Michelle Sank
Michelle Sank is a contemporary photographer born in Cape Town, South Africa. Her biography on her website reads: “Michelle Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She left there in 1978 and has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and to this end can be viewed as social documentary. Her work encompasses issues around social and cultural diversity.”
Sank is a photographer who has the ability to, so poetically, tell a subjects story so well through her ability to interact with her subject to make them feel comfortable in order for them to feel comfortable to perform for the camera. Sank relies heavily on body positioning and facial expression to tell a narrative i her images.
In particular, I will be looking at Sank’s project that consists of 18 individual images which each tell a story of one individual. The project is entitled ‘In My Skin’ and is a very poetic and truthful series of images which focuses on one subject per image and tells their story through that one image. Each image is very similar to the previous in the way it is constructed and this is a deliberate attempt at telling a consistent narrative that is understandable.
In the project, ‘In My Skin’, Sank visits the houses of a variety of people across Britain who are either thinking of having cosmetic surgery or have had it in order tot change the way they look. She sets out to tell each of their stories and achieves this through an intimate relationship between herself, the camera and the subject. On her website, the project synopsis reads: “These images are from a project called In My Skin about young people under 25 in the UK who are challenging their body image. I am looking at those who have had or are considering having cosmetic surgery in order to become more acceptable to themselves and achieve their ideal of being ‘beautiful’. Social consensus in Western society today is particularly focussed on physical beauty and achieving and maintaining the “perfect” face and body. Intertwined with this I am also documenting body dysmorphia as young people try and conform to this social expectation resulting in eating disorders and body transformation. Lastly I am documenting transgenderism and the struggle young people have to live within a body they were born into but have no affiliation with.”
The images are very elegant and can also act as typologies because of the way they are presented and the similarity between them all in the way they are constructed and framed. Each image is photographed in the subject’s bedroom and Sank positions them exactly how she wants them to come across to the camera.
I will be using Sank as inspiration for the way I take my own photos and although I will not be covering as hard-hitting topics, I hope to be able to present my subjects to the camera in the same poetic way.
Sank’s images are very raw and look as though the have been edited very minimally and I would imagine Sank has done this as she feels the actual content of the photographs speaks for themselves and therefore, did not want to over-edit them to the point that it removes their meaning. In my own images, I will only be editing them very subtly to enhance any necessary factors such as highlights, shadows, exposure or the black and white leveling because I do not want to distort them to the point that they lose their meaning that should be told through the way the subject present themselves to the lens.
As well, Sank uses bedrooms as her studio and in particular, the bedroom of the specific subject she is photographing because this is where they feel most comfortable and therefore, the truest representation of them can be expressed and it becomes a very personal series through photographing in such a personal space.
For my own set of images, I will be using the street as my studio as I will be creating street fashion photographs that show the behavior of boys when given the opportunity to roam free and act however they want.
Sank also uses the ‘gaze’ of her subjects to tell a narrative and this is a very powerful tool to use in order to get across a message and allow the audience to feel a a sense of connection and inclusion into their story trying to be told. Through the subjects gaze into the camera, the audience can easily connect with them and feel a sense of sympathy if the content is as raw as what Sank has explored.
Looking at Sank’s work will allow me to better tell a narrative through my images, which, although doesn’t necessarily have to follow a clear narrative, I will be able to better take images that are more expressive after examining the work of Sank and the methods she uses to create poetic works as shown in this project.
Laura Pannack
Laura Pannack was born 12 June 1985 and is a British social documentary and portrait photographer, based in London. Pannack’s work is often of children and teenagers.
Laura Pannack, like Sank is a modern, conceptual photographer that has the ability to photograph a subject so elegantly to tell their story. Something that is evident in Pannack’s work is her use of very soft colours and tones as well as a use of very soft focus around the subjects existence in the forefront of each frame where, most of the time, Pannack captures them either looking directly at the camera or facing the camera with their eyes closed.
This effect of the subject closing their eyes in the photo is something I will be trying to up-take and emulate in my own work because I feel it adds a very subtle and elegant tone to the imagery and a compelling mood is achieved when the subject eyes are closed because the audience feel a sense of inclusion in the image – that when looking at the subject closing their eyes, we are included in the thoughts they are thinking. I will using this technique of the subjects closing their eyes in a couple of my images so achieve a look of vulnerability – that when they close their eyes, they become more vulnerable as they become unaware of the happenings in front of them due a deep focus in their mind about their thoughts. This sense of vulnerability is something I wish to capitalise on in my project to show that boys are not always confident and boisterous freaks of nature that don’t fear anything and instead, through particular photographs of them with their yes closed, a much more vulnerable state of their personality can be shown.
Pannack, like Sank focuses on telling her subjects story and focuses on the audience ability to connect with what the subject is experiencing in the frame. Both photographs focus on the notion of a gaze from the subject in the image to aid the narrative that can be told. When a subject gazes at the camera and in-turn, the viewer, they achieve a very somber effect that often works very well to present a mood. A gaze can not only be achieved through the eyes but through the other facial expressions of the subject and how they rest the other feature on their face to bring the attention to the eyes. A gaze can also be achieved through body positioning and body expression and the use of hands to help create meaning is also very effective.
Pannack’s work has been shown in three solo exhibitions and contributed to a couple of publications. She has received a number of awards, including a first place in the World Press Photo Awards in 2010, the Vic Odden Award from the Royal Photographic Society in 2012, and the John Kobal New Work Award in 2014. Pannack has also worked commercially for The Mental Health Foundation, Save the Children, Oxfam, Dove, Samsung, Barclays and Vodafone.
Pannack’s notable personal projects include The Untitled, Young Love and Young British Naturists. For her personal work Pannack largely uses a film camera and I believe this is noticeable in her work because of the very soft and subtle colour tones that look quite faded – an effect achieved from shooting on film.
The video above shows Laura Pannack at Nicer Tuesdays – an event by It’s Nice That which invites exciting creatives to share short, sharp insights to recent projects, aiming to inform and inspire. Pannack in this video, talks above her recent works to an audience and shows her processes and the meanings behind what she does.
In an interview with The British Journal of Photography, Pannack describes her processes on how to take a good portrait photograph and the thought behind taking compelling portraits that for so many, seems so simple but the methods Pannack uses shows her professionalism and dedication to creating the quality of portraits she does. BJP writes in their article, “dedicated to developing strong relationships with her subjects, Laura Pannack’s work is always a collaborative endeavor between artist and sitter.” This resonates with me strongly because I too believe that to create a strong portrait image, the collaboration between the subject and artist is vital because from this relationship can become a developed bond between the two of them in order to create the right portrait to tell their story. Pannack’s interest in youth culture is evident in her work and BJP highlights this in their article.
Pannack’s focus on documenting youth culture is another reason I have decided to study her work. Fro m observing the way she photographs this particular sub-culture will give me a sense of understanding to go and do it myself as I too will be photographing the youth of Jersey – youth are often ignored in this newly-developed political society that is now so focused on the present and the views of elders and the empowered at a time where the economic states of our country is the most talked about subject for last two years.
In Pannack’s project entitled ‘The Untitled’, she aims to “challenge the sweeping generalisations and often negative perceptions of teenagers held by many, by capturing the individuality of each of her subjects.” In her portraits which she confesses to often titling the name of the subject pictured, Pannack’s aim is to show to her viewers that these people are unique individuals, not just as part of one single group.
BJP also asked Pannack, what, for her, makes for a compelling portrait and Pannack answered, “for me, a compelling portrait is one that provokes emotion and encourages an attachment. I like the idea of a threaded connection from subject, to photographer, to viewer – one that flows effortlessly and connects all three.” For me, this is very true and I agree with this strongly because it reiterates to the gaze that not only myself, but many other conceptual photographs attempt to achieve in their images. The gaze of a photographer on their subject is shown through the release of shutter on their camera and this gaze is then carried on to the subject that, in their image, gazes at the viewer on the other end of the photo. This is what I will be attempting to achieve in my portraits of young people.
James Greenhalgh
James Greenhalgh is another conceptual photographer and is British, like Pannack an again focuses on youth culture of England to create a range and sense of consistency I his work – photographing youth is his specialty and being young himself, this allows him to connect extensively with his subjects in order to create a collaborative process which results in images that show another side to teenage Brits that people often don’t see – Greenhalgh highlights the youth of Britain in his soft images that are a mixture of black and white images and colour images.
Greenghalgh’s work is of such a similar nature to Pannack’s that he was picked out by The British Journal of Photography to shadow Laura Pannack on an exclusive BJP portraiture commission.
BJP writes: “After a lengthy judging process, Laura Pannack has selected 18-year-old James Greenhalgh as the winner of a competition to shadow her as she shoots Separation, a series of portraits commissioned by British Journal of Photography. Separation explores the angst and myriad emotions experienced by London-based couples who, as a result of Brexit, have been forced to contemplate separation.”
Greenhalgh is currently in his first year of studying Photography at London College of Communication. However, it was his A-Level project, Tungsten, that caught Pannack’s eye. A series of portraits of teenage boys, Tungsten seeks to break down the mask of masculinity and show the beauty and sensitivities that lie behind. And this seen, this is why I have chosen to study James Greenhalgh as his interests in photography lie within the opportunity to collaborate with his subjects, and in particular, teenage boys to show the sensitivities that exist beyond the face of masculinity that is often so forced in an attempt to fit in to society that sets, on a regular basis, the standards and ways boys should behave and act.
Greenhalgh was asked what appeals to him about portraiture and his reply to this was, “The connection that you share with the person you are shooting is so precious and special. For somebody to open up in front of you and be themselves without fear or judgement (with or without a camera present) is truly beautiful, especially in a world where everybody is putting on a mask or persona in an effort to appeal to others. With portraiture I feel I can capture that organic moment.”
