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.
1. Literary Sources 2. Essay Question 3. Essay Plan
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
Harvard System of Referencing
Bibliography: Roberts, P. (2007), The genius of colour photography: from the autochrome to the digital age. London: Goodman
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.
In-text referencing:
In The genius of colour photography it states that Vogue ‘had determinedly set publishing trends before and after that date [1932]’ (Roberts 2007,126)
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.
Given Plan:
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. Link to powerpoints and resources above about art movements and isms.
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
My Plan:
Essay Question:
Explain how the photographers Mary Ellen Mark and Laia Abril portray women’s mental and physical health.
“the repercussions are most of the time psychological, so it’s very difficult to visualise it.” In response to how rape is a tricky thing to capture due to it being stigmatised
“Countries which restrict contraception, what about rape, what about accidents, what about whatever? What when people have problems and cannot even have abortions when they have problems with the foetus, it is connected, being able to choose when you are able to be a mother or not. “- in response to abortion.
“I remember learning that society had mandated that getting my period should remain a secret. The same ritual that was supposed to symbolize that I had “become a woman,”“- Menstruation myths (2021)
My Introduction
What topic I am focusing (women’s mental and physical health)
Introduction to photographers
Include quotes from both photographers
Paragraph 1
History on using photography as therapy as well as a documentary
link to the feminist movement and #me-too movement. E.g Emmeline Pankhurst and Tarana Burke. Link to how they could have inspired other women in the world.
Paragraph 2
Analyse Mary Ellen Mark’s Ward 81 as well as her work from Streetwise.
Emphasise the fact that she was unable to control what she took images of as she was in a ward full of women who were only there due to the fact that they are unpredictable.
Mention the fact that the women in streetwise look slightly unphased by everything that has happened to them.
Paragraph 3
Analyse the work of Laia Abril (on rape, thinspiration and menstruation myths )
List similarities between both artists even though Laia mainly used images of objects and not as much of people.
Conclusion
Explain own images and how they link to both artists
Bibliography
PLAN TAKEN FROM BLOG
Open a new Word document > SAVE AS: Essay draft
Copy essay question into Essay title: Hypothesis > if you don’t have one yet, make one!
Copy your essay introduction (from Essay Plan) which will give you a framework to build upon and also copy your Statement of Intent.
Identify 2 quotes from sources identified in an earlier task using Harvard System of Referencing.
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.
Begin to write a paragraph (250-500 words) answering the following questions below.
You got 45 mins to write and upload to the blog!
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?
It was created because many people at the time believed that photography was not classed as art. This led to people manipulating their images to make their work look more like paintings/drawings. They did this by spreading Vaseline on the lens of their camera and also scratching the negatives of their images.
Vaseline on the camera’s lens meant that the image looked blurred creating a stroked effect. This blurred image mimicked the brush strokes of a paintbrush and therefore allowed people to see it as art.
Scratching the negatives gave the images more texture. This meant that the images looked a lot like drawings, the scratches mimicked pencil lines and made the images look like someone sat for hours on end perfecting this image when it was actually created by light and shadows.
Pictorialism was heavily inspired by romanticism. This meant that pictorial images were often made showing love, femininity or elegance.
Romanticism (noun)
A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual.
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879):
“Sadness” 1864
“The Echo” 1868
“Ellen Terry at age 16”
Julia’s photography has a running theme of showing women’s feelings and looks. She used Vaseline on the camera lens to give the women that she was photographing a more innocent look. She took images of women to show how sensitive they can be with their long hair and sullen facial expressions. The facial expressions make the viewer feel as though the women in the images are frail and vulnerable. This was a common thought towards women in England, during the 19th century.
As well as focusing on the beauty of women, she liked illustrating her views on religion and different literary works. This is shown with images such as “I Wait (R. Gurney), 1872” and “Beatrice, 1866“
Beatrice, 1866
The image above has been captured to make the model look like Mary, the mother of Jesus. There are many statues of our lady, yet it seems every single statue manages to capture the same gaze. The model in the image looks as though she is looking for hope just like the statues of our lady. Mary is looking to the sky for hope that God has kept her Son safe. Whereas the model seems as though she is looking for help from those on the earth.
This image is inspired by Beatrice Cenci:
“Beatrice Cenci was the daughter of Count Francesco Cenci, a tyrant who terrorized his wife and children. In retaliation for his abuse, Beatrice plotted with her stepmother and older brother to kill him. Though it’s not completely clear who committed the actual murder, an investigation uncovered the involvement of two men along with the three Cenci family members. The two men died before being brought to the gallows. Beatrice, her stepmother, and older brother Giacomo were all executed on the tenth of September 1599. Only Beatrice’s younger brother Bernardo was spared execution.”
The images back story works well with the theme of women’s mental health. It highlights the fact that women have faced domesticated violence and rape for centuries.
Quotes by Julia Margaret Cameron:
“I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied.”–Julia Margaret Cameron
“When I have had such men before my camera my whole soul has endeavoured to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man. The photograph thus taken has been almost the embodiment of a prayer.” – Julia Margaret Cameron
My Research:
Feminism
The feminist movement has been around for hundreds of years.
The movement however took off when the Suffragettes began to fight for women being able too vote in the UK in the 1870s, this was known as first wave feminism. Once the First World War began, the men went off to war and the women had to stay behind and help work in factories and build bombs rather than staying in the house doing domestic work. This meant that when the war was over women wanted to have more independence and get their own job away from the house and their husbands. This became an popular opinion, the fact that women over the age of 30 in the UK in 1918 may have had a part in it also.
Both images taken by Christina Broom
The second wave in the feminist movement began in the 1960s and led to the 1990s during the anti-war protests. Instead of focusing purely on the gender inequalities, the second wave of feminists broadened those ideas onto sexuality, reproductive rights, domestic violence, marital rape etc. This was a huge deal as this time it was not only women protesting, men joined in as they saw the injustice in the world . This wave helped enforce the criminalisation of marital rape in 1994 (UK), in 1965 (USA) the Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling of 1965 prevented anyone from limiting a woman’s access to contraception or other methods of birth control.
The photo book Beyond Here Is Nothing is focused on the home life. Through the book it shows El-Tantawy’s journey to reach a tranquil state of mind and her personal experience growing up in contrasting cultures. Her photos explores the unsettling feeling of rootlessness, the mental burden of loneliness and the constant search for belonging in unfamiliar places. The use of words and images the book reveals itself “a living object harmonising with time.” With the over laying photos it displays a mirror of dispositions.
The photobook is a mixed of colourful images with black and white ones too in an A5 square shape book and overlapping pages from the top, left and right. It has a hard cover swiss with an image wrap on the cover and different images on each side of the cover. Throughout the book there are different sentences on plain pages such as “I am lonely sounds like the most sinful confession to make.” Or paragraphs discussing her childhood. All images are full size on single pages that don’t overlap onto other pages.
This is a photo series between 2009 and 2014 from her personal archives. Bénitah was trying to create a dream album where she looks at the idea of the ideal family looking at the themes of memory and loss. The stitches ressemble the conflict, drama and pain of family history that is absent from the images.
The photobook has a mix of black and white images and colour images. Carolle Bénitah worked into the images with stitching which adds texture but not physically because it is her images printed in the book. The book it self is roughly A4 and the images range in size and orientation. The book is a hardcover and has been binded using perfect binding which is when the binding is hidden by the cover using glue and stitching. The cover is made of card and has a single graphic image that wraps around the book and the title of the book is embossed on the front. The title is literal as it is her family’s’ photo souvenirs.
Photos from Photos Souvenirs:
Pomplondin
A la plage, 2009 – at the beach
La Cicatrice – The scar
Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
The story seems to be about her family and is told by using old images from her own families’ archive and she has manipulated them by sewing into them, adding a new narrative or adding to the current story/memory told in the image.
Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.
Throughout the book most images are single page images and often there is one image on one page then a blank page next to it. Some pages consist of a double page spread image that has been sliced in half horizontally taking up half the double page or a spilt in colour, for example white at the top and red at the bottom.
Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.
The images follow a journey of her life from daughter to wife to mother, telling the story of Carolle Bénitah.
Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others. Use of captions (if any.)
There is no introduction before the images start in the book. Majority of the images in the photobook do not have any texts linked to them but there is a couple which have texts that Carolle Bénitah embroidered into the images (shown below).
il ne dit pas – he doesn’t say
Demeler le faux du vrai – to sort the lies from the truth
At the end of the book there is one final image which consists of a picture of two frames one with her and her son and the other being her parents with the text, “a mon fils” and “a mes parents” which translates to for my son and for my parents which tells us the book is dedicated to them.
The statement at the end of the book is a summary of what Benitah wanted to portray in the photobook.
Carolle Bénitah was born in Casablanca, she now lives and works in Marseille. Bénitah was a fashion designer before becoming a photographer in 2001, she incorporates sewing and beading into her photography. She often explores the themes of memory, family, desire, loss, mourning and time. in her work.
“I started photography when the fragile dimension of life imposed itself on me and functioned as an existential crutch. Faced with a reality difficult to apprehend”
-Carolle Bénitah
The Photobook Photos Souvenirs is based on her memories of her Moroccan childhood, reinterpreting her own history as a daughter, wife and mother by manipulating images from her own personal archives using embroidery to create an album. She uses the slow and precise process of embroidery as a metaphor of time passing by, and to create designs that break the happiness in the images and deconstruct the myth of an ideal family.
“To embroider my photograph, I make holes in the paper. With each stitch, I stick the needle through the paper. Each hole is a putting to death of my demons. It is like an exorcism. I stab the paper until I don’t hurt anymore.”
Have a look at some these questions listed below from the book Photography Decoded authored by curator and writer Susan Bright and curator, writer and photo-historian Hedy van Erp.
How is narrative constructed in the work of Shipla Grupta and Umberto Verdoliva?
Opening quote
Introduction (250-500 words):
I am going to look at the theme of identity within family heritage, childhood, and location, focusing on how photographers create narrative with images. I find this interesting because it adds more depth to an image and creates more meaning. Narrative in photography also creates questions for the viewer and a sense of nostalgia or sentimentality which connects to the viewer, adding more value to a piece. The two photographers I will be looking at are Shilpa Gupta Umberto Verdoliva, I have chosen these two photographers because in their works they both explore storytelling and narrative in their own distinctive ways, looking at unique topics and different photographic processes.
In my current project for Identity, I am looking at location and upbringing by going through my own families archive of images and taking new images from the same locations of the old images around Jersey, focusing on a more photographic approach instead of a casual snapshot. I will take inspiration from both photographers mentioned and create double exposers and split my images in half to create a more interesting set of images.
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.
Looking at both photographers I am studying, realism and pictorialism seem to have an influence on their photographic styles. Pictorialism is an art movement that started in 1880 and came from photographers who wanted to prove photography as an art form. They were heavily influenced by artist of the time and would manipulate their images to make them look more like art. Pictorialists would use techniques like Vaseline on a camera lens to get a blurrier effect, scratching negatives to create a brush stroke effect and mixing chemicals. Realism is an art movement that started in 1915 as a reaction to pictorialism, certain people did not like the manipulation that would go into the pictorialst photographs and wanted to take pictures as they were, providing records of the world.
Alfred Stiegltiz, The Asphalt Paver, NY, 1892, printed 1913.
Edward Weston, Dunes, Oceano, 1936.
Both have abstract approaches to taking photos and often find themselves focusing on shapes and forms. Umberto Verdoliva’s images in his project What is a dream? have a more pictorialist approach to them because they are artier in nature and have been manipulated to create his final outcomes.
Storytelling is something that has been around for a while, since humans could speak and before through cave drawings, in forms of myths, legends, fables, anecdotes, or ballads. A story is a series of related events or experiences which unfold over time, likely to follow the structure of exposition, conflict, climax, resolution. Narrative is not necessarily a story it is also the way a story is told and interpreted. David Campell, professor, and political scientist says that ‘in telling visual stories about the world, photography is narrating the world’ which suggests that narrative aids photography and is more than photography alone which is often linked to context. A photograph is non-verbal in nature and captures a moment in time removed from a timeline, a singular image can tell a story individually, also images put together in a certain way can tell a story through sequencing.
Interpretations of narratives in photography can change the way a viewer looks at an image, whether this be clear with context behind an image, or something left to the viewer to analyse inside their own mind. Photographers developing a visual story should focus on what story they are going to tell and how they are going to communicate this to the viewer.
Narrative in photography can be shown in various ways such as photo collage where each photo represents different events and the contrast between these images creates a relationship to the viewer. Photobooks are also a way of conveying a narrative through photography even though they would not be thought to have a narrative in the sense of a sequence of events unfolding over time. Photobooks concentrate on an overall theme, concept, or idea. This is done by the way they are presented on a page and throughout the book.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
My first photographer I will be looking at is Shilpa Gupta who is an Indian artist who uses a broad range of mediums to create her images and artworks, often interactive typically using sculpture, installation, text, photography and audio and visual technology. She creates artworks that focus on human relations, subjectivity, and themes such as desire, conflict, security, technology, borders, and censorship.
I will be looking at her project Altered Inheritances- 100 (Last Name) Stories focusing on the key themes of narrative and family. In this project she looks at family heritage through family names where she presents her images split in half and reassembles them to form a misaligned set of images which she exhibits in a room and the different sets are presented next to one another in a long strip.
Gallery view from Shilpa Gupta, Altered Inheritances- 100 (Last Name) Stories, Pigmented inkjet prints in split frames, 2012-2014.
She takes historical photographs, snapshots, and scans of abstract drawings. The text on the images tells the story from hundreds of different people who had to abandon their last names after crossing boarders and migrating somewhere new. The abstract geometric shapes of the split images with the line split in the middle works as both a divider and connector with framing the isolation from identification and belonging.
This story is similar to what was seen in the Jewish Evacuation during World War 2, migrations of Bengalis from East Bengal to India, or from one place to another. Gupta says this act is ‘a crucial step towards sacrificing your tribe, ancestor, family, parent’ by her misaligned images because if we change our story, we complete something better, inspiring, and practical but we also lose ourselves.
In the exhibition where Shilpa Guptas’ Altered Inheritances is exhibited and Zarina the walls of the gallery and work is installed in the Tyler of a house plan. Divided into different parts of the gallery both artists artworks complement each other and conversing with each other as well as the people who view them.
The house in Zarina’s work turns into the form of the presentation itself in the gallery. Shilpa Gupta looks at the divide in people sharing common culture and the deportation of these people within state boundaries like West Bengal and Bangladesh. These two regions are similar but are part of two countries meaning they attract and repel each other. Gupta looks at the political divide and takes this as the crucial matter that splits communities turning them alien to the other half which can be seen further in her work by the physical divide of her images.
Shilpa Gupta, Altered Inheritances- 100 (Last Name) Stories, Pigmented inkjet prints in split frames, 2012-2014
Shilpa Gupta’s work is inspired by the issues with how south Asians are treated in the gulf and how they survived by changing their names, changing their identity. In the above sequence there is seven split images including images of surfaces, landscapes, and a portrait image.
In the middle of the sequence there is an image of a coastal scene where there is people stood next to a beach with rocks and the sea. Under the image there is a quote that reads, ‘In 1970’s, when he boarded the overnight train to the dream city, he left his surname behind. He chose a new one, something sounding ‘more local’, more Maharashtrian, something that could effectively camouflage his Gujrati back ground. He had been told he would be dealing with several who resisted new entrants into Mumbai. Vaishav Rathore Panchal’ typed in a type-writer front.
Image from above sequence
The image is muted in colour and has a warm tone to it. The texture in the waves, people and rocks creates a high tonal range and makes the overall feel of the image gritty. As this is in the middle of the sequence, the rough texture could indicate the middle of a story where there is usually a turning point in the plot. This could relate to this image as there is a lot of grain which implies that there is more character, something is happening.
The contrast between the people and the sea creates a diagonal divide, cutting the people from the sea, this could link to the cutting of their freedom as the people who were forced to change their names to fit in with a new society lost that freedom of expression and perhaps lost themselves. The image is taken from above looking down which gives the image a different perspective and creates a more interesting point of view.
The quote suggests that there is a serious divide in Mumbai between people who are fleeing to safety and people who already live there which is reflected in the image by the divide between the light and dark from the people and the sea.
At the end of the sequence there is an image of the sky, with the quote, ‘When he was getting married, he wanted him and his wife to have the same name, but felt it was unfair to ask her to take his surname. So they both changed their surnames to something new ‘, handwritten under the image.
Image from above sequence
The image is quite monochrome and only has two colours, being white and blue. There is not much tonal range in the image creating a low contrasting image which is soft in colour. The image is taken from eye-level, in level with the horizon capturing the whole sky as the sole image. The natural daylight from the sky adds to the soft, bright atmosphere, this could be a metaphor because the image is at the end of the sequence and could symbolise a happy, peaceful ending.
Gupta has added a white geometric circle into the centre of the very organic image creating a contrast between them. This creates a divide between the calm and soft background and the harsh crisp circle.
The quote under the image and the blank circle could suggest an empty space, a new beginning for the people who changed their names or could be symbolising heaven where everything is pure and tranquil.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
My second photographer I will be looking at is Umberto Verdoliva and his project What is a dream? Focusing on how he has created a narrative through layering images/ multiple exposures. He takes two real moments captured over time and merges them to create a new meaningful and unique image. Recreating a scene, an atmosphere, short reality/snapshot from something that existed in different times and places.
Image from What is a dream?
Image from What is a dream?
He currently lives in Treviso, Italy and produces most his work from the streets of his whereabouts. Umberto Verdoliva’s images are part of street photography which is a genre of photography that records everyday life in public places. Being in the public setting enables the photographer to take candid picturesof strangers, sometimes without them knowing. Street photography does not have to be taken on the streets, the aim of it is to capture culture and lifestyle. Images should tell a story or document a moment. Some street photography is created to make the viewer pause and question themselves.
Verdoliva likes street photography because it has helped him think about his daily routines and life, constantly looking for poetry and beauty in his surroundings and street life around him.
In 2013 he founded ‘SPONTANEA’ which was an Italian group dedicated to street photography, but this ended in 2019. Verdoliva has presented workshops, exhibitions, portfolio readings, presentations and writes articles on photography, showing his passion for the subject.
Verdoliva takes an interesting approach to street photography, looking at angles and geometric, his style being sensitive. Taking ordinary moments and transforming them into something extraordinary to focus on the poetry and significance. All his photographs are made on film and are double exposed to create the effect of two images one which means that preparation is important for his images. Always out and about looking for connections between things and people and the atmosphere/feeling in each place. He creates new realities by merging, mixing element from completely different places. By his precision and careful planning, we learn how attentive he is as a photographer as well as his sure sense of composition and in showing a story in a short fragment in time.
Image from What is a dream?
The image includes a man walking on a pavement into what looks like a plastered picture of a close up shot of a woman, like he is walking into a new world. The street picture is taken at eye level from a slight distance so he could get the man and the pavement in the picture. Verdoliva takes his pictures at random when he is out but plans for possible outcomes. The image has no specific name but is part of his ‘What is a dream?’ series which is about getting the viewer to use their imagination.
The image is in black and white which creates a high tonal range throughout the image emphasising the contrast between light and dark. The lighting would have been from the natural daylight which translates to the images’ softness, it is not harsh and bold, which creates a ghostly feeling as it is light and empty. even though the image has layers to it, it still has a short depth of field and feels 2D. There is a lot of textures in the outcome from the wall in the background, the peeling plaster sheet and the close-up portrait adds to the textures. These create quite harsh lines, like dry brush strokes in a painting, adding depth and grain to the image.
The background image with the man walking follows the rule of third as the horizon is in the bottom third and the main subjects are off centre, creating the perfect composition. The Woman also looks like she is looking over her shoulder as if the man is following her which creates an atmospheric feeling.
The image contains a mixture of geometric and organic shapes like the hair in the portrait of the girl and the run-down wall in the background and geometric shapes like the pavement lines which also is a form of repetition. The white solid line which is the edge of the paper that the man is walking into, could link to the idea of walking into a new world using the Solid white line as a divide between the two places, acting as a door. This creates a dark and eerie mood overall in the image. Verdoliva would have planned this as likes to get people to question themselves and their imaginations while looking at his images especially for this project.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
Both artists approach narrative in photography differently but still tell the story they want to be told. They use multiple images to tell a story, Umberto Verdoliva uses double exposures and Gupta uses sequencing. When it comes to the stories themselves that each photographer is trying to portray they are different. Gupta focuses on the history of people migrating to India for safety whereas Verdoliva does not base his narratives on anything, he looks for opportunities around him and tells the story he wants in that moment.
Umberto Verdoliva, Image from What is dream?
Shipla Gupta, Image from Altered Inheritances
Both of their photographic styles also contrast each other, Verdoliva clearly takes his images in a street photography style, capturing things in the moment. In contrast Gupta’s images seem to be more pre meditated in the way that her images are structured. She also includes a lot of objects in her sequences which is very different to street photography that focuses on scenes and people.
My own outcome
When creating my own responses using old family photos and new images I took inspiration from Gupta’s sequences and split my images like she has. In my opinion this links to the divide in time because the old family images are from around 15 years ago and the new images are taken in the present day.
My own outcome
This idea of merging two different moments in time and creating a new outcome also links to Verdoliva’s work because that is what he does with his images and is his main principle behind taking them.
Bibliography: List all relevant sources used
Elena Martinique 2016, Reading the Narrative Photography
My area of study is going to be how the bible and how it can be expressed through photography.
The artists I will be studying is going to be Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin. This is because they have used bible quotes and incorporated an image corresponding to that quote. In a similar way I will do the same; choose a bible quote that I relate to and make an image corresponding to it.
I will also look into David LaChapelle because he has made interesting photographs that successfully relate to the bible
Pg 1.
surreal photography
what is it
when did it occur
biblical renaissance paintings
Pg 2.
Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin
who are they
what do they do
a famous project that relates to the bible and photography
image analysis
Pg 3.
David LaChappela
biography
Jesus My homeboy project
image analysis
Conclusion
similarities and differences between the artists
how their projects relate to each other
different ism both explored
how successful I find that the bible has been portrayed through photography – is it blasphemous is it simply a way to visualise the bible, etc.
Biography; the two artists I’m studying are Edward Honaker and Gabriel Isaak. Sources and texts about them and their work;
Edward Honaker-
At the age of 19, photographer Edward Honaker was diagnosed with a mood disorder that affects about 14.8 million American adults. 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.
“All I knew is that I became bad at the things I used to be good at, and I didn’t know why,” the photographer told The Huffington Post. “Your mind is who you are, and when it doesn’t work properly, it’s scary.”
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. And if you haven’t, you can still learn a lot from the creative’s telling snapshots.
“Mental health disorders are such a taboo topic. If you ever bring it up in conversation, people awkwardly get silent, or try to tell you why it’s not a real problem. When I was in the worst parts of depression, the most helpful thing anyone could have done was to just listen to me – not judging, not trying to find a solution, just listen. I’m hoping that these images will help open up conversation about mental health issues. Everyone is or will be affected by them one way or another, and ignoring them doesn’t make things better.”
Gabriel Isak-
The objective of Gabriel Isak’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.
Gabriel Isak’s art entails surreal and melancholic scenes where he invites the viewer to interact with the inner world of solitary figures that symbolize our own unconscious states. He uses photography as a medium to draw and paint surreal images, minimal and graphic in its aesthetic, rich in symbolism and emotion, focusing on themes inspired by human psychology, dreams and romanticism, as well as his own experiences, especially the years he went through depression.
essay question; In what way have Edward Honaker and Gabriel Isak represented mental health through photography?
essay plan;
Essay question: In what way have Edward Honaker and Gabriel Isak represented mental health through photography?
Opening quote– “Your mind is who you are, and when it doesn’t work properly, it’s scary.”
Introduction (250-500 words): my area of study is mental health thats shown through photography. The artists i will be looking at are Edward Honaker and Gabriel Isak as they show different mental issues and feelings within the mind through their images. I will be responding to their work through showing the mental issues that teenagers go through by taking inspiration from their style of work and show it in my own way.
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to mental health. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse Edward Honaker in relation to my essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse Gabriel Isak in relation to my 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: (in the first paragraph)
essay;
Essay question: In what way have Edward Honaker and Gabriel Isak represented mental health through photography?
intro-“Your mind is who you are, and when it doesn’t work properly, it’s scary.”(Honaker 2018:2).
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.
para 1- 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. (Show illustration of Surrealist work of art)
Paragraph 2–
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 2018:1). 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
Paragraph 3 Structure (500 words):
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.” (ref source) 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. (ref source) 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.
Start by comparing two artists; similarities/ differences. common themes, influence of surrealism/ psychoanalysis etc
“Your mind is who you are, and when it doesn’t work properly, it’s scary.”(Honaker 2018:2).
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.
I was able to select my final outcomes through using Lightroom and photoshop, once I know what images I wanted to use through rating them, I began to edit images I knew would go perfectly together and I was then left with my final images , ready for my personal study to be presented with these images. The more photos I took the more ways I started to think of in order to present my subject which helped me putting this project together. once I started reading into my chosen artists background and history I got a better understanding of how people who have to dealt with mental illness from a young age started using photography in order to share their experience and capture their feelings through photographing themselves which I thought was really important and really inspired me to chose quite a heavy topic for my personal project as I think mental health plays a huge part of your identity and shapes you into the person you are in the future, which all my final outcomes show successfully. as once said “Your mind is who you are, and when it doesn’t work properly, it’s scary.”(Honaker 2018:2).
Photography, as we know it today, began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. … Daguerreotypes, emulsion plates, and wet plates were developed almost simultaneously in the mid- to late-1800s. Photography has come a long way in its relatively short history. In almost 200 years, the camera developed from a plain box that took blurry photos to the high-tech mini computers found in today’s DSLRs and smartphones.
Camera Obscura
Camera Obscura, ancestor of the photographic camera. The Latin name means “dark chamber,” and the earliest versions, dating to antiquity, consisted of small darkened rooms with light admitted through a single tiny hole. The result was that an inverted image of the outside scene was cast on the opposite wall, which was usually whitened. For centuries the technique was used for viewing eclipses of the Sun without endangering the eyes and, by the 16th century, as an aid to drawing; the subject was posed outside and the image reflected on a piece of drawing paper for the artist to trace. Portable versions were built, followed by smaller and even pocket models; the interior of the box was painted black and the image reflected by an angled mirror so that it could be viewed right side up. The introduction of a light-sensitive plate by J.-N.Niepce created photography.
‘Fixing the Shadows’
1839 was the year that a Frenchman, Louis Daguerre and an Englishman, Henry Fox Talbot introduced rival processes that would accomplished what the called ‘fixing the shadows’ Henry Fox Talbot was an accomplished inventor however he couldn’t draw. HE wanted a way to capture what he was seeing before him and therefore started thinking about camera obscura and the chemical processes of light sensitive materials. He then began experimenting with paper coated in silver salts and shoe-box sized cameras nicknamed ‘mousetraps’ which developed something called a negative. This is when the tones in an image are reversed. Talbot realised he could produce multiple prints from these exposures making it possible to reproduce images for the masses which would go on to shape modern photography. These prints are called Calotypes. Louis Daguerre was an academically trained French painter who had an alternative response to Henry’s process. Louis developed a method of printing onto a silvered copper plate creating an image that was much clearer and sharper than that of Henry’s calotypes, these were named Daguerreotypes. However, Talbot realised producing daguerreotypes was a dead end and that human communication was through paper. Daguerreotypes did not have the ability to create a multitude of prints like the calotypes, they were also very fragile, making it a less commercially successful process. Because the early days of photography were largely financially motivated, the beginnings of photography were all about the Darwinian struggle to see which process will prosper in the industry.
Dry Plate Process
Dry plate, also known as gelatin process, is an improved type of photographic plate. It was invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox in 1871, and had become so widely adopted by 1879 that the first dry plate factory had been established. With much of the complex chemistry work centralized into a factory, the new process simplified the work of photographers, allowing them to expand their business. Gelatin emulsions, as proposed by Maddox, were very sensitive to touch and mechanical friction and were not much more sensitive to light than collodion emulsions. Charles Harper Bennett discovered a method of hardening the emulsion, making it more resistant to friction in 1873. In 1878, Bennett discovered that by prolonged heating, the sensitivity of the emulsion could be greatly increased. George Eastman developed a machine to coat glass plates in 1879 and opened the Eastman Film and Dry Plate Company,reducing the cost of photography. A competitor of Eastman in the development and manufacture of gelatin dry plates was the architectural photographer Albert Levy.
Kodak
In 1888, inventor George Eastman invented a game-changing kind of dry, transparent, flexible photographic film that came in a roll. The film was designed for use in Eastman’s newly designed, user-friendly Kodak cameras. His first camera, the Kodak, was sold in 1888 and consisted of a box camera with 100 exposures. Later he offered the first Brownie camera, which was intended for children. By 1927, Eastman Kodak was the largest U.S. company in the industry. When Eastman was 24 he began researching how to make photography less cumbersome and easier for the average person to enjoy. After seeing a formula for a “dry plate” emulsion in a British publication, and getting tutelage from two local amateur photographers, Eastman formulated a gelatin-based paper film and a device for coating dry plates. He resigned from his bank job after launching his fledgling photography company in April 1880. In 1885, he headed to the patent office with a roll-holder device that he and camera inventor William Hall Walker had developed. This allowed cameras to be smaller and cheaper. Eastman also came up with the name Kodak, because he believed products should have their own identity, free from association with anything else. So in 1888, he launched the first Kodak camera (a few years later, he amended the company name to Eastman Kodak). The Brownie camera was launched in 1900 to target new hobbyist photographers — children — and with its $1 price tag, it also became a favourite of servicemen. Eastman supported the military in other ways as well, developing unbreakable glass lenses for gas masks and a special camera for taking pictures from planes during World War I. The Original Kodak was fitted with a rotating barrel shutter unique to this model. The shutter was set by pulling up a string on top of the camera and operated by pushing a button on the side of the camera. After taking a photograph, a key on top of the camera was used to wind the film onto the next frame.
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