I went up to an abandoned hotel in Bouley Bay, where I took photos of the exterior as I walked around, finding an open entrance that brought me up and around to a deck that sat above the second floor, where there was another entryway for me to go inside. I explored most of the building, including the basement, and several rooms that were either mostly furnished, or full of waste and knee-deep in random litter, shooting photographs as I went.
I ended up with a collection of images ready to edit, making sure to weed out the compositions I didn’t like, anything unfocused, or anything that felt too uninteresting.
After playing with the basic adjustments, I did some colour grading on each image, experimenting with different combinations of tones and intensities to achieve a more dramatic, but not too fantastical overall image.
I intensified the primary colours too, adjusting both the hues and saturation to develop deeper, richer colours in each composition.
Using the tone curve tools, I again increased the output of each photograph to around 25 on the point curve, to create a more faded look on the image and lowering the contrast, which I feel makes it easier to have more freedom with my pieces to achieve a specific look.
To finish off each image, I used linear gradients to adjust exposures and other small basic adjustments to establish a stronger sense of lighting and shadow.
From this shoot, I was left with these 6 photographs as my best and final images. I was aiming for a softer colour palette in most of these, as I wanted to create a sense of nostalgia about the memories of the building and the people who spent time there.
What makes Klein so different to my other chosen artist, Henri Cartier-Bresson, is that his approach to his subjects is far more up-close-and-personal. He doesn’t shy away or hide his camera, choosing to remain unseen by his subjects, but instead he shoots from directly in their faces, often causing a visible display of outrage from some, and a deliberate playing up to the camera from others.
William Klein was born in 1926 in New York City. He served in World War II, first in Germany and later in France, where he chose to settle after being discharged. He then studied painting with Fernand Léger at the Sorbonne in Paris, before moving on to his photographic career, beginning in fashion with Vogue. He won the Prix Nadar in 1957 for New York, a book of photos of his hometown, despite his lack of formal training in photography. He was also ranked 25th on Professional Photographer‘s list of 100 most influential photographers.
This article by Laird Borrelli-Persson from June 2022 explores Klein’s fashion career from the perspective of Vogue itself.
As well as producing over 250 television advertisements, he directed his first feature film in 1966, Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, which was a satire mockumentary on the world of fashion….
… followed by numerous documentaries, including Grands soirs et petits matins (1978)…
… and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest (1969).
I was very consciously trying to do the opposite of what Cartier-Bresson was doing. He did pictures without intervening. He was like the invisible camera. I wanted to be visible in the biggest way possible.
My analysis of ‘Gun 1‘, taken by Klein in New York in 1955.
“…It’s fake violence, a parody. I asked the boy to point the gun at me and then look tough. He did, and then we both laughed. [I see it] as a double self-portrait. I was both the street kid trying to look tough, and the timid good little boy on the right.”
Overall, after searching thoroughly, I could not find any real criticism of William Klein’s work. There was a lot of criticism at the time of its publication, however, as it broke all the rules of photography. Nowadays, this kind of disobeying the rules has had an amelioration. It now symbolises a pioneering and revolutionising spirit; someone who wasn’t afraid to change people’s minds. This is, of course, a worthy interpretation, as it is what Klein achieved. However, it does lead to a lack of diversity in interpretations as people are now afraid to criticise this work because they fear being attacked or (worse still, in the rather precocious areas of the photographic community) seen as if they ‘do not understand’ his work and are merely amateurs. I find that, as ‘Sebastian’ (the author of the article I read as criticism of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work) stated, there is often an unspoken rule that famous and admired photographers such as Klein and Cartier-Bresson cannot be criticised. Those who would criticise are seen as ‘amateur’ and so their opinion is not worthy. This is not true, of course, as anyone who views an image is a consumer and therefore their opinion matters, so to only worship and praise the work of these photographers is to create a stifling culture of non-criticism and non-discussion. Discussion and debate is, after all, what stimulates society and to be without it is to lack individual intelligence and thought.
Jan Roald is a Norwegian photographer who lives in Elvemyrkroken in Norway. He offers his photography services for hire, allowing people to contact him for photo assignments.
His typical style is contrasted black and white images, though he photographs a range of styles such as landscape, portrait, still life etc. He does, however, take some images in colour if the client requests it.
Roald’s work relates to the themes of observe, seek and challenge due to his photographs always observing something or someone through the lens. He also links to seek as he aims to find interesting layouts and compositions for his images. also linking to challenge as he challenges himself to take the best photo he can.
Why I chose the artist
I chose to use Roald as an artist reference due to his album ‘is the life also a chess play’ which he created in June 2019. His album includes photographs of chess pieces in an almost castle like setting where he uses his surroundings to create interesting looking still life images.
I would like to create this using different game pieces. I plan to do this by visiting one of the castles in Jersey and taking the board game pieces with me. From there, I would use the different aspects of the castle, such as the cobble floor or castle walls, to create interesting still life images.
I would also like to create interesting images by creating different effects with the pieces, using different elements in order to imply different meanings behind the images.
Image analysis
– Jan Roald, ‘Is the life also a chess play’.
I chose this image in particular due to the potential meanings behind the images as well as the effective composition of the photo.
To begin with, we are able to see a snake on the board which helps to highlight the size of the chess pieces. The snake could be a symbolism since throughout history snakes have been used to represent themes such as death, wisdom and health. However, now days when referencing snakes we picture stealth and deceitful, so when applying this to games it could be used to symbolize cheating. The connection between the snake and the game becomes stronger when you take into account the colours, the opposing side being black which is the same as the snake.
If we turn our attention to the photo as a whole, there is a lot to it that can catch our eyes. For example, the shadows of the pieces and the black pieces in the background all help to set the scene of the image making it more enjoyable for the viewer to look at.
From my review and reflection of Bill Brant and Barbra Kruger i have decided to take the word ‘observe’ and use it to observe the human body. After looking at Brants images of hands, arms and legs on the beach I want to take similar pictures. To further develop my project I will include some work similar to Kruger, by taking inspiration from her it will link back to the idea of the female gaze as a lot of her work is on tackling the everyday assumptions of females in contemporary society.My take on her work will be a modern day approach. The female gaze is a feminist theory term referring to the gaze of the female spectator, character or director of an artistic work, but more than the gender it is an issue of representing women as subjects having agency. Kruger’s work shows aspects of the female gaze in her work, such as images of women with quotes like ‘your body is a battleground’. I also look to take images of things other than the body such a weird shaped fruit and vegetables. By photographing this it may resemble the body it also allows me to break up my project from just being about the human body.
My images will mainly be staged so that i get the outcome that I want. Once i have got all of my images i want to create a photobook presenting all my best images from shoots.
I have photographed some of the archived photos I might want to use for my photobook. I made sure to use the ones that I will present a change in, and am able to recreate or link with my new images.
Black and Whites
Coloured
France
More coloured (early 2000s)
I want to focus my photobook on the change in my grandmother and grandfathers relationship over time, and how time affects it. These images are around the time my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, passing away in 2005. Showing the different time periods in the archives presents the change, and how death and time affects people and their image.
Overall, I am not going to use all of these images, however a few of them will work with the images I take, and link.
An English photographer of German birth, Bill Brandt travelled to Vienna in 1927 to see a lung specialist and then decided to stay and find work in a photography studio. There, in 1928, he met and made a successful portrait of the poet Ezra Pound, who subsequently introduced Brandt to the American-born, Paris-based photographer Man Ray. Brandt arrived in Paris to begin three months of study as an apprentice at the Man Ray Studio in 1929, at the height of the era’s enthusiasm for photographic exhibitions and publications; his work from this time shows the influence of André Kertész and Eugène Atget, as well as Man Ray and the Surrealists.
“I believe this power of seeing the world as fresh and strange lies hidden in every human being.”
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger has produced a proactive body of work, cracking open her appropriated images with her invented texts, hoisting the everyday assumptions of contemporary society on its own petards. She has done this creatively critical work at every scale, from matchbook covers to giant billboards, and across many media, from simple photomontages to complex screen and audio installations. Always alert to questions of audience and address, Kruger forever seeks new ways to push her practice into the public realm, drawing political debate into art and vice versa.
From her work in trying to present different messages of the everyday assumptions of contemporary society to the population, I will take inspiration from this and create a modern day version of her work. By focusing on the female gaze and interpreting her work into it at the same time it will create a strong message. In the modern day females still have struggles and standards we are expected to meet, which is similar to when Kruger was creating her work. Many girls my age struggle with body image and feeling they are not the stereotypical perfect image.
“The presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normative narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line.” -Mulvey, 809
Laura Mulvey is a prominent feminist film theorist known for her groundbreaking essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” published in 1975. In this essay, she introduced the concept of the “male gaze” and discussed its implications for feminism and the portrayal of women in cinema.
Mulvey argues that traditional Hollywood cinema is structured around the voyeuristic gaze of the heterosexual male viewer. She suggests that the camera in mainstream films often adopts the perspective of a male protagonist, objectifying female characters as passive objects of desire. Women are typically depicted as beautiful, passive, and lacking agency, existing primarily to be looked at and desired by male characters and viewers. The concept of the male gaze extends beyond cinema and applies to broader cultural representations of women, where women are often positioned as objects to be observed and desired by men. Mulvey contends that this objectification of women reinforces patriarchal power structures and perpetuates gender inequality.
Mulvey’s analysis of the male gaze has had a significant impact on feminist film theory and has inspired critical examinations of gender representation in various media forms. Her work encourages filmmakers and audiences to question the ways in which women are portrayed and to strive for more diverse and empowering representations of femininity. For example Cindy Sherman who challenges these ideas, and also Nancy Honey. In terms of what it means to be feminine, Mulvey’s work challenges traditional notions of femininity that are constructed and perpetuated by patriarchal society. She critiques the portrayal of women as passive, submissive, and defined solely by their relationships with men. Instead, Mulvey advocates for a more complex and multifaceted understanding of femininity that allows women to assert their agency, challenge gender norms, and define their identities on their own terms.
Overall, Laura Mulvey’s ideas around feminism and femininity have been instrumental in highlighting the ways in which gender is constructed and represented in popular culture. Her work continues to be influential in feminist discourse and serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and representation.
Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, outlined in her influential book “Gender Trouble” (1990), has significantly influenced contemporary discussions on gender, identity, and social construction. Here’s an analysis of her theory:
Social Construction of Gender: Butler argues that gender is not an inherent trait but rather a socially constructed performance. Instead of being determined by biology or nature, gender is created and reinforced through repeated acts, behaviors, and expressions that conform to societal norms and expectations.
Performativity: Butler introduces the concept of performativity to explain how gender identity is produced and maintained. She suggests that gender is not something one inherently is, but rather something one does. Gender identity is performed through everyday actions, gestures, speech, and other forms of expression.
Repetition and Regulation: According to Butler, gender identity is not fixed or stable but is produced through repeated performances that are regulated and enforced by social institutions, cultural norms, and power structures. Individuals are compelled to conform to normative gender roles through mechanisms of discipline and punishment.
Subversion and Resistance: While Butler acknowledges the pervasive influence of societal norms on gender performativity, she also suggests that these norms are not immutable. Individuals have the capacity to subvert or resist normative gender expectations through acts of defiance, non-conformity, and subversive performances. By disrupting conventional gender scripts, individuals can challenge existing power dynamics and create space for alternative forms of identity and expression.
Critique of Essentialism: Butler’s theory challenges essentialist notions of gender that posit fixed and innate characteristics associated with biological sex. Instead, she emphasizes the fluidity, contingency, and variability of gender identity, which is shaped by historical, cultural, and discursive factors.
Intersectionality: While Butler primarily focuses on the performative aspect of gender, her theory intersects with broader discussions of intersectionality, which highlight how gender intersects with other dimensions of identity such as race, class, sexuality, and disability. Intersectional perspectives enrich our understanding of how power operates within social structures and shapes individuals’ experiences of gender performativity.
Overall, Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity has been highly influential in feminist, queer, and gender studies, challenging conventional understandings of gender and opening up new avenues for critical inquiry and social transformation. However, her work has also generated debates and critiques, particularly regarding its accessibility, applicability across diverse cultural contexts, and implications for political activism.
Why is it important in relation to my personal study?
This theory links heavily with Cindy Sherman’s ‘Passive Pictures’ as the artists are performing/ look a certain way to exaggerate the male gaze. Its important to understand this theory as some pictures I create will be staged/ set up a certain way to create a parodic representation. The theory can also link with Observe, Seek and challenge as it observes the way gender is presented and challenges the dominant ideologies around femininity in a parodic way.
“I wish I could treat every day as Halloween, and get dressed up and go out into the world as some eccentric character.”
The photographs of Cindy Sherman often capture iconic representations of women while offering a critical approach. They can be interpreted as questioning gender norms through the lens of feminist art. Her work usually features photographs that depict herself dressed and made up as different female characters. Sherman’s photos are often interpreted as feminist art since her works raise questions regarding the objectification of women by the male gaze and the construction of the female gender. To better understand how Cindy Sherman’s photographs challenge the representation of women, it is important to know about the thoughts of feminist theorists such as Laura Mulvey and Judith Butler – which in a separate blog post I have explored in more depth as its important to deeply understand the theories and ideas surrounding femininity and specifically around the male gaze.
Many pictures of Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills show situations that come across as uncomfortable, creepy, or even terrifying since we see the depicted woman in a vulnerable position. The viewer becomes an inappropriate spectator. We find ourselves in the role of a voyeur who preys on vulnerable women. We become confronted with the negative implications of the way the media – especially movies – depicts women. The male gaze is often present in Cindy Sherman’s artworks but she subtly changes the perspectives, expressions, and circumstances. Those changes expose this gaze that wants to stay hidden during the act of observing and objectifying the female body. In this particular image above it shows a woman waiting alone on the roadside with her luggage standing with her back facing the camera which indicates that she is not aware of being watched. The ominous scenery is enhanced by the cloudy sky and emphasis on the seemingly endless road. The picture makes the audience part of a threatening situation they do not necessarily want to be a part of. It even indicates that the viewer who is only able to see the woman’s back is the one who poses a threat.
CINDY SHERMAN – PASSIVE PICTURES
Laura Mulvey characterizes the depiction of women in her essay as passive, erotic, and accordingly made up to match male fantasies and desires. Cindy Sherman uses clothes, make-up, wigs, and different poses to imitate this portrayal of passive, sexualized women that comply with those fantasies. While Sherman still operates within the methods of the male gaze by portraying women in their underwear, heavy make-up, or typically female costumes, her artworks still criticize this way of representation.
This photograph shows a woman posing in underwear on a bed. Her face, though, seems to parody the whole situation. The woman’s expression looks overly dreamy and even a little silly. It seems as if Sherman is making fun of the passive and typically feminine representations of women since she did not only pose for the picture but is also the artist that orchestrated the photo.
Gender as a Performative Act in Cindy Sherman’s Artworks – Links to Judith butler (separate blog post)
Cindy Sherman’s artworks seem to demonstrate this performance of gender by depicting stereotypical images of women that can also be seen in movies. The pictures illustrate the performative act of “being female” through Sherman’s changing use of wigs, make-up, and clothing. Even though every artwork of Sherman shows the same person, the artist’s masquerade makes it possible to portray various types of women that are all subject to the male gaze. By performing the different ways of how women are supposed to look to be considered typically female, Sherman’s feminist art exposes the artificially and culturally constructed idea of gender The altering costumes, hair, and poses produce a multitude of individuals even though Sherman is the only person who is visible in her works. The hair colour, attire, make-up, environment, expression, and posing changes in every picture to match a particular stereotype of womanhood.
The characters in Sherman’s photos are often an exaggeration of widely represented female identities. Since this exaggeration and masquerade is visible through heavy make-up or distinctive clothing, the works appear to reveal the artificial construction of what is supposed to make a person female, such as wearing clothes typical for a housewife or the extensive use of eyeliner.
How Cindy Sherman’s work has inspired me:
The way Sherman changes the small things in her images to deflect the male gaze however still give the sense that its to do with the male gaze. The critical way she changes the perspectives, expressions, and circumstances. Her pictures create an intruding feeling forcing the viewer to think about the image and due to stereotypes people are quick to realise that its representing the male gaze. I also like how whilst also carefully portraying images which somewhat make women look vulnerable she also uses ‘passive pictures’ and dapples into Judith Butlers theory of Gender Performativity which creates this parodic feeling towards the male gaze, she exemplifies this using makeup, costumes, wigs and poses.
“Rather than the camera projecting the outside world onto film, I am using it to project outward the world that exists inside me.”
Hiroshi Sugimoto was born in 1948 in Japan, and divides his time between Tokyo and New York City. Working in photography since the 1970s, his multidisciplinary practice includes sculpture, performing arts production, and architecture. His work explores history and temporal existence by investigating themes of time, empiricism, and metaphysics. Grounded in technical mastery of the classical photographic tradition, he examines the ways photography can record traces of invisible but elemental forces.
Sugimoto’s artistic career has been marked by philosophical curiosity and a serial, analytical approach. For his earliest photographic series, Dioramas, which he began 1974, Sugimoto photographed displays in the American Museum of Natural History and elsewhere. Through the lens of his large-format camera, the museums’ painted backdrops and taxidermied animals are transformed by photography into enigmatically life-like scenes. Theaters, perhaps his most iconic series, comprises long exposure photographs made in classic movie houses around the world. Each exposure is made during the projection of a film, producing a glowing white screen in the center of a darkened theater and compressing time into a single image. His Seascapes, which span more than four decades, record the most elemental scene—sky and water bisected by the constant line of the horizon, a view that Sugimoto associates with the dawn of consciousness.
Seascapes
For more than four decades, Hiroshi Sugimoto has been photographing seascapes around the world. “A sharp horizon line and a cloudless sky- here began my consciousness.” writes Sugimoto, “From there my thoughts race to the origins of human consciousness itself. The sea reminds me that within my blood remain traces of human evolution over hundreds of thousands of years.”
His Seascapes series began in 1999. Photographed with cartographic precision, each image shows sea and sky bisected by a seemingly infinite horizon. Rather than taming the subject through repeated documentation, the series grows more awesome and sublime, until the images reveal only the transient atmospherics—the thickness of fog or stillness of the water.
Water and air. These primordial substances, which make possible all life on earth, are the subject of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Seascapes series. Sugimoto has called photography the “fossilization of time,” and the ‘Seascapes’ photographs simultaneously capture a discrete moment in time but also evoke a feeling of timelessness.
This volume, the second in a series of books on Sugimoto’s art, presents the complete series of over 200 ‘Seascapes’, some of which have never before been reproduced. All are identical in format, with the horizon line precisely bifurcating each image, though at times the sea and sky almost merge into one seamless unit. Each photograph captures a moment when the sea is placid, almost flat. Within this strict format, however, he has created a limitless array of portraits of his subjects.
Minimalist photography is a form of photography that is distinguished by extreme simplicity. Sometimes in the world of photography, less is more. Minimalist photographers know that sometimes it’s important to focus solely on one particular subject, rather than overwhelm the viewer with tons of color and pattern and information. While there are plenty of successful photographers who take “busy” photographs, photographers on the other end of the spectrum – including Hiroshi Sugimoto and Hans Hiltermann – are successful for completely different reasons. When dealing with minimalism, it’s important to understand the relationship between subject and viewer, texture and pattern, and light and shadow.
Key Elements of Minimalist Photography
Minimalism can be applied to pretty much every genre of photography, including portrait, landscape, still life, architecture, and even street shooting. But minimalist photos do have a few key characteristics:
Negative space. Minimalist photos tend to feature lots of empty, or negative, space. Negative space is composed of expanses of pure color or texture, such as a broad stretch of ocean or a grassy lawn. (And featureless white skies are a minimalist staple!)
A small main subject. Minimalist compositions keep the subject small in the frame so that they’re dwarfed by negative space. As I discuss below, this can be done with a wide-angle lens or by shooting from a distance. In cases where the main subject isn’t small in the frame, it should be exceptionally simple (e.g., a few streaks of paint on a wall).
Limited clutter. Minimalism emphasizes simplicity, and minimalist photos tend to feature a main subject, lots of empty space, and nothing else. Minimalist photographers carefully refine their compositions until no extra elements – such as poles or telephone lines in the background – exist. The more clutter you can eliminate from your shots, the more minimalist they’ll be.
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ligurian Sea, Saviore, 1993
Image Analysis
Technically – The long exposure used in this photograph creates a smooth and serene effect on the water, giving it a dreamlike quality. The soft lighting and subtle colour palette add to the overall eleagant atmosphere.
Visually – Sugimoto’s decision to place the horizon line in the lower third of the frame emphasizes the vastness of the sea and sky. The minimalistic approach, with the absence of any visible land or human presence, creates a sense of solitude and tranquillity.
Contextually – the Ligurian Sea is located along the Italian coast, known for its picturesque views and beautiful seascapes. Sugimoto’s photograph captures the essence of the Ligurian Sea, evoking a sense of calmness and introspection. It invites the viewer to contemplate the vastness of the ocean and our place within it.
Conceptually – Sugimoto’s “Seascapes” series explores the timeless and universal nature of the sea. By photographing various seascapes, he invites us to reflect on the flow of life, the passage of time, and our connection to the natural world. In “Ligurian Sea, Saviore, 1993,” the photograph embodies a sense of stillness and contemplation, inviting us to pause and appreciate the beauty of the sea.
Inspiration
By exploring the concept of minimalism. Just like Sugimoto’s minimalist approach in his seascapes, I can experiment with simplifying my compositions, focusing on the essential elements of the waves, surfers, and the ocean itself. Sugimoto’s use of long exposures. In his work, the long exposure technique creates a smooth and ethereal effect on the water. Sugimoto’s emphasis on the relationship between the sea and the sky. By paying attention to the colours, tones, and textures of the sky and how they interact with the waves, I can produce a similar response to Sugimoto’s work.
