My personal investigation looks at my grandparent’s lifestyle and how it has been influenced by the time period they grew up in, the 1940’s. I have explored the influence of religion and spirituality, gender roles within the family structure and social norms during this time period which are still present in their lifestyle to this day. Appropriately, I chose the art movement of realism to influence the stylistic features of my imagery to create the narrative of my grandparent’s life style. Realism photography looks at documentary photography and photojournalism to capture life how it is, whilst occasionally raising social and cultural issues. With my topic being based in my grandparent’s lifestyle, I felt that using documentary photography would be the most appropriate to showcase this, thus drawing connections with realism. Moreover, my work is aimes to look at social norms and family structure, such as the wife being a housewife whilst the husband provides for the family, which illuminates social issues which still subtly influence today’s society.
Image from: Walker Evans – “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men’
The art movement of realism and straight photography looks at creating imagery which showcase life how it is. The movement emerged in the 1840’s, which retaliated against pictorialism which suggests photographs have to look like a drawing or painting. Artists who work within this area look at raising social and cultural issues relevant within society at that time, in order to make the audience aware of this issue in hope something can be done to make a change, which presents the convention of social reform. This area looks at documentary photography and photojournalism to document the events which are occurring. Within this art movement artists stick to the original techniques of photography, the use of photography for science, to create detailed, sharp images showcasing real life.
Image from: Walker Evans – “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men’
Walker Evans is a key photographer who has influenced my investigation through his ‘Let Us Now Praise Famous Men’ photographic series. In this he aims to document the lives of sharecropping families, those who are forced into labour which involves them having to look after the land and in return they gain a share of the crops produced on their portion of land. His work falls into the movement of realism, as the series produces imagery which showcase the families’ lives as well as drawing cultural issues at the time, with strong political views being produced from Evan. In addition, his work looks at capturing lifestyle, which is similar to my project, which enhances my understanding and approach to capturing the lifestyle of my family, which has allowed me to consider the conceptual and contextual elements in a new way.
This mind map explores different ideas which I would consider to be my main focus for my person investigation. With each idea made below I tried to link them back to the overall themes of Occupation and/or Liberations, as those themes are still the project title. Personally, I wanted to come away from looking at the occupation of Jersey, due to me doing it for such a long time, exploring different elements. I took the word Occupation and Liberation and looked at synonyms which allowed me to respond to the words in a more contemporary and artistic way, as well as ensuring I would be able to conduct multiple photoshoots to produce strong imagery relating back to the themes. My exploration is shown below:
Mood Board:
Action Plan:
Moving forward I would like to create a repose to the themes of occupation and liberation by exploring my family, more specifically my grandparents. I have decided to choose my family as I have a personal attachment to the subject and I believe I will be able to produce stronger outcomes, in a conceptual and contextual sense, as I have that bond with my subjects which allows them to be more open. With regards to looking at my grandparents I would like to look at lifestyle and how their upbringing in the 1940’s has effected their lifestyle, with specific looks at gender roles, family structure and religion. These three areas are the main influencing factors on their lifestyle, however when I look further into their past I am sure that other elements will make themselves present which I can also include in this investigation. I have decided that I would like to look through family archives to gain an understanding of their lifestyles before I was born, and conduct photoshoots which showcase their lifestyle now, allowing a comparison to be made of the past to the present.
Julia Margaret Cameron: Cameron used a soft focus in her images in order to create an overall dream-like appearance in her images, and is well known as one of the most influential portrait photographers of the 19th century. Her delicate and whimsical portraits of women and children placed the unconscious mind, dreams and imagination at the forefront of her images, and are often based on illustrative allegories or have religious undertones/meanings.
Time period : 1880s – 1920s
Key characteristics/ conventions :Pictorialism focuses on the beauty of the subject and the perfection of the composition, rather than the accurate documentation of the true, real world. Pictorialism often takes inspiration from works of literature, fair-tales and stories, incorporating a sense of dream-like wonder and spirituality into images in order to create a photograph that is visually, as well as contextually, interesting.
Sally Mann: Mann takes advantage of pictorialism in order to use her own personal experiences to create images which follow key elements of the movement closely. Mann focuses on the editing process of her photos, layering over the top of the images to create disturbed or washed out effects which bring the context of the image to the forefront of the viewers mind, forcing them to question why the image has been edited or disturbed in that way.
Methods/ techniques/ processes: Making pictures that resemble paintings by manipulating images in the darkroom, scratching and marking prints to imitate canvas texture, and using soft focus, often basing the image on allegorical and spiritual subject matter.
Frederick H. Evans: Evans was a member of the photographers association, The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring. The Linked Ring was a photographic society that sought to prove that photography was as much an art form as it was a science, and supported photography as a fine art. The society held exhibitions in which they rejected the notion of the technical approach of contemporary photography.
Artists associated: Julia Margaret Cameron, Peter Henry Emerson, The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring, Sally Mann
Plan a response: In order to create a piece of work that reflects the key elements of pictorialism, the editing of the photograph must be carefully planned and developed, and the subjects within the frame of the image may have a spiritual or religious meaning. Edits to the image itself should involve scratching an marking layers of the image, and there should be a reduction in harsh formal lines and tones in the final image, as to reflect the softness of many images found in pictorialism.
Peter Henry Emerson: Emerson was of the belief that cameras should be used to depict and document people as they were in real life, and should not follow the themes of posed scenes such as tableaux. Although Emerson believed that cameras should be used to document reality, the overall aesthetic of his images ran parallel with the ideals of pictorialism, with his images focusing on the beauty and composition of the subject matter.
REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Walker Evans: Evans focuses on documenting the lives of working class society in America, and took inspiration from a range of other documentary photographers and artists. Evans work gives an intimate view into the lives of people that the viewers otherwise would not get a chance to meet or understand, and presents their lives, flaws and all, in a bare and stark manner, allowing the viewer to compare their own lives with that of the subjects in the images.
Time period: 1930’s – present
Key characteristics/ conventions : Straight photography relies on the cameras ability to produce detailed and sharp images that reflect the reality of the subject they are shooting. These images are often left un-edited, and with very little manipulation, in order to emphasise the real beauty and form of the subjects. The photographer is able to visualise the final image though encountering a scene they wish to photograph, and therefore the camera is used as a method of saving that scene, the exact way it was originally seen and experienced by the artist. Straight photography is able to capture a true moment in time, and reflect it accurately and realistically the viewers.
Jacob Riis: Riis documented the harsh reality of immigrants living in poverty in the slums of New York City during the late 19th century, providing the first real documentation of these people, and the upsetting truth of the areas of New York that had never received acknowledgement from the public before. Riis work can be seen as some of the first straight photography, where upsetting, real scenes of poverty were documented without censoring or being hidden/manipulated.
Methods/ techniques/ processes: Straight photography focuses on the cameras ability to show tone, form, focus, detail and contrast. The main aspect of taking the photograph involves the photographer first experiencing the scene, and visualising the image before it is taken. Straight photography relies on the photographers ability to decide on a time, place and subject matter that they wish to document, and therefore takes into account the wishes and observation abilities of the artist. Subjects can vary to encompass things that the photographer finds beautiful, important or rare, and therefore straight photography is often a reflection of the photographers own taste in what they believe to be an appropriate subject for their concept.
Paul Strand: Strand, while also well known for his modernism work, can also be classed as contributing work in the category of straight photography. Strands straight photography work looks into the environments of everyday life, using cities, streets, machines and people to express social reform, and to give a detailed documentation of current life.
Artists associated: Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Jacob Riis
Plan a response: Straight photography relies on the artists ability to see and observe a scene which they believe to be an important representation of an idea or social/political problem, and through the medium of photography, they are able to document the scene. Therefore straight photography relies on an idea being developed from the observation of a scene, and as this movement does not rely on the editing/manipulation of the image, it is important for the person taking the image to focus on the technical aspects of the camera, ensuring the IOS, focus and shutter-speed of the camera is appropriately set, and that the shadows, tones, time of day and shapes of the scene itself is all appropriate, and will reflect the natural beauty of the scenes without the need for enhancement.
Alfred Stieglitz: Stieglitz‘s later work moves away from pictorialism, and further towards straight photography, in which his work depicts the truth of the modern world through the use of sharp focus and a high level of contrast. Stieglitz helped to drive the movement of the time from pictorialism, towards modernism (such as straight photography).
Markosian is a Russian American artist of Armenian descent. She war born in Moscow and in 1996 she left to go live in California with her mother and her brother. Until the age of 23 she had no contact with her father. After 15 years of not seeing him she travelled to Armenia to see her father.
Markosian’s body of work called “inventing my father” is what I will be analysing and exploring in this post.
Throughout this project Diana explores her father’s absence throughout her life through the use of archival imagery, landscape images of important locations and also through photographing objects, letters and newspaper articles. This particular project is very personal, and the artist projects very raw emotion onto her audience through the use of black and white images and through portraits of her father.
“For most of my life, my father was nothing more than a cut out in our family album” – Diana Markosian
I have decided to use Diana as my case study, as one aspect of my family history I feel is important to incorporate into my project is my parents’ divorce. I wanted to see how the artist approached photographing and portraying the absence of a parent through images, as I will need to portray the same.
“I often wondered what it would have been like to have a father. I still do.”-Diana Markosian
Diana also has a project “mornings (with you)” which is almost a part 2 to the above photo series, where she meets her father, gets to know him, and documents it through images of them together in the mornings.
Analysis:
In this image we can see a printed photograph of Diana, her mother and we can also see that her father has been cut out of what would otherwise be a family photograph.
We then learn that Diana’s mother had cut out her father. This image is captioned “This was the closest thing I had to an image of my father: a cut out in our family album.”
Conceptually, It is clear that the absence of her father in the photo reflects his absence in her life. The lack of her father also further emphasises her mother. Which reflects the importance of her mum in her life after loosing her father figure.
Over the course of this project I have been looking at the Occupation and Liberation of Jersey, during WWII. I have researched what life was like during the occupation of the island, gathering information from sources both online and from interviewing people who were alive during the occupation for a true insight into what survivors of the occupation and liberation of Jersey really lived through. On top of this I have looked into what the island itself has gone through, undergoing a transformation from a peaceful island to a large German fortress, with the addition of fortified towers and bunkers, many of which are still around today.
One of the techniques I have used during this topic is portraiture. I worked with Hedley Hinault and Joyce De La Haye, both of them lived through the occupation of the island. I asked them questions about their childhoods and heard their stories about German soldiers and what the people in Jersey got up to and were able to do under German control. The process of interviewing and making conversation with my portraiture subjects, which I had never met before, was a new experience to me. It was challenging but after some talking and question asking from both myself and subjects the process became much smoother as we felt comfortable working together. Being able to first speak to my subjects also made the final outcome of my portraits different as I was able to get a more genuine picture that while being set up didn’t feel stiff or nervous. I worked with a three point light set up to allow detail on the subjects’ faces to become highlighted or shadowed. I worked with all 3 lights in slightly different positions at different points of the photoshoot so that I could explore my subjects and the effects the light had upon their complexions.
Another technique I have used during this topic is landscape photography and my ability to incorporate WWII fortification and bunker architecture. I would head out to different parts of Jersey’s coastline and photograph the remains of German built structures, many of which can be found along the north and south coasts of the island due to Jersey’s proximity to both England above it and France below it. I developed my landscape skills as well as making photo montages, which consist of cutting and sticking images, both with scissors and glue and using editing software. I also made a zine, a small magazine to display my compositions in a new and different way rather than just printing flat images to look at, I had now produced something physical which the viewer could hold and interact with.
Finally we worked with objects. Once again a studio setting allowed me to develop my camera skills using different lighting and objects set ups to produce clear, well lit, close up shots. This process allowed me to experiment with laying out and positioning inanimate objects, manipulating factors such as background colour and my proximity to the subject.
I was most inspired by my work with people and objects. I enjoyed being able to work with the subjects two very different ways; being able to speak to the subjects and interact with them to gain an understanding of the subjects personally as well as being able to communicate my ideas with them and receive feedback and a second opinion. Contrasting with the work I did using objects as subject matter. This process gave me full control over the subjects, allowing me to place it how I wanted, where I wanted for as long as I wanted. I enjoyed taking close up photos during my “Home-sweet-home” project and would like to incorporate this into portraiture for my “Occupation Vs. Liberation” project.
Jeff Wall is a Canadian born, Vancouver based photographer who specializes in back lit tableaux photographs of the city of Vancouver itself
Wall studied at the University of British Colombia and graduated with a masters degree in photography in 1970. In the same year he relocated to London to study for a post graduate degree at the courtyard institute, studying with Manet expert T.J Clark. He then went on to become the Assistant professor at Nova Scotia college of Art and Design from 1974-1975 and he then became the associate professor at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia from 1976-1987 whilst also teaching at The University of British Columbia.
Wall is renowned for his tableaux reconstructions of scenarios he had witnessed himself that were representative of the political environment at the time. His photos are always back lit and in a cinematographic style, Depicting more of a story through this means. Due to his tableaux style, His shoots often consisted of many people such as cast, crew as well as digital post production workers. Almost all of his shoots are centered around suburban Vancouver, world renowned for the relationship between the suburban environment and the rural environment. Many of the suburban areas have mountainous backdrops and are bordered by forests as well as having a substantial amount of urban architecture, which Wall finds to be a great way of providing contrast within an image.
Image Analysis
Parent Child- Jeff Wall 2018
In Walls image ‘Parent Child’ we see a striking usage of colour. The green of the foliage and grass compared with the white shades of the wall and sidewalk as well as the vehicles in the road create a sense of elegance and almost calm. The blue of the sky above also depicts a sense of calm. The child on the floor seemingly sleeping calmly acts as a further metaphor for this portrayal of calm. The father looks over the child dressed in a pink vest and gray shorts, and judging by his slightly slouched posture and his tilted head, He is tired of his child playing games and playing around as he potentially may be on his way somewhere with her and she is holding him up. The image is very bright in itself and consists of high contrast colour to reflect the atmosphere of a sunny midsummer day. Overall there is a sense of serenity and happiness in the image and the person in the background on the scooter can be seen as representative of time passing by. This point is furthermore illustrated by the presence of people walking past the parent and child, just in front of them, with the subject on the left looking over his right shoulder to examine the scene presented before him. This makes us ask the question ‘What is it he sees’? Does he see a Child having a tantrum? Does he see a fed up father? Does he feel sorry for the father?.
Personal Opinion
Personally, I am a big fan of Wall’s work and his representation of modern day life in a suburban community. His usage of back lighting makes his images consistently bright and vibrant and allows for him to experiment with contrast between brighter and darker colors. Walls Tableaux approach is a method that I would like to replicate in my personal study, essentially creating everyday life scenes that appear candid in nature but are actually fully staged and instructed. This would aid me in portraying senses and feelings of occupation and liberty however I please, rather than waiting for an opportunity, I am able to capture exactly what I would like to achieve when I want to capture it.
Bibliography; Bright, S. and Van Erp. H (2019), Photography Decoded. London; Octopus Publishing House
“Nonetheless, we can still ask ourselves in every single instance: under what circumstances are these images to be trusted as real?” – (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019: page 17)
“The daguerreotype had aspirations to both the realistic and theatrical, as well as to the commercial. The ‘mirror’ can serve as a metaphor for reality, whereas the red velvet evokes theater curtains, within which the beautiful drama would unfold”(Bright, S and Van Erp H. 2019: page 17)
“If manipulation is the first thing someone thinks of in connection to photography, what does that say about the value of the photography as a reflection of reality? And what does ‘real photography’ even look like.”(Bright, S and Van Erp H. 2019: page 17)
“Documentary and news imagery may seem the more realistic genres in photography, but their realism means nothing independently…” (Bright, S and Van Erp H. 2019: page 18)
“The process of manipulation starts as soon as we frame a person, a landscape, an object or a scene with out cameras” – (Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. 2019: page 18)
“It was taken by a drone… makes it easier to interpret the degree of reality in this image, for the lack of human subjectivity makes it an example of ‘true reality” (Bright, S and Van Erp H. 2019: page 17-18)
“Photography has undergone a transformation, not only technologically but conceptually. Initially described as a means of capturing or freezing ‘real life” (Bright, S and Van Erp H. 2019: page 18)
“The process of manipulation starts as soon as we frame a person, landscape, an object or a scene with out cameras’(Bright, S and Van Erp H. 2019: page 18)
In this image titled simply “Milk”, Wall has depicted a male holding a milk drink and squeezing it, causing the milk to erupt in the subjects hands. The subject is in full focus and the background seems to be that of the exterior of a well kept and clean building, Whereas the subject appears dirty and scruffy, With greasy hair and dirty clothes. This creates a contrasting image, With a sense of cleanliness making up the background with the focus being on the messiness of the main subject of the image. The explosion of the milk carton makes us question why this is happening. Is the man angry? is he undergoing stress? or is he potentially in a crazed mental state?. This image essentially allows for the critic to create their own context to the image and create their own story due to the multiple scenarios that may be at play here in a contextual mannerism. Wall quotes from his interview with David Campany ” I think the pictorial problems emerge from the accidental encounter that reveals the subject”. I find that his quote means in a sense that the use of the medium of photography has opened up a conversation regarding the issues the subject themselves could potentially be dealing with, and that photography can be used to portray an individuals expression of their inner selves. The composition of the image in terms of contrast plays a role in telling the story as well, As the background is bright, contrasted by the small shadow of the wall of the windowed building. The usage of tinted blue for the glass and the green of the plant give the background an uplifting feel due to the bright colours. However this is contrasted by the ragged appearance of the male subject in the foreground, Depicted by his dark coloured clothing and dark hair. The white of the milk drink exploding instantly draws us to the image due to the absence of white in the background as well as the shape and texture of the liquid itself captured in the time frame it was captured in. The explosion of the milk carton creates a dramatic contrast when observed in comparison to the solid, tranquil background of the image. The eruption of the milk itself creates a talking point. Why is the milk exploding in this manner? What is the subject currently feeling in terms of emotion? Was there an event that caused this reaction?
