In this image Francesca Woodman has placed herself spinning in the centre of the photograph, to draw attention to the movement. She looks like she is in a car park, which makes the image seem both mysterious, but also could be portraying her loneliness. Francesca Woodman used a slow shutter speed to give the effect of a blur by capturing more of the movement before the photograph was taken completely. The fact that the people seem anonymous makes the photo appear lifeless, possibly representing her lack of identity through her depression.
Technically this image would’ve been more difficult in the sense that it’s a self portrait, so Francesca Woodman would’ve had to have her camera on a tripod on a timer so that she was able to be both the photographer and the subject in the image. In terms of lighting, I would assume that Woodman used artificial lighting already present at the location because it looks like there is a light directly above her providing minimal light as the rest of the image is significantly darker.
In conclusion I believe that my outcome was relatively successful, particularly from a contextual standpoint as I felt I was allowed to explore various facets of abstraction in depth.
I feel however that I could’ve explored visual aspects of abstraction further detail to better explore my initial question. Additionally I could’ve made the secondary intent of the book (the exploration of eastern European slave labor used in the construction of Jersey’s defenses) more explicit as the only relation besides from the less apparent link to the subject matter is the title ‘Zawody’, meaning occupations in the context of professions as a loose play on words on the ‘Occupation and Liberation’ title. While the title does roughly establish the underlying theme of the book, some more explicit historical context would be welcomed in order to better propagate the intended interpretation to the reader.
Had I been certain of my paper and editing choices upon shooting, I would have shot my images using a higher ISO since despite the paper choice amplifying grain to an extent, it consequently makes it appear more as a creative choice than a camera defect or a result of poor foresight while shooting.
These are the images I decided best represented my work and the images I thought were the best. I feel they are all different enough to show the range of my abilities.
I went through each of my shoots individually and repeated the same process for each. Firstly I imported my images into Lightroom and created separate collections for each of my shoots to make working with my images easier.
Then using the pick (p) and reject (x) tool, I selected which images I thought were the best and wanted to potentially edit and use in my photobook.
I then went on to rate my photos out of 5 stars, with 2 and below being images I didn’t see working and 3 and above being ones I either really liked or ones I feel I could work with with a bit of editing, further narrowing down my selection.
The images I selected.The final selection of images to work with.
As I edit I will probably reject more images that I don’t feel like are working.
For my final prints I decided to print them in different sizes and to spray glue them onto a black board. I decided to lay them out in a unique way as I wanted it to look unusual. I decided to place them on a black board as the photographs themselves are quite light to the colours juxtapose eachother and the black enables the gaze to be placed onto the photos more. I am happy with how this turned out as I manged to get the images all together and present by sisters with eachother and as individuals.
‘I feel like I am floating in plasma. I need a teacher or a lover. I need someone to risk being involved with me. I am so vain and so masochistic.’
– Francesca Woodman
Francesca Woodman was born in Denver in 1958 to two American Artists, she also had a close relationship with her brother Charles Woodman who himself was aspiring to be a video artist. Whilst they grew up their home was described as ‘the creative and social hub of the art community of the town’ as art was just ‘the way of life’ for the Woodman family.
When Woodman was 13 she attended a private boarding school where she began to find her interest in photography having taken her dads camera with her. She had a photography class where she learnt the basic skills and starting to have some faith in her own projects. Woodman relied on her teacher for reassurance in her own ability.
During Summers spent in Italy, Woodman became interested with La Specola, the Museum of Natural History in Florence, making friends with the guards so that she could be allowed in to take pictures when the museum was closed to the public. After she graduated in 1978, she went to live in Rome for a whole year, as part of the School of Design’s Rome Honours program. Francesca Woodman is known for not liking the term ‘self portrait’ and was known for being very serious and very playful at the same time, despite this being very conflicting.
Woodman explored and tested what she could do with photography. She explored the idea that the camera fixes time and space – something that had always been seen as one of the fundamentals of photography. She did this by manipulating light and movements, and used props, vintage clothing and ‘gloomy’ interiors to add a mysterious atmosphere to the her final pieces.
When Francesca Woodman was 22 she published her first art publication, but completed suicide shortly after. She did this by jumping from a loft building in New York. When she died, critic Ken Johnson said ‘hardly anyone beyond her family, friends, classmates, and teachers knew about the phenomenal body of work she had produced.’ Her mum, Betty, said ‘things were not rosy and wonderful for Francesca’ in an attempt to highlight her long standing depression as the ultimate cause of her death.
This photo is part of Mary Ellen Marks photography series ‘Ward 81’. Ward 81 is a photography project Mark undertook to capture the reality of the lives of patients living in a psychiatric ward in Oregon State Hospital where she admitted herself in order to attempt to capture the reality accurately. I think that this photo in particular was used to showcase the loneliness that being both mentally ill, and in hospital essentially locked away from the world, can actually bring.
This image captures what appears to be a young boy laying on a metal bed besides the barred windows, underneath his covers with his head on top of a scarf, he is looking at a photograph using what could either be quite a blank, or sad, facial expression. The photo is in black and white and this could be because of the time frame in which the photograph was taken due to the lack of modern technology, which is likely, however this is effective in conveying emotion to the audience as black and white is typically known as being more dramatic or upsetting due to the lack of ‘brightness’ about it. The boys bed is placed besides a window behind metal bars, although this image is ineffective in accurately representing the type of institution this is, this does effectively represent the subject was when this was taken was completely secluded and so he must have been somewhat ‘locked up’ or trapped.
Technically this photograph shouldn’t have been too difficult to create. Above the boys head is a window, which is what would’ve been causing all the shadows in the corners of the image and highlights on the subjects face as the window is just above him.
Mary Ellen Mark is an artist born on the 20th March 1940 in Pennsylvania, she died at 75 in New York, United States.
Mary Ellen Mark became well known for capturing more taboo subjects accurately, some of her most well known projects are on mental health patients at an Oregon State Hospital, prostitutes, and homeless people. Mark has always been known for her documentary photography, usually producing black and white images, and began putting her work out there within magazines. Mary Ellen Mark stands out to me because she would have to create trusting relationships with her subjects in order to achieve the images she wanted due to the sensitive nature of the topics, she said on multiple occasions within interviews that because these relationships were strong, she often would stay in contact with her subjects even years post project – Melissa Harris who edited Mary Ellen Marks books said ‘ She got to know the subjects she photographed very well, and she was able to convey who they were and how they lived, as well as a sense of their interior lives. There are not that many photographers who can do that.’
In 1978 Mark produced ‘Ward 81’, this was a collection of photographs that Mary Ellen Mark took at a state psychiatric hospital in Oregon. She lived at the hospital for two months in an effort to build relationships with patients to create a series of accurate representations of mental illnesses within mental health hospitals.
Mary Ellen Mark took interest in portraying and representing issues usually ignored by the standard frontline media, such as; mental illness, homelessness, and drug dealing. When asked about why she enjoys taking on projects like this, Mark responded ‘I would die if I had to be confined, I don’t want to feel that I’m missing out on experiencing as much as I can. For me, experiencing is knowing people all over the world and being able to photograph.’
