Robert Clayton is an English photographer who is renown for his sole work on Estate from Lion Farm Estate in 1991. The estate near Birmingham was scheduled for a re-vamp when Clayton began to take photographs with the content of these images varying between portraits of residence or distant landscapes to show the sheer size of the complex. The renovation of the estate would consequent in the moving of residents, causing upset to the occupants of the estate, which is fundamentally what Clayton is capturing, along with the outdated accommodation that has become accustom to those who live there.

I selected Robert Clayton as my artist inspiration for his unique lens and investigation into lower-class British life, giving a balanced perception and not biased. He creates images which are both aesthetically pleasing and have covert meanings as the documentary approach exposes a way of life which not many are aware of. The work of Clayton coincides with my concept as he documents the lower social orders and their struggle of being rehoused, but by producing this book he would have illuminated the struggles the lower class undergo within society, hopefully reducing the stigma against them.

Robert Clayton appears to use a more stand-back, social documentary approach to his photography as there is a substantial distance between the photographer and the two main subjects. In the foreground of the image are the two main subjects which appears to be a mother and her young daughter, who presumably live on the estate, which fundamentally highlights the importance this complex provides. As well as the clothes, there are indications of the era that photograph was captured in as the small car in the background has an 80s-esque representation and the dominant telephone poles. Another factor to consider is the over-casting shadow which shades the majority of the right-hand side of them image, perhaps reflecting the government’s destructive yet constructive intervention with these people’s lives.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francesca-woodman-10512

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/aug/31/searching-for-the-real-francesca-woodman

Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman was born April 1958 and died in 1981. On 9th January Woodman died by suicide after jumping out of a loft window of a building on the East Side of New York. One of her friends wrote  “things had been bad, there had been therapy, things had gotten better, guard had been let down.” She died at the age of 22. She was an American photographer who was best known for her black and white pictures featuring herself or other female models.  Many of her images contain the subject naked or clothed, blurred or merging with their surroundings.

During Woodman’s life she used many different types of media for her work. For her photography Woodman used different cameras and film formats. She used medium format cameras producing 6x6cm square negatives. Over her life Woodman created at least 10,000 negatives. Most of Woodman’s work is untitled and only known by the location at which they were taken.

Woodman’s images contain this haunting atmosphere because of the environment, the bleakness and the poses that the subject is doing. I love how her images look.  Woodman was struggling with life which I can clearly feel from dissecting her images. The black and white really emphasizes the haunting and death like atmosphere that Woodman is trying to create.

Her images are relatively similar to Rebecca Horn’s because they both use themselves as the main subject. They also have this bleak, eary atmosphere  which coincides with their experiences of life. In the late 1980’s Woodman became depressed because of the failure of her work gaining attention. It was also due to a broken down relationship. Woodman survived a suicide attempt in the autumn of 1980.

I choose Woodman as my second Historical Photographer because her photography is so unique from her time period. She only becomes famous after her death, which shows us how she found it hard for people to share her artistic style and perspective.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rebecca-horn-2269

Rebecca Horn

Rebecca Horn was born in March 1944 in Michelstadt, Hesse.  She is a German visual artist who is best known for her installation art, film directing and her unique body modifications. She practices body art using different medias such as performance art, installation art, sculpture and film. She writes poetry as well, which she sometimes uses to influence her work.

In 1968 Horn produced her first body sculpture where she attached objects and instruments to the human body. She used the theme of the context between a person and his or her environment. Einhirn (Unicorn) is one of Horn’s best known performance pieces. The subject of this piece is a women who is described by Horn as “very bourgeois”. The subject walks through a field and forest on a summer morning wearing nothing but a white horn from the top of her head. The image below is from the film that Horn produced from the project “Unicorn”. 

Horn also created many sculptures over her career. She explores feathers in her works of 1970’s and 1980’s. Many of her feathered pieces contain a figure wrapped in the manner of a cocoon to cover or imprison the body. In the 1990’s a series of her sculptures was presented in places of historical importance. Here are images of some of the sculptures that Horn created.

Rebecca Horn had a difficult life when growing up. Her parents sent her to boding school as a child to study economics however Horn desperately wanted to study art. She rebelled against her parents and in 1963 attended the Hamburg Academy of Fine Art. Horn’s troubles were still not over because a year later after joining art school she had to pull out due to severe lung poisoning. This is how Horn describes her experience, “In 1964 I was 20 years old and living in Barcelona, in one of those hotels where you rent rooms by the hour. I was working with glass fiber, without a mask, because nobody said it was dangerous, and I got very sick. For a year I was in a sanatorium. My parents died. I was totally isolated.” Horn also experienced severe isolation. She felt like her life was over before it had even begin. When Horn walked out of the hospital she was still to ill to carry on with school. She started creating sculptures and strange extensions using wood and cloth. “I began to produce my first body-sculptures. I could sew lying in bed.” Her goal then was to quash her “loneliness by communicating through bodily forms.”

I decided to look at Rebacca Horn as one of my Historical photographers because she uses a lot of her past experiences, such as her poor health and her loneliness as a stimulate for her work. Similar to many women during Horn’s period, she had to go against her parents and people around her to do what she truly wanted to achieve in life.  By becoming a women artist and photographer, Horn was one of many who helped with the progression of women. She used women as the subject for her work, however her perspective was from a women’s point of view and therefore her creative and female perspectives become prominent.

http://www.artconnect.com/projects/promised-land

Michal Konrad

Michal Konrad is a polish photographer who was born in 1983. He lives in Wodzislaw Slaski. From an early age Michal was interested in visual art.  He is a Physical Education teacher, but he does not let it stop his artistic motivations. The focus of Michal’s photography is man. Within his work he primarily concentrates on the ‘psychological sphere’. It shows how a person perceives the environment in the modern world and ho environment effects him. His visions have a surreal character, balancing on the border of sleep and imagination. According to Michal, “Inspiration comes mainly from observation, but also on his subjective feelings.”

My project is fundamentally focused on how the body can be used to physically express hidden emotions, and mental illnesses. I also plan on linking body dysmophia into it. I believe that the photographer Michal Konrad used this  conception within his work. He describes the different ways he creates his ideas, and one if them is based on his “subjective feelings.” This definitely links with me project because he is using his emotions to conceive the unique perspectives that he creates. Some of the projects that he has done are called “Promised Land”, “Amnesia” and “Insomnia.” He uses the body, mainly a man, to express his views.

The images below are from his project called Amnesia. Michal has an extremely unique outlook on his perspectives. He describes his ideas in a very descriptive, poetic way which I really like.

“I can see the horizon somewhere in the distance, the noise in the ears. I’m sort of without a head, but the body trembling. I’m going ahead, looking for a trace in the memory. In the reflection of the water I see myself. I think it was me. Although I do not know who I am. I thought to myself how is it suddenly lose memory. This cycle is just about it. It is my imagination, as well as experience. As a small boy I have experienced short-term memory loss as a result of the accident.”

Although the images have a simplistic look and feel, with the soft light and simple colour scheme, the atmosphere that each image has creates this deeper meaning within the frame. The images as a series unfolds a story. From Michal’s description we learn that he experienced an accident as a young child, and because of this he had short-term memory loss. Michal uses this experience and convey’s the emotions into his work. He describes one of the images as ” I’m without a head, but the body trembling.”  Michal uses his imagination as well as his experiences to create his unique ideas. I really like this conception and way of planning and I now want to use this process in my own project.

Another project that Michal did is called “Promised Land.” This is how he describes it, “I had a dream, like a strange helplessness overwhelmed me. I felt heavy and tired. My legs like roots were rooted in the ground. Each step was hard after which grew tired. I stood there motionless, unmoved snow and cold. I watched the others go, and I was tied to the ground. I prayed to God. God told me to play music.

 The cycle presents the difficult relationship of man to the place where the man lives. Photographs are my self-portrait. All I have done using a 20-second shutter release. Series of conceptual photography. The cycle presents the difficult relationship of man to the place where the man alive. Photographs are my self-portrait.”

According to the internet, Conceptual Photography is “a type of photography that illustrates an idea” The whole of this series is based on the idea of conceptual photography. Michal uses his imagination rather than his experiences. He describes the series as “I had a dream, like a strange helpless overwhelmed me.” Similarly to the series called Amnesia, the series is told like a story. I really like the way Michal presents his work, and the description that each series is introduced with. You can see the each series has a theme that Michal keeps too. This is what makes his work so appealing.

I really like Michal Konrad’s images because they are simple yet they express a deeper sentiment. he created image that are made to make the viewer think more about what they are seeing. He is a surrealist photographer who wants to provoke a thought process in the viewers mind. Most of Konrad’s images are based on an emotion or thought process. He use using himself within his images to express his feelings.

METHODOLOGY OF ANALYSIS

Describing ~ FORM ~ What is here? What am I looking at?

Interpreting ~ MEANING ~ What is it about?

Evaluating ~ JUDGEMENT ~ How good is it?

Theorizing ~ CONTEXT ~ Is it art? How does it relate to the history and theory of photography, art and culture?

In 2010, Phillip Toledano completed the production of his third photo book with the publication of “Days With My Father” – a compelling book that depicts the final stages of his father’s life as he slowly loses his battle with dementia. The image is very powerful as it portrays an elderly man, literally blindfolded, however, this blindfold could be metaphorically interpreted as his dementia which now prevents Toledano senior from living life in the same manner. Furthermore, the blindfold has two closed eyes upon, acting as if the subject is asleep, or perhaps dead as we know it is a photographic journey of the man’s remainder of his life.  This image covers the front page of Toledano’s photo book, suggesting the photographer also valued the image in terms of effect and relevance. The rule of thirds scheme demonstrated in this image allows us as the reader to focus upon the man’s face, which is aged and half covered, adding a sense of ambiguity. This emotion of ambiguity is enhanced by the depth of field as it is solely focused upon the model in question, blurring out the irrelevant background, indicating our attention should be on the subject.

For what the book aims to portray, this opening image is very relevant and reflective, showing how his father is clearly old and as we’ve discussed, the blindfolded connotes death. The image has crucial effect and sets up the rest of the book very well so I believe the image is a success. The colors of the image are very dull and monotone, reflecting this sense of deterioration.

The photograph is the opening image for a book made to give a specific insight into a son’s experience before his father’s death, staying loyal to the main objective of photography as it informs and is an alternative way of documenting. However, I think it is a rather limited demonstration of art as although Toledano has had the idea to photograph the lead up to his father’s death, the images lack creative skill and imagination. In contrast, the images do contain emotional power, causing me to rate “DAYS WITH MY FATHER” as fairly limited in terms of art.

Book in hand

When picking up the book, it seems very heavy but not too heavy, a good weight. The first thing noticed is the indent of the blue part to the book making it seem like another book has been placed inside of this book. This part is covering Cammy’s face. Standard book portrait size.

Paper and ink

The photos are on plain white paper throughout the book. Inserts can also be found throughout the book on different types of paper thin paper. Almost every image is colored there are no black and white images.

Format, size and orientation

The book is portrait but features landscape photos as well  throughout the book. It has a hardcover. The book is just under A4 size-19.00 x 26.50 cm and contains 172 pages.

Design and layout

There are multiple sizes to images in the book such as A3, A4, A5 etc. There are multiple full bleed images as well as framed images. There fold outs under/between large A3 images which personally I thought was very creative. There were a number of inserts throughout the book. There were also many landscape and portrait photos.

Rhythm and sequencing

The sequencing was something I was very impressed with and in some ways it was a large contribution to the emotional connection many readers experienced. It allowed the shock the reader experienced a little bit closer the families shock the family must have experienced. It builds the narrative and allows the reader to witness how such a great family and upbringing Cammy even from the Cammy’s own words she says she has ‘amazing parents’. This is then disturbed by an insert from the newspaper of her death. This sudden change in tone is meant to shock the reader. There are multiple cases like this throughout the book.

Structure and architecture

The book is full of images of the Cammy’s family after her death. It is made to seem like a normal family nothing strange apart from momentary glimpses of grief. The families grief and sadness become more prominent the further the reader gets through the book. These photos are split into groups with inserts and old family photos between each section. This book is designed and structured to shock, upset and make its audience think.

Narrative

The narrative that has explained before in previous blog posts is about the aftermath of a young woman’s death after a long battle with bulimia. The name of the victim is Mary Cameron Robinson, known as ‘Cammy’ to her friends and often referenced as Cammy in the book. The book explores her family and friends grief, frustration and shock. It is a tribute and a book really emphasizing how real of an issue eating disorders are.

Title

‘The Epilogue’ is a clever title as it causes the reader to question it as it is not a clear title. It also suggests that it is the aftermath of something significant. The Epilogue of a novel is often at the end however,  this whole book is called ‘The Epilogue’. Once the reading this book the title becomes clear as it is the story of a families grief after losing a loved one to an eating disorder. Also before this book the author released two other books of eating disorders the title may also nod to her other projects as it may show the consequences of not taking this illness seriously.

Images and text

The only text that can be found are from diaries, reports, newspaper articles, letters and quotes from the family there is almost nothing directly from artist, which in many cases makes sense as she is not part of that family she is only sharing the story, she is not a part of the story.  Often the images have relation to the text that can be found next to it.