How does subjectivity affect the authenticity of photographs representing third world countries?’

‘Documentary photography constructs representations of reality according

to someone’s view, their desire to see.’

In my personal study I will be investigating how subjectivity affects the authenticity of photographs which attempt to represent third world countries. Third world countries such as India and Africa have been a subject to the photographic world for decades. The colourful cultures which contrast with the heart-breaking issues of poverty and disease have been seen as a popular topic for many documentary photographs. This is due to the powerful messages and stories which can be conveyed through photographs of these captivating areas. However it has come into question whether photographers are allowing their own subjectivity to affect the authentic of their photographs documenting third world countries. Photographers such as Steve McCurry have been questioned on the amount of truth which his photographs portray. Photographic critic, Teju Cole, says that ‘The pictures where staged or made to look as if they were’ creating ‘a too perfect picture’. All photographers allow their images to become subjective due to their minds eye, which leads every individual too represent an issue or matter in a different way. Whilst investigating this matter further I am going to pin point the reasons that subjectivity does have an effect of the authenticity of representing counties and how the amount of truth can be weakened. I will explore the realism movement and the inside vs outside approach which can have direct impacts on the authenticity of documentary photographs. I will use the works of photographs ….. and Steve McCurry, analysing and contrasting their works looking at the different ways they represents third world countries and

Kehinde Wiley was born in  1977 and is  a New York City-based portrait painter who is highly known for naturalistic paintings of black people in heroic poses. The Columbus Museum of Art, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007, describes his work with the following: “Wiley has gained recent acclaim for his heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture.” Wiley often references Old Masters paintings for the pose of the figure. His paintings often blur the boundaries which are between traditional and contemporary modes of representation.

I found Wiley’s paintings of interest to my project as his portraits are surrounded by brightly coloured backgrounds, which are usually similar to African materials. I thought that i could show some experimentation with my photographs by putting the portrait images which i made onto a material style background. This may either add to the images or take away from them. I think that it will weaken the narrative of the photograph and how ,much it tells us about the individual however because it doesn’t have anything in the background it will make you focus on the individual themselves.

EXPERIMENTATION:

Realism is the attitude or practice of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it accordingly.

Straight photography refers to photography that attempts to depict a scene or subject in sharp focus and detail, in accordance with the qualities that distinguish photography from other visual media, particularly painting.

Straight photography came from photographers who believed in the intrinsic qualities of the photographic medium and its ability to provide accurate and descriptive records of the visual world. These photographers strove to make pictures that were ‘photographic’ rather than ‘painterly’, they did not want to treat photography as a kind of monochrome painting.  Photographers taking this approach attempted to depict a scene or subject in sharp focus and detail.

This style of photography appeared in 1904, when the Magazine ‘Camera Works’ stated that the term was a more pure form of photography in comparison to pictoralism which is photography which tends to be seen and then manipulated to take another form. Photographers  Paul Strand and Alfred Stieglitzpioneered Straight photography in New York while the Hungarian-born László Moholy Nagyexploited pure photography to maximize the graphic structure of the camera-image.

Western photographers  such as Ansel Adams (left) and Edward Weston (right) brought this concept of Straight photography to life. They photographed natural scenes which they took as they saw it with there minds eye. Although not manually manipulated when the image was taken, photographers did use techniques such as  darkrooms to enhance the appearance of prints to have greater contrast. The term came to be known for images which had a big tonal range and high contrast. The two above photographers are both good examples of the vast tonal range included in Straight photography images, which highlights the use of natural structures of landscapes to create romantic landscapes.

The West Coast Photographic Movement refined straight phtography in the 1530s. During this period, with a skillful use of composition, natural scenes where captured in sharp focus  with expressive tonal ranges, light and texture. The use of this photography “engages the camera’s own technical ability to produce images sharp in focus and rich in detail”.   

Weston emphasised the simplistity that this type of photography could be when he said “Get your lighting and exposure correct at the start and both the developing and printing can be practically automatic.”, this view was reinforced by Ansel adams who stated that “the photographer visualizes his conception of the subject as presented in the final print. He achieves the expression of his visualization through his technique – aesthetic, intellectual, and mechanical.” The photographs show the mediums own technical language which conveys the reality of what the photographers are actually seeing.

In 1907 Stieglitz took this picture, The Steerage and thereby rejected Pictorialism’s aesthetics and the modernist straight photographers whom Stieglitz would promote later in his career included Paul Strand, Ansel Adams, and Eliot Porter. Paul Strand became a particular fan of his work calling it ‘absolute unqualified objectivity’ and ‘straight photographic means’. Stieglitz and Strand was also influenced by European avant-garde art movements such as Cubism and Fauvism and some of their pictures emphasised underlying abstract geometric forms and structure of their subjects.

Research Source

Realism, closely associated with ‘straight photography’, photography grew up with claims of having a special relationship to reality, and its premise, that the camera’s ability to record objectively the actual world as it appears in front of the lens was unquestioned. This supposed veracity of the photographic image has been challenged by critics as the photographer’s subjectivity (how he or she sees the world and chooses to photograph it) and the implosion of digital technology challenges this notion opening up many new possibilities for both interpretation and manipulation. A belief in the trustworthiness of the photograph is also fostered by the news media who rely on photographs to show the truth of what took place.

http://landscapephotographyblogger.com/straight-photography-and-abstraction/

Pictoralism

Time period : 1845 – 1915

Key characteristics : manipulate images with the intent to strip reality from it by adding effects

Artists associated : Alfred Stieglitz rejected the movement and Ansel Adams didn’t agree with the art form because he thought photography was fine art itself and did not need altering.

Julia Margaret Cameron

Key works : allegorical paintings and paintings from the Italian Renaissance

Methods / Techniques / Processes : used darkroom process to add effects – noise, different colours, lights and textures. Would also use Vaseline to make it more unphotographic and more as an art painting.

Modernism

“A style of post-1960s art which rejected the traditional values and politically conservative assumptions of its predecessors, in favour of a wider, more entertaining concept of art, using new artistic forms enriched by video and computer-based technology.”

Postmodernist Art refers to a wide range of contemporary art founded in the 1970s onward’s. The elements of this movement is the rejection of the  aesthetics upon the predecessor. The ideologies which are founded in modern art such as ideas needing to be elevated from popular tastes. Postmodernism has lead to decades of experimental art in new media and art forms. This includes conceptual art, performance art and installation art. This new form has amplified the definition of art to the point where “anything goes”.

The 1960’s were a period of monumental political, social and artistic activity. The young artists of America and England began to make popular culture their subject matter for their works of art. Postmodernist philosophical ideas and analysis of culture and society express the significance of critical theory within literary work and art.

It is consider that there are three principles of “Postmodernist Art”, instant meaning, art can be made from anything and the idea matters more than the work itself. From the start the Pop Art movement, postmodernist painting and sculptures were abstract and bold but were instantly recognizable. Postmodernist have been able to create pieces of art from the most unlikely materials as well as scraps and rubbish. The idea to democratise art making it more accessible for people from all walks of life. Postmodernist gave a stronger feeling in the concept behind the work of art rather than the actual work itself. The postmodernist aesthetic is thus defined by the (political) sense of this multiplicity of practices.

There are various sub-movements which are included in the post modernism movement such as the Pop Art movement, Graffi Art movement, Neo- Expressionism and many more. These allow many artist to express their own abstract ideas which may be rejected in their society for not being classically picturesque but their is substance to their works of art.

The leading influences in the rise of the postmodern art movement was architecture, urban planning, literature, music and graphic design. Postmodernism bought a change from the conventions of planning and architecture which can result in a social reform.  The development of modernism to postmodernism was drastically seen in the world of architecture in the 1970s. The city of Las Vegas became the ultimate expression of postmodern architecture

Well known artists such as Andy Warhol is a key influence in the Moderism movement.

Family and environmental photography can be captured through modern forms of photography telling a story of their lives through the way they present themselves, their environment, their family all being in the same photo. But all of these photos are in a modern form showing community and family as they are in the present time.

To further my investigation into the community way of life in Burkina Faso, i want to investigate certain families deeper and be able to have a proper discussion with them about their family the jobs the do, and the way that the parents support their children. I think that alongside this information should be any family archives which they have collected. These may range from photo albums to letters which the family have sent between each other. I think that this shoot shows digging deeper into the real meaning of community as it shows their family its its raw form.

This shoot is going to be more closed than the previous two shoots. It has a more specific focus and i will only focus on a couple of familys to make sure that i take time in creating a story of these families and their lives. linking the archival images with modern day images of the family and family members creating a meaningful response to my personal investigations focal point of family and environment.

My inspiration for this shoot comes from previous investigations of the use of archives to create a photobook which has a story as well as just a message of peoples lives. Photographers such as Laia Abril have inspired me. Abrils book gives  a voice to the suffering members of her family after losing her 26 year old daughter, Cammy. Through this set of memories, pieces of text, diary entries, objects and memories, the Robinson family reconstruct the memory of Cammy, after losing her to Bulimia, a serious eating disorder.

This reinforces the fact the through the use of archives a powerful investigation and message can be constructed. Although Abrils series was a form of grief for the family it had the wider message of informing the world of social issues such as eating disorders. I was compleatly inspired by her ability to create an emotional series of archival images which created portray an important message.  I hope to use archival images from specific sponsored families which i can tell the story of how being sponsored impacted their family.

Rita Puig-Serra Costa is another influential photographer who links archives, objects and present day photographs to tell a story about her family. i think the idea of contrasting archival images with modern day images is very interesting and an aspect i want to focus on in my archive specific shoot.

Contact Sheets

the first images in the contact sheet are background work i had done on the project. I went to people who had either sponsored a child/family or had previously been on the trip. I gathered a variety of archives including past promotional leaflets to encourage interest in participating in the trip which include information and images taken on previous trips. I also got access to an individual who has a sponsored child and writes to them regularly and receives replies. These were attached with images of the sponsored child,their home and their family so i found these crucial to my project.  the second screenshot are of images which i took Whilst in Burkina Faso. I was then able to visit the family which i had researched through previous trip members and sponsorship archives. This was a really fore filling experience as i was able to have face to face contact with this family i had found so much about. With the help of a local translator i interviewed members of the family asking them about their current living situation, whether the children where in schools and their thoughts on the local community. Following this i photographed the members of the family in the style of formal portraits. They also then showed me their family archives of images that had had taken of the family prior to sponsorship as well as letters they had received from their sponsor.

I felt like doing this mini archival project alongside my project on the African community really enriches my project as it gives greater inside into the lives of the family’s and how they use photography in the form of archives as well.

For my second shoot my aim is to be capturing portraiture images, this is similar to my first shoot but it is important to plan so that i have a clear idea of the differences i need to focus on to create the different sets of images. My first shoot focuses on environmental portraits, capturing the natural sense of community and the individuals going about their daily lives. My second shoot is different to that because i will be focusing on formal portraits. The aim of my  shoot is to capture slightly planned portraits. For this shoot i will be manipulating where the individuals are standing, hoping to get a relatively plain background so all focus is on the individual. Their environment will not be included as i want all eyes focus on the subject and for people to have to read the clothing, facial expressions and stance to understand certain individuals stories.

Influential artists such as Gideon Mendel had a huge impact on me for me to decide to experiment with this style of formal portraiture which ive never really done before. Im hoping that the neutral background and straight faced pose will great a strong image with powerful message behind it. To further these images and push myself i want to try and speak to the individuals i have photographed and find out their name and age and a bit about there background as the community often dress and present themselfs well but live a very hard life.

Contact sheet

Again doing the same filtering technique as i had done with shoot one. i went through all of the images selecting the best formal portraits out of all the 2000 images i had captured. I think that i was a bit less successful in terms of producing good outcomes as i don’t have as many strong formal portraits as i did with environmental portraits. I think that this may of been because they were more staged. I had to position the individuals in front of a plain background and then stand and take a picture of them. This was not what i had initially thought of my images looking like. Nonetheless i continued to experiment so that i could compare the different styles of portraiture. I found whilst taking these image however i got to know the individual better because i would be having more contact with them through asking them to stand a certain way or in front of a specific background, i think that this aspect therefore enriched my projects and my knowledge of what its like working with third world countries as a photography project

For my personal investigation i am looking into non- government bodies and how they impact family and community life in third world countries. My main aim when i go to Burkina Faso is to focus on this impact and try to capture it in my photographs. The style i am aiming to capture and spend the most time photographing is environmental portraits. I think these are key to showing the community spirit because firstly a portrait shows a lot about the people and the community and what and of jobs they do and secondly the background of environment hints at the conditions they are living in and the harshness of their society. It is key to capture their surroundings as this has a massive impact on their community , family and general everyday.

With the inspiration of photographer, Steve McCurry i hope to capture powerful images of individuals going about their daily lives, however slightly staged the image as i am aiming to have them looking straight into the camera lens and not smiling. This will push my photographic ability as communication will be difficult and some people may not want their photo being taken in this way. However i will attempt these images because i think they are bolder and stronger and show more of their facial feature and make a more interesting photograph than if they were smiling as this is more just a vernacular family portrait. Although Steve McCurry is my influential artist for this shoot i will vary from his work creating my own style. I am slightly staging the image with getting them to purposely look at the camera but i will not stage/plan their stance, action, job, ect as i want everything to be very natural and in the moment as it is documentary photography but as they are looking at the camera it takes a slightly more tableaux approach, telling a important and powerful story of their lives, community and family.

Steve McCurry is my main inspiration for this shoot and these are a few of his most influential images which i will keep in mind when doing my shoot.

Contact Sheets

i placed all of my best environmental portraiture images from the shoots that i did across the three week period into on folder in light room. i then went through each image and flagged the best images if there was for example three of the same photo but from different angles. I then filtered the images so that i could only see these images. then i went through using the coloured filters as you can see above to select my best images and possible images which i would then later edit. I think that  my shoots where i tried to capture environmental portraits was successful, i was able to make images which contained both a portrait of the individual swell as include some of the environment in the background which tells you a bit more about whats going on. This shoot was probably my favorite to do because i enjoyed both ways i captured these photographs. sometimes i would should approach a situation and take an immediate photo which was completely natural and then other times id intervene a bit more in the situation and ask the individuals to stand still so i could take a photo of them. Both these types of photography show environmental background the difference is that some were more staged than others.