Vanessa Winship
Vanessa Winship is a British photographer born in 1960 who works on long term projects of portrait, landscape, reportage and documentary photography. These personal projects have predominantly been in Eastern Europe but also the USA.
She uses black and white photographic film in natural light. For her work in a reportage or street style she has used a 35 mm hand-held camera, for her landscape work she has at times used a medium format camera and for her portraiture work she has at times used a 5×4-in large format camera. She says of the difference between using 35 mm and large format that “Each methodology makes for a different relationship with my subjects [and] both have their own beauty for me”.
In her series Sweet Nothings she has been taking photographs of schoolgirls from the borderlands of Eastern Anatolia. She continues to take all photographs in the same way; frontal and with enough distance to capture them from head to toe and still include the surroundings. Personally, I like her work because she is bringing political and realistic portraits to keep them natural. Environmental portraits are also to associate with the people being photographed and they tell a story of the people by using the background. This is a good way to make a photograph political which links to Vanessa’s work since she is a documentary photographer.
Winships work focuses on cultural diversity and lifestyle from using environmental portraits.
My emotional response to these portraits definitely varies depending on what aspect I focus on. Overall the photo reminds me the different cultural habit and lifestyles I forget exist in the world. In this album of images, she also uses young children from head to toe in the frame. She may be portraying the vulnerability and innocence of the children by showing them in as it looks school uniform and their height. She also uses a series of two children to portray connection and family. This makes her photos unique and reminds me that family is important and valued everywhere in the world.
These photos were taken in black and white possibly to make them look older and vintage which links to the theme nostalgia. As they are children as well this links to the theme as well. She uses natural lighting with a clear sense of shadowing. She may of used black and white to emphasize the depth of shadows. Especially in the middle one which seems to look like a school in the background which tells us they are educated.
As I can see, the two people are normally physically touching which gives off a sense of warmth and connection. However, this contrasts to the interaction they are giving with the camera as they are not really showing an emotion. They are numbly staring at the camera which doesn’t tell us a lot on how they are feeling. Overall the physical touch gives off a growing up in a family and caring lifestyle. However majority of her images are in black and white which ultimately make the images feel nostalgic which also links to the fact they are children, although it would be interesting to see the background, colours to be able to tell the weather and what time of day for the outside for pathetic fallacy. On another note, I like how the picture is a head to toe frame of the children and how there is more than one.