shoot 1- the first shoot I’ll be doing is using the studio and a model. I want to take some clear shots, close ups and full body shots of my model with clear two point lighting and a white backdrop with no backgrounds. I want these images to be simple and in the style of Gabriel Isaks work, so that the model is facing different sides and I want these images to be simple in order to edit a lot over them on photoshop to get clear black and white silhouette figures like Gabriels work.

shoot 2- I want my second shoot to be based in a home, I want to photograph my model facing a mirror and then edit and blur out the face. I also want to take photos of the model laying on her bed and alone in a room to show how you may spend most of your time when dealing with mental health issues. This will be more inspired in the way of Edward as most of his images are taken of himself at home.

shoot 3- my final and last shoot I want to do in a very open natural space, like a field or open beach. Taking inspiration from Gabriel Isak’s work this will represent the mental state of the individual once again. In a very large open space the individual will look quite small and alone which is how you may feel when dealing with your issues. Then i will edit them and turn the silhouettes into dark outlines

Essay question

What is the relationship between photography and memory?

Barthes, R (1982) Camera Lucida, London: Jonathan Cape
https://monoskop.org/images/c/c5/Barthes_Roland_Camera_Lucida_Reflections_on_Photography.pdf

Overview of Barthes book Camera Lucida in Photo Pedagogy
The first half of this article talks about Barthes theory of a studium and punctum. The latter part about a photograph of his dead mother which allows him to think about memory.
Commentary on Barthes book
https://www.photopedagogy.com/roland-barthes.html

Rereading: Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes
Article by Brian Dillon in the Guardian, 26 March 2011
Grieving for his mother, Roland Barthes looked for her in old photos – and wrote a curious, moving book that became one of the most influential studies of photography
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/26/roland-barthes-camera-lucida-rereading

DEATH IN THE PHOTOGRAPH – critical article in response to Roland Barthes seminal book ‘Camera Lucida’ reflecting on photography.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/23/books/death-in-the-photograph.html?pagewanted=all

Other key texts for you to read around family and memory

What do I remember?
https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo20al/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2019/11/What-do-I-remember.pdf

How can you tell a story?
https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo20al/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2019/11/How-can-you-tell-a-story.pdf

Stephen-Bulger_Phototherapy_family-albums
https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo21al/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2021/01/Stephen-Bulger_Phototherapy_family-albums.pdf

Kuhn, A. Remembrance: The Child I Never Was in Wells, L. (ed) (2003) The Photography Reader. London: Routledge
https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo21al/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2021/01/Annette-Kuhn_Remembrance_the-child-I-never-was.pdf

Colberg, J (May 28, 2012) Photography and Memory
blogger on Conscientious
http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/photography_and_memory/

Ward 81– Mary Ellen Mark

This book was created because Mary Ellen Mark was hired to work on Milos Forman’s “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest“. The set was filmed in Oregon State Mental Hospital, Salem, in 1975. This is how Mary Ellen Mark came to know the ward, she was given a tour of a Dr. Dean Brooks who was the director of the hospital at the time. Ward 81 was a maximum security ward for women, this meant that the women she photographed were either a danger to themselves or others. Once her work was completed, she returned to Oregon State Mental Hospital in 1976, however this time she stayed for 6 weeks in an empty ward next to ward 81. This way she was able to get to know the women in the ward well.

Layout

Ward 81’s layout is one that was used a lot during exhibitions in the 1970s. This was with a white border as the images displayed were often mounted. However the images throughout are different sizes and seem to have no particular pattern, this could have been done intentionally to help represent the instability of the women in the ward. As you flick through the book, the images become progressively more graphic and traumatic.

Once the final images have been shown, the editing notes can be seen, this helps the viewer understand Mary Ellen Mark’s thought process when bringing all the images together. Her main inspiration was W. E. Smith, he is seen by many as one of the most important photographers in the development of the editorial photo essay. The work that inspired Mark was the “Country Doctor”, one of W. E. Smith’s famous pieces of work.