←
Inspirations, Personal Investigation

PERSONAL INVESTIGATION // IDEAS & INSPIRATION

Leave a comment

After completing my review and reflection of the projects i completed in September looking at both documentary photography and tableaux images, i have decided that i really enjoyed the documenting side of photography and would like to continue this type of photography in my personal investigation. I have been inspired by charity work and a project i will be taking part in africa on an aid trip. The images below are just a few of the images which i found inspired me too want to take similar images over there, however i am going to link it to a wider story and make it specific to the locals and community where i am going.

There are a variety of styles of images below and i would like to keep my options open in this project to capture a variety of images and look at how documentary photography can come in lots of different styles. One of my biggest inspirations is photojournalist Steve McCurry, as i love the intense vibrant coloured portraits that he captures. Although i think it’d be a challenge i definitely want to attempt to capture these story telling portraits.

My personal investigation is going to be based around environmental photography as well as photojournalism. On 27th-13th of November i am taking part in an Africa aid trip to Burkina Faso with a non government charitable organisation, linked with freedom church. The community over there is lively and energetic even though it is in the top five poorest countries in the world. In my photography i want to document the local communities lives focusing on third world countries issues, focusing on truthful portraits and environmental images of the communities daily life, jobs, family etc. Therefore the main focus of the story i am trying to tell through my photographs will be the community, linking into family and looking at similar family styled photographers and how community to them is much closer in their rural villages then it is in our big cities in the modern world where people tend to stick to the blood related families. I would also  like to link into it the story of whether chariable organisation really help these communities or if they just disrupt their local way and try to modernise what shouldn’t be because it has a negative impact.

Burkina Faso Project Info

The Burkina Faso charity project started back in 1999 when Pasteur of Freedom church jersey, met Samuel the Pastor of Temple Elim, Burkina Faso at bible college. The friendship that grew between these individuals has been long lasting and in 2007 the project which linked jersey with Burkina Faso was started. A team has gone out to Africa every year since building toilet blocks, primary school classrooms, a pharmacy and a playground. The impact that this small based charity has made is incredible and nearly 500 of the local children attend primary school. This year the team return to Burkina Faso and i am extremely excited to be one of the twelve members which will be going out there this year to build a nursery. I’m extremely excited to help reduce poverty and illness in the area as well as experience their way of life but also document the community and share some of the locals stories of their past and what family and community really means to them.

Linking to previous work i have done envolving family and looking at family archives and how they tell a story of the past. i have spoken to previous team members who have gathered images of the project in Burkina over the past 8 years. These can now be seen as archival images and i think it is important to know the background of where am going and what to expect to be photographing. Therefore i have also done background research on the country to get a general knowledge of the location and areas history.

Analysis, Inspirations, Research and analysis

Inspiration//Carolle Benitah//Matthew Knapman//Planning

Leave a comment

Carolle Benitah

Initially Carolle Benitah work for ten years as a fashion designer she then moved on from this to photography and some would say she incorporated this in her photography. The French Moroccan photographer focused on themes around family, memories and the passage of time. Her work is very metaphorical and focus’ on manipulating old images using embroidery, beading and ink drawings. I like this idea of physically editing the photo to create a new meaning or give a photo meaning. This is something I would be interested in using in my project as I have done similar things in the past and would like to further explore it.

Image result for Carolle Benitah

My favorite photo by Carolle Benitah is the one above. I like this photo as just like other photos she has manipulated this one in a particular way, that has a real haunting quality to it. This is most probably due to it being a photo of children with their mouths sown shut. The photos show violence as to sow a mouth shut is very violent. This what gives it this haunting, shocking quality. The only boy in the photo has his face covered by what seems to be pills, this could symbolize that he has been blinded by drugs, however this is just a guess. Yet again these  pills are red. The use of red throughout of all her photos is very clever and makes her photos distinctive. There is a use of red throughout her work often shown with red thread in this case it has been used to sow the mouths shut. Benitah explains the significance of the red in the statement below.

“I use a red thread, which is my connecting thread. It leads me through the maze of my past. Red is the color of violent emotions, the color of blood, of bad blood, it is also a color of sexuality. The beads chosen for their shininess and their delicacy accentuate the decorative element and create a discontinuity. I reintroduce the gestures of handiwork in this series and renew my connection with my previous work as a clothing designer.”

Embroidery in these photos where used out of protest as it was commonly seen for women to do this sort of thing waiting for the man to come back from work. She wants to denounce this and show it did not turn her into the “perfect wife” she was expected to be. She is using it to protest these sexist ideologies. There is phrase she uses that I really like when taking about putting the needle through the paper; “To embroider my photograph, I make holes in the paper. With each stitch, I stick the needle through the paper. Each hole is a putting to death of my demons. It is like an exorcism. I stab the paper until I don’t hurt anymore.” This is a powerful statement and one I will remember throughout my project as I have discovered in the past this kind of work can be very therapeutic, setting free any built up emotion.  It allows you to deal with things may not be able to deal with in the “real world”.

Another artist I taken inspiration from is also actually an ex Student. Matthew Knapman created a book all about his mothers life. His mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 that then spread to the rest of the body. This must have been a very difficult subject to do his project on. This has inspired me to cover a subject that is very difficult for me to cover. He also took inspiration from the artist above (Carolle Benitah). This is shown clearly throughout his book as he has changed these photos physically by burning, cutting and drawing over these photos. Again this is also something I’d like to continue from my exam project as I find this much more interesting and effective when conveying a meaning. When creating my book I want it to be full of emotion really showing the affect its had on my family and myself. I don’t want my work or photos to be shallow and have no meaning. If i come to the end of my project and I have no emotional connection with book and photos I have created, no matter what grade I achieved I have personally failed. I need this to have more meaning than achieving some grade and if I achieve a good grade that would be a plus yet that is not my primary goal.

Analysis, Artists References, Contextual Study, Essay writing, Independent Study, Instruction, Reading, Research and analysis

Representation in Photography

Leave a comment

To study the idea of representation in photography and how certain aspects within imagery are presented to an audience, I will be looking at the work of world-renowned photographer, Steve McCurry, who is a very iconic documentary photographer succeeding in his captivating images produced for National Geographic.

Image result for steve mccurry

Steve McCurry (born April 23, 1950) is an American photographer. The photographer, is best summed as world-renowned success in the medium of documentary photography, especially in culturally deprived areas such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has worked in photojournalism and editorial. He is best known for his 1984 photograph “Afghan Girl”, which originally appeared in National Geographic magazine. McCurry is a member of Magnum Photos.

Image result for steve mccurry
AN AFGHAN REFUGEE IN BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN, 1981

Image result for steve mccurry afghan girl

The image above is the world famous portrait of a young girl in Afghanistan and is titled ‘Afghan Girl’ for obvious reasons. Taken by Steve McCurry when traveling the world producing content of National Geographic, there is something very touching about the image above – something tat speak to the audience and I believe it to be because we know that this girl is likely to be very less well-of than we are if we use our schematic knowledge surrounding the topic of deprived areas such as Afghanistan this allows us to understand the likely difficult and traumatic life this girl may live – being surrounded by a war zone for most of her life and having to live with this as a environment that she has to grow up in. I, for one can feel a sense of sympathy and sorrow for this girl – she is young and lives a completely different life to us without the knowledge to understand the meaning behind possible explosions which occur on a day-to-day basis. We do not know of the help she may receiving if she does live a very poverty-run life and this portrait helps us to understand this. The use of her looking into the camera, directly at the audience is a very powerful tool and the facial expression gives off a feeling of trauma and vulnerability – her open and alert eyes let us know of her emotions, in that she is scared and overall it is a very well constructed image and is rightfully a world-famous image as it opens up a door to another life most of the world do not experience in their lives, and this is something we must be grateful for and McCurry has attempted to portray a unknown environment to us through his imagery. Us as humans love people watching and being a little nosey into others lives, which is why most of us enjoy and find pleasure out of watching vlogs, documentaries or capturing out own street photography or looking at other dociumeyatry photography but the scale on which McCurry does this at is on a much higher and more serious level. It triggers our satisfaction for being a fly-on-the-wall in others lies but this is for a much meaningful purpose. However, one thing I’d lie to pick up on is the fact  that I, personally do not actually like the image – I don’t enjoy looking at it, not due to its context but due to the actual way it looks – it is not something that attracts me t the image and is more so the meaning behind the subject which draws me in. Hover, McCurry produced this image with the purpose to fit the style and method of National Geographic as a whole and this has been done to a tee as it shows us the harsh reality, although not direct, of what life in other parts of the world us like. The image appeared on the cover of National Geographic in June 1985. There is a reason McCurry has been hand-picked by national Geographic and is member of Magnum Photos and this is because he does his job so well and many people gave fallen in love with not only him and his work bit the actual physicality of what he captures in every image – the colours, the subjects, the cultures, the lifestyles – our ability to connect with every subject in each portrait is what we love because not every photographer has the ability to create an image so well – something I will be talking about later.

American Photo magazine says the image has an “unusual combination of grittiness and glamour.” which I believe to be very true.

Expanding on the idea of representation, like I mentioned before, this is a very touching and harrowing representation of this young girl and we are able to get an insight into her life. The girl is represented as quite lonely and isolated and form her facial expression, quite scared and lonesome and we don’t know whether this as true or staged as us as the audience can only act as people who interpret the content to what we believe but the notion of true and false is hard to decipher when looking at the work of McCurry, yet t is something we believe to see as true and not staged as this would be providing us with false visuals bit in another sense, we also hope for it to be false because we do not wish to face the harsh reality that people across the world, in abundance, do actually live like this. On the other, we appreciate the imagery that McCurry produces us because we get so experience other cultures for ourselves fro what see in the frame.

It has been likened to Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Mona Lisa and has been called “the First World’s Third World Mona Lisa“.

Image result for mona lisa

Now mentioned, looking at the similarities of the Mona Lisa and McCurry’s Afghan Girl, there are many resemblances of both in each other. It is perhaps that McCurry took inspiration of the elegance and pureness of the painting of Mona Lisa an then transferred this into his portrait of the young girl in Afghanistan. Both look directly into the camera with a blank facial expression. They both have long, dark, maroon coloured hair and wear a draped scarf or vale over their head. In both imagery, there is a sense of delicateness and urge to show the femininity if our world – to show the beauty of females whether that be through a painting or photograph and though we may be faced with something difficult to address, looking at McCurry’s work, the beauty is beneath.  Maybe this is something else McCurry attempted to present and show us – the inner beauty of this young girl that is underpinned by the courageousness of her efforts to stay brave in the situation she found herself in at the time. It is aa though the women in both works are attempting to tell the audience something through the very intense gaze they possess. McCurry provides us with a modernised version of the Mona Lisa for us to embrace.

Image result for afghan girl

In early 2002, the subject of the photo was identified as Sharbat Gula, an Afghan woman who was living in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan during the time of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan when she was photographed. This effort to re-photograph the same girl several years after she has once matured and become a grown adult tells a story and a very powerful narrative which the world can acknowledge as the image at the time when she was a girl touched the whole world as a community and again when her face is shown again over 15 years later. It was revealed that she had never seen the Afghan Girl image before it was shown to her in January 2002.

McCurry made several unsuccessful attempts during the 1990s to locate her. In January 2002, a National Geographic team travelled to Afghanistan to locate the subject. McCurry, upon learning that the Nasir Bagh refugee camp was soon to close, inquired of its remaining residents, one of whom knew Gula’s brother and was able to send word to her hometown. However, a number of women came forward and identified themselves erroneously as the famous Afghan Girl.

Although being a very successful and iconic image worldwide, ‘Afghan Girl’ and many of Steve McCurry’s other images taken in India during his time there for National Geographic can be seen to be quite romanticised and purposefully made to look more glamorous than reality suggests native to India, writer for New York Times Magazine, Teju Cole, explores this in more detail and criticises McCurry’s work on this very factor that many of his images seem ‘too perfect’ and he compares other representations of India that come from natives, such as Raghubhir Singh to McCurry’s and finds an evident juxtaposition between an insider’s view and an outsider’s view. Making for an interesting story about presenting a fake reality to please a modern by audience looking for extravagantness and in reverse, we see a more real and raw look of a country told by the locals, not tom please audiences but to provide reality.

Taj Mahal and train in Agra, 1983, Steve McCurry

Teju Cole in his article addressing this topic he feels very passionately about goes as far as to say that McCurry’s images are “astonishingly bring” which may seem quite harsh and disrespectful as most would see McCurry as a hugely influential and dedicated photographer but I can see where Cole is coming from with this very brave statement as there isn’t much in his images that sparks interest from me in terms of look and visuals. Like I said, you would think that McCurry’s work should be admired and loved by everyone because of its popularity in National Geographic and his image of the Afghan Girl which will live in memory but his work is not for everyone, including Teju Cole and myself but Cole himself mentions the immense popularity of McCurry’s work which “adorns calendars and books, and commands vertiginous prices at auction.” – in other words ‘sells for ridiculously expensive prices’ and Teju Cole cannot see the demand for such images which are “boring” because he sees the images produced by McCurry as unrealistic of Indian culture – evident in the image above where photographed is a very glamourous scene where in frame is a train going by with natives on the front in their colourful and beautiful headdresses looking very polished and slick and in the background is the Indian landmark. the Taj Mahal and it almost seems “too perfect” much like the title of the article suggest. Cole says “The men are real, of course, but they have also been chosen for how well they work as types.” This is suggesting a fake presence around McCurry’s work that they  have been specifically chosen as they look well together and it makes for a very glamorous image which is not a true representation.

Indian photographer, Raghubir Singh worked from the late ’60s until his untimely death in 1999, traveling all over India to create a series of powerful books about his homeland. His work shares formal content with McCurry’s: the subcontinental terrain, the eye-popping colour, the human presence. Within these shared parameters, however, Singh gives us photographs charged with life: not only beautiful experiences or painful scenes but also those in-between moments of drift that make up most of our days.” Here Cole talks about the difference between Singh and McCurry’s work as well as similarities but focuses on the negatively charged feelings which exude from McCurry’s work in particular and suggests that this is incorrect and not how he wishes for his homeland to be shown and therefore, with pride, backs the work of Singh to show what India is – in that it is a land full with life but is better shown through the snap-shots of everyday life – what is in between the hustle and bustle of a usual busy location.

Subhas Chandra Bose statue, Kolkata, 1987. Raghubir Singh
Kemps Corner, Mumbai, 1989. Raghubir Singh

An example of Singh’s work is show above and is quite the opposite of McCurry’s work although taken of the same content – just much more relaxed in its composition. Singh focuses on creating a ‘snap-shot’ of one second in time – no-one is looking directly into the camera, not is there exaggerated shadows and colours enhancing in after-affects and instead we are given a much more raw representation of India’s busyness told from the perspective of an insider. Although an outsider’s view, McCurry’s amateur representation of India is still loved because we are given something simple to feast our eyes on; not a narrative which needs to be unpicked yet still enjoyed in its visuals – much like what Singh’s work offers.

Looking at another view, above is the music video for Coldplay and Beyoncé collaboration song ‘Hymn For The Weekend’. Although very poplaur, it has spakred much controversy over its intentions.

Written by Billbaord, ‘Coldplay’s new “Hymn for the Weekend” video featuring Beyoncé that was released on Friday 29 January is catching some heat over its Indian inspiration, with some online calling the Mumbai-shot clip a work of appropriation while others defend it as an appreciation of the foreign culture.

People were seen to express their fury at both Beyoncé and Coldplay and people took to Twitter to outburst their range over what should be seen as an offense to the local culture instead is being ignored because it has been addressed by two popstars who are worth millions. Some said ‘Are we gonna discuss how Beyoncé dressing up as an Indian woman for the Coldplay video is cultural appropriation, or no?’ and another said ‘Just because it’s Beyoncé, doesn’t mean she’s right. She is being offensive and appropriating our culture.’ However, some actually like the fact that Beyoncé was seen in the video to dress up as an Indian woman as it empowers them and someone said ‘I adore Beyoncé for embracing my culture. In a country where I’m a “terrorist” I have never felt more accepted’. And it is argued that Beyoncé is likely not offensively appropriating due her black origins and this would not be in her remit.

However, In my own view, I had never looked that far into it until now and just saw it as a band who wants to embrace the culture of India and not intentionally offend anyone by different people have their own views on representation and it is often misinterpreted.

Personal Investigation

Artist references

Leave a comment

Phillip Toledano- Days with my Father

This project is a series of intimate portraits taken over three years, Phillip Toledano recorded the final chapter in his father’s long life – his sense of humour, his struggle with memory loss and above all his unfailing spirit. The project was entitled ‘Days With My Father’

The project was created after his mum died suddenly on the 4th of September 2006. After she died, Phillip realised how much his mother shielded him from his father’s mental state. He suffers with short-term memory and is ‘often lost.’ An example of this is when Phillip took his dad to his mothers funeral a short period after (about 15 minutes) he asked ‘Where is your mother?’ This resulted in Phillip explaining over and over again that she had died and that he had just been at her funeral.This was shocking news to him. Why had no one told him? Why hadn’t I taken him to the funeral? Why hadn’t he visited her in the hospital? Were all questions he would consistently ask, he had no memory of these events. After a while Phillip realised that he couldn’t keep telling him that his wife had died. He didn’t remember, and it was killing both of them to constantly re-live her death. He decided to tell him that she’d gone to Paris to take care of her brother, who was sick. And that’s where she is now. “This is an ongoing record of my father and our relationship”

Words from Phillip:  I’ve always been amazed at my father’s love for my mother. It’s a constant force, like sunlight or gravity. He never stops talking about her: his gratitude for her love, for the relationship they had. For the way in which she was the glue for our little family. I loved her so much, but she drove me crazy. My hair was too short, my shirt too wrinkled, I wasn’t standing straight. She called me up once and told me not to go outside because it was dangerously windy! Now that she’s gone I realise that I spent a lifetime resisting her influence and now I miss it. I think she was right about almost everything… She would have been very happy to hear me say those words.

His father has a dog called George, he never remembered her name so often called her “The mutt”. He views are just like a human being, happy to feed her his entire dinner to see her happy. He obviously felt extreme love for the dog and she was an ‘talented’ dog as she performs ‘genius tricks’ such as ‘eating, looking at us with a human expression and lying on the carpet.

Phillip finds these scraps of writing all over the house, Phillip explains them as “a glimpse of his mind” saying words like “Where is everybody? What is going on? and he he lost his feelings. He explains how his dad spends enormous amounts of time on the toilet because of his short term memory, he can be in there for hours at a time. Phillip feels this is both “Heartbreaking and Infuriating.” It’s saddening when he explains his father often tells him that he wants to die, saying its his time to go. Phillip admits that a part of him wants him to go as well as this is no life for him to live but he finds it hard to let him go. He is the only child and he is the only really close family he has left, if he goes he will not have anyone else left.

The night his father died he spent the whole night with him, holding his hand, listening to him breathe, wondering when it would be his last. He died in his bed, at home with Phillip and his wife, although he was saddened that this had finally happened as he had been waiting, terrified he’d die when they were away so would be on his own.

This project is extremely powerful and meaningful, which is what I would like my project to be like. I really like these selection of images as they all tell a story of this mans life, showing his struggles and parts of his life that are clearly within his life daily. This has certainly created a new and stronger bound with his father through the project and deepened his love for his personality. I love that this project is in the form of a photo book as the sum of the parts ends up being significantly more than the individual pieces taken on their own as this takes us through a collective story. It shows that the roles are reversed and the child is taking care of the parent after years of his father looking after him. Most of the images are portraits, capturing the subtleties in the father’s range of emotions, on both the good days and bad. There are parallels here to similar family projects by Larry Sultan, Doug DuBois, and Mitch Epstein (among many others I’m sure), but with an even more taut resonance and delicate intimacy.

Toledano’s accompanying text is nearly as good as the pictures. It is unadorned and honest, eloquent in its openness and revealing in its common truths. While the pictures would have successfully stood on their own, the addition of the narrative makes the images even more moving and poignant, without becoming melodramatic or overdone. This is something that I would like to do when I plan my photo book on my grandfather. The sequencing adds highs and lows to the personal story, the emotional rollercoaster of discovering long hidden details, of moments of genuine laughter, and of the intense sorrow and helpless emptiness of seeing the parent slowly deteriorate and finally die.

ANALYSIS:

This image shows this man gripping onto a woman’s head, his hand is slightly blurred, which indicates he hand is moving up and down her head. He has a distort look on his face as his eyebrows are pushed down, his nostrils flared and his teeth clenched. The lighting is dim as it is coming from some sort of side light from the right of the photograph. The background is blurred, which is clear from the photo frame in the background, directly behind the man. All the colours within the photographs are neutral and earthy colours, which makes the photo feel pure and simple, showing the image is showing real life people, expressing real life stories. One of the factors that attracted me to the photograph is the raw emotion within this man, it shows how frustrated he is that he finds it difficult to remember events and facts about his own life. It is also showing his love for his wife as he grips onto her tightly, almost in fear of letting her go. It provokes emotion inside me as I see my granddad within him. I feel this image has a significant theme, that being emotion and loss. The loss is seen through the memory loss of this man and how he feels like he is losing a part of himself and his life. He can remember details about his life or events happening within it, by his facial expression, I feel he finds this loss extremely painful and frustrating making it hard for him to enjoy his life.  The main focus is the two people sharing a hug, this brings the viewers attention to this, it is a documentary style image as it is taken in the moment, capturing a event or a particular emotion being portrayed, this particular image is taken to show his emotion and tell his story through this powerful image. This is something I would like to explore in my own photography, featuring my granddad.

Liz Steketee- s/t Sketetee

She uses her own life as a material for her work. By doing this she is able to explore the conflicts that exist within the everyday and the richness that is found in the mundane. She feels strongly that life and art belong together, intertwined in everyday experiences.  She began with creating painting that defined her vision of an experience in her life, this was through the use of montage, collage and purposeful juxtaposition of images, it is her intention to present the “truth of life.” She crops, merges and recomposes photographic elements, which then represents a moment, a memory or a life’s reality as she sees it. She disrupts linear structures and confuse elements of time and space to convey her notion of how life truly exists; a combination of independent moments that converge to leave us with a unique experience. This process is intended to jar the viewer and call into question our history through memory and as photographic document.

Liz Steketee has many different ways in which she manipulates her photographs as we are able to see when looking at her work. However, Liz Steketee doesn’t really, if ever, manipulate her photographs digitally. The photographs that she works with are all printed out and just then, she begins to manipulate them the way she feels appropriate for each of her photographs. I have found her more recent images are all manipulated through sewing or trades.The practice she uses is called Sewn is a mixed media body of work that combines photographs from my extensive archive with collage and sewing techniques. Sewing disparate elements together establishes tension that asks the viewer to questions traditions.In Sewn, she uses digital photomontage, physical collage, and sewing processes to create unique object-based artworks. This body of work does not adhere to the purity of one process or material over another. Her subject matter explores the notions of photography’s impact on memory and history, human interactions as we navigate “family”, and examining the traditions of vernacular and portrait photography.

Personally, I enjoy manipulating my images by embroidery and this is something I would like to for my Personal Investigation, as I would like to use Archive images, manipulating them in this way to create a new image. I would also like to combine archive images and new images together to create a story and a comparison of the old and new. I also like the way she has removed people within the image by sewing onto of them, making the it the main focus of the image, making viewers wonder what was originally there, which is not anymore.

ANALYSIS:

This image contains two images, which have been put together to create a completely new image. The first image, which acts as a background appears to be a older man who appears to be standing in a relaxed stance, with his hands in his pockets. The image appears to be in a home as you can see furniture in the background and a stone like wall at the back of the image, making it seem homely. You can not see the man’s face as it is covered with a different image of an elderly couple, the man in this image might of been the man behind the image. It has been attached by fine zig zag stitching with white thread to put the two images together, making this image. I feel the man behind the small image is the same man in the image covering his face, I feel like the image is about memory and everyday life. The small image could be him and his wife, I feel like his wife mat have died or no longer in his life anymore so lives in his memory. The image behind shows the elderly man in his everyday environment, living his life without her, this shows how he lives now without her. The image is showing how she will always be in his life, but now in his memories and his thoughts and no longer in his everyday life. He may feel lost without his wife, as she would have been a huge part of his life and so he would feel like a part of his has been taken from him. The man seems lonely so he might not have any other family to look after him and keep him company as he stands on his own. I would like to use the ‘Sewn’ technique in my own personal investigation by using new and archival images together by stitching.

Laia Abril- The Epilogue

Laia Abril is an inspiring artist, She is no stranger to themes of distress. Bulimia, coping with the death of a child, the asexual community, virtual sex-performer couples – these are all topics that the Barcelona-based photographer has explored and attempted to demystify with her multi-layered, story-based practice.The subjects she tackles are complex and provocative, but ones she is able to connect with by way of female empathy, “where I can be involved emotionally”, she says. Her most extensive work to date explores the struggle of eating disorders and is divided into chapters, starting with a short film titled A Bad Day. Next came Thinspiration, a self-published fanzine exploring and critiquing the selfie culture used by the pro-ana community; and finally The Epilogue, which follows an American family in the aftermath of losing their daughter to bulimia. Separating the work into sections allowed her to approach different aspects through different platforms, not only in the multiplicity of perspectives but also in a constantly evolving visual stimulation.

This is the project, which inspired me the most especially the book project ‘The Epilogue’, this particularly inspired me when it came to my book project I am going to produce on my granddad. This project is a story about the Robinson family and particularly the aftermath suffered in losing their 26 year old daughter to bulimia. Each image is accompanied by some text to explain the feelings within the photo and often a quote from the person in the photograph. Laia seemed to be working closely with the family as she reconstructs Cammy’s life telling her story through flashbacks, memories, testimonies, objects, letters, places and images. The Epilogue gives voice to the suffering of the family, the indirect victims of ‘eating disorders’, the unwilling eyewitnesses of a very painful degeneration. Laia Abril shows us the dilemmas and struggles confronted by many young girls; the problems families face in dealing with guilt and the grieving process; the frustration of close friends and the dark ghosts of this deadliest of illnesses; all blended together in the bittersweet act of remembering a loved one through photos and then made into a photo book, which was made public for others to see to make the population aware of these types of illnesses and how this affects people around them as well as themselves.

Those who loved Cammy guide the narrative, and the author allows their memories to drive the story forward with sincere purpose, while Abril’s own understated photography underpins Cammy’s absence in their lives today. The Epilogue’s chronology dances between what was and what now is, and between the two states lies anger, frustration, pain and a futile search for clues and answers – the inevitable why and what if, lingering over every spread of the book. The people closest to the Cammy have a two page spread, one page containing a photograph of that particular person and then some writing about how they feel about the situation. This is broken up by archival images of Cammy herself and objects, which belonged to Cammy.

The Epilogue- Laia Abril Video- Youtube

Each and every image is extremely powerful because it all meant something to Cammy, showing the devastation of the members she left behind and how they are dealing with it, I find extremely interesting. I also like the fact she had photographed objects, which contribute to the story in some way or were a part of Cammy’s life, this gives you a better insight to her life before she died and when she was ill and what triggered this. The objects break up the portrait anf archival photographs but I feel they are just as powerful. This is something I want to incorporate into my own personal investigation as I will be photographing objects such as my granddad’s glass eye, his walking stick, his bedroom, his house, his slippers, his magnifying glass and other significant objects in his life as well as photographing people who are in his life, which have been affected as well as images of my granddad himself.

ANALYSIS:

I personally think this specific image is immensely powerful for a photograph of an object but this is because this object could be seen as the reason for her death as she would have never been satisfied with the number on the scales, leading to her neglect food and this resulted her to become Bulimic, which meant she would binge eat in a short amount of time and then through it up. This was a in efforts to lose weight to be “slim.” The scales in the photograph would have been a huge part of her daily life as she would have probably used these to track how much weight she had lost and would continue until she was happy with her weight, the sad thing about Bulimia is that it’s extremely difficult to stop when you have started. To think that her being unhappy with her body image, led to that is saddening. The lighting is clearly artificial as it has a white tone to it, which empathises  the white scales, making them the viewers eyes attracted to them. It is taken in a bird line view to show the scales how Cammy would have seen them as she stepped on them when weighing herself. This would be a object of Cammy’s, which the people who loved her would have hated and therefore does not provide a good memory of Cammy like other objects might have. This photograph represents her pain.

Another Artist who has inspired me, who I have already looked at is Carole Benitah.

Artists References, Essay writing

REPRESENTATION, ETHICS AND STANDARDS// McCurry vs Singh

Leave a comment

How is McCurry’s images different compared to Singh in the way that they represent Indian culture? Back it up with references to articles read and include quotes for or against your own view.

 RAGHUBIR SINGH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghubir_Singh_(photographer)

https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/raghubir-singh-photographs

http://www.raghubirsingh.com/

Raghubir Singh  was born in October 22 1942  in Jaipur, India. He later died in April 1999 at the age of 56 in New York. He was an Indian Photographer most known for his landscapes and documentary-style images of the people of India. He was a self-taught photographer who worked in India and lived in Paris, London and New York. During his career, Singh has worked with National Geographic Magazine, The New York times and The New Yorker.  During the early 1970’s, he was one of the first photographers to reinvent the use of colour.  Singh made a series of powerful books about his homeland. He has a democratic eye that notices and captures everything, including cities, towns, villages, shops, rivers and construction sites as well of lots more.

The power of Singh’s images are not just simple in the content but also in the composition. They contain a deeper meaning because they are taken from the point of view of a local who has memories and sentiments connected to the area. The images below are some of Singh’s photos from India.

Subhas Chandra Bose statue, Kolkata, 1987. Raghubir Singh

STEVE MCCURRY 

http://stevemccurry.com/

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/11/steve-mccurrys-india/417102/

https://petapixel.com/2016/06/07/eyes-afghan-girl-critical-take-steve-mccurry-scandal/

Steve McCurry was born on 23 April 1950 in the suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He is an American Photographer who has previously worked in photojournalism and editorial. McCurry has been one of the most icon photographers in contemporary photography for more than thirty years. He has produced magazines and book covers, over a dozen books, and lots of exhibitions around the world. In a quotes from McMurry’s website he talks about what is important to him in Photography. He writes “What is important to my work is the individual picture. I photograph stories on assignment, and of course they have ti be put together coherently. But what matters most is that each picture stands on its own, with its own place and feeling”

He is best known for his photograph called ‘Afghan Girl’ in 1984. The image originally appeared in National Geographic magazine. The image is of an approximately 12 year old Pashtun orphan in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. The image was named “the most recognized photograph” in the history of the National Geographic magazine. The identity of the girl remained unknown for over 17 years, until McMurry located the women, named Sharbat Gula in 2002. The image below is an image of the girl when she was around 12, and an image of her 17 years later. In a conversation with McCurry  he says, ‘Her skin is weathered; there are wrinkles now, but she is as striking as she was all those years ago.”

After several years of freelance work, McCurry made his first trip of many to India. During these trips he documented his time in India, and captured what he perceived life to be like in this part of the world. In 2016, McMurry was accused of manipulating his images using Photoshop, and removing individuals and other elements. There was much debate whether this process was acceptable in his line of work. Many photographers believe his images are “too perfect” to be true.

COMPARISON

Since Raghubir Singh was born in India, his view and images of India is seen to be from an insider’s perspective. Compared to McCurry, Singh’s photos capture the natural atmosphere of India. They’re busy and are full of vast activities taking place. Although his images could be described as messy because there isn’t a key aspect of the photo, Singh captures the true India rather then the one  Steve McCurry creates. Mcurry’s images are more posed and fake with the subject looking directly at the camera. They are also usually captured together with some peculiarity such as face paint. The way the New York Times describes the images is very to the point. They write, “The pictures are staged or shot to look as if they were. They are astonishingly boring.”  Although many photographers describe McCurry’s images as boring, they are also extremely popular. His images are technically perfect, however this is not the sole reason he is so popular. According to the New York Times, his images are “popular in part because they evoke an earlier time in Indian history, as well as old ideas of what photographs of Indians should look like”

Singh worked from the late 60’s until his death in 1999. He traveled around India, his homeland. Although his work shares formal content with McCurry, Singh’s images are full of life. They are full of a variety of emotions such as painful scenes. He had a democratic view, and takes images of everything including cities, towns, villages, shops, rivers, and so much more. Singh’s images are popular because of the content as well as the composition.

Allen Murabayashi, the CEO of Photo shelter, which is a “premium website builder designed and created specifically for professional photographers who are looking to grow their base.”  He defends McCurry’s work explaining he has a “deep understanding of photographic history – not to mention he’s an award-winning writer with a PhD in Art History from Columbia.”  McCurry is an award-winning photojournalist represented by the heralded Magnum Photos. Murabayashi dismisses the view that McCurry stages his photos. He defends’ McCurry saying it is a massive insult to a “talented photographer” who started his career at a local newspaper before traveling to Pakistan and sneaking into Afghanistan to cover the build up to the Soviet invasion. Although he is not completely certain that McCurry never staged a photo, to say that McCurry has spent a “career setting up scenes to capture his iconic photos is a massive insult to a talented photographer” 

People criticize McCurry’s images because they are ‘too perfect’ but when you’re a highly skilled photographer taking 250,000 images over the course of 3-6 months for an assignment, and then working with a high end editor, the photos are bound to be perfect.

 

 

Analysis

Photography & Truth // research // contextual studies

Leave a comment

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/arts/design/18capa.html

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo17ase/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2017/09/Photography-and-Truth.pdf

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo17a2/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/06/Issues-of-truth-representation-propaganda.pdf

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo17a2/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/06/issues-in-photojournalism.pdf

Photography & Truth

Robert Capa is an American born photographer. He was born in 1913 and died in 1954. The image above was taken in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. The picture is known to be one of the most famous war photographs ever taken. The image was taken at the beginning of the civil war showing a moment of a bullet’s impact on a loyalist soldier. The image is taken in the style of photojournalism and it came to define the work of Capa.  Even after three quarters of a century Robert Capa’s image above is still one of the most famous war images. It has also had a lot of debate around it. A long line of critics have claimed that the photo was faked, and was not taken at the moment the soldier was shot.

In shadows of Photography, Jose Manuel Susperregui, a communications professor at the University del Pais Vasco, concludes that “Capa’s picture was taken not at Cerro Muriano, just north of Córdoba, but near another town, about 35 miles away. Since that location was far from the battle lines when Capa was there, Mr. Susperregui said, it means that “the ‘Falling Soldier’ photo is staged, as are all the others in the series taken on that front.””

Eddie Adams, Street Execution of a Vietcong Prisoner, 1968, gelatin silver print

The image above by Eddie Adams is another photo that has caused much debate and controversy. Eddie Adams was another American photographer and photojournalist who was born in June 1933 and died in 2004. He was noted for his portraits of celebrities and politicians and for his coverage of 13 wars. However, he is best known for his photograph of the execution of a Viet Cong soldier in 1968.

he photograph was shot on the streets of Cholon, the Chinese section of Saigon, Vietnam in 1968 (Adler). Just two days prior to the photograph, the North Vietnamese communists launched the Tet Offensive causing fighting to break out in the US Embassy compound in Saigon. Adams was covering the Vietnam War for the Associated Press when he took the iconic photograph. He had this to say about the moments leading up to, during, and just after the photograph was taken:

They walked him down to the street corner. We were taking pictures. He turned out to be a Viet Cong lieutenant. And out of nowhere came this guy who we didn’t know. I was about five feet away and he pulled out his pistol. [General Loan] shot him in the head and walked away. And walked by us and said ‘They killed many of my men and many of your people’” (“Saigon Execution”).

The prisoner was executed for murdering a South Vietnamese Colonel, his wife, and their six children. Adams got to know General Loan after the photograph was taken, and he held much respect for the man. Because of this photograph, “…Adams is recognized by many who lived through the Vietnam War Era as the photojournalist who helped end a war, though apparently not in a way that he intended” (“Ongoing Discussion: Media’s Impact on Opinion”).

He was quite shocked by the reaction of the photograph. In a multimedia interview with Adams published on Newseum.org, Adams describes his confusion with American’s demonstrations and upset over the image: “…because in a war, people die in wars. And what I ask people a lot, too, is if you’re this man… the General… and you just caught this guy after he killed some of your people, you know, it’s a war. How do you know you wouldn’t have pulled that trigger yourself?”

Independent Study

Church x Modern Youth

Leave a comment

In reference back to my planning mind map, I aim to include a way of incorporating my friends and I to aid my portrayal of this subversion against the church. In my recent research of Christianity in Jersey, I discovered religion among the islanders is in decline. particularly among the younger generations. Being a seventeen male growing up in Jersey, I obviously come under this ‘irreligious’ category, along with my atheist group of friends. This provides me an opportunity to subvert against the church using my friends. In the way Paul M Smith captures himself acting in a silly and mischievous manner which lives up to the stereotypes of young men, I hope to create and capture similar images of me and my friends mocking the church by challenging its faith and power over people.

Image result for paul m smith photography

Image result for paul m smith photography

Image result for paul m smith photography

I will request my friends to stay in their normal clothes and just be their typical silly selves. I plan to take the shoot on Saturday night, a day I usually dedicate to socializing with my friends. Conveniently, the sixth day of the week, which is of course Saturday, is according to the Bible, the day God created man. However, like Smith’s images, I want to include alcoholic beverages and other frowned upon actions, for example, the process of smoking, just two of the common ten factors which have seemed to trouble the modern youth.

Artists References, Independent Study, Practical Task, Preparation

Typology Study

Leave a comment

When searching for influence upon church typology, my teacher suggested assessing the work of Walker Evans. Evans photographs churches in a time before coloured image production, causing the photos to adopt this sepia sense, adding to the aged nature of his photographs.

Image result for walker evans church

Image result for walker evans church

Walker Evans’s images of the churches from the 1930s are very much how I like structuring my images with direct and clear focus on the linear of the building against a blank yet idyllic background. Following my recent shoot, I compared my image to his set of images and although the angle of the church is different to how he pictured it, you can see a clear comparison between the two.

Experimentation, Personal Investigation

Lauren Marek inspired shoot//Pieces

Leave a comment

Lauren Marek inspired images // PIECES

Here are the final images from my shoot in response to Lauren Marek. I did the shoot at school during break time because I needed a few people to get images of. I choose three people who are all very different in terms of looks. I also made sure I used females as well as males to get a contrast. For the shoot I took close up images of the important features of the face and the body. For example, I made sure I had images of the eye, ear, mouth and also any scars that were unique to the subject.

I choose to focus on the most important features because they are unique to every person, and are what makes them who they are. When laying the images, I used photoshop because I could easily place the images were I wanted them to be.

EXPERIMENTATION

When editing the images I decided to edit them into black and white because it made the edits much more interesting and appealing. The colours and tones varied a lot, so making them into black and white also made it more appealing. I also found that the black and white versions also revealed much more of the details.

Artists References

LAUREN MAREK// PIECES

Leave a comment

LAUREN MAREK 

http://www.laurenmarek.com/pieces

https://vsco.co/laurenmarek/images/1

Lauren Marek is an American Photographer who was born in Texas. She bases her wok in Houston & Austin. According to Marek, she is inspired by ‘small towns, old friends and simple moments.’ She is a student who loves to experiment with different concepts in photography. She doesn’t focus on a particular area, instead she takes image of anything and everything that shes interested in. She’s done a series on portraits called ‘merge portraits’. She has also done a series called ‘memories of the everyday’, where she has photographed people in an environment where they remember a particular moment in their past.

The series which I am most interested in though, is the series called ‘Pieces’. In this series, Marek investigates part of the human body. She takes images of sections and small areas to capture certain details that make the human figure. Shes focusing on the main features like the eyes, mouth and ears.

I really like the idea of taking images of tiny details that make a person who they are. Marek has taken the concept of body image and has explored a different way expressing who we are. Instead of taking a simple portrait and relating it to body image, she has focused on the tiny, usually unimportant features that collectively symbolize our individuality.

I really like this idea and want to explore it further using my own photo shoot. I decided I wanted to explore this idea and way of shooting because It links with my project well. Since my project is based on body image, I wanted to incorporate the important features of the body into it, however in an unusual way.