Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life.” The purpose of documentary photography can essentially vary among the individual purpose of the individual using documentary photography to achieve a desired objective. The spectrum of opportunities available are very wide in how documentary photography can be used to document a series of events and inform others, by exposing them to the historical context of the documentary and within this, the social, political and economic contexts. What stands out with documentary photography, its purpose was never although to inform, was to necessarily influence our view on something (like an advertisement) but more so to broaden our gaze what the wider world is really like. For the viewer this is particularly useful in understanding other people’s perception of the world in order to help us recognise where we stand on certain views. Examples of this throughout history have been to document the hardships of child labour and poverty. An example of another photographer’s work documenting child labor is Lewis Hine. Here he used documentary photography to show us and allow us to explore these suffering people’s worlds and day to day experience by documenting their living conditions.

Image result for Lewis Hine

Aside from this point, regarding to the idea of documentary photography documenting the realities of life. This style of photography can be used in a more fiction based style that show how the artist perceives the world around him and how this has affected him and his daily life. The collection of photographs building up to a certain point or issue that the photographer leads us to is essentially a story, which can be either more fiction based or factual. Either way the idea of a story allows us to comprehend the result of our actions as it leads us in a direction where we may not necessarily feel in control of. In respect of this we then have to live and accept with it unless we want to take action and change the wrongdoing of what the documentary photography is showing us. Therefore documentary photography can be a powerful tool in ensuring people are informed of the wider world. Evan today contemporary photographers show through the use of documentary photography that there is perhaps more child labor and poverty today than there was back in the 19th century. For example, photographer Chris Steele-Perkins documents the realities of the wider world that we in the sophisticated and western hemisphere are ignorant to.

On the other hand tableux photography shows a slightly different side of the coin but could have potential in using this style of photography for similar purposes for documentary photography. The definition for Tableux photography is “a style of photography where people are staged in a constructed environment and a pictorial narrative is conveyed through a single image.” This arguably makes it harder to achieve similar principles of telling a story as compared to documentary photography however I believe it can be achieved but through more levels of subtlety. For example, you could capture an event on camera but also showing possible reactions of those around allowing us to lead on and expect how a story might turn out with eventual consequences perhaps. It must be taken note of that to tell a story for the photographer to communicate an intended message through a story captured “accidentally” is rather difficulty and for that reason, Tableux photography is generally staged. With added subtleties, it can be harder for the viewer to understand the message of the photograph compared to documentary photography and so can be left more often than not to be interpreted by the viewer. Photographer Anna Gaskall uses the idea of staged and Tableux photography to construct images that perhaps reflect her view or opinion of the world and so, as that is very quite personal to her, she wishes to convey her feelings towards a particular feature of the world that can’t be expressed through documenting the reality, but only the fantasy which is where this is linked to both styles.

Image result for anna gaskell half life

Because these photographs are more often staged there is a strong sense of control as to how each part of the photograph makes up a strong composition and therefore there is arguably more significance as to each individual part of the photograph in telling a story. For that reason, it is accepted that these photographs are often exaggerated to get the message across and so unlike documentary photography, these photograph’s purposes are less so to inform but more to persuade, influence or alter my opinion. Therefore alongside the fact that documenary photography may pose to show a certain reality of life, Tableux is essentially the opposite as it creates a more fiction based story to tell us. Fiction or not, both forms of photography are extremely effective if used in the correct way at communicating messages on very similar subjects.

Analysis

Documentary Photography: Larry Sultan vs Richard Billingham > artists photographing their parents > straight photography vs snapshot aesthetics > formal vs informal.

September 11, 2017 Adam Seal Leave a comment

Larry Sultan, Pictures from Home

This photograph fascinates me because of the use of documentary style photography but how also how elements of Tableaux photography are incorporated. For example this appears to be a quite a middle to upper class setting. Evidence to suggest this is the well lit environment, the high quality clothes, and the general objects in the photograph that appear of value. This is interesting because the objects, especially the women doesn’t necessarily appear happy which emphasizes the meaning of how money can’t buy you happiness. It is almost as if they are trying to impress us with all the objects in the photograph that they are trying to mask some of their own difficulties. In this sense this shows the documentary side of the photograph as it is documenting the daily life of these people and is expressing to us quite intimately their feelings. Interestingly, focusing on the woman she appears to reflect feelings of isolation. I can tell this because she is standing up against a wall, something that reminds me of a prison photograph, telling us how she feels trapped. She has a TV next to her where presumably her husband is watching that. This shows the fact she is stood next to a TV and brushed aside suggests that her husband is giving more affection and time to his TV than her and so she is subordinate to the TV. Clearly the couple are elderly and so this reflects the days where women are seen as objects. By how she is staring at us through the eye contact shows she is trusting us, a stranger and that perhaps explains how insecure she feels. However the fact, that this photograph appears slightly staged, giving reference to how well presented the environment is and so which appears quite fantasy like, it shows a more of the Tableaux side in how this composition is trying to tell us a story.

Richard Billingham, Ray’s A Laugh

This photograph is somewhat different to Larry Sultan’s work of documentary photography. I believe the subtleties in this compared with the previous photograph are much more refined and intricate, showing a much more accurate picture of most people’s lives. That is not to say the previous photograph, doesn’t show real life, it does, only just from that women’s perspective. Here however we see a man and woman who are despite both sitting and standing in a similar way as to the couple in the previous photograph, appear much more active, open and authentic in their relationship than before. For example the man and woman are facing each other in a more open manner but still look as if there is some sense of unhappiness or worry between the two. However where both artists strikingly differ is the fact that previously it displayed the problems of middle class issues, whereas Billingham’s parents show more of a lower class environment. Interestingly this photograph conveys the struggles of every day life from the perspective of a joint and collective struggle that somehow the issue of poverty concerns everyone within the household. Whereas before it showed the daily struggle form the perspective of the woman. On this idea of a collective struggle, this is particularly interesting because it makes us the viewer feel somewhat inclusive in the environment and it’s objects. I believe this is why the couple appear much more active together due to the fact that what is bringing them together is the struggles of daily life. Therefore this binding relationship is one that is so focused on economic principles, that it doesn’t have time to allow other principles such as social and family principles to grow. This is clearly a great shame and we can see the direct results from this in terms of the couple’s relationship. Therefore this communicates the problems money creates on a wide scale.

Preparation

Inspiration

September 6, 2017 Adam Seal Leave a comment

The definition for Inspiration is: “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.”

Inspiration comes from many places but it is necessary to know where to find it when it is necessary in order to pursue a very specific and precise venture or project. Inspiration comes from anything that is direct or indirectly related to what we are interested in. Then once you have found a particular inspiration, it is how you go about applying this to your work, do you allow yourself to be heavily influenced by it and not give yourself much freedom by bounding yourself to this particular inspiration? Or do you allow it to lightly have an effect on your work by still allowing a generous amount of freedom? This is up to you.

My inspiration most often comes from nature, specifically the beach or forested areas. I particularly like how there is a sense of freedom with nature and how there is such a variety of opportunities available that it can relate to any project I am working on. On a more human base I prefer to look no further than at my own family and other personal relationships and how each individual is different. This can explain a variety of emotions and can be used to illustrate what can’t be expressed through normal words.

Workshops

Johnny Briggs Visit

September 6, 2017 Adam Seal Leave a comment

I very much enjoyed Johnny’s visit to school on Tuesday the 18th July where we brought in and discussed our works we brought in. My work was heavily inspired on my family relationships on how they have changed over the years. I have done this by imposing my current state of relationship with my family members onto old photographs to allow us to compare how this has changed over the years.

I am particularly interested in how family’s evolve and develop and so in relation to this, it is especially necessary to incorporate the use of an archive to help us achieve what we want to now. I feel particularly inspired by Johnny and his use of similar techniques.

Recording

Best Photographs and Montages

July 11, 2017 Adam Seal 1 Comment

Best Photographs:

Montages

Experimentation, Planner & Tracking, Research and analysis

Plan for Tomorrow

July 5, 2017 Adam Seal Leave a comment

For tomorrows workshop we have been asked to bring in an image that can be destroyed, I chose this:

I simply tore it up, and stuck the pieces back together in a collage style photograph as I wanted to show the idea of a broken relationship.

This was because Johnny started talking about failures and mistakes in photography and if they were necessarily a bad thing. Interestingly, a wide range of viewpoints were expressed, including my own which felt that how can a creative subject like photography, ever have anything wrong. Obviously this leads to then in this context that a mistake, is when something occurs unintentionally and from this, this causes for us to go on a tangent. However I believe that it is hard to categorize mistakes in photography, because this comes very close to what the journey of photography is all about. Therefore mistakes are normal and are in a sense intentional as that is natural in photography.

To demonstrate this, we drew faces with our eyes closed and analysed how despite what we intended to do, how differing our results became. This task was very thought provoking because it led us to compare the figure in our head an how that can mask reality. This is obviously a very prominent issue in everyday society when we can be so focused on producing an intended result, our ayes can be closed to other areas that are opened up and let us develop our ideas.

Here Johnny told us to get an image and have a “play” with it, and show how we could explore the root of family relationships. I chose to create a torn effect by tearing the photograph into various parts, and stuck them back near together to create a jigsaw effect, with a stronger emphasis on the situation not being fixed, but permanently broken. I felt this way because I wanted to explore how despite family relationships breaking down, arguably the long term feelings towards one another are somewhat impacted. I like how I have created a smashed glass feeling which coincidentally links with our debate over the idea of mistakes as I initially was’t prepared to create this effect, and only after judging how close I wanted the pieces together I decided I could create a shattered glass effect. This way I feel I made the photograph to exaggerate its feelings towards brokenness.

Research and analysis

Johnny Briggs

July 5, 2017 Adam Seal Leave a comment

Johnny’s statement: “In search of lost parts of my childhood I try to think outside the reality I was socialized into and create new ones with my parents and self.

Through these I use photography to explore my relationship with deception, the constructed reality of the family, and question the boundaries between my parents and I, between child/adult, self/other, nature/culture, real/fake in attempt to revive my unconditioned self, beyond the family bubble.

Although easily assumed to be photo-shopped or faked, upon closer inspection the images are often realised to be more real than first expected. Involving staged installations, the cartoon-esque and the performative, I look back to my younger self and attempt to re-capture childhood nature through my assuming adult eyes.”

Image result for jonny briggs photographer

Planner & Tracking, Research and analysis

Family and Environment Artists

July 3, 2017 Adam Seal Leave a comment

Tom Pope

Tom Pope was part of the international Photographers in Residence in 2015 as part of the Archisle Project. This brings international photographers to Jersey to work and exhibit their photography, awarding a bursary of £10,000 for an exhibition into to the culture of the Jersey which these works enter the Archisle Collection at the Société Jersiaise Archive for the future public.

Pope was born in Bristol, in 1986. Tom Pope studied Photography at Swansea Metropolitan University and received his Masters in Photography from the Royal College of Art in 2011. His works are presented around in the National Museum of Wales and National Portrait Gallery.

His artistic practice is based within performed photograph where Pope’s playful and whimsical approach develops situations using performed gestures of social interaction. Within these settings the public become entwined with the act of taking photographs as a social event where spontaneity and chance are encouraged. Pope’s work isn’t purposed for a community but essentially creates a sense of community through the act of making art through improvised events and social intervention.

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This photograph I chose responding to the issue of enviornment, because to me it shows quite a strange but yet personnel relationship with the girl and her environment. Firstly, the diagonal line s created by the shadows and floor tiles, suggests that the environment isn’t necessarily that stable a place. Interestingly, the girl appears to be clinging on as if sort of her life appears to be at risk of some sort. This therefore suggests that the girl’s environment isn’t normal, and she is trying to make it as normal as possible. This is emphasised by the colour of the girls clothes which is black, and her body composure, refusing to show us, suggesting there are particular complicated emotional ties associated. This is reflected by the fact that the environment appears quite hostile and unwelcoming, for example – the fact she is sort of showing so much affection towards something so lifeless, and also the sharpened bold shadows that are displayed almost appear quite hostile. Essentially I like this photograph because it shows the complicated relationship one can have with the external environment in which it lives within.

Michelle Sank

Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Leaving there in 1978, she has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and style, and anything else that encompasses this. Therefore this can be viewed as a sort of documentary, encompassing issues around social and cultural diversity.

I like this photograph because for me, it strongly represents the idea of family quite strongly. I have personally known this pair of twins in the past, and I have come to know the similarities and differences that perfectly portray the idea of family. For example, in terms of appearance they may be very similar through looks and style. However the differences encompassing these two are arguably what brings them together. I particularly like how the composition presents the idea of a strong bond between the two. For example, the lighting isn’t too harsh but warm, and that reflects the atmosphere and feelings of each other. Furthermore I like how the background, not necessarily the most beautiful beach and buildings shows how their sister relationship, may not always be perfect, but it is what it is, and so through the fact how each other appears comfortable, this shows their relationship is special to them.

Essay writing

Whose Archive Is It Anyway?

July 3, 2017 Adam Seal Leave a comment

The definition for archive is: “a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.” Archives come in different forms, each having different purposes which we can use to explore others purposes, along with our own through the use of public, family and personnel archives.

The public archives are used for the study of Jersey in many forms. Publicly funded libraries from the Government are important in preserving the identity of a place in order for us and future generations to explore. Due to public archives being open to such a diverse audience, this means there is a diverse collection that can be used for a wide range of purposes. The collection of historical records compiled from a range of sources paints a picture of each differing viewpoint on the context of the world at that time.

“What is the source’s purpose, what is it trying to show and how accurate is it?” Are the questions that we can consider and allow us to delve into the uniqueness of each bit of historical material. In doing this we can assess what relevance the archive has on each person today, and how they can possibly relate to it. In this respect, the public archives purpose is to enhance our understanding of where humanity has come from, how far it has come, and how from this we can guess where we are going as a generation. This incorporates a lot of relevance as one day, our lives and memories will be locked into an archive for future generations to look at us the way we are looking at these older generations, which of course then becomes a matter of perception. Today’s ideology of perception arguably has a completely different meaning than back when the archives stated in the mid-19^th century.

Regarding the features of society, when there wasn’t room for much more than the very dominating, traditional culture, now there is an encouragement for individual and freedom of expression of culture. This contradicts the culture of the archive in a sense that, we are essentially living with the opposing shadow of traditionalist culture over today’s freedom of culture. Interestingly, issues at the time of the mid 1800’s have to now show developments in areas of life and also the struggles in life. Arguably these struggles as each generation has passed have helped grow into a certain rebelliousness that has led to the free culture that we live with today. So therefore, we must in a sense be somewhat thankful for those who have preserved history in the archive, who may have documented the good’s and bad’s of their own times. For examples works depicting issues of poverty in the 19^th century, and further more modern times, have evolved and essentially undermined traditionalist culture and taken us closer to where we are now. Therefore we can perhaps use todays issues, to predict how through the archive will record this and impact future generations who in turn will develop and impose their own culture on top of ours. Essentially, the role of the archive is a repeating cycle of past cultures that determine where future cultures are going.

In contrast, the purpose of a family archive is to preserve the history of our own family’s lives on a more personal basis. This leads us onto why as humans we are interested in pursuing such a task. Of course, unlike a public archive which is designed for everyone’s benefit, a family archive is of more sentimental value, designed to show the history and through this the relationships, the struggles, those special moments through time in order so that we can relive those times, and remember our feelings towards a preserved moment from a family archive. Within my own family, the family archives, represent a bind compilation of moments that show my family’s special moments. Each member of the family upon viewing these images, has a personnel emotion that is connected to that emotion, and when as a family we come together to discuss these emotional attachments towards a captured significant moment in my family’s lives, we can empathise with each other’s viewpoints.

Interestingly family archives essentially strengthen families’ bond, by enhancing our memories of the past which unites us as we enter into the future. By recording our time together as a family, apart from it strengthening our relationships, we can use family archives to show the evolution of how our own family changes. In this sense, as children grow up, become parents and have their own kids, family archives can allow us to explore the cycles of that which we go through in life. In a sense, the family is always developing and evolving; however with this idea of cycles repeating themselves, it shows that once the circle has gone on a full cycle and we come back where we started with children of our own, we can compare the changes from when we were children ourselves. In a sense, in the short term, the value of an archive is to bring a family closer together to enhance their relationships, and in the long term can be used to show the difference between each cycle of life and therefore has a purpose that repeats itself but is all the more significant.

Referring back to the point of family archives representing the sentimental side that archives hold is important. We find value in anything our family has associations with. Arguably family archives are more than just associations, they holding special, personnel and intimate memories at the heart of the family. When sometimes we don’t take into account of an individual, but of a collective group, which allows us to unlock and delve into our family secrets, that is essentially categorises the nature of our family itself within a wider context of the society in which we live in. This is comparable to the public archives which display, a wide variety of society, allowing us to paint a picture with all these. However in this sense, it shows a limited picture of wider society, with a strong perception from the family’s lives and point of view and shows rather the life of society, predominately of the family’s lives within a wider context of the bigger society.

On the issue of family archives presenting a limited perspective, interestingly we are more selective of what we include in our archives. For example, if we want to present the dynamics of the family, it hardly shows reality as each photograph trying to capture the type of family who we want to be, essentially missing the undesirable sides to the family. This means that it is important like with the public archive to recognise a sort of family identity, an especially so with a family who may have lost identities and as time goes on like with the idea of cycles, can understand the foundations of the family. An example of this is through time our imagination on past events can affect the historical side of what actually happened, and so through the family archive, its value allows us to ensure that we have a stronger grounding in our own family’s character and nature.

On the other hand, personnel archives which in a sense derive from the previous archives are originally have been much more intimate and private to most people. However nowadays the terms are changing, where personnel archives are being shared with others, and personnel archives are now about photographs which we don’t want to share. Now it seems to be a matter of how we want to appear, which strongly contradicts how public and family archives function in terms of their purpose. With private archives, now becoming more like public archives, with this, private archives are arguably taking the roles of public archives as they are being opened to everyone. Interestingly, the photos that are kept are often photographs that don’t want to be shared, are photographs that tend not to be focused on how others would perceive them and judge the, hence why they aren’t shown. Arguably unlike family and public archives which are slightly linked, with the opening of public archives this shows how society is interested in how they appear, lacking a sense of authenticity.

Furthermore, private archives are almost unintentionally stored. For example, as photographs are taken to be initially shared, and photographs that contradict how that person wants to be appear are stored and not deleted. This means that personnel archives are taking the form of photographs how we may not want to appear, but in reality aside from social media, that is how we look in person. This contrasts how a family archive works which emphasises the idea of how we can look back on memories to be rebuilding family foundations of who the family’s identity is, because nowadays a personnel archive stores the photographs representing who we are avoiding to be as perhaps it breaches the norms of society. This means that as were are essentially, hiding from ourselves of who we really are, undermining the role of a family archive in bonding who a particular family is, dictated by each individuals character, however each individuals character is being influenced by their own personnel archive resulting in a changed family life. Interestingly there appears to be a link with the idea of a public archive here, where like through time there was a certain culture barrier that restricted much than traditionalist, conservative culture that is similar today, with people only, accepting the same culture of everyone else.

Planner & Tracking, Research and analysis

Grosnez Trip

July 3, 2017 Adam Seal Leave a comment

On Tuesday the 20th June 2017 we went on a trip with photographer Tanja Deman to Grosnez and explored around towards L’Etacq. I was very much influenced by her style on this trip, where she explores space and her environment, which I incorporated into my work taking photographs of long and short backdrops. This way it gave me a scope to explore and capture how man has impacted the land through the various forms. For example the long shots, showed how man has impacted on the land from a wider perspective of the surrounding environment, whereas the shorter shoots show how mans inventions have been much more intrusive and invasive as we can reveal the finer areas of the land. With my work, I hope to create some photo collages relating to a series of work relating to Tanja’s guidance and instructions. I categorised my work into themes that I explored during the trip. These included:

I was heavily inspired by Tanja’s work, but strongly from this developed my own particular style. For example: I wanted to explore the historical side of mans impact on the land, and how it has changed through the years and what the aim or ambitions were of constructing these projects. For example all buildings generally had a common purpose of defence, but projects like Grosnez castle or Nazi bunkers, the surrounding context around these buildings that impacts the way they were built, I am wishing to explore and shoot. I want to mention the fact that a lot of these buildings, very brash and dominating, the contrast between the people who ran these projects who were humans with emotions, is very important to link.