Tom Wood, born 1951, is an Irish street photographer, portraitist and landscape photographer, based in Britain. He was often known as the ‘Photie man’, as he would never forget to bring his camera around where he lived. Wood is best known for his photographs in Liverpool and Merseyside from 1978 to 2001, “on the streets, in pubs and clubs, markets, workplaces, parks and football grounds” of “strangers, mixed with neighbours, family and friends.” Most of his most famous photos where a 5 minute walk from his house in Liverpool, creating interesting stories in each of his street photos. The critic Sean O’Hagan has described Wood as “a pioneering colourist” and “a photographer for whom there are no rules”, while keeping it “up close and personal”.

‘I started doing portraits of these kids hanging around on drugs, or whatever, and some of their parents. It was really tough’

Here are some photos shown in various national museum’s in Liverpool:

As you can see, each image can be a very interesting image on its own, as the context and amount going on in each photo allows that. He didnt have a set way to take his photos, he used whatever he had at the time and walked around looking for interesting subject to take a photo of, some being staged and others being street photography. So many photographers grub about until they have a formula, and then force all their pictures into the same mould. Not Wood. Forever unsatisfied, never content to make a series when a single picture will do, his curiosity and his intellectual powers always fully engaged, he has roamed around making pictures of the world he lives in.

Partly due to cost, from time to time he has used old cine film and out of date film stock for his pictures. This lends a grainy quality to the film, most evident in Bus Journeys. However, his use of medium formats lends fine detail to the negative, allowing much more visual information to be revealed through the printing process. Wood has also tirelessly experimented with printing papers to create the exact colour balances and textures he requires. For him, analogue rather than digital printing, and making his own prints in the darkroom, are important. He sees photographing, printing, selection and editing as inseparable parts of the process of photography.

101 pictures- 2020

Here, I chose 2 photos from his book ‘101 pictures’, it includes many of his most famous photos from his many years of taking photos.

Here you can see five people stand apart looking towards and contemplating an artwork out of the frame of Wood’s picture. The lighting is almost oversaturated, and its cropped to only show the people looking at the picture. The temperature is defiantly on the warmer side, with more red and orange colours that blue and purple. This photo is a big contrast from his usual photos, with more upper class people being included. The fact that they are standing equally apart, disconnects this image to reality. This could also be seen as the upper class disconnecting and distancing themselves to middle and lower class people. This is further added by how everyone is lost in there own thoughts, with no connection between each of them, their sobriety of behaviour matched by their dress, which is echoed in the browns of the gallery space. Even the brown, equally spaced framed images behind the subjects matches the overall boring, repetitive theme of this image. However, the 6th subject on the left seemed to have seen the camera, giving this photo some reality, allowing this image to stay somewhat similar to his others.

This image is a more ‘traditional’ tom wood photo, taken in Liverpool, which contrasts the imaged I used above with everything, from the lighting to the way the subjects are portrayed. here, light is an essential feature of this image, with the suns patchy light illuminating four young people as they eat there chips and beans at the sea front, with a colourful blue rail behind them, adding a barrier between the foreground and background. The barrier also adds lines across the photo, drawing the eyes towards them, thus drawing the eyes towards the unrepetitively placed subjects. This uneven placement of people makes it seem real (documentary). Each person in this photo is wearing bold and brightly coloured clothes, further giving this image life and value. I think the best part of this image is the peoples faces, each being unique and funny, which makes the viewer think about there stories and the connections between them.

Sam Taylor-Johnson – crying men

Sam Taylor-Johnson, born in 1967, is a British film director and artist. She began her creative carrier with fine art photography in the early 1990s, collaborating with Henry bond and creating a pastiche of various things, like the photo taken by Annie Leibovitz of Lennon a few hours before his assassination. However, she isn’t known for her photographer work back when she was younger, rather her as being a famous film director. So why am I talking about her? its because she created a series called ‘crying men’ which shown many male actors crying in films. From 2002 to 2004, after Sam had battled breast cancer, as an ‘exorcism of tears‘ she photographed actors crying, a mix of old Hollywood actors as well as young up and coming actors at the time. It was a revealing look at some actors you may not have seen cry on screen and raises questions about how masculine vulnerability is portrayed on screen, as well as how society has drummed it into men not to cry. I think this series is very impactful to see, as actors like Michael Madsen can be seen crying, and he’s usually depicted as the ‘tough guy’ in films. Men’s mental health is becoming a serious issue that’s been overlooked for many years and only now people are beginning to take action. For example, the highest cause of death for men under 45 is suicide, facts like these brings more attention to the topic of men’s mental health.

Other photographers:

Neil Leifer probably the most well known sport photographer and created some of the most iconic shots. I will getting some inspiration from him when I turn towards sports, specifically basketball, when linking it to masculinity. Here are some photos I like:

All these photos are incredibly dramatic, from the intense facial expressions to the detailed backgrounds, each with there own unique stories. The photo with Muhammad Ali (likely the most famous boxer of all time), is particularly dramatic. It shows a victorious Ali standing over the defeated Sonny Liston, shot during a 1965 world title fight. Leifer admitted that luck played a big part in getting this picture, since if he was positioned in a different part of the ring, it would the photo would never of been as famous. However, even with his luck, creating a photo like this requires lot of skill, as the cameras back then where not as easy to use as they are now, as well as trying to get that close to the ring side. The buzz and excitement is also been presented very well in this image, with countless camera all around the right, and the tense Ali standing in the centre of the frame.

Sophie Day is another photographer I will be getting inspiration from. She spent three years continuously photographing close male friends, amassing an archive of their shared experience. Along the way, she refined her own understanding of masculinity – a girl amongst boys, reflecting on their social codes and behaviours. Here are some photos I like:

For my personal study, my inspirations come from the work of Carolle Benitah and Philip Toledano, two artists who utilise the theme of nostalgia, family, memory and loss in order to challenge events that have occurred in their lives, specifically in childhood. This is something I want to reinterpret in my own way and apply it to my own circumstances, that being growing up with a sibling who develops Bipolar disorder.

First Idea:

My first photoshoot idea solely comes from the work of Carolle Benitah. Benitah takes images from her own family archives, such as photo albums, and uses different mediums to symbolise different events that happened which are linked to the image itself, or the people within it.

She also uses the same consistent shade of red within each image to make them all link and be cohesive in the story that she’s trying to tell – this is something I have thought about doing but with a consistent shade of blue as this is my brothers favourite colour, however I need to think about this a bit more as I am unsure at the moment. But, if I do use this inspiration, I may be able to apply this into each photoshoot so that all my images link and show a clearer reference to Benitah.

As my inspiration, I am going to go through the images that my parents have involving my brother, whether that be just him, me and him or all of us, and photograph them. I am going to do this either by using the studio or creating my own small studio at home using black card as the background so that I can crop any spaces after. If this is unsuccessful, I will photocopy the physical image itself. This is because I don’t want to tarnish the actual picture, so by creating a copy this then allows me to be experimental with different mediums – such as paint, ink, thread, glitter – multiple times. I also do have digital images from my mum, meaning that I can print multiple copies off to also be able to experiment and not be worried about it being ineffective.

Second Idea:

My second idea stems more from the work of Philip Toledano, looking at the still-life’s he took of his sisters belongings from before she died as a nine year old child. Toledano took an assortment of Claudia’s belongings and keepsakes from her childhood and photographed them using a birds-eye view technique.

This is going to inspire me in my second photoshoot, beginning with me asking my parents for everything and anything they kept from mine and my brothers childhood, with the objects ranging from birthday cards to baby toys. Anything I can find I am going to photograph in order to have a wider variety of images to choose from as this will enable me to be more selective in choosing which images are the best, link the story well enough, and carry the most meaning. If I do this well, I think this will make my photobook more emotive, and encapsulate the heaviness of this topic behind it. I am going to try to achieve the lighting technique that Toledano uses, being that he uses geometric shapes in order to add that ‘out of place’ tone within the images. However, if this doesn’t work I will be able to find a way to do it on Photoshop by merging the two images and making one in black and white and the other in colour, then cutting out my desired shape in the black and white image, finally layering the two over each other so that the shape I have created is the only part of the image that is in colour.

Third Idea:

My third category of images that I am going to use is going to be of different locations that resonate with my brother and relate to his childhood. For example:

• My house
• Football fields
• My estate
• My garden
• The hospital that he goes to

These are only just a few I can think of at the moment, however I will ask my parents where the best places to go would be as they will know from taking me and my brother.

However, I don’t want my images to just be plain landscapes that don’t really fit in with my other two photoshoots so I am going to hone in on form for these images. My second zine that I did for Jersey’s maritime museum was very focused on the form of the landscape instead of the aesthetics of it, which is why I want to use this knowledge in my own personal study, as this is a good representation of seeking out the environment around me as well as portraying the context of my brothers story better. When I go to these places, I am going to take multi-shots to be able to distinguish the best images and be able to experiment better.

Overall, a key aspect of my work is going to revolve around form and shape, specifically in my third photoshoot, however this is also going to be demonstrated in my second photoshoot in a more discreet way. My photoshoots may change as I begin to work on them next week, however I need to remember to be experimental and explore different ideas by taking risks.

I will be taking inspiration from his project based on the Myths and Legends of Jersey. Danny Richardson discovered the art of photography over 10 years ago and since then he has used it as a tool to show people the way he sees the world. Richardson specialises in creative portraiture and conceptual Fine Art photography. He wanted to create a series of images with a local twist that reflected his style of photography, which is creative portraiture and conceptual imagery. This project gave Danny Richardson a sense of nostalgia and it was personal to him, “I saw it as an opportunity to indulge the nostalgic ‘dungeons and Dragons’ watching little boy I used to be” – Danny Richardson.

Richardson was initially inspired to start this project by the stamp creator Nick Parlett who created a series of stamps based on Jersey folklore.

“We all have our own perspective on the world around us and thankfully I can use mine in conjunction with my camera to capture moments and images that reveal an authentic truth or a story waiting to be told.” – Danny Richardson

This quote by Danny Richardson sums up the theme of myths and legends well as they are just stories waiting to be told and everyone has their own perspectives of myths and legends or whether they believe them or not.

Analysis

In this photo a woman is dressed in a white wedding dress and a veil, there is then another figure in the foreground who could possibly be the groom. I believe this photo tells the story of the ghost bride of waterworks valley. Smoke machines have been used which create an eerie look to the photo. The main focus of the photo is the bride as she is positioned around the centre of the image, and the figure in the foreground draws our attention to her as they are looking right at her. There is also little saturation in the image, the main points of saturation are the bride’s headpiece and her hands, this draws even more attention towards her.

How will I respond?

I will take photographs in a similar way to Danny Richardson as they will all be based on Jersey myths and legends, aslike are his photos. I will also be taking the photographs in the location that the legends and myths are based in, this is similar to his work as he also took images based in the same locations.

Jersey Myths and Legends by Danny Richardson

To begin I created an overall mind-map, which includes some photographs from the internet, to gather all my ideas in one area. I created this on paper.

I then chose to refine my ideas into a smaller mind-map where I have chosen to focus on the theme of myths and legends within Jersey.

 

Some artists I may take inspiration from:

Ideas

During my review and reflect of all my previous blog posts and topics, I discovered that I much preferred taking pictures of people rather than landscapes, whether that was portraits, tableaux images, or street photography. However, I think portraiture is my biggest strength and what I enjoy the most.

I also found the topic femininity and masculinity a really interesting topic that I found I could write a lot about. I find researching and creating different stereotypes in my photographs the most interesting part, and I really enjoyed making my images fight against these different gender stereotypes. I really enjoyed this topic, because as a women stereotypes is something I hear and see a lot of and I feel like I could do a lot for this topic and write a lot about it, because it is so internal to me and my identity. I also enjoyed how in this topic Claude Cahun for example explored her identity, by becoming a more masculine version of herself and I feel like if I were to do something related to this topic I would also be able to explore my identity.

Inspiration Ideas

For my inspiration I am researching three different female photographers that have fought against stereotypes through their photos and that have explored femininity and their identities. I have decided to research three photographer that I have already looked at previously, so that I already have an idea about what they do, so that I can briefly research them, before I complete my more in depth artist research. I am also not sure at the moment whether I want to do portraits more like Claude Cahun, or create tableaux images, more like Cindy Sherman and Justine Kurland.

Cindy Sherman-

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer, who was born in 1954. She invents personas and tableaux images, that examine the construction of identity and the nature of representation. To create her images, she assumes the multiple roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, and stylist. Whether portraying a career girl, a blonde bombshell, a fashion victim, a clown, or a society lady of a certain age.

Cindy Sherman experiments with identity and femininity through these images, as she explores all the different female identities that are found within popular cultures and becomes them, so that she can reveal that they are nothing more than an imaginary construct that can be altered through performance. She also show cases the socially desirable female and different ways culture defines a women.

Claude Cahun-

Claude Cahun is a French photographer, that explored stereotypes and fought against them during the 1920’s. Cahun was born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, until she changed her name to Claude Cahun, to make it more gender neutral in 1914. She was also in a relation with a women called Suzanne Malherbe. This was very controversial during this time, because homosexuality was seen as a sin during this time.

In Claude Cahun’s images, she would make herself appear more masculine, by either shaving her head, the poses she did and the outfits she wore etc.

She also explored femininity being a ‘mask,’ because she did not see her true identity as being feminine, but society deemed that that was what was socially acceptable at this time, so she had to wear the ‘mask’ of femininity.

Justine Kurland-

Justine Kurland was born in 1969 and is an American fine art photographer, who took  staged tableaux pictures of landscapes inhabited by young adolescent girls, half-sprites, half juvenile delinquents.

Kurland explains what she wants the viewers to take in from her book (Girl Pictures) and from her images, which is that you too can be anything you dream of in your imagination. She states that they are pirates, cowboys etc, because in ‘Girl Pictures’ these girls aren’t just girls, they are whoever they want to be. She also states that they are trying on ‘boy,’ because in society standards it is more socially acceptable for boys to act in this rambunctious manor, rather than girls. This is due to stereotypes seen through genders. I feel like in this book ‘Girl Pictures’ she is trying to fight against these stereotypes of young girls, and this is an important matter to her and all other girls, because they have grown up being told they should be or behave a certain way due to their gender. She is fighting against these stereotypes, by having these young girls act in a way that is seen as more masculine and not socially acceptable for these girls.

‘Girl Pictures’ is also about finding your identity, because during youth you do not know who you fully are yet and being able to explore every aspect of your youth, even if it does not comply with social ‘norms’ it allows you get the truest sense of your identity possible. Girl Pictures also enabled Justine Kurland to find her true identity.

Final Thoughts

I enjoy how Cindy Sherman show cases female stereotypes, because this is something I would be better at producing, because it is more internal to me, because I am a female. This is a much easier topic for me to do, rather than looking into masculinity for example, because I am not male. However, I don’t think I’d be able to produce up to standard images of myself, like Sherman and Cahun. I also don’t like the idea of having myself or another person dress up in different outfits, because I feel this would take a lot of time and money to prepare.

I enjoy how Claude Cahun fights against female stereotypes in her work and really portrays her identity, no matter how socially unacceptable, but I do not enjoy how masculine her images are, and I feel like I would struggle to create images similar to this, as I do not relate to masculinity in the very strong way that she does.

I enjoy how Justine Kurland’s images are of young girls, because I am myself a young girl, so this is something I really relate to and is internal to me, so I feel like it would be easier for me to gather my friends to create similar images. I also feel like I could produce better images, as the topic of ‘girlhood’ is so much more internal to me, as I am experiencing my girlhood right now. I also like how she also fights against stereotypes, like Cahun, but she does it in a slightly different way, which I feel like I would be able to do and create up to standard images.

For my photoshoot, I am going to use Justine Kurland for my main inspiration, but I am also going to pull from Cindy Sherman and Claude Cahun, so that I am able to create a spectrum of femininity and masculinity, starting with really feminine, like Cindy Sherman, to really masculine like Claude Cahun, with Justine Kurland as the middle ground. This is how I am going to put a twist on my photos, compared to Justine Kurland’s. I am also going to be using the same photographic technique as Justine Kurland, which is producing tableaux images, that look like candid images.

Intention

My intention with this photoshoot is to explore the female identity and my own identity through this photoshoot as well, just how Justine Kurland found her own identity through her work. I am going to explore the female identity and present all different female identities through my work. I want to present that the female identity isn’t just what is stereotyped, but it can be whatever you want it to be. In ‘Girl Pictures,’ Justine Kurland states that, ‘Cowboys, sailors, pirates, hitchhikers, hobos, train hoppers, explorers, catchers in the rye, lords of the flies- you name it…’ She is stating that the girls in her book were all these things. She has done this, so that she can present to the viewers that they too can be whatever identity they wish to be, no matter how different or not socially acceptable it may be. I also want to present this in my work, so that I can portray to my viewers that identity is just what you make it, instead of it being what makes you.

Through this work I also want to investigate into different stereotypes and present images that oppose these stereotypical ‘norms.’ Justine Kurland presented these girls ‘in the dominion of boys’ and ‘they were trying on a version of themselves that the world has thus far shown them was boy.’ She did this, so that she could combat against female stereotypes, so that she could present to the viewers that these stereotypical ‘norms’ aren’t just what we should be allowed to be and do, but instead girls should also be able to do anything a boy can do and act in a way that a boy would. I think this is a really important message and I want to display this message well in my work, by presenting the young girls in a more rambunctious, ‘boy like’ manor, combating these stereotypical ‘norms.’

However, I want to make a twist on Justine Kurland’s work, for my own work, and I intend on doing this, by showing a larger spectrum of stereotypes, and showing stereotypes, that are not being combated. For example, I want to display these young girls following these female stereotypical norms, just how Cindy Sherman presented these stereotypical norms, because I want to display to the viewers, and to all other young girls that may see these images, that your identity can be anything you make it, and you don’t have to feel like you have to oppose these stereotypical ‘norms’, if that is who you truly are and what your identity truly is.

I always want to explore youth through my work, just like Justine Kurland did in her ‘Girl Pictures.’ As I said I also wanted to explore my identity through this project, so to explore these two things I am going to be looking back into my youth, or my ‘Girlhood’ and replicating some of the activities I used to do in my teenage years. This will help me explore youth, especially my youth and it will help me explore my identity, to see what stereotypical ‘norms’ I followed, or didn’t when I was younger. This will also help me compare my identity back then, to it now. I think youth is also a really important aspect to explore, because Justine Kurland’s whole book was based off this idea of youth and ‘girlhood,’ so to also put a twist on her work, I am making my work more internal to me, by making it relative to my youth, ‘girlhood’ and my life. I also think that youth is a very important development stage, which helps to build your identity, so I also think it would be interesting to compare my youth, to the youth shown in Justine Kurland’s book, ‘Girl Pictures.’

Photoshoot Plan

Justine Kurland- Girl Pictures

Examples of my youth:

During my teenage years, I went out with my friends a lot. Some of the outdoor places we would go, would include;

• Harve Des Pas Beach
• FB Fields
• Fort Regent
• St Brelades Bay
• Frigate
• People’s Park
• St Ouens Beach
• La Marrais
• Town
• In my car
• Georgia’s shed
• Campfire

The reason I am only choosing places which are outdoors, is because during my youth, I had more fun and did more things, while I was outdoors, instead of inside. I also wanted to keep the setting in my images still quite similar, because I think the images will relate to ‘Girl Pictures’ more, and will come out of a better standard visually.

During my youth I did many different activities including;

• Jumping off the Lido at Harve Des Pas
• Swimming in the sea
• Wave surfing at St Ouens
• Playing hide and seek at La Marrais
• Camping at St Ouens
• Have BBQ at the beach, or in gardens
• Picnic
• Get a snack/ meal
• Tan/ chill with a book
• Make a campfire

Other place ideas:

I also wanted to include settings that were used in ‘Girl Pictures,’ because I think they are visually pleasing settings, and they really help display the combat against stereotypical norms, because a dirty woods is not usually associated with femininity. Some places I have decided to include are;

• Street
• Public Bathroom
• Field
• Woods
• Barn/ shed
• Lakes/ rivers/ pond
• Mountains/ cliffs
• Walkway path
• Sandunes
• Roadside
• Under a Bridge
• Reservoir
• Rocky coast

Similar Places in Jersey:

• Cycling path along the avenue
• Snow hill, St Ounes etc.
• Field- nans garden
• St Catherines woods
• Georgia’s shed
• Sandunes
• Underground bit at harbour
• Resoviour
• Cliff paths St Brelade
• Beach
• Fort Regent park
• St Brelades campfire

Cindy Sherman- Film Stills

I am going to take inspiration from some of the stereotypes that Cindy Sherman has used in her images, as well as thinking of my ow stereotypes for both male and female.

Stereotype Ideas:

Female Stereotypes-

• Use of makeup in my images
• Doing hair
• Emotional shots eg. crying
• Using colours such as pink
• Housewife
• Cleaning
• Cooking

Male Stereotypes-

• Strong eg. use of weights
• colours such as blue
• Emotional shots eg. anger and violence
• Messing around

To fight against these stereotypes, I will have girls do these male stereotypes, so that I can present girls acting like boys.

Narrative of different Image Ideas:

• Playing on swings in a park
• Running down the street
• Getting ready/ washing in a public bathroom
• camping
• smoking
• eating ice cream/ other snacks
• Making fires
• Shooting glass bottles
• swimming
• playing catch
• Fighting/ boxing
• Hula hooping
• Playing an instrument eg. Guitar
• Blowing bubbles
• Catching sweets in mouth
• Reading books
• Walking a dog
• Climbing trees
• Washing feet in a river
• Picking flowers
• Fixing a car
• Roadtrip
• Sand castles/ lying at the beach
• Roasting marshemellows
• Climbing fences
• Sledging down the sandunes

Tools/ props needed:

• Make up
• Spray
• Hair brush
• Soap
• Cigerettes
• Snacks
• BBQ
• Glass bottle
• Toy gun
• Balls
• Hula Hoop
• Instrument
• Bubbles
• Books
• Car
• Bucket and spade
• Marshmellows
• Sledges

The personal study is based around the theme observe, seek and challenge.

Mind Map

Mood Board

Mood Board Analysis

My mood board includes a large range of ideas for my personal study of observe, seek and challenge, because I am not sure what theme I am planning on doing for my personal study yet, so I have included them all the get an idea of my options. I have included the themes which I have talked about on my mind map.

This is a rather large mood board containing quite a few images, compared to the usual mood boards I make, because I wanted to include a large range of themes that I could explore.