I found the project very interesting from a heritage point of view as someone born on the island. I’m happy with the outcome. I think if I were to do the project again I would try experimenting with my photographs more. The Newspaper was a delight to read and I’m proud of the work we produced.
Liberation Newspaper
Since the summer of 2019 A-Level Photography Students at Hautlieu School have been working on an extensive programme of study in their final year exploring Jersey’s Liberation and Occupation history in collaboration with Société Jersiaise, Jersey Heritage, Channel Island Occupation Society, Jersey War Tunnels, Bureau des Îles Anglo-Normandes and post-graduate students from École Européenne Supérieure d’art de Bretagne in Rennes with funding from Liberation 75. Students were challenged with responding to personal stories told by islanders experiencing the German Occupation first-hand and finding inspiration by looking through images, documents and objects held in various collections in Jersey’s public archives, producing a series of individual creative outcomes such as montages, photo-zines and collectively construct a visual narrative presented as a newspaper supplement printed and distributed by Jersey Evening Post on Friday 24 April 2020.
The Liberation vs Occupation project began partly as a response to 75 years of celebrating freedom in Jersey from the German Occupation in 1940-45. Sadly, islanders will not be able to commemorate this landmark event as initially planned and it is hoped that this newspaper and joint exhibition between Jersey and French students will in some small way act as catalyst for remembering those years of hardship and subsequent joy when Churchill’s now famous speech was broadcast on the 8 May 1945 with the endearing words ‘our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today’.
The programme of study began on the 4 June at the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive where students took inspiration from a presentation by Patrick Cahill, Photo-Archivist and looked through some of the historical collections held in the photo-archive pertaining to the German Occupation of Jersey in 1940-45. In September students explored the landscape of German fortifications around the coastline of Jersey with specific visits to bunkers, such as Battery Moltke at Les Landes and Battery Lothringen at Noirmoint Point. Further visits followed to Jersey War Tunnels and Jersey Archive to research public records and learn more about life in the island during the Occupation.
Personal stories and memories from islanders, Bob Le Seur, Hedley Hinault, Joyce De La Haye and Joan Tapley, experiencing the German Occupation first-hand were recounted to students in a series of workshops, that included portrait sessions in the photographic studio at Hautlieu School and photographing objects from 1940-45 held in the Occupation collection at Jersey Heritage. Students have interpreted how the themes of Liberation and Occupation relates to them as teenagers growing up in the 21st century and the combined outcome of their studies can be seen on the pages of this newspaper, and in a joint exhibition Bunker Archaeology 2020 with postgraduate students from École Européenne Supérieure d’art de Bretagne (EESAB) originally to be held at the Berni Gallery, Jersey Arts Centre 6 -30 May 2020, now postponed due to Covid-19.
The Bailiff Timothy Le Cocq, who has written a foreword in the newspaper expressed his delight with how this collaboration has played a wider role in cultural diplomacy by; ‘allowing Rennes-based Masters students to work with students from Hautlieu on a project that has helped to spread the message of our important history, shared heritage and bringing communities closer together.’
Photographer and teacher Martin Toft who led this project, commented: ‘Every student involved in this project engaged passionately in the subject of the German Occupation of Jersey and the images presented here in this newspaper are only a fragment of the enormous amount of work that each student has produced. It provides a fascinating insight into how young people have used the language of photography to explore and interpret events which happened many years ago.’
Here is a video browser of the Liberation Newspaper printed and distributed islandwide by Jersey Evening Post.
Zines: The editing and sequencing of this newspaper was derived from a number of photo-zines produced by A-Level photography students at Hautlieu School.
Overall, I find that my approach to occupation vs Liberation has gone very well. My project relates to that theme in the way the narrative of the book is women being subjected to unfeasible beauty expectations and liberating themselves. Furthermore, our society’s beauty expectations are an occupation. They damage people’s mental health and even leads to people’s death. In the beginning of the project, I wasn’t a hundred percent sure about what I wanted to do. At first I was going to focus on politics, Dadaism and collage but after looking at Bright’s work I decided I wanted to do something more personal and feminist. I found that the photographers I studied and the people I took inspiration from were a good choice. Between Simmons and Bright I had the inspiration to create a variety of images and narratives within them and I’m really happy about the way the images came out after editing them. I am glad that I also took inspiration from Instagram photographer Trophy Wife Barbie because it shows that not everyone complies to stereotypes and that not all social media is bad. I managed to take some sharp and disturbing portraits in the style of Bright before adding my own twist with my editing styles which I’m really happy about. I am also happy about the tableaux images I took in the combination style of Trophy Wife Barbie and Simmons, the result being even more unsettling than I had planned. What I wanted through this project was to convey the feeling of what it’s like to be completely bombarded with the feeling that your not pretty enough, your not skinny enough through my images. I also wanted to expose how unrealistic beauty expectations are. I believe I have achieved this really well be my images have impact and meaning.
The whole project on a whole has gone really well. I believe I choose two really interesting photographers who are very relevant. Women have unrealistic beauty standards that have really damaging effect. To me it’s gotten to a point where people are no longer being an individual. Everyone is trying to look trendy and post it on social media. Also, patriarchal creations such as the male gaze is still very relevant. We see it almost every time we turn on a TV but we don’t notice it because we are used to it.
Throughout my project I have been extremely experimental about my editing. I have used adjustments on Light room with tools in Photoshop to create images that have impact when you look at them. I have used a combination of tools like the clone stamp tool, the spot healing brush and the content-aware fill tool to remove doll’s faces. I have also liquidized Barbie’s make up with the liquid filter. i have also experimented with how I’ve set up my images, always pushing the envelope and trying to take it one step further by creating frighting tableaux narratives.
There are many similarities to my images and Bright’s image because her portraits of Barbie dolls inspired mine. They are both close ups where the focal points of the images are on the face. However, Bright has used more of a chiaroscuro effect on her image and has edited it so the doll’s eyes are actually human eyes . Furthermore, Bright has chosen and African American Barbie in order to show the lack of and inaccurate and unrealistic representation of African american women in dolls. I, on the other hand, chose that specific Barbie because the stereotype of beauty that Barbie represents to me was perfectly represented in that Barbie. To me Barbie has always been that blonde skinny doll in pink. I wanted to show a lack of true female identity by removing features of her face to be symbolic.
My work compared to Simmons
My image is similar to Simmons in the way that I took inspirations off of the domestic mise-en-scene. They both have a disturbing look to them but Simmons is more subtle than mine. They are both similar in the way that Simmons also incorporates shadows to create the sinister edge to her images. The messages behind both images are different. Simmon’s used the setting of a kitchen to get across her message about women’s roles in the society. However, I used it along with the gory scene with Ken to show how 21st century women brake these domestic role and beauty expectations.
I’ve printed two of the images I made but did include in my book. I didn’t include them because they didn’t fit in with the rest of the images I was using. This is because I edited them to make cultural art references to pop art and Andy Warhol which didn’t fit in with my narrative. I also printed a couple of images that gives a full head to two of Barbie. I plan on backing the two art reference ones simply because I don’t want to take away from the images but I want to frame them a tiny bit. I plan on mounting the barbie images one after the over in an order so it gives a full body barbie but with my edited images. I plan to back that simply too for the same reason.
How do Simmons and Bright express their social-political opinions about women in society through their work?
‘What are other women really thinking, feeling, experiencing, when they slip away from the gaze and culture of men?’ Naomi wolf, The Beauty Myth.
My personal study will focus on how idols within society have created not just a loss of identity but body issues and unrealistic body standards. I will do this by using the stereotypical idols of dolls and Barbie who came under a lot of criticism from the public for being an idealised and toxic role model. I plan to demonstrate my skills in photoshop by editing the images I take in scary and haunting ways. My project will address matters that match my views of society such as prescribed female gender constructions and unrealistic body images.
In the 21st century because of trends and social media it takes longer to become aware of what the real world looks like. Fads have caused a lack of individualism when we are supposed to be living in an age of acceptance. ‘Woman’s desire is subjugated to her image (…) as bearer, not maker, of meaning,’ (Laura Mulvey’s ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,’ 1975) Mulvey theorises that the male gaze is a social construct derived from the ideologies and discourses of a patriarchy. Mulvey applied this theory to Hollywood films believing that Hollywood films were shot from the point of view of a heterosexual masculine perspective displaying women as an object to be desired, she also believes that these films reinforced stereotypical gender roles and the idea of men being the dominant gender and the woman being ‘the weaker’ gender. My beliefs are that still in the 21st century the male gaze is very much still a societal issue, however, it’s not just in Hollywood films. It’s on Instagram, commercials, the clothes and make up women wear and even in the doll’s girls play with as children. Young women feel that they need to comply with trends in order to be wanted, transforming themselves to fit with the male gaze. This can be dangerous for young teenage girls because it causes them to hate themselves, the way they look and their body. Instead of teaching young woman that they are beautiful and strong the world and social media teaches teenage girls that they are not beautiful and portrays this continuously. Beauty is no longer in the eye of the beholder but in the person, who takes the photo and uploads it to social media. How do dolls represent this? Part of the male gaze theory is that in films the camera pauses of the female’s curves and figure. Dolls are made to have the perfect hourglass figure and some even have this to an exaggerated extent. Young girls idolise Barbie so from a young age, they are conditioned into thinking that they’ve got to look like that, like a living doll and that is an unrealistic representation because the human body is not made to be like that.
I am analysing Sheila Pree Bright because in her series Plastic Bodies, she constructs a reality that puts across her socio-political views. She believes that women are misrepresented by dolls, so to prove this she takes pictures of dolls and women before editing them together. This creates illuminating and haunting images. The other photographer I am analysing is Laurie Simmons because she constructs a reality out of dolls and toys that show her opinions of society in a tableaux vivant style. With her work, she comments on stereotypical gender roles. Both photographers believe that these conceptions of life start from when we are a child. In 2003, Sheila Pree created her series of image Plastic Bodies which aimed to showunrealistic body images and to challenge western ideals of whiteness and beauty. Heteronormative beauty ideals of whiteness and being virtuously beautiful have been embedded in society for hundreds of years. For example, in the Brother Grimm’s fairy tales’ physical attractiveness in females was rewarded and “beauty is often associated with being white, economically privileged, and virtuous.” (Baker-Sperry, L.; Grauerholz, L. (2003) For example, Snow White was described as the fairest of them all with ‘skin as white as snow.’ These heteronormative white ideals are what her work challenges and her goal was to explore how this impacted young girls and women.
In 1972 after her work, Objects with Legs Laurie Simmons found an antique doll house and was inspired with how is represented roles in society and matched how many saw the world at the times. This was during the second wave feminist movement who saw dolls as creating unfeasiblebody images and domestic indoctrination for young girls. Her work borders tableaux vivant in the way that in most of her pieces she has set up dolls to be carrying out stereotypical domestic roles. During my AS study I looked at how society has made the female identity mass-produced. This follows on from that project in the way that I’m looking at how idols within society have created not just a loss of identity but body issues and unrealistic body standards.
The image above shows how Simmons works. She sets up little narratives in a studio with lighting and takes photos with a tripod.
The images that I construct in my personal study is borrowing elements from tableaux-vivant. This is because I’m constructing scenes or realities in which to take my photos using objects. Tableaux vivants originated in the medieval era. Actors would re-enact famous bible scenes during mass, this then evolved into actors creating live versions of famous paintings during the Renaissance era. These actors re-enacted paintings of Greuze, David and Isabey. Tableaux vivants acting was also popular at weddings and other events. Tableaux vivants became less popular in the early 19th century due to the realism movement. However, in the 20th century, actresses re-enacted nude classic paintings but then tableaux started to die out because of the invention of film, however, became popular within photography. In terms of photography, Jean-Francois Chevrier was the first to use tableaux in association which was during the 1970’s and 80’s. Photographer’s then began replicating famous paintings in constructing new meanings. Previously in my coursework, I studied tableaux vivants and reconstructed fairy tales with modern day twists. The difference with this project is that I won’t be doing it with real people but with dolls and doll house sets.
CHARLES ALBERT WILSON (1864-1958) Balmoral Tableau-Vivants: ‘The Union’ 6 Oct 1888
My work also has roots in Surrealism which is all about unleashing the unconscious mind and I believe my work does this but also has socio-political connotations because they also comment on politics and society. Surrealism grew out of the World Wars in the early 20th century and Dadaism. According to Breton’s Surrealism Manifesto (1924) the new art form is a means on linking the conscious to the unconscious so everyday life will be joined up with the subconscious in ‘ an absolute reality, a surreality.’ Some of my previous work has involved quite scary looking images and I’ve planned on doing the same with this project but by taking it another step with editing. My project is surreal in the way that the realities I plan on constructing will appear dreamlike and there is a socio-political message behind them. My Socio-political message is that society and social media has developed an unattainable and unrealistic beauty expectation for women.
Sheila Pree Analysis:
Plastic Bodies, Sheila Pree Bright 2003.
This image is part of a series of images by Sheila Pree Bright called Plastic Bodies created in 2003. The focus of the series was the misrepresentation of black women in dolls and Barbie. It focused onnon-viable beauty standards and illogical body stereotypes. Sheila Pree Bright in conversation with Naima J. Keith said ‘ Although Barbie serves as a toy for children, she represents much more. The doll somehow becomes a model of beauty, a false representation of how women are physically formed. In some cases, women will aspire to this model to the extent of deconstructing their own image by various forms of beautification. I show how these extremes are illusions by using models and dolls as the subjects.’ Bright has digitally manipulated the image so that half of the face shows what a black woman looks like as a Barbie and the other side shows what a black woman really looks like, by merging two images together and blending them. Bright has taken the image with a main front light on the left side of the face leaving a small portion of the face, the part that is the real woman’s face in shadow. This could be symbolic of how the real representation of black woman is being kept in the shadows whilst this fake representation is always in the light. She’s taken the image with a larger aperture f/stop value because the depth of field is narrow, only the dolls face is in focus. Therefore, the focal point of the image is the face because it’s the only thing in focus for you to look at. Bright’s concept, of lack of correct black female representation, ties in with other works she has done. Her work always focuses on civil rights and racial inequality. This piece also ties in with my project in the way that it looks at how society has created a toxic idol and unrealistic standard of beauty. Bright told the Huffington Post that society’s constant airbrush has manipulated women’s view of themselves ‘as a result the female body becomes a replica of a doll, and the essence of natural beauty in popular American culture is replace by fantasy.’ This fits in with her concept for this image in the way that as you can see by juxta proposing two images, the real and the fake, she is startling people to look at how our ideas of beauty has become distorted and how we and pushing that onto children from a young age.
Contextually, Bright created this image in 2003. It was part of her travelling art show called ‘posing beauty in African-American Culture.’ Bright drew upon her personal experiences to create the series and believes that her military upbringing exposed her to different cultures that made her question where she fit in. In response to Bright’s work for my project I also decided to juxta propose images together. However, instead of using an image of a doll and an image of a real woman I decided to experiment with removing the makeup that dolls have naturally because women don’t have natural make up on their faces at all time so even the little thing like the pink above the barbie’s eyes and the big eyelashes symbolises unrealistic beauty standards and makes women feel like they have to be what society thinks is beautiful all the time. Therefore, I took picture of the dolls like Bright did but then used nail varnish remover and took off their makeup. I then took pictures of them again and digitally edited the images together. The result was kind of shocking because the dolls without their makeup looked out of proportion and damaged.
Laurie Simmons:
‘Woman Opening Refrigerator/ Milk to the Right,’ Early Colour Interiors, Laurie Simmons 1978-79.
This image is called ‘Woman Opening Refrigerator/ Milk to the Right,’ it’s from Simmon’s series Early Colour Interiors taken from 1978-79. Conceptually the doll is meant to represent the classic housewife which is given away by her outfit and domestic mise-en-scene. She photographs this doll in multiple constructed scenes of her doing stereotypically household chores. The concept was to demonstrate the daily life of a housewife but also to illustrate the loneliness and isolation felt by some housewives. I think this is shown by the fact that in most of the images she is the only doll and using lighting and shadows. I think she intentionally kept those shadows in order to symbolise the darkness, isolation and emptiness some housewives feel. Her work is like Bright’s in the way that she uses the doll as a symbol or manifestation of society however instead of beauty standards created by society, she looks at the role for women created by society that she herself has grown up in.
What is interesting about her work is that she uses the doll as a bridge between generations. It’s a doll therefore, a children’s toy but she constructs and brings it into the role of an adult therefore also representing the little girls who will grow up into this isolated role. What I find most disturbing about Simmon’s work is the fact that its context has evolved with the eras. Now in the 21st century she has focused on something many feminist photographers have been focusing on which is the role of pleasure dolls and how they symbolise how women are seen in the eyes of men, how men have replaced women with this perfect life sized doll. The results have been very startling images. The context behind Bright’s work is controversial and you can really see how it influences her work. The 70’s were a massive decade of feminism and women’s rights; there was the take back the night Campaign in 76, 1972 The Feminist Art Journal was founded, 1973 first-trimester abortion was legalised. She took them at the time of the second wave feminism movement which was all about having more than just the right to vote and reproductive rights. Therefore, it’s fascinating how instead of all that positivity she wanted to highlight the fact that women’s role in society are still not what women want them to be. That’s what I find really fascinating about her work. She focuses solely on women’s role in society and if you looked at her timeline of work you can see how women’s roles have changed in the way that more women have jobs but at the same time the way a women’s role is seen hasn’t completely changed. I was inspired by her construction of reality using doll house sets so I did a photoshoot involving a doll in a kitchen doing ‘a woman’s tradition role’ however I put my own slightly disturbing twist on the images to show how women are fighting to not be pigeon holed into domestic or objectified roles and are more open about fighting the patriarchy and striving for equality.
My personal project has had other influences. Since this project is meant to be personal, I have taken the narrative from my own experience. Throughout my teens I’ve had issues with body confidence and my looks because of social media. However, luckily, I’ve managed to re-find that confidence in myself and realise that I may not be a size six with perfect skin but not many people are. Just because I don’t fit into what social media deems beautiful doesn’t mean I’m not and I’m proud of being able to pull myself out of the hole I was in and now I try to look nice for myself, not other people. My work has also been inspired by an Instagram account called Trophy wife Barbie who uses adult humour and barbies to recreate what she and other women are really like. So, in my project I’ve tried to apply the same parody to my work but make it darker. Another inspiration I had for this project was the poem Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy written in 1971 the same time as some of Simmons’ work. It’s a dark poem about how a girl who dies trying to live up to the unrealistic expectations of society that is represented through the Barbie Doll.
In conclusion, I think Bright’s and Simmon’s works are similar but different. They both construct realities to put across their point of views about society. They are both influenced by the times and by their backgrounds and both create haunting pieces of work which puts across their message even stronger. However, what I like most about their work is their differences. I like how Bright focuses on the misrepresentation of women and focuses on unrealistic beauty standards. For me personally, this is a very important issue to have a public debate about. Many teenagers not just girls like myself find it very hard to like the way we look and struggle with body image because of social media and society’s expectations in general. I also like how Simmons looks at women’s roles through the eyes of society. This is also a very important issue because it reminds us to keep pushing for more equality as women. For me her work has a beginning which is images like the one I looked at in this essay about women’s role as a housewife and it also has an end which is her recent work called ‘the love doll’ which for me as a teenage girl creates so much discomfort in the way that it’s about the ultimate objectification of a human being not just women. For me it shows that thirty to forty years down the line things have changed but there is no happy ending which makes her work a whole lot darker than Bright’s. I am happy because with my project I’ve been able to look at these two artists work and social influencers’ work and refine it to show my meaning, my understanding and I’ve also been able to tie their two works together.
Bibliography:
Wolf, N (1990). The Beauty Myth. London: Chatto & Windus.
Mulvey, L (1975), “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” London: Afterall Books.
Baker-Sperry, L.; Grauerholz, L. (2003). “The pervasiveness and persistence of the feminine beauty ideal in children’s fairy tales”. Gender & Society.
Simmons is an American filmmaker, photographer and artist born 1949. She is part of The Pictures Generation which includes Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger and Louise Lawler. She received a BFA from Tyler’s school of art in 1971. Her work tends to be feminist inspired and a social commentary on society’s view on women.
Analysis
This image is called ‘Woman Opening Refrigerator/ Milk to the Right,’ it’s from Simmon’s series Early Colour Interiors taken from 1978-79. This was during the second wave of feminist such as the take back the night campaign in 1976. Conceptually the doll is meant to represent the classic housewife which is given away by her outfit and hairstyle. She photographs this doll in multiple constructed scenes of her doing stereo-typically household chores. The concept was to demonstrate the daily life of a housewife but also to illustrate the loneliness and isolation felt by some housewives. I think this is shown by the fact that in most of the images she is the only doll and using lighting and shadows. I think she intentionally kept those shadows in order to symbolise the darkness, isolation and emptiness some housewives feel. The focal point of the image is the doll in the center. She’s a walking stereotype. With the haircut, flowery dress and the whole kitchen mise-en-scene around her she’s a stereotypical housewife that Simmons grew up surrounded by.
Compared to Bright’s work, Simmons work doesn’t just focus on the subject, the doll, herself. She uses a wider aperture to capture the housewife doll’s ‘natural environment’ in order to get her message across. Whereas, Bright solely focus on the doll’s appearance. Their difference of subject makes sense. Simmon’s who is 70 would have grown up with vintage doll houses so it makes sense she’d focus on that. Bright is 53 so would have grown up with Barbie’s.
My narrative is the story from the Perfect Fantasy to being awake and aware and pulling and from it and feeling acceptance. As a person I always feel like I have to be perfect, perfect being what the world around me tells me is thin enough and pretty enough. The narrative with represent my struggle to acceptance and to realise that this fantasy that’s been created by society is always going to be slightly out of reach and obtainable because it’s always changing.
A Sentence:
The struggle to overcome society’s expectations of beauty.
Three Words:
Dangerous beauty standards
Beauty expectations, unrealistic body expectations, Society
How you want your book to look and feel– look like an old fairy tale book. Hard cover
Paper and ink– normal paper
Format, size and orientation-A5 portait
Binding and cover- an image
Title –
Structure and architecture
Design and layout– I want a mixture of double page layouts and just normal pages.
Editing and sequencing– all my images from different shoots mixed up. more shocking images towards the end.
Images and text– images with text
My Photobook
I added a poem to go along with my images, it’s a poem that I wrote from my own experience. It was to add more meaning and narrate the story.
I chose to start the book with ‘the beginning’ and finish it with ‘the end’ in order for the book to seem like a story book which relates to innocence and childhood.
I changed the text from fancy to creepy to show the transition from childhood to womanhood and the mental and emotional transition between. Also the types of images shift as well.
Final Layout
In the end I decided to keep the font all the same size and type of font because of consistency. I then switched my last page image with the one before it because the one before it. Now the two images with vignetting are next to each other which aesthetically looks better.I’ve also rearranged the pages with the portrait images just to add variety to my layout.
The word tableau is defined by The Oxford English Dictionary as, “a picture; a picturesque or graphic description,” and the word “vivant” is derived from the Latin word meaning “living.”
Tableux vivants originated in the medieval era. Actors would re-enact famous bible scenes during mass, this then evolved into actors creating live versions of famous paintings during the Renaissance era. These actors reacted paintings of Greuze, David and Isabey. Tableux viviant acting was also popular at weddings and other events. Tableux viviants became less popular in the early 19th century due to the realism movement. However, in the 20th century, actresses re-enacted nude classic paintings but then tableaux started to die out because of the invention of film, however, became popular within photography. In terms of photography, Jean-Francois Chevrier as the first to use tableaux in association which was during the 1970’s and 80’s. Photographer’s then began replicating famous paintings in constructing new meanings. Previously in my coursework, I studied Tableux viviants and reconstructed fairy tales with modern day twists. The difference with this project is that I won’t be doing it with real people but with dolls and doll house sets.
The Manniquin Challenge
The Mannequin Challenge was a viral internet trend that became popular in November 2016. It was a challenge where people would set up a scene and remain frozen whilst moving the camera films. The song “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd often playing in the background. It was a new form of tableaux viviant and became a trend causing thousands to get involved. Before film and camera killed tabeleaux viviant and made it unpopular and now it’s being used to explore it in a whole new way.
Pictorialismis an approach to photography that emphasizes the beauty of the subject matter along with tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality. The time period it was popular was 1880s-1920s. One of its main conventions is the idea of making photos look like paintings.
Artists associated: Julia Margaret Cameron, Emerson, Kuhn, Henneburf, Watcek – the Vienna camera club. -The brotherhood of the linked ring. -Photo succession group. – Sally Mann
Methods/ techniques/ processes: Soft focus, manipulating images within darkroom, scratching and marking in darkroom, fuzzy imagery, Vaseline in front of lens . allegorical
REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Realism is all about the ability to take images of things the way they are, there’s no making the image look like paintings or editing them. Realism became popular after Pictorialism wanting to challenge the art world and how photographers make photos look like paints. It became popular early 20th century.
Key characteristics/ conventions :Artists associated: Walker Evans, Paul Strand, Stieglitz, social reform, jacob riis, Dorothea lange
Methods/ techniques/ processes: Not blurring, real people, abstraction, social reform
Surrealism
Surrealism is all about unleashing the unconscious mind and they tend to have socio-political connotations because they also comment on politics and society. They tend to have a dream-like quality to them. Surrealism grew out of the World Wars in the early 20th century and Dadaism and abstractism.
