MODERNISM

Overview:

Modernism emerged from the age of the Enlightenment. During the 17th and 18th century there was a movement to emphasise the research and study of science and reason. Photography came from modernism as human progress was moving forward and ‘fixing an image’ was invented

Time period:

1860’s – 1960’s

Key characteristics/ conventions :

A combination of all the Avant-garde art movements. Modernism began with the invention of photography as people began to experiment in a new way with photography. Modernism was about people exloring and finding new ideas and work. Compared to post modernism which is more current, modernism was original and the it was more about the work being created than the artist creating it.

Artists associated:

Ansel Adams, Eadweard J. Muybridge, Margareth Bourke-white, Walker Evans, Hannah Höck, Alexander Rodchenko, Claude Cahun.

Key works:

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Methods/ techniques/ processes:

Artists and photographers from different movements and isms used their own techniques. Pictorialists used vaseline on th elense to blur the images making them look like painting, straight and realism photographers used wide apertures and looked for shape and tone to create their images. People from the dadaism movement began making photo montages and the Russian avant-garde did double exposures.

POST-MODERNISM

Overview:

Post modernism is was born in the late half of the 20th century. it came around in the 1960’s when the world was opening up in terms people coming out as gay or other members of the LGBTQ society without fear of going to prison or less risk of being discriminated. Architecture was the first art form to use the term postmodernism.

Time period:

1960’s – 2000’s

Key characteristics/ conventions :

Using art, photography and other art forms to give messages. Barbara Kruger used advertising and slogans on her images to represent woman and in particular the female body and the struggles women go through.

Artists associated:

Barbara Kruger, Cindy sherman, Sam Taylor-Wood

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes:

It is important that you try and be as productive as possible over the Christmas break. This is particularly important as we may have an extended period of non-contact time due to Covid-19 restrictions. It may be that you need to adapt or change your original plan for your project to suit your current situation of isolation or lock down. A really good and meaning full project can be reconfigured to suit current circumstances. As always if you need help and support get in touch via email and tune into TEAMS lessons.

Our deadlines are fixed and coursework still have to be completed as per below.

PRACTICAL WORK: You have 2 weeks over Christmas and a further 6 weeks on your return in January to complete all work, including essay and photobook or film. This include all relevant blog posts demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of: RESEARCH > ANALYSIS > PLANNING > RECORDING, EXPERIMENTATION > PRESENTATION > EVALUATION.

DEADLINE: MUST complete 3-4 new photo-shoots/ moving image recordings this term that must be published on the blog by Mon 4 Jan 2020.

ESSAY: We will be spending minimum 1 lesson a week on CONTEXTUAL STUDIES where you will be learning about critical theory, photo history and contemporary practice as well as developing academic study skills to help you writing your essay. However, it is essential that you are organising your time effectively and setting aside time outside of lessons to read, study and write.

DEADLINE: Essay MUST be handed in Fri 29 Jan 2021

PHOTOBOOK / FILM: Returning after Christmas we will be spending the whole month of January designing / editing your photobook / film.

MOCK EXAM: 5 – 11 Feb 2021. 3 days controlled test (15 hours)
Groups:

FINAL DEADLINE: Completion of photobook/ film with final essay Thurs 11 Feb 2021 .

EXAM (ESA): Exam Paper and preparation begins Fri 12 Feb 2021.

EXAM (ESA): Controlled Conditions
4 – 5 – 6 May and 12 – 13 – 14 May 2021.

XMAS BREAK: 19 Dec – 4 Jan
Essay: Reading & Writing
Photography: Photo-shoots & Experimentation

Objective: Criteria from the Syllabus

• Show evidence for an on-going critical and analytical review of your investigation – both your written essay and own practical work in response to research and analysis.

ESSAY

Academic Sources

• Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
• Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
• It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
• Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages
• Write down page number, author, year, title, publisher, place of publication so you can list source in a bibliography

Bibliography

List all the sources that you have identified above as literary sources. Where there are two or more works by one author in the same year distinguish them as 1988a, 1988b etc. Arrange literature in alphabetical order by author, or where no author is named, by the name of the museum or other organisation which produced the text. Apart from listing literature you must also list all other sources in alphabetical order e.g. websites/online sources, Youtube/ DVD/TV.

Quotation and Referencing:

• Use quotes to support or disprove your argument
• Use quotes to show evidence of reading
• Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.

Essay Question

• Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
• Here is a list of  possible questions to investigate that may help you.

Essay Plan
Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure

• 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. 
• 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

Essay Introduction
Draft an essay introduction following these steps:

1. Open a new Word document > SAVE AS: Essay draft
2. Copy essay question into Essay title: Hypothesis > if you don’t have one yet, make one!
3. Copy your essay introduction (from Essay Plan) which will give you a framework to build upon and also copy your Statement of Intent.
4. Identify 2 quotes from sources identified in an earlier task using Harvard System of Referencing.
5. Use one quote as an opening quote: Choose a quote from either one of your photographers or critics. It has to be something that relates to your investigation.
6. Add sources to Bibliograpphy > if by now you don’t have any sources, use  S. Sontag. On Photography Ch1
7. Look at an opening sentence.
8. Begin to write a paragraph (250-500 words) answering the following questions:

• Think about an opening that will draw your reader in e.g. you can use an opening quote that sets the scene. Or think more philosophically about the nature of photography and and feeble relationship with reality.
• You should include in your introduction an outline of your intention of your study e.g.
• What are you going to investigate.
• How does this area/ work interest you?
• What are you trying to prove/challenge, argument/ counter-argument?
• Whose work (artists/photographers) are you analysing and why?
• What historical or theoretical context is the work situated within. Include 1 or 2 quotes for or against.
• What links are there with your previous studies?
• What have you explored so far in your Coursework or what are you going to photograph?
• How did or will your work develop.
• What camera skills, techniques or digital processes in Photoshop have or are you going to experiment with?

PHOTOBOOK

PLAN > SHOOT > EXPERIMENT > EVALUATE

PLANNING: Produce a detailed plan of  at least 3-4 photoshoots that you intend on doing in the next 3-4 weeks.

RECORDING: Produce a number of photographic responses to your Personal Study

EDITING: Download InDesign at home and import images from each shoot.

• Create a new  Collection from each new shoot inside Collection Set: LOVE & REBELLION.
• Select 8-12 images from each shoot.
• Experimenting: Adjust images in Develop, both as Colour and B&W images appropriate to your intentions
• Export images as JPGS (1000 pixels) and save in a folder: BLOG
• Create a Blogpost with edited images and an evaluation; explaining what you focused on in each shoot and how you intend to develop your next shoot.
• Make references to artists references, previous shoots, experiments etc.

EXPERIMENTING:

• Export same set of images from Lightroom as JPEG (4000 pixels) • Experimentation: demonstrate further creativity using Photoshop to make composite/ montage/ typology/ grids/ diptych/triptych, text/ typology etc appropriate to your intentions • Design: Begin to explore different layout options using InDesign and make a new zine/book. Set up new document as A5 page sizes. This is trying out ideas before we begin designing photobook in January.
• Make sure you annotate process and techniques used

EVALUATION: Upon completion of photoshoot and experimentation, make sure you evaluate and reflect on your next step of development. Comment on the following:

• How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
• What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
• How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
• What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?

FILM

PLAN > SHOOT > EXPERIMENT > EVALUATE

STORYBOARDING: Based on your specification and narrative produce a storyboard with details of individual scenes, action, shot sizes, camera angles and mise-en-scene (the arrangement of the scenery in front of the camera) from location, props, people, lighting, sound etc.

PLANNING: Produce a detailed plan of  at least 3-4 video/audio recordings that you intend on doing in the next 3-4 weeks, incl Christmas break

RECORDING: Produce a number of photographic response to your Personal Study and bring footage from video/ audio recordings to lessons:

• Save media in folder on local V:Data Drive
• Organisation: Create a new project in Premiere
• Editing: begin editing video/ audio clips on the timeline
• Adjusting: recordings in Colour / B&W appropriate to your intentions.

EXPERIMENTING:
• Video: experimenting with sequencing using relevant transitions and effects
• Sound: consider how audio can add depth to your film, such as ambient sound, sound fx, voice-over, interview, musical score etc. • Title and credits: Consider typography/ graphics/ styles etc. For more creative possibilities make title page in Photoshop (format: 1280 x 720 pixels) and import as a Psd file into your project folder on the V-Data drive.

EVALUATION: Write an evaluation on the blog that reflects on your artistic intentions, film-editing process and collaboration. Include screen-prints from Premiere and a few ‘behind the scenes’ images of the shooting/ production for further annotation. Comment on the following:

• How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
• What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
• How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
• What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?

Art Movements & Isms

PICTORIALISM

time period : 1880 – 1920

Key characteristics/ conventions : hand made to look artistic, dream like aesthetic, romantic, scratched negatives,

Artists associated: Alfred Stieglitz, Robert Demachy, George Henry Seeley

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes: Vaseline on camera lens, distortion,

REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Time period: 1910 – 1940

Key characteristics/ conventions : face reality, sharp focus, emphasis on framing and structure, abstract,

Artists associated: Edward Western, Walker Evans, Paul Strand, Dorothea Lange, Lewis W Hine, 

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes: Abstract, documentary, street scenes.

During the Love and Rebellion theme , I have covered many different styles of art and photography, using new and challenging software. Some of the major projects have been our photo-zines and short films, which I decided, would both be about the main theme of love. The next module of work will be my personal investigation. The idea of the personal investgation is to critically question and challenge a particular style or area of work by artists and photographers which will help me develop my own ideas as a photography student. 

My Personal Study is a written and illustrated project. During the course of the next year I have the choice to make I will be creating a lens-based body of work (either stills photography or moving image), so either a short film (3-5mins) or a photo book in response to the theme “LOVE & REBELLION”. I have decided I would like to explore creating a phonebook. For my book I will use the online software Blurb or by hand using traditional book binding techniques. As an additional piece to the project I will also include a written essay (2000 words).

My intention in to continue with my theme of identity that Ive executed in my short film, but exploring ideas of teen culture as shown in the examples below by Theo Gosselin and Corinne Day. My main idea is to continue with dirty realism and take a look at how I can create my own, personal photo diary, including the mundane and ‘real’ parts of my life as a teen, like the people I love, things I love doing, relationships and more.

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Corinne Day is an amazing photographer who focused on creating a diary of her teenage and young adulthood. She documented her life with her friends and what it was like to be her age at that moment isn time. The book explores gender, intimacy, drugs as well as everyday life out and about. I would like to include images like hers in my project that display the people close to me, the people I love, and some go the things we love to do as teenagers.

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In his book, Gosselin presents a glimpse of a life beyond boundaries of geographical and social conventions, and documents his most recent road trips across the US, Spain, Scotland and native France.

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TIME PERIOD-

This art movement started around 1910 and by the end of World War 1, it became the standard in many commercial fields in the US, including design, advertising, and journalism.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS-

Straight photography engages more with the technicalities of the camera and it’s ability to produce highly detailed and focused images. The term usually refers to photographs that aren’t manipulated in the darkroom/digital process, nor in the actual taking of the image (like pictorialism was). It focuses mainly of showing the subject “as the camera sees it”. Straight photography, or realism, laid the foundation for many later photographic movements and art styles: documentary, street, photojournalism, also having an impact on Abstract photography.

“Your photography is a record of your living, for anyone who really sees”

–Paul Strand

KEY WORKS-

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ARTISTS ASSOCIATED-

• Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand were pioneers of straight photography in New York and the US.
• Paul Strand was documenting the world by the 1930s, using art to raise awareness for social issues, including documenting the everyday life of migrant workers during the Great Depression. In 1936, he joined the Photo League, whose primary aim was to educate more photographers about more progressive causes.
• Lazlo Moholy-Nagy used “pure” photography to emphasise the structure of an image. He looked at the world through the camera-lens, experimenting with documentation and using the lens as a framing device for what he saw. His use of unorthodox viewpoints and unusual printing techniques made him a champion of linking photography and art with the industrial world.

“The photogram, or camera-less record of forms produced by light, which embodies the unique nature of the photographic process, is the real key to photography.”

-Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

GROUP f/64-

This was a collective of American West Coast photographers in the 1930s who believed in what they called “pure” photography. Edward Weston was a central figure in the development of this type of straight photography in Western USA, and formed the group with Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke, Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange and Sonya Noskowiak, the most influential of these photographers being Ansel Adams, who is renowned for his striking landscape images. Weston described the camera as something that “should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself.” The name of their informal group, f/64, is a reference to the aperture setting which allows sharp focus and good depth of field, relating to their photography style of bold texture, light and form.

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METHODS/TECHNIQUES/PROCESSES-

Straight photography, or realism, appears not to feature much photo-manipulation in the same way Pictorialism did, but rather the most common darkroom techniques to enhance the appearance of the images in the least invasive way possible. Their photographs featured a lot of sharp focus, bold forms and textures, high amounts of detail and strong contrast; evident in the work of Ansel Adams in the US national parks. Generally they were opposed to cropping images as it altered it from what the camera originally saw to a more edited version in line with the photographer’s personal opinion, which went against their main beliefs.

LINKS/SOURCES-

https://www.theartstory.org/movement/straight-photography/#nav

The Myth of Straight Photography: Sharp Focus as a Universal Language

Pictorialism VS Realism/ Straight Photography

Pictorialism

Definition – Pictorialism – International style and aesthetic movement occurring between the 1880s and 1920s. This style of photography focuses on key representations of meaning via non-literal techniques and also uses a set or narrative in order to convey these ideas – the images are mostly staged or planned. These images also use other techniques such as using Vaseline to distort the view through the lens and create a more artistic filter over the image.

Time period : 1880s-1920s. Pictorialism began between the late 1800s and early 1900s, a movement which strives for photography to be recognized as an art by creating images that resemble the same codes and conventions of paintings. Pictorialism was highly against techniques and processes relating to industrialization and mechanization or technology that removed a lot of human impact or manipulation in the final product, which is why photography was not considered an art for so long.

Key characteristics/ conventions :

• Staged images
• New set of aesthetics that would allow photography to be considered an art
• Another common convention of pictorialism photography would be the use of representations conveyed in non-literal, or metaphorical ways. Allowing an individual thought or narrative to be formed. (Influenced by Allegorical paintings)
  

Artists associated:

• Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879)
• Sally Mann (1951-)
• Henry Emerson (1856-1936)
• The Vienna Camera Club (Austria) – Heinrich Kuhn, Hans Watcek and Hugo Henneberg
• The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring (London) – H P Borbinson, Alfred Horlsey Hinton, Joseph Gale, George Davison and Charles Job
• Alfred Stieglitz
• Edward Steichen

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes:

• scratching negatives
• Use different chemicals to create a cyanotype
• Vaseline on lens to make photography a hand made art
• As this is a form of photographic ART it should imitate common conventions prevalent in art pieces, showing an arrangement of aspects such as foreground, background, figures and peripheral framing.
  

REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Realism

Definition – Realism – Closely related to straight photography and a style of documentary photography, Realism is an aesthetic that focuses on capturing life-in-real-time, meaning the images aren’t staged or falsified and are used to represent life. However, as this ‘life’ or representation of A ‘life’ may not be accurate for everyone this style of photography is very subjective and relies upon individual thoughts and experience of views for the photographer to accurately convey their initial ideas, suggesting that only those with similar backgrounds such as a socio-economic position may be able to relate to the image.

Time Period: 1830s/40s, it allowed people to capture nature and life in real time.

Key characteristics/ conventions :

• More candid/ documentary images
• Used to represent daily struggles in life
• Used to represent poor socio-economic families/ areas – show awareness

Artists associated:

• Walker Evans
• Paul Strand
• Alfred Stieglitz
• Dorothea Lange
• Lewis W Hine
• Jacob Riis

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes:

• accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life.
• rejects imaginative idealization in favour of a close observation of outward appearances.
• Documentary or more formal style

Modernism

Time period: Can be traced back to the enlightenment period, in the 17/1800th century, when there was an increase in different sciences, technology and religion, which was on the ‘decline’ or not as evidently prevalent in as many lives. Increased activity in all areas of life that influenced modernism. 1860s-1960s

Key characteristics/ conventions :

• A break with Religion, Church and God.
• ‘All modern-isms shared a common feeling that the modern world was fundamentally different from what had passed before and that art needed to renew itself by confronting and exploring its own modernity.’
• Object rather than Subject, form rather than content, metaphorical or non-explicit references. Creator rather than Spectator.
• Starts early on with the age of enlightenment which represents the age or reason and takes value of science and technology of religion and the church.
• Experimentation

Artists/ Isms associated:

• Francis Picabia (1879-1953)
• Hannah Höch (1889-1978)
• Johannes Baader (1875-1956)
• Alexander Rodchenko, Russian, 1891-1956
• El Lissitzky, Russian, 1890-1941
• Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Hungarian, 1895-1946
• Rene Magritte (1898-1967)
• Salvatore Dali (1904-1989)
• Raoul Ubac (1910-1985)
• Man Ray, American 1890-1976
• Christian Schad (1894-1982)
• Franz Roh (1890-1965)
• Otto Steinart (1915-1978)
• Kilian Breier (b 1931)
• Gottfried Jäger (b 1937)
• Harry Callahan (1912-99), Chicago, 1948
• Frederick Sommer (1905-99), Three Grazes, 1985
• Paul Strand (1890-1976), Porch Shadows, 1916
• Aaron Siskind, American 1903-91
• Ernst Haas, Austrian 1921-86
• Ansel Adams (1902-84)
• Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976)
• Edward Weston, American, 1886-1958

Avant-garde art movements: Fauvism, Primitivism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Neo-Plasticism, Surrealism, Spatialism, Abstract Expressionism, Social Realism, Straight Photography, Formalism

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes:

• Similar aesthetic or traits as surrealist photography
• Hidden/ abstract encoded meanings
• Clear images of reality and life
• Conceptual

Group F.64 –

Founded in the 1930s, Group f.64 was a group of eleven photographers, including Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston, who were united by their desire to photograph life as it really is. Characterised by a clear, sharp-focus aesthetic, their style was at odds with the romantic methods of manipulating images during or after printing, fashionable at the time. Instead they focused on accurately exposed images of natural forms and found objects.

POST-MODERNISM

Time period: Arose during the second half of the 20th century, it builds of the aims and conceptual ideas that emerged during and from the modernism movement. Common styles or aesthetics of this genre of photography include – surrealism and expressionism.

Post-Modernism – A way of viewing the world. Relating to ideas such as Re-Imagining, Pastiche, Parody, Copy and Bricolage. Fragmentation of identity via the alienation of society or even themselves.

Key characteristics/ conventions:

• Post-modernism continues to break normal artistic conventions and compositions might break rules by placing subjects in odd arrangements, or there may even be an absence of a definitive subject.

Artists associated:

• Ken Josephson / 1967 / Sweeden
• Lee Friedlander, Stony Point, New York, 1966
• William Eggleston
• Jeff Wall
• Andreas Gursky, ’99 Cent’

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes:

• fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators
• Open to individual interpretation
• Intertextuality – Including the work of others, the “quoting” of others work
• Pastiche – copying an original
• Parody – imitating in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some fun at
• Bricolage – deconstructing and then restructuring existing materials in a new, exciting and inventive way
• Eclecticism – mixing art forms, mixing cultures, mixing styles
• Audience view influences production and meanings