Lesson 1 – Reviewing and reflecting:
Objective: Criteria from the Syllabus

• Write an overview from my personal investigation about what I’ve learned and how I intend to develop it.
• I will be describing the themes, artists, approaches, skills and photographic process/techniques that have inspired me the most and why.

Regarding my personal investigations I intend to approach it by using and exploring various techniques but a continuous style, examples consist of documentary and abstract to allow me to produce the results I desired. The themes I found to be the most interesting were the ones concerning consumerism and its effect on Jersey's landscape, I found that this allowed for a new insight into what happens with out waste and how much it affects the environment around it. From this it would allow me to give viewers a different perspective into what the outcome of our consumerism is, using software such as Photoshop and Lightroom to highlight specific details that I want to be focused on. Because of this I am able to portray each image differently from the next, as yes they all have a theme in common, but rather each explore a different aspect of consumerism and its impact. Two photographers who to me are particularly inspiring are Henry J Fair, someone who uses abstract imagery to capture the pollution of the world in aesthetic and stunning ways, and Edward Burtynsky, a photographer who captures the hidden beauty in consumerism, but also highlights the impact and devastation it causes on the environment. Both photographers use of vivid and harsh lighting accompanied by high saturation create landscapes that seem to surreal to be an actual place, drawing in my interest from how I loved the idea of using lighting as a conventional way in which photos are presented. I found that it would be most effective in end result areas of consumerism, as by portraying these dumping grounds in specific ways I believe that it would bring otherwise ugly imagery to life.

Book: Night walk – Ken Schles

…Which is the point that… makes when he says ‘Where once the journey was open-ended and uncertain, it now leads to an inevitable end’  (Schles 2014: 6)

Bibliography:

Schles, K. (2014), Night Walk. Germany: Steidl

Internet:

O’hagan, S (28 oct, 2015), *title* London : The Guardian (URL)

Essay question:

How does mass surveillance and the ‘big brother theory’ cause a common paranoia and feeling of insecurity within the general public?

Need to include names of photographers that you will be writing about in essay:

Looking at the work of Thomas Ruff and Sophie Calle: How does mass surveillance and the ‘big brother theory’ cause a common paranoia and feeling of insecurity within the general public?

or simply

In what way have Thomas Ruff and Sophie Calle explored  mass surveillance in their work.

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

Or?

“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.” George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty Four, Part 3, Chapter 4, Pg 37

Introduction:

Mass surveillance has become an overruling and unavoidable force of governmental power, which puts the general public in a state of unease and discomfort, sometimes even as far as paranoia. There are many theories and ideas behind the subject of mass surveillance and what exactly it consists of. So what does it directly consist of? The idea of ‘The big brother’ is something that has remained apparent for several years now, becoming very relevant since the publication of the dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ by English author, George Orwell, in 1949. In this novel Orwell looked at the way in which he believed in the soon future, the population of the world would become victims of boundless mass surveillance by the governments around the world. It seems that since this publication was made that somewhat, if not completely, this has become the harsh truth which we are faced with in this day and age. Being surrounded by different forms of visual surveillance such as CCTV cameras and cameras on our own personal technology is just one of many ways in which we are watched and kept track of by large corporations and the government. Among various other techniques of surveillance such as audio, data and location surveillance.

Next part you need to introduce Ruff and Calle and provide an overview of how their work as photographer’s are exploring mass surveillance.

Last part should be you providing an overview of your responses and how the work will develop

(maybe use on main essay in conclusion) Some people are not as aware of these circumstances involving surveillance as I believe they should be, however it seems that as time goes on more and more of the public are becoming aware of the problems and consequences of mass surveillance in the modern world. The modern world being a consistently developing place and therefore surveillance just becoming more and more common. This ubiquitous increase in surveillance  is something which is slowly causing more and more people to become paranoid and feel like they are being controlled and watched at all times; again a concept which is covered within George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four novel, that is worryingly becoming more realistic by the day.

Bibliography:

McMahon, Robert. Surveillance and Privacy in the Digital Age: A Primer for Public Relations. Pennsylvania: Arcadia University, 2015. LINK TO SOURCED TEXT 

Possible Questions…

How can documentary photography be used to portray public relations in terms of surveillance and spying?

How can citizen paranoia caused by mass surveillance be made apparent through the use of experimental documentary photography?

How do Thomas Ruff and Trevor Paglen use photography to explore issues around mass surveillance?

How does mass surveillance and the ‘big brother theory’ cause a common paranoia and feeling of insecurity within the general public?

How does people’s awareness of mass surveillance cause an impact on their trust of authority?