‘Nan one month after being battered’, Nan Goldin, 1984
Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin was born in Washington, D.C. on September 12, 1953, and is a photographer and activist. Goldin began photographing at the age of fifteen, and when she was nineteen she lived in downtown Boston, where she started documenting her life in the subcultural community she made home, ultimately solidifying her interest in photography. In 1978, she moved to New York, where she continued the documentation of people she spent time with, driven by her need to remember her ‘extended/chosen family’.
Goldin’s work documents her life and the lives of these people close to her in a tableaux, uncompromising manner, showcasing stories and intimate details of their lived experiences. Goldin explores the intimate emotions of the individual, in relationships, and in LGBTQ subcultures, where her beginning interest in photography was found in her loved ones who were drag queens, and she admired them for stepping outside of societal and gender norms. These photographs she took during this time and earlier were included in her first book which compromises fifteen years of work, ‘The Ballad of Sexual Dependency’. This book is a very personal depiction and documentation of her life from 1979 and 1986, and the photos hold a raw intensity which feels spontaneous. She stated about her way of capturing these moments; ‘I don’t select people in order to photograph them; I photograph directly from my life. These pictures come out of relationships, not observation.’ With her photographs, she is able to capture the world without glamorisation or glorification, and preserve the sense of peoples’ lives, to make those in the pictures stare back.
In the afterword from 2012 of this book, Goldin has expressed her view on this time of her life, describing it as distressing to look back on, and almost encapsulated with a sense of paranoia about people denying her experiences. ‘I was going to leave a record of my life and experience that no one could rewrite or deny.’ She then states that; ‘it became a more obsessive kind of documenting’. These photographs also act as a way to remember those who have passed since documenting these events. She closes this afterword with; ‘I look at Ballad and see the dynamics of both love and hate, tenderness and violence, as well as all kinds of ambivalence in relationships.’
‘Nan and Brian in bed’, Nan Goldin, 1983
In Nan Goldin’s work around this time, her photos were dominantly taken inside and by night, they embodied a sort of ‘snapshot aesthetic’, where the subject matter is often presented without an apparent link within the images and instead rely on the juxtapositions and disjunctions of the individual photos. Goldin stated; ‘That series is stark. It’s all flash-lit. I honestly didn’t know about natural light then and how it affected the colour of the skin because I never went out in daylight.’
Through capturing photos of familiar subjects in domestic or seemingly unknown, juxtaposing locations, the photographers Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Ed van der Elsken, Josh Kern, and Silken Weinberg could be exploring a deeper personal perception of the photographer’s self and the world around them. I am inspired by these photographers for my project because their photos appear to depict the world and their experiences in an uncompromising manner.
Cindy Sherman
Nan Goldin
Josh Kern
Ed van der Elsken
Silken Weinberg
Through capturing either a candid or staged photo of a familiar or unfamiliar subject(s), the photographers Daidō Moriyama, William Klein, Janette Beckman, Richard Bellia, and Henri Cartier-Bresson observe the people around them with their photography. The feel of impetuosity, or a ‘decisive moment’ within these photographs inspires me for my own photographs.
Daidō Moriyama
Janette Beckman
Henri Cartier-Bresson
William Klein
Richard Bellia
Photographers who connect the human form and nature through a series of juxtapositions, photos of a natural form, or an abandoned man-made building overtaken by nature are Eva Voutsaki, Carla Ellens, Robert Frank, Stig Marlon Weston, Diane Fenster, Jeff Cowen, María Tudela, and Alicja Brodowicz. Some of these photographers also adapt and change their photographs after it is taken using a variety of different medias, either applying a layer of paint or texture on top or writing over the photo, and also such as Josh Kern.
Eva Voutsaki
Robert Frank
Diane Fenster
María Tudela
Carla Ellens
Stig Marlon Weston
Jeff Cowen
Alicja Brodowicz
Caravaggio, Frans Hals, Rembrandt, and Édouard Manet are artists I have looked at for this project to inspire different compositions for my photos, and to further consider the depth and lighting of a photo in relation to how a painting/drawing of it would appear.
Caravaggio
Rembrandt
Frans Hals
Édouard Manet
Definitions
OBSERVE
To observe means: Watching, noticing something – exploring/observing
Read two texts above (John Szarkowski’s introduction and review by Jed Pearl) and select 3 quotes from each that is relevant to your essay.
Select two images, one that represent a mirror and another that represents a window as examples to use in your essay.
Use some of the key words that you listed above to describe what the mirrors and windows suggest.
Essay plan Introduction (250 words): Reflect on the origin of photography and describe in your own words the difference between the two photographic processes, Daguerreotype and Calotype. Consider how they could be viewed as either a mirror or a window of the world according to John Szarkowski’s thesis. Choose one quote from Szarkowski’s text and comment if you agree or disagree.
Essay draft
Mirrors and Windows, an exhibition of American photography since 1960, is John Szarkowski’s attempt to categorise the work of photographers which largely seek to explore outside of themselves. Whether an image is a mirror or a window is dependent on the photographer’s own sensibility, and whether or not it is a reflection of self.
Photography was said to be invented in 1839, that was the year that Louis Daguerre, a Frenchman, and Henry Fox Talbot, an Englishman, played an important role in announcing rival processes that would ‘fix the shadows’, to adopt a physical form to these images. The beginnings of photography were ultimately about the struggle to see which method would thrive. With how money and industry was a huge focus within the early beginning of photography, and had huge impact on what photography looks like at the present date, the method which photographs could be reproduced at a quick and commercial rate triumphed.
One of these processes innovated by Louis Daguerre, daguerreotypes, are photos which have a different kind of connection which is more intimate, as the process features no separation between the material the image is being shot with and the finished result. This is because the same plate within camera is the same plate which is eventually displayed as the photograph. Despite this method’s unbelievable range of values and detail, presenting the brightest whites and the deepest blacks, these photographs, if not gilded, could easily be wiped off with the slightest touch. Although a downside of this method was that only one image could be made from daguerreotypes, which was not ideal for the market photography was creating, which focused on money and industry.
The other process innovated by Henry Fox Talbot, calotypes, are photos much more reproduceable, ‘Talbot recognised that human communication was through paper’. Ultimately, Talbot’s method of making photographs dominated the Daguerreotype as multiple copies of the same captured image could be created, instead of one which could be lost quite easily, which was not in the market for photography at the time, as businesses wanted photographs for commercial use instead of sentimental purpose.
Paragraph 1 (250 words): Choose an image that in your view is a mirror and analyse how it is a subjective expression and staged approach to image-making. Choose one quote from Szarkowski’s thesis and another from Jed Pearl’s review which either supports of opposes Szarkowski’s original point of view. Make sure you comment to advance argumentation in providing a critical perspective.
Images that are mirrors in photography are a romantic expression and a personal reflection of the photographer’s sensibility, as they project themselves onto things and sights of this world. Cindy Sherman, a photographer who explores this intimate aspect of photography, explores a personal perception of self identity and behaviours within the world around her. The collection of photographs named ‘Untitled Film Stills’ which Cindy Sherman produced in the 1970s and 1980s seem to deliberately rely on caricatures of female subjects in movies, staging these photographs by taking on the role of the actress, instead of adopting a performative approach in the creation of her works. She stated, “Once I set up, the camera starts clicking, then I just start to move and watch how I move in the mirror. It’s not like I’m method acting or anything. I don’t feel that I am that person. I may be thinking about a certain story or situation, but I don’t become her. There’s this distance. The image in the mirror becomes her—the image the camera gets on the film. And the one thing I’ve always known is that the camera lies.” (C. Sherman, quoted in Ibid., p. 23).
Sherman delves deep into exploring an enhanced personal perspective of self identity and the world around her, aiming to address how she perceives the projective eye which invokes a violent penetrative gaze on women during the 1970s and 1980s for the viewer, rather than expressing her own identity. Her performative artistic production of what could be an untitled film still of a woman under the pressure to act for the male gaze in film and other types of media relates directly to the concept of a mirror photograph, reflecting Sherman’s own sensibility. The idea of Szarkowski’s mirrors and windows theory is a very binary stance on photography, and I believe Cindy Sherman’s photographs, whilst objectively being viewed as a mirror extend further than simply that, and are able to criticise a much deeper issue within the world of public media.
Paragraph 2 (250 words): Choose an image that in your view is a window and analyse how it is an objective expression rooted in the notion of realism. Choose one quote from Szarkowski’s thesis and another from Jed Pearl’s review and follow similar procedure as above ie. two opposing points of view and commentary to provide a critical perspective.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, On a train, Roumanie (1975)
Images that are windows in photography act as a window for the viewer to see something primarily factual and external to the photographer’s own sensibility, where the exterior world is explored in all its presence and reality. Henri Cartier-Bresson, a photographer who coined the term ‘decisive moment’, explores a factual and documentary-based way of photographs, and capture a moment in time which is usually not staged.
Conclusion (250 words): Refer back to the essay question and write a conclusion where you summarise Szarkowski’s theory and Pearl’s review of his thesis. Describe differences and similarities between the two images above and their opposing concepts of objectivity and subjectivity, realism and romanticism, factual and fiction, public and private.
So far, what I have learnt from the photoshoots I have done focusing on still life, landscape and portraiture is that I enjoy photographing people the most, or people in an environment.
My favourite photos so far are the ones I took in St. Malo, where I did candid photographs of people there, inspired by the French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who pioneered street photography and explored capturing a decisive moment in photographs. This photoshoot was interesting because I was able to capture moments between people, or just an impromptu moment in time, keeping in mind the essence a photo which was not staged can convey.
Another photoshoot I enjoyed is one which, in contrast to the St. Malo photoshoot, was staged and involved my mum in her barber shop, inspired by Cindy Sherman’s photographs.
diamond cameo
These are a few of the portrait photographs I took in a studio setting, which were also staged.
‘Photography turns the ordinary into the extraordinary.’
In this essay I will explore and describe the history of photography and how it came to be what it is today.
‘Photography always transforms what is describes, that’s the art of photography is to control that transformation’
Photography was said to be invented in 1859, that was the year that a Frenchman, Louis Daguerre and an Englishman, Henry Fox Talbot played an important role announce rival processes that would ‘fix the shadows’. The beginnings of photography was ultimately about the struggle to see which method would thrive. Money and industry was a huge focus within the early beginning of photography and had huge impact on what photography looks like at the present date.
In Meudon, a quiet Paris suburb, in 1928, – André Kertész in 1928 midpoint between midpoint of photography and digital age of came here and photographed the landscape, unremarkable
Camera Obscura
Nicephore Niepce
Louis Daguerre
1824
Louis Daguerre was an academically trained French painter and photographer, who is acknowledged for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. Daguerre is estimated to have began experimenting with photography in 1824, which is also the year which he began producing his diorama paintings, which are large scale paintings displayed in a dark room, which he sold seating to people, which earned himself the a entrepreneur. aced out when he presented his discovery to the world. very different to Talbots, fixed images on a mirrored metal plate instead of paper based and unlike negative positive o Talbots he produced one-off images. produces a unique physical experience upon witnessing his ‘mirror with a memory’ images.
not a conventional operating system the way a photograph is , light operates differently with daguerreotype silver grains of image sit up on the surface of the photograph instead of sinking into the surface like a paper image, light reflected back through an image, begins to approximate the actual moment within the picture was captured, the photos of the people are described as ‘not exactly alive, but on the edge of being present’.
January 1839 Discovered his own method of ‘fixing the shadows
Daguerreotype
The photos which are taken in a daguerreotype process have a different kind of connection which is more intimate, as the process features no separation between the material the image is being shot with and the finished result. This is because the same plate within camera is the same plate which is eventually displayed as the photograph.
Despite this method’s unbelievable range of values and detail, presenting the brightest whites and the deepest blacks, these photographs, if not gilded, could easily be wiped off with the slightest touch. Although only one image could be made from daguerreotypes, which was not ideal for the market photography was creating, which focused on money and industry.
Henry Fox Talbot
Henry Fox Talbot
Talbot experimented with paper coated in silver salts and shoebox-sized cameras nicknamed ‘mousetraps’
‘Talbot recognised that human communication was through paper’ Ultimately, Talbot’s method of making photographs dominated the Daguerreotype as multiple copies of the same captured image could be created, instead of one which could be lost quite easily.
Richard Maddox
George Eastman
Kodak (Brownie)
Film/Print Photography
Digital Photography
1928- thought to be invention of photography
‘photography is about what frame you put around an image ‘photography turns the ordinary into the extraordinary’ – in what way can the camera turn the ordinary turn into the extraordinary
Describe how an image is produced using camera obscura
1839 – photography thought to be invented – been around much longer
dark room, pictures are upside down/inverted, immersive – camera is dark box with hole that allows light to enter – completely natural, primitive
optical
camera obscura phenomenon happened before 1839, the image was fixed in 1839.
describe the two photographic processes that were invented in 1839 – similarities/differences?
Photography is associated with Romanticism
certain chemicals are light sensitive – allows camera obscura to happen
negatives in photographs – from negatives you can make as many positives as you want
Talbot used shoebox-sized cameras called ‘mousetraps’
method of fixing the shadow: on a mirrored metal – image sits on surface of metal
What are the differences between photographs that are Mirrors and Windows?
Mirrors and Windows, an exhibition of American photography since 1960, is John Szarkowski’s attempt to categorise the work of photographers which largely seek to explore outside of themselves. Whether an image is a mirror or a window is dependent on the photographer’s own sensibility, and whether or not it is a reflection of self.
“Is it a mirror, reflecting a portrait of the artist who made it, or a window, through which one might better know the world?” – John Szarkowski, 1978
Mirrors
Images that are mirrors in photography are a romantic expression and a personal reflection of the photographer’s sensibility, as it projects itself onto things and sights of this world. Mirrors explore a personal perception of the photographer’s self and the world around them.
Images that are windows in photography act as a window for the viewer to see something primarily factual and external to the photographer’s own sensibility, where the exterior world is explored in all its presence and reality. Windows are factual and documentary-based, and capture a moment in time which is usually not staged.
I believe that this photograph by Nan Goldin is a mirror image. Although the image appears to be staged, it could depict a moment which factually took place in their relationship, exploring the reality of the situation, making the photo a personal reflection of Goldin’s self.
What was the involvement of Jersey mariners in the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade?
Fishermen in the Channel Islands had set up profitable trade routes between Canada, Europe and America by the 1750s. They established bases on the Gaspé Coast where they could salt and prepare the cod-fish. It was during the 15th century that Jersey mariners reached Canada. Jersey fishermen were among the 10,000 European fisherman by the 1580s to make the transatlantic voyage to these areas every year to fish for cod.
Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?
There was an established trade route during the Roman period between Alet, in St Servan, and Hengistbury Head in Dorset.
Although these boats certainly called in to Jersey as well, Guernsey was the favoured stop off point, because of St Peter Port’s natural deep water. Furthermore, the Roman cargo boat which was raised from this harbour at St Peter provides information on the type of boat which would have travelled on this route.
What type of goods did Jersey merchants exchange for cod-fish?
Jersey cod merchants exchanged cargoes of wine, brandy, dried fruit, citrus fruit, oil, skins, furs, coffee, sugar, salt, and tobacco for cod-fish. Most of the cod was sold to Mediterranean ports, because of the large demand of fish in those countries. These cargoes were brought back from these ports, and often taken straight to an English or Northern European port, then returning home to Jersey with a third cargo, though some would come straight back to Jersey.
To what extent, has the island of Jersey benefitted from its constitutional relationship with Britain and the legacies of colonialism based on a slave plantation economy during the first Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)?
Jersey benefitted from the constitutional relationship it had with Britain and the legacies of colonialism based on a slave plantation economy during the first Industrial Revolution, especially during the peak of the cod trade. Fishing vessels for the Jersey fleet had moved from being built in the outposts of Canada to Jersey, along with the large scale commercial shipyard starting operation in 1815. By the 1850s, Jersey had 300-400 ships with a tonnage of over 40,000. It is estimated that by the 1860s, the Channel Islands and Jersey-built wooden fishing fleets made up about 6% of the total tonnage of wooden fishing fleets built in the British Isles. This significant growth of the economy could have also been correlated to the population increase doubling from 28,600 in 1821 to 57,020 in 1851.
