For these images I was unsure whether to set them in Black and white to match the other images so far or keep them in colour as how they would be seen.

I wanted to remove some of the advertisements from the lift. I used photoshop to generative fill the colourful sheet with some generic writing. The colour looked off however so I masked the sheet and added a tinted layer to create the same yellowing effect.

Overall I think this photoshoot 3 really good images:

Lifts can be quite frightening for some people for their small space triggering claustrophobia and getting stuck if they break. The lift I photographed broke on me twice with the doors refusing to open and the suspensions jittering which made me really want to photograph it for this photoshoot. The sofa for me showed a liminal space. The yellow walls and past evidence of a person looks odd and fake which I think turned out quite well. I also liked the image with 3 doors pen because it also seems like it could resemble a liminal space. I was torn between this image and another one where the end light was on but the lack of light is more ominous.

For this part in my project, I decided to experiment with AI which is something I hadn’t explored yet. I came across this idea accidentally when I was trying to change the facial expressions on my models face and noticed that every time it would alter her complete face, making her into a different person essentially instead of just changing a specific facial feature. The AI generation tool made 3 completely different, unique faces from the same model.

I decided to do this idea of experimenting with AI as I felt it linked with my project on identity. Through using the AI generation tool on photoshop, I was able to create completely different people just by adding simple sentences such “make it so that the model is smiling” to which it then completely changed the face as well. This highlighted to me the idea that people can easily hide behind a façade these days as they have access to these easy to use tools that drastically change one’s appearance. Additionally, it emphasised to me the fact that you can’t trust what people really look like online as there are so many filters/ edits people use in order to make themselves come off in a different way: whether that be making themselves look more attractive or wealthier, we are constantly exposed to fake versions of people which then causes unrealistic expectations to be formed about how people should look. I think this shows how easily identity is doctored in the present day and how people often lose their own sense of identity due to the tools that distort who they really are. I like how this idea came out as I think it highlights how social media is often filled with fake versions of people who alter themselves in order to fit in with societal expectations.

In what way have Helmuth Newton and Cindy Sherman portrayed women?

‘Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves.’
John Berger, The Ways of Seeing, 1972

INTRODUCTION

The representation of gender roles and stereotypes have been interpreted in multiple ways and in many different forms throughout history. As a society, the world has begun to slowly adjust its ways and modernise values upon women into an equal balance between genders. However, along the way artists and photographers have shone light onto areas of society and media which demoralize and objectify the female gender for others’ gratification. Traditional gender stereotypes have been criticized and modified as individuals fight for attention to their true and deeper self instead of reducing them to mere physical appearances. By exploring how women are portrayed in art by different photographers throughout time, I am able to shine light on different views and interpretations from artists, both past and present. ‘Photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have the right to observe.’¹ This quote portrays the purpose of exploring human perception of the world and highlighting the beauty in appreciating the smaller details that are essential to be exposed otherwise might go unnoticed by us as a society. This quote relates to my work as I am focusing on an area of the world which raises ethical and philosophical questions around the topics of overstepping a boundary and distorting female identities and worth to fit narrow beauty standards. The photographers I will be exploring are Cindy Sherman and Helmut Newton and how their work relates, differs and what message they create for the audience. I will be responding to their work by producing images with a similar style and message but with a modern-day twist on how photographs with the same underlying message are continued today even after a revolution of women’s movements.

Movie still from the film “Jailhouse Rock” 1957, by Bettmann.

THE MALE GAZE

The idea of the ‘male gaze’ was introduced by Laura Mulvey who explored this concept of the way ‘straight, white men’ see women in TV, cinema and print work. Throughout time, movements such as 1st and 2nd wave feminism protested for men and women to be treated as rational beings and women have the rights to social and political rights. Sexism and misogyny are continuous stigmas between women and men. However, the Women’s Liberation Movement introduced the process of “consciousness raising” in which they highlighted and opposed the systematic ways in which boys and girls are brought up with the assumption that the male is always superior to the female. By raising movements such as these, groups such as the Suffragettes announced their beliefs on equality and succeeded in raising awareness as feminist critical thinking became much more prominent and pronounced during the counter cultural movements of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Laura Mulvey’s work on ‘the male gaze’ in cinema and TV contributes to my work as photographers such as Helmut Newton, focus on this target audience of a ‘straight white man’ in order to increase sales and engagement. The concept of “scopophilia” and “narcissism” perfectly portrays Newton’s work and its purpose, which is to give a patriarchal audience the opportunity to view images disguised as fashion promotion in a normalised voyeuristic manner. The quote ‘Cinematic codes create a gaze, a world, and an object, thereby producing an illusion cut to the measure of desire.’² applies to my view as I believe that small elements such as lighting, angles and editing all contribute to an audience’s perception of this particular repeated narrative of voyeurism and female objectification to satisfy the heterosexual male viewers. By researching such a popular and oppositional photographer I have been able to gain awareness on both viewpoints and how they have both faulted, excelled and how their rise to fame has altered the opinions and stereotypes that still maintain to this day.    

HELMUT NEWTON.

Helmut Newton was a photographer who was deeply significant amongst the fashion industry and its photography throughout the 1970s/80s. I think that his work is the perfect comparison for the world of fashion and modelling that I would like to similarly replicate and explore in my work. This is because I have a particular interest in the black and white style, elegant and high fashion black and white images that he created throughout his prime, and the definitive style and aesthetic that is displayed throughout each one of his images. The sophisticated and graceful style with high-fashion styling, empowered presence and timeless beauty reels in the viewer to never forget an era of high heels, flowing gowns and chic modern, complex elegance. As Helmut Newton was a very powerful and significant individual in the fashion industry, I feel he is an imperative element I must include in my work as a tool to examine the topic of representation of women in the media industries. The idea of how his beautiful yet underneath explicit content and objectification creates more of an impact than what meets the eye, was a key element of his work that I feel displays how media products are disguised as a confident and powerful female perspective yet reinforce women as an object of desire. Something that makes me fascinated with his work is the fact that Newton’s distinct style often featured strong, dominant women in exaggerated, sculptured poses and striking settings. His images were characterized by a high contrast, stark lighting, and a sense of voyeurism.   

The lighting in this photo is a black and white dark toned image which has a high contrast which creates a striking atmosphere. The shadows are harsh and strong with the highlights being white and brighter. This creates a high contrast and bold impression. In this photograph the two women are highlighted as the focal point in the image due to the sharp shadows and dark dresses which have a strong and powerful style to them. This image includes a sense of symmetry and geometric framing. This is due to the way the two women are stood in a specific place which is known as deliberate positioning. This creates an easy way for the audience to immediately look at the subjects instead of the background. Shadows also accompany the focal point of the women by emphasising their bodies and in this image, possibly promoting the outfits the women are wearing. The female form is a main part of Newton’s work, and it is displayed in this image as there is emphasis on the shape of these women’s bodies and they display an idealistic and stereotypical body to please the male audience. The lighting of this images highlights the bodies of the women and their sculptural beauty. I like how cinematic thus image is as it looks like a quick shot taken out of a movie, as the women are mid motion, this creates a cinematic and narrative impression. The main contextual element to Helmut Newton’s work is exploring gender roles and sexuality. Helmut’s work has been previously critiqued for objectifying women, however, in my chosen image, I believe the women are shown as being dominant and in control. I like how his work challenges social norms and how he sees his photography as an opportunity to push himself to the extremes in order to convey his message. During the time this image was made, political and social issues were being faced globally. Women were fighting back for rights and equality and feminists were also challenging the patriarchal gaze. In this image, I believe the two women are challenging the idea that women should only be seen as passive objects of male desire. As Helmut Newton is also a fashion photographer, people, predominantly women, were used to promote outfits by creating a specific mood and impression though a story by the model and location. In this image, the women are in high- quality, high-fashion outfits, whilst portraying their strength and confidence through art. In Helmut Newton’s work, he focuses on the exploration of power, and gender, however, this message is executed in multiple ways that differ him from other fashion photographers. Helmut Newton orientated much of his work around nudity of women. This was to challenge traditional women forms and exploration of desire, dominance, and control. In this image, the concept and meaning behind it, explores ‘the perfect woman’ as both women are young, confident and beautiful and uses boldness to highlight their power over a traditional angelic woman. This image is an example of Helmut Newton, “pushing boundaries” and makes the viewer question whether the women are being celebrated or objectified. Helmut Newton’s work also complicates the male gaze as the women are not submissive and vulnerable, but powerful and in control, which contrasts the traditional male gaze, as the woman are aware and complying with it. This has sparked debates about whether Newton’s photography reinforces the male gaze or offers a more nuanced representation of female sexuality. 

JOHN BERGER

John Berger’s contributes to Laura Mulvey’s idea of the male gaze and believes that, ‘men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves.’ ³this quote relates to my work as it explores how women are automatically deemed to cater to a male audience and do not view themselves through their own eyes, but instead through the eyes of men. This concept displays how gender roles continue in modern advertising today and mirrors how women must incorporate how a man is going to view her in day-to-day life, instead of focusing on a style or image she would prefer to have of herself. Berger also introduced the concept of the “surveyor” and the “surveyed” which simplifies the different viewpoints a woman has of herself. The woman becomes the surveyor, somebody who watches herself as an object, and she will also become the surveyed, who is being looked at. This split displays the “normality” of women being objects of vision and a form of “self-surveillance” is enforced to constantly monitor the different ways they may be perceived. His exploration on female nudes and how they are positioned to be admired, highlights how they are often gazing outward as if inviting the viewer’s attention, instead of focusing on their own self-love and value and not seeking validation from others. John Berger ties into my project, and my exploration on Laura Mulvey, but slightly differs with his views as he explores more critiques of the male gaze in historical art and advertising, whereas, Laura Mulvey examines the concept in the context of film and psychoanalysis. This means that, their main concepts of the “surveyed” and the “male gaze” relate to one another but their main arguments of women are conditioned to view themselves through a male perspective, and Hollywood films reinforce patriarchal power through visual pleasure, both investigate female gender roles in society and therefore, relate to my project of female gender stereotypes and representation.

CINDY SHERMAN

Cindy Sherman is an independent photographer who took photographs predominantly in the 1970’s. Something I find particularly admiring, is how she took her camera and pointed it at herself, instead of photographing someone else. I find this very unique and actually brings more meaning and creativity to the photos she created. This gesture then became her signature style and showed her strong views on gender and the construction of identity through key times when opinions and personalities were particularly changing in history. She also made many different characters that she would act as, in her images, in order to create a character in her photos by experimenting with makeup, hairstyles and costume to demonstrate these characters’ roles and status in life. The quote, ‘I feel I’m anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren’t self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear’⁴ supports this as Cindy Sherman explains how she is transported into another persona, when becoming a different character. I feel that the subject of femininity and women in today’s age as it is a subject that I, myself live through and endure, and I have chosen Cindy Sherman’s work to convey my message from a strong feminist perspective. Analysing Cindy Sherman has aided the idea of how women are portrayed in the media as she, herself has worked on how women can be interpreted in different ways and all the multiple narratives they can fit in advertisements. Cindy Sherman’s work which was her most famous, was her Untitled Film Stills which are small black and white photos where Cindy has impersonated different female characters through glamourous and meaningful images. Throughout these film stills, Cindy Sherman imitated different lifestyles and character stereotypes which shows how women and women’s bodies are perceived by the mass media and by the male gender. Whilst moving to New York, Cindy Sherman continued to role play in disguises and characters and photographed her imitations as the Untitled Film Stills. Although she took many of her own photographs, some photos were shot by family and friends. The voyeuristic perspective of Cindy’s work creates an imposing feeling on the viewer, as if you are secretly observing the character and she is always the subject of the controlling male gaze instead of the object of masculine desire.

The soft and naturalistic lighting in this photograph demonstrates that it is a photo from the past and is meant to display the time of the late 1970s. Which explains the low quality and slightly pixelated camera settings that are not very focused. I think that high contrast lighting, with a wide difference between highlights and shadows, brings a sense of intensity and depth to an image with dramatic qualities, which is what Cindy Sherman has done with a large amount of her work. The aperture is also slightly blurred and has a higher sensitivity ISO which causes a grainier image with a lighter grey monochrome tone rather than cool colours. This black and white tonal structure has a colder impression which displays a sense of loneliness and emptiness in the image. The use of shadow and light in the Untitled Film Stills heightens mood and tension, which isolates the subject within the frame. This dramatic lighting also helps to portray a specific genre of film such as drama, mystery or even horror. After establishing her outfit and role, the viewer is able to create an assumption on what the woman’s purpose is and it is then established that this is a small section of a much larger story. Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills includes contextual layers that address essential historical issues of gender, identity, and media representation. She created these photographs throughout 1977-80s; however, they are based on the 1950/60s. During this period of the 70s, second-wave feminism was arising, and women were beginning to challenge gender roles and opinions on women in media products were being raised as women began to question and challenge their portrayal and how they were being objectified and seen as an object to please the male gender. The “male gaze” refers to the way women are depicted in visual culture for males, Cindy Sherman chose to display her cultural and social concerns about the roles and representations of women in tv, cinema and media products. This work is technically ‘mocking’ the media as the series of images contains a female subject that is both the object and the creator of her image. The roles she portrays are characters which may demonstrate a victim, an innocent woman or a seductress. This creates a way for Cindy Sherman to control the portrayal of female objectification as the turning the camera on herself to expose the true meaning behind these roles. In this image her portrayal of a working-class woman can be seen by her outfit and demonstrates the period this photo is alluding to and women’s’ role during this time. This photo explores the male gaze. As number 80 film stills, became iconic. Chose herself for the model. Washerwoman maid in a feminist move way to redirect the male gaze to show she was in charge. Her angry expression by looking over her shoulder at us to show she is done and wants to find an escape from her current position as a housewife or domestic worker and move onto bigger dreams. She is standing slightly hunched and is wearing an apron and a blouse which shows the viewer that she is lower class and is ‘insignificant’. She is mid-movement and has a slightly distracted expression on her face whilst not making direct eye-contact with the camera which demonstrates her vulnerability and distraction. The message from Cindy Sherman portrays the reality of a “happy housewife” who is safe and content at home when in reality, they are lonely and struggling mentally. The lack of context for this image causes the reader to assume and create their own interpretations on the photo. The vulnerability, beauty and individuality of the character makes the audience feel a sense of guilt for the woman and feel a sense of reflection and remorse for women during this period. 

CONCLUSION 

This photograph is an example of my work in response to Helmut Newton and the topic of female stereotypes from the viewpoint of a successful fashion photographer. I wanted the feeling of confidence and authority to radiate in my work as Helmut Newton’s wok gives off a feeling of power and control. The soft and naturalistic lighting in this photograph demonstrates that it is meant to be an image that has not been taken in the modern day. This image also relates to Helmut Newton’s work as it demonstrates high contrast images with bold lighting, which is a particular style of contrast that Helmut specialises in. I feel this lighting incorporated with a black and white filter has heightened the quality and the sense of mystery and allure to my work which helps to relate to Helmut Newton’s. I also believe that these images revolve round a strong and powerful feminine energy of strength, which elevates the clothing promoted in a magazine as an audience will feel encouraged to purchase the clothing through the display of self-assured and confident models. An impression of elegance, aggression, sass and glamour is a message I was attempting to share in my photoshoot as it opposes traditional depictions of female models in the fashion photography industry. I also wanted my model’s hair, makeup, accessories and outfits to be high fashion, quality and portray an expensive aesthetic. This is to give the impression that these are top fashion designer clothing which would be displayed in magazines such as Vogue, a magazine that Helmut Newton has worked closely with throughout his years.

This image is a photograph inspired by Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills, I particularly chose to focus on elevated glamour and more extravagant clothing to relate to her work on different characters of social classes in her images. I feel that this style differs from Helmut Newton’s as it shows a more stereotypical viewpoint of women and although it still incorporates the idea of glamour and luxury, the image is displaying more of a storyline about the women, instead of the clothing she is wearing. Whilst analysing her work I noticed that many of her images contain a dramatized and over-the-top pose, so I decided to capture the dramatic aspect in my own photographs to accompany my models’ facial expressions to convey a message within each photograph. I feel like the costume really helped with showing the period which these were meant to be set in, and what type of lifestyle this woman in the image may live. I think this has worked well whilst maintaining my own style but taking inspiration and referring back to Cindy’s Untitled Film Stills poses, lighting and costume. I found that using Cindy’s work as inspiration and incorporating her style of lighting and framing has helped to make my photographs look more authentic and realistic as if they could be similar to her work on her Untitled Film Stills.

By researching two different theorists who have different, strong views on feminism and women through time, whilst also relating them to two different artists through time which oppose in views, I have gained the ability to highlight, similarities and differences in Helmut Newton’s fashion photography and Cindy Sherman’s self portraits. This knowledge has helped me to merge their work into my final photobook and display the different forms of feminism and how they are critiqued and celebrated. Although Helmut Newton can be seen to portray women occasionally in a morally wrong light, I have grown to view his work in a more positive light as he also focuses on women and how they can in, fact be strong and independent compared to an idealised view of being helpless and dependent on men. I would like to incorporate this specific positive side to my project because although a stigma of negativity towards women is continued in the modern day, positive changes are progressing for us as a collective. 

REFERENCES.

1. Sontag,S. (1977) ‘In Plato’s Cave’ in On Photography. London: Penguin Books.
   ↩︎
2. Mulvey, L. (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, Screen, 16(3), pp. 6–18. ↩︎
3. Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. London: BBC and Penguin, p. 47. ↩︎
4. Sherman, C. (1990) Interview with The New York Times. ↩︎

How can photography represent the realities or truth of war?

“Photography cannot change the world, but it can show the world, especially when it changes.”

– Marc Riboud

Within my study I will explore the lives of German soldiers stationed at La Corbiere. Using a combination of both tableaux and documentary approaches to photography, I will depict their lives as they lived them in their fortifications. For my inspiration, the artists I have chosen are Paul M. Smith, a UK artist behind the series ‘Artist Rifles’ (1995) and Michiel Peeters, a Belgian photographer who, through re-enacting archive images, creatively visualises and re-tells the lives of soldiers of the Second World War. Both artists share the theme of war, however through their depictions, varies greatly in the meanings and purpose behind them. As stated by Sontag in ‘Plato’s cave’ ‘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.’,¹ I find this applicable to both of my artists within their respective genres and interpretations of the theme of ‘war’. In my eyes, Smith’s work falls into the artisanal category, using himself as the subject behind photoshopped scenarios, which can be analysed to reflect his own experiences involving the military. Peeters’ work on the other hand, focuses more-so on the observational aspects of documentary photography, creating a tableaux to re-tell events surrounding areas of historical significance in Belgium and France. 

Through both interpretations of war, I find it interesting to see how both explore the subject, in either a personal or educational manner. For my project I would like to recreate some original images of the Germans soldiers’ stories I’m visualising. To do this, I will edit them to appear in a similar manner to the quality and feel of the vintage film aesthetic. In addition to this, I would also like to create that de-saturated grittiness of Peeters photographs, as I feel it creates a sense of realistic immersion. From correspondence with Peeters himself, he told me, ‘my inspiration comes more from movies and TV than other photographers, such as with Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, the Longest Day, and some others.’². To merge these two aesthetics – photography and cinema – I will include filler images that fade like a gradient between them. For some of these filler images I will include some landscape shots of Corbiere, this will show elements of formalism as unlike the images of myself they do no not intend to show any emotion or context, but rather just inform the setting in which the photos take place.

With the subject of war, being associated to the thoughts of death and violence, I find these artists in their respective ways, present the side of humanity which can be found in those who were involved; their stories and experiences. Applying similar photographic methods and techniques, I wish to combine the two, to present a personal interpretation and to educate people on the lives of some of those stationed within Jersey during the Second World War. With scars of the war still residing through concrete emplacements along our Islands coast, this also creates the personal factor of heritage and history, which I wish to remind and educate viewers about a pinnacle point in our local history. Through these artists, I find that they will inspire me to create an informative and unique take on documenting history that reflects both on their creative qualities of editing. Using photoshop skills I have picked up during my studies, I feel I have a good basis on how I can go about creating my project. 

During the period of the occupation, many soldiers on the island were found cut off from mainland Europe, with limited ways to communicate to their families. Soldiers like Engelbert Hoppe found it a hard time to be away for so long. Like the islanders, many soldiers also felt imprisoned. For this reason, I wish to capture these stories within my photographs. Through my study into photographic art movements and approaches to image-making, I find that tableaux is the most applicable to my work. The origin of tableaux in photography as an aesthetic style is rooted in pictorialism, which emerged in the late 19th century and was the first attempt to consider photography and artistic expression. Performed in plays, Tableaux vivant was an early form of its place within art. Performed in theatres, actors would form visualisations of the past such as live recreations of historic paintings through costumes. In its simplest form, Tableaux can be used to convey a pictorial narrative through staged images.

With my approach to interpreting the German soldiers stories (through a personal expression of my passion for history), I find that through tableaux, I wish to create a representation of the lives of the often-generalised enemy. With the German people forced to serve by their fascist government, the unlucky young population that did not conform was what made up some of the men from 2nd Company of MG Battalion 16. 

In Susan Sontag’s ‘Plato’s Cave’ she speaks of the use of photography in war, with its initial use to document progression of battles and victories it eventually became a source of capturing the visual horrors and atrocities of war. Sontag examples this through the controversial Vietnam War. Unlike prior conflicts, such as the Second World War when the United States were fighting for a “just cause of the free world”, the conflict in Vietnam was a proxy-war of political ideologies, ‘No one brought back photographs of daily life in Pyongyang, to show that the enemy had a human face’.³ Artists that did so include the likes of Nick Ut with famous image ‘The Napalm Girl’ and Eddie Adams who captured the horror committed by man with his image ‘Death captured on camera’.

‘The Napalm Girl’, Nick Ut, 1972.

‘Death captured on camera’, Eddie Adams, 1968.

These images are compelling for the time as they showed the public the reality of ‘the enemy’; innocent people who were caught up in a war of politics and were facing the brunt of it. With all this in mind I find that despite the fixed mindset of ‘good vs evil’ people associate to a war, there is a deeper personal factor which often goes unrecognised within these conflicts, that is the people caught between it all, forced into these situations against their will. This is why I feel as tableaux approach is applicable, focusing on the subject matter of the personal lives, I wish to construct a narrative that people can follow to visually understand that these soldiers had their own lives too, not just the face of a hateful and oppressive regime. To quote Susan Sontag, ‘to photograph is to participate in another person’s mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing, all photographs testify to times relentless melt.’⁴.

Paul M. Smith –

To depict the lives of the German Soldiers in a way that I found represented the realities or truth of war, I found that Paul M Smith’s work, aided me through his images. After serving as a regimental photographer in the royal engineers he displayed his own personal interpretation of his military experiences by creating images of himself cloned and dressed as soldiers being placed in scenarios, remnant of work such as Eddie Adams. Here I found inspiration into how he utilised photography to visualise the personal effects but also ubiquitous effects of wars reality. 

‘Artist Rifles’, Paul M Smith, 1997. + ‘Death captured on camera’, Eddie Adams, 1968.

In these depictions, Smith attempts the question, how can photography represent the realities or truth of war? Presenting his own military experiences in an interpretative tableaux, Smith’s work aims to ‘debate about the truthfulness of many battlefield photographs (such as) from the First and Second World War; some, which we now know were taken during training’⁵. Looking into this image in particular my work takes influence from the methods applied by Smith in his work. 

Paul M. smiths influence:

‘Artist Rifles’, 1997, Paul M Smith.

My example – ‘Combat Exercise’.

Within ‘Artist Rifles’, Smith refers ‘to the nature of war photography and its sometimes-dubious status in another battlefield, the Media’.⁶ With many famous images surrounding World War Two such as ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’ being misinterpreted or used as propaganda to display the victory of a battle, the reality of photographs circumstances can differ largely. With this picture for example, the flags raising was only within the first week of a thirty-six-day struggle to control the Island. With Nazi-Germany being a significant user of such intended misinterpretations, many of their images were staged to convey victory, this was the case with Jersey which they saw as the stepping stone to England. From this, Smith’s work challenges the concept of how photography depicts the reality and truth of wars through a modern tableaux with a genuine but also interpreted lens. Smith brings to light the issue of media and its ability to change the past through their own interpretations of photographs and how realities of wars can only be true for those who have experienced it or have been closely associated to it such as himself. This therefore explains why he focuses on himself as the subject to create this visual metaphor for his audience to understand.  

‘Raising the flag on Iwo Jima’, 1945, Joe Rosenthal.

With Smith’s work displaying a fabricated aesthetic of war, he created it through the method of using props such as weapons and various poses between his clones, to form the immersive environment you expect to see in images of conflict. In addition to this, the use of double staging adds to the immersion as his images themselves are of staged military training to simulate real-life warfare tactics. Smith pays homage to the type of imagery associated to warfare provided from many eras of war photography such as the ‘Robert Capa photography taken during the Spanish civil war’ ‘alluded to in Artist Rifles’⁷. From these historical references I used my research into the Germans of Corbiere, who themselves held training drills like this, to link to his methods of image constructing to make an indexical reference in my own work and construct the same aesthetic that his images have in conveying photography’s more fictitious side to war.

Reference Image – Germans of MG Battalion 16, 2nd Company on training.

Michiel Peeters –

In Michiel Peeters work, he makes use of genuine locations of historical significance for his visualisations of the Second World War. Using re-enactors dressed in accurate uniforms, portraying the actual groups which fought there, I found that this was applicable to my project to demonstrate our Islands local history, but also to provide an answer to the question, ‘How can photography represent the realities or truth of war?’. Focused on telling the stories of the individuals that were present in these places, Peeters makes extensive efforts for accuracy in things such as uniform details, vehicles and weather. From all of this, Peeters brings out an immersive aesthetic, reminiscent of the observational documentation present in photographs from that time, yet with an advantage of modern technology such as with camera quality and access to editing software. 

Speaking to Peeters online, he told me that ‘the only correct way to capture the re-enactors is when you are next to them in the mud, snow, foxhole, tank, etc.’ ‘The only photographer I relate to from WW2 is Robert Capa with his famous quote ‘if your pictures are not good enough, you are not close enough!’.⁸ With Documentative photography having its roots in the illustrated photo magazines, popular from around the 1920s to 1940s, notable names included LIFE magazine which Robert Capa worked for during the war. Pictures featured in the magazines came from these correspondents being attached to the army as they fought through the war, their observational style reflective of the way Peeters conveys his images. 

‘Faces of War!’, 2024, Michiel Peeters. + ‘LIFE, In Normandy.’, 1944, Bob Landry.

Although differing in terms of motivations and mise-en-scene to my other artist, Paul M Smith, Peeters also makes use of tableaux photography. Used in a documentative sense, his photography is used to represent the reality of war through recreating the people present as accurately as possible. Taking from historical resources such as archive photographs, this aids his image making progress to ensure as much detail is included. This echoes from tableaux’s initial use such as in theatres where it was used to create a ‘living picture’. ⁹ In the same way Peeters does the same to educate and entertain through his photography. For this reason, I find that Peeters presents photography as a tool to inform and educate the realities and truths of war, through a tableaux, dedicated to historical accuracy to provide immersion into this real event. With the choice to present them in a modern context, this adds to the immersion of portraying wars reality as it creates something we can see. As Sontag states, ‘photography makes us feel that world is more available than it really is’. ¹⁰

‘Windhund, 116th Panzer division’, 2024, Michiel Peeters.

My example – ‘Achtung’.

For my project, I wish to combine the advantage of modern editing software to produce my images in the same way as Peeters with its lower saturation, tone and other adjustments to create that gritty realism his images represents. Replicating his image making process of being imbedded into the lives of the people he visualises; I copied this through close-up shots of me to make my uniform and appearance the focus. For my project I want to also create images with the same vintage aesthetic of originally taken images. Taking from Paul M. Smith’s inspired images, I can then apply the aesthetic of Peeters style of editing them to create a merger of the two.  

Reference Image – Early war photo of MG Battalion 16, 2nd Company, gun crew. + My Example, ‘Gun crew’.

In my study, I took the key points of my artist studies to influences and create an understanding of how photography can be used to represent the realities or truth of war. Despite wars various depictions, my artists; Paul M. Smith and Michiel Peeters, have taught me that the concept of war can be captured through photography in various ways, yet still portray the same meaning and sentiments. Where these artists can be seen to differ however is through their own interpretation of the subject. Paul M. Smith uses photography to retell his own perspective on war and through himself being the subject. He makes the point that the true reality of war is only experienced by those present within it and how media’s representation can often shift this fact through its own interpretations of it. In contrast to this, Michiel Peeters uses photography to educate on the history of war, and particularly those who had to go fight them. 

Despite their different approaches, both contain the key point of bringing the reality of war to light, whether it be artistically like Smith or directly, in a documentary fashion such as Peeters. Furthermore, both artists make use of staged images within their photography to depict war and retell experiences of it. With photography being the largest source to provide visuals of war, it is understandable that the only way to recreate that is through tableaux’s depiction. As Susan Sontag states ‘photography has become one of the principal devices for experiencing something, for giving an appearance of participation’. ¹¹

From what I have learnt from studying my artists, I have taken influence from Smith’s cloned use of himself as the subject to depict the personal lives of the many German soldiers of Jerseys occupation. My inspiration from Peeters came from the focus on historical accuracy in the right clothing, props and through details such as location where I photographed within the actual bunkers that the men of MG battalion 16, 2nd Company, served in. Furthermore, the focus on the Second World War was also a large influence from Peeters also. Taking from Smith’s use of photoshop, and Peeters edit style I combined these technical elements to create my final outcomes. With my focus documenting the lives of these soldiers, I used archive images to base my emotive language mainly in my face across some of the photographs, from these images I also tried to recreate them to the best of my ability. Through my work, I feel I have replicated the similar sentiments behind each of my artists work, and through a personal factor of my island’s history, I committed to informing about the lives of those stationed here and the often-ignored truth of wars reality for them. 

Word count (without including quotations): 2444

Bibliography:

1. S. Sontag – ‘Plato’s cave’ (1977) page 4 ↩︎
2. Michiel Peeters (2024)- Direct quote from answer to my questions I sent him. ↩︎
3. S. Sontag – ‘Plato’s cave’ (1977) page 18 ↩︎
4. S. Sontag – ‘Plato’s cave’ 1977) page 15 ↩︎
5. ‘Goliath’ – Paul M Smith (1977) (2004) – Introduction ‘ Stories of a young man’ by Paul Wombell ↩︎
6. ‘Goliath’ – Paul M Smith (2004) – Introduction ‘ Stories of a young man’ by Paul Wombell  ↩︎
7. ‘Goliath’ – Paul M Smith (2004) – Introduction ‘ Stories of a young man’ by Paul Wombell  ↩︎
8. Michiel Peeters (2024) – Direct quotes from answers to my questions I sent him. + Robert Capa quote ↩︎
9. A short PPT on Documentary Photography ↩︎
10. S. Sontag – ‘Plato’s cave’ (1977) Page 24 ↩︎
11. S.Sontag – ‘Plato’s cave’ (1977) page 10 ↩︎

Inspiration

For my photoshoot I will be taking inspiration from Wolfgang Tillmans and Vinca Petersen. I want to create a photo book where there is a mixture of club and party images with some images of me and my friends hanging out. I have taken Wolfgang Tillmans nightclub photos and inspiration from Vinca Petersen’s ‘No system’ book where she takes pictures of her friends hanging out and relaxing before going on another night out.

My aims

My aim is to create a book where it shows the youth and fun within clubs and nightlife where there is also looks of regret throughout the book. The first filler image I want to use will be one of us hanging out a car window, this is to symbolise the fun at the start of the partying. After the first fun filler image I want the rest of the filler images to be used to symbolise the regret and unpleasant experience after the night out. Then finally the last image to be my friend hungover. This is because I want to show the cycle of going out every weekend and the result after it happened showing it to be fun at first but then eventually gets tiring and repetitive. I also aim to show the different type of people that I go out with and all my friends in one book. showing the different personalities and identities in the people throughout the book

Photoshoots

I will be taking 1 actual photoshoot of set up images where I will get my friends to be acting drunk and then hungover. We will also be getting a photoshoot of us in a car hanging out the windows and having fun and laughing, which will be filler images. I will then be taking photo of different nights in town or parties then present them in a photobook, I want the first image to start off with us out at a party or in town and then the final image to be one of my friend being hungover in the morning after all the partying throughout the photobook.

UNDERSTANDING PHOTOBOOKS:
NARRATIVE, EDITING, SEQUENCING, DESIGN, FORM, FUNCTION 

1. Research a photo-book and describe the story it is communicating  with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.

2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)

3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design of the book and apply theory above when considering:

• Book in hand: how does it feel? Smell, sniff the paper.
• Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.
• Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.
• Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello
• Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping.
• Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing.
• Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
• Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative.
• Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.
• Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.
• Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others.  Use of captions (if any.)

Vivian Maier: Street Photography

This photobook is not very colourful but still has a way of standing out, the front cover is a picture of Vivian Maier herself, in a black and white effect, her photograph exhibit a rich tonal range and a strong sense of contrast. This monochromatic approach lends a timeless quality to her photographs, allowing the viewer to focus on the subject matter and composition. Maier’s aim was to take pictures to show that the world keeps spinning no matter what happens, its a moment in time.  “She had a tentacular way of embracing the world, picking up little narratives she found just in the street or wherever—little things.” she liked making small things into something important, as all her photographs have a strong meaning to them.

This book has a dust jacket, with all the details attached. The actual book itself has a grey hard cover and is quite plain, the dusk jacket provides the information needed for the viewers, with the author, the book name and what the book is about, this would also be called an image wrap due to the image of Vivian taking up the whole page. The format of this is book shows an A3 portrait book with the length of 10.125 x 11.25 inches, 136 pages included, the title is relevant to the book but it is quite basic but literal, its an open title, stays original. The book was published on November 16, 2011. The editing of this photobook was very put together, they made sure to put photos that link together to make the book more powerful. for example, they had put an photograph of a man on a horse walking through New York next to a man wearing a cowboy costume, they link and make the book relevant. The photograph are also put on with a white border leaving space around the photograph.

The Book does have an introduction written by John Maloof who had found Maier’s photos, he describes how he had stumbled onto Maier’s work and what they had done to him. He also implied how Maier’s photos had a sense of hunger. They showed how curious Vivian was and exactly what she had found. He states how grateful he is to have an opportunity to find these photographs and is happy to share them to the world he describes it as “a simultaneously a very humbling and extremely surreal experience”. Geoff Dyer, also created a piece of writing based on Maier stating that Maier represents an extreme instance of posthumous discovery. At the end of the book there is a page dedicated to acknowledgments thanking the many other people who helped with the findings and history of Vivian Maier, with the last pictures being pictures Vivian taken by herself through the use of a Mirror or a window. Vivian would tend to find multiple mirrors around her and wouldn’t hesitate to snap an image of herself, this becomes very useful for John Maloof to get an idea on who Vivian Maier really was. Most of the paper was white but at the end of the book the paper become black, attached with the photograph of Maier. This could be a sign of dedication towards Vivian and all her work and how it has changed street photography and how people have a different perspective of the world.

Vivian Maier’s, street photography photobook, edited by John Maloof, in 2007 Maloof discovered Maier’s negatives, Maier was deeply interested in the world around her. She started photography in 1950s until the late 1990s where she started to photograph everything around her, she took over 100,000 photographs worldwide— from France to New York City to Chicago and dozens of other countries, she didn’t seem to get rid of any of her photographs either almost as it was a sign of the past, the past that you cant get back. It was said that Maier had lost her possession of her art when her storage locker was sold off for non-payment. she had later passed away in 2009 at the age of 83. One quote that Maier used that influenced many people including Maloof was ” we have to make room for other people. it’s a wheel- you get on, you go to the end, and someone else has the same opportunity to go to the end, and so on, and somebody else takes their place. There’s nothing new under the sun.” it’s representation of life and death, everyone should get the same opportunities

MORE ABOUT VIVIAN MAIER:

Vivian Maier was seen as a person who fit the stereotypical European sensibilities of an independent liberated woman, accent and all, yet born in New York City. she was seen as very  guarded and private and didn’t seem to share anything with the world, Vivian would go to amass a group of storage lockers stuffed to the brim with found items, art books, newspaper clippings, home films, as well as political tchotchkes and knick-knacks. Vivian was firstly known as a nanny, by only a certain amount of people then become recognised thanks to he incidentally recorded marvels and peculiarities of Urban America in the second half of the twentieth century. Her images become very famous due to the unknown and sense of mystery that was added, every person she photographed was natural and didn’t react to her photographing them, mostly as her images were candid and she was hidden from the world.  Vivian bounced between Europe and the United States before coming back to New York City in 1951. By 1956 Vivian left the East Coast for Chicago, where she’d spend most of the rest of her life working as a caregiver. Vivian had unfortunately became poor and was saved by three of the children she had nannied earlier on in her life. They had remembered Maier as a second mother, they had assembled together to pay for an apartment and took the best of care for her. However, one of Vivian’s storage lockers was auctioned off due to the delay of payments. In those storage lockers lay the massive hoard of negatives Maier secretly stashed throughout her lifetime. Later on in 2007, John Maloof had discovered most of Maier’s negatives and had later published her photos for the world to see. Now, with roughly 90% of her archive reconstructed, Vivian’s work is part of a renaissance in interest in the art of Street Photography.