My focus for this project on the topic of Nostalgia was to create a series of images highlighting my fathers connection to the ocean. Inspired by artists such as W. Eugene Smith and Wade Carroll, an American photojournalist and an Australian surf photographer and filmmaker. Smith has been described as “perhaps the single most important American photographer in the development of the editorial photo essay.” W. Eugene Smith similarly explores the notion of family history/relationships. One of his well-known series is called “The Country Doctor,” whereby he documented the life of a small-town doctor and his interactions with patients and their families. Smith’s approach to documentary photography in terms of family relationships aided me to produce a response producing a series of images capturing the relationships and emotions within my family, more specifically the relationship between me and my father. Wade’s connection to surfing is definitely an important aspect of his photography. He has a deep love for the ocean and the surfing culture, which is beautifully reflected in his photographs. Wade’s work was my main visual inspiration for the images produced, the similarity in terms of the subjects and compositions are apparent in my outcomes
W. Eugene Smith
Wade Carroll
Outcome
Overall, I’m pleased with how my images turned out. I believe both photoshoots were a success and my opportunity to access archived images of my father enabled my photo project to present a deeper understanding into my fathers past life and his connection to the ocean throughout the years. This then enabled me to incorporate a sense of nostalgia throughout as this subject evidently has an importance to me as it took up a large part of my childhood, forming the relationship we have today. The second photoshoot, being of my father in the present day, enabled me to document his on going love for the ocean. I believe I was able to successfully present a series of images that are of visual and emotional quality. The issue of a broken wrist saw me unable to present any in water/action style shots, although necessary equipment was available to do so. I believe this would have improved my image variety and more effectively showcased this connection. To improve my shoots/project, I believe more outcomes in general should be presented, along with a sense of image variety.
Isolation is something that we have all experienced in our lifetimes, whether from acquaintances or environments we have all lived estranged; the work of Francesca Woodman and Carolle Benitah perfectly explores this relationship with loneliness in how they present themselves through self–portraits. Much of Woodman’s work can be seen as surrealist and unconventional for 1970s photography. “Even when wholly present in the picture as the subject of her self-portraits, Woodman is never quite with us, never quite with herself.”(reference using Harvard System of referencing) She often uses this Surrealist landscape she has created to maintain a sense of escapism throughout her work. Similarly, Benitah uses photo-manipulation to change the outward appearance of herself in relation to family and heritage. When looking at these two photographers it is important to consider that they are both women photographing themselves, and how the perceptions of their work may be skewed as a result. “In the past, photographs of women were made by men for a capitalist economy to favour the male gaze and feed female competitiveness.”(reference using Harvard System of referencing) When viewing Woodman and Benitah’s work it is apparent it was not made with the objectification of their bodies in mind but made with the intent of reflecting on their experiences as people and women – specifically the isolation that may come from that.
To what extent are photographs an accurate portrayal of memories and the past?
“These photographs taken forty years ago and which I do not remember the time of the shooting…awakened in me a fear of something familiar and totally unknown…”
-C. Benitah- Photos Souvenirs (2017)
Since being invented in the mid-19th century, photography has served the world as the main way of collecting visual memories. Whether to capture personal or worldwide events, its development has been an important process for everyone. In this essay, I would like to explore how much accuracy photographs hold, when compared to the past. The quote above, taken from Carolle Bénitah’s project Photos Souvenirs, is a perfect portrayal of how photos act as memories. The contrast between the two phrases ‘something familiar and totally unknown‘, shows how Bénitah felt a sense of nostalgia when looking at the archives, however the feeling was mixed with something else entirely: a feeling of foreignness. Bénitah had a difficult childhood: growing up in a traditional, Moroccan household caused there to be a strict expectation of her: to grow up and become a traditionally flawless woman. I believe this quote perfectly summarises Bénitah’s project, since she manipulates these seemingly precise family snapshots to truly match the reality of her harsh past. The utilisation of multi- media methods (specifically embroidery using a red thread as seen in Photos Souvenirs) allowed Bénitah to present her actual memories in the staged photographs of her childhood over 40 years later, altering the innocent look that the snapshots have. Her work links in well with the question I want to investigate, since it is made up of her looking at these supposedly familiar pictures and then later correcting the mistakes by hand.
As most photographers know, photography is not a neutral observer but a reflection of the photographer’s perspective, suggesting photographs aren’t the past but perhaps more accurately a past, or how one person perceived the moment. The amateur visual of Bénitah’s family archives suggest the photographs were simply taken with the intention of creating a memory, perhaps captured by a parent or other close family member. This implies that the photographs are from the point of view from a single individual, reflecting their emotions in that moment and not of the people in the image. Carolle Bénitah is my chosen artist since she summarises the experience of looking at archives perfectly through her work. I believe that every individual has this experience when viewing archives from their own life, the feeling of familiarity being just as present as the feeling of strangeness.
Carolle Bénitah, Les cafards/The cockroaches, 2009 (stitches added)
In this photograph, Bénitah is about six years old and holding hands with her smiling brother, but an army of cockroaches surrounds the children, and their hands are bound together in a ball of red wool. Bénitah doesn’t express her true thoughts that went behind the manipulation of each photograph, leaving a lot of them up to the interpretation of the viewer. However, it is clear that Bénitah embroidered the images to show the truth behind them, indicating how their smiles were simply a pose for the picture. The red wool could be a representation of love, the love she had for her brother which is what made them so close. Or it could be a portrayal of violence or even blood, perhaps suggesting that they were simply close due to being family (the idea of being connected by blood) or even perhaps to support each other during hard times. Moreover, a line in The Photography Reader states “meanings and memories may change with time” (Kuhn 2003:397), which creates the idea that time is a significant factor when considering my question: perhaps the photograph was an accurate portrayal of a memory at some point in time, however time changed it in a manner that causes it to now appear untruthful. Sometimes, a child’s happy memory can be completely altered as the child grows up and matures, the person realising that the situation wasn’t as positive as their young- self thought. Returning to Bénitah’s piece, however, I believe she is trying to show her anger at the lies told by the seemingly innocent, happy photograph- suggesting that in reality her childhood can’t be truthfully shown through these family snapshots. It is very interesting how Bénitah softens these harsh emotions by creating beautiful embroidery with her needle, the thread changing their meaning entirely.
My own work- My grandparents as a young couple- mid 1970s
My grandparents were a happy couple, the archives I discovered show this truthfully. In my work, I used the thread to act as a foreshadowing of the pain caused by my grandmother’s death. Perhaps these photographs are an accurate portrayal of my grandparent’s past. However, I think it is important to consider how nowadays these photos cause sadness, justifying the idea of how memories can change with time, possibly making them seem untruthful. Like I mentioned in my introduction, photographs sometimes show a past, not specifically the past. The photographs above capture a past, before time moved on and my grandmother passed, now holding an entirely different meaning.
The daguerreotype was created by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851), and was the first process that enabled family snapshots to be taken. The daguerreotype is a direct-positive process, creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative. This very specific process caused it to be expensive business, meaning that only the upper class had their images taken. The photographs were posed and it took several minutes to capture one. Returning to my question, this shows how even the very first photographs aren’t an accurate representation of the past. Nowadays, editing is the main thing that people believe effects the credibility of a photograph, but even such early developments of the camera, before the manipulation of images was even thought of, prove to not be reality. Not only was a photograph such as the daguerreotype staged, capturing a person in a very unnatural position, with exquisite clothes and powder covering every imperfection, showing absolutely no indication of the individual’s character; they were also something that was only available for the rich. This once again promotes the idea of a past vs. the past, since the lower class weren’t photographed in the slightest until much later. Such photographs merely provided evidence for the existence of a person, without providing a recording of a memory. Susan Sontag writes in ‘On Photography‘: “to collect photographs is to collect the world” (Sontag 1977:3), each photograph you view contributes to your mental image of our world and its history, but even if we viewed every picture ever taken, we wouldn’t have an accurate view of the world, due to many different factors.
Example of daguerreotypes
Among the colourful characters immortalized in the colourless daguerreotype medium are (clockwise from upper left): writer Henry Thoreau, Seneca leader Blacksnake, Navy Commodore Matthew Perry, mental health crusader Dorothea Dix, showmen P.T. Barnum and Tom Thumb, and actress Charlotte Cushman.
Next came the ‘box brownie’, George Eastman’s revolutionary handheld invention. He claimed any one could afford it and simple to use, to the point were even children could master it. Sure enough, this development marked the start of amateur photography, an era where home portraits captured everyday family life. This added a sense of authenticity to the photographs and caused them to be a much more accurate portrayal of memories. I believe this was a time when photographs were most realistic, as not much thought went into the photographs, causing them to be natural and not staged.
“To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed”
– S. Sontag- On Photography: In Plato’s Cave (1977)
This is a key quote from Sontag’s book since it puts into perspective the way taking a photograph works. Without realising, every person ever to take a photo captured it in a way they see it, perhaps not showing it how it truly appears in reality. People have the habit of beautifying anything they capture with a lens, as society looks only for the beauty in the world. This quote highlights the idea that when taking a photograph, the person holding the camera takes the thing for themselves, arranging it to their liking. When considering this in relation to the question, it is important to note that a photograph is simply an interpretation of the world, and therefore it can’t be a completely accurate portrayal of the world in the past. “The photograph is a prop… it sets the scene for recollection” (Kuhn 2003:397) suggests photographs are a re-enactment of a time in history, and therefore have been altered in many ways. Once again considering Bénitah’s quote “These photographs taken forty years ago and which I do not remember the time of the shooting…awakened in me a fear of something familiar and totally unknown…”, we can see how the photographs have become old- fashioned and therefore not accurate when setting the scene, just as a prop might no longer be useful in a remade film. With time, photographs become more and more useful for some and less and less useful for others, which makes me truly contemplate just how accurate of a portrayal they are.
“Just like memories, photographs are created with intent“
-J. Colberg- Photography and Memory (May 28, 2012)
Another quote that gives us insight on the matter is one by Colberg. In his essay he examines the relationship between memories and photographs. It has already been justified why photographs aren’t a completely accurate portrayal of memories. However, this quote makes you consider the idea that the memories themselves are an interpretation of reality. After all, it is common for people to remember events different, for some to view them as positive and others as negative. So perhaps, photographs are a correct portrayal of memories, when considering that the memory for the photographer links up with the image.
In conclusion, a photograph can’t be used as an accurate portrayal of the reality of the past. However, perhaps even our own memories aren’t an accurate representation of the past, since both are created with some sort of intent. Photographs are part of a puzzle, and only once each piece is connected will they be an accurate portrayal of memories, which is simply not possible as not every moment from every perspective is photographed. Intent and interpretation cannot be avoided, therefore a true picture of the past cannot be created. Furthermore, the meanings behind photographs alter with time, the seemingly timeless moment captured continuing to change. Nowadays, there are even more ways of manipulating photos, and I don’t believe we will ever know how to identify a truthful image. Bénitah’s project is a way of her correcting her past, and making the archives show how she truly felt. She claims the family snapshots to be lies that avoided showing the reality of her childhood. She shows us how the individual behind the lens is the one in charge of the outcome, of how the given moment will be viewed in the years after. Photographs are absolutely a portrayal of the past, but they are only an accurate portrayal of a past, of a memory, of amoment from one person’s point of view. Photography is the most accurate way of recording history, but it can’t be assumed to be completely truthful.
Pomplondin- Carolle Bénitah: Photos Souvenirs
Bibliography:
Benitah. C (2016), Photos Souvenirs. Bonn: Kehrer Heidelberg Berlin
Due to the weather conditions on the day of the shoot certain outcomes needed to be altered. The issue of a broken wrist saw holding a camera still an issue, although these selected images seemed to be of good quality. Post Production then saw the exposure of the majority of my images needing to be lowered due to the natural lighting on that day. The crop tool was then used on a few selected images due to the rule of thirds. Certain images were also edited in black and white, enhancing the images emotion. The flag tool was then used to select images I see to be of visual quality along with images relating to the theme of nostalgia.
I decided to ask my dad some questions on the role of surfing in his life because I think it will be an interesting and important addition to my final photobook. The questions and answers are as follows.
Why do you enjoy surfing?
For me, it is like hunting… Something that my body is designed to do, but the modern world does not allow. It gets me into nature, watching interpreting, calculating and executing with precision, stealth and grace. These are fundamental requirements of the human existence, which are increasingly hard to satisfy in this alien world that we have created.
When did you start/How did you start?
I started surfing around (marginally before) my 21st birthday because I moved to Cornwall from the Midlands. Surfing therefore became available to me. I honestly think that I would have always been a surfer if it had been available. I always craved, exciting, energetic, acrobatic activities. As a child, I had aspirations to be a ski jumper/cliff diver/Olympic gymnast. Like surfing, they were unrealistic dreams for somebody growing up in a Midland town, without much money. Therefore, as soon as one of these types of activities became accessible to me, I seized the opportunity with both hands, both feet, whatever I could grasp it with.
What draws you to surfing/How are you still drawn to it after so many years?
My previous answers, explain some of what draws me to surfing.
It is also a lot to do with showing off. I don’t mind admitting that I have always enjoyed the feeling of displaying my talents. This is true for any performer, it’s about feeding off the energy of the onlookers… sometimes that is envy, sometimes that is awe, most of the time it can be stated more modestly as enjoyment and appreciation. As a surfer, these good feelings come my way both in the water and out of the water, especially as I have got older… the youthful mind/body/spirit that is maintained by the activity, carries into the rest of my life, giving me a rare sense of confidence and self-worth in just about every walk of life.
What is the best thing about it?
I’m afraid I could never choose a favourite thing, I’m just not decisive enough, so I shall simply add to the positives that I’ve already described… it is a great leveller. Over the years, by chance, I have surfed with people who are extremely wealthy, world famous actors and musicians… people who, ordinarily operate in much lofty circles than me. But when we are in the water, we are all nothing but vulnerable human beings, naked in the face of nature. Whoever can tame and dance with these great forces, with the greatest prowess, becomes the star of the show for that particular moment. Kings and queens can literally become humbled and star struck by paupers and outcasts.
How has it impacted your life?
In all of the aforementioned positive ways, but also in some negative ways. It is an addictive lifestyle. Possibly one of the most healthy addictions you could have, but nonetheless the definition of an addiction is something that you continue to do and to chase, even when you know it is causing you harm.
In the grand scheme, with true objectivity and end-of-life hindsight, perhaps I wouldn’t describe it as harmful. But in the shorter term, I can honestly say that it makes relationships very difficult to maintain. The flipside of loving surfing is loathing commitment. My innate loathing of commitment is grossly incompatible with the modern cultural norm. The older I get, the more and more separate from society I feel.
How does photography act as an important form of communication of both true and untrue subjects?
‘A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened. The picture may distort; but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist, which is like what’s in the picture.’ (Sontag, 1977)
Ever since the dawn of photography, its usefulness, both in cultivating the mindset of the viewer toward the subject and in communicating a message visually, has been its allure. I will be analysing the work of pioneer photo essayist W. Eugene Smith, the widely commented-on war photographer Robert Capa, and important documentary photographer of the Depression era, Dorothea Lange. This is because their work all serves a function to tell a story. Whether or not it is a true story is the key to understanding the photographer’s individualism (and, arguably, integrity) as an artist.
Historically, the truthfulness of an image is always indefinite. Photography was first used by the rich to take family portraits. These were staged and composed entirely by the photographer. The subjects’ serious demeanours and plain body language is demonstrative in itself of just how far photography has evolved since those days of long exposures and big, inconvenient equipment. The equipment used to take pictures was yet another reason for the staging of photography; it was far easier to construct a composition than to allow the world to compose itself before a long exposure. As Susan Sontag states in her 1977 publication, On Photography, ‘That age when taking photographs required a cumbersome and expensive contraption—the toy of the clever, the wealthy, and the obsessed—seems remote indeed from the era of sleek pocket cameras that invite anyone to take pictures.’ (Sontag, 1977). It is clear that the progress of industrialisation has made the camera far more accessible and hence widened the art form irrefutably. Furthermore, there was an equivalent to ‘Photoshopping’ in the days before digital imagery – photographers would manipulate the darkroom development process to create images that were more appealing to their vision. Airbrushing, dodge and burn, and blurring were all tools used by the photographer to make small (and some less small) changes to their images. Therefore, the credibility of images throughout the history of photography is uncertain. Historian of Russia David King published a photobook in 1997 called The Commissar Vanishes, which discusses the erasure of enemies of the state in official photographs throughout the Stalinist era. It is described by King as ‘a terrifying – and often tragically funny – insight into one of the darkest chapters of modern history.’ (King, 1997)
The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin’s Russia
It is a perfect demonstration of how the manipulation of photographs can alter how we view history and its events; and, hence, how important it is to maintain a discourse on the truthfulness of an image. The erasure of a subject means we have no way of telling exactly who was present at the time it was taken, which only contributes to the thick cloud of uncertainty around what exactly occurred during the terror era. Furthermore, a lack of transparency on what is staged and what is candid can also cause issues in determining history’s true events. The example I will discuss in this essay is Robert Capa’s Death of a Loyalist Soldier (1936), which is one of the most famously debated images of all time. In the case of more honest photographs – such as those taken in situ – they make accessible what is inaccessible; they allow those who, in a bygone age where travel is expensive and infrequent, cannot witness alternative lifestyles and cultures to their own to access this in a new medium. This is why the work of W. Eugene Smith was so important at the time; it was both educational and exciting for those who were unable to see it for themselves. Therefore, the importance of photography in relaying the events of history should not be understated – it is imperative that we as artists continue to use the medium to its advantages; to both document and inform.
The photo essays created by W. Eugene Smith between 1945 and his death in 1978 explore a variety of subjects, ranging from Minamata (1974), which explored the horrors of the mercury poisoning disaster in Minamata, Japan, to Nurse Midwife (1951), which told the story of an African American South Carolina nurse and midwife named Maude Callen.
Nurse Midwife, W. Eugene Smith, 1951
Smith’s work is constantly empathetic and he always worked tirelessly in his pursuit of the story – when photographing the invasion of Okinawa in 1945, he was critically wounded, and when he was photographing for his final essay in Japan, he was violently beaten by workers at the chemical factory who didn’t want his photographs to expose the suffering of the poison victims. This is illustrative of Smith’s devotion to his craft. This insatiable need to capture is a trait seen in many photographers, and it truly characterises his work. The structure of his photo essays has been replicated many times since they were published, by other artists who saw how successful the structure was in relaying the tale that Smith wanted to tell. This is perhaps why he has repeatedly been described as ‘perhaps one of the greatest photojournalists America has ever produced.’ (McGuire, 1999), and it is said that ‘the combination of innovation, integrity, and technical mastery in his photography made his work the standard by which photojournalism was measured for many years.’ (The International Center of Photography (ICP), n.d.) However, because of his insatiable and unending desire to photograph, there was an enduring issue with copyright across Smith’s work, namely his essay from Minamata, Japan. The photograph titled Tomoko and Mother in the Bath caused issues because the parents of Tomoko felt that her image was portrayed in an exploitative and dehumanising manner.
Tomoko and Mother in the Bath, W. Eugene Smith, 1974
The image was their final and enduring memory of their daughter, and the stigmatizing nature of the portrayal calls Smith’s ethics into question. Furthermore, the family had no rights to the image and so, whilst it was making money that went straight to Smith, Tomoko’s family was struggling to feed and care for their daughter. The unauthorised uses of this image led Tomoko’s father to tell the media that “many of the organizations working on our behalf are still using the photograph in various media, many of them without our consent…I realize this is necessary for numerous reasons, but I wanted Tomoko to be laid to rest…” (Uemura, 1999). The long and arduous case was naturally taxing on Tomoko’s parents, and it was only in 1998 (24 years after the photograph had been published) that Smith’s wife, Aileen, travelled to the family to give them the rights to the image. This was helpful for the Uemuras, but it did not undo the years of harassment and hate they had received for the existence and fame of the image. Thus, it is important to question the ethics of Smith when reviewing his revolutionary and historically acclaimed images. Even though Smith acquired this image unethically, it is certainly a representation of how he pursues the creation of a story over all else. Therefore, his essays still present an important example of how photography is, first and foremost, a medium through which to craft a narrative, making them an important piece of evidence in this investigation.
Robert Capa is widely renowned for his work photographing the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and chiefly for his most famous image, Death of a Loyalist Soldier (1936).
Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, Robert Capa, 1936
This image was supposedly taken above a trench after Capa ‘just kind of put [his] camera above [his] head and even [sic] didn’t look and clicked the picture, when they moved over the trench’ (Capa, 1947). In 1975, British journalist Philip Knightley was the first to make the allegation that the image was staged when other staged images were discovered to have been taken in the same place at the same time. In 2009, José Manuel Susperregui of the University of País Vasco published Sombras de la Fotografía (“Shadows of Photography”), which asserted, by analysing the mountain ranges in the background of the sequence, that the image was taken in Espejo, some 50 kilometres from the alleged location at Cerro Muriano. It has since transpired, in Richard Whelan’s 2007 publication This is War: Robert Capa at Work, that, on the evidence of both forensic expert Captain Robert L. Franks, the chief homicide detective of the Memphis Police Department, and Hansel Mieth, a Life staff photographer in the late 1930s. Franks asserts that, based on the subject’s closed hand and limp body, his reflex response was not engaged as it would be if the image was staged, that he had instead just been shot. This was then supported by a letter from Mieth to Whelan in 1982. She asserted that Capa had told her, very upset, that the image was taken when they were ‘fooling around’, and suddenly, ‘it was the real thing. I didn’t hear the firing—not at first.’ (Whelan, 2007). It is clear now that the image was taken when the man was shot, however, it was still not taken in battle as was claimed by Capa. He felt personally responsible for the man’s death. This is perhaps why he did not discuss the image widely and concealed its true circumstances. Hence, the image is of what was asserted by Capa; a man being shot during the Spanish Civil War, but it was not taken at the time nor place he gave, indicating that he intentionally deceived his viewers. Whether or not this reflects positively or negatively on Capa as a photographer is up to the viewer; is it wrong to deceive the world if the pictures still serve the intended purpose, or is it dishonest to incorrectly document history?
Another artist whose work could be construed as dishonest is Dorothea Lange, most famous for her documentary photography during the Depression era in America. Travelling through California whilst working for a government agency responsible for providing aid to struggling farmers, Lange took her most famed image, Migrant Mother, in 1936. This image is renowned for its captivating, evocative tone, and it is still viewed worldwide as an important insight into civilian life in Depression era America. However, I am more concerned with two images taken by Lange three years later, in 1939. The first, shown below, was taken after the photographer introduced herself and asked to take their picture. The subjects smile and the father wipes the baby’s face.
The photo that became more famous, after it was used by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to demonstrate the effects of the Depression, was this one.
Mother and baby of family on the road. Tulelake, Siskiyou County, California. 1939
It is clearly the un-staged version in which the photographer has captured the subjects’ natural states. The general caption for this series of images reads ‘The car is parked outside the Employment Office. The family have arrived, before opening of the potato season. They have been on the road for one month–have sick baby…Father washed the baby’s face with edge of blanket dampened from canteen, for the photographs’ (Mason, 2010). This shows that Lange does not intentionally represent the effects of the Depression in this way; it is instead the FSA that widely publicise this particular version of the photograph. This is because the organisation has an agenda to bring awareness to the issues caused by the government mismanagement and hyperinflation of the time, especially in rural California, where the issue of the Dustbowl caused an extreme lack of fertile ground and, hence, a widespread hunger. Sontag, in her 1977 publication, On Photography, discussed the photographers of the FSA and asserted that ‘in deciding how a picture should look, in preferring one exposure to another, photographers are always imposing standards on their subjects.’ (Sontag, 1977) The representation of civilian life therefore has a palpable effect on how we view the period; we are not able to imagine what life could have been like unless we personally experienced it, and, therefore, photographs are the tool we use to unlock the intricate details of (fairly modern) history. This therefore demonstrates once again how important it is to understand and also challenge the source of an image – who took it and why? What could their intentions have been? Were they commissioned to take it? If we neglect to, we could fall into the trap of passing history down incorrectly.
Overall, it is clear that the importance of photography lies very firmly in its power as a window into the past, and into the presently inaccessible. One reason that humans are inherently captivated by the medium is the way in which it allows us to freeze time forever in a single exposure that appears exactly how it appeared to us in the moment. There are of course, as I have explored in this essay, many ways in which a photographer can manipulate the scene, so it is different to how it appeared in the moment, and this is a further reason as to why we feel such attraction to photography; it allows us to become puppeteers, narrators, and storytellers. I think that this holds importance as it reveals that the human race is programmed to tell stories, whether these be true or untrue, and that they enjoy the consumption of such stories. The existence of photographic archives all over the globe demonstrates further that history is only as rich as we make it; we are the creators of ‘history’, and so we are responsible for the maintenance of its truths. The ethical dilemma of recording an event to which the photographer is more than just a passive observer is important in this debate also. As Sontag states, ‘it is a way of at least tacitly, often explicitly, encouraging whatever is going on to keep on happening’. This suggests that photographers are wrong to continue documenting a situation which can be prevented, yet also there is an ever-present counterargument which states that it is wrong to intervene in the events they photograph. Smith’s methods are representative of this dilemma, which, to me, makes his work even more interesting in this discussion of morality.
Bibliography
Capa, R., 1947. Bob Capa Tells of Photographic Experiences Abroad [Interview] (20 October 1947).
King, D., 1997. The Commissar Vanishes. 1st ed. London: Tate Publishing.
Mason, J. E., 2010. How Photography Lies, Even When It’s Telling the Truth: FSA Photography & the Great Depression. [Online] Available at: https://johnedwinmason.typepad.com/john_edwin_mason_photogra/2010/03/how_photography_lies.html [Accessed 22 January 2024].
McGuire, R., 1999. Unforgettable book combines art, artifact ‘W. Eugene Smith, Photographs, 1934-1975’. [Online] Available at: http://edition.cnn.com/books/reviews/9901/04/eugene.smith/ [Accessed 19 January 2024].
Sontag, S., 1977. On Photography. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The International Center of Photography (ICP), n.d. Artist: W. Eugene Smith. [Online] Available at: https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/w-eugene-smith?all/all/all/all/0 [Accessed 19 January 2024].
Uemura, Y., 1999. Letter published in newsletter that circulated among Minamata patients. Minamata: s.n.
Whelan, R., 2007. In: This Is War! Robert Capa At Work. New York City: ICP, pp. 72-73.
The majority of these images needed a touch up due to their age, the clone stamp tool was used to remove blemishes. Along with the cropping tool to give the images a cleaner look. I also attempted to give a black and white image colour with the use of Photoshop Beta, although this was not successful
Final Edits
This series of archive images are sourced from an old photobook made by my father. I believe the inclusion of these images adds to the sense of nostalgia I am attempting to evoke throughout my project, enabling me to better present my fathers past, providing an more in depth insight into his life. These archive images will act as a base on which I can expand and compare to images I have produced in the present.
Boilers Beach, Morocco, 1999, La Santa, Lanzarote, 2000 Plymouth, 1995Eastbourne, 1992Eastbourne, 1996Plymouth, 1995Eastbourne, 1996Cuba, 2011Cape town, 2007Maldives, 2014
these are the best prints which I have flagged as my final images, I have also included my parents images into the photobook so that you are able to see the comparison between the two.
I have put two mood boards together to make a comparison between the two. The first mood board is constructed from the photographs I collected from my parents photo album, which I am basing my personal study on. The second mood board are the images that I produced with inspiration from my parents. The difference between my images and my parents is that their photographs is significantly more darker and has a much more higher contrast than my photos, however this can be sorted as I am able to use Lightroom to edit the images to make them darker and similar to my parents. Another difference is that their photos mainly consists of only my mum and my dad whereas mine has my friends, sister and myself. A similarity between the two images is that they’re both taken as staged and snapshot photographs, there is also resemblance with a finger accidentally in some of the frame.
