For one of my three subjects within the theme of surveillance I decided that I would like to produce images that replicate that of a security/CCTV camera. I have begun to produce images that have the aesthetic of an image produced by a stereotypical CCTV camera. I spent a significant amount of time studying online images that have been produced by security cameras in order to see which visual qualities they hold. I found from doing this that most of the footage was overlaid with a visual noise, that which you would see as static on an old Television. On Photoshop you are able to add this visual quality to any image using the noise filter. Within this filter you are able to control the density, size and colour of the noise, so when looking at real footage I was able to see that the noise was quite soft however dense, and most of the time coloured to an extent. Therefore when adding noise to my images I made sure that it remained consistent in this manner. Some people may disagree but I feel that adding noise to certain images can make them much more interesting and mysterious as it distorts how the viewer can identify certain parts of the image. Here is a simple example of how the noise filter can alter an image…
Unedited Basic Raw ImageImage After Adding Noise
Another visual quality of CCTV footage which I have identified is that when monochrome (black and white) the whiter shades within the image has more of a grey tone, as if the image has begun to become slightly inverted. This is again something which can be replicated of Photoshop using the black and white tool and the curves tool. Here Is an example of how this changes the image…
Image After Adding Noise, B&W and Curves
The final visual quality which I have found among the footage which i have looked at is that they have camera time and date tags, such as 12:32:17 or 7:45 18 for example. This as well can be added to an image using Photoshop using the blending tool or the text tool. Here is an example of the final replicated CCTV footage once all of these elements have been added to the original image…
How does mass surveillance and the ‘big brother theory’ cause a common paranoia and feeling of insecurity within the general public?
Opening quote
”The notion that “Big Brother Is Watching” has been around for decades, it is an often-used catchphrase to describe surveillance or privacy infringements. The evolution of the Internet, cellular networks and the growth of high speed connections worldwide has allowed an endless supply of devices to connect to this global network and produce an infinite supply of very specific, personal data.” Robert McMahon – Quoted from ‘surveillance and privacy in the digital age: a primer for public relations’ Page 1
Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
For this ‘political landscape’ project I am focusing on the theme of surveillance, and how surveillance actually effects the general public, in both positive or negative ways. Particularly how mass surveillance and the ‘big brother theory’ causes a common paranoia and feeling of insecurity within the general public, and how the awareness of this can cause an impact on the public’s trust of authority. I am looking at how Thomas Ruff and Trevor Paglen explore this theme within their photography.
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. Link to powerpoints about isms andmovements M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Personal Study
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Photographer 1 – Thomas Ruff
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
For my ‘political landscape’ project after looking at different topics relating to this term, I have decided that I would like to look into the theme of surveillance as I believe this can be approached in many ways, and is also a very political matter.
Topics surrounding surveillance:
-Government mass surveillance projects
-Spying / voyeurism
-CCTV
-Birds perched, looking down (seagulls, pigeons etc.)
-Telephone Recording
-Citizen Paranoia / Trust in the government / Public Relations
-Paranoid Behaviours
-Conspiracy Theories
-Cyber-security (e.g. Facebook, Apple, Google)
-Physical Privacy
-Big Brother Theory
-Sousveillance : the recording of an activity by a participant in the activity, typically by way of small wearable or portable personal technologies.
-Big-Data : extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.
As part of my research into this topic, I read a 2015 Arcadia University Thesis covering ”Surveillance and Privacy in the Digital Age: A Primer for Public Relations” written by Robert McMahon, this document covers many areas and issues relating to this theme of Privacy and surveillance.
Here are some quotes from the thesis that particularly stood out to me, as they say a lot about public relations in terms of surveillance and privacy…
”nearly eight in 10 young adults say the U.S. government is likely “tracking their communications,” according to the Pew Research Center.”
”Republicans and Democrats were equally likely to say the government is monitoring their phone calls or emails. Men and individuals without a college degree were more likely to suspect government spying.”
”National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked approximately 1.7 million classified documents about surveillance programs in 2013” ”Snowden has continued to warn Americans against surveillance groups targeting their technology”
“It turns out humans are really good at knowing who is trustworthy and reliable in their community. What’s new is that we’re now able to measure through massive computing power.”
”The notion that “Big Brother Is Watching” has been around for decades, it is an often-used catchphrase to describe surveillance or privacy infringements. The evolution of the Internet, cellular networks and the growth of high speed connections worldwide has allowed an endless supply of devices to connect to this global network and produce an infinite supply of very specific, personal data. Without question these technological advancements have revolutionized industries and enhanced lives. However, the opportunity for “Big Brother” to watch has similarly evolved at a rapid pace. Not only is “Big Brother” watching, but he is also doing things with the information he is seeing. The political and cultural implications of these often-secretive activities have only recently started to become a topic of discussion in the general media.”
After looking into the theme of surveillance I have decided that i would specifically like to focus on CCTV surveillance and the idea of being spied on (”The Big Brother”)
Artists/Photographers that produce work surrounding topics to do with surveillance and security include:
I plan to produce visually unusual and borderline-abstract images in response to surveillance and the ideas surrounding this topic. I want to create images that will make the viewer question the issues and controversies associated with surveillance. I will create 3 focus on 3 specific photographic subjects surrounding this theme, those being: CCTV Cameras, Replicated CCTV Footage and Perched Birds (Seagulls, Pigeons etc.) in Urban Settings. Together once sequenced in the right way I believe that these photographed subjects will harmonise quite effectively and hopefully produce a successful final outcome.
In what way can the work of Lewis Bush and Clare Rae both be considered political?
Recently along with fellow photography students I visited Lewis Bush’s ‘Trading Zones’ exhibition and Clare Rae’s ‘Entre Nous’exhibition in response to the late photographer Claude Cahun. Now the work that makes up both of these exhibitions is definitely something that can strongly be considered as political. How so is what takes some explaining.
Lewis Bush Trading Zones Exhibition Room 1
My initial thoughts and feelings on the work of these 3 photographers from the exhibitions that we visited was not that the work stood out as particularly political, instead I was just intrigued and taken by how visually interesting and conceptual the images being displayed were. It was immediately clear with the Entre Nous exhibition that both Clare Rae and Claude Cahun’s work had obvious visual links and similarities, a running theme somewhat; however after initially being exposed to Lewis Bush’s Trading Zones exhibition, his works didn’t all share a similar visual theme or aesthetic and instead they were more in sets or projects under one overhead theme of the finance industry. Despite this, after looking into all 3 of these photographers’ work in terms of the exhibitions in much more depth, it was very evident that each of their collated works had a strong political theme / issue running throughout.
Clare Ray & Claude Cahun Entre Nous Exhibition CCA Gallery (Work of Claude Cahun)
In order to get a good enough understanding of where each of the photographers’ work is coming from it would only be right to take a brief look at the background of the three photographers…
Lewis Bush is a photographer, writer and educator, born in London in the year 1988. With a Master’s degree in documentary photography, he is a lecturer of photojournalism and documentary photography at London College of Communication (LCC.) His main beliefs and aims of his photography are “to draw attention to forms of invisible power that operate in the world” believing that “power is always problematic” because it is inherently “arbitrary and untransparent.” This says a lot about how Lewis Bush approaches photography in a documentary fashion, with a strong belief on the topic of power and how that is effective upon society and people individually. Specifically looking at his Trading Zones Exhibition which was located at the old police station in the royal square of St Helier, that took place in September. This was a body of work which was a result of Lewis Bush’s time as a photographer in residence at the Societe Jersaise in Jersey, exploring different aspects and topics surrounding the theme of finance.
Work of Lewis Bush
Clare Rae is a photographer / artist who is based in Melbourne, Australia, who completed a Master of Arts by research in 2014 at Monash University, and received first class Honours in Fine Art in 2009 at RMIT University. Her approach to photography is very unorthodox as she experiments with performance and the use of her own body and figure as a subject of the images which she produces. ” Her work is informed by feminist theory, and presents an alternate and often awkward experience of subjectivity and the female body.” One of Rae’s main interests within her individual practice of performance photography is how ”the camera can act as a collaborator, rather than mute witness, to the performer.” As a self-proclaimed artist as well as being a photographer, this incorporation of performance within her photography is something which could be considered as a more artistic than photographic matter, in terms of lens based imagery. Specifically looking at Clare Rae’s work from the Entre Nous exhibition, this was a response to the work of Jersey based photographerClaude Cahun who explored similar themes and issues, predominantly that of feminism and gender stereotypes, within her work. Although the photographic practices or these two photographers are separated by 70 years they have a lot of similarities. Claude Cahun was an avant-garde artist and writer, who in the 1920s, was associated with a creative movement known as the Parisian surrealist movement. She was not a stereotypical citizen of Jersey, and probably still wouldn’t be classed as one to this day. She was a lesbian who was in a relationship with her half sister, she was also Jewish and she was activist who protested against the German occupation. To sum up the effects of her work ”Cahun’s subversive self-portrait photographs and texts have become highly influential for artists dealing with questions of gender identity and representation of the female body.”
Work of Clare Rae
In terms of how Lewis Bush and Clare Rae’s work is considered political, it is very evident after looking at their photographic intentions and ideas that they both cover very political matters within society. Although very different matters, they are certainly political, Bush’s being that of the finance industry which is very intertwining with politics, and Rae’s being that of feminism, equality and gender stereotypes which are also very politically discussed topics. These are political matters that all effect society somewhat in positive ways, and on the other hand sometimes not so much.
Bush covered various aspects of what finance actually is, specifically on the island of Jersey. These aspects showed different ways in which finance can be perceived, used and thought about by society. He approached the project in a very modern and experimental manner, with a range of subjects and topics linked to finance, whilst not going overboard with the experimentation, in order to not create too much abstraction. He used a wide range of archival imagery within the exhibition in his own way in order to help display his findings and interests that he found along the way of completing the project. One of the most interesting parts of the exhibition was the fact that he had made part of it interactive. Allowing visitors of the exhibition (members of the general public) to create there own response to the words ”Finance Is…” On cards that were attached to part of the exhibition. This allowed for people’s views and opinions on the topic of the exhibition to be expressed and viewed by others. Overall I believe that Bush’s exhibition was very successful at portraying the finance industry for what it is in a visual way.
Lewis Bush, Trading Zones
In contrast to Lewis Bush’s work Clare Rae’s approach to her work that made up the Entre Nous exhibition was more contemporary, and has more of a discreet and hidden meaning. Although we are aware that her work covered topics such as feminism and gender stereotypes, the imagery displayed in the exhibition is fairly open for interpretation as it is making the audience/viewer have to think about what each individual image is trying to portray. One of the main and most blatantly obvious visual differences between Bush and Rae’s work is that Rae’s photographs are monochrome, this may be in order to remove any distractions or false meanings that could be caused by the use of colour. Overall I believe that Clare Rae executed a very impressive exhibition which was a great response to the work of the surrealist photographer Claude Cahun and the topics surrounding her work.
In conclusion it is very evident to me that both Lewis Bush and Clare Rae’s work can be considered as political, as they both cover extremely political matters specifically within the two projects of work which they have recently exhibited.
(The sources that I have used for information are linked throughout this post in blue.)
Here are two of my outcomes that are a response to my initial ideas looking at surveillance in terms of breaking the rule of manipulation. I have created these images by combining images of CCTV cameras from my first photo shoot of the ‘political landscape’ project and images of surveillance footage which I have found. This is inspired by my research on photographer Alice Wielinga as she uses a combination of her images and other visual material which she has sourced. The idea behind this was to Photoshop the surveillance images into the lens screen of the CCTV cameras, in order to signify the kind of activity that is picked up by the CCTV cameras, and the effects of this. I find that this makes for a very unusual looking image as the CCTV camera is displaying an image rather that producing an image itself.
Here are the two original images from my photo shoot, I believe that these images are very minimalist and in a way fairly abstract, this means to me that if I was to break the rule of manipulation using these photographs then I would need to produce something that has a significant point of focus and interest, which in this case is the image being projected by the CCTV camera in the images.
Finally here are the two pieces of sourced visual material that I used to help me break the rule of manipulation. I chose these two pieces of security footage in particular as they display criminal activity, one a robbery and the other a gas station arson.
This signifies the positive aspect of surveillance in which it can help to prevent or capture criminal activity, however I also plan to look at the negative and corrupt aspects of surveillance throughout this project.
Photographer Lewis Bush has put together an articleexplaining how breaking the rules of photography can be a great way of working as a photographer. The article covers how breaking the rules of photography can be a way of finding new ideas and exploring areas of the creative subject which you would not otherwise, if you stuck to the rules. He goes on to talk about how the best ideas aren’t clearly visible and in order to find these new and innovative creative ideas, photographers must break the rules and take things to the next level. The article covers 8 rules within photography that can be broken in order to achieve this, these 8 rules are the rules of: Objectivity, Audience, Manipulation, Reality, Technicality, Ownership, Camera and The rule of rule breaking. Of these 8 rules I have decided that I will like to explore the rule of manipulation.
Within the rule of manipulation sub-section of the article Bush looks into the photographer Alice Wielinga who breaks this rule within her work. I took a particular interest in her work after seeing it for the first time as I found that the aesthetics of it were very individual and intriguing. Here are some examples of her work, the first of which has some context attached by caption…
From series: North Korea – A Life between Propaganda and Reality. It is April 2013. While the Western media follows Kim Jong-Un’s steps during his missile test launches, I travel 2,500 kilometres through the North Korean interior. Once arrived, the images I know from my advance research correspond with the scenes my guides proudly show me during their propaganda tour. But seeing these scenes with my own eyes, I gradually discover that behind everything they present to me, a different reality is hidden. While I listen to my guides talking about what invaluable contributions the greatly admired leaders made to their country, I drive through a landscape that looks haggard and desolate. During my journey I collect propaganda material and take photographs of the reality I encounter. This material is the basis for my multimedia project ‘North Korea, a Life between Propaganda and Reality’. With the found propaganda images and my own photographs I compose a story that deconstructs the North Korean propaganda.
As Bush’s article talks about, this specific series of Wielinga’s work is executed using a combination of photographs from her visit to North Korea and North Korean propaganda. The combination of these two visual matters creates a brilliant juxtaposition which is very effective at putting across her political points.
Here is a section of Lewis Bush’s article, covering how Wielinga produced this project, including a couple of quotes from the photographer herself…
‘ When Dutch photographer Wielinga traveled to North Korea, she found her ability to photograph in the secretive state severely curtailed. “I felt that, with mere documenting, I wasn’t able to tell the story as I was experiencing it,” she says of the stage-managed excursions to which journalist-visitors are subjected. Her response was to digitally merge her photographs of official North Korea propaganda with her own images of workers and decaying factories. “I see propaganda and reality as two sides of the same coin,” she says. “Propaganda is an essential part of everyday life in North Korea, and because of that a reality in itself.” ‘
The collaborative photographers Ayesta and Bression were two that stood out to me from the list of photographers who were involved in the Guernsey Photography Festival 2018. After reading the exhibition information about the photographers it was evident to me that the ideas behind their work fitted my initial ideas on how to proceed with the topic ‘political landscapes’ and also continues on from what I explored within the Future of St Helier…
…Specifically of all looking at how people are affected by their surrounding environment, in this case how the people of Fukushima in Japan were affected due to the nuclear disaster that occurred in the region in March 2011.
A statement from L’Œil de la photographie regarding the photographers followed as ‘Carlos Ayesta and Guillaume Bression rushed to Fukushima after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. To see for themselves. To bear witness. They photographed not to testify but by necessity, because they could not believe their eyes, and that—the unbelievable magnitude of the devastation—turned their amazement into a project.’ I believe that this is a great example of how an experience or a concern can make a great reason to produce amazing photographs which have a lot of context and meaning behind them. This is something that I wish to do with this following project as I am going to explore an issue which I personally, as well as many others, are concerned about.
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: governmental, government, local government, ministerial, parliamentary, party political, diplomatic, legislative, policy-making, constitutional, public, civic, state, administrative, bureaucratic)
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.
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
This blog post covers my final layout for my zine…
From my original drafts of my zine layout I have made some slight changes in terms of the things which I was not particularly satisfied with, and this is what I came up with. The layout follows a pattern in which every second double page has a link between two portraits, connected by a theme/word, followed by a double page portrait. The themes I have covered are those which I find suppressing and significantly apparent within the general public, noticeably in areas which are highly populated and civilized such as St Helier. I also made the text/words small and in a simple font as I did not want this to distract the viewer from the aesthetic value of the images themselves. The final images that i have used for my zine all have minimal manipulation and editing as I did not want to make the aesthetic of the zine overly complicated as it was more about just getting the point of the social issues across.
