Christopher McKenney is a conceptual artist from Pennsylvania specializing in horror surrealist photography. He is also known for his live concert photography alongside his ability to capture his concepts. In 2012 he went to the woods with only a sheer, a chair and a frame, he began taking photos. He achieved the images below by self-portraits in which he put the sheet over his head and photo-shopped his body out.

 ‘I like taking away identity when photographing and to leave people thinking. I only make the photos I do to express myself and what other people see or think is up to them, as long as I make them feel anything I’m OK with that.’

McKenney has used natural daylight to capture this image, the colour tone is fairly warm from the fallen leaves. This is a self-portrait which was taken on a self-timer so that he had time to put the sheet over his head and position himself in the seat. There is high level of control in this image as he is manipulating where he places the chair, how he puts the sheet at an angle, the background, it can be seen as a tableaux vivant as he is essentially acting out a concept. The textures are rough with the dead leaves collated on the forest floor and the green leaves blowing in the wind which contrast with the dull prickly branches. The image is neither over or under exposed, McKenney achieved his by trial and error as well as editing in photoshop when erasing his body from the chair to create this ghost like image. The project itself is called ‘Self-Ghosts’, McKenney doesn’t go into detail about the idea behind the concept and says it’s up to the audience to decode their own concept. Personally, I think that he is representing the idea that we make ourselves evil, we all have hidden demons, some people choose to let them free by exerting criminal act for instance whereas other leave their self-ghost dormant. On the other hand, I believe that McKenney is also trying to portray the idea that both the supernatural and ‘real world connect in everyday life. The contrast between the the chair/sheet and the ghost creates the concept that the supernatural isn’t so different to use and that they can experience the same world as us. The focal point is the floating sheet and then the audiences eyes moves out to see the chair then the forest setting, this links with this concept and how McKenney is telling a story with the the ‘normal’ background and the abnormal ‘foregroud’.

Contextual Study Wed 23 Nov:
Conversations on Photography

Methods > Practice

This task is about providing a critical perspective on an artist’s work or specific image by reading other people’s point of view which will inform your own understanding, as well as offering different interpretations.

First, let’s read the Introduction by David Campany’s new book: So present, so invisible and discuss in class.

Secondly, select one of the interviews from the book where he is talking with world-class artists about their various creative phases and their rapport with the medium of photography. These conversations go beyond the simple interview to reveal complex relations between art and photography, photography and the world, word and image.

Broomberg & Chanarin
Daniel Blaufuks
Robert Cumming
LaToya Ruby Frazier
Lewis Baltz
John Stezaker
Paul Graham
Rut Blees Luxemburg
Jeff Wall
Susan Meiselas
William Klein
Stephen Shore

You can find the interviews here. M:\Departments\Photography\Students\ISLANDNESS\Contextual Studies\So present, so invisible

• Read interview, make notes and identify 3 quotes (that are thought-provoking, revealing or contentious_
• Select one image from the photographer and analyse in depth following this method: TECHNICAL, VISUAL, CONTEXTUAL, CONCEPTUAL – focus on the last two aspects of analysis to achieve highest marks
• Incorporate the 3 quotes above into your analysis and interpretation of the image and artist’s work (this is essential to provide a critical perspective)
• Make sure you comment on the quotes, either for or against, (do YOU agree or disagree with what the artist is saying) in developing a critique and informed argument.
• Ensure you explain why agree / disagree with the comment!
• EXTENSION: Research a second source of information about the artist or his/her work (interview, review, article, text in a book etc), identity quotes and incorporate in your writing.

DEADLINE: This is essentially a piece of Independent Study (homework) that you need to complete outside of lessons. Post must be published on blog by Wed 30 Nov.

Contextual Study WED 6 Jan:
Photography Decoded

Issues > Theory

This task is about adopting critical thinking about photography by applying theory into practice; interpreting and analysing an artist’s work or specific image.

Read Introduction here:

Select one of the questions listed below from the book Photography Decoded authored by curator and writer Susan Bright and curator, writer and photo-historian Hedy van Erp.

Is it Real?

What do I remember?

How can you tell a story?

Can lying be OK?

What goes where?

Why is it famous?

What makes it problematic?

Who do you think you are?

Stealing or borrowing?

Public or Private?

Follow these instructions:

• Read text in detail, make notes and identify 3 quotes
• Select one image from examples mentioned in text and apply your own interpretation of the photograph by applying the theory and critical thinking from what you have just learned from reading the text.
• Incorporate the 3 quotes above into your interpretation of the image and make sure you comment on the quotes, either for or against, in developing a critique and informed argument.
  EXTENSION: Read a second text from above and apply theory and critical thinking into your writing.

DEADLINE: This is essentially a piece of Independent Study (homework) that you need to complete outside of lessons. Post must be published on blog by Wed 13 Jan.

For further reading and study go to this blog post here on Photography and Truth:

PHOTOGRAPHY AND TRUTH

History to Still-Life

• 

In the early 1960s, the genre of Still-Life became popular in Northern Europe and it Dutch and is known to be an independent photography style. The style is originally formed in Dutch and started to become renowned for being concerned with Khar (observation with the natural world). The objects photographed are usually positioned within a frame and create the objects showcased are usually considered to symbolise religion and mortality, reflecting the artists culture. The symbolism is shown through different objects (mirrors, candles, glasses, vases, watches, crowns etc..) all of which can represent aspects such as death, power, human life, as well as wealth and beauty and were all discovered in the ancient burial sights. Therefore, still-life being the composed portray of objects was considered broad and later on they were condensed into sub categories because of the different objects being photographed being different and having a different symbolic representation.

The Romans and Greeks also made a similar form of art which was known as Frescoes which is where they painted on plaster. This art type was modified to include more religious elements, meaning that floral designs become more popular because of them representing areas around the world which are all blooming in the same vase. Moving onto becoming closer to the modern day, this overall technique was adopted by well known artist Van Gough who painted images which included sunflowers, water jugs, as well as wine bottles.

Contemporary Still Life

What is Contemporary Still Life?- “Contemporary Still Life brings together approximately fifty paintings, sculptures, drawings, tapestries, and photographs executed since 1960. The exhibition has been assembled with the intention of encouraging a rethinking of the traditionally narrow definition of still life”.

Laura Letinsky Case Study

Letinsky was born on Winnipeg and is a Canadian comtempoary photographer who is known for her still life photographs and graduated from the Yale School of Art in 1991. When starting photography, she started as a portrait photographer but matured through her photography to working with still life imagery. At present she is working at the Visual Art University of Chicago.

Her images reflect the famous Dutch still life but with a new feel which were described as “ripeness, freshness and decay”. This makes her still life different from Dutch still life, due to hers being more modern because of the elements included. She has said that she uses photography to convey our understanding of relationships and love which could link back to her “ripeness” in her photographs. It has been said that her association with still life associates with femininity, minor art and imbrication within the home.

Her Style..

• Aesthetically pleasing
• Landscape Images
• Simple camera settings
• Low ISO’s throughout
• Fully focused images (high shutter speeds)
• Monotone colours used

Mood Board

Analysation Image

Technical Analysis- Technically, we can see that the photograph has been taken with a simple camera setting, allowing conceptual factors to be an important part in the photograph. The shutter speed used must of been quick due to their being no intended blur on the image within the frame. There must have been a low ISO used on the photograph because of the soft lighting seen on the image which has obviously been done with artificial lighting which was created from studio lights. Their is an accurate white balance being used for the environment in. The aperture used in the photograph is seeming to be low because of the large depth of field in the picture.

Visual Analysis- We can see that this is a landscape image with the main focus being on the centre of the image which is a half eaten melon. Their are very monotone colours used in the image which helps to contrast with the yellow/orange melon which is placed in the centre of the image. The background is also seen as simplistic.

Conceptual Analysis- The creased table cloth is suggesting a sense of mess and uncleanliness. Due to Letkinskys work being about femininity, I personally am taking this unclean rug as a symbolism of an unpure women, and due to this being an object I feel as if the image is also representing women as not being objects.

Meaning behind this choice

After looking into both the overall history of still life as well as more in depth contemporary still life artist Laura Letinsky and her work, I decided that using still-life as a photoshoot is a good idea for my project as there is a lot of freedom within this subject and although the images are staged, they can still portray emotions and meanings.

The two following photographers have very different approaches, ass well photographing completely different things; Hassan Hajjaj is a portrait photographer, whereas Jean-Pierre Raynaud is an object photographer. However I enjoy both of their styles; they would also both fit into my personal study as I have done both styles in past projects and enjoyed doing them.

Hassan Hajjaj

I really enjoy the vibrant colours he always implements into his work, they are always bold and help turn the photo into a statement through exaggerating certain elements of the photo. Such as in the photo below, its a woman wearing boxing clothing and holding boxing gloves in the way a purse would be conventionally held. This has been done to show the strength of a woman, especially in a male dominated scenario.

I also really like how he makes a frame for every photo out of food related items most commonly found in Morocco. This helps add another layer of, usually contrasting, colour to the photo, as well as to strengthen the feel the photo gives you.

Jean-Pierre Raynaud

These photos are of the Jean-Pierre Raynaud designed ‘La Maison de La Celle-Saint-Cloud’ in Paris; which opened in 1974. It is a house and art installation comprised entirely of white tiles. The obsessive construction of the house’s walls, floors, ceilings and fixed furniture were all coated with white 15cm x 15cm ceramic tiles with black joints.

I like the strong geometric shapes all of his work is based upon;they help make all the images bold, and make any other objects (e.g. a plant) stand out a lot more due to the contrast between its curved/irregular lines and shapes and colour, compared to the black and white grid of its surroundings.

I also enjoy the simplicity that comes with his style of work; there is usually one focal point of the image, using the example of a plant again, which attracts all of the attention towards it. The grid around it also helps accentuate the shape of the object through again, contrast between the lines.

To conclude, both these photographers have very different styles which both appeal to me, however they do have one main thing in common: the subject of their photos always majorly contrasts with the rest of the image, be that through colour or shape, and I will take inspiration and feature this in my future work.

Intro

During the time and effort i put through doing my investigation and investigating with the project (Occupation vs. Liberation) i gained a lot of experience and skills with working on portraits, environmental photography, photo shop skills……. .And in this blog post i’m going to write and overview of these stuff i learnt as well as the inspirations that inspired me throughout my work.

Knowledge

The occupation

I gained a lot of knowledge about the island through this project as i have lived in jersey for almost a year and a half without even knowing that there was an occupation that occurred before i came. so through this project i now gained knowledge about almost everything i can know about the occupation from when it started to what they ate during the occupation.

Home

Moreover i also gained knowledge about the family i lived with as i lived with them without knowing that much about them but when i was working on my Home Sweet Home project i learnt a lot about them by photographing what they do at home throughout the day.

Skills

Light Room

Throughout doing this project i gained a lot skills with practicing photo editing specially using Light room as i have always been using Photoshop but we had to use light room in this project which really worked to my advantage because i got to explore all the new ways of editing photographs.

Camera Handling

I also expanded my photography techniques specially with environmental portraiture and still object photographing through the project (Still Life). And got more professionalized with using camera skills and adjusting settings.

Conclusion

in conclusion this project really taught me a lot of stuff but mainly just gave me experience about the whole idea of being involved in the history of the German Occupation in Jersey.

• 

Diana Markosian is was born in Moscow in 1996, making her a Russian American who left Moscow to live in California with both her mother and brother. She was family orientated due to not having contact with her father until age 23 before travelling to Armenia to see him 15 years later. Markosian is known as a Russian American artist of Armenian Descent.

Markosians most recognised work is “Inventing my Father” where she explores her fathers absence throughout her life through using archival imagery and landscapes to support her lost memories. She also used physical elements such as newspaper articles, letters and objects which is photographed in a still-life way to represent a personal element to the project, showcasing raw emotion to her audience through using black and white edit and through portrait images of her father.

Relevant Quote- ” I often wondered what it would have been like to have a father. I still do.”

Her Style..

• Black and White Edits
• Burns images
• Fully focused Images
• Birds eye view
• Photo Manipulation

Mood Board

Analysation Image

Technical Analysis- Technically this image is seen to be taken in a poorly lit room which adds to the emotion of the raw image, there is shadowing going on to show that there is a light source coming from somewhere in the room. The image is fully focused and good quality showing that a goof camera has been used to take the depressing photograph.

Visual Analysis- Visually, we can see a printed photograph of Diana and her mother with a cut out image which we can assume would have been her father, representing a broken family photograph. The image has been cut out physically through scissors. Due to the background we can also see that this image has been taken in a photo album due to the type/ texture of the paper.

Conceptual Analysis- Conceptually, this image can be seen that there is a clear disappearance of a family member in the image which represents lack of responsibility and absence in the family home. This can further be looked into by the cut out showing the audience how important Diana’s mother was to her due to being the only adult influence she had.

Contextual Analysis- After research, this image contextually portrays an image which Diana’s mother had cut out after being stuck into the family photo album. The cut out represents the loss of a family member.

Meaning behind this choice

After researching the artist Diana Markosian in detail, I have decided that I would like to use her as an inspiration towards my first photo shoot as I feel as if our imagery is in relation to each other. Although her images have depressing backgrounds to it and mine will be showing good times in my life, I still feel as if she is a good basis on what archive images can been to a certain personal emotionally which is an element I was aiming to use in my project.