William Eggleston is an incredibly well known photographer, most known for his breath-taking colour photography, and even credited with helping photography be seen as a real artistic medium. For this project I want to focus on his Kyoto series, taken in 2001. These images show a variety of subjects, and expertly utilise colour and light, as well as reflections, similar to the other artists I have looked at, with Rinko Kawauchi even crediting him as an inspiration for her own work. When describing his own work, Eggleston states, ‘I wanted to see a lot of things in color because the world is in color. I was affected by it all the time, particularly certain times of the day when the sun made things really starkly stand out.‘
While on a school trip to Berlin, I had the opportunity to visit an exhibition of his work at the C/O Berlin, running from the 28th of January to the 4th of May. The exhibit documents his influence in the photography world, pioneering the use of colour for decades to come. Many of his images focus on the mundane, often exploring life in the American, however he has done an array of shoots worldwide.
The exhibit was well designed, placing Eggleston’s work in chronological order, allowing us to see his progression as a photographer as he transitioned from black and white to colour images. The exhibition also placed a large focus on Eggleston’s images taken in Berlin while the city was still divided, and juxtaposing them against his images of the United States.
This is one of my favourite images from the series, due to Eggleston’s vibrant use of colour and texture. The image features varying patterns, transitioning from the dirty floor tiles to the transparent plastic that helps unify the colours of the array of flowers. It feels simple, as if Eggleston had taken the image without much planning, able to capture the beauty within everyday life, a recurring theme within his entire body of work. ‘Everything must work in concert. Composition is important, but so are many other things, from content to the way colours work with or against each other,‘ says Eggleston about his work, further explaining the detailed thought process that goes into such simplistically beautiful images.
Matthew Finn explores personal relationships both within the corpus of the family as well as the wider stage of personal relationships through photographic projects. With no commercial constraints or deadlines, Finn cultivates a working practice of an auteur, in charge of all the elements of the work where the craft of the print and the process as a whole are equally important. Finn makes bodies of work including his series of portraits of students, commencing in the early 1990s, and durational bodies of work that focus on the province of family life and close relationships.
‘Mother’ Project‘Uncle’ Project
Finn’s most notable works include the thirty-one-year process of making intimate, domestic portraits of his mother and the twenty-eight years he documented his relationship with his uncle. Today Finn collaborates with family members as he pursues the universal themes of love, loss, bereavement and intimacy. Through these current and completed projects Matthew Finn has expanded the frontiers of documentary photography, bringing a new and deeply psychological reality to the genre.
What I like about his work: I really like that his work is all monochromatic, even throughout his ‘School of Art’ project, which doesn’t focus on Finn’s family, he still considers using this style of photography. This means that there is a nostalgic tone and imaginary to his work, and I would to recreate this kind of feeling throughout my work. I think that the composition of his photography means that
‘Mother’ Project
Finn states “My father is not present in these photographs just as he wasn’t in our lives and yet he haunts these images. He was also the main reason that this project became so important to both me and my mother. He died twenty six years ago. On the evening before the funeral, my mother, cigarette in hand, told me of half-brothers sisters that I would meet the following day at the funeral. This was a complete shock to me. It seemed that my father was well known around Leeds and had been married several times (at the same time).”
Image Analysis: I really like this photograph above, this is mostly because the concept behind the imaginary is clear within this style of photography, this means that the bright lighting and the fact that her face is in the middle of the image. The love that he shares for his mum is something that is very obvious throughout this image, and I would like to replicate this in my own project. Furthermore, the fact that his mother is touching her face may be a link to the lack of love she has experienced from Finn’s father, who was distance and was married to multiple different women at once. Her individual strength of character and the fact that she has been able to deal with this kind of family issues if definitely shown throughout this project.
“School of Art is everything I’d hoped it would be. This is a subject I love and Stanley / Barker always does a fantastic job. But it’s MOTHER that was the punch in the gut. Your introduction is one of the finest I’ve ever read. It’s perfect, and supercharges the photographs.”- Alec Soth
This are some of my favourite images from the whole of Finn’s whole ‘Mother’ project, I think that the contrast within these images is very strong and is most present, with the bright lights highlighting his mothers figure along with the darker backgrounds means that her significance is implied. Is it clear to the viewer throughout these four photographs alone that his mother was someone that he looked up to, and her bright figure supports this concept. This style of photography is one that is very hard to replicate, this is because of the quality and the quantity of the images.
Finn also states: “It turned out that I was the youngest child and that I was the only one who didn’t know anything about these entangled lives. Now I was able to begin to piece things together: to understand why I would see my father’s car all over Leeds during the summer holidays, outside a terraced house with an unfinished painted fence, outside a semi with an overgrown garden. These were the places he called home.”
“Matthew Finn’s work draws us into the always fascinating dynamic between mother and son. That he is the only son of a single mother intensifies this connection. Matthew and his mother, Jean, are a family of two, and their lives are deeply intertwined. They are dependent on each other, and Matthew is, in many senses, the ‘man’ in Jean’s life. Through the lens, Matthew seems to find perspective on this intensified version of what is the most natural, elemental bond – that of a mother and child.”- Elinor Carucci
What aspects of his work will be present in my project? I would like to show my admiration for some of my closest family members through my future project, just like Finn has done with his Mother and also his Uncle. I’m not sure what kind of photography style I will adapt to do this, but I would like to take image of my mum, dad and brother and make sure that they are a significant part of this project. Furthermore, I would like to make a lot of my images monochromatic as this means that their is a nostalgic feeling towards my work.
Claudia Andujar– a Brazilian photographer born in Switzerland, 1931- began working in photojournalism through a project on the Karajá people in central Brazil, a project which is her most renowned one. As well as being a photographer, Andujar is also an avid human rights and environmental activist: co-founding the Comissão Pró-Yanomami, an advocacy organization that supports the rights of the Yanomami people.
Andujar’s images are in documentary style- starting her career as a journalist her work was orientated around news reports. Andujar’s style in these images features very much on lighting and vibrant colours- these images are from two different projects of Andujar’s: one of which is a photojournalist perspective documenting psychodynamic therapy which was accompanied by an article published in Realidade magazine, January of 1970, with text by Jorge Andrade (collection titled “They’re Looking For Peace”) and the other being a photoshoot with a model called Sônia, who was from Bahia who was working in São Paulo (collection titled “A Sônia”). I have decided to study Andujar’s work as a response to the exam theme of simple v complex due to her use of lighting and dramatic, almost cinematic compositions which give an outsider perspective towards subjects- as Andujar was a photojournalist her images were always an outsider perspective however the compositions and how Andujar took the images makes the images look staged and painting-like, making the viewer question the true origin of the images and I would like to recreate this style and intention of images using staged settings and models.
“They’re looking for peace (#2)” Claudia Andujar, 1969
“They’re Looking For Peace” although a piece of documentary photography, the images look as if they have been staged- showing dramatic, film-like snapshots of the emotional stages of psychodynamic therapy: the editing of this image also maximises this perspective due to the flood of vibrant colours (which based around the time of these images release would have been done in a darkroom or would have been the actual lighting in the room) and stark overhead lighting which emphasises shadows where, due to the nature of the subject focus, creates an idea of a mask surrounding the subjects- specifically the ones which seem to be the patients of this therapy. The saturated colours of the works also add to the high emotional turmoil which is perceived- a large part of colour theory is it’s adaptation to emotions and human psychology- possibly something Andujar was aware of when taking this image where orange and red are defining colours: where based on colour theory, orange represents comfort and happiness while the gradient into red represents danger and caution making this image possibly present a snapshot glimpse of peace (while undergoing psychodynamic therapy) this is further reinstated by the open body language of the main subject lying on the floor: however as the colour gradient goes more into red the subjects become darker toned, more closed off and surrounded by shadow. Andujar uses practical methods such as applying vaseline to the lens of her camera, using flash lighting devices, oil lamps and infrared film- creating visual distortions, streaks of light and saturated colours. “A Sônia” is an example of these methods: Andujar retook the pictures and superimposed them on top of each other then added filters, the series is then presented as an x-ray of the female body with inverted tones and vibrant colours: the image above may also be an example where Andujar used oil lamps to create the high saturation of colour.
Helge Skodvin lives in Bergen, Norway. He is trained as a carpenter, but since he laid down his hammer and took a BA in Photography at London College of Printing he has been working freelance for major newspapers, magazines and publishing houses. He is a member of Moment Agency and he is represented by Institute Artist. He is also working on large photographic projects, mainly featuring landscapes
In 2015, Skodvin produced the book 240 Landscapes. The book features 77 colour images of the Scandinavian landscape, with a classic Volvo 240 carefully positioned within the landscape and composed in the image. “The Volvo 240 became a symbol of Scandinavian and Nordic values. The safe, the sound, the commonplace. Square and homely, yet solid and reliable. Function over form. No frills. Taking you from A to Z. A car. An ambassador for the Scandinavian social democracy. Helge Skodvin has spotted Volvo 240s still chugging around the roads of Norway.”
Kyler Zeleny
Zeleny is a Canadian photographer, educator and author of Out West (2014), Found Polaroids (2017), and Crown Ditch & The Prairie Castle (2020). He holds bachelors in Political Science from the University of Alberta, a masters from Goldsmiths College, in Photography and Urban Cultures and a PhD from the joint Communication & Culture program at Ryerson and York University. His work has been exhibited internationally in twelve countries and has been featured in numerous publications including The Globe & Mail, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Vice, and The Independent. He occupies his time by exploring photography on the Canadian prairies.
Zeleny’s 2014 publication Out West depicts small, rural communities (1000 inhabitants or less) in the Canadian West. Each double-page spread contains a square image on the right, with a supplementary population count of where the image was taken on the left. Like Skodvin, his composure of each image is carefully monitored. The result is a series of relatable, yet individual images that portray a very different part of the world.
Easton Chang
When you think of car photography and what it represents, people often are led to the idea of a superar in a moody and dark car park at night. This is exactly what I wanted to achieve. The work of Easton Chang perfectly fits this ideology. Based in Sydney, Chang developed his work and style shooting all things on four wheels using modern, cutting edge methods and creativity. With his strong past experience in the Australian editorial industry. Easton now works with the best production, retouching and CGI teams to produce world-class stills and motion images to the automotive industry.
Chang’s images portray what people imagine car photography to be so well that it would be silly to not try and replicate it. Though I don’t have access to cars like what Chang does, I still feel that I can create something unique using his style.
Sharn O’Donnell is a Jersey born, UK based photographer and filmmaker whose work tends to mix poetry/text into their images/videos, adding context and depth into their projects through each carefully thought out phrase. Their projects tend to be personal to them, choosing to embrace different aspects of the world around them from their love for their friends in ‘Friends on Film’ [2019] to their views on abortion in their series ‘ABORT MISSION’ [2018] which mixed with their use of text creates well made and immersive pieces of art about others. They don’t shy away from the camera either, putting themselves in frame in some of their projects to create delicately planned out self-portraits that creatively tell a story through the use of visual poems/performative photography, helping to immerse the viewer in their work.
Their visual poem ‘Upstream’ [which is also paired with their stills ‘That’s Not the Way the River Flows’] focuses on gender. They describe it as ‘transforming our perception of what it means to be male or female’ highlighting that we as a society are ‘no longer restricted by the binary’ that created such pressures & stereotypes that stuck for so many decades, caging people’s actions due to the patriarchy’s belief on gender roles. The visuals consist of Sharn themselves in various settings [i.e: church, their room, the bathroom etc], often dressed in a suit which is then contrasted by another visual of them wearing feminine accessories on top of the suit such as a veil, heels, bathing suit and fishnet tights, contrasting the stereotypical image of men & women whilst creating a third – unique – image. These visuals are enhanced by the text which focuses on a river and how Sharn tries to break free from the rivers patterns, a reference how rivers are one directional and often unchanging just like the idea of gender itself, but feels like they’re unable too. Eventually, they’re able to break free, pulling themselves out and walking their own path which I believe references how they were able to truly embrace themselves and explore their identity as a person rather than what society expected them to be.
Stills from ‘Upstream’ [2019]:
A visual poem surrounding the claustrophobia of the gendered experience while poking fun at archetypes of masculinity and femininity. Accompanied by stills form That’s Not The Way The River Flows this project explores the self.
In this still, Sharn can be seen lying down in a church dressed in a suit. I think this references the role religion has in gender and how people often rely on following rules/commands in order to live their lives rather than exploring their identity, finding out who they truly are and what they want to be. Their body is lying on the floor by the alter which could be implying how they didn’t feel like they were strong enough to stand up against the church’s ideals, as though their identity doesn’t fit within the realms of the church which is further emphasised as they’re dressed in their suit – representing the masculine side of their identity – with no ‘feminine’ accessories such as their heels, veil etc. I also feel like there’s significance in the fact that their back is turned towards the alter, perhaps insinuating how they are rejecting the expectations religion has placed upon them and their gender identity as they lack any connection to the church’s beliefs/ideals.
Comparing O’Donnell’s Work to Claude Cahun’s:
Both O’Donnell and Cahun’s work focus on the themes of gender through performative photography, using different outfits, hairstyles and poses to create well composed imagery that displays their ideas and opinions towards their gender identity whilst going against the archetypes of femininity and masculinity.
However, despite having similarities, their work also tends to differ quite significantly in terms of how they choose to portray their own identities. Cahun’s work tends to use more dramatic forms of self expression such as big, noticeable props and outfits to create images that show just how wide the spectrum of gender can be, portraying their own identity without a care for what others may think. O’Donnell’s work, however, tends to be more secluded, almost secretive, as they often use poetry to express their identity alongside the visuals that use items such as suits and veils to portrays what side of the spectrum the viewer is seeing – almost catering to the outsiders view on gender in order to insert their own.
