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ANDY WARHOL
‘Eat’ is a 45-minute underground film created by Andy Warhol which features painter Robert Indiana, filmed in 1964 in Indiana’s studio.
‘Eat’ is filmed in black and white, with no soundtrack and depicts pop artist Indiana engaged in the process of eating a mushroom throughout the whole of the static film, with a final appearance of a cat at the end. The video is an intimate piece of art that is rather more of an experience for the viewer which allows a connection to be made with the subject of the film. The close up shots particularly, like in the frame above, emphasizes the feeling of intimacy. The simplicity of video art creates the idea that what the viewer is watching is not so far detached from reality and replicates real life. Particularly with ‘Eat’, the plot that doesn’t necessarily exist is very mundane, as eating is a part of life that everyone experiences on a daily basis.
Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology. Video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. One of the key differences between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema. Video art may not employ the use of actors, contain no dialogue, have no discernible narrative or plot, or adhere to any of the other conventions that generally define motion pictures as entertainment. Video art is often experimental, radical or unorthodox with respect to art, culture or society. It may also offer critique of the relationship between producer and consumer.
YOKO ONO
One of Yoko Ono’s early performance work was ‘Cut Piece’, a recorded film where Ono sat on stage in one of her best suits in front of an audience and invited them one by one to approach her and cut a piece of her clothing and take it with them, until eventually she was left with almost nothing on her body. This simple act carried a great message behind it even though Yoko never communicated anything to her audience other than their instructions and instead sat motionless and expressionless. This aspect of this piece was to promote peace even when cutting her clothes off carried a brutal and horrifying message about the way women are looked at and used by men and women. Yoko explained
‘So of course I was saying, hey, you’re doing this to women, you know? We’re all in it. But also, at the time, it’s much better to just go with it. And that thought of letting women know that, you know, we’re all going through this, but don’t fight, let it happen. By not fighting, we show them that there’s a whole world, which could exist by being peaceful.’ – Yoko Ono. Cut Piece. 1964 | MoMa
The whole video was shot in black and white which comes with the use of an old film camera, with lighting coming from three directions; the front and either side of Ono which can be seen with the cast of two shadows on both sides of her on her shoulders. The video was shot in one take which adds to the simplicity of the piece. The focus of the art within the video is not the technical aspect of the camera but the simple acts of cutting away at Yoko’s clothes, providing more attention on the issue of the objectification of females in society, media and art, inflicted by both men and women.
The objectification of women has been an ongoing issue within all areas of the world because this notion is constantly reinforced in many ways. This ranges from what people take in through the media that people in developed countries are constantly surrounded by. To simply learning from a young age the false roles and traits of men and women through watching parents and peers. Women have always had a fixed role in society, the reinforced idea of being submissive to men and being seen as a pretty object rather than a being that are just as capable as men.
Throughout art history, when female artists have been discussed their art has always been regarded as biologically determined, that all associations of femininity are linked to their style of painting and the subjects they choose to paint. Female artists were seen as the minority. This was stemmed from the common ideologies of gender norms within society that restricted their subject matters in their paintings – only painting objects that reflected their femininity like flowers or portraits of miniatures, using mediums like pastels and watercolour. Moreover, women who were subjects within paintings were often objectified by the male artist simply for the pleasure of the receiver. Typically within paintings of the nude, women were often stripped of their sexual power so the spectator – typically a man- could monopolize their own sexual power and feel dominance of the submissive subject within a painting. Women within art have always been overlooked and restrained of their creativity because of male dominance within society. Even at present day, female artists struggle to create pieces of work that don’t have a hegemonic hold and connotations or histories of traditional ideas of femininity. This can be perceived as boundaries, so therefore female artists usually find other ways of creating art like installations and producing pictures, or in Yoko Ono’s case: video art. These are contemporary ways of producing art and therefore don’t refer to a particular or dominant gender.
By Yoka demonstrating these ideas in a video, it brings this issue attention and provokes thought that could help change the collective mindset of society.
contextual study
Invention of photography:
invented In 1839 developed but two people, developing different techniques. silver nitrate is sensitive to light, so enables an imprinted image. in the renaissance period the 15th century artists and painters used a device called the camera of obsscura, placing the images which is then projected onto another surface. although you are unable to move or change the image being copied. this vies is tons lated and flipped. In modern cameras a mirror is used to effect the shutter and flip the image once again, so when looking through the view finder it is correct in the way of you seeing it. Additionally our eyes are a form of optic, this cannot be replicated through cameras in the same way. the beginning of photoghohry was a scientific cendavour to record something more accurately, and how these experiments found a solution to capture light and shadows .
PICTORIALISM, and time period:
Pictorialism was occurrent in the 1880s-1920’s this is when new cameras were developed in this time and jersey was part of a large revolution and hot bed for photography and experimentation. There was 18 phoqogorhic studios in jersey in the 1940’s many pioneers of photography. soon photography was the heigh of impressionism and was developed less from science and more into art. This made photographs think their work has to resemble a drawing of pencil or charcoal going against the nature of photography. looking more blurred and out of focus. They oddly scratch developing negatives and smear Vaseline over the lenses. They wanted to move photos into art galleries alongside impressionist drawings and such. Then they looked at paintings for ideas of subject matter. These allegory paintings, they are based off a short story and myths from more biblical tales and then further depicted into literal paintings. They are full of symbolic meaning to convey a message and provide a lesson fo how to live your life, as this was the only device to express a view. They have a romanticised and whimsical feel within the photography images, and they recognise the aspects of artist landscape and nude pieces.Key characteristics/ conventions : This was a Reaction against, and what hey did this was due to whenever something becomes a trend their will always be a reaction and a challenge against the normal. they used many charchatertics inspired by renaissance art, and also the new development of individual expression in an artists manner which had never been done before in photography. These allegorical and spiritual matter of religious scenes applied the principles composition and deign but the subjective spiritual motive.
rule breaking:This characterisation of work could lead onto past themes I have studied such as rule breaking and how the concept of breaking a rule in photography or challenging the normal is atypical and rebirth of a new ism and movement within photography. Without these pioneers Turning science into art we would never have surrealism, romanticism cubism or be missing vital angles within the development of photography.
Artist: Julia Margaret Cameron is an artists who was a photographer in the victorian era. The bulk of her work from the categories, this being illustrative allegories based off religious and literary works. In the allegorical work in particular her work had a clear influence from that of pre rapaetlite. her work has delicate limp poses with soft lighting. Her work was unconventional through the intimacy created through he long exposure, her subject moved and by leading the lens intentionally out of focus. This leads me also into looking at how unique it was to have a own who has. algae influential photogoher at the time. Her work is very different to anything that a man would producjuce. Women are looked at as pure and seen to have. loving relationship with fmilay and sister in a clearly taboo and posed setting, almost table like. The has a strong juxtaposition to that of the male sense of photography at the time.The mans eye and the photographical gaze, Women historically are being looked at different through the representation is often eroticised and objectified.these naked figures seen as art for only the pleasure of men. However a female would show herself being empowered as a mother and ally clothed showing the sexism wihtin the period and soon this leads onto larger post modernism topics such as feminism and the fight for women rights and want for less sexualisation of their bodies.
Groups of artists: A group of artists that I think it would be beneficial to look at a small group of artists called, photo-secession.The Photo-Secession was an early 20th century movement that promoted photography as a fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular.A group of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz and F. Holland Day in the early 20th century, held the then controversial viewpoint that what was significant about a photograph was not what was in front of the camera but the manipulation of the image by the artist/photographer to achieve his or her subjective vision. The movement helped to raise standards and awareness of art photography.The group is the American counterpart to the linked ring an invitation-only British group which seceded from which was the underlying value of the Photo-Secession, argued that photography needed to emulate the painting of the time. Pictorialists believed that, just as a painting is distinctive because of the artist’s manipulation of the materials to achieve an effect, so too should the photographer alter or manipulate the photographic image. Among the methods used were soft focus; special filters and lens coatings; burning, dodging and/or cropping in the darkroom to edit the content of the image; and alternative printing processes such as special toning, carbon printing , platinum printing or gum bichromate processing.
The theory of naturalists photography: Soon contemporary artists decided that pictorials wasn’t what they wanted to continue due to the lack of detail to their minds this is not what photography is about. this leads onto that of:this is the mind of he outlined a system of aesthetics. He decreed that a photograph should be direct and simple and show real people in their own environment, not costumed models posed before fake backdrops or other such predetermined formulas.
REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
The theory of straight photography ; Is this that could also be viewed as realism within photoghrohay, reaction against pictorials and started the narrative documentary approach, often with a social concern related to it, and the athletic of people within their environments. They argued that photography should not be blurry and out of focus as this is not why is was invented and wrongly captured the formal elements.Time period: straight photographers were in the intricate qualities of the photographic medium with the ability to provide accurate and descriptive records of the visual world. These photographers strove to make pictures the were ‘photographic’ rather than ‘painterly’. Straight photography’s time period started towards the end of the pictorial era. ‘straight photography’ is the cameras ability to record objectively then an actual world as it appears in from.aight photography emphasizes and engages with the camera’s own technical capability to produce images sharp in focus and rich in detail. The term generally refers to photographs that are not manipulated, either in the taking of the image or by darkroom or digital processes, but sharply depict the scene or subject as the camera sees it These straight or pure approaches to photography continue to define contemporary photographs, while being the foundation for many related movements, such as Documentary, Street photography, Photojournalism, and even later Abstract photography.The camera’s distinctive vocabulary includes form, sharp focus, rich detail, high contrast, and rich tonalities. Straight photography is also synonymous with pure photography, since both terms describe the camera’s ability to faithfully reproduce an image of reality.
Artists associated:Dody Weston Thompson was a 20th-century American photographer and chronicler of the history and craft of photography. She learned the art in 1947 and developed her own expression of “straight” or realistic photography, the style that emerged in Northern California in the 1930s. Her camera work is represented in dozens of museums and private collections as well as in many photographic books and magazines. She also participated in multiple solo and group exhibitions from 1948 through 2006 in the United States and Japan.In her work it is evident the inspiration se has both seemed from the new straight movement yet till themes reminiscent of that of pictorialsm.
Chrystel Lebas
Chrystel’s “Plant Portraits or Weeds & Aliens Studies” is inspired by Edward Salisbury’s approach of documenting species. Lebas takes each plant directly placing it onto colour photographic paper in a darkroom under an enlarger light. She alters the colour of filtration on the enlarger in turn changing the way that the species appears on the paper. Each filtration value and exposure time is annotated alongside the photogram.
Plant Portraits or Weeds & Aliens Studies, 2013-
Pictured above is the species, Fallopia japonica (commonly known as Japanese Knotweed). She chose this species as Salisbury had previously carried out extensive research described in his book, Weeds and Aliens. The species is illegal to plant and come into contact with in the UK. Yet originally this plant was brought over as an exotic import. The shifting of meaning and classification over time fascinated Lebas becoming a thread of her new work.
“For most of history the only criterion by which human beings judged other species was their usefulness but,
in recent centuries, other dimensions became important so that certain species came to be valued for their attractiveness, their novelty or their
potential for game sport.”
– Charles Warren (2009), Managing Scotland’s Environment
Similarly, Animated Nature uses similar techniques of placing species onto photographic paper in this case to form photograms of bird silhouettes.
Animated Nature, 2009, Unique Chromogenic photograms, 40 x 50 cm
Image Analysis
Between about 1907 and 1938, armed with a camera and a notebook, Edward Salisbury worked in four geographical areas: Arrochar, in Argyll and Bute, south-west Scotland; Rothiemurchus Forest, an estate in the Highlands near Aviemore; Culbin Sands, a long spit of sand along the southern shore of the Moray Firth; and Blakeney Point in Norfolk, where as a student Salisbury had made a study of the vegetation, which is now a nature reserve. In 2011, Lebas set off in Salisbury’s footsteps. Using both a medium format and a panoramic camera, and with GPS to help her establish the same locations, she focused, as he had, on three subject areas: habitat, locality and specimens. Through working on this project Lebas has learnt to identify species and types of plants and became immersed in a world of classification.
The images appear flat where the silhouette of dead birds float above a dark surface. These mummified birds were found in Houghton Hall’s attic (Norfolk). Fallen from chimneys, the birds had died there due to being trapped. In the above image, the bones of a Long Heared owl can be seen.
The images show a negative colouring due to the process of using photographic paper where the pure white areas show solid parts of the birds body.
Lebas prefers to work at night, or at twilight when the world becomes more mysterious. “I was fascinated by night itself, by the absence of light and the impossibility of photographing”. “I was interested in challenging how I used the cameras, but also challenging the landscape.” Although not presenting a night landscape, this project uses a colour scheme that still reflects the mysterious feel shown in Chrystel Lebas’ other projects.
Overall, the series questions our relationship to the animal’s death and death in nature as a whole.
Huang Qingjun Study
Extra reading from books of the sublime
A philiosophical enquiry – by burke – oxford
Burke had the through that the beautiful us that which is well-formed and aesthetically pleasing. And differently how the sublime is something which has power to compel and then destroy us. He stated the difference was that of the transition from neoclassical to the romantic era. Burkes thinking was based off the understanding he had from the casual structures, this consisting of Aristotelians belief that ‘physics and metaphysics, causation can be divided into formal, material, efficient and final causes’ he believed the formal cause of beauty if the passion of love, the material cause concerns would be the materials of the object itself, smallness, smoothness, delicacy. These intern cause the calming of our nerves . The final cause is God and his providence. Beauty before burkes view was based on the three defining factors of fitness perfection and proportion. however the sublime also had a casuals structure before Burkes theory and this consisted of, the passion of fear(death), The material was the infinity, vastness and magnificence of the object. The efficient cause is the tension of our nerves, and gos role in the final cause is having created and battled satan.The themes within this book contain 4 main propositions throughout the novel itself, these consist of:
childishness: these are shown through the study of aesthetic requires to move beyond an implicit appreciation of the attractive elements of the world around them. burka himself acknowledges this fact through the establishment of childishness as a theme of his work. the childlike elements is substantial to the way he wrote without insulting great thinkers but his concern with he topic to be presented without inflicting or proving others to be wrong. The next is;
Classification: this is when Burke proceeds throughout his work using classifications. In particular, the theme of classification is permeated by the question of independence or dependence in the sensations about which he writes, as well as new connections and differences between objects and parts of life.
Humanism: burkes work focuses primarily of the beautiful and the sublime. although he soon redirects the attention to the paradigm of the self with the theme of humanism. he speaks about the placing of emotions within the personal realism. When studying terror burke evoked the sensation about which he writes, allowing the reader to maintain a childlike sense of observation and reminds ourselves that is the reason for the book itself if comprehension and appreciation. To my mind this has clear connotations of the way in which he has an emotional sensitivity when dealing with others and even talking about the harsh emotions considered with that of beauty and the sublime.
Aesthetics: enquiry is said to lead a reader to notice emotions. Burke is said to concern himself with the theme of aesthetics. The theory itself is a wide-ranging and many have attempted to define why we take pleasure of of certain scenarios of what we notice in the natural and sensory world. He develops on many of these themes with calmness and rarely becoming carried away. He talks about aesthetics throughout the novel, stating things such and . Burke argues in Reflections on the French Revolution, such rights are ‘by the laws of nature, refracted from their straight line’, enduring ‘such a variety of refractions and reflections, that it becomes absurd to talk of them as if they continued in the simplicity of their original direction’. What is natural about such rights is their deviance or aberrancy; their self-disseminatory power is part of their very essence. When Burke adds that ‘the nature of man is intricate; the objects of society are of the greatest possible complexity’, he speaks, in the original sense of the term, as an aesthetician. And this is equivalent, in this political context, to saying that he speaks also as a reactionary. Some quotes from reading the first beginning of the book that have really stuck with me are the following:people are not liable to be mistaken in their feelings, but they are very frequently wrong in the names they give them, and in their reasoning about them. pleasure does form the ceasing or diminution of some pain. pain and pleasure are each from a positive mature.
The sublime -contemporary arts – simon morleyth and this book is more of an in depth analysis to what the sublime is, means and how it was formed. For Longinus, the sublime is an adjective that describes great, elevated, or lofty thought or language, particularly in the context of rhetoric. As such, the sublime inspires awe and veneration, with greater persuasive powers.
Essay on lewis bush, claude cahun and clare rae.
Photography comparison essay
Lewis bush,claude cahun and clare rae.
I have recently attended the exhibitions of three highly influential artist whose works are all based from a political side of jersey landscape. However each artist presented such abstract and diverse conceptual thoughts and ideas different from each other and I want to analysis ,why, what and they have all successful connoted their political ideas throughout their work. Lewis bush is a curator and educator of British photography. His attention forms invisible power that influences and helps to operate the world, he is said to be ‘arbitrary and transparent’ his belief that power if problematic is clearly highlighted through account of his ‘politics in jersey’ exhibition. To my mind this exhibition was not to demonstrate one political ideal and being right and the other wrong ,nor was it to shine a negative amount of attention upon the reality of jersey being so absorbed within its finance sector. But it was an ability of self expression for the viewer to demonstrate their own personal views upon the project. This challenging the misconception held by many that every in jersey holds the same idea about the finance sector. And yet this project highlights the enormous variety of attitudes and opinions. Lewis’ intentions within his work was to document and portray a sense of reality or even perhaps ‘documentary photography’ approach to how the finance sector is truly like within Jersey. However Within his work it is clear he has manipulated many of the images, this separates the dependancy and the reality to which his work can be taken. I think it would be a hard assumption to belive all his work is a direct reflection of the sector due to the amount of people consumed within the industry, and how can one photographer tell a true reality of so many.
Personally I believe his most influential work was the incorporation of crafted individuals and who their identities and similarly constructed and orchestrated to broadcast the same characteristic of someone who works in finance. I believe this allowed people to question their own identity and if they are who they are due to their passions or because they surround themselves within an industry which demands a certain presentation of character and being. This self reflection of people is then contrasted within the different part of the community demonstrating what they believe finance is saying things such as ‘awful’ ‘freud’ ‘bullshit’. lewis said he had ‘ a great interest when distributing the cards’. This to me demonstrates bushs’ curiosity rather than and ambition to create a project on politics to inflict his own personal views as being the only right and correct view.
Consequently the matter of opinion is a personal biases of who has been exposed to the exhibition which is the younger generation. The majority of negativity shows how money is viewed as a sense of governmental oppression to many, and not a necessity to keep jersey going as this is the main source of income,I think this is fascinating. The rest of his photography is a clear demonstration of natural landscape of some a simplicity of final infrastructure. His work to me connotes a clear message of accumulations of infrastructure designed to further power final go. This set of images is vibrant within its colour and has a considerable influence from an architectural point of view. These aspects of modernisation show the current necessity and pressure put upon jersey to keep finance its main factor of income. The images themselves denote aspects of abstraction , their form is structured but very segregated to only focus on a small areas. This cropping shows small scenes of jerseys necessities. He then focused on ‘the direction point of looking into another finance sector or where lot of money is said to be held’ these series of locations is to present a different approach and address people not in jersey and how they appeal and recognise finance form where they are. Lewis said this will form a connection of international finance. To me this is a clear demonstration of the structure that is the primary support for the finance sector, it deals with a clear denotation of physicality of the buildings that hold most fo the money movement within jersey, this being within the airport and such.
In comparison to lewis bush’s more conceptual and modern view of political landscapes, claude cahun and clare rae demonstrate a currently innovative way at the time to expose gender normative and through body composition express the way a person’s emotional stability is. Cahun was a pivotal point of photography in 1954. She successfully presented a conversation between two performative practices some 70 years apart. Her avant garde style and surrealistic body movements formed a subversive self portrait photographs, that dealt with the representation of the female body when considering the demonstration of gender. Claude was a subservient and surreal artist who was at the very core of the surliest movement. Cahun was not the typical jersey citizen and still would still be classed within this frame, She was gay, living with her half sister, jewish and a activist who spoke out against the german revolution. Her politically engaged and charged strength allowed herself the capability to make this iconic pieces of work challenging gender stereotypes, which would of been hugely monumental at the time. I belive personally her influence on photography is massive and has enabled many to take up photography such as Claire Rae. 
What I believe is highly influential and successful about her work is her physical engagement with the physical and cultural landscapes. She showed repercussions of love and her work to this day still has not aged from the relevancy and beauty it holds. I believe her strongest piece lies within the influence of this piece:It demonstrates the way in which a woman’s body is cognitively hung in order to express a position of vulnerability. Her stature compressed into the small gap reduces herself to being small and weak. Her stance is stiff in the way that is she were to move she would fall and crumble. Perhaps this is similar to my themes of emotion being mimicked and found within nature. This work is hugely partial to how gender within women is seen as the weaker of the sexes. Although in time this was not a deliberate manner I do believe that the black and white tonal shades highlight and timelessness to the images and a beauty,It highlights the fact that the women too is as beautiful as the nature and too as free spirited. The way to which he work was displayed constitutes to a clear divide of work (Chaun on one side and Rae on the opposite), this indicative composition to my mind forms a political bias and serge between the times to which the photos were taken, The political influence being emphasised as both artists are highlighting the fragility of the female identity however one with and one without rights. I personally belive Rae’s use of the past archival images to from as inspiration resonates with the threads and ideas stuck within the concept of surreal art being the revolving of art means nothing is ever permanent. Raes work was developed on film, this made he work become more accurate due to the extra expensive the film cost herself, this methodology leading to the instillations is powerful as it demonstrates another influence dependent of time and the incorporation of methods ignored by many photographers today.
The photographs Rae produced in Jersey are intimate. there is a clear exploration within the idea of self and the immediate environment and were she produced many collaboration with her partner. Her performative gestures and repercussions of a women body was so hugely ahead of her time. She questioned the fluidity of genre and asked why this concept was such a defining factor of who we are. Cahun’s and Rae’s work speaks to me a-lot more than lewis, I think this is due to the way she has incorporated emotion and a relationship within the landscape and an understanding of jersey, where bush shows an observations of various opinions scattered together. Cahun has said ‘ I enact a visual dialogue between the body and these environments, and test how their photographic histories impact upon contemporary engagements. Cahun used self-portraiture to subvert the dominance of the male gaze in photographic depictions of the female body in the landscape’ This is clearly seen within the venerability of the positioning of the female models to almost rein-act what it was deemed to be a female back in the early 19th century.
Both exhibitions contrast on many strong levels and social impacts. they both use their divisive sources to produce such unique and unrelated work.In conclusion to my mind Clare Rae had a clear narrative and artistic influence from Claud Chaun, Because of this I think her work is so much more successful as she new exactly whats she was trying to connote through her work. The political landscape is shown through a loving atmosphere to highlight femininity and injustice further emphasised through the positing of the models. How as Lewis bush has such a wide range of a topic much of his work did not have cohesion and not as many literally studies of jersey itself. Although I do believe Lewis did connote jersey finance as being a pivotal part of the history and future of this island which is true and highly relevant to the population today
PAOLA PAREDES
PAOLA PAREDES MELANCHOLIA OF VIRGINS
This image is from Paola Paredes body of work ‘Melancholia of Virgins’, a selection of experimental pieces raising awareness of the humiliation of misdiagnosed women in Salpêtrière Hospital Paris for ‘Hysteria’ during the 19th century – a time when medicine subjected women to abhorrent treatment. The term ‘Hysteria’ is now recognized as a diagnosis stemming from pseudo-science, intrinsically linked to misogyny and man’s dominance. These ‘Hysteric’ women were put on display for audiences consisting of medical contemporaries, students and members of the public. One front-runner in Hysteria science was Jean-Martin Charcot he was charged with Hysteria treatment at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, where he would use his camera as a tool for recording patient’s attack symptoms for later analysis. These pictures were then published and used as ‘evidence’. Paola Paredes then took these images and redeveloped them with the use of modern technology, stitching and handmade collages to produce animations and to magnify the humility and penalization that the institution forced on these women.
Conventionally speaking, the quality of the picture is poor due to the age of the photograph, with no depth in contrast, or wide spectrum of shades and
the noise that the camera has picked up in the darker tones of the image. However if you look at the image conceptually the poor quality of the image carries connotations of poor quality of life, respect and empathy for these women, which gives more depth to the context of the image. The rework of the image encourages viewers to to look at the image in a different way and interpret feelings and emotions throughout the whole of the frame, as the subjects face is completely covered making it impossible to read her emotions, so therefore applying an interpreted context to the image. The rework and manipulation of the image grasps the viewers attention on the feeling of being watched and recorded, being subjected to humiliation and being stripped of dignity.
This image is one of her still images which contrasts the effect of one of Paredes’ moving images where there is a sense of input of intensified emotion. However each of her still images convey the feeling of a forced or submissive silence. The use of the string covering the face and hiding the identity of this woman reinforces the idea of that these women were dehumanized, silenced and belittled. This simple technique unveils more about the context of this picture than if it was left untouched or the subject’s face was left on show. However, my interpretation of the reason why Paredes decided to cover her face is the possible referencing of the automatic invalidation of their opinions and dismissal of their freedom of choice and speech because of a ‘higher’ or ‘stronger’ force – in this pictures case the flash of the camera is the force acting against these imprisoned women, which could be interpreted as the misogynistic men that took advantage of them.
Photo Shoot – I want to experiment with Paola Paredes experimental approach to redevelop old images and give them new meanings and context to provide a thought provoking piece that encourages an audience to interpret an image with my political message. I want to take the idea from Paola Paredes of reworking, experimenting and manipulating existing images, carrying on the theme of my political landscape topic; the agriculture industry and its effect on climate change, being responisble for destruction of land and the mass usage of limited resources that don’t have enough value to raise concern like water and again, land.
breaking the rules: reality: artist: peter watkins.
Peter watkins
Watkins is a visual artists based in London, his work within photography started with his autobiographical elements incorporating sculptor, and spatial elements. His work is always about achieving a mediated practice of how a certain material is perceives and lost throughout different processes and time.Many of his works are award winning and can be found in many exhibitions And collages across Europe.
Many of his works are based off a memory from when he was younger. This includes when he was driving down a long straight road and how within the weather conditions the vision is dull and grey. He has vidid memories of what people wear are occasions listing ‘ My mother is seated front left, in the passenger side, and my father is driving, wearing a merino jumper with interconnecting diamond shapes; the kind golfers wear.’ He suggests he has a strong interest in time and the way in which people age and die. His view of immortal life has been occurrent since he was 2; he purposes the almost obvious ideal that the older you are the sooner you will die. However he is soon saying that it was not true and his mother killed herself. ‘Some months later my mother would end up walking into the North Sea, her final act in a series of events that came to sum up her final few months of life.’ This to me emphasis the reality of life and how aversions are confused with the expectations that we hold. It was not a true reality to expect his father to live longer. He talks much about the reality of life being held within memories and time and everything else is built around this.’The memories of this time, and what is built around it, creates a foundational narrative of sorts that I can accept to some degree as authentic’
His memories are coloured by recollection, through telling stories seen within images he is able to bare a rhythm and structure of the narrative fiction. He has said ‘ recollections are transfigured by narrative but also brought to life by them’ There is a purity of memory yet this is not a consistent sense of reality. No matter how authentic something might seem it is no more than a insufficient narrative which is incomplete with assumptions. Because of this nothing is reality so why should our photography be made to convey the truth and the exact reality when this is not possible as it is a view of our voice as a reflection of our own reality.
His project ‘The Unforgetting’ is his culmination of works seen through years of work. It allows his trauma and emotions surrounding the loss of his mother to be associated with the history of memory. He bounds his photography up into objects, places and people which are too associated with the family.
The interests for me within his work is how she shows a surface as an outward appearance and an exterior boundary. This work successful shows what the camera is seen to be faced with and yet shows what photography is able to unveil through these images. His images not only communicate . A story and emotion of his self inflicted pain but also many highlight a texture and a from, this is done in a way to pick away the exterior or who or what we are and depthen the understanding and communicate who people really are through their history and belongings.
many of his images question the possibility of what lies beyond. To my mind his works presents a person or object and instead of us agreeing with what he sees he wants us to ask but what is beyond this image or within the person or inside the cave. We should not agree with what we are given because this isn’t a clear representation fo reality but we should search within what we see int he image to tell us more. I think this image above is fascinating. The complex and deliberate composition focus on areas which belong and are of significance to the man himself.
What I want to take from his work is the way in which he successful conveys a families history and presents it in such a way to show how a memory is subject and not the presentation of a real Occassion. I believe i too will take his ideas os using old family photos and object to present the person in my own reality which might not be directly theres. He uses much of his work to explore a connection to his past and things which you expect are not how they happen.