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The Male Gaze

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In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting the world and women in the visual arts and literature from a masculine and heterosexual point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure.

Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of gender equality. It examines not only women, but men’s social experiences, interests and chores. Themes explored in feminism include discrimination, objectification – especially sexual objectification, oppression, patriarchy and stereotyping.

The male gaze is a theory developed in 1975 by feminist film critic, Laura Mulvey an she suggests that in the male gaze, women are visually positioned as an “object” of heterosexual male desire. A women’s feelings, thoughts and her own sexual drives are less important than her being “framed” by male desire. Mulvey introduced this theory in her now famous 1975 essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

Although the notion of the male gaze is not directly relatable to my own project, it can still have some reference to what I am exploring because of the idea that the male gaze is made up of three parts. For the male gaze to  be present, the there parts to it has to be present and these include: (i) that of the person behind the camera, (ii) that of the characters within the representation and (iii) that of the spectator.

The male gaze has been contrasted with the idea of the female gaze which basically suggest the opposite of the make gaze where in which, in the male gaze, females become a sexual object of male filmmakers and they are represented to an audience from the view that a male sees which is often sexualised. Therefore, the female gaze, as a response to the male gaze suggests that a view of males are presented form the view of a female filmmaker or literary.

However, the male gaze, in a summary, denies women their human identity, relegating them to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance and male sexual desires and fantasies.

Mulvey argued that traditional Hollywood films respond to a “deep-seated drive” known as “scopophilia”: the sexual pleasure involved in looking. Mulvey argued that most popular movies are filmed in ways that satisfy masculine scopophilia.

Lining my ideas back to the three perspectives within the male gaze, this is how my magazine’s content presents a view of a male gaze. However, I am not directly linking the content of my magazine to the male gaze and this notion that females are objects of male desire. Instead, I am looking at the effect of a male gaze from a male’s point of view on another male, however, in a non-homosexual manner. The male gaze states that to be present, the three perspectives need to be evident.

The first perspective is that of the person behind the camera and in this case, that is myself as the photographer. My gaze is on the subjects that I am photographing and this is mainly other males, however this gaze does not have to be of a homosexual nature and instead, as a gaze that fulfills the need to feel comfort or even discomfort. From mine and my camera’s gaze on the subject, they can either feel comfort through the relationship I have attempted to build with them before I begun shooting or they can either feel a sense of discomfort derived from a feeling of objectified when in front of the camera’s lens, as if they are being watched. The second perspective is that of the subject within the representation – the subject. The subject’s view can then be classed as a male gaze in direct relation to it’s true meaning in that their gaze is casted upon another female and in this case, that is the onto female in my magazine and happens to be my girlfriend.

The last perspective of the male gaze is from that of the spectator, which is the viewer. The male gaze works this way as well and the gaze of the subjects onto the spectator of my magazine can be seen as another view of the male gaze.

However, I wish to reiterate that the presentation of the male gaze in my again is not a direct reference to what the male gaze is known to mean and instead, it present a view that a male’s gaze can be impact on many different people, including other males. Therefore, this is why I have entitled my magazine’s edition ‘The Male’s Gaze’ (with emphasis on the plural) because if I was to name it ‘The Male gaze’, people would expect a direct reference to what they know this theory to be – where male’s views upon women exude a sense of sexual desire. However, calling it ‘The Male’s Gaze’ alludes to the idea of a play on words and that my magazine does not directly cover this theory and instead, looks at it in alternative way.

Furthermore, I feel like this was relatively important to cover and if I was to subtly hint at the theory of the male gaze in my magazine, it would make for some interesting interpretations by my audience. I have focused primarily on males in the magazine and how they behave in adolescence and part of growing up and maturing, for males, and of course for females, is to find love and it is at this point that young boys may find themselves on relationships and experiencing the feeling of love. It is also a second nature for males to attempt to impress girls through the way they behave and through perhaps showing off. In my magazine, I have therefore explored the gaze of a male upon other girls, however, showing how this could be confused between love and lust and how a vulnerable, quite timid male, in an attempt to find love and experience romance, may present himself. It is a mere contrast between what the male gaze is known to be – where males use their gaze to sexually objectify women and degrade them to a position that takes away their power – and an innocent attempt to find love in adolescence.

 

Research

The Sublime

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The Age of Enlightenment

The age of enlightenment was a philisophical movement that heavily occurred in the Europe in the 18th century.  This was during a period when science was breaking away from the Church which for centuries had dominated peoples lives in the way that they lived.  This is not to say that people weren’t religious but there was a stronger sense of freedom that existed which included individual liberties and religious tolerance to each individual.  This theory is closely linked with the scientific revolution, breaking away from the Church led to the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries by empowering people to have a voice and interpretation of the world around us.

Rene Descartes’ rationalist philosophy alid the foundations for enlightenment thought by constructing science on a metaphysical basis.  His skepticism was refined by John Locke’s Essay: Concerning Human Understanding (1690) concerning the foundation of human knowledge and David Hume’s writings examine passion not reason was the governing factor influencing human behavior.  This laid down two significant lines of enlightenment: 1) reform vs power and faith 2) Democracy, Liberty, freedom of expression.  Philosophers advocating this theory wanted to emphasize the intellect from within from these overshadowing themes which contrasted counter Enlightenment philosophers who sought a return to faith and argued  that beauty existed in and out of this world.  This influenced art in this era because in the transition from faith to science, questioning where we stand, artists very much explored the idea of heaven being on earth as Earth being a hub for all things paradisaical.  This links to my project exploring creationism, evolution and the process of change – acting as backdrops for freedoms in nature and over that freedoms of spirituality in nature.

The Theory of the Sublime

In terms of Aesthetics  (a branch of philosophy exploring the nature of art, beauty and taste within the creation of beauty), is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, spiritual measures that is beyond human comprehension.

The concept of the world appearing  sublime in an aesthetic form in how nature is distinct from beauty first arose heavily in the 18th century with three particular philosophers Anthony Ashley Cooper,  John Dennis and Joseph Addison – exposing the fearful and irregular forms of external nature with reference to sublimity.  Each of thee men had journeyed across the Alps and this essentially inspired them to express their accounts of the horror and harmony of the experience, highlighting the contrasting relationship of each aesthetic quality.

Contrastingly, Edmund Burke’s concept of the sublime was developed in the book: A Philosophical Enquiry into the origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.  He believes that the sublime and the beautiful are mutually exclusive.  Burke heavily referenced the concept of light vs darkness as he advocates that beauty is made predominantly significant because of light, but either intense light or darkness is sublime in that it reconfigured the sight of an object and turn it into a sense of awe and wonder but also with horror because it connotes feelings of darkness, uncertainty and confusion.  The sublime may invoke horror, however in doing this, one receives pleasure in knowing the perception is fiction.  Burke identified the idea of the theory of the sublime as in his own words: “delightful when we have an idea of pain and danger, without being actually, in such circumstances… whatever excites this delight, I call the sublime.” (Burke, E. [date) A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Oxford. Oxford University Press).

In Art

One artist who is well established in being philosophically influenced in their artwork for the sublime are JMW Turner.  Turner revolutionized the uses of light and color which he utilizes when capturing aesthetically beautiful natural world scenes by recalling experiences and their impacts internally and externally, expressing them through his work.   He clearly displays how Burke’s theories on light and darkness, and how both these factors create a sense of horror that exists to allow the viewer to feel exhilaration that the artist is capturing.

The oil painting Snow Storm I believe captures the awe and wonder found within the sublime.  The storm is creating danger within the image that creates a sense of exhilaration that is almost dangerous and out of control.  This links to Burke’s theory because he describes the sublime as being successfully endorsed through feelings of horror and through that, the viewer finds these perceived feelings enjoyable knowing that it is fiction.  For example the brush strokes showing the impact of the forces of nature such as the wind, the sea and the light I believe emphasizes this.

 

Analysis, Research

Abstract Artist study

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Wassily Kandinsky 1866-1944

“Color is a means of exerting direct influence on the soul.”-Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky contributed massively to the abstract expressionism movement as one of the pioneers of abstract modern art. Kandinsky believed abstraction offered the possibility for profound, spiritual expression and that copying from the surrounding environments prevented. He was inspired to create art that that connected with people on a spiritual level, innovating a pictorial language that loosely related to the real world and expressed largely about the artists inner experiences. For Kandinsky painting wasdeeply spiritual . He sought to convey profound spirituality and the depth of human emotion through a universal visual language of abstract forms and colors that transcended cultural and physical boundaries. Kandinsky viewed himself as a prophet. He viewed non-objective, abstract art as the main way to allow someone to have  a deep emotional connection.

Kandinsky viewed music as the most supernatural form of non-objective art. He strove to produce similarly object-free, spiritually rich paintings that represent sounds and emotions. The painting below is one of these paintings. Kandinsky has used color, structure, form, composition, dimension and shade to convey and show the spiritual experience he had when listening to a piece of music.

Music is also a large influence in my work. I often edit images while listening to music and sometimes even take photos while listening to music. This often affects the mood of the photo as the music effects my mood and the way I edit a certain photo. Whether that’d be increasing the dark’s or lights, increasing the saturation and vibrance or making the image black and white. I understand the mindset and mostly agree with what Kandinsky says about music. How it affects the soul deeply and how it is a huge influence. His careful composition of shapes and colors is something else I will use in my project. I want to take inspiration from this and carefully compose some my images to show different shades and shapes. Kandinsky was one of the first artist’s that completely allowed the spiritual, surreal emotions to be placed on a canvas. His work showed the freedom to express himself. It showed art without barriers, how art doesn’t need to show something physical like nature and trees to give a sense of spirituality. His art was a gateway for other artists to explore the freedom of painting and capturing their subconscious thoughts, their moods and feelings.

Image result for KandinskyKandinsky-Composition VIII, 1923

The painting above is one of those that has been heavily influenced by music. It features many circles, straight lines, squares, triangles and colors. As you can see it looks like a mixture of different shapes and colors almost like an organised mess. To me the lines that subsequently turn into boxes look like a psychedelic, dream like piano keys. Other lines remind me of music notes and the circles are like the color of emotions and mood the artist was feeling when listening to the music. Kandinsky is clearly trying to show the music and his thoughts through the picture. I am only attempting to intepret what the picture means. However, I do not think we need to know what it means as it is clearly an emotional response to piece of music.

Planning, Research

FREEDOM AND LIMITATIONS // MANIFESTO

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What is a Manifesto?

a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.

A manifesto is a published verbal declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, government or an artistic movement. In etymology (the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history), the word manifesto  is derived from the Italian word manifesto, itself derived from the Latin manifestum, meaning clear or conspicuous.

Some of the  most well known manifestos to people in the United Kingdom are political manifestos, the three main parties; Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were the parties in the last election in 2017.

Jersey also has a Manifesto, which is called ‘Reform Jersey Manifesto’. Below is a link to the Manifesto that the Deputy in the states assembly presented in 2016 as the ‘MANIFESTO – 2016’ Senatorial By-election

Reform Jersey Manifesto

Examples of other manifesto’s:

  • 1 The Bible and the Ten Commandments.
  • 2 The US Declaration of Independence.
  • 3 Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech.
  • 4 The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
  • 5 Apple Ad: Here’s to the Crazy Ones.
  • 6 Andre Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto.
  • FEMINISM MANIFESTO’S:
EXAMPLE OF A MANIFESTO

The manifesto has been an important genre for feminist writers because the form enables women’s voices to be heard at their most provocative, independent, irreverent, and demanding. Feminist manifestos are often short and pointed declarations of identity and politics that use radical rhetoric to upend the status quo of gender and sex. Whether they take the form of letters, brochures, pamphlets, or even full-length books, feminist manifestos try to change reality by using the power of words to resist male domination and to envision women’s liberation. There were many feminist manifesto’s that occurred during my focused time period of second wave feminism, such as: ‘The Women identified Women’ written by a radical lesbian formation as well as Valerie Solanas’s 1967 SCUM Manifesto. The 1960s and ‘70s witnessed the creation of some the most iconic feminist manifestos, thanks to renewed global and local women’s liberation movements.

However, during research i came across a feminist manifest from 1991 which caught my eye and highlighted how radical manifestos can be. I watched the short clip which was created around the riot grrrl manifesto and thought this would be an interested example of how radical feminist were and the protests that they were making to continue their fight for rights throughout the waves of feminism.

  “Grrrl Love and Revolution:  Riot Grrrl NYC”  (Women Make Movies, 2012)

The Riot Grrrl Manifesto:

BECAUSE us girls crave records and books and fanzines that speak to US that WE feel included in and can understand in our own ways.

BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other’s work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other.

BECAUSE we must take over the means of production in order to create our own moanings.

BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo.

BECAUSE we recognize fantasies of Instant Macho Gun Revolution as impractical lies meant to keep us simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams AND THUS seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit christian capitalist way of doing things.

BECAUSE we want and need to encourage and be encouraged in the face of all our own insecurities, in the face of beergutboyrock that tells us we can’t play our instruments, in the face of “authorities” who say our bands/zines/etc are the worst in the US and

BECAUSE we don’t wanna assimilate to someone else’s (boy) standards of what is or isn’t.

BECAUSE we are unwilling to falter under claims that we are reactionary “reverse sexists” AND NOT THE TRUEPUNKROCKSOULCRUSADERS THAT WE KNOW we really are.

BECAUSE we know that life is much more than physical survival and are patently aware that the punk rock “you can do anything” idea is crucial to the coming angry grrrl rock revolution which seeks to save the psychic and cultural lives of girls and women everywhere, according to their own terms, not ours.

BECAUSE we are interested in creating non-heirarchical ways of being AND making music, friends, and scenes based on communication + understanding, instead of competition + good/bad categorizations.

BECAUSE doing/reading/seeing/hearing cool things that validate and challenge us can help us gain the strength and sense of community that we need in order to figure out how bullshit like racism, able-bodieism, ageism, speciesism, classism, thinism, sexism, anti-semitism and heterosexism figures in our own lives.

BECAUSE we see fostering and supporting girl scenes and girl artists of all kinds as integral to this process.

BECAUSE we hate capitalism in all its forms and see our main goal as sharing information and staying alive, instead of making profits of being cool according to traditional standards.

BECAUSE we are angry at a society that tells us Girl = Dumb, Girl = Bad, Girl = Weak.

BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousism and self defeating girltype behaviors.

BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.

MY MANIFESTO:

Make photo’s of:

  1. A Feminist
  2. Adolescents exploring their sexuality
  3. Women expressing their Femininity
  4. Women being exploited – similar to actresses in the 1970’s
  5. Women where the rule of technicality is broken (grainy/blurred)
  6. Portraits with strong facial expression and stance

 

Research

project ideas // research

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The idea for my project is to capture insignificant events and objects and show the spirituality within them. There’s a lot of different things that I plan to capture throughout the project. The photographer Rinko Kawauchi is my main inspiration for my idea and I really like her concepts and the subjects that she captures. The different thinks that I plan to capture are things that we see everyday but ignore because of there insignificance. Things such as light and shadows, abstract shapes and objects, different angles of the body and fragmenting everyday scenes.

I wanted to name the project something simple, catchy and something with a deeper meaning. The photographer Rinko Kawauchi has inspired me a lot through the process of coming up with ideas. She is a Japanese photographer so I started searching up different meanings of words in Japanese. My project is based on finding the beauty of everyday things and situations. I intend to focus on the purity and depth of things that we claim to be insignificant. The saying that I came across that I liked the most was ‘Wabi-Sabi’. The definition behind this word works really well with my project. Wabi-Sabi means “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.” This is what I aim to explore in my project and is why I decided to name it Wabi-Sabi.

The images above is a mood board of different objects and scenes that I plan to capture within my series of images. The different things include images of the human body ranging from old people to young people, but fragmenting them so that I focus on particular parts. I want to capture images of shadows ad light and the different ways we see it throughout the day. I also want to collect a range of images to do with nature, such as the sea and flowers, trees, however I plan on capturing them in an unusual way. I also plan on taking image of animals such as insects and insignificant creatures.

Once I’ve done all the shoots I will choose a collection of the very best images to display as a group. I also plan on creating a video studying the light and the way it changes throughout the day.

 

Analysis, Research

spiritual images and connotations // research and analysis

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https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Rinko_Kawauchi

For my project I want to research and learn more about spiritual connotations within photography. I started by researching some photographers because I wanted to annotate certain images that contained a spiritual connection. The word spiritual means relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things such as the body. The word spiritual creates religious connotations however I don’t plan to lead into religious aspects. The spirituality that I intend to focus on in my project is the purity and depth within insignificant events and scenes. I aim to capture the small details of everyday that people perceive as insignificant and portray them in a more detailed, beautiful way. All though these objects and events may seem insignificant they lead onto and contain a much more deeper sentiment.

The images below are by Rinko Kawauchi and they are examples of images that contain spiritual and deeper connotations. Although the images captured are events and objects that happen and are seen everyday, the way that Kawauchi frames them makes them unique and pure. Her series of images are bright and highly detailed which helps emphasise the spiritual elements.

Planning, Research

Location Research

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For my project, as much as models and the actual concept is important, now these two important factors are more or less decided upon and finalised, it is vital that I chose the specific locations where I will be shooting wisely.

After looking at several artists who have inspired me and observing their work, I have realised the importance of setting and where the shoot will be carried out. Most of the artists I have looked at this far have been streetwear photographers who photograph their subjects, most of the, on the street and in urban areas of where the may live. I have come across a few times, examples of where photographers have shot in a studio set up where the background is an infinity screen and this would have been done in a typical studio. Doing this achieves much different results then when shooting on location in town or on the streets where photographs become more informal and more characterised as a result.

Using a location for a shoot adds much more character to the subject and brings out their personality more than if you’re shooting in a studio, in my own personal opinion, and this is what I what to achieve in my onw photographs as I will be focusing heavily on individual people who will essentially make up the body of my project. It is important that I show them as best I can and to do this, I feel the use of urban areas to heighten and emphasise the focal point of fashion and clothing brands such as The North Face, Tommy Hilfiger, Carhartt, Supreme and Stussy in every shot. These are the types of brands I expect my models to wear.

For my shoots, I do not intend to tell my models what to wear and instead leave this up to them because if I ell them what to wear and or the style they should attempt to achieve in their look on that day, this will take sway from the realness and rawness of what my shoots should be where I am photographing the way teenage boys in this modern day express themselves and how they do this through what they wear where it is so easy to be judged, fell judged or judge someone based on their looks and what they may wear. I will, as a means of heightening the emphasis on freedom, leave the choice of outfit up to the models. I know that whatever hey may wear, whether it connotes vibes of a vintage feel or street feel, it will fit into what I want to achieve. And so to coincide with this emphasis on fashion, I want the locations to also be fun, fitting, vibrant and I want them to hold an element of exclusivity – that when I am photographing my subjects in these locations, it feels exclusive and important to focus on the location as much as the subject.

Image result for filmawi
Filmawi photograph subjects against plain walls which work very effectively.

Furthermore, a concept I want to explore is the effect that photographing the location on its onw as well as the subjects within this location may have. I believe this idea could work well because I could pair an image of the bare location with another image of my models in that exact location but from a different perspective – because the model will be the focus. It would be interesting to see the effect of focusing on the features of the location and then talking an element of this away by pairing it with an image that could be seen as worse – that I am ruining what may be a location of beauty by placing some teenagers in the centre of it. I retrieved this idea from Tiane Doan Na Champassak’s work and in particular, the book I looked at called ‘Sunless’. This project saw Champassak visit prostitutes in Thailand through booking appointments with them, and instead of visiting them for the reason everyone would think – to engage in sexual activity with them, instead Champassak went along to these prostitutes place of business, whether it be a hotel room or their apartment and photographed the location – the area in which he found himself as well as images of these men and women naked on the bed. He produced a book which confronting questions regarding gender and sexuality and it was same up of alternating images between harsh, very heavily contrasted and shadowed black and white images of the location and much more delicate and elegant close-ups of the prostitutes naked body which were much more vibrant tin colour and the curvatures of some of the women’s body’s imitated that of the walls and decorations that Champassak found in their apartments. This concept of dividing a body of work up through alternating images between location shots and subject shots is very effective and is something I could experiment with.

It is important that I begin to plan where I want to shoot and that I have an idea of different locations and setting on the island that I feel may work best. I have not gathered many ideas of locations to shoot in yet but intend to in the next few days so that I am not lost for ides when it comes to the day of shooting. In Jersey, there are many areas of urban scenery that would be perfect but it is about finding these areas because I am yet to discover them. Looking at the work of Grout and Arrowsmith as well as pioneers in street photography such as Bailey and Klein, they have used the mundane settings of streets but with the addition of lively subjects who are performing for the camera, the locations can come alive and I feel this is what I can achieve in my work.

Image result for ali arrowsmith
Ali Arrowsmith
Image result for ali arrowsmith
Ali Arrowsmith
Image result for ali arrowsmith
Ali Arrowsmith. He also uses the effect of photographing a bare location without the presence of any humans and then juxtaposes this with an image of a location, the same or different but with subjects dominating the foreground.
Image result for ali arrowsmith
Ali Arrowsmith

Examples of locations where I have thought of to shoot thus far include areas like town, however, not on Kings Street because this is often too busy and crowded with people shopping and therefore, I would focus more on smaller and quitter alleyways and side streets in between shops in town. Furthermore, it would be great if I could find some areas in Jersey where there is a long stretch of wall with some graffiti on. However, it is likely that I may be out on location and coincidentally come across a perfect little spot of wall that has some colour on and would be great as a backdrop for a couple of shots.

My mate was telling me about an area near Fort Regent where there is brick wall and on this, someone has spray painted the words ‘Welcome To Jersey’ and if I could find this spot, this may be very effective.

Other areas like skate parks would work well where I can also get some shots of some of my models actually skating if they are of this group of people who skate regularly. There are quite a few skate parks in Jersey and give off the perfect urban look and feel.

I have also thought to photograph at Les Quennevais estate for example as I know this area well where there are garages upon garages in rows that would look great as a backdrop because the are not too busy with textures, patterns or colours and would quite subtle but effective as a setting.

Furthermore, one location that I am set on using and will probably be the basis for one of my first shoots is Minden Place Car Park in town and in particular, the top level of this car park as it is open air and overlooks St Helier and its vast array of building tops.

Image result for william klein fashion street photography
William Klein uses a much wider lens, probably a 24mm and focuses on landscape orientation. He uses this lens and physically gets up close to subjects to capture facial expressions. Klein used the hustle and bustle of streets in town to add action to his shots.
some ideas for locations
  • Minden Place Car Park, top story
  • town – back streets and side streets where it is less busy (maybe Kings Street)
  • graffitied walls 
  • plain brick walls
  • Les Quennevais Estate, the garages 
  • any other estates 
  • skate parks 
  • casual streets or pavements 
  • outside any apartments/flats 

 

Planning, Research

Manifesto

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To aid my understanding of my own project to help me produce responses to artist research and other research in the planning stages, I have chosen to produce a manifesto which outlines my intentions for my project looking at male fashion and it’s link to how males can express themselves as they develop in adolescence. 

In my manifesto, I will outline my aims for the project as a mini statement to help both myself understand where I want to go with it and to help my audience understand where I started and if I have carried out my rules/intentions as stated at the beginning. 

what is a manifesto?

>> a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.

Manifesto’s have become vital to art and conceptual art/photography to provide a way of thinking that may not have been considered before. Manifestos can change peoples views and opinions on things and completely alter the way a person may view art. This is shown in the manifesto below where in artist, Grayson Perry in his Red Alan Manifesto states that popular art work will be displayed above head sol we can see it. This is an very interesting thought and words ‘popular’ and ‘see’ have been emphasised through underlining and capital letters. Manifestos and the rules set in manifestos can be quite controversial but it is the controversial nature of manifestos that can make them so impactful.

An example of a industry-changing art manifesto that had huge impact on the way people changed their view of art from what was originally believed art was a few decades ago is the manifesto produced by Grayson Perry of the Red Alan Manifesto in 2014.

The image below shows the document produced by Perry entitled the Red Alan Manifesto. In Red Alan’s Manifesto, created for the Royal Academy, Perry provides a witty response to some of art’s biggest issues, such as: Can anything be art? Who decides whether art is good or bad? The manifesto is written under the authorship of Red Alan, a ceramic sculpture of his childhood teddy bear, Alan Measles.

Grayson Perry RA's Red Alan Manifesto
Red Alan Manifesto

For my manifesto, I will be creating a set of 5 rules that I intend to follow for all my shoots that I aim to carry out in this project. These 5 rules will be the basis of my thought processes and I will attempt to obey these rules at all times because they will be the foundation for creating exciting, new and different work that challenges my comfort zone and own skills as a photographer. From these rules, I hope that it will encourage me to no longer create any more boring art as first pioneered by John Bald.

I will use the screenshot of my note on my iPhone where in which I wrote a paragraph/statement advertising my need for any models for this project I am carrying out. I uploaded this advertisement for people to help on my Instagram and I will use what I wrote to inform my rules to create this manifesto that will provide a basis for the way I approach the construction of imagery that will in-turn give the body for my fashion photography project.

The image below shows that screenshot of my notes app on my phone in which I wrote a couple paragraphs stating what I was after and then I uploaded this to my Instagram story.

The rules of for my manifesto come from this advertisement based on what I was first after at the beginning of this project.

screenshot of notes screen where I wrote a statement advertising for models and then uploaded to Instagram story

My manifesto is shown below.


'hmu' (hit me up) manifesto


_ make it fun
_ speak to people you haven't before or haven't spoken to in forever
_ ignore the factor of awkwardness and get on with it
_ be cooperative 
_ just take the photos

 

Analysis, Research

Artist Reference – Alexander Mourant

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Alexander Mourant is a London based photographer who was born in 1994 in Jersey in the Channel Islands.  He has

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Mourant’s project Aurelian was based off a recent trip to Africa called Cairo to Cape Town: Africa’s Plastic Footprint which was documenting the shifting cultural and geographical landscape of Africa.  Aurelian which is the study of the passing of time and slippery nature of memory is linked to this trip in Africa where change was being documented.  This is because Mourant wanted to explore after this trip not just his memory of it, but how it has affected him.  Therefore this project is dedicated to envoking the experience of this trip to Africa as over time his memories and emotions clashed as an intense longing for the tropical landscape he had left behind and his past relationship with this developed.  In environments that reflected the experience of Mourant’s recent trip to Africa, it was in the atmospheric environment of the butterfly house that Mourant found his subject.  He was interested in the symbolism of the flight of the butterfly through across science, literature and art.  “These hot, artificial environments are used through the work to probe the nature of experience, such as an assembly point, or an artist’s studio, as an envisioned idea where time is not absolute but continuously contained and all-encompassing”.  In doing this he chose to experiment with a slower-paced, more conceptual approach that explores the metaphysical qualities of photography.

In my project I am very interested in exploring the concept of originally evolution is how we got here, and creationism is why we are here.  Therefore I am becoming increasingly interested in exploring the metaphysical within the physical and I believe the theory of evolution vs the theory of creationism acts as a strong backdrop for this.  Including in this, I am interested in recording a story of why the world was created and in doing that, explore the freedom found in nature in the ever continuous series of miracles that occur as change in nature.  Therefore Alexander Mourant is useful as a strong artist reference as I believe as his images are not only capturing his experience, but also these surrealsist images help reflect Mourant’s vision of the world.  This is not in terms of vision in terms of sight, but Mourant’s ability to capture nature in a way that connects spiritually with him. I similarly want to explore the way I see change and freedom in nature as something that has a purpose, and something that is based on my experience as a Christian in the ways in which I see the freedom given to plants, animals etc in terms of survival and change.  Therefore this project I believe is starting to head in a direction that explores spirituality in the continuous process of change found in nature, but also heavily links to previous project of faith in the family and environment.

I chose this image as I really like the strong atmospheric tones which I believe encapsulate the idea of capturing experience in a photograph.  I personally believe the blue filter is effective at connoting trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.  These connotes I believe reflect Mourant’s relationship with his memory and experience because this is suggesting that his memory, his relationship with past experience is a power and force that is not only spiritual but also he has a living connection with it.  This is similar to my work that I want to explore in that creationism explores the notion that we are here for a reason and in order to achieve this, I believe I will have to capture the experience of my own beliefs to explore and explain why change is so frequent in nature an in doing this this explores the notion of freedom.  As I will be looking at why I believe life forms have a purpose, I want to explore the physical vs the metaphysical (in other words otherworldly) show the connection that has been lost with nature by humans.  I believe Mourant has achieved this successfully through the blue filter.  Aside from the symbolism that the filter itself was a piece of church glass window, I like how Mourant has captured atmospheric tones that reflect for me how the elements of this world are not just elements, but they were designed by a creater in an original, naturalistic viewpoint.  For example I like how the bird, is sitting on top of the trees and debris, this but also as well how everything appears connected and part of the same body.  Furthermore the composition of the image fascinates me because I like how their is a border like feauture to the bottom third of the image.  This in a sense gives the image a strong grounding, as we go from harder elements to more delicate and softer ones as we move up the image.  Aside from the blue showing how everything is connected, contrastingly by having such a range of elements in this structured order, it is easy to get the impression that  objects are still unique.  Both these factors link to my interest in exploring the Theory of Creationism in how everything in nature is connected but also how it is unique from each life form.

Aomori is a project done by Alexander Mourant following his Aurelian project.  This links to the previous project because Aurelian used atmospheric conditions to create a metaphor for elsewhere that he has a connection with.  However “Aomori, meaning ‘blue forest’ in Japanese, is a synthesis of two existential ideas – the forest and the nature of blue,”.  By exploring this relationship, I like how for Mourant it is him demonstrating how he translates his experience into his photographs.  The color blue and the environment is effective because it encourages how we perceive and connect with nature and the Forest is the vocational emphasis of the study of the progression of how nature changes and evolves.  “For me, the immensity found in the colour blue, encourages a deeper reflection on our past, present and future. In the same way, the presence of the forest and the density of its nature, arrests for us, the relentless progression of time.”  This links to my project of exploring creationism and the process of elements and change in nature because likewise with my project, Mourant is shooting the images that is led by his spirit.  I believe this inspires me in order to achieve images that explore the qualities found from the Theory of Creationism in the elements in terms of how the world was created, but also why the world was created.  Susan Bright commented on the religious symbolism of Mourant’s work,: ‘the spiritual history of the process seeps through into the image, to a time when the land was a place of worship,’.  This strikes me heavily, obviously being religious and this having a direct link to my previous project Faith but for me nature is something beautiful and I firmly believe that many Westerners have lost touch their connection with the nature and by with that the world.  Therefore in my project one significant aim of mine is to reignite that connection by highlighting how and why I believe their is something more to the elements thatn just their physical composition and how these charestics breeds new life and change into the world that is very beautiful.  “As temporal dimensions crumble, objectivity leaves us. We are found in a still, oneiric state, contemplating our own accumulation of experience.”

I like this image because it signifies continuous change and growth but also the rate of growth that is experienced and found in nature.   This image I believe is symbolic that nature and the change in nature isn’t random but purposeful and planned as opposed to an accident that happens randomly.  This image is also a strong metaphor for how the world was created as something which we are not necessarily sure where it came from, where we are going but we know we are going there and I like how Mourant has referenced the process of change over time.  Because the flow of the river arguably is random, then it could be mentioned that creation is random.  This links to the idea of freedom in that creationism gives freedom to evolve, linking both theories together.  What particularly strikes me about this image is how Mourant has focused on capturing smooth tones of water.  I like how effective this technique is at emphasizing furthermore how the metaphor for change isn’t so much focused on the individual element but how all the elements are reacting together and moving as one.  The image above I have selected because this emphasis of all of nature being in perfect harmony, being created as it was meant to be; I feel is important to note as constant change in nature is a freedom in its own right.  For example, not just the water emphasizes this but I believe by Mourant including the rocks and the banks, I believe this successfully shows the change and therefore freedom in these forms of elements over the years as their relationship with the river has changed.  In my image, I want to explore the freedom in change as a gift of creationism, and I believe this image is a strong reference to this aim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research

Abstraction Movement

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Abstract Expressionism- 1943-1965

Many leading surrealists were brought over to New York in 1930 due to the political instability. Surrealism was a massive influence for the abstract expressionism movement. It’s biggest influence was the focus on the  mining of the subconscious, this encouraged artists to focus on symbols and shapes. Focusing on the struggle between self-expression and the chaos of the subconscious. Most Abstract Expressionism artists matured in the 1930s. They were influenced by the era’s leftist politics, and came to value an art grounded in personal experience. Many artists took inspiration from the posture of outspoken avant-gardists. These artists matured when america was going through a economic crisis and felt culturally isolated. Abstract Expressionists were seen as the first authentically American avant-garde.

Image result for Willem de Kooning Excavation (1950)
Willem de Kooning Excavation (1950)

 

Post-Painterly Abstraction- Early 1950s- Mid 1970s

This was the reaction to Abstract Expressionism. This labeled a number of artists who used techniques such as color field painting, hard-edge abstraction  and the Washington color school. Critic Clement Greenberg believed that, during the early 1950s, Abstract Expressionism had become a weak school, and, in the hands of less talented painters. But he also believed that many artists were advancing in some of Abstract Expressionism’s more fruitful directions – principally those allied to color field painting – and these were yielding to a range of new tendencies that he described as “post-painterly.” Greenberg characterized post-painterly abstraction as linear in design, bright in color, lacking in detail and incident, and open in composition. It reflected the artists’ desire to leave behind the grandiose drama and spirituality of Abstract Expressionism.

Image result for Sam Francis Blue Balls VII (1962)
Sam Francis Blue Balls VII (1962)

American Color Field painting

The term color field painting is applied to the work of abstract painters working in the 1950s and 1960s characterized by large areas of a more or less flat single color. From the 1960s a more purely abstract form of color field painting emerged in the work of Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Alma Thomas, Sam Gilliam and others. It was different from previous work such as the abstract expressionism movement as it eliminated any spiritual, emotional. religious aspects to the work and the highly personal and painterly or gestural application associated with it.

Kenneth Noland, Beginning 1958
Kenneth Noland, Beginning 1958