ESSAY WRITING

Academic Sources:

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

Bibliography

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

https://museumofyouthculture.com/museum-collections/

Quotation and Referencing:

Why should you reference?

  • To add academic support for your work
  • To support or disprove your argument
  • To show evidence of reading
  • To help readers locate your sources
  • To show respect for other people’s work
  • To avoid plagiarism
  • To achieve higher marks

What should you reference?

  • Anything that is based on a piece of information or idea that is not entirely your own.
  • That includes, direct quotes, paraphrasing or summarising of an idea, theory or concept, definitions, images, tables, graphs, maps or anything else obtained from a source

How should you reference?

Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.

Essay Question:

Childhood / teenage lifestyle

Photoshoot 1

I wanted to begin my photoshoot in a personal place where I could comfortably explore aspects of me and my identity so I decided to take photos in my room. From here, I knew I would be able to generate ideas and play around with different types of lighting before exploring them further in future photoshoots.

Contact Sheets

I took some inspiration from my previous photoshoot a year ago on my identity and played around with new ideas and props. I really enjoyed this photoshoot as I played around with various items, lights, shadows and camera settings. For example, at the start of the photoshoot I used my phone as a light source to reflect green light onto my face, creating a basic overlay that I had total control over. Later on in my photoshoot, I used a post-it note to make a cone and create a mini spotlight to project onto me which I then used to explore different compositions that focused on my facial expressions. At the end of my photoshoot, I used a slow shutter speed whilst waving around a stick of incense in front of the camera and around my face which made a really interesting blurred red line across each image which I really like the look of.

Example of my exploration with coloured lighting
Example of my exploration with a spotlight and shadows
Example of my exploration with incense

I also put a lot of thought into my colour choices throughout the photoshoot, making sure to use yellows, reds and greens; the colours on the Portuguese flag. I thought it would be a subtle way of incorporating a big part of my identity into the photoshoot as the details may help to connect the images with my future shoots later on.

Best Shots: Post Editing

Essay Writing

Academic Sources:

  • Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube video .
  • 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

Quotation and Referencing:

Why should you reference?

  • To add academic support for your work
  • To support or disprove your argument
  • To show evidence of reading
  • To help readers locate your sources
  • To show respect for other people’s work
  • To avoid plagiarism
  • To achieve higher marks

What should you reference?

  • Anything that is based on a piece of information or idea that is not entirely your own.
  • That includes, direct quotes, paraphrasing or summarising of an idea, theory or concept, definitions, images, tables, graphs, maps or anything else obtained from a source

How should you reference?

Use Harvard System of Referencing…see PowerPoint: Harvard System of Referencing for further details on how to use it.

Bibliography

Our London Nights exhibition included images from the Metropole series by Lewis Bush. He spoke to us about whether London’s skyline is beautiful or repulsive, and where you should be in London at midnight.

Collinson, A. (13 August 2018), Snapshot interview: Lewis Bush & Metropole. London: Museum of London https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/snapshot-interview-lewis-bush accessed on 12.12.2022

TUE: Essay Question

  • Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
  • Below is a list of possible essay questions that may help you to formulate your own.

In what way do Rut Blees Luxemburg and Lewis Bush’s interpretations of modern landscapes at night portray development?

Literary Sources

Salvesen, B (2009) New Topographics. Göttingen

Johansson, G (2015) Tokyo. Göteborgstryckeriet

Art movements and isms

PICTORIALISM

Time period: 1880s-1920s.

Key characteristics/ conventions: Made photography a physical process (like art), abstraction, camera is used as an instrument for a new vision of photography, subjective and spiritual movement, scientific invention, replicate other artworks, Allegorical paintings (figurative mode of representation that convey meaning unlike the literal way).

Artists associated: Louis Daguerre, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Picasso, Edward Western, Walter Evans, Julia Margaret Cameron, Emerson’s book about Naturalistic Photography, Vienna Camera Club, Sally Mann.

Key works: Paul Strands Portfolio of Modern Art, Straight photography.

Methods/ techniques/ processes: Smeared Vaseline on the lens to make it seem like a painting, Sharp/soft focus, clearly focussed and face reality (no manipulation, do this after in a darkroom), emphasize selection and framing, abstract form, scratching the negatives afterwards, using chemicals.

Louis Daguerre: Pictures Illuminate Google's Man of the Day
Louis Daguerre work.
9780817404017: Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art - Emerson,  Peter Henry: 0817404015 - AbeBooks
Emerson’s book of Naturalistic Photography.
Edward Weston's Cabbage Leaf - Holden Luntz Gallery
Edward Western’s work.

REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Time period: 1900s

Key characteristics/ conventions: Photographers who believed in the qualities that represent the realism and accuracy of the real world, ‘Photographic’ rather then ‘paintings’, Monochrome painting, camera used to record as it is seen in front of the lens unquestioned (such as in the media with news stories).

Artists associated: Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Lisette Model, Lewis Hine, Henry Frederik Evans, Margareth Bourke-White, Jacob Riis.

Key works: Family of Man by Bernice Abott, MOMA by John Szarkowski, The Steerage by Stieglitz, Hale Country by Walker Evans, Cubism, Fauvism.

Methods/ techniques/ processes: Soft/crisp focus, wide depth of field, digital photography.

Stieglitz, The Steerage (article) | Khan Academy
The Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz.
Walker Evans. Cabin, Hale County, Alabama. 1936 | MoMA
Hale Country by Walker Evans.
John Szarkowski: Photographs | MoMA
MOMA by John Szarkowski.

MODERNISM

Time period: Early 1900-50s.

Key characteristics/ conventions: Fauvism, Primitivism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism,
Dadaism, Suprematism,
Constructivism, Neo-Plasticism,
Surrealism, Spatialism, Abstract
Expressionism, Social Realism,
Straight Photography, Formalism, focus on the object rather than the subject and form.

Artists associated: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Minor White, Ernst Haas, Saul Leiter, Aaron Siskind, Henry Callahan, Frederick Sommer, Paul Strand.

Key works: Harry Callahan and Chicago (1948), Frederick Sommer and Three Grazes (1985), Paul Strand and Porch Shadows (1916).

Methods/ techniques/ processes: Makes references into photographic techniques inside the art itself such as the form, composition, medium, material, skills, techniques, processes, etc.

Chicago | The Art Institute of Chicago
Harry Callahan and Chicago (1948)
Frederick Sommer - Galleries
Frederick Sommer and Three Grazes (1985)
Paul Strand. Abstraction, Porch Shadows, Connecticut. 1916 | MoMA
Paul Strand and Porch Shadows (1916)

POST-MODERNISM

Time period: Late 1900s-2000s.

Key characteristics/ conventions: Used by Postmodernists/Architects who went against the international style of modernist architecture, relativism, used by postmodern artists to explore the way that society proposes the traditional hierarchy of cultural values/meanings, explores power and economic/social forces which shape identities of individuals/cultures, used by female photographers and artists in the 1980s, represents seriality and repetition.

Artists associated: Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Sam Taylor-Wood, Corrine Day,

Key works: Chapter 5 in ‘Intimate Life’ in which is Charlotte Cotton’s book The Photograph a Contemporary Art, Barbara Kruger and Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground (1982), Corrine Day and Diary (1997), Sam Taylor-Wood and Soliloquy I (1998).

Methods/ techniques/ processes: Postmodernists use text, speak in one voice, photographs/other works consists of having one meaning, the photograph is reproducible and adaptable, blown up, cropped, blurred, used in other medias,

Corrine Day, Diary 1997.
Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground (1982)
Charlotte Cotton’s book, The Photograph a Contemporary Art.

Essay writing

Academic Sources –

  • Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video .
  • 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

Quotation and Referencing –

Why should you reference?

  • To add academic support for your work
  • To support or disprove your argument
  • To show evidence of reading
  • To help readers locate your sources
  • To show respect for other people’s work
  • To avoid plagiarism
  • To achieve higher marks

What should you reference?

  • Anything that is based on a piece of information or idea that is not entirely your own.
  • That includes, direct quotes, paraphrasing or summarising of an idea, theory or concept, definitions, images, tables, graphs, maps or anything else obtained from a source.

How should you reference?

  • Use Harvard System of Referencing.

Essay question plan –

Key Subject: Weather, nature photography

Key photographers:

  • Martin Parr
  • Vanessa Winship

Question ideas:

  • How have Martin Parr and Vanessa Winship explored the concept of the weather in their work?

Essay 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, 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
  • Bibliography: List all relevant sources used

Bibliography examples –

  • Bonami, F. (2001), Gabriele Basilico 55. London: Phaidon Press Limited

In text referencing –

  • Direct quote: In his book on Gabriele Basilico, Bonami writes, “Gabriele Basilico doesn’t like to travel, and yet his photographs describe an endless panorama of places.” (Bonami 2001:2).
  • Paraphrasing/Summarising: Bonami (2001) makes a quote about Basilico’s work representing travel yet he hasn’t travelled because he doesn’t like it.

Online articles –

  • Campany, D. (Sept 27 20140, Into the Light, URL: Articles/page, Accessed 10/1/23)

Hyperlinks to use for reference –

Art Movements & Isms

PICTORIALISM

Time period :

1880s – 1920s


Key characteristics/ conventions :

Artists aimed to make images resemble artwork.


Artists associated:

  • Clarence H. White
  • John Everett Millais
  • JMW Turner
  • Paolo Veronese
  • Julia Margaret Cameron


Key works:

Morning, Clarence H. White, 1908

Morning, Clarence H. White, 1908


Methods/ techniques/ processes:

  • Manipulating images in a darkroom
  • Scratching and marking prints to look more like canvas

REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Time period:

Originated in 1904, development took place in the 1930s.


Key characteristics/ conventions :

Attempts to depict a scene or subject in sharp focus and detail, in accordance with the qualities that distinguish photography from other visual media, particularly painting.


Artists associated:

  • Ansel Adams
  • Charis Wilson
  • Wynn Bullock
  • Dody Weston Thompson


Key works:

  • Ansel Adams’ Biography, 1985
  • The Bowls, Paul Strand, 1917
  • A Sea of Steps, Frederick Henry Evans, 1903


Methods/ techniques/ processes:

Used darkroom techniques to enhance the appearance of their prints

MODERNISM

Time period:

1840s – 1960s


Key characteristics/ conventions :


Artists associated:


Key works:


Methods/ techniques/ processes:

POST-MODERNISM

Time period:

1960s – present. Came about after WW2 as a reaction to modernism.


Key characteristics/ conventions :

Modernist belief was attacked by artists in rationality, objectivity and universalism in favour of relativism as well as identity. The view that there is no objective truth.


Artists associated:

  • Heidegger
  • Derrida
  • Lyotard


Key works:


Methods/ techniques/ processes:

Case study of Vanessa Winship

What I used for reference –

For extra help when creating my case study, I used a interview I found with in the British Journal of Photography and a Vogue interview by Rica Cerbarano. These sources were both valuable ways in finding out more about Vanessa Winship’s project on Weather.

Research –

  • Vanessa Winship focuses on contemporary photography, most of her work being in black and white but as times have changed, she has brought slight colour into her photographs as well.
  • She studied at the Polytechnic of Central London during the 1980s when the practice of photography and cultural studies was on the rise.
  • Her work focuses on identity, vulnerability and the body

Furthermore, I’m actually beginning to enjoy the possibility of how my work can speak differently if it’s color, but perhaps in a certain way there’s a slight mourning that there is a shift away from how I’m known.

Vanessa Winship

3 Key quotes –

1. “There was this incredible swirling snow: it was weather that I’m not used to and that I’m not comfortable in.”

I chose this quote because I think that it shows how Vanessa Winship went out of her comfort zone when creating her photographs regarding weather. I agree with how she has said this quote in the article, because I think that this shows how you need to be fearless and adventurous when taking photographs because you can achieve the best outcomes when you go and photograph something a little different from what you are used too.

2.  “I guess this happens when you’re out in the landscape and you stop and make an image… I kept stopping and walking into the landscape itself. And of course when you have a camera, it becomes a tool of confession.”

I agree with this quote from Vanessa Winship because she explains how you can just walk into a landscape and realise how beautiful it is and want to capture its beauty, while using the camera as a tool which is used to show others of what you have discovered. This is because the camera is, metaphorically and physically, a tool that is used by photographers to confess what they are photographing and why they have chosen to photograph it for a project they may be working on or to tell a story to other people.

3. “So if you stop at a house minding your own business for example, you’re existing in someone else’s space. I made a number of images around a particular landscape [with a house],”

I chose this quote from Vanessa Winship’s interview which she did because I agree with how she states that as photographers, sometimes we have to exist in other peoples spaces to an extent while being respectful of our surroundings. This is because, as photographers, we rely a lot on creating our images around a particular subject which may include houses, public spaces, people, etc and we need to be mindful while taking into consideration that we are in or on someone else’s property. This is then where she further explains how she engaged in a conversation with an owner of a house while creating a number of images which revolved around a house that she stumbled upon and wanted to experiment photographing.

Image analysis –

For this image which I have chosen for my image analysis of Vanessa Winship’s work, is a part of Winship’s latest project which is called ‘Snow’ and was published on March 15, 2022, it focuses on the different aspects of weather in different landscapes, as well as capturing its beauty. I decided to give this image a further analysis conceptually and contextually because I thin that it successfully shows to others how there is a main focal point with a follow up which is found within the photo which catches your attention almost immediately. This is the way that the photo is framed through the houses being on either side, and due to the photo being captured in black and white, they create a contrast against another which can suggest how the people who may live in them may be complete different people and this contrast is shown strongly through their homes where they live. I also like how there is only half of each house which has been photographed in each photo as it shows how there is a path which leads straight down the middle into the forest behind them, this is the other focal point of the photo. This is due to the fact that it can link the houses/people who live in them together because the path which is created leads your eyes down and want to look further into the photo as to why they live here and what is in the forest, because on first appearance it appears quite bleak and cold, creating a gloomy atmosphere which creates this feeling of solidarity between the people who live here, making you wonder what can be found in this beautiful forest.

Art Movements and Isms

PICTORIALISM

Time period:

1880-1920s

Key characteristics/conventions:

To make photography an accepted art form, as it was considered to be less serious, easy to do (accessible) and quick (snapshot, as well as education-wise). The ease of use is seen in the affordable Kodak, meaning everyone can afford/use it. It was also considered to be not done by humans, by the camera itself.

Photography started out as a scientific form rather than an artform.

Influences:

Allegorical paintings – Paintings which depict hidden meanings (allegories) with often biblical/mythological imagery. As well as other perhaps religious or cultural paintings/art.

Artists associated:

Alfred Stieglitz, Julia Margaret Cameron, Hugo Henneberg, Frank Eugene, Clarence H. White, F Holland Day

Key works:

Methods/techniques/processes:

Scratching the negatives/plates, putting Vaseline on the lens and painted chemicals over the photograph were done to give the photographs colour/manipulate the tonality of the images, which gives it a closer link to traditional art. The idea that art is ‘handmade’ is also tended to by using these methods.


REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Time period:

1915 – Present

Key characteristics/conventions:

Not manipulating the images in the darkroom to create sharp, realistic, abstract images – linking to cubism. Abstraction was created at this time, Strand was inspired by cubism, Picasso/Brandt.

Influences:

People wanted to go back to the documentary side of which photography was made for. This led to cubism being implemented into photographs to create what is now known as abstract photography.

Artists associated:

Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Alfred Steiglitz

Key works:

Methods/techniques/processes:

To produce sharp images with a lot of detail without manipulation – Returning to the documentary style that photography was originally intended for. They used the camera’s detail to record art in a way that traditional forms such as painting cannot.


MODERNISM

Time period:

Late 1800s to late 1900s

Key characteristics/conventions :

Modernism refers to the focus on the industrialisation and the new issues as opposed to traditional Victorian values in an effort to create something new and different from what was expected from art at the time. This often led to the images becoming abstract or surreal in an attempt to create something original.

Modernism focuses on the art itself and the artist’s technical ability to not only construct an image but to also evolve their own art forms to create something new and original. Object rather than subject and form rather than context.

Influences:

Cubism can be said to be an influence (as well as a product) of modernistic aesthetics. Artists like Picasso and Braque wanted to remove themselves from traditional art into something completely different – hence cubist paintings/art were produced by them and various other artist.

Montaging seemed to become very popular during the times of modernism as it allowed artists to further experiment with the mediums they chose, which led to their images being more modern aesthetically.

Artists associated:

Picasso, Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Claude Cahun, etc…

Key works:

Methods/techniques/processes:

Photomontaging was used where parts of images (and other forms of media such as newspapers) were spliced and placed onto one big image. This seemed to give some images (such as the montage above) to have an urban, surreal and artificial feel. These montages also seemed to be a parody on media such as newspapers to give the photographs a political or social context.


POST-MODERNISM

Time period:

1970s – Present

Key characteristics/conventions :

Post-modernism focuses on themes outside of the art form and the art, bringing political, cultural, social, historical and physiological themes into the context of the artwork. Context of audience and subject reception is also key in post-modernistic art. Post-modern work makes references to previously hidden agendas within the art community, especially from art critics and museums.

Subject rather than object and context rather than form.

Influences:

Post-modernism is a response to modernism, while modernism focused on finding the ‘timeless masterpiece’, post-modernistic art aims to separate itself from the idea, creating something temporary, accessible and imperfect. This pedestalizes the idea of art being a form of expression as opposed to something cold and meaningless.

Artists associated:

Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Frank Gehry, etc…

Key works:

Methods/techniques/processes:

Post-modernism, due to its links to social contexts, incorporates many different techniques to achieve different imagery depending on the context, such as eclecticism, parody, collaboration, reconfiguration, recycling work, bricolage, among others.

Art Movements & Isms

PICTORIALISM

time period: 1880s – 1920s

Key characteristics/ conventions: attempting to make images which resemble paintings

Influences:

Artists associated: Henry Peach Robinson, Peter Henry Emerson, Alfred Stieglitz

Key works:

Methods/ techniques/ processes: painting over photos, smearing Vaseline on lenses, scratch the negative out on prints,

REALISM / STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Time period: 1880s – 1920s


Key characteristics/ conventions:  Picture meant to look the way it looked through viewfinder, no image manipulation, framing more specific


Artists associated: Walker Evans, Paul Strand, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams


Key works:


Methods/ techniques/ processes: Framing, Collections

MODERNISM

Time period: 1900s – 1940s


Key characteristics/ conventions: Straight photography, Expressionism, Futurism, Formalism, Dadaism


Artists associated: Ansel Adams, Eadweard J. Muybridge, Margareth Bourke-White, Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz


Key works:


Methods/ techniques/ processes: blended imagery and themes, absurdism, nonlinear narratives, stream of consciousness

POST-MODERNISM

Time period: 1950


Key characteristics/ conventions : celebrating difference rather than unity,


Artists associated:


Key works:


Methods/ techniques/ processes: abstract

Personal Study: Case Studies

To get more ideas for my projects I looked at the book ‘Family Photography Now’ by Sophie Howarth and Stephen McLaren, and chose a few artists that I thought had interesting photographs. I then did some research on them and their projects. This helped me get a better understanding of what I want to do, as well as give me some more ideas for my own project.

Motoyuki Daifu (pg2)

Pete Pin (pg3)