CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: Truth in Documentary Photography Week 3-4: 20th Sept – 4th Oct
Can a photograph lie?
Robert Capa, Death of a Loyalist Soldier, 1936
Are all photographs reliable?
Joe Rosenthal, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945
A common phrase is to ‘shed light on a situation’ meaning to find out the truth.
‘A picture tells a 1000 words‘, is another aphorism that imply images are more reliable.
Picasso famously said: ‘We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth.’
Magritte’s painting La Trahison des Images in which he painted a picture of a pipe with the words ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ (This is not a pipe) goes some way to towards an explanation.
‘The camera was there and recorded what I saw’.
A certain delivery of facts?
Claims of truth that most people take for granted?
Art or photography is not reality but can examine and model reality.
Traditional documentary believes the viewer to be a receptive subject taking in the objective information of the world through the photograph.
Documentary photography’s central aesthetic, political and moral associations are:
depicting truth
recording life as it is
camera as a witness.
TASKS: Produce a number of blog posts that show evidence of the following
DEADLINE: Wed 4th Oct
In order to complete the tasks successfully read and look through supporting material and consider the bullit points too that may prompt you in your answers . Make notes and include direct quotes sources. Conduct independent research too .
Documentary photography is based on assumptions that the photograph represents a one-to-one correspondence with reality, which is nearly accurate and adequate, and that the photographic image is capable of conveying information objectively.
Traditional documentary believes the viewer to be a receptive subject taking in the objective information of the world through the photograph
Can we rely on its ability to capture a moment in time accurately as historical evidence or as a witness to the world?
Postmodernism points out that all forms of representation is subjective? How? Why?
Digital photography has made manipulation much easier?
2. ANALYSIS: Choose one image (either historical or contemporary – ppts above) that questions the notion of truth and explain why. Follow this method of analysis: Description – Interpretation – Evaluation – Theory/Context
3. PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT: Based on your chosen themes, FAMILY or ENVIRONMENT make two images, one that you consider truthful and one that is not.
4. CASE STUDY – EXTENSION: Using current news images as an example, such as the drowned Syrian boy (read articlehere), consider if photographs can change the world or change people’s perception?
Here is a link to another article about the photographer who took the photos of the dead Syrian boy where she speaks about why she took them.
For a different point of view read this blog post by photographer and lecturer, Lewis Bush where he discuss the above in light of recent images of dead Syrian refugees in Europe. Incorporate his views and include quotes, for or against your own analysis and point of view.
EXTRA READING: For those of you who likes to read theory of documentary practice, see Susan Sontag (1977), On Photography , Roland Barthes (1982), Camera Lucida. John Tagg (1993) or the famous essay by conceptual artist, Martha Rosler, In, around, and afterthoughts (on documentary photography) in book: Bolton, R. (1992) ‘The Contest of Meaning’. MIT Press. See me if you are interested in reading of the above books and essays.
5. CASE STUDY – EXTENSION 2:
Kevin Carter and The Bang Bang Club
Starving Child and Vulture
Kevin Carter
1993
Kevin Carter knew the stench of death. As a member of the Bang-Bang Club, a quartet of brave photographers who chronicled apartheid-era South Africa, he had seen more than his share of heartbreak. In 1993 he flew to Sudan to photograph the famine racking that land. Exhausted after a day of taking pictures in the village of Ayod, he headed out into the open bush. There he heard whimpering and came across an emaciated toddler who had collapsed on the way to a feeding center. As he took the child’s picture, a plump vulture landed nearby. Carter had reportedly been advised not to touch the victims because of disease, so instead of helping, he spent 20 minutes waiting in the hope that the stalking bird would open its wings. It did not. Carter scared the creature away and watched as the child continued toward the center. He then lit a cigarette, talked to God and wept. The New York Times ran the photo, and readers were eager to find out what happened to the child—and to criticize Carter for not coming to his subject’s aid. His image quickly became a wrenching case study in the debate over when photographers should intervene. Subsequent research seemed to reveal that the child did survive yet died 14 years later from malarial fever. Carter won a Pulitzer for his image, but the darkness of that bright day never lifted from him. In July 1994 he took his own life, writing, “I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain.”Read more here:http://100photos.time.com/photos/kevin-carter-starving-child-vulture
All Blue quotes come from the Bate D. (2009) ‘Documentary and Storytelling‘ in The Key Concepts: Photography. Oxford: Berg.
All Red quotes come from the Bright S. (2005) ‘ Narrative‘ in Art Photography Now. London: Thames & Hudson
Documentary photography can be looked through both an objective and subjective lens. This means it could be used to tell a story through a series of images of people involved in real events to provide a factual report on a particular subject. It also could aim to show, in an informal way, the everyday lives of ordinary people with some sort of purpose or theme in mind. This sort of photography can document emotion when photographing people ‘doing something like work, play or travelling.’ which could show people in action ‘shown smiling, laughing or looking angry.’ This shows different aspects of a character and also different aspects of their life, photographs recognised that ‘what ordinary people did in their lives mattered’ to others.T his means that the image themselves would be informative and tell a story by itself with ‘only basic, minimal contextual writing to accompany it.’
Samantha Box- 2006 (Recording ordinary peoples lives- with a meaning or idea in mind)
However, ‘telling a story with pictures is an old device’, stain-glass windows have been around since the 10th century which was a picture is a head of Christ, discovered at the Lorsch Abbey in Germany. Before photography there were paintings and other forms of art, which would inform and also document lives and create ideas.
Documentary photography became popular during the first world war when documentary photography ‘drew on the idea of information as a creative education about actuality, life itself.’ This reinforced the fact that the photographer themselves wanted to record everyday life, while informing the viewers of what was happening around the world, provoking emotion as well as showing the ‘event or social process unfolding in time.’ This could be individual pictures could be put in a sequence, showing the development of the war. Within this time documentary photography was vital for capturing key events, which would later inform the public.
1917 by James Francis Hurley
However, documentary is not only to record and document but it’s also used to ‘enlighten and creatively ‘educate’, which is seen in the news. It can also show a story through a series of photographs in depth, which can be slightly different to photojournalism, which photograph key events or reality. Documentary photography gives us a deeper understanding and sense of meaning to critical events, public connections, stories of political justices, and human rights issues which are all very relevant to the audience of the photographs. This means that 1 image could have the power to change or make a difference in today’s society. This image informs the public on the tragic event, which is a funeral procession is passing through a narrow street in Gaza, the children died from the Israeli bomb, which struck their apartment building.
2013 by Paul Hansen
Nineteenth-century photographers, like Matthew Brady, Jacob A. Riis and Lewis Hine in the USA or John Thomson and Henry Mayhew in Britain. These are all examples of forerunners of those interested in a photo-documentary mode. They all ‘aimed to inform, educate and disseminate that truth about a issue by using photography, alongside writing.’ They documented issues such as war, slums, immigrants and child labour and street workers. They wanted to demonstrate that documentary seeing was way of ‘knowing’ and, ‘that knowing would improve humanity.’ This supports the idea of a photograph providing evidence and the camera being its witness, what is meant by that is documentary photography provides verification that something has happened as the camera has captured it.
This is very different to Tableaux Photography as tableaux is a style of photography where people are staged in a constructed environment and a pictorial narrative is conveyed often in a single image, or a series of images that often makes references to fables, fairy tales, myths, unreal and real events from a variety of sources such as paintings, film, theatre, literature and the media. This sort of photography ‘relays on narrative to create photographs.’ This is because Tableaux photography incorporates elements of ‘fantasy, artifice and make believe.’ They will constructs a narrative through staging people in a set-up scene to tell a visual story through the particular environment. Most of the time the photographer would be working with a subject matter, which would spark their idea to conduct a particular photoshoot.
Narrative photography relies on a vital source ‘cinema’ as well as other vital sources such as ‘paintings, fashion, theatre and literature’ as they all have equally important parts to play in the production of the photoshoot and the idea process. An example of this was a Victorian photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron as she turned ‘popular poems and literature’ into photographs by re-enacting them photographically in elaborate ‘Tableaux Vivants’
The Parting of Lancelot and Guinevere (1874) - This was originally a poem
Not knowing what is staged and what is real gives Tableaux images ‘their power’ This is what makes the images so interesting as the view fights wit themselves to understand what the image is actually about and whether it is real or staged. The complex layers built into the photographs show many ‘twists and turns and variations’ that exist in the telling of stories and the deeper the viewer delves into the photograph itself the more they will get out of it.
The main and more significant difference between these two types of photography is that one is staged and creates a story and the other photographs real events and every day life, still holding a theme in mind.
For the photoshoot I carried, I looked at the role of the women of the house in my own circumstance – being my mum. I looked at this through documenting in a staged style, almost tableaux and it also has environmental aspects within it because the shoot is executed in the subjects usual environment and this either the home or the workplace, however, for my mum, it is both as she works from home so it is often you find her slaving away in the kitchen or her workroom and I aimed to encapsulate this lifestyle which can get quite repetitive as she said when I was photographing her by staging different scenes in which she is posing doing different household jobs. In each shot she is also looking directly at the camera – making the viewer feel quite intimidated or uncomfortable. I wanted to show her as though she stating her authority within her own home – with pride and confidence but I also wanted her to look quite vulnerable to the audience as she could be looking into the camera as to say “help, look at me, look at what I do”.
Evaluation of the Shoot
I found that the shoot and its end products turned out to be very successful and I think I will use this experience as a learning curve in order for me to improve for next time. I treated the photoshoot as an experiment of to try out different ways of photographing documentary images and it is evident in this first attempt that I focused on low angles, body positioning, facial expressions and a different camera aspect ratio to the usual 4:3 – the square for,at is not achieved through cropping on Photoshop – I achieved this through altering the settings on my camera to shoot in 1:1 in order to achieve a more vintage effect. This limited the amount of the surroundings I was able to include in each shot but I attempted to focus on the main objects in the frame, being my mum and the event she is doing and the object needed for this – for example, the sink, the work unit, the stair case and the armchair.
The first room in which I photographed my mum was the kitchen. I already had the idea for the action being performed to be her washing the dishes.
Before the shoot, I took some reccee shots to decipher and terminate which position I wished to have my camera in for the best results. I was aware that I wanted a low angle shot but this was difficult to achieve due to the small sized of the room. I found a spot where I could get a good frame which included the main areas of the kitchen, including my mum in the middle. I first started out using a tripod as I thought this would be easier to capture good quality shots at a low angle – which is quite awkward to photograph hand-held, however, this is the technique that prevailed in the end. As the shoot went on, I found that mounting my camera on a tripod in a tight corner was quite difficult especially when I had to direct my subject to change her position. Therefore, for the most part, I ended up not using a tripod and instead myself. I would lie on the ground on my front and point my camera up to the subject manually. This proved to be much more effective to achieve the drastic low angle I wanted.
However, what I found most difficult during the shoot was being able to focus the subjects face as I was in a rather awkward position in order rot get a full clear view of the camera’s screen as I could not use the viewfinder feature in this instance.
As well, I struggled to choose a pose which my mum would attempt to act out for me as I did not know what would look best nut I already had this image in my mind of how I wanted ach shot to look – vey serious, quite uncomfortable for the viewer but telling a story of a mum who rarely leaves which rarely leaves the house during the day and has the work-load of providing for the other occupants within the house. I wanted to get this across through the documentary style I took.
For example, the image above was the first image I took during the shoot and it was mainly an experimental sot to see whether I liked the look of this style. However, I opted not to proceed with this style of the rest of the shot because for me, the image looked to overloaded and it did not have the clean and polished affect I wanted due to the foregrounded object obstructing most of the frame. Even though this was intended, I did not like it at all.
The look I wished to achieve form the image above was a fly-on-the-wall effect; as if the viewer is discreetly watching the subjects movements through a peep hole. I placed the camera within the washing basket which has holes in and I pointed the lens through one of the gaps and focused on the subject to allow the basket to become out of focus, in order to make my mum the focal point. I realised that the image would look something like this but when I reviewed my efforts, I was not attracted to the way it looked and I decided it would be in my best interests to continue with a more traditional approach to photographing but with my own personal touches. I don’t feel like you ca et the same feeling towards the image when there is foregrounded objects obstructing the view because I feel as though you, as the audience are not connected with the subject and are not building that relationship enough with them because of the fly-on-the-wall effect. However, with the tableaux style, the audience can really begin to build a relationship with the subject within, especially as she is looking directly at the camera – breaking the normal conventions of documentary photography where the subject is seemingly unaware of the presence of the photographer. However, I wanted my mum to attempt to represent her role in the house and for her to do this in a way which shows her as vulnerable and this is aided by the style I adopted.
In David Bates book, Art Photography, in chapter three which cover the topic of Documentary and Story-Telling, he writes “documentary drew on the idea of information as a creative education”. The way I interpret this is that: providing a visual story or visual element to physically view is another way, if photographed in the right way, to educate people and inform people of relevant issues, just form that ne image or “photo essay”. I do believe that a photograph has the contextual and technical power to achieve this education – a creative education and this is what I am aiming to do in the shoot and edits which follow.
Again, this image above was another experimentation that I attempted to do to give a different perspective however, it did not work. I also want the photoshoot to be consistent in the way each shot was photographed, just in different rooms of my house. However, I would not be able to do this in each room that we shot in so this would not be appropriate to show as part of the final images but was useful as an experimentation but the reflection of the window is too over-powering and it fades out the subject.
The Edits - Final Images
Image taken in the kitchen, mum doing the dishesImage taken in the dining room, mum sitting downImage taken on the landing, mum looking downImage taken in the lounge, mum relaxingImage taken on the staircase, mum polishingImage taken in the workroom, mum at the sewing machine
Theory
Something I found quite interesting came not from the post photoshoot stages but the post editing stages when I decided to actually show my mum the images I had produced form the shoot she had no idea about until I called upon her to help me out with it at the last minute – something I do often if I need some assistance with models.
During the shoot, I had given very little details to my mum about the aim of the photoshoot and what is what for, as well as what I wanted to achieve from it and way I was even doing it. I gave enough information to her in order for her to know what she needed to do however. As well, throughout the shoot, I had snapped about 55 images and not one of them did she see. I also do this with any other portraiture shoot I carry out due to the inner worry of being judged if I was to show the subject what I was actually producing. I only enjoy showing people my products once fully completed – which would usually be after the photoshoot, after I had gone through them and defined which ones I would work with and then the final stages of editing. Only then would I show others because I feel I would get satisfaction out of showing something I feel proud of as I know my family would appreciate this too and would recognise the hard work I have put in. Yet, there is something disconcerting and worrying to me about showing my subjects the images I have taken of them due to the potential inner damage it could cause to me if they don’t “get” it or understand it. However, I have previously experienced the issue where when showing the model the images I have taken halfway through the shoot, they begin to doubt themselves and their attractiveness in front of the camera – this mostly being females. For example, when I worked with my girlfriend on previous projects she would comment on how “ugly” she looked and I experienced this for the first time with my mum after the point which I had shown her the edits from the documentary shoot.
What I find interesting however, is that for this shoot, I was not particularly aiming to show glamour or beauty, I was concentring more so on the message I could present but as soon as I showed my mum the images, the first thing she comment on was the way she looked and her exact words, as I flicked through the images were “oh, no, I look so gross”, however laughing as she said in a comedic way. She then went on to state how from the low angle I had adopted, you could see her double chins. To me, she was more focused on how she looked and how herself was being presented, not the character I wanted to portray. This is what contributes to the worry I have of showing others my work because of the reaction I may get where the focus of their comments is leant more towards how they look for the camera and they are often not pleased with it. It is at this point where I begin to question my own work and whether it holds any quality to it.
From my own view and perspective on the outcomes of the photoshoot I have now named ‘This Is Your House, Mum’ for obvious reasons relating to authority, I am pleased with the results because I feel I have ben consistent in the way I approached each shot and this has paid off for the overall look of the final selection of images which I believe would work nicely as a selection of four or six together.
This is my favourite image out of the six because of the successful composition and framing. I feel my mum is positioned in a great way here in order for her to, through the image, connect with viewers through her looks and her body positioning as she stands vulnerably yet statefully on the stairs with her hand on the banister as she polishes it.
After studying two artists which both focus on producing documentary images revolving around the theme of family, in particular, parents, I have realised that documentary photography is a great means of showing the lives of people as if you are a fly on the wall observing their every move. Documentary photography can also be a way of degrading the lives of ordinary people by capturing the often monotonous and repetitive routine thru go through, which is evident in Richard Billingham’s work on his parents who live in a council flat. However, in a way, documentary imagery can be a way of romanticizing the events which occur in the shots because if you look deeper into the photo’s context, the photographer could be representing the subject as privileged, like in Sultan’s work on his family.
Idea #1
Furthermore, it is so easy to document events yourself to produce a visual catalogue of different stories. We document things which are so simple on a day-today basis, using smart phones and tablets. We may not realise it but when we take out our phone to record a video or tale a picture of a moment in time, you are then recording that particular moment in order for it to have meaning and a special purpose when you look back at it. The endless photos you take which are stored on your phone in it’s own gallery is an example of a personal archive. Technology as simple as smart phones makes saving memories much more easier and it is hard to argue why this is a negative. However, people can begin to over use their technology and often abuse it’s purpose and you can end up not living in the moment which is what is most special but I believe there is something very satisfying about looking back at old memories, whether it be from two weeks ago, a few months ago or ten years ago. I have briefly covered this because I feel it is an important and relevant issue for us as consumers of media to understand and that to produce visual documents is as easy as snapping a perhaps blurred picture without much thought gone into the composition. I wish to incorporate this concept into my personal study at some point because I feel it could tell a very powerful story about the positives of technology but about how destructive it can be to out society and the ability to socialise traditionally. We can become so addicted to our phones. I came across a photographer who addresses this issue by photographing real-life situations of people of their phones, however, with the phones removed form the shots to show how addicted we’ve become.
American photographer Eric Pickersgill removed the smartphones and digital devices from his portraits of everyday life. The project “Removed” aims to show our addiction to technology and hyper-connectivity, and Pickersgill claims that he’s also amongst the addicted, and I too, can admit this.
The project was inspired by some observations the photographer made in a New York City cafe one morning:
“Family sitting next to me at Illium café in Troy, NY is so disconnected from one another. Not much talking. Father and two daughters have their own phones out. Mom doesn’t have one or chooses to leave it put away. She stares out the window, sad and alone in the company of her closest family. Dad looks up every so often to announce some obscure piece of info he found online.”
He achieved the surreal effect in his photos by asking strangers and friends to remain in position, removing their cellphones, and then taking the shot. Here are some of the shots from his series:
The concept is very simple yet the context is very complex and I feel like it is a great series of images with powerful meaning behind it. This series by Pickersgill is a form of documentary photography and it addresses a very relative subject to our modern day with he ever-growing proliferation of technology and the need to be up to date with all the current affairs, whether it be news, fashion, music, celebrity gossip or to chat with your friends – we are always on our phones and the images above are a very clever way of showing this. You can see that mot much has gone into the editing or actual composition and framing of the photo because most of the quality lies in the context and concept.
In terms of my environmental documentary photoshoot, I feel it would be a good experiment to do a photoshoot similar to this using the people in my house when glued to their phones, smart watches, the TV, laptops or games consoles. I will aim to remove these items or I may photograph the person with the object also in the frame to reduce it to its most simplest form.
Idea #2
My second idea for a photoshoot to complete this week is also based in my home and it will focus on one particular occupant of the home – the one person who is in the house the most – my mum. I have an idea to photograph my mum in each room of the house, or at least the ones she uses most often to create a nice little series of images.
When I was given the task to produce a photoshoot based around the theme of documentary and environmental, and after looking at the works of Larry Sultan and Richard Billingham, I began thinking of different themes and different styles of photoshoot I could look into and began thinking about what I could produce relating to the themes family as well as environment and the relationship people have to different locations. I decided that a could starting point for me to develop my understanding of documentary photography would be to concentrate on my mum and her everyday routine in the house but stage each shot as though it was setup, almost like a tableux image. I would achieve this effect through the subject looking into the camera and I would not attempt to capture her when she is not expecting it, I would look more at the effect I can achieve if I ask my um to pose in a particular way or position her body in particular when doing different tasks around the house, such as hoovering, cooking, using her sewing machine or washing the dishes etc. I would like for the style to be quite serious to get the message across that she is taking pride in her home in the way she looks at the camera. I would edit the images and put a heavy focus on contrast and making the shadows pop out the photo.
A photographer who focus much more on tableaux photography is American artist Gregory Crewdson. He achieves a captivating look through the colour palettes and the locations he chooses which contribute to the overall feel of the image. They have very vintage looks to them due to the props used when photographing in houses and the scenes are very memorable. His photographs can be recognized very easily.
His series, Cathedral Of Pines was critically acclaimed for it’s tremendous efforts to achieve something very different. It took two and a half years to shoot and, typically for Crewdson, required the kind of preparation that usually attends a Hollywood film: months of casting, location hunting and storyboarding, with an extensive crew to oversee lighting, props, wardrobe, makeup and even some special effects involving artificial smoke and mist, as The Guardian Online writes.
This is only for me to look at to understand the style and look I intend to achieve if I was to do a shoot like the one I have just mentioned and it would definitely not be as professional slick-looking due to the limited time and budget I have! However, I love the work of Gregory Crewdson and think it is amazing how you can capture something so enthralling through an image.
I have chosen these two artists, Larry Sultan and Ray Billingham because after looking at Billingham’s photobook, Ray’s A Laugh, I was instantly drawn to his work, in an emotional sense. I found his work very powerful and I think that it really told a story of his life and his background, consisting of his parents. In his book, he told a narrative of how his parents live and through the images, he depicted this is as very obstructive to the lives of the people around them – as if the way his parents live have affected him and his brother having to grow up with it. Both Billingham’s parents have an addiction of some sort – his father being a very heavy alcoholic and his mum being very reliant on cigarettes. He told a story through snap-shots of the conditions they live in on a daily basis in their council estate in a flat. The style of Billingham’s work really resonated with me and I found it very captivating to the see evident boundary that splits the two lives of Billingham’s parents and Larry Sultan’s parents who love, what seems like, very luxurious lives looking at the way they dress, eat and live within their home – Billingham’s family life looks very insignificant when put together with that of Sultan’s and the two contrast makes it very satisfying to notice differences and infer these differences to draw conclusions.
Cover of Ray Billingham’s book, Ray’s A Laugh
Both artists have taken a documentary approach in their series of works. They have both set out to document and produce a catalogue of images that depict their family lives in order for the audience to either sympathise with the photographer as they photograph a subject close to their heart that has a effected them, or to sympathise with the subjects of the images, in Billingham’s case. However, Sultan’s purpose out of his series, ‘Pictures from Home’ is to give the audience an insight into the lives his parents leads. He doesn’t wish to tell as much of a story for his viewers to question him about, like Billingham but a pendant for his parents. He says “it has more to do with love than sociology”. He used his photography to provide something that will last a life time for his parents.
Cover of Larry Sultan’s book, Pictures from Home
Larry Sultan
Larry Sultan was an American photographer from California and was a very influential photographer for many reasons and he definitely shaped photography for others who would follow, following his sudden death in 2009 at the age 63. During his active time as a photographer he carried out many series which were described as, like he was, very guarded, sincere and seductive. He was a great success and this was evident from his teaching career at the San Francisco Art Institute for 10 years. His dedication to photography earned him the Guggenheim Fellowship, an award dedicated to those “who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts”. and he also had his work exhibited in museums of the United States.
With regards to his series, ‘Pictures from Home’, this was something he worked on for nearly 10 decades. ‘Time’website writes, it is, in some sense, an aggregate of mini-collections: Sultan’s aging parents, stills from old home movies, transcribed interviews with his parents, and family snapshots appear side by side, creating a quiet but profoundly stirring portrait of familial intimacy. What makes Sultan’s family photobook different from the countless other artists who attempts it is the such intimacy that is delivered through the pages which touch the reader. He alternates between past and present in the book and puts together a collective that holds personal meanings through the use images and text which engages with class, memory and physical and emotional beings.
A Collection of Images from the Book
Sultan captures moments as far as his parents in bed together enjoying a time together as a couple -something which would be quite intimate but he depicts their life to the fullest as the pair look completely oblivious in order to get the fullest effect of it being a snap-shot.My Father Sleeping, 1984Other accounts within the series shows his parents looking directly into the camera, a technique I like in order for the audience to feel with the subject is feeling
One thing I admire about Sultan’s images is the colours he captures from each image. I believe this in mainly due to the décor that his parents house possessed. It is obvious from the colours, bright and eccentric, that his parents house was luxurious for the them. An image that is evident of this is the image where his mother and father are both in the lounge/dining room together and they have bright green walls surrounding them as well bright green carpet underneath them.
Artist Analysis
This sort of image reminds you of the retro rooms you see in houses of vintage films. It is very 70s but to the luxury we see here in comparison to Ray Billingham’s council flat was a novelty to them.
Relating this image to documentary and the functions and features of documentary photography, it is very clear to see that this particular (above) plays the role of a source of imagery that simply documents what goes on the household of the Sultan’s during the time taken. From looking at the image, I get the sense that Larry Sultan has simply held his camera to his eye in this position he found himself in what seems to be the lounge and, like the style suggests, snaps this one second in time which features his mother and father conversing with each other. The composition is very basic and Sultan would have intended to frame both his parents in the shot in order for the audience to get a sense of their day-to-day lives which consists of relaxing at home and enjoying the company of one another. You can see that the image is slightly slanted and is not completely straight but this adds a likable amateur look to the photograph.
I would imagine that his parents would not have been expecting Sultan to take this image at the time; they would have been going about their evening normally and it is very unlikely that this scene is staged, like a tableau because the whole point of documentary imagery is to capture the lives of ordinary people, most of the time, when they are not watching or expecting it. This is what makes the image above so captivating because you, as the viewer feel as though you are a fly on the wall and are supposed to be viewing inside these strangers lives – documentary photography, in some ways is a means of being nosy and intrusive of other lives – something I find very enthralling when I come to producing my own.
Something I have noticed about the photo, which I really enjoy and think is perhaps an unintentional addition to the photo is the way Sultan’s parents are sat apart from each but there is a empty chair in the middle of them. His mother is on the sofa and his father is at the dining table with his wine glass, seeming as though they have just finished their evening meal and the lady of the house has gone for a sit down. Sultan has captured the scene from his point of view where on one side is his mum and the other his dad, but in the middle of the two is a lonesome chair with no one occupying it. The chair is facing the camera and for someone who would be sitting in it, they would be looking straight at the camera, however, his mother is looking towards her husband and this empty space in the middle seems quite disconcerting and unnerving for the viewer. It’s as though they are waiting for a presence to come along or there is this invisible presence splitting the two. Looking at the facial expressions of the subjects. they are looking quite dull with no emotion, perhaps they have just had a row.
Sultan on hs website in his statement about the series comments on how the works are more about love and it is about showing this familiarity of love in families and the members within them and the relationships which are held. He says he wants his parents to live forever and this is a dedication to them. This is has allowed him to construct his series very thoughtfully in order for it to be a time-travelling tool to relive history that would have passed.
In the series, the boundary between documentary and the staged is blurred as Sultan includes efforts to position his mum and dad in positions and poses fro the camera at times but at other points, the format of images is so very informal and relaxed like inn the above where there is no thoughts of showing any emotion for the camera. The reality of living normal lives without presenting anything false for the camera is backed up by the clutter that lies around on the table and on the side unit.
A page from ‘Pictures From Home’
Ray Billingham
and artist comparison
Richard Billingham, you could say is completely on the other end of the spectrum to Larry Sultan in the way his parents live and in the message that Billingham wanted to force through to the viewers of his series ‘Ray’s A Laugh’. His parents led completely different lives of that of Sultan’s and it is evident in this very captivating catalogue of works for may different reasons compared to Sultan’s. Billingham as a photographer has become a household name for documentary photography and he received lots of reception, mostly positive about the way he addressed the topic of alcoholism in his father and audiences, including myself have loved looking through his published book about the state of which his parents lived in their council flat. He said ‘I just hated growing up in that tower block’ and this is what spurred him to photograph it. The Guardian Online published an article about the series and wrote ‘The photographer was a pioneer of ‘squalid realism’ with his images of his parents’ dreary, drunken existence in the Black Country, which won him a Turner prize nomination. Now, with the help of ‘White Dee’, he’s turning their life into a feature film’.
* Squalid / (of a place) extremely dirty and unpleasant, especially as a result of poverty or neglect.
Richard Billingham had a very touch upbringing and I believe this is what contributes to us as the audience being able to sympathise with him in terms of the way he was brought up, yet he still manages to capture a series so beautiful in it’s narrative. The brief of his teenage years goes as follows: he didn’t even take a photograph until he was nineteen. This was when he was living with his alcoholic father, Ray in flat on the seventh floor of a council block in Birmingham. He’d actually just begun an art foundation course at Bourneville College and was working every night to pay his way stacking shelves at the local Kwik Save supermarket, as ‘The Guardian’ writes.
The first pictures Billingham took, with a camera bought on credit after he persuaded the shop assistant he was a librarian, were of geese and ducks in the park, “just to see if they would come out”. He then trained his viewfinder on Ray. (words from The Guardian). He also said that the pictures he took of his dad were rare and that the film cameras he used own were to expensive to develop. This suggest that maybe Billingham always wanted to get into photography was always eager to be creative but never had the chance due to the circumstances he and his family were in. This series he produced could maybe have been a compensation for the times lost when he was younger as he watched over his mother and father physical and mental state deteriorate – a conclusion I can draw just from looking at the photographs included in the book as you see his mother and father slouch on the sofa eating their dinner with food-stained clothes and junk food packaging strewn across the grim carpet.
A Collection of Images from the Book
An image of Billingham’s mother grinning as she weans a new-born kitten, presumably from the new litter she would have bred as Billingham claimed she loved animalsHis parents eating their dinner together on the sofa. You can see a very noticeable contrast between the living conditions of Billingham’s parents and Sultan’s as this image represents two recluses sat in the living room eating dinner as opposed to a dining room. They are surrounded by washed out wallpapers and dirt-covered furnitureYou can see Billingham may have used the flash of is camera at points throughout the series when you look at the dog’s red-eye as it licks the substances off the ground and you wonder how the pets survived in conditions like this.
There is something about the images that I see in this collection by Richard Billingham that makes me feel very uncomfortable and on edge to look through them because I can sense, just by looking at the images that the tension within the house of the Billingham’s would have been very unpleasant to witness, especially between the two parental figures, who seem to be the most vulnerable yet should be the ones with their loving eye gazing over their sons yet, in the image above, it looks like the mother has her fist up at Ray’s face mid-way through a row. The facial expressions from both halves portray a sense of anger yet regret or upset. However, as much as it is not pleasant to observe the events that occur in the images, it is essential to do as it opens your eyes to the reality – once again – this is what documentary is; reality being forced directly to the viewer. I feel very connected when analysing the events that occur in the images because each photo has a meaning behind it, a story – this is a similarity between Billingham and Sultan, that each image represents a moment in time and that the collection of photo produced tell a story. Looking at the two contrasts re-defines the meaning of family as I am being told about two different situations – one of love and one of agitation.
Artist Analysis
This image, to me holds a very strong and powerful message as it sums up the whole meaning behind the series, ‘Ray’s A Laugh’. It shows Ray’s wife bringing him his dinner, which looks like two boiled eggs and some toast. The simplicity of the dinner reiterates their need for simplicity and being basic in their life choices. It shows Ray sitting don on the sofa with his dogs and his wife coming over to him with his dinner as conjures up a smile as this moment in the day is probably his favourite. He puts out his hands as his wife looks at him drearily and it is a shot which makes the audience think of family. It is a typical scene of the lady of the house bringing dinner to her man as he relaxes on the sofa ready to enjoy a relaxing evening with his wife. This usually occurs in men who have ben at work all day and women who have spent the day at home cleaning and cooking, however, for these two, it is likely they have spent the day on the sofa and what is seen above is there everyday life – it has the sense of repetitiveness an this is what is ironic because something so simple for Ray is what brings him joy as he probably doesn’t have much else to provide him excitement.
The state of the house is shown by the surroundings. The walls are caked in dirt and grease and filth, there are cardboard boxes with what I can only imagine is junk which has been hoarded over several years. There are cheap-looking decorations hanging off the walls which at ornaments which Billingham’s mother has collected as he claims she loves little knick-knacks. The two subjects themselves don’t look clean and it is though they fit it with their surroundings perfectly and they have become part of the house over-time. The whole look of the image is very sad and the audience can sympathise with what is going on.
The wife is holding in her other hand as she oases over the boiled egg for at some breadsticks which you can only bare to imagine that this could be her dinner as she has had to focus on pleasing her husband. You could draw a conclusion that perhaps if Rau does not get his evening meal, if may get aggressive and retaliate and this prospect because it is breaking his routine. He is an alcoholic and Richard Billingham stresses this as in almost every shot in the series is a greasy recycled bottle filled with a brown, thick liquid said to be the homemade brew his father makes.
I find it hard to believe that Billingham has he courage to construct such a personal visual documentary of images because it is such a personal subject that encapsulates the hardship his parents have been living for the most part of their lives and how it has affected the ones around them, including himself but the context of the series is what makes it so thrilling to view.
His video art piece which re-imagines scenes from his book released in 2000, ‘Ray’s A Laugh’.
When given the task to write up a short document covering and explaining one thing that inspires me, I became a bit muddled and did not have a clue where to start because I could not recall any moment during the summer where I was inspired due to the relaxation of the six weeks and my need that I felt to not do much work at all. Over the six weeks I became very lazy and didn’t really have much motivation or incentive to achieve something amazing, instead, spent it with a very chilled out mind-set, which looking in hindsight, now regret because I could have used it as opportunity to do something new and challenging as a personal achievement.
However, once I thought hard about a summer that now just seems like a blur because it went so quick, I have come to realise that in fact I did lots of little things that seem so ordinary but have in fact inspired with regards to photography an furthering my skills to improve myself as an artist.
I had been wanting an old, vintage and retro camera for ages so that I can shoot in a new way and experience something different in photography but have never known where to get a retro camera in full working order from. At the beginning of the summer, I discovered a website that sells these exact camera I have been after for so long, in all shapes and sizes with different functions. I decided I would get one because I didn’t want the opportunity to go to waste. I got myself a Canon A-1 Sure Shot from 1994 after reading many positive reviews about it. It is a point and shoot waterproof camera with an underwater macro function and I loved it as soon as I saw it.
Canon A-1 Sure Shot
The camera came in its original case and with the original strap and I was over the moon to shoot with it because it would be a new experience and I hope, now I am half way through my first film that shooting with retro cameras will become a hobby of mine because of the pure satisfaction I get from shooting with film due to the great results which exude nostalgia and good vibes due to the colours that come from film photography. I am yet to use it underwater yet but will look forward to the results once I do. Film photography is becoming much more popular again and is coming back in to fashion as way to shoot professionally. I have gathered many ideas for photoshoots with the camera, such as mini 5-shot fashion shoots on a film of 30 exposures to get 6 mini photoshoots out of one roll. I have seen the use of film photography in many online fashion, music and art sites such as Dazed, It’s Nice That and Wonderland – where I get my inspiration from most of time for new ideas!
Therefore, the addition of this little gem to my photography equipment goes perfectly alongside my DSLR as a contrast tool for new results and I hope to use this in my A2 course this year as well as my DSLR. I also hope to expand my collection by purchasing anther film camera off the same site which I have seen. It has a half-frame function which is perfect for different results.
The purchase of this camera lead me to delve deeper into photography in the summer by doing other activities that also inspired me to hopefully do something new and creative in the future. For example, I came across a site called Format where in which users can sign up and create their own website using templates from the websites catalogue to display and present their images or artwork or designs professionally and easily. I signed up for a 14 day free trail but this soon ran out and I now wish to, once I am in a strong position wit my work and I feel confident enough to display my own portfolio, upload my own images to my own website where I can control the content whether it be images or text. It is a great tool for any young and aspiring artists as a start-up mechanism as you can view other like-minded people’s work. As well, I was inspired further by watching YouTube videos of ‘It’s Nice That’s’ ‘Nicer Tuesdays’ series where they get a wide rage of creative people in whether the be photographers, illustrators, animators or film makers and they get to talk about their most recent works to an audience. This gives me an insight into inspiring artists who once in a similar to position to me right now where they want to do something with his special skill they are learning but don’t quite now where to go with it!
Also, I have recently subscribed to a contemporary phtooagrohy magazine called Hotshoe. It is the UKs leading contemporary photography magazine and I cannot wait to receive my first issue to give me some much needed background knowledge of the photography world.
Archives function through a collection of historical content, whether they are presented in tangible or intangible galleries, those of which do not have a physical presence are more common only in today’s memorabilia, a function that has strengthened the interpretation of archives due to the immense impact of technology. Archives can be approached with significance or just general well-being, depending on the historical impact of the image. Some archives can be selected and kept within high authority and expense, taking the role of extreme value if they represents historical events to the public domain. Going back to the tangible and intangible functions of archival photography, living in the new and advanced time period of today, we are able to capture the intangible functions a lot more frequently and effectively. Nowadays there aren’t many families that prioritize the belonging of dusty boxes filled with photographs and memorable objects to the family archive, although this function to family archive does definitely still exist – we prefer to access the ability of the internet nowadays. However strong this new and advanced way of archiving photographs may be, the greatest and most valuable archives that belong to society are kept tangible in the highest of museums and exhibitions all over the world.
What are their purpose?
These museums and exhibitions are set up in order to appreciate the archive many values, including religion, culture, and national treasure. Arranged in order, museums allow us to educated ourselves and others based on the ancestors that formed the present.
Not only can archival photography be used for this reason, they can also be used in modern context, giving support to the media, advertisement, news, documentary, fine art, identity and anthropology. Archives have a purpose of supporting these factors as they provide a sense of knowledge, visual history and most importantly, prove for those who reap a greater understanding of the subject.
How do archives act as repositories of cultural memories of the past?
In reference to the formality of archives and how well-respected they are presented within the many museums around the world, we can identify a role of repositories within archives as they support cultural memories of the past through displaying artifacts and materials which effortlessly create different impressions and inventories for the viewers along the way. Allowing the next generation to witness these sighting can allow past cultures to form a certain significance of the present and foreseeable future for the viewers. Over recent years, we can take the information given from David Bates text of Archives, Networks and Narratives and identify that artists have become increasingly more conscious of archival storage, some taking the next step and making the focus of their work entirely based on repositories of cultural value. US artist and photography Louise Lawler focused her work entirely on the responsibility of repositories, her work involves photographs that are featured in private homes, public museums and auction houses that function for the sheer taste and satisfaction of cultural remembrance in order for spectators to evaluate art.
In what way does photography perform a double role within archives?
Photography can perform a double role within archives as they can represent both a meaningful background for the artefacts of the museums and also a collection of archives that can present a sense of independence within itself, letting people appreciate the work for general interest they they may find aesthetically pleasing.
Contextual Studies is vital in developing a deeper understanding of photography and its relationship with art, history, politics and culture at large. This year we will be spending one lesson a week (mainly Wednesdays) on theoretical issues relating to your study on Documentary and Narrative Photography.
Contextual Studies will inform your practical work and vice versa. To achieve high marks and make work that is critical, and which engages with contemporary subject-matter it is essential for you to spend time reading, thinking and writing about issues discussed and how they relate to your ongoing projects.
Write 500-1000 words where you try and answer the following two questions. Deadline Mon 18 Sept.
Q1: Define what we mean by Documentary Photography?
Q2:What is Tableaux Photography and how does it construct a narrative different from documentary photography?
You must read the following two texts and include images to illustrate your essay and include quotes using Harvard System of Referencing from sources that shows evidence of reading and understanding.
EXTRA READING: To develop a better understanding in answering the above questions, read these two texts by David Bate from his new book, Art Photography (2016) Tate Publishing
Yesterday, on 11/07/17, Croatian photographer Tanja Deman came into the school to hold a workshop with us. It was centered around looking at the shots we captured form out shoot at Grosnez and L’Etacq a few weeks ago – she wanted us to reflect on what we caught and start thinking about ideas for creating photo montages and photo collages like hers.
She also set a task before her workshop yesterday for us to gather some out favourite images from the shoot, and link them to our artist references to then begin gathering thoughts about what we could o with out images and I began creating some edits. These are on the blog.
The workshop consisted of Tanja getting us to open up Adobe Bridge on out computers and to begin organizing our folders so she can come round to our work areas and look at what we have produced – this was what the opening part of the lesson was made up of. From working with Tanja before in the photographic academy which took place in the Easter holidays, I was aware that she was very reliant of using Bridge to arrange her image and she essentially is an advocate of the software program to use as a tool for seeing all your images together and she encouraged all of us to use it regularly in future work. She briefly went through the essential tools within the program to help us.
Katrin Koenning
I like that in the image above, Koenning has, as it seems, attempted to contrast the effect of land and sea. The left image being land and some sort of bush or tree being the subject contrasted against a black background so that it absorbs the light and makes the red of the tree stand out. The right image being sea and a fish being the subject. I love the contrast between content and colors of the photo – that the right one is almost over exposed and looks as though a flash has been used but I really like this effect and I find the cold blue very enticing. I thought about contrasts in my images when editing in post production. I chose to use the method of overlaying images and creating a collage of just two images to contrast subjects. I like the effect of layering images because it can hide features of the background image and the new image can replace what is missing and create a new outlook and a new narrative.
In the above image I crated, I wanted to show the effect of contrasting two images. I really like using a black and white image that is heavily contrasted so that there are deep blacks against faded out whites and neutral greys and then a more vibrant, smaller image on top. I wanted to contrast the vast and wide landscape in the background that is very empty against the more close-up macro of the yellow plant and greenery surrounding it. I love the juxtaposition of feeling micro and feeling mega! There is also more evident detail in the macro which contrasts to the vaster landscape where you cannot pick up detail as much and to add to this, I also blurred the image in the background using the motion blur tool on Photoshop.
By the timer she had come round to my work station, I had organised all my folders so that she could have a look and give some advice on what I can do next to progress. I really enjoyed seeing Tanja again because it is helpful that she already knows my style and has seen my photography work before so knows that I nave a particular way of photographing and editing images. I think this was evident from my sets of edits I presented her ans I believe she enjoyed looking at them. I did show her my images that I collected from the archive in advance to the workshop but I have no intention of using them because I don’t feel like they would relate to what I want to produce, however, the other artist references, including Superstudio, Luigi Ghirri and Katrin Koenning will be influential to be further edits. In particular, Katrin Koenning’s images – I hope to take into account her work when planning another shoot so I can capture images that reflect her very aesthetically pleasing style and technique of paring two images together – almost like half-frame photography.
Katrin KoenningMy image inspired by Luigi Ghirri’s warm and retro colours and environments
Once Tanja had had a look through my edits and given me her thoughts on them, it had given me some sudden inspiration and there were thoughts going through my head about her I could improve and move forward with ideas she told me she liked. She especially liked the pool images where I had played about with overlaying and re-sizing images to create more of a collage where proportions are a bit confused but had a nice effect on the audience. She told me to progress with this style and play about more and more with overlaying and re-sizing on Photoshop and to just go crazy with it until I have some works that look very muddled but effective. The images of myself in a pool in France on a holiday last summer with the use of an image of L’Etacq are my favorite as well and once again used contrasts to juxtapose man-made swimming areas – being the pool and natural constructions of beach and eroded rock over time to create a seascape.
Tanja then finally showed us some of her work on Photoshop using hr own laptop where she gave us a very quick masterclass on how to make the most of the tools on Photoshop to create a good collage. She demonstrated her skills and told us what she does to create what she does.
Over the weekend, I visited my neighbour who is the owner of Claude Cahun’s old property In the parish of Saint Brelade. Diane Martland is a lady in her seventies who has lived in the property since 1965; eleven years after Claude Cahun died. Her father purchased the house addressed “Bedford House” for £15,000 and I couldn’t hazard a guess to as how much the property is worth now considering the location, condition of the house/ land and due to the discovery of Claude Cahun’s work and how this coincides with the property. Of paramount importance, Jersey Heritage recently ‘listed’ the building meaning it cannot be knocked down and it will be forever protected.
I questioned Lady Di to what her favourite image(s) were of Claude Cahun’s collection to which she picked the following:
Diane picked these two images as she felt a connection on a personal level as the pictures were taken in the garden she owns. She commented on how she enjoyed the absurdity of the images, especially the photograph of the cat on a leash on the beach/garden wall. Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore’s photographic montage is another Diane enjoys as its quirky nature combined with the breathtaking scenery of the South-West coast creates a sublime image.
Following this discussion, I asked Diane whether she’d be comfortable posing to replicate some similar images to that which Cahun took and she jumped at the opportunity… she was doing costume changes as she’d arranged different sets of clothing which she felt were similar to that of the image and also asked me to fetch my dog because we didn’t quite have a cat.
For example, the image above was the first image I took during the shoot and it was mainly an experimental sot to see whether I liked the look of this style. However, I opted not to proceed with this style of the rest of the shot because for me, the image looked to overloaded and it did not have the clean and polished affect I wanted due to the foregrounded object obstructing most of the frame. Even though this was intended, I did not like it at all.
Again, this image above was another experimentation that I attempted to do to give a different perspective however, it did not work. I also want the photoshoot to be consistent in the way each shot was photographed, just in different rooms of my house. However, I would not be able to do this in each room that we shot in so this would not be appropriate to show as part of the final images but was useful as an experimentation but the reflection of the window is too over-powering and it fades out the subject.
