In what way does Sian Davey and Nick Haymes explore teenage stereotypes through their work?

Introduction

I am studying teenage stereotypes. I chose to study this topic as challenging teenage stereotypes is crucial because it promotes individuality, reduces harmful stigmatisation, and encourages positive personal development. When these stereotypes are challenged, teenagers are given the freedom to express themselves without being confined by unrealistic expectations, allowing them to explore their identities without judgement. These stereotypes often portray teens as rebellious, lazy, or overly dramatic. This can negatively affect their self-esteem and mental health if overthought. By invalidating such concepts, society fosters an environment that recognizes the strengths and abilities of young people, encouraging them to develop responsibly and confidently. Additionally, challenging stereotypes helps build more respectful relationships between generations, as adults are encouraged to see teenagers as complex, capable individuals. It also promotes inclusivity by acknowledging the diversity of teen experiences, which may vary based on culture, background, and socio-economic status, and ensures that all teens are given equal opportunities to succeed.

To support my findings in this topic, I researched and looked in to the artists Nick Haymes and Sian Davey. Nick Haymes is a visual artist and photographer born in Stratford Upon Avon (UK), living and working in Los Angeles. Haymes studied fine art, but dropped out in his second year. When using a fake ID under a friend’s name, he in due course studied photography at SVA and ICP. In 2010 Haymes started Little Big Man books and gallery. Davey is a photographer with a background in fine art and social policy, who worked for fifteen years as a humanist Buddhist psychotherapist. She was born in Brighton, United Kingdom, 1964. She is based in Devon, United Kingdom. I will be responding to their work through a photobook. Ill use these artists as references; explore and recreate their ideas and themes/photos in my own way. Ill use them as inspiration, look at their photos and find relationships between teenage stereotypes and their work.

These artists use photography to explore identity, emotion, and the lives of teenagers, challenging stereotypical representations often found in media and culture. Her work draws on themes of emotional depth and personal growth, moving beyond the typical portrayal of teenagers as rebellious or superficial. Sian Davey’s intimate, quiet portraits emphasise vulnerability and the complexity of teenage identity. This approach can be seen as a response to movements in art like Feminism and Humanism which have encouraged a more significant view of personal and social identity, rejecting oversimplified views of gender, age, and social roles. Davey’s work challenges the stereotypical portrayal of teens in crisis or excess, instead focusing on their inner worlds and the subtleties of growing up, reflecting a postmodern understanding of identity that rejects ‘one-size-fits-all’ narratives.

Paragraph 1

Bibliography

teenlife.ngohttps://teenlife.ngo › challenging-teenage-stereotypes

https://www.shashasha.co/en/book/the-last-survivor-is-the-first-suspect

https://photoworks.org.uk/ideas-series-interview-sian-davey

Literary sources: Go to this blog post here: Theory: Literary Sources and copy relevant key texts relating to the subject of your essay and list in alphabetical order in your bibliography. In addition, find your own key texts in relation to artists selected for in-depth analysis in your essay and list these too. These texts could be interviews with the artist, or reviews/ critique’s written by others. See useful online sites/ sources here .

• Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
• Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
• It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
• Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages, page number to be used for in-text referencing etc.

• Essay Question
• Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
• Below is a list of possible essay questions that may help you to formulate your own.

possible-essay-questions-to-investigate

Some examples of Personal Study essays from previous students:

Essay Plan
Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure

• Essay question:
• Opening quote
• Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
• Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. 
• Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
• Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
• Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
• Bibliography: List all relevant sources used

Essay writing: Here is a link to another blog post which will provide you with guideline about how to structure each paragraph in your essay.

ESSAY WRITING

Bibliography

Rosler, Martha (1981) ‘In, around, and afterthoughts (on documentary photography)’ in Stallabras Julian (2013) Documentary. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.

Wells L. (1998). ‘Thinking about Photography’ in Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.

Wells L. (1998). ‘The Photograph as Document’ in Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.

Possible essay questions

How is the work of Sian Davey and Nick Haymes questioning the stereotypes of teenage lifestyles?

In what way does Sian Davey and Nick Haymes explore teenage stereotypes through their work?

Compare how Sian Davey and Nick Haymes challenge teenage stereotypes in their work?

Structure of my essay

*chosen photo* Title – Captured & Misunderstood.

In what way does Sian Davey and Nick Haymes explore teenage stereotypes through their work?

Paragraph 1 – What does your area study? Teenage stereotypes Which artists will you be analysing and why? Nick Haymes and Sian Davey How will you be responding to their work and essay question? Explore and recreate their ideas and themes/photos in my own way. Use them as inspiration. Look at their photos and find relationships between teenage stereotypes and their work.

Paragraph 2 – Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. looking at how past events, movements, and theories in art and culture have influenced the way people create and view images. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian. teenagers have often been represented through certain stereotypes, like being rebellious, carefree, or obsessed with fashion and social status. These stereotypes are influenced by historical events (like cultural shifts in the ’50s or ’80s) and societal changes (such as the rise of youth culture or the influence of pop culture icons).

Paragraph 3 – Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses. Sian Davey

Paragraph 4 –  Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses. Nick Haymes

Paragraph 5 – Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced

Bibliography

Reasoning

My objective was to take images of women of culture working, or women working to portray the growth women fought for, for equal legalisation, pay and educational rights. Showing this, will also suggest racial growth. I aim to execute this photoshoot naturally in Barbados, and successfully show the culture of the working class locals.

This photoshoot differs to my other photoshoots as my 1st and 2nd wave photoshoot was carefully thought out, planned, used props and was staged. This linked more to Cindy Sherman as she liked staging photoshoots meanwhile making it look natural. This contrasts significantly to this photoshoot as this one relates more to the ‘ decisive moment’ as it is natural and real. I hope that my editing skills can attempt to make it look more vintage as this is suppose to aim around the 1990’s.

STAGES-

Firstly, I began to pick out the images I preferred the most by either flagging or accepting them to make it more efficient when it comes to editing the images I like. The main factors I took into account when viewing and choosing these images was very much lighting, as it was outdoors and difficult to find the correct exposure and where to stand, how realistic and natural the subject looked as she was aware I was taking these images which brings the subject to behave or change her mannerisms. Finally, I kept an eye out for background factors such as people or unwanted drinks which I definitely took into consideration. If this was the case, I could attempt to erase them in Lightroom. Not only this, I could crop my images to make sure every background or foreground element that is wanted and significant is in the frame and vice versa.

Editing

Overall

Some reasons why I like this photoshoot is because it involves racial features and growth, not only gender. I chose to do this photoshoot to emphasize successfully the rights women fought for, especially how black women struggled to gain the same legal rights. In this photoshoot, it represents culture and reveals women working as bartenders. Women working whilst gaining the same pay and recognition truly inspires me. However, I soon realised that it differs from the pattern of the rest of my photoshoot, such as posed and staged photos. Therefore, I learnt that I would like to take a different approach for my third photoshoot showing domestic abuse instead. I chose this theme as it was a major factor in the third wave feminist movement. Instead, I will take photos of my subject with bruises, linking more to Nan Goldin’s work as she experienced similar situations. I believe this will flow more seamlessly in my photobook as it will obtain throughout the same sort of images such as staging, posing etc. Not only this, they will obtain the same person which I believe will show more of a significant growth. However, I do not believe these photoshoots were a waste of time, as they show the theme of racial equality and I learnt more about lightings etc.

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

‘The Americans’ – Robert Frank, Published 1958.

‘The Americans’ by Robert Frank captures his Journey across 48 states of America, photographing the natural sights around the country. Through the candid approach it communicates the “everything-ness and American-ness of these pictures” ( To quote the book). Reminiscent to Henri Cartier-Breton’s ‘Europeans’, it captures street photography of the everyday lives and experiences of those of at the time. Making use of a variety of shot types, the core 3 that are present consist of close-up, mid-shots and long-shots. Like its subjects, Franks’ images consist of many types of light. Natural and unnatural, are used heavily to bring out detail and character to his images, such as with dark shadows of the day forming a stark contrast, or the warm glow of lights bringing attention to his surroundings and subjects of the photograph.

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.)

Robert Frank, 1924 – 2019.

“I was very free with the camera. I didn’t think of what would be the correct thing to do; I did what I felt good doing.” – Robert Frank

Robert Franks ‘The Americans’ explores the faces of many personalities across the United States. Travelling from state to state, the written intro from Jack Kerouac narrates his journey, bringing to life the images we later see. With many takes on the reasoning behind his journey of faces, the most popular intention behind Franks work was that he wished to photograph the America, far away from the idealised view of the American dream and instead capture the quiet America, those not given a voice or those that didn’t live in line with the vision of the ‘American way of Life’. In the theory of Frederik Trovatten, Frank within his work wanted to: Embrace imperfection, prioritise emotion over aesthetics, see a story in every frame, develop his own vision and be an observer to the world, not a performer.

In the words of the Museum of Modern Art “In a country that was not his own, Frank assumed the unique position of an outsider and voyeur who unobtrusively captured the tensions of the geographic, economic, racial, and religious diversity of the US.” “Frank captured the nation as a messy corpus, never privileging city or country, black or white, Jew or Christian, rich or poor.”.

Franks achievement through his work earned him a notable reputation in the world of photography, such as within John Szarkowski’s theory of ‘Mirrors’ and ‘Windows’. To quote Szarkowski, Robert Frank’s work “characterises opposite modes of the new photography, with its divergence between those who believe that art is a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, and those who see it as a window, through which one may better know the world.”.

Frank also notably gained awards such as the Guggenheim fellowship in 1955, the 1996 Hassebald foundation international award in photography, the 2002 Edward MacDowell medal and a doctorate in fine arts in 2015 from Nova Scotia college of Art and design University.

Sources:

Robert Frank: The Americans

https://trovatten.com/robert-frank

https://www.moma.org/artists/1973

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. – Smells like a new book, with waxy coated paper for the images.
• Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both. – Black and white text are used, on the same type of paper across the entire book.
• Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages. – The Book is small, with images in around an A5 format, the images are mainly landscape and positioned on the right hand side of the book, with the left, kept as an open space for the photograph title.
• Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello – The book is a hard cover, featuring a swiss binding and dust jacket.
• Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping. – The cover is a card like paper that features a printed image of one of his photographs on.
• Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing. The title, which is literal in its meaning combines with the printed image to intrigue the spectator to the contents of the book, and how the people are presented.
• Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told? – The story/subject matter is that of the American people, not any specific demographic but the mass diversity of races, ethnicity’s, religions, etc.
• Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative. – The repeating motif of a star spangled banner is featured commonly through the book, images are also not fixed within one location but jump from different locations ands environment’s displaying a vibrant change in scenery.
• Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts. – Images are featured on one page each, with white space to the left for the titles.
• Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process. Images juxtapose themselves throughout the book, clashing from rural to urban, night to day, not focusing on image style for too long.
• Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others.  Use of captions (if any.) – Images are linked through their study of the American people, this varies in the people you see and where you see them throughout the book, This is emphasised from the introduction by Jack Kerouac which narrates Franks adventure across the country to capture such.

UNDERSTANDING PHOTOBOOKS:

NARRATIVE, EDITING, SEQUENCING, DESIGN, FORM, FUNCTION.