How does Marchand and Meffre explore how wealth and power create divides within communities?
Essay Question:
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?
My area of study is going to be base around the power wealth and cultures in which the different communities in the world are surrounded by. I analysed Nick Hannes work as I felt that his work highly inspired my second photoshoot.
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography, visual and popular 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
How does Jono Rotman and Danny Alexander use portraiture to represent different identities?
“The feeling communicated by this body of work is that its subjects are hanging onto their identities by a fragile thread” (Roswell Angier in Train Your Gaze, 2007)
I wish to explore the intimacy that portraiture allows the viewer to have with the subject model in the photograph, with particular focus on body adornments such as tattooing. I chose this topic as I have recently been exposed to some discrimination and negative feedback over having four tattoos myself at a young age. I wish to challenge these views and demonstrate the meaning and importance of tattoos as art and show why someone would choose to mark themselves with their memories.I will be analysing specific images by Jono Rotman and Danny Alexander. I chose these artists as their work is just as different as they are similar; both artists have their subject models in a neutral setting to emphasise the focus of the tattoos. For example, in Rotman’s work, clothing is used within the photograph, which makes the body art less subjective, allowing viewers to connect the images of the member with all the factors and aspects within the photograph. However, Danny Alexander uses softer, more direct lighting to Rotman, with plain, black clothing, this effect opens the meaning of the art up and almost leaves it to the viewer to piece the clues together and create what identity they think the model portray. Considering the topic in which I have decided to dive in to, I will be looking deeper into how these aspects of portraiture represents one’s identity, including the accuracy and inaccuracy of meaning. Within this project, I will be exploring the photographic gaze of my models, experimenting with different expressions, poses, settings, styling (clothing and make-up), angles and lighting techniques. I intend to photograph in the style of Alexander, to bring a more plain, monotone atmosphere of portraiture, with a mixture of wide and short frame photos, to focus in on individual pieces, pairing them with an image of handwritten note (by the model in the photo) of what they mean to them or to why they got it. Identity is the way we perceive and express ourselves. People’s experiences throughout their lives can alter and change their identities. Their identities also influence the decisions they make: Individuals choose their friends, adopt certain fashions, and align themselves with political beliefs based on their identities. Many artists use their work to express, explore, and question ideas about identity. Portraiture is the best technique to capture the essence of one’s identity due to the uses of lighting, backdrops, instructing the model and all round, gives both the photographer and model to have control of how little or how much insight is given into one’s identity. Portraiture is an old art form going back at least to ancient Egypt, where it flourished from about 5,000 years ago. Before the invention of photography, a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone. But portraits have always been more than just a record. They have been used to show the power, importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the sitter. However, there are those that have different views on art. Some Christians misinterpret passages from the bible, for example in Leviticus 19:28 “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves.” (James 2016) As to the bible demonstrating the sin against many forms including tattooing, but the truth of this verse is to example the sin of ancient practises of witchcraft. The form of portraiture that I am focusing on relates the most to the realism movement which rejects imaginative idealization in favour of a close observation of outward appearances, therefore based more directly on what someone looks like without artifice. This relates to my subject matter as the artists I have chosen to study traditionally follow, perhaps unintentionally, realism in portraiture, rarely steering off into other movements. Unlike pictorialism which was the movement of art that was the construction of an alternative reality, realism focuses in on what is there in front of the lens.
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Jono Rotman uses portraiture to explore different identities in his book Mongrelism. Throughout his photos, he photographs mob members in natural lighting within their own environments and within their own clothing, with some photos highlighting jackets, helmets, and their own children. This allows the members to feel more comfortable as the Mongrel Mob has a stringent code against outsiders, having the photoshoots in their territory prevents stripping the mob of their power and therefore identity, making the final book more powerful and intriguing. Rotman also included the members in the editing process and how the work would be used. In relation to my subject matter, Rotman focuses on their tattoos. To the Mongrel Mob, tattoos signify stories of their cultural past. One tattoo seen frequently across members is of the mob ‘patch,’ this is the infamous British bulldog wearing a helmet, tended to be presented to those considered loyal and trustworthy enough to be in the gang. This loaded iconography emblazoned across their faces reflects both an aggressive response to their feeling of long-standing mistreatment and the gang’s commitment to offending mainstream society. The fact that this project has a documentary approach adds to the ideas of the project being an extension to their personalities, showing a fair and balanced view to their lives due to Rotman going forward onto this with no judgement, only investigating a certain lifestyle. Rotman himself, has said that, ‘he felt the weight of precedence of photography depicting people seen as other” and Mongrelism works to address photography’s historical sense of entitlement.’ (Rotman). What Rotman is alluding to here, is the fact that photography, and in particularly documentary photography has from its outset always tended to turn the lens on groups of society which are marginalised. In other words subjects are photographed to represent a stereotype, which Rotman himself is very aware of in his work.
Shano Rouge, Jono Rotman
This photograph of Shano Rouge from chapter MMX. The member is sat hunched over with his hood up, this shows the power and intimidation this person holds over the photographer, however, due to the camera angle, the photographer and member are at the same level, this can resemble the bond and trust that Rotman formed with the mob during the project. The photo is taken on a wider frame to his other pieces to collect all factors of the member in one photo, these being the jacket covered in the mob patch, the old black hoodie and leather trousers, also suggesting his role of the mob of being a biker. Focusing in on his face, it is clear of his loyalty to the mongrel mob. Over his face, you can see the words dog, mobster, and rouge, which we know is either his last name or position/ title from the caption on his page. The way that the member stares directly down the camera lens demonstrates that the member has a connection to the camera as well as the photographer, potentially projecting the bond formed with the model and photographer and shifting it to the model and viewer, showing a sense of vulnerability and reminding the viewer that the mob members are still people with emotions and their own identity, not one that is assumed by society due to stereotypes. “While some of the photos do contain the feeling of menace and bravado expected from one of New Zealand’s most notorious gangs there are also signs of sadness and despair, especially from some of the older members.” (Black, 2019). I feel as if this statement relates to quite a few members, including the one photographed above, I see this statement in the way in which the member is almost hiding in the shadows of his hood, still fearing the disgrace and judgement that could be projected onto him; the fact that this is an older member showing these behaviours is more powerful as it demonstrates that he may have been experiencing this fear throughout his career in the Mob and has never fully accepted other people’s views of them. After reading this comment, it is more apparent looking back over the project that it is more of a common theme then we thought. Justifying this is the last part of the book; The barks as Rotman has labelled them as . Throughout, Rotman has censored parts of the conversation with a red block. Perhaps because the content is too explicit, or too gory, or in fact done for the Mongrel Mobs safety those who disapprove of their ways, or perhaps the colour red is symbolic of their gang colour red that symbolise, a blood bond between members and gang affiliates similar to meaning of ‘blood’ between members of the same family.
However, Danny Alexander takes his portraits in a studio setting, with a black back drop, artificial lighting, and clothing requirements. This allows for the only focus in the frame to be the persons tattoo, reducing how much of their identity seen and subjectively presenting their body art. Alexander tends to use flash lighting in his photos, with the exception of a strip light for an aligned spine tattoo. Flash lighting is beneficial for this form of topic matter as it limits the cause of any shadows being cast on the tattoos. Alexander has also said himself that the Skin as Canvas project is to “highlight the dualistic nature of body art; on one hand body art can be and often is self-expressive but much like any art can be interrupted differently by each viewer.” (Alexander 2015) Showing his intentions of the subjectivity of this project.
This photo by Alexander demonstrates model with an align spine tattoo as the focus. The light source is positioned in a way to extenuate the tattoo and draw the viewers’ attention to the focus. The little soft lighting seen gives an unusual innocence that is not usually associated with tattoos, challenging the negative viewpoints, and allowing the subjectivity of body art. The studio lighting causes a contrast as it allows the photographer to move and angle the light however, he wants, it also allows the models silhouette and surroundings to be seen, this may be done as a reminder to the viewer of the person, showing that the tattoo is a part of someone’s identity. Lighting only the tattoo represents the darkness of space around the solar system and how broad it can be and how small we are to our surroundings beyond earth. This could possibly reflect how we see others around us and how we do not know the depth of all the identities around us. As the model is wearing all black clothing, it leaves viewers focusing on the tattoo. This also means that the neutral clothes give no insight to the viewer seeing their personalities or styles, leaving tattoo meaning up for interpretation by the viewer. This gives the opportunity for them to connect to the model based on the own interpretation and therefore viewing it more personally.
Overall, I believe that Jono Rotman and Danny Alexander successfully use portraiture to represent different identities to a certain extent. Personally, I feel that Alexander could have explored his idea more in detail, expanding on his use of other camera skills, like angles, abstract views and lighting techniques. But with his idea of the project being an open interpretation contradicts those negatives, allowing everything to be seen and exposed to the viewer and leaving the thoughts in their own hands, giving a hazy and unsure identity. However, Rotman uses his techniques to instead leave the emotions of the model open for interpretation instead of their identity, presenting a clear projected, external identity, meaning that he is showing the viewer exactly who they are and what they do, but less of an internal identity within themselves. I will be using a mixture of aspects from both photographers depending on what is necessary, moving forward with Alexanders statement of body art being subjective to the viewer. However, to follow up on contextual issues regarding tattoos, most of all the images I make will be found next to either a photo of a person, object, or hand written note. Showing the memories these pieces have and their importance to their person.
The photobook that I have decided to research is ‘William Eggleston’s Guide’. In 1976, William Eggleston’sGuide was the first one-man show of colour photographs ever presented at The Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum’s first publication of colour photography. The reception was divided and passionate. The book and show unabashedly forced the art world to deal with colour photography, a medium scarcely taken seriously at the time, and with the vernacular content of a body of photographs that could have been but definitely weren’t some average American’s Instamatic pictures from the family album. These photographs heralded a new mastery of the use of colour as an integral element of photographic composition.
Bound in a leather textured cover inset with a photograph of a tricycle and stamped with yearbook-style gold lettering, the Guide contains 48 images edited down from 375 shot between 1969 and 1971 and displayed a deceptively casual, actually super-refined look at the surrounding world. There are images of people, landscapes and odd little moments in and around Eggleston’s hometown of Memphis-when first opening the book the pages are a light green shade, they have a normal paper feel compared to the rest of the book which has the images printed onto photopaper. The light green pages of the book are filled with writing from William Eggleston starting from before he visited Memphis to take his images and is discussing what he wants to photograph on his trip, he also starts discussing photography in detail. He also mentions and praises photographers such as, Robert Adams, Alfred Stieglitz and Eugene Atget. He also goes on to discuss colour photography and called the creator of it a ‘technical genius’. One the 17th page of the book the first image you see when flicking through the pages of the book is of a light faded grey door, slightly to the right of the image, it has a gold door knocker on the centre of the door with a basket full of blue flowers hanging off it. I think this is a good image to start with as it sets the tone for the rest of the book.
William Eggleston’s Opening Image
In the 1970’s, William Eggleston made a photograph in Memphis Tennessee containing the small details of a home’s front door and a basketful of posies. Dappled light flitters across the surface revealing textures of paint and rust. In Eggleston’s image, there’s a scalloped shadow at the top, an embellished mailbox, layers of paint, colour patterns and accent trim.
Design Layout
This book is laid out so that the text comes first to give an idea of what the book is focused on and then shows the images. The images in the book on every other page with the left page of the book white and one image to each right page, most images are small and taken horizontally. On most pages the images are focused on the middle of the page, however some are placed on the top half of the page and others on the bottom. I think this is a good layout as it breaks up the images more than if they were all in the same place on every page.
Editing and Sequencing
All of William Eggleston’s images are taken in colour, and edited the same way. They all have an old fashioned look to them and the colours look more rich than they do bright. The images used in this book were 48 of 375 shots taken that had been specifically picked out and edited. All of the images have a familiar homely feel which can be felt when looking at them. All of the images are taken on a trip back to Eggleston’s hometown of Memphis. The way he has captured the images has a familiarity of photographing your own hometown and you can feel the connection Eggleston has through his images.
Essay question: In what way have Edward Honaker and Gabriel Isak represented mental health through photography?
Your mind is who you are, and when it doesn’t work properly, it’s scary.”(Honaker 2015:2).
My study explores and raises the issues of different mental health issues within teenagers and intends to show how it can make you feel if you deal with anxiety or depression from a young age and the effects it has on your everyday life and how it may affect your future and relationship with others around you. This area interests me as so many people around you to tend to be suffering from these issues and it’s so important to realise how many people may be dealing with personal problems and how it both effects them individually and also people near them, such as family and friends. Through photography you see how these mental issues are real and in some cases very serious and the effect it has on teenagers. In my study I’m analysing the work of Edward Honaker and Gabriel Isak as they both raise awareness of mental health issues in different ways and how our mind is detached from our real body, as it’s not there with you 100% and not functioning properly, as well as you feeling depersonalised from yourself. Edward Honaker presents his mental state by taking simple full body portraits of himself around his house and includes many self-portraits to tell his story, he must do this by using a tripod and then later edit all his images by blurring his face and masking his identity that represents his mental state and that’s how he shows this topic through his work, almost making him look disconnected from his mind and body. On the other hand Gabriel Isaak interprets and presents mental health in a more digital way and uses far more editing to show mental health. Most of his images are taken in extremely open spaces (mostly with an all white or blue background) this creates a sense of loneliness and sadness. He then uses silhouette figures in his images to present the mental state , usually its either two people or a group. Most of the time he uses all black silhouettes or sometimes white too with hoods on, this clearly represents people and their present or conscious state as two different figures, one being your body and the other the state of your mind and the feeling of emptiness that’s presented by the open space.
The area I chose to explore in my personal study has the closest link to is surrealism. The history of mental health in photography was perfectly presented back in the mid 1980s which was developed by Jo Spence and her work on photo-therapy. This shows that mental health has always had an important role in peoples lives as well as in photography. Jo Spence believed that “depression or anger is often so well contained, that eventually many of us become silenced or ill”. (Martin and Spence 2003: pg 24) She wanted individuals to connect with their own intimacies and struggles which is what made her begin start taking photographs. She developed photo-therapy when she got diagnosed with breast cancer and wanted to used photography as a medium to work on psychological health. Her work was well known as it showed the” importance of representing the ill body, one that is affected by the invisible and the hidden”. (Dennett 2009: 7) In photo-therapy, self -portraits are a very powerful tool to express emotions. This is because we start a dialogue between our thinking mind and our ‘gut’ to draw from an inexhaustible source of meanings, which must be expressed. The self-portrait can be incredibly empowering. It forces us into the now, and helps us perceive and express our essential humanity in a photograph. Jo spence used three early methods ‘therapeutic staging’, ‘mirror therapy’, and ‘Scripting’. Phototherapy is very strong way an individual can express their mental health or any other issues they’re dealing with and share it with anyone who might be going through. This made me interested in this topic as I think its important to raise awareness to all these different types of issues. Surrealism was closely involved with contemporary developments in psychology and psychoanalysis. Freud’s work had a huge impact on psychoanalysis as he researched dreams and dream analysis to understand the cause of many mental illnesses such as depression or phobias, doing this by accessing the unconscious and figuring out what different objects or symbols in dreams represent in real life. Freud’s conception of the unconscious as a site of primal violence and conflict repressed from consciousness played a role in the work of many surrealist artists. Max Ernst and André Masson, in particular, frequently employed images of violence, his theories had a huge impact on photographers work.
examples of Andre Masson’s and Max Ernst surrealism artwork-
Ibdes in Aragon 1935 Andr? Masson 1896-1987 Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1946 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05646
andre masson- entremondes
Max ernst- 1891-1976 – tate
The first photographer I chose to study is Edward Honaker. He focuses on photographing mental health in a very personal way as he from the age of 19 was diagnosed with a mood disorder. This disorder is characterized by a persistent feeling of sadness, one which acts as an overwhelming obstacle during an individual’s day-to-day life. In other words – just two years ago – Honaker was diagnosed with depression. He focuses on blurring out his face in his images or tries to mask his identity away, this creates a concept of not knowing where his mind is really at or he doesn’t even know who he is anymore. You can see that all his images are in black white which creates a sad mood as there’s no colour this clearly interprets his own feelings and he does this by taking self-portraits. His own life from a very young age influenced his life which is why he takes his own images and the whole story behind his photography is about his own experience and his own mental health which makes his images so much more powerful when you know the photographer behind the work is dealing with the problems he’s photographing. To convey his inner thoughts and feelings, Honaker turned to his camera and creativity. What results is a surreal series of self-portraits – which are filled with powerful symbolism. Each black-and-white image is as artistic as it is revealing. If you’ve coped with depression or are currently coping with depression, Honaker’s work can act as a beacon of empathy. When he spoke about his experience he said “All I knew is that I became bad at the things I used to be good at, and I didn’t know why,”(Honaker 2015:1). This inspired me for the first shoot, which consisted of plain headshots which I then edited out to create a sense of depersonalization and losing yourself/personality due to mental health. Honaker’s work links it with history of mental health and surrealism art movement; it involves dreamscapes, symbolism and the unconscious mind; surrealism art changed modernism by encouraging artists to delve into their imaginations. Surrealism was steeped in the psychoanalytic works of Sigmund Freud and centred on understanding the unconscious. This can explain certain disorders such as depression which is sometimes caused due to childhood events that remain in the unconscious and the disorder is resolved when brought back into the conscious as an adult which links into Edward’s experience as he had to deal with depression from a young age, and if it wasn’t for the surrealism art movement, photographers wouldn’t be expressing their emotional states. His work significantly links in with surrealism as the ability to evoke dream-like scenarios in photography became central to surrealism. Photo effects such as double exposure, blurring and distortion helped create images that were evocative, hallucinatory, and sometimes upsetting. The purpose of these effects was to create an image alienated from reality as if it was a window into another dimension. Edward uses many of those editing processes such as blurring for most of his images.
Edward Honaker’s work
The second photographer I chose to study and become inspired by is Gabriel Isaak. The objective of Gabriel Isaak’s art is to shine a light on the experiences of being and the states of mind those brings along. His subjects are anonymous with the slightest glimmerings of consciousness, imprisoned in monochromatic settings, so the viewer can envision oneself as the subject, reflecting back on one’s own experiences and journey in life. He focuses on themes inspired by human psychology, dreams and romanticism, as well as his own experiences, especially the years he went through depression. What I find interesting about his work is the way he edits his images which makes them almost look like a dream and something that isn’t real which creates a unique idea of his mental state, like it’s all a dream. His photographs have a big emotional impact as it creates this sense of loneliness and being alone somewhere in a dream with your mind. The photographer intended to create a new vision of mental health and romanticise it instead of making it look like a scary thing to be afraid of. Both of my photographers link perfectly with each other as both of them have dealt with their own issues with depression and decided to photograph their experience in two completely different unique ways. Both of them create an idea in the audience’s mind of what it’s like to deal with these issues or if someone from the audience is already dealing with the same problems it can create a sense of feeling safe and comfort knowing there are others that feel the same and their choosing to photograph their feelings in a unique way. The photographer Gabriel Isaak inspired me for my photoshoots at home and in a very open natural environment to create an illusion of a dream as well as use more advanced photoshop skills to achieve this idea. Surrealism would have had a huge impact on Isaak’s work as surrealism derived significant inspiration from psychoanalysis, developed by Sigmund Freud to treat mental disorders. “The set of theories and techniques were established to delve into the unconscious mind It aimed to illuminate the causes of abnormal and unhealthy mental habits.” (Davis 2020:1) According to psychoanalysis, the mind is separated into the conscious and unconscious. Psychoanalytic treatment aimed to bring the repressed desires and fears of the unconscious mind to the surface. This can be seen in his photos because as mentioned before the silhouettes he uses represent the conscious mind and how it can feel detached from you body. One of the founding fathers of surrealism Andre Breton cited psychoanalysis as a gateway to restoring one’s artistic identity, liberated from conformity and social normality. (Davis 2020:1) He asserted that the application of psychoanalytic thought and automatism in art would make someone a true surrealist artist. For example Rene Magritte’s work , a famous surrealist artist in 1927, shows how mental health was presented back in the early days. This art shows most of the woman’s face cut out and dragged away from her body , unmasking what’s underneath it which looks like a solid, dark wooden texture of nothing with small pins it, implying there’s a hard material underneath her face that acts as a ‘mask’ and the texture underneath it is the woman’s mental health which is quite hidden and acting as a secret to help hide her real identity. This is really similar in how Gabriel Isaak presents mental health in his images, through using open spaces , like Magritte’s image that has an ocean, and using plain silhouettes or shadows of people to present their conscious and mental state- creating a feeling of loneliness and emptiness as your mind travels away from your body due to having a disorder.
The two artists I have studied in this project both clearly focus on presenting mental health through photography. Both of them taking aspects of surrealism into the work is seen as the conscious and unconscious mind is presented. They both show their feelings and emotions through taking images, and how they feel inside as we know their background with mental illness. They both mask their identity in some sort of way and either by blurring the faces out or just completely using silhouettes which doesn’t show a face , this creates a feeling of identity loss as a mental illness can affect your personality a lot and who you think you are. The difference between their work is that Isaak uses much more dream-like effects making them images almost look unreal because of how empty the background is , however Honaker uses his own self-portraits for his images and edited them by blurring his facial features out in different ways and in different environments. The main common theme from both of their work is sadness, as the small notes of blue shades and silhouettes indicate loneliness and sadness. Honaker only photographs himself which show him being alone dealing with his issues with no one around him, as he said , “Your mind is who you are, and when it doesn’t work properly, it’s scary.”(Honaker 2015:2).
Overall I think I’ve presented my ideas and the concept of mental health very well through taking several different shoots that were inspired by my two chosen photographers. I explored how it might feel to deal with a mental illness and not really knowing how to deal with it or loosing your personality , though a simple shoot consisting of editing and blurring certain features to show uncertainty in how an individual may feel and bringing attention to the mind, as well as at home shoots to show what everyday life may be like and in big open spaces to create a sense of loneliness. I photographed an individual in a way that shows her feelings and her mental state through a series of portraits exploring her body language. I experiment with different editing techniques such as blurring out the model’s face in order to show you don’t feel like yourself when your mind isn’t working properly. A previous study I have done in my A-level photography work that links in with my personal study is the loss of identity which is when you’re not too sure what you’re doing or what you want to do when you grow up, which I achieved through edited portraits. My work will develop through editing all my images using a combination of Lightroom and Photoshop and turning them from simple headshots and full body shots into a way of presenting mental health in the style of Gabriel Isaak by selecting the model’s silhouette and filling it in with a black shadow separating one figure from her body showing the state of her mind. The digital processes I like to work with are the quick selection tool, lasso tool, and the object selection tool as well as the blurring brush to achieve the final images I want. My two photographers helped me create this vision as I could see and learnt about how mental health can be presented through a visual concept and photography as its a very difficult topic to express through photos as everyone’s experience and mind is different , they made me understand how certain editing and specific environments can help in achieving spreading the message I want.
In what way are family photographs extensions of our memories as well as our identities?
“Photographs thus are not just manufactured memories, they are also expressions of our desire to hold on to something.” (Colberg, J, May 28, 2012)
This extract from the thoughts of Jörg Colberg highlights the topics in which I will discuss in this essay; questioning also how Carole Benitah in particular, explores these past memories in attempt to gain a wider knowledge of her own identity. This investigation of identity through archival images resonates with myself, as within this personal study I wish to revisit past memories of the senior generation in my family, in attempt to argue that these depictions often do not recount the whole truth of the past and are in fact a method of regaining control of our identity. Carolle Benitah is an archetype for reshaping the past through the manipulation and reworking of archival materials, due to her emotional attachment to the images and people within them. Furthermore, I am also choosing to look at Benitah’s work in detail as a result of her multi-media methods she undertakes, in order to create her contemporary commentary of the idealistic family in contrast with reality, using stitching, gold leaf, ink drawings and beading to achieve this. This utilisation of multi-media by Benitah can be linked with my previous work throughout the course, such as my use of maps in digital collages for an identity project and recent experimentations with embroidery. I intend to respond to this unique style again by producing reworked images of my family, that centre around my maternal grandparents and the life they have built – a life that have been both archived and recently captured. The style in which these new photographs will be created, will be mostly staged tableau pieces, with some candid images also. I will achieve this also by using multiple media, similar to Benitah, such as stitching as well as digital collage.
The Lashmar family, 1857–58
Forms of family photography have always been a prominent element in photography’s history; from formal portraits taken in the 19th century, to the blurry snapshots of everyday domestic life we are far more used to nowadays, these images are a way of identifying the stories of ourselves and lineages. It is known that some of the first products of photographic technology were depictions of human life, with the invention of the Daguerreotype in 1839 being a popular way to document loved ones, as a more efficient substitution for realistic paintings. This method of capturing a moment in time became more accessible, as well as affordable, as the 19th century progressed. With inventions such as the portable film camera being introduced in 1888 by George Eastman, and even a camera for children coined the ‘Brownie Camera’. Sold for one dollar in 1900, people were able to produce their own archival material specific to their family. As well as the technology, the manner in which these photographs were taken evolved, with family portraits moving from formal, staged pieces to candid images that often-celebrated notable events. All of which made with the intent to communicate the familial bond they wished to display “Through photographs, each family constructs a portrait chronicle of itself – a portable kit of images that bears witness to its connectedness.” (Sontag 1977: 8). The way in which Benitah utilises this supposed commonplace form of photography in the present day, in order to create new meanings and significance to these snapshots, can be said to be influenced by movements such as modernism in the 20th century. This is due to Tate gallery’s description of the movement that stated that during this time “artists around the world used new imagery, materials and techniques to create artworks that they felt better reflected the realities and hopes of modern societies” (Tate). Benitah displays this within her work by using the medium of embroidery and materials such as beads, in order to transform the narrative that had been created by both the photographer and society’s expectations of what a ‘perfect’ family looks like. In turn, producing a piece that more accurately depicts the reality of Benitah’s family. Furthermore, some of Modernisms key defining traits were artists experimentation with form, technique, and process, which Benitah demonstrates by the variation in the way she uses such methods of alteration; from simply covering the faces with thread or beads, to erasing identities in the images completely. In addition, this particular use of multi-media to reform false depictions, can also be linked to the movement Dadaism, which operated under the time period and characteristics of Modernism. Dadaism was a movement established as a result of the First World War and the atrocities associated with it, producing work of that was usually satirical in essence. However, the aim of this movement was “to destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art to replace the old.” (Tate), which closely relates to the intent of Benitah’s work, if viewing the art in question as the constructed memories of her past.
The Art Critic – Raoul Hausmann (1919-20)
Moreover, when looking at Dada artists such as Raoul Hausmann in comparison to Benitah, it is easy to draw similarities between their work; for instance, the physical parallels such as the concealment of identity through collage, as well as the way in which they approach their work in an emotional manner, that evokes anger towards the subject, shown by the harshness of the cuts and punctures.
la chute (the fall) – Photo Souvenirs – Carolle Benitah (2009)
This reworked image created by Benitah in 2009, displays a black and white scene, which originally appeared to be a mother standing with her two children. However, now the image showcases one of the children cut out and placed outside the photograph, with a red, silk thread connecting her hand to a large mass of stitching on the mother’s hand. Here, the dark tones of the original archival photograph heavily contrasts with the vastness of the cut-out sections, only leaving empty white space behind. Furthermore, elements of juxtaposition are only increased by Bentiah’s signature use of bold, red embroidery. This piece was named ‘La Chute’ by Benitah translated to ‘The Fall’ and is featured in Benitah’s photobook and series Photo Souvenirs, published in 2016. This photobook presents a retelling of her past through archival photographs, in chronological order, starting with her as a child and ending with her as an adult, with a child of her own. Benitah has stated that with this series “I decided to explore the memory of childhood through my family photographs, because it allows me to understand who I am and to define my identity today.” (Benitah, 2017). From this, it can be said that this particular piece is aiming to deal with a familial struggle, that was never portrayed through this original construction of so-called perfection, meaning that the child cut from the photograph is in fact Benitah herself. The issues Benitah is presenting here may be an expression of the child’s disconnection from her mother, possibly due to being replaced as favourite, by a younger sibling, or simply the pains of growing up and out of childhood bliss. Although, through Benitah’s alterations further depth is added to the piece with her embroidery, in which the red stitch here may represent the feeling of still being tethered to the pain through the connections of family. In addition, this could mean that this long stich connecting mother and daughter represents bloodlines, showing the connection between the two similar to a family tree. The element of embroidery here itself is significant due to the fact that the medium is associated with femininity as well as the stereotypical roles of a housewife, in particular repairing things. Consequently, this use of stitching into the archival photograph could possibly be a means of fixing a broken relationship, or even fixing the perspective that nothing was broken at all. Moreover, Benitah herself has claimed that “It’s like an exorcism. I pierce the paper until I have no more evil.” (Benitah, 2017) when referring to her use of embroidery. This means that this skill is used by Benitah as a form of therapy, as well as a means of finally being able to project the truth.
Quatre soeurs, (Four sisters) – Jamais je ne t’oublierai – Carolle Benitah (2018-2020)
This reworked photograph also produced by Benitah more recently, showcases an originally black and white scene containing at first glance three sisters in the frame. However, when referring to the name of this piece ‘Quatre soeurs’ translated to ‘Four sisters’, it becomes just about possible to notice the legs of another girl hiding in the back of the image. With this particular photograph, Benitah has made the choice to cut out the heads of these girls, replacing this empty space with the material of gold leaf and blending it into the background. This method of reworking archival images is a relatively new one for Benitah, although a large contrast is still created through the juxtaposition between the darker tones in the grass, of the black and white image, and the extravagance of the reflective gold. This piece is one of many taken from Benitah’s photobook and series ‘Jamais je ne t’oublierai’, which can be translated to ‘I will never forget you’, published in 2019. In this series, Benitah has used not only her own archival materials, but also photographs she has collected at flea markets, analysing the happiness and joy constructed for these images. With this, Benitah has stated her intent in creating this photobook, claiming “I am rebuilding the memory of my family that I missed” (Benitah, 2019). From this it can be said that this piece is aiming to confront issues of neglect or mistreatment of the hidden sister, by either parents or siblings. It is clear that this child is not valued as highly as other siblings by the photographer, who most likely is a parent, as her position in the frame is not equal to those around her and is overshadowed by the sister standing in front of her. It is not clear however, if this photograph specifically is a piece of archival material from Benitah’s personal collection or a piece she rescued from a flea market. Benitah’s decision to use gold leaf with this project, instead of her signature red stitch, is significant in the way that the photographs featured in this series, which she purchased for a low price “change status by a simple gesture: the application of gold leaf on the photograph” (Benitah, 2019). In addition to this, Benitah also uses this this new material as a tool to allow the audience a retrospective experience, as a result of the new properties gold leaf provides “The golden flat surface operates both as an obliteration and a shiny surface on which our own faces are reflected” (Benitah, 2019). This piece of work is similar to the previous image analysed in the way that both are dealing with a struggle for love and attention from a youthful perspective inside a family. In addition, the relationship between sisters is emphasised in both images with at least one receiving a higher standard of appreciation than another, from what it appears. Furthermore, their physical similarities are also prominent due to both original images being taken on black and white film, meaning they are dated and may reference issues that have now been solved for Benitah or at least something she has able to have come to terms with through this work. Although, the differences between the two are also substantial from their use of different mediums alone, with the red stitching representing elements of pain whilst the gold leaf represents a sense of self-reflection. This may be a result of Benitah’s personal growth and healing through her progression in this style of work, and the relief it has brought her.
Overall, it is clear that Benitah uses the alterations of archival photographs as a method in better understanding her own personal identity, as well as using it as a form of self-expression. This is evident throughout many series she has produced, using both her own and others family memories to construct a new narrative, that demolishes the ideals of a perfect family and the notion that we must present this façade to the world through family portraiture. Here Benitah has been able to come to terms with the truth of her past as well as react to the lies that were told through these photographs, on behalf of her childhood self. My work that I will produce for my personal study, will resemble many of the elements seen in Benitah’s. One of which being the retelling of the truth, through alterations made to archived family images of my own. The aim in developing these pieces, will be to highlight how the production of these past images were often a way of holding onto the supposed perfection of the past, which never existed. However, I will also be using new photographs of my own to reject the notion that photographs must be made for this reason, therefore reinforcing Susan Sontag’s statement on how photography is used to produce memories “A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it” (Sontag 1977: 9). This means my new photographs will attempt to counteract the untold truths in the archived images.
Olivia Mooney-Griffiths (2022)
Bibliography
Sontag. S (1971), On Photography. London: Penguin Books
Looking at the world in colour: a study of the work by William Eggleston and Saul Leiter
Essay Plan
Essay Question: 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, visual and popular 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
With my essay I want to discuss things like the origins of colour photography, famous colour photographers and the meaning behind colour photography- how it evokes certain feelings through the use of specific colours.
Looking at the world in colour: a study of the work by William Eggleston and Saul Leiter
I have chosen to study these two artists as I believe they both focus on colour in their work as well as incorporating community. With Saul Leiter’s work he tends to bring colour into his work by photographing people who are holding something colourful, such as an umbrella or standing near something colourful, however the people in his images are usually faceless individuals dressed in dark clothing. William Eggleston takes a different approach at colour photography by capturing still images of places, rather than people. Many of Eggleston’s images were taken in his hometown of Memphis. A distinctive difference between these two photographers is that while they both capture images that show colour and community, they both do it in vastly different ways. Eggleston, unlike Leiter, does not take images that feature people, he instead chooses to photograph images of things such as cafes and diners, where communities may congregate, he also takes images of things that are just colourful, however, though his work does not feature people like Saul Leiter’s does, both photographers work is about people, whether it is capturing images of people or taking images where people may have connections to. For my practical study I am going to photograph images that have been inspired by both artists. I am going to take pictures of people within the community, like Saul Leiter does, as well as capturing images that focus on just colour like Eggleston does in his work. Leiter (left) Eggleston (right).
Two other photographers that I believe I can take some inspiration from for this project are Martin Parr and Fred Herzog. In 1982 Parr and his wife moved to Wallasey, England, and he switched permanently to colour photography, inspired by the work of US colour photographers, mostly Joel Meyerowitz, but also William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, and also the British Peter Fraser and Peter Mitchell. Parr has written that “I had also encountered the post cards of John Hinde when I worked at Butlin’s in the early 70s and the bright saturated colour of these had a big impact on me.” During the summers of 1983, 1984 and 1985 he photographed working-class people at the seaside in nearby New Brighton. Although John Bulmer had pioneered colour documentary photography of Britain, from 1965, Gerry Badger has said of The Last Resort: It is difficult from a perspective of almost a quarter of a century to underestimate the significance of The Last Resort, either in British photography or Martin Parr’s career. For both, it represented a seismic change in the basic mode of photographic expression, from monochrome to colour, a fundamental technical change that heralded the development of a new tone in documentary photography. (John Hinde postcard below), (John bulmer image below) (Martin Parr images below of children eating icecream in Brighton).
Fred Herzog devoted his artistic life to walking the streets of Vancouver as well as almost 40 countries with his Leica camera, photographing – mostly with colour slide film – his observations of the street life with all its complexities. Herzog ultimately became celebrated internationally for his pioneering street photography, his understanding of the medium combined with, as he put it, “how you see and how you think” created the right moment to take a picture. The Vancouver photographs of Fred Herzog are awash with vibrant color. They are complex, mysterious, and full of life, much like the city he photographed. Focusing his camera on storefronts, neon signs, billboards, cafes and crowds of people, he eloquently depicts the architecture of the street as a framework for human interaction. I think that Fred Herzog is a good photographer to take inspiration from as his images are taken in a similar style as how I want to capture images, I want to take images of coloured architecture in a similar way that herzog has. (images taken by Fred Herzog below).
When colour is discussed in photography, it has become common to read that William Eggleston was the first person to use colour as an artistic choice and showed his coloured images at a museum in 1976. However, Alfred Stieglitz had created colour images using the autochrome process and exhibited them as early as 1909. The autochrome process was an early colour photography process patented in 1903 by the Lumiere brothers in France and was first marketed in 1907. Autochrome was an additive colour, ‘mosaic screen plate’ process, and was the principal colour photography process for over 20 years. The medium consists of a glass plate coated on one side with a random mosaic of microscopic grains of potato starch dyed red-orange, green, and blue-violet (an unusual but functional variant of the standard red, green, and blue additive colours), the grains of starch act as colour filters. Unlike ordinary black-and-white plates, the Autochrome was loaded into the camera with the bare glass side facing the lens so that the light passed through the mosaic filter layer before reaching the emulsion. The use of an additional special orange-yellow filter in the camera was required to block ultraviolet light and restrain the effects of violet and blue light, parts of the spectrum to which the emulsion was overly sensitive. Below is a series of images of the autochrome process, starting with an image of the Lumiere brothers, a box of autochrome plates, the autochrome logo, and the coloured starch grains on an autochrome plate that has been enlarged.
Another thing that I want to explore and learn more about is how to evoke a feeling through the colours that are featured in an image. Different colours have different ways of influencing us, some colours make us feel calm, some evoke feelings of fear and tension and others make us feel happy. For example, yellow- it’s the color of sunshine, warmth, and beauty. Different hues of yellow bring different impacts. Darker shades might enrich an atmosphere even with some dramatic effect while the lighter tones make things merry and happy. So, the colors are powerful tools for creating an emotional structure of photographs. In Saul Leiter, William Eggleston and Fred Herzogs image the colours that occur the most are shades of yellow orange and red. Orange is a prominent colour against other lighter tones and has characteristics of both yellow and red, orange is said to make you feel passion, love and warmth, which makes it clear why it’s a reoccurring colour in William Eggleston’s work as he’s photographing his hometown, where he grew up which could bring back feelings of love and warmth. As well as the colours in Eggleston’s work evoking feeling they can also reveal the time period the image was taken, in his images the colours are more rich and complex than if they were taken on an iPhone camera today. In Eggleston’s work pictured below the colours on the buildings are a deep orange, where as if the same image was taken on an iPhone they would come out more blinding and bright.
A Photographer that I am going to explore is Saul Leiter, an American photographer and painter, who was an early pioneer of colour photography, and whose early work in the 1940s and 1950s was an important contribution to what came to be recognized as the New York school of photography. With distinctive imagery suffused with painterly qualities, he is often grouped with other photographers of the New York School such as Richard Avedon, Weegee, and Diane Arbus. His work, however, departs dramatically with that group regarding his subject matter—an oblique mélange of New York’s streets, architecture, and inhabitants. “A window covered with raindrops interests me more than a photograph of a famous person,” the artist said. (Images by Dianne Arbus, Richard Avedon and Weegee- left to right).
While Saul Leiter’s Street photography bares resemblance to the style of these photographs, the main difference is that his images are in colour. By the 1950s, he began to work in colour, compiling an extensive and significant body of work during the medium’s infancy. His distinctively subdued colour often has a painterly quality that stood out among the work of his contemporaries. Leiter’s first exhibition of colour photography was held in the 1950s at the Artist’s Club, a meeting place for many of the Abstract Expressionist painters of that time. Edward Steichen included twenty-three of Leiter’s black and white photographs in the seminal 1953 exhibition “Always the Young Stranger” at the Museum of Modern Art; he also included twenty of Leiter’s colour images in the 1957 MoMA conference “Experimental Photography in Colour.” I particularly like the image pictured below (left) as it embodies early street photography, whilst also incorporating colour into it, this is what I want to do with my project, and I feel that Saul Leiter’s images are good to take inspiration from. In this image, your eyes are first drawn to the patch of yellow on the truck that stands out, because of it being highly saturated, while the rest of the image drops into relatively duller colours. Like a lot of Saul Leiter’s images, this image has strong elements of abstraction, where he focuses on shapes rather than details. The yellow area in this image plays the critical role of separating the man’s head from the background, so that the contours would be visible. As a result, the viewer can then see that he is wearing a hat and looking downwards. Saul tactfully used colour as building blocks in his images. I want to try and do this in my images by taking street photography at night or on a darker day whilst there is colour in the background, ultimately creating a silhouette of the person in the image.
William Eggleston’s work (1970’s) successfully captures the world in colour with his images while also incorporating a sense of community within his work. By photographing places where community can be felt as people congregate and interact with others in these places, I think that he is the best artist for me to look at and take inspiration from for the practical side of this project. A curator at Tate art museum, Simon Baker, said, “William Eggleston never takes multiple shots of the same image just the right picture at just the right moment..” Though his images record a particular place at a certain point in time, Eggleston is not interested in their documentary qualities. Instead, when asked what he is photographing, Eggleston simply answers ‘life today.’ However, with my images I want them to have a slight documentary quality to them as I have also taken pictures featuring people, which when people look at them, I want them to have a story behind them even if it is open to interpretation of what is happening in that specific image. Whilst taking some inspiration from William Eggleston I am also putting my own twist on looking at the world in colour, by focusing on still images, like Eggleston, however, not solely focusing on buildings.
I like this particular image by William Eggleston (featured above), sometimes referred to as, ‘The red ceiling‘ as it shows colour well. At the top of the image, slightly off centre is a light fixture with a bare bulb and three white cables stapled to the ceiling leading out across the glossy ceiling like arteries towards the crimson walls. It is taken from an angle that suggests he may have stood on a chair, or simply held the camera above his head. In its apparent casualness, it is emblematic of Eggleston’s art, being both ordinary and loaded with meaning, utterly simple and yet endlessly complex. The abstract “fly’s eye view” of the room evokes how Eggleston’s compositions often appear both formal and deceptively simple. Eggleston is known for capturing sometimes garish, but always stunning colour combinations in his pictures. A mundane image, maybe, yet one that carries within it some indefinable sense of menace. His eye for colour, enhanced by his dye-transfer process, ultimately enabled colour photography to become a legitimate art form. Of this picture he once said, the deep red colour was “so powerful, I’ve never seen it reproduced on the page to my satisfaction. When you look at a dye-transfer print it’s like it’s red blood that is wet on the wall.”. At the time this photo was shown, most photographs were still black and white, so the vibrant red pigment was shockingly new and experimental. Other images by William Eggleston (pictured below).
There are many similarities between the two photographer’s work, the obvious being that they both shot their images in colour. However, as well as that they both captured images in places that they had connections too- William Eggleston shot in his birthplace, Memphis, and Saul Leiter took images in his hometown of New York. Both photographers also shoot images that either include people in, creating a sense of community or places that communities may gather. Whilst both photographers, have many similarities they also have a lot of differences, William Eggleston says that he just captures ‘life today’ and that the images have no documentative qualities or stories behind them. However, Unlike the bright, poppy 1970s colour work of William Eggleston, who is generally regarded as polychromatic photography’s pioneers, Leiter’s images possess an impressionistic quality, in keeping with his contemporaries. He says about his images, “I like it when one is not certain what one sees,” he once said. “When we do not know why the photographer has taken a picture and when we do not know why we are looking at it, suddenly we discover something that we start seeing. I like this confusion.” Capturing his images this way leaves them up to interpretation. (Eggleston-right) (Leiter-left).
Photography has a unique relationship to chance. Anyone who has used a camera has taken a picture that has been ruined by an ill-timed blink or enhanced by an unexpected gesture or expression. … On the other hand, it has given photography an extraordinary capacity to represent the unpredictableness of modern life. The notion of chance in photography is a vital part of the practice. To an extent all photographers have taken their famous images at the result of chance process, however as well as chance; photographers such as Saul Leiter have also put themselves into an environment that will present opportunities to capture a successful image. Leiter done this by knowing what type of images he wanted to capture and went out into the centre of New York to look for opportunities to capture images.
In my own practical work, I have taken images In Jersey, Brighton, and London, I have focused on street photography, as well as the graffiti community, and taken images that focus solely on colour, such as colourful objects from a close distance. I think my images are more comparable to Saul Leiter’s work as I tried to take images with his style of photography slightly using people as a silhouette to break up the colours that are present in the background of his images. In a lot of my street photography images I took a lot of images that focused on the sky as the main colour element in the background by capturing images that have sunsets in the background, two examples of this are shown below.
I like these images as they incorporate both street photography and colour in a natural way, in the image on the left I like how the purple hues in the sky are seen through the square windows; I also like how the windows are separated as it creates a nice break of colour throughout the image. In the image on the right, I like how the people in the carriage in front can be seen on the left-hand side of the image and how they are just unaware of the photograph being taken as it feels more natural. I also like the way you can see the sky through the carriage windows as well as the carriage the image was taken from. Another thing I like about this image is the lights in the ceiling of the carriage as it has just enough light to make the people visible but not enough light to take away from the sky in the background of the image.
Another image I like is this one as I feel like the silhouette of the woman in front of the billboard gives off a Saul Leiter feel. I like the placement of the woman in this image as it breaks up the background colour and makes the hat the woman is wearing more visible just like Saul Leiter does in his images. The placement of the woman makes the contours in the image more visible, and the billboard creates colour blocks in the image much like Saul Leiter’s work.
Two other images that I like are from a photoshoot inspired by the photobook ‘William Eggleston’s Guide’, the first image in the photobook depicts a light faded grey door, slightly to the right of the image, it has a gold door knocker on the centre of the door with a basket full of blue flowers hanging off it. After seeing that image I decided to take similar photographs and frame them similarly. I took the images so that the window and the door were to the right of the image much like Eggleston’s image. I like the blue shades in both of these images and like the way the darker blue shade stands out against the white wall and the way the yellow flowers at the bottom of the image frame the door way. In the image on the right I like the way the light blue shade of the window and the wall at the bottom look with the cream shade of the wall, compared to how it would look if the wall was painted a bright white colour. The light shade of the blue creates a calm, relaxed feel, combining that with the cream wall evokes a feel of femininity within the image.
How memory is connected to a sense of place and people.
A paragraph:
I want to connect to places in Jersey where I had visited as a child, re-living the memory and creating a sense of nostalgia throughout the book. Comparing and contrasting the old with the new. Focusing on the themes of memory, place and family.
Design: How you want your book to look and feel?
Paper and ink: Classic paper (118 gsm), smooth semi-matte finish
Format, size and orientation: Standard Landscape, 10×8 in, 25×20 cm
Binding and cover: Soft cover, Printed on the front cover, back cover and spine, gloss finish.
Title:
Design and layout: I plan to have my split sequences throughout the book, some on a double page spread, some taking up 3/4 of a double page spread and some singular images with a black page next to it.
Editing and sequencing: I want the images to flow nicely and have singular images throughout the photobook to break up the sequence from the split sequences.
Images and text: I will not have any text with my images. At the end of my book I will have my essay.
Mood board
In these photobooks I liked the different ways the images are presented and would like to take inspiration from the 3 photobooks when creating my own. I specifically like the grid/sequence layout Jon Ruffolo has used, using portrait and landscape images to create an interesting spiral-like shape. This will work well with my images because I have made some split sequences which are a similar shape. I also like how
For this photoshoot I focused on street photography, I took images of street art, to represent the graffiti community as well as taking images of street photography in Londons town and in the airport.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF FOOD ARE RARELY JUST ABOUT FOOD. THEY HOLD OUR LIVES AND TIME UP TO THE LIGHT.
Bright, S. Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography (2017)
When exploring culture, food often can be the key to discovering cultural differences and similarities. The way food is cooked, served, eaten and enjoyed is interesting and can offer a real insight into specific cultures that other explorative devices cannot offer. ‘Chef’ and ‘Juice’ both provide an understanding of food culture in the US and India respectively. The food culture that both the films represent have deeper underlying links to cultural issues in both countries. Chef brings to light issues on familial and romantic relationships as well as workplace security. In Juice, it explores the systematic oppression of women. In art, food has been used to investigate culture and identity for millenniums with examples of food art being found in paintings such as “Fresco Depicting a Woman Holding a Dish” estimated to have been created between 1-79 AD, 2000 years ago. Food has always been used in art as an allegory for other substance, often being taboo subjects such as sex and pleasure but more often being used to signify power and wealth such as the commodification of the pineapple fruit to show status that only the richest in society could achieve. Photographer, Martin Parr is renowned for photographs of people and food that impart an incredibly intimate insight into different people’s cultures as well as providing historically significant simulacrum to educate years after his photography is taken, seen in work such as ‘Anniversary Tea’ and ‘Steep Lane Baptist’.
Steep Lane Baptist (1976)
Anniversary Tea (1978)
In ‘Chef’ Jon Favreau explores parental roles and the impact of social media on job security, set to a backdrop of a culinary road trip across the US as main character Carl, played by Favreau, rediscovers his passion for cooking after a career destroying social media meltdown. The beautiful cinematography and extensive mise-en-scene of Chef is what solidified it’s status as a cult film and helped to adequately explore the vibrancy of Latin-American cooking and culture. The beginning of the film see’s Carl fall victim to cancel culture as he serves a popular but boring and overused menu to a food critic who gives a negative review which sparks Carl to respond with abuse on twitter, this exchange being familiar to contemporary audiences where cancel culture is a common occurrence that many celebrities falling victim to. By using film to deep dive into food culture, Favreau effectively brings a new medium to the phenomenon of food porn. One scene in particular stands out as displaying an erotic side of cookery as Carl prepares a dish of ‘Aglio e olio’ for love interest Molly. The simple dish shows off the sensual nature of Italian cooking and culture and the scene is now iconic for the way it does this. This scene reiterates the zeitgeist of food as a love language, as the dishes mimic the characters personalities and storylines. A scene where Carl makes a grilled cheese for his son Percy shows the beginning of Percy’s own culinary journey as the grilled cheese connotes an all American and childlike personality which is juxtaposed by a later scene where father and son bond over making Cubanos. Initially Percy asks why so much effort has gone into making the meat for the sandwiches, remarking “You could’ve just bought this at the store” but soon changes his tune begging to try the dish and helping his dad run the food truck, in turn putting him more in touch with his Latin heritage showing how food has brought people together “Cooking is all about people. Food is maybe the only universal thing that really has the power to bring everyone together. No matter what culture, everywhere around the world, people eat together.1” Carl’s identity as a white male forces audiences to read the film with a postcolonial lens, as he is effectively taking from other countries cultures and profiting from it. In an era of food tourism this cultural appropriation can often be misconstrued as appreciation as epi-curious, gastronomes endeavour to boost their cultural capital, especially considering that for many Latin immigrants in North America, a food truck is their livelihood and a way to share their culture with the public whilst for Carl this is a brief fixation that will ultimately bring him back to suburban life in middle-class Las Angeles as a top chef. The film utilises overhead shots when filming cooking scenes which help to bring more attention to the dishes being made. Lots of colour is used when creating the food, making it look more appealing but also more exotic to show Carl’s peregrination from the samey and traditional menu enforced at Gauloises where he was completely restricted in his ability to create anything contemporary, to the opening of his own restaurant with the freedom to experiment. In cooking scenes with multiple chefs’, actors were instructed to improvise a majority of their lines in order to emulate kitchen banter which effectively elevated the verisimilitude of the film. ‘Chef’ heavily relies on its score to enhance to atmosphere of the film, using iconic and nostalgic music by artists such as Gente De Zono, Pete Rodriguez and Perico Hernando’s whose Lain heritage and mariachi style deepen the roots and tone of the film.
Favreau, J. (2014) Chef. Scarlett Johansson’s character Molly makes spaghetti sexy in this scene from Chef
‘Juice’ an independently produced Hindi language film by Neeraj Ghaywan, explores gender roles in India through a dinner party hosted by housewife Manju. There is a clear divide between the men and women from the start as the husbands enjoy themselves chatting and eating whilst Manju serves them, and the rest of the wives stay in the hot kitchen cooking and cleaning, becoming domestic caregivers in lieu of guests. While gorging themselves on chicken, the men gossip (a traditional feminine activity) about the ineptitude of a female superior at work treating one of them men as a subordinate and making him send unnecessary emails. The men show little knowledge on the topic they are discussing but that does not stop them from blathering on, another man asking, “do you have a problem with the email or the female?” illustrating male entitlement and a general distain for women who are viewed to be inferior and better suited to domestic roles like their wives in the kitchen. Gender roles in India are seen to be defined in childhood as a young girl playing video games is told “Food is ready come and serve your brothers” Manju looks on disgusted by this example of systemic sexism, like much of this short film she prefers to communicate with actions and facial expressions rather than words which makes her look of antipathy much more meaningful and crucial in driving the narrative as audiences begin to see her resentment towards the patriciate that demands girls to become slaves to men before even maturing into young women. This theme of children is repeated later when a wife suggests that having children is the key to marriage “If there no excitement in a marriage just get a baby” reinforcing the idea that a child, especially one that is female, is merely a versatile tool. This links with another line “But which book of law states this that either you can raise kids or pursue a career?” as Manju questions why the hegemony has created a dominant ideology that women cannot balance life in both the workplace and the home. After burning her finger whilst cooking and being subjected to an onslaught of verbal abuse as the men become increasingly impatient in their wait for additional food, Manju takes a stand by pouring a glass of juice, dragging a chair into the living room, and sitting, sipping her drink and relaxing with the cool breeze of the fan. She then engages in a pseudo staring contest with her husband who loses when he awkwardly looks away, allowing Manju to assert her dominance over the situation and empower the rest of the wives who have gathered to watch this spectacle. As Manju goes the grab the juice the whole atmosphere changes, with a non-diegetic crescendo of dramatic music increasing tension and the diegetic quieting of background noise as the house guests are shocked into silence upon witnessing Manju’s defiance. The prop of electric fans adds drastically to the mise-en-scene and as a narrative device, effectively showing the gender segregation and discrimination between the men and women. Despite arduously working in the incommodious and uncomfortable kitchen, the women are left with a broken fan that does nothing to alleviate the wife’s malaise, whilst the men who lounge around doing nothing have the amenity of the large working fan that allows them to relax. The contrast of this scene shows a paradoxical subversion of expectations as, by western standards, women sit and gossip and men do physical handiwork such as the attempted repairing of the faulty fan. Manju disrupts this convention when she moves her chair in front of the good fan to give herself a break from the harsh conditions she has been subjected to, displaying the power of female rage which she uses to dismantle the patriarchy in the microcosm of her home as seen in the quote “In anger, I have lived more fully, freely, intensely, sensitively, and politically. If ever there was a time not to silence yourself, to channel your anger into healthy places and choices, this is it”2 ‘Juice’ displays perfectly bell hook’s theory of intersectionality, in an age of 3rd wave feminism many people in the west believe that women are now equal to men and that feminists have achieved all that they set out for however hooks acknowledged that women of colour are excluded from this narrative and face adversity from both the feminist movement and the hegemony especially outside of the western world in countries such as India where women are still discriminated against and treated as inferiors, saying “As long as women are using class or race power to dominate other women, feminist sisterhood cannot be fully realised”3
Manju finally resting to enjoy juice in front of the fan
To conclude, both ‘Chef’ and ‘Juice’ explore cultural identities and dominant ideologies through the adoption of Roland Barthe’s semiotics using denotation, connotation, and myth to create a deep and meaningful narrative through a shared narrative focus on food. In ‘Chef’ cultural identities are explored through Carl’s fording of new cultural identities as he reconnects with his partly estranged son, who is Hispanic but ignorant of his own culture, by involving him in his cultural pilgrimage of southern America as Carl relearns the foundations of cookery while breaking away from the pompous and rigid principles of traditional cookery. In ‘Juice’ Ghaywan creates a microcosm to present the inequality and bigotry towards women in present day India. Mise-en-scene in the film is vital in creating nuanced inferences on difficult topics as stagecraft is cogently used to fracture dominant ideologies on the treatment of women under the guise of props because, “It is not ‘only’ food, I said heatedly. There’s meaning hidden underneath each dish.”4 My own film ‘Comfort’ explores 4 different cultural identities from Scotland, Jersey, Mexico and Yorkshire. Anti-thetically to ‘Juice’ it does not work to breakdown dominant ideologies but instead serves as a factually based documentary with a purpose to inform, embroiled with stereotypes that pander to dominant ideologies. I did this to make each culture instantly recognisable especially as some of the cultures I explored were very similar in nature. Each interview is anecdotal to ensure a personal and interesting response and is fast paced with quick cut editing to avoid boring audiences. Ultimately, through ‘Chef’ ‘Juice’ and my own film, it is evident that food can be vital in sharing culture and understanding identities.
Bibliography
Bright, S. (2017) Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography
Favreau, J. (2014) Chef
Ghaywan, N. (2017) Juice
Parr, M. (2019) Martin Parr: Early Works
Blarthes, R. (1964) Elements of Semiology
hooks, b. (2000) Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
Reichal, R. (2005). Garlic and Saphires
Chamaly, S,L. (2018) Rage Becomes her: The Power of Women’s Anger, New York : Atria Books
Fieri, G.(2016) Guy Fieri Shares What Feeds His Attitude for Life
