Mood Board:

“Nan Goldin is a contemporary American photographer who became famous in the 1980s for her gritty, intimate, often chaotic images of friends, lovers, and herself in the Boston queer and party scenes of the time. Her most famous body of work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency has become an invaluable record of a creative community soon to be torn apart by the AIDS crisis – with many of the artist’s photographs now haunting memorials of friends and lovers lost to the disease.

Since the 1980s Nan Goldin has changed the nature of art and documentary photography. By taking her camera everywhere she goes and shooting intimate photographs of otherwise invisible, underground moments in her community, she has turned photography of everyday people, of parties, of sexual moments, and private events into something important and worthy of attention – exhibiting in major galleries around the world.

In later work, Goldin’s photographs are placed alongside images of famous works by Old Masters in the Louvre. Here, she expands her interest in desire, violence, and looking to encompass the Western history of art and image-making, and shows viewers that these interests have always been important to us, whilst also unsettling the languages of desire in paintings by male artists, through her own complex visions of sexuality, gender, and intimacy.” https://www.theartstory.org/artist/goldin-nan/

Image Analysis:

Technical:

This image looks like it was taken with natural light to capture the raw moment. This image has quite a high contrast and saturation which give it a ominous vibe. The aperture for this photo is very quite high and the depth of field is quite sharp. Also, the ISO will be around 400 and the white balance looks to be either daylight or shade.

Visual:

The colour of this photo is very saturated and is quite dark to give it a ominous and mysterious look to it. Also the cropping of this photo leads the eye to the people sitting on the bed. Also, the people being the main focus in the photo makes it stand out a lot.

Contextual:

This photo was taken to show one of the arguments Nan Goldin had with her partner and she wanted to portray a pejorative feel to the photo. Also, the context behind abuse and unhealthy relationships are prevalent in her work.

Conceptual:

Her work portrays gritty, intimate, often chaotic images of friends, lovers, and herself in the Boston queer and party scenes of the time. Also, she expands her interest in desire, violence, and looking to encompass the Western history of art and image-making, and shows viewers that these interests have always been important to us, whilst also unsettling the languages of desire in paintings by male artists, through her own complex visions of sexuality, gender, and intimacy.

For my essay I have a few key ideas that I am looking at:

Love:

One idea that I am looking at is the idea of love and relationships. I want to look at my relationship with my boyfriend and also the relationships of my friends. I want to portray the idea of vulnerability in relationships and young love.

Inner Emotions:

Another idea I am looking at is inner emotions such as anxiety, fear and isolation in different relationships. I would like to photography different types of relationships, good and bad.

Possible essay questions:

How Can Photography Reflect Inner Emotions Such As Fear and Isolation?

How do Nan Goldin and David Kirscher photographs represent the concept of Love?

• Essay question: 
• Opening quote 
• 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? 
• 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. 
• 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 
• Bibliography: List all relevant sources used 

How have concepts of family, separation and memory been explored in the photo books of Sarello, Casanova and Germain? 

“And what does a ‘real photograph’ even look like: Is it something you can hold? Is it something you can see on a screen and alter?” (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019:17) 

My area study will be how the concept  

We were given an hour in class to write the first two paragraphs of our photographical essays. We were meant to come up with some possible essay questions and then base our two paragraphs upon this. So this a good starting point for writing our essays.

Posible essay Question :How chronic illness inspired Joe Spence to document her story through documentary photography as a way of healing and expression/ showing the media what real women look like? 

‘Influential photographer Jo Spence’s (1934–92) work documents her diagnosis of breast cancer and subsequent healthcare regime throughout the 1980s.’() Her raw and confrontational take on chronic illness is profoundly documented in her photography. She hons in on the self-portraiture and body shots to document how breast cancer has disfigured her body to become unappealing to mainstream beauty standards. ‘In all of her work, Spence confronted us with the things society tries to conceal – not least women’s unconventional physiques.’()  Through all her pieces of work there is a sense of power and stability though the positions she is standing in which can I feel be empowering for both men and women alike. ‘In The Picture of Health she upped the ante, bringing disease into the frame. In one bare-chested photo, she stands before a mammogram, her breast laid out between its slabs like a separate entity. Later, she poses in a biker’s helmet, holding up her arms to reveal battle scars.’() The way she gradually reveals herself more and more through her work could show that she is coming to terms more and more each day with her illness and not treating it as something to be ashamed of or a burden. Consequently, treating it as something liberating that others can seek sanctuary within her work and learn from her experience meaning they can find a way to come to terms with their own health problems. Her works intention was to give people in similar situations a sense of self-worth and being able to reappreciate their own body’s again.  

‘Undoubtedly, her most heroic work was The Picture of Health, in 1982, which she began after being diagnosed with breast cancer. This series of self-portraits is both alternative therapy and a critical response to modern medicine, with Spence regaining ownership of her body by documenting her treatment.’() Her photography before her encounters with cancer were never as well known. She is known as a ‘influential photographer’ because of her works with chronic illness. I think this was because her approach to documenting her journey was so abrupt and real that people connected to it so well because of the rawness and how prevalent cancer is today. She explores alternative therapy and modern medicine, how these differ but have the same intention. You can see Jo ‘regain ownership of her body’ and coming to terms with the physical and psychological scars much like how I intent to peruse my own work. This was something she learned when going on this photographical documenting journey and I feel her work isn’t just about the product, it is more about the emotions that have built up to the signal piece. Each image can be unpicked to unravel every base idea behind it. There is no complex subplot for these images, or an indefinite answer left up to the audience to decide the whole main meaning of the image. This I believe is why her work became so well-known because it was graphic blunt images that were straight to the point and I feel people really could connect with this. It was a real break from the arts modernistic works where they make you question everything about the works even your own interpretations. People liked it because it was simple to grasp the concept of but has real emotional value which can be connected to by anyone who has experienced cronic illness or externally been affected by it e.g relatives family or friends.  

References need to be put in as they are saved on computer at home. 

The theme which I focus on in my personal study follows the odyssey of four feelings; change – euphoria – love – regret. For myself, the idea and concept of change has a journey – how change makes you feel euphoric, and you fall in love with your new life but may still suffer with the feelings of regret. Theres been many changes occurring in the past few years of my life, and its changed me as a person, ripped away any safety nets, and started building the person I am now at present. My personal study is going to document how change can affect you emotionally and spirituality as a person, specifically focusing on illness, divorce, loss, lack of love and the idea of rebuilding your so called normality all over again.

Lissy Elle is a young photographer who shoots in film and combines documentary photography with surrealist elements. Most of Elle’s projects and works have focused on her mentality in different stages and places of her life. When asked ‘What is the most important element about a photograph?’, she stated “An emotion, no matter how clichéd that might sound. You can always tell if someone created a piece from a technical place or an emotional place. You can do everything right in terms of lighting and composition and still make a flat and dull photograph. I want to see what you were feeling and what you were thinking and why I should care. If you don’t care then I don’t care.” (EZRAMAGAZINE.Bolger.2019:5) 

Historical and theoretical context

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Kensuke Koike is a surrealist artist aiming to challenge the possibility of Image Making by bringing new meaning to archive found photography. Born in Japan and now residing in Italy, the artist spends his days buying old photographs at fleamarkets and distorting them in his studio to bring us often incomprehensible work that is exhibited around the world.

Reviving vintage photographs is an obsession for many collage artists, but none quite live up to the standard of notorious analogue collage image maker Kensuke Koike. Each piece by the artist brings us revelations about culture, and truth in image making. For many in the field, a collage comprised of one photograph (or single image processing as Koike calls it) could be a restrictive nightmare, but for the artist such a restriction has profound results.

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Bibliography: Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. (2019), Photography Decoded. London: Octopus Publishing House

Key Quotes:

“And what does a ‘real photograph’ even look like: Is it something you can hold? Is it something you can see on a screen and alter?” (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019: 17)

“The ‘mirror’ can serve as a metaphor for reality” (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019: 17)

“The lack of human subjectivity makes it an example of ‘true reality’. But it still doesn’t look real. (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019: 18)

“It is not just photography that is complicated, but the concepts of realism and reality, too” (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019: 18)

How does Cristina de Middel use tableaux photography in tandem with archival images to represent previous narratives?

“Ms. Middel shows how the medium promotes both fact and fiction”

Schwendener, M (Sept 5 2013)

Cristina de Middel: ‘The Afronauts’

New York: NY Times

The work that I will be focusing on is Cristina de Middel’s book called ‘Afronauts’. The book is based around a Zambian science teacher named Edwuard Makuka, who in 1964 decided to train the first African crew to travel to the moon. His plan was to use an aluminium rocket to put a woman, two cats and a missionary into Space. First the moon, then Mars, using a catapult system. He founded the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Astronomical Research to start training his Afronauts in his headquarters located only 20 miles from Lusaka. The plan was not well thought out as neither Zambia or any of the surrounding countries had the resources, finances or expertise to follow this programme through to completion.  The book was a finalist in the Paris Photo Fair Aperture First book award. The style of photography that she uses is half way between documentary photography and tableaux, because she uses real stories but then re-enacts them out using models and actors. Middel also uses a set of archival images of Zambian villages of the time to also show how ridiculous the idea of a space program to compete with the US and Russia was. The book is opened to a letter from one Zambian minister to another saying that according to Makuka America and Russia may lose the race to the moon.