Political Landscape

” POLITICAL LANDSCAPE “

As a response to the term political landscapes I think that it’s only right to start off by looking at the definitions of the two words that make up this term.

Definition of Political : Relating to the government or public affairs of a country

(Synonyms: governmentalgovernmentlocal governmentministerialparliamentaryparty politicaldiplomaticlegislative, policy-making, constitutionalpubliccivicstateadministrativebureaucratic)

Here is a mood board which I have composed just based of my initial thoughts of the word political…

Definition of Landscape : All the visible features of an area of land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal or denoting a format of printed matter which is wider than it is high.

(Synonyms: scenerycountrysidetopographycountrylandterrainenvironment)

Here is a mood board which I have composed just based of my initial thoughts of the word landscape…

Here are 2 brainstorms which have been composed by the class looking at ideas surrounding the term ‘political landscapes’

After going through these ideas with the class, it has come to my mind that a big current issue surrounding the government and the public is the issue of surveillance and people’s privacy. This can be explored in many ways in which I will look at in more detail in my next blog post.

As I did with the words political and landscape I thought it would also be a good idea to look at the definition of surveillance

Definition of Surveillance : Close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal

(Synonyms: observationscrutinywatchviewinspection, monitoring, supervision, superintendence)

Here is a mood board which I have composed just based of my initial thoughts of the word surveillance…

 

Local and International Example of Political Landscape

Local Example

An example of political landscape in Jersey is the current situation and debate surrounding the  building of new hospital. This has caused a lot of controversy with regards to where the building will be built and how it will affect the community as well as the patients that are in the current hospital. A lot of money has been spent on the research and planning of the new building however to the public nothing has been achieved. This has caused outrage as people believe that money is being wasted which could be used to help the community and Jersey as a whole.

International Example

An international example of a political landscape is the ongoing conflict and war based in Afghanistan. The US-led war in Afghanistan was a response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on America and has been continued since.

The South Tower of the World Trade Center. AP/Robert Spencer

Image result for afghanistan

This research of political landscapes on a local and international level has helped me develop a better understanding of a political landscape. To me, a political landscape is any issue or story that can be related to by the community. It is all the issues that are presented through the media and through the government whether that be on a personal level e.g. race, disability, gender or as a community e.g. environmental change, war, human rights.

What is a political landscape

A political landscape actually refers to the current state of things, as well as how they are looking in the future. While these metaphors are never actually used, you could say that a recession is hard work, climbing up a hill, and then a boom is the exhilaration of riding down the other side in a go cart.
Photography that traces an event has recently come to be described as aftermath photography. It is considered a new phenomenon and, though having political subject matter at its heart reveals that the camera has long recorded the frightening after-effects of conflict and disaster.

Documentary and Narrative

Documentary photography usually refers to a  form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life.
Narrative photography is the idea that photographs can be used to tell a story. Allen Feldman stated that "the event is not what happens. The event is that which can be narrated". In this case, the medium is photography.
https://fstoppers.com/originals/your-photography-political-166050
https://guernseyphotographyfestival.com/2018-festival/photographers/valeria-cherchi/gallery
https://guernseyphotographyfestival.com/2018-festival/photographers/andrea-magda/gallery
https://guernseyphotographyfestival.com/2018-festival/photographers/cesar-dezfuli/gallery

Essay 1: Lewis Bush vs Clare Rae x Claude Cahun

By the end of Week 4 you will all have visited and Trading Zones (Lewis Bush) and Entre Nous (Clare Rae x Claude Cahun).

Lewis Bush Generic Finance Workers

 

 

Lewis Bush Map
Clare Rae, La Pinacle No. 2

Week 6-7 : 10 – 17 Oct > Inspirations Lewis Bush vs Clare Rae

AO1 DEVELOP IDEAS: RESEARCH > ANALYSIS

Mini essay:  Write 1000 words with illustrations and references

Essay question: In what way can the work of Lewis Bush and Clare Rae both be considered political?

In order for you to write a critical essay you must adopt this methodology:

  • Visit both exhibition and make notes on initial thoughts, what do you like/ dislike, consider how their work are exploring Political Landscapes in different ways.
  • Document installation with your phone and select specific images  that interest you for further research and analysis.
  • Use these images to illustrate your essay.
  • Make sure you caption images, artist name, title, year, medium, size etc
  • Look up influences for their own work, historical / political / artistic context
  • Consider how their work is made within genres of documentary and tableaux approaches ie. observed vs staged.
  • Find at least 3 different sources and read the the texts below for a broader context.
  • Incorporate quotes and comments from artist themselves or others (art critics, art historians, curators, writers, journalists etc) using a variety of sources (at least 3) such as Youtube, online articles, reviews, texts, books
  • Make sure you reference sources and embed links to the above sources in your blog post using Harvard System of Referencing

See this PDF for help with referencing: harvard sysytem of referencing

PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT 3:  Make a response to either Lewis Bush or Clare Rae and evaluate.

EXTENSION: Make a response to both photographers and evaluate.

DEADLINE:  Mon 5 Nov -this is a homework task that must be completed outside of lesson time. Upload essay with illustration on the blog

Helpful sources and guidelines

Here is a recent interview with Lewis Bush in online photography magazine ASX where talks about his creative process, method of working including general thoughts on the nature of photography

If you get blocked when you click on the hyperlink above, read article here as a pdf Lewis_Bush_article_ASX_v2

Links to his website and blog Dispothic – about visual culture with a particular emphasis on photography in all its many forms, from the mass vision of smartphones to the algorithmic vision of internet search engine.

Here are images of Lewis’ text from his exhibition Trading Zones in Jersey

Here is a recent photo-essay by Clare titled; A Photographic History in Jersey’s Rock Faces where she talks about her work produced in Jersey.

Link to her website and exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) in Melbourne, Australia and a link to her book Never Standing on Two Feet accompagnying her work

Consider how Claude Cahun’s work has influenced Clare Rae.
Consider how the following two statements may have had an impact on the work of Claude Cahun / Clare Rae

  1. In the public sphere, women must assume sufficient power to change the cultural imagery and the political landscape.
  2. Women, who had previously been barred from participating in elections, changed the political landscape by becoming voters.

Click on this blogpost: PHOTOGRAPHY, PERFORMANCE AND THE BODY for more in depth investigation of Clare Rae’s work in relation to Claude Cahun and artists exploring issues of gender representation in photography and feminist theory around  self-portraiture and male vs female gaze,

DOCUMENTARY vs TABLEAUX

Two texts by David Bate from his book Art Photography (2015), Tate Publishing on documentary practice and tableaux photography. Read these to get an historical and contemporary overview of both genres

David_Bate_The_Art_of_the_Document

David_Bate_The_Pictorial_Turn

ESSAY PLAN > STRUCTURE

Make an essay plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph. Here is a link to an essay structure.

  • Essay question:
  • Opening quote
  • Introduction (125 words): What is your essay question? Which artists will you be analysing and why? What are you trying to prove/ disprove?
  • Pg 1 (250 words): Analyse Lewis Bush in relation to your essay question. Provide any historical or theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to the artists work. Select a key image and use as an example to illustrate your point of view.
  • Pg 2 (250 words): Analyse Clare Rae in relation to your essay question. Provide any historical or theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to the artists work. Select a key image and use as an example to illustrate your point of view.
  • Conclusion (125 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between both artists. Bring a conclusion to essay question.
  • Bibliography: List all relevant sources used

QUOTE > REFERENCING > ACADEMIC SOURCES

  • Research and identify 3 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, video (Youtube).
  • Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
  • It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
  • Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages
  • Write down page number, author, year, title, publisher, place of publication so you can list source in a bibliography
  • Use quotes to support or disprove your argument
  • Use quotes to show evidence of reading
  • Use Harvard System of Referencing
  • See Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.

Critical image analysis

https://www.photopedagogy.com/photo-literacy.html

Refer to the marking criteria and pay careful attention to Assessment Objective 1…

  • show critical awareness
  • show contextual understanding

 

GRÉGOIRE ELOY GUERNSEY comparison with CHLOE DEWE MATHEWS

GRÉGOIRE ELOY

Eloy is an independent photographer  since 2003, his projects at the beginning of his career focused upon the boarders along Europe and Central Asia.He now focuses more on connections and immersion into natural landscape and usually concentrates many of his works to be around the channel island. His experimentation within various photographic formats and Digital printing is very interesting to me as it allows many different outcomes to an image. His exhibitions have been seen all around France and Europe and he has been a member of tendance floue collective since 2016. He analysis his images through the use of what he is trying to capture. He tries to capture aspects within the wild that are exciting and concept that exaggerate the images themselves. Such as ; using the comparative for looking through bird’s nests as looking into a nest of ghosts. He has said his main purpose is to repeatedly form a relationship within the land ,he wants to know every aspect of where he is, how the wind blows and how the light is drawn at night. He wants to create a familiarity within his pieces to exhaust the landscape.

I am inserted within the clear relationship and bond he has with what he captures using the camera. The way in which water is used to convey a relationship and movement and light to from layers of dynamic cutting ridges. Occasionally he has a photo of himself submerged within the water, I have previously experimented with this but I think would be effective if I attempted this again.

This piece I believe has a softness to the image, it shows the water not as a different object but as a flowing concept within the rock. He used a slow Sutter speed to not completely liquify the movement but to show a lightness to the image. This is further complimented through the deep contrast of tones showing the highlights and dark tones to enhance each other. 

  1. Show critical awareness of the purpose and outcome of the work, and how it has developed over time.
  2. Illustrate clearly how the subject matter has been represented
  3. Critique the presentation of the work
  4. Ensure your blog posts are visually informative and include…
  • hyperlinks to appropriate sites and articles
  • embedded videos that support / illustrate you research
  • definition(s) of “Political Landscape”
  • a range of pre-exisiting, alternative approaches to the concept of political landscape

This should help YOU to formulate a plan for the practical element…

overall evaluation;

CHLOE DEWE MATHEWS

Mathews is a photographic artist whose work has been widely exhibited and published in many museums and can be seen wihtin the Tate modern and the Irish museum of modern art. Additionally she has won many awards such as ‘ the British journal of photography’ and many others.

Many of her works are inspired by classic novels and authors such as Mary Shelley. the current project is search of Frankenstein juxtaposition snow covered mountains. She has explored miles of underground corridors and vast melting glaciers that seemed to offer parallels between the book that presents a socio environmental concerns and the anxieties of our time.  Her work presents a conte,prazry sublime which can afford this monumental piece of literature and fresh resonance.

I am fascinated wihtin the reflection and mirroring technique here it divides the image into sections creating a successfully divide image.There is a clear conniption of isolation being reflected wihtin this image and the way in which the cold tones reflect the outermost coldness running throughout the harsh winter scapes. Overall I think this artist approach is very circulated about getting the perfect image in the way of composition and the beauty,there are equal positions throughout and this type of photography  would be considered as the ‘perfect’ or ‘right’ way to accomplish such an image. The tones also have a clear reflection of atmosphere,she will not use black and white as other the colour is a reflection fo scenario.

Compare and contrast their approaches and outcomes and ask yourself…

  • what: I would want to use many of the same attitudes that both of these artists show within their art. I want to experiment both of these concepts of capturing nature in order to have a large range of aspects and ideas within my work. I think ,y main attitude will be portraying emotion within nature and humans, this could perhaps be as a contrast or to purpel nature as to have a stronger importance that what is politically deemed.
  • how? I will do this by visiting many interesting locations and trying to expand on landscapes perhaps unseen around where i live and not expected, or even showing these places in different circumstances to normal.
  • both of these artist re similar in the aspect that they are trying to capture the naturalistic beauty within nature, however they both present there beauty through constructed and unconstructed compositions such as Eloy is a lot more abstract within his framing and he capture the life and movement of nature and not isolating it to a single from.However gregoire eloy is a-lot more focused on capturing the wildness of nature within a landscape and allowing his won self influence of love to be included within his works. Both of these artists take images around areas that they love and feel comfortable because this allows them to create a relationship with themselves and get to know the area that they love. both of these artists take images all year round in order to capture different emotions and aspects given out by the landscape.

My Approach to Political Landscape

For my approach to political landscape I will be focusing on how land changes and develops over time through the intervention of humans. I will be looking at how my house and the land it is on has been destroyed and rebuilt upon by taking pictures of the current state and comparing these photographs with old personal archival photographs including some dating back to 1870.

I plan on taking photographs of the house and its surroundings in its near-completed state and then trying to recreate some of the archival images to create a contrast. I will also be looking at photo manipulation in order to combine two different photographs (one old and one new) to create a visual contrast between the current style of houses and the old fashioned style of houses. This will help me to show how land changes and how it is treated over time through simply the presentation of my photographs.

The  photographs in this post are examples of the different archival photographs I have on the redevelopment of the house – the archive of photographs contains images showing the state of the house before work started on it, images during the tearing down of the old fashion and images of rebuilding.

 

Political Landscapes

Political

adjective: relating to the government or public affairs of a country.
“a period of political and economic stability”
Politics

noun: the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power.

Politics is the way that people living in groups make decisions. It is about making agreements between people so that they can live together in groups such as tribes, cities, or countries. In large groups, such as countries, some people may spend a lot of their time making such agreements.

Landscape

noun
1. all the visible features of an area of land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.
2. denoting a format of printed matter which is wider than it is high.
Environment

The environment is a concept i could look further into in this project as there is a lot of differing opinions regarding new constructions and infrastructure being built. I could explore the new buildings and the ones being redeveloped around jersey and how it affects the residents living  around that area e.g the new hospital being redeveloped in Jersey and the repercussions of it. Looking at the environment could also link to conservation looking at natural disasters, global warming or landfills.

Family

Another concept i could look at is family and the relationships and differing of opinions between family members. I could look at more serious topics like death and illness and how that affects others. Exploring personal stories and different peoples perspectives behind the images i would produce about coping with illness. The images could give exposure to many peoples reality.

When researching i came across a series by Cheney Orr called ‘A Father, a Son, a Disease, and a Camera’ documenting over time the effects of his fathers struggle with  early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2011 showing some very emotional images.

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/a-father-a-son-a-disease-and-a-camera/

Social Issues

Social issues like age, race/ethnicity,  gender and disability could also be a theme i could look at. Doing this would give exposure on how these social issues are effecting individuals everyday lives that may not even cross other peoples minds.

I found the artist Joe Webb where he creates collages from images in newspapers and reimagines the found imagery using simple edits to make politically charged artworks.

http://www.joewebbart.com

 

What is a Political Landscape

The definition of political is relating to the government or public affairs of a country. Politics is about the contempory issues within a country and how these issues impact the country and community.  The word comes from the same Greek word from which the title of Aristole’s book Politics  also derives; polis means “affairs of the cities”. The book title was rendered in Early Modern English in the mid-15th century as “Polettiques”; it became “politics” in Modern English. The singular politic first attested in English 1430 and comes from  Middle French politique, in turn from Latin politicus, which is the Latinisation  of the Greek politikos, meaning amongst others “of, for, or relating to citizens”, “civil”, “civic”, “belonging to the state”, in turn from  polites, “citizen” and that from  polis, “city”

Landscape is defined as all the visible features of an area of land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal. Landscape includes all of the visible features of an area of land as well as the parts that are not seen or the parts that happen behind closed doors, such as the businesses or families that occupy land. The word ‘landscape’ comes from the late 16th century from the Middle Dutch word ‘lantscap’, which comes from the equivalent of ‘land’ and ‘ship’.

There is no definite definition of a political landscape and many influential photographers have tackled this theme in a variety of ways. To me political landscape is exploring the contemporary issues which are most impacting our society. This is to raise an awareness of issues which people are unaware of yet are so obvious.

 

Inspiration For My Zine

Visual Inspiration/Moodboard

My main area of inspiration for the Zine is night, street photography. I want to photograph the night life of St. Helier in a way that makes it seem very lonely and isolated. I also want to explore lighting painting and car trails; I think they could give my photographs a lot more depth and it may be an interesting way to connect photographs and experiment with them. Though I don’t wish to make all my photographs light paintings – I want to make a stark contrast between ones that involve light trials and ones that do not. To achieve a light trial effect, the user

Artist Research – Micheal Bosanko

Light painting photographer Michael Bosanko has been capturing light since 2004. He discovered light painting on accident, Michael says this of his moment of discovery duringg an interview, “the moon formed part of the scene, but the camera shake caused the moon to make a streak. My curious mind clipped the camera from the tripod and, hand held, I attempted to write my partner’s name using nothing but the moonshine and the movement of the camera in my hand, and I had success. As soon as I returned home, I adopted the same principles but with torches, and I’ve been hooked ever since.” Ever since that moment Michael has had great success with light painting photography, he has created images for several commercial clients and been published in numerous magazines.

His website : www.michaelbosanko.com

I want to base my zine off Bosanko’s work; use light trails to create interesting compositions around St. Helier at night. I plan to complete a photoshoot in St. Helier during a very late hour to limit the amount of people present; this would in term ruin the illusion and effect of certain lights.

narrative and conceptual ideas for landscape –

The issues which I want to discuss through my work conceptually are how the narrative needs to be a strong part of current affairs and  or a concept that will affect the future and shape our lives. I want to create a dynamic brainstorm and think of points that will possibly effect myself and others around me in the future. I think I will take more of a personal affect such as how people are directly effected through human rights, civil rights, living conditions and reflections of mental health within people. I could then show how all of these issues are effected by politics and the government. I think by using interesting techniques such as conceptual and narrative will creatively represent these tough topics and drawing in more attention from an audience.

Artistic inspiration-Jaakko Kahilaniemi

Kahilaniemi Is a creative artist  who uses more conceptual styles in order to present a landscape to evoke emotion and a general theme. Although this art is purely landscape based with no involvement of people I still however think the editing and overall direction is highly interesting.

I have chosen this artists because with each stage of his work he has a clear theme and goal as to what he wants to connote.  He always wants to visualise a complex and contradictory relationship between man and nature and the how mankind is a manner in how natures cycle works. His work attempts to make a sense of peace between humans and nature in some type of way. To my mind I think there is a huge aspect of purity within his work, the colours of light and show a more delicate approach to the harsh power of nature but yet a soft movement of how men and nature form together. The artist clearly has such a strong open mindfullness and this visual research is always drawn to radical interference. There is a force present within his work without man or nature being overpowered by one and another. He shows vast amounts of trees in order to show the aftermath of a forest fire, this directness challenges visual secrets and consider how work and an image can fit into a much wider context.

 

This is one of my favourite pieces of work buy this artist. It is meant to be a reflection of adulthood from man within the forest and the future inheritance to future explorations in the forest. The artist has said this piece is a ‘tangible and intangible’ approach to visualisations. There is a clearly more personal connection as to what he himself thinks  a forest means to him and how the study of nature has now been seen irrelevant to those who are urbanised. This new way of thinking though an arbitrary mix shows various types of pictures moulded into one larger visual entity. You can see traces all over vast lands overlapped within each other and how this experimentation has led to an understanding and awareness of what nature is to himself and what beauty it can be combined to make. This image is a gateway of core imagination. This project is purely based off finding objects and also a sense of emotion and creating a visual secret within the image itself. I find this fascinating and that it works hugely well. 

He rarely combines people within his work but when he does he also attributes many of their characteristics to that of nature and the combination of something that is usually perceived as beautiful presented in an uncharacteristic manner. I think I could further experiment with these ideals as they are quite conceptual and would make highly interesting images.  I additionally think using a mixture of tonal and exposure to focus on light is very successful.