Girl Pictures-Justine Kurland … describe the story it is communicating with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.
Subject matter: The subject/ topic of this book is femininity this is referenced by firstly the colour of the book being a light pink which is usually considered a representation of femininity. All the pictures are of girls outside exploring in quite excluded places, surrounded by flowers connotating femininity.
Genre: The genre/ theme explored in this photobook is to show girls becoming ‘rebellious’ and ‘running away’… the book documents them in different excluded scenes . A repeated theme throughout the images is it gives the sense that they are lonely but together trying to survive as girls. Some pictures show them building shelters with resource’s around them.
Approach to image making: Justine’s images are presented as candid but are obviously staged as they are seen all lying down or in specific positions to create specific affects. However it could be argued that some of her images are candid which id assume some are as there are so many and in order for them to flow throughout the book and link there would need to be candid photos.
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. 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. 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.) By using his photography as a way of communicating stories, Smith, and countless others like him, is an important example of how photography is, first and foremost, a medium through which to craft a narrative.
‘Country Doctor‘ W. Eugene Smith, 1948
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). 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) but came under suspicion in the 1970s, 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. 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?
Robert Capa – Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, near Espejo, Córdoba front, Spain. September 1936
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; where 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. This therefore has a very 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 (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 are 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.
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].
How do Justine Kurland and Jim Goldberg portray childhood differently through their work?
Opening quote
‘Photographs really are the experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.‘ Susan Sontag (1971), On photography.
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?
For my project I am looking at childhood versus teenage life and how differently our lives look now in comparison to then. For my inspiration I looked at the artists Justine Kurland and Jim Goldberg and their contrasting portrayals of child/teenhood.
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.
For my first paragraph i will research the differences between being a child and being a teenager and speak about how life changes between them stages.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Justine Kurland is an American photographer known for her pictures of people in the American wilderness. This includes her work on runaways and her best selling book Girl Pictures which has a running representation of childhood and particularly girlhood and growing up as a female. She presents childhood as wild and exciting through her various images of runaways portraying their freedom and there is an infectious sense of nostalgia that these images provide. Personally i feel a connection to this book as I see myself and my friends represented through her portrayal of girlhood and the adventures/experiences that follow growing up as a girl.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Jim Goldberg’s work follows youths on the streets of California portraying the more dark and disturbing ways in which people have to live. In comparison to Justine Kurland, his images show the rougher side of life and portrays childhood/growing up as more of a day to day struggle for the subjects in his images.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
How do Justine Kurland and Julia Margaret Cameron portray the theme of girlhood in their work?
Essay Plan:
Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph
two artists- Justine Kurland and Julia Margaret Cameron
compare how they portray girlhood/childhood
Opening quote
‘Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire.’
-Susan Sontag- On Photography
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?
– using my statement of intent
Our personal study project is based around the theme of nostalgia. For my personal study I want to explore identity, but more specifically femininity and what it means to be feminine. My interpretation of the theme nostalgia is going to be based on Girlhood and parts of my childhood that represent growing up as a girl. There’s a lot of women in my family who I’ve closely grew up around and my strong relationships with my friends and family are a big part of my life, which I appreciate a lot therefore I am creating my personal study around this.
I plan on photographing my friends and my family, my mum, sister, cousins, aunties and my grandma. I’m going to capture images of my friends in everyday situations when we meet up to create candid shots and to show real scenes of girlhood. As well as that, I plan on photographing my family at family events to create the same kind of images but with a different story.
Although I want to capture candid pictures that represent reality, I also want to do staged photoshoots. I am going to do research and study artists such as Justine Kurland, Sian Davey (developing my exam project from May of ‘Identity’) and Theo Gosselin. From then I will set up staged photoshoots in both rural and urban settings of my friends. For the exam project in May, me and my friends did a few photoshoots in rural environments, following the theme of ‘femininity’. These were inspired by Justine Kurland.
For my final images, I plan to present them in a photobook, I don’t plan on putting any text on/ with them at the moment, however this might change during the process of my project. I intend to start my project by taking photos of my friends in every day situations, for example, in the car, on walks, in town, later on in the evening/night when we meet up. This will give me a starting point to then decide if the outcomes are worth it and when, where and how to begin planning my staged photoshoots.
I plan on taking a variety of different images, in terms of composition, framing and lighting. However, I am mainly going to try and take photos in the rural environments with softer lighting to give the dusty, vintage kind of look. So around the time the sun is setting or rising, or on more overcast days so the lighting is dim. As well as that, the images I take in urban settings, town, I want darker lighting or on the other hand, bright lighting to create harsher shadows. Both types of photoshoots I want to use natural lighting, none in the studio. As well as documentary and tableaux for variety, also to represent the reality of girlhood.
I want my final outcome of a photobook to tell a story of girlhood and what it’s like growing up as a teenage girl on this island. I aim for the images to be quite relatable
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.
Girlhood is my theme so for my first paragraph I plan on explaining what it is and what it means, explain how girlhood was like years ago. How it was like living as a woman years ago compared to now. Could write about feminism movements.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
In this paragraph I will analyse Justine Kurlands work and explain how she presents girlhood in her work. I have done multiple artist references on her so I will use them to help me.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
In this paragraph I will analyse Julia Margaret Cameron’s work, how she presents girlhood ect. Compare her work to Kurland’s work. She was making work in the 1850s, a long time before Justine Kurland; also a big difference in woman’s rights and other things.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
I will compare overall differences and similarities of both artists work. Then I will relate this to my own work and the photos I have produced, how I was inspired by the artists.
Bibliography: List all relevant sources used
Bengal, R. (2020). ‘The Jeremys’ in Justine Kurland: Girl Pictures. New York: Aperture foundation
The New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) emerged as a style in Germany in the 1920s as a challenge to Expressionism. As the name suggests this art movement was to express reality and a focus on the objective world. You are able to see New Objectivity through Blossfeldt’s works, where he makes hyper-realistic images of flowers and nature. In his work you are able to see all the details within his work and the fine lines, which supports this idea of New Objectivity within, Expressionism.
Blossfeldt’s created his own typology, by taking and studying natural elements he ‘collected’ images and presented them as an art project. I intend to do this is my own personal study when taking images of houses, therefore creating my own typology.
MOODBOARD OF HIS WORK:
Karl Blossfeldt is best known for his precise photographs of plants; however, he began his career as a sculptor, completing apprenticeships at the ironworks and foundry in Mägdesprung and the Kunstgewerbeschule (Institute of the royal arts museum) in Berlin from 1884 to 1890.
Blossfeldt first published his photographs of plants in 1928 achieving overnight fame. These images had a direct influence on artists, such as Hilla and Bernd Becher which led them to their fame of Typologies. He was inspired by nature and hence reflected this muse in his close-up photography of living organisms and plants. He was enthusiastic towards the study of nature and he spent three decades photographing nothing else but plants. For him, plants held an “artistic and architectural” pattern.
Blossfeldt’s photography career began when he was photographing botanical specimens for Moritz Meurer. Blossfeldt later continued to develop his skillset, and his collection of photographs, while he was working as a professor. Karl Blossfeldt was one of the first photographers to build his own unique camera, which was made of wood and had one metre long bellows. In the 1930s the photographs he produced with it were just as unique as the homemade contraption itself.
CRITICS:
Looking at the images, one has the eerie sensation that the forms are simultaneously known and yet completely unrecognizable.
These images are presented hyper-realistic way. Although Blossfeldt photographed these images through his own camera , the photograph of the plant seems unrealistic due to the sharpness and the in depth lines and details of the flower. The flower is presented as isolated and dangerous, perhaps when Blossfeldt took this image he was attempting to shows how nature individually is beautiful.
Visual – what we can see in the image
In this image you are able to see a single flower, which seems to be on a muted background. This is to have the focal point on the flower, which leads you from the stem to the petals. By putting the image in the middle thirds it draws your attention straight to the image and leads you through the shape of the flower. In the image you can clearly see all the stems and every detail in the image. This image is basic and plain yet holds so much power in the message that Blossfeldt is trying to present, the beauty in nature.
Contextual – who, when, where etc…the story, background, impact:
Karl Blossfeldt was one of the first photographers to build his own unique camera, which was made of wood and had one metre long bellows. In the 1930s the photographs he produced with it were just as unique as the homemade contraption itself.
For my first photoshoot I am going to take pictures of old cards that my parents received when we where born along with old outfits of how we where always dressed as individuals and hardly ever wore the same outfits, I am then going to take pictures of some of our childhood toys and the contrast of me liking dolls and her liking cars. I am planning on doing this photoshoot in the studio as I feel that that’s where I am going to get the best lighting and it would be the best setup for this idea. This would be the photoshoot that’s inspired by Gabriele Galimberti.
Photoshoot 2:
For my second photoshoot I am going to take portraits of myself and then my sister, this is because I want to edit them on photoshop with my face mirroring hers, and also use old pictures of us and do the same. This is because even though we are fraternal we still have similarities regarding our face as do most siblings. I would probably do this photoshoot at my house against a white wall with a mixture of natural and artificial lighting. and then edit them on photoshop or lightroom. This photoshoot wold be inspired by Irina Werning and Vibeke tandberg.
Photoshoot 3:
For my third photoshoot I am going to use old photobook that my parents made for me when I was a child and take pictures of my sister holding the book and also individual images of the pictures inside. I am doing this as these old photobooks hold a lot of memories from my childhood with my sister and show us growing up together.
Here are the archived images I have collected so far.
This was my parents wedding cake. I think it is important to include in my project because it showcases how important surfing was to their relationship and just generally in my dad’s life.
This is my dad surfing in his youth at Watergate Bay, Newquay.
This image was taken at Gwynver beach, Cornwall.
The shed behind my dad is where he lived for 2 summers in Newquay.
This image was taken in Mirissa, Sri Lanka, where my dad stayed for a few months.
Here is my dad teaching some surfing students how to stand on a surfboard in Watergate Bay, Newquay.
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
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.
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
Cruz, A. (1997). ‘Movies, Monstrosities and Masks; 20 years of Cindy Sherman’ in Retrospective. New York; Thames & Hudson Inc.
how is youth shown in photography? How truthfully is youth depicted in the work of Jim Goldberg and Theo Gosselin?
The focus on my essay is going to be Youth In Photography and the question is, How truthfully is youth depicted in the work of Jim Goldberg and Theo Gosselin?
I am going to be creating a critical analysis on two artists Theo Gosselin and Jim Goldberg, i am going to make it on powerpoint, talking about each photographer their background information their work and information about their work, i am going to include an analysis on an image and show where they audience gets drawn to within that image. I am going to include a slide on the history of truth in photography talking about background information behind it, followed up with how I believe the truth in photography can be questioned by the two photographers and their morals behind their work.
1-Setting up a mobile studio in a carpentry workshop/farm shed photographing wood and furniture. Worked with a 3 studio light set up and mobile backdrop. Connect Magazine
2- Jersey Royal planting. Working in and around heavy machinery. JEP/Bailiwick
3-Photographing States members arriving and leaving the States Chambers. No Confidence vote in the current Chief Minister. JEP/Bailiwick
4-Photographed a model in the studio using available/studio lighting
5-Skateboard action at Les Quennevais Skatepark. Anniversary of the opening of the Skatepark.JEP/Bailiwick
6- Looked at JEP/Bailiwick operations. Role of the News Editor/Creative Team/Sub Editor Team. Discussed current ‘Live’ news going online and how that is managed
States members arriving and leaving the States Chambers
