Assignment 5 Rochester Christmas Festival December 2013 Feedback

I received my feedback a while ago but have not got around to blogging my response, although I did post on the Tutor Feedback page. Firstly, thanks to Keith for being so prompt with the response even though it was during the Christmas New Year break and secondly for the positive feedback.

It included a breakdown of how the assessment will be marked, Technical/Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity and Context. This is useful because I can check that I have met each bullet point and in re-working each assignment (as and where necessary) ensure getting the best marks possible.

The feedback, as I say, was positive with comments such as it being a "strong submission" which was "comprehensive" with "strong technical considerations" and benefited from the numerous related activities. I had chosen a "worthy practitioner" in Tony Ray-Jones and research of his images and approach will have contributed to the success of images captured. Keith was also pleased with my marketing aspect and the fact I had managed to get feedback from some of my subjects.

It was emphasised that before the CAPTURE stage of an image we have to plan, research, think about equipment and even when we get to the capture stage still have to pause while we think about composition, exposure, focus etc we have to THINK then capture. I think that the more I photograph the more the thinking part becomes a more natural process, knowing what aperture or shutter speed will get a certain result is a bonus, especially when photographing shifting scenes within an event.

Keith also pointed out that it is important to end with a print and on seeing my notes on here with regards to a Silverprint Portfolio/Archival box strongly recommended this.

Both my first and second selects were said to "convey the essence" of the festival and got close to the action. All shots showed "technical competence" but I was reminded to think about the context backgrounds can add when composing shots. I agree that some of the shots could have been improved with a different background but as it was a chaotic event it was not always possible to ask subjects to move. Although I decided not to replace any of the shots, and obviously I cannot re-shoot them, I have amended a handful, cropping a little more, adjusting bright spots or removing distracting elements so the backgrounds blend more with the subjects.

Alteration One

Using an adjustment of hue and saturation I changed the distracting blue post green which I felt was in keeping with the tones of the picture.

Alteration Two

by creating a duplicate layer and adjusting brightness I created a high key background which removed the distracting drain pipes and brick work.

Adjustment Three

Again by using different layers I increased the background blur very subtly, also reduced the brightness of the background. Not sure what was in the bottom left corner but I cloned it out and the very bright blue jacket was altered in colour. I don't know why I didn't spot how glaring it was before!

Adjustment Four

A very simple adjustment to darken the bright spot on the right hand side seems to make all the difference, the balance of the whole image alters.

Adjustment Five

Simply a closer crop. I think it makes the background look busier, giving the correct impression of how popular the festival is. I also think having a closer crop on the main subject is better.

Adjustment Six

If taking the "serious" photojournalistic approach images should not be manipulated at all, thinking to the recent scandals of press awards and prizes being revoked

http://www.popphoto.com/news/2012/11/landscape-photographer-has-award-revoked-excessive-editing
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005kyb
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jan/20/wolf-wildlife-photographer-award-stripped

or not...
http://www.americanphotomag.com/article/2013/05/experts-confirm-integrity-2013-world-press-photo-contest-winner

but as I am not going to enter such prizes and am also thinking of the aesthetics of the final result I felt cloning out distracting elements was fine. Initially I though the boot in the corner partially added to the narrative, she was sitting next to her older brother, helped illustrate a larger crowd, but then I decided it was distracting so removed it.

Getting back to feedback... Keith finally commented on my log/essays: he thought my blog works well, "crammed full of practice and research" and was easy to navigate.

In view of the positive feedback for Assignment 5 I don't think I will have any amendments apart from the above.

All I have to do now is get ready for submission. I elected for the July assessment as I want to completely redo assignment 1, check thoroughly all previous assignments, make sure all exhibition and book reviews are entered on my blog, check that my physical log is annotated rather than just a random selection of postcards/leaflets/brochures. I didn't want to do this in a rush, plus I am kicking my son through AS coursework which is taking up some of my time!

Thanks to everyone who reads my posts, thanks to those who comment and for your support, without which I wouldn't have got to the end of this course.

Assignment Four - Critical Review - Essay Re-work

I have now received and am reviewing the feedback from my tutor. I was really pleased by the positive comments on my tutor report and annotations on my returned essay, all of which are recorded on my posting here:

http://janfairburnoca.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/assignment-four-critical-essay.html

There were several suggestions to look at various other artists or comments made which could supplement my argument so am researching them to possibly include in my essay or just note down for future reference. The text in italics are excerpts from my essay where the annotations were made, followed by the annotation itself and my response to these:

1).... John Szarkowski in the introduction to The Photographers Eye comments on the difference between paintings and art being a basic one: paintings were made but photographs were taken (2003)......  

Have a look also at the comments Paul Delaroche (French portrait painter) made on first sight of a Daguerreotype in 1839 ... 'From this day, painting is dead!'

 http://www.answers.com/topic/painting-and-photography Carries the above quote.

Basically photography came along at a point in the history of European painting when Romanticism "was widely admired and commercially successful" and realism "was beginning to coalesce into an oppositional movement". Some painters didn't see photography as a threat however and instead "quickly embraced it as a means of referencing such details." Edgar Degas, Pierre Bonnard, Edvard Munch, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, even became accomplished photographers. It was then painter Paul Delaroche (1797-1856), supposedly said, ‘From today, painting is dead.’  This stemmed from understanding "painting's purpose within a fairly narrow concept of visual representation." I thought it interesting to note from this article that a number of the photographers who achieved prominence in photography's first decades were trained in Delaroche's studio for example Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq, Roger Fenton and Charles Nègre.  Apparently "the painting-photography relationship eventually emerged as the paradigmatic instance of the broader reciprocal one between art and technology."

note to self

The adjective paradigmatic is a fancy word for describing something that is an ideal or standard. Monet's paintings are paradigmatic of impressionism — they are a typical example of that style of art.
Use paradigmatic when you're talking about things that are archetypal or representative of some category and you want to sound impressive. You'll come across it if you study the subject of linguistics, where "paradigmatic analysis" is one way of analyzing a text, by examining patterns within it. The Greek word for "pattern," paradeigma, is the root of paradigmatic.


The article then goes on to tell us that some forms of painting did vanish ie miniature portraits, with some going on to become photographers others retouchers "More complex and far reaching in its implications was the declining prestige of the ambitious, sometimes outsize representations of past events or recent news known as history painting. Photography can only partly explain the shift in interest from large, complex images drawing on biblical, mythological, or historical sources, to traditionally ‘lesser’, more immediately accessible modes such as genre, still life, and landscape. But the possibility of seeing a photograph, rather than a painting of, say, the queen of England, the Parthenon, or Niagara Falls, even if in engraved reproduction, inevitably undermined painting's claim to historical and documentary authority."


2) ....specifically exploring the new age of digital/electronic reproducibility.....

Have you already read Walter Benjamin's 1936 essay - 'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction'

Yes, a few years ago I was advised to have a look at this interesting piece, it was shortly before I signed up to the OCA. I re-read it in view of citing him in my essay but thought many people probably do so went for other references instead. I forgot to add him to my bibliography which I shall now do!

3) .....Entertainingly, sometimes creepily, combining appropriated images he confesses to being a vandal and a thief and likens himself to a foster parent to these adopted images, but one who inflicts abuse due to the slicing and cutting he employs to create his work (Stezaker, 2011)....

Have a look at Charles Merewether also - He states 'the archive functions as the means by which historical knowledge and forms of remembrance are accumulated, stored and recovered.'

Dr. Charles Merewether is an art historian, writer and curator who has worked in Australia, Europe and the Americas. He worked as collections curator at the Getty Center in Los Angeles from 1994-2004. Between 2004 and 2006, he was artistic director and curator of the 2006 Biennale of Sydney and senior research fellow at the Centre for Cross Cultural Research, Australian National University. In October 2007, he was appointed deputy director of the Cultural District for the Tourist Development and Investment Company, Abu Dhabi. Since March 2010 he is Director at Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore.

Dr. Charles Merewether has taught at the University of Sydney, Universitat Autònoma in Barcelona, the Ibero-Americana in Mexico City and the University of Southern California, and has lectured at the Beijing Academy of Art, Lingnan University in Hong Kong and the Asia Research Center at the National University of Singapore.

http://www.globalartmuseum.de/site/person/225

Interesting writer to remember for future reading and reference.

"One of the defining characteristics of the modern era has been the increasing significance given to the archive and the means by which historical knowledge and forms of remembrance are accumulated, stored and recovered. Created as much by individuals and groups, the archive, as distinct from a collection or library constitutes a repository or ordered system of documents and records, both verbal and visual, that is the foundation from which history is written." - Merewether, Charles. “Introduction: Art and the Archive.” The Archive.Ed. Iwona Blazwick.London, Cambridge: Whitechapel Gallery & MIT Press, 2006: 10-17. Print.

http://www.academia.edu/3228792/The_Archive_The_Creative_Process_of_Abstract_Painter_Thomas_Nozkowski


4) ...Despite the discomfort of some with regards to the use of borrowed images, which is a well-established technique in terms of fine art, and the almost complete appropriation of Brecht’s book, this is an extremely clever body of work which tells its narrative well, sets new boundaries for the displaying of photography and has opened a healthy debate on the direction that some areas of contemporary photography are headed....

Agreed look at the work of Joachim Schmid - Very Miscellaneous.

Very Miscellaneous (1996) is a variable cluster consisting of 70 b/w photographs.
Six portraits and six texts are available as diptychs (one portrait and one text in any combination; b/w prints, 36 x 24 cm each, edition of 3).Very Miscellaneous was commissioned by PhotoWorks as part of the Country Life series, curated by Val Williams and made in conjunction with the George Garland Archive at the West Sussex Records Office.

http://schmid.wordpress.com/works/1996-very-miscellaneous/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3675573/Joachim-Schmid.html?image=4
http://digitalphotographyblog.wordpress.com/category/joachim-schmid/

German artist Joachim Schmid combined portraits by George Garland with fragments of newspaper articles drawn from the West Sussex Records Office.

"Schmid famously declared: “No new photographs until the old ones have been used up!” And he has rarely deviated from this avowal (made, incidentally, in 1989, on the 150th anniversary of photography’s invention) instead showing found photographs that he has grouped and titled."

http://www.culture24.org.uk/places-to-go/london/art47047

I found his work really interesting and echoed work seen by other artists such as Stezaker!

5) ... Barthes (1968) believed the author was dead but so too may be the single photograph; more and more it is becoming apparent that the single image no longer has the potency that it did, multidimensional bodies of work are coming to the fore, experimenting with mixed and multi-media....

I'm not sure about this, single images of conflict for example still hold power.  Look at the shot of Kim Phuc taken by Nick Ut in Vietnam in 1972 - This event was also filmed, but the footage doesn't hold anywhere near as much power as the single frame.

As with most people I know this image well. I agree that some photographs such as this and many other are amazing at conveying a given point in time. I think I may have to reword this section of my essay as I know what I meant to say and don't think it came over as intended. What I was trying to say is that more and more photographers are creating bodies of work that are reliant on being displays as a whole and that single images don't always have the same impact when taken out of context......hmm food for thought as to how to reword this carefully!

Thanks once again to my tutor for positive feedback and introducing me to more academic and photographic work that will broaden my knowledge and is interesting to boot!

As for reworking my essay I feel there is little to amend beyond adding to my bibliography and altering my comment at the end to reflect more of what I actually wanted to convey, may bung in the reference here to the image mentioned in my feedback and my own experience with Christina De Middel on seeing only a few of her images at the Sony World Photography Awards.  Paul Delaroche may also get a mention here alongside Barthes...who knows.....

*Update: Essay has been tweaked with reference added re Paul Delaroche, Joachim Schmid and the image by Nick Ut, also added Walter Benjamin to the Bibliography.

Assignment Four - Critical Review - Essay and Feedback

As promised here is my essay, I don't mind if people read it now I have had my feedback which was positive. If anyone pinches it then they are only cheating themselves, as only you know what you really think/feel about a certain topic and by actually doing the research discover if you feel the same way about it after and also get to understand the topic itself a little more.

Feedback:-

Thanks for submitting your ‘Critical Review’ Jan, which I thought offered an interesting debate from start to finish, including some great quotes and references in support of your argument.

In depth feedback on quotes/points and other areas of expertise included:-

Made - An interesting title - many would argue 'made' - especially the likes of Cartier-Bresson etc

JS Quote -  Excellent quote to start with !

JS quote -  An accurate observation - even many landscape photographers of the time, had a selection of 'sky's' that could easily be double-exposed over a dull / plain backdrop etc.

Have a look also at the comments Paul Delaroche (French portrait painter) made on first sight of a Daguerreotype in 1839 ... 'From this day, painting is dead!'  He was of course wrong, but the levels certainly shifted, as they tend to always do with the introduction of new technology.

This is really useful in terms of setting your stall out at the beginning of the text.

Have you already read Walter Benjamin's 1936 essay - 'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction'   It is work looking at.

This is a good example - This show was excellent from that respect ... the scale was incredible, but also the use of additional media really demonstrated Klein's understanding of graphic representation.

Excellent reference - 'Within an archive, meaning exists in a state that is both residual and potential'

Have a look at Charles Merewether also - He states 'the archive functions as the means by which historical knowledge and forms of remembrance are accumulated, stored and recovered.'

Agreed look at the work of Joachim Schmid - Very Miscellaneous.  This is also interesting when considered in relation to the fact more images were taken in 2012 than in the history of photography since 1837 !

I'm not sure about this, single images of conflict for example still hold power.  Look at the shot of Kim Phuc taken by Nick Ut in Vietnam in 1972 - This event was also filmed, but the footage doesn't hold anywhere near as much power as the single frame.

and in general comments...

I think you have responded very well to feedback offered to date Jan and have noticed your blog reflects much of this advice now – which is excellent to see.

So onto my essay

Photography – Made or Taken?- (is the single photograph dead?)

“The history of photography has been less a journey than a growth” 

– John Szarkowski

A Critical Review
by Jan Fairburn

 
Photography - Made or Taken? – (is the single photograph dead?)

Photography has been through many incarnations, from the first Daguerreotype, Henry Fox Talbot’s Calotype, the Kodak Brownie to eventually today’s digital camera. Not only has the technology changed but also the way photography is perceived, especially as it begins to incorporate mixed media and find new ways to disseminate. John Szarkowski in the introduction to The Photographers Eye comments on the difference between paintings and art being a basic one: paintings were made but photographs were taken (2003).  On the topic of detail he suggests a photographer shows only a fragment of a scene, but with the frame being extended by video footage, sound clips, drawings and physical objects is this fragmentation being lessened? With the current trend for contemporary photographers to create installation pieces, employ digital manipulation, borrow imagery and use mixed media to create their work, this argument possibly no longer stands. More and more we are questioning, what is photography? This essay sets out to examine some of the issues surrounding the use of mixed media – are photographs made or taken, is the single photograph dead?

Controversy has always surrounded photography with regards to reality and truth; Szarkowski believed photographers “learned that photography dealt with the actual” (2003, p. 99). Yet manipulation and additions were being carried out as early as the mid 1800’s with two distinct camps arising; those who felt that images should be left untouched and those who preferred to add an artistic flourish and hand tint photographs (Farkas & Raleigh, 2013). Then there were surrealists such as Man Ray, Hans Bellmer and Maurice Tabard who used processes such as double exposure, combination printing, montage, solarization and techniques such as rotation or distortion to create ethereal imagery (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2013). Therefore, it could be argued that photographers from the outset were experimenting with reality and exploring beyond that which filled the view-finder. The photograph Two Ways of Life (1857) by Oscar Rejlander is described as a combination print which was assembled from thirty individual negatives printed onto one large piece of paper (National Media Museum, 2012).  Much later John Baldessari, (b1931) described as a conceptual artist rather than photographer, developed his style to incorporate letters, words and photographs in his works.  In the early 1970’s he was working in printmaking, film, video, installation, sculpture and photography (Roark, 2013).

Farkas & Raleigh acknowledged several exhibitions in America where a group of artists could be identified as “photo mixed media artists”: “Persistence of Vision” at the George Eastman House (Rochester NY) in 1967, “Photography into Sculpture” at the Museum of Modern Art (New York City, NY) in 1970 and “Photo-media” at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (New York City NY) in 1971-1972. They separated the works into three distinct categories, machine reproductions, soft packaged and assemblages (2013, p. 129). They cited several artists who met these criterions, notably photographer Ken Josephson, a pioneering conceptual photographer who experimented with illusion to explore and question his chosen medium of photography - known as a printmaker; he has diversified as a street photographer, professor of photography and filmmaker (Gerstheimer, 2013). His piece Anissa a child’s dress, 1978 is an assemblage (a child’s dress on a small hanger, with a framed cropped image of a little girl wearing the same dress displayed prominently on the front) which provides a physical, personal link to the subject. It gives the audience an accurate impression of perspective, colour and “the thing itself” (Szarkowski, 2003, p. 99).

Unlike René Magritte's The Treachery of Images, 1928-29 "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" which only represents the image of a pipe, the implementation of mixed media assemblage means that a single piece or whole body of work, no longer has to be a merely an illusion, it becomes three dimensional and can better express a given narrative. Most recently the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, “an international award in contemporary photography, awarded to a contemporary photographer making a significant contribution, either by exhibition or publication – to the medium of photography in Europe,” (Deutsche Börse Group, n.d.)  has recognised photographers who employ mixed media, explore beyond the frame and push the boundaries of what is traditionally accepted as photography.

Photography and creativity go hand in hand, from the initial decision of subject matter, the process of taking the image, the choices of post-production to means of display, whether that be in a frame, album or public exhibition. Marcel Duchamp acknowledged the importance of the audience in conveying the meaning of a piece of work, he stated:

“…the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualification and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. This becomes even more obvious when posterity gives a final verdict and sometimes rehabilitates forgotten artists.” 

(Duchamp 1957, Cited in Brain Pickings, n.d.)

So therefore it can be considered that the audience helps to make an image, and possibly more pertinent to the topic of borrowed pictures, appropriation can restore forgotten artists.

Contemporary bodies of work are combining new images with old , constructing elaborate displays and discovering new outlets for photography; specifically exploring the new age of digital/electronic reproducibility. These bodies of work open old debates about are photographs taken or made, is it photography or art? By visiting exhibitions, examining the work and methods of delivery the opportunity is there to decide if photography is taken, made or if the distinction matters.

At his retrospective at London’s Tate Modern (November 2012 – January 2013) William Klein had on display several reworked older images. Reworked in ways that are best described as artfully vandalised; mural sized prints of contact sheets, altered by the liberal application of enamel paint, using wide brush strokes in bold, mainly primary colours. The original photographs were taken, the second made. The meaning of the original print is still there beneath the paint but the creation of a new art object makes the image polysemous. The audience may see it as a tribute to film photography and contact sheets yet Klein explains that for him it was a celebration of the physicality of taking the photograph (Klein, 2012).

Jim Goldberg, 2011 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize winner, was nominated for his exhibition Open See at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (16 October 2009 – 31 January 2010). Using Polaroids, video, text and ephemera Goldberg took four years detailing the experiences of refugee, immigrant and trafficked populations. Feeling that their perceptions were not being observed and considered (Goldberg, 2011) he allowed them to speak for themselves, writing on the images to express themselves and tell their stories, explaining that the photographs were proof of meeting his subjects, of their lives and worth. The exhibition also included video footage and a free poster which itemized various objects, such as food, lost wallets and official documentation. This helped provide a much fuller picture than one fragmented, still image. Once more this particular body of work can be both described as taken and made. The Open See project has been printed in book form and supporting the electronic age of communication is partially available online.

When discussing archives Allan Sekula wrote about the meaning of pictures being “up for grabs…(and) new interpretations are promised” (2011, p. 444).  John Stezaker, nominee and winner of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2012, for his exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (29 January – 18 March 2011) espoused a novel approach to found images, with the original uses definitely avoided and invisible (Sekula, 2011). Entertainingly, sometimes creepily, combining appropriated images he confesses to being a vandal and a thief and likens himself to a foster parent to these adopted images, but one who inflicts abuse due to the slicing and cutting he employs to create his work (Stezaker, 2011).

“Photographs, which package the world, seem to invite packaging” (Sontag, 1977, p. 4). Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin winners of the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2013 certainly seem to have taken this to heart when they packaged or rather completely repackaged Bertolt Brecht’s War Primer. Their inspiration was not only taken from Brecht’s book and his lesson on the semiology of war photography, hence the titles War Primer and War Primer 2, but also the Brecht quote “Don’t start with the good old things but the bad new ones.” This is prominently displayed on the front page of War Primer 2 (Broomberg & Chanarin, 2011) Taking bad or poor news images from the internet Broomberg and Chanarin parallel his actions of taking newspaper clippings on the subject of conflict. Originally published in 1955 Broomberg and Chanarin obtained 100 copies of a 1998 edition (Libris London) on which they based their own limited edition book War Primer 2. The simple explanation of how this body of work was created belies the controversy and debate that then arose with regards to their contribution to photography, the use of appropriated images and the distribution/availability of the book. Firstly they obtained the copies; secondly they downloaded a large selection of low- resolution photographs from the Internet dealing with the War on Terror. Next they whittled down the selection to eighty-five images which complemented Brecht’s eighty-five clippings and poetry, and then eight thousand five hundred screen prints were generated. War Primer 2 was then produced with the help of unpaid interns applying the resized silkscreen and offset prints (pasted by hand) into the one hundred copies of War Primer (Evans, 2013).

Once produced the pair picked up and ran with the educational idea. When displayed at the Photographers Gallery for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize exhibition their creativity shone through. A series of vitrines, the proportions of a small school desk were set out in orderly rows facing in one direction. In each desk a copy of War Primer 2 was open to a different page with information for these images projected onto a blank wall, suggesting the Smart Boards used in educational establishments today. Embracing a multiplicity of channels of communication they explored various means to disseminate their work; War Primer 2 is a limited edition book, an exhibition and is also available as a free download to mobile devices via an application.

There are advantages and disadvantages to all these means of communication; an eBook can reach a much wider non-specialised audience, a book has the physicality that a mobile device lacks, whilst the book is limited to the message on the page. However in this instance the book has the scope to spread beyond the frame, become an installation piece and press home the play on words of the book being a primer and the educational set up of the exhibition. With such a range of distribution Broomberg and Chanarin have rehabilitated/introduced Brecht to more spectators, who when adding their creative act, can be in no doubt that as a body of work and installation piece War Primer 2 has been both taken and made.

Despite the discomfort of some with regards to the use of borrowed images, which is a well-established technique in terms of fine art, and the almost complete appropriation of Brecht’s book, this is an extremely clever body of work which tells its narrative well, sets new boundaries for the displaying of photography and has opened a healthy debate on the direction that some areas of contemporary photography are headed.

Marcel Duchamp, interviewed by Joan Bakewell, voiced an opinion that the word art should be done away with, that society created artificial distinctions. (Duchamp 1966, The Late Show Line Up)  Maybe this should be the way forward, concentrating on the narrative rather than the method of creation or delivery. Barthes (1968) believed the author was dead but so too may be the single photograph; more and more it is becoming apparent that the single image no longer has the potency that it did, multidimensional bodies of work are coming to the fore, experimenting with mixed and multi-media. The arguments about radical photography have raged from its beginning and will no doubt continue to do so. Does it matter if photographs are taken or made? It would appear they are both. The narrative, the multi-layered view of life is what is important rather than the distinction.



References

Barthes, R. (1968) Death of the author UCSC [Online] Available at: http://artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/Gustafson/FILM%20162.W10/readings/barthes.death.pdf [Accessed 30 September 2013]
Broomberg, A. & Chanarin, O. (2011) War primer 2. London: Mack
Broomberg, A. & Chanarin, O. (2011) Deutsche Börse Group Photography Prize. London: The Photographer's Gallery 19 April - 30 June 2013
Deutsche Börse Group, (n.d.)  Deutsche Börse Group- deutsche börse photography prize. Deutsche Börse Group [Online]
Available at: http://deutsche-boerse.com/dbg/dispatch/en/kir/dbg_nav/corporate_responsibility/33_Art_Collection/25_photography_prize
[Accessed 20 September 2013]
Duchamp, M. (1957) The creative act. Brain Pickings [Online] Available at: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/23/the-creative-act-marcel-duchamp-1957/
[Accessed 24 September 2013]
Duchamp, M. (1966) The late show line up [BBC TV Broadcast] 5 June 1966 cited in The European Graduate School [Online] Available at: http://www.egs.edu/library/marcel-duchamp/quotes/ [Accessed 20 September 2013]
Evans, D. (2013) Occupying brecht: broomberg and chanarin's war primer 2 BLOG The Photographer's Gallery. [Online]
Available at: http://thephotographersgalleryblog.org.uk/2013/06/15/occupying-brecht-broomberg-and-chanarins-war-primer-2-david-evans/
[Accessed 25 September 2013]
Farkas, S. & Raleigh, H. P. (2013) A review of the use of photo mixed media in the USA.  JSTOR [Online]
Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577984
[Accessed 19 September 2013]
Gerstheimer, C. (2013) C gerstheimer kenneth josephson essay for encyc of 20thc photo  Academia.edu. [Online]
Available at: http://www.academia.edu/3801980/C_Gerstheimer_Kenneth_Josephson_essay_for_Encyc_of_20th_C_Photo
[Accessed 21 September 2013]
Goldberg, J. (2011) Open See - in conversation with jim goldberg. SEESAW Magazine [Online]
Available at: http://www.seesawmagazine.com/jimgoldberginterview/jimgoldberginterview.html
[Accessed 26 September 2013]
Goldberg, J. (n.d.) Deutsche Börse Group Photography Prize. London: Presented by The Photographer's Gallery shown at Ambika P3 at the University of Westminster 5 April - 1 May 2011.
Klein,W. (n.d.) William Klein + Daido Moriyama. London: Tate Modern 10 October 2012 – 20 January 2013

National Media Museum, (2012) The Two Ways of Life-National Media Museum-The Royal Photographic Society-National Photography Collection-Collections-National Media Museum. National Media Museum [Online]
Available at: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/collection/photography/royalphotographicsociety/collectionitem.aspx?id=2003-5001/3/39373/1
[Accessed 24 September 2013]
Roark, E. (2013) MoMA The Collection John Baldessari  Museum of Modern Art [Online]
Available at: http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=304
[Accessed 24 September 2013]
Sekula, A. (2011) Photography between labour and capital. In: L. Wells, ed. The Photography Reader. Oxon: Routledge, pp. 444-445
Sontag, S. (1977)  On photography. London: Penguin Group
Stezaker, J. (2011) John Stezaker- vandal and thief- british journal of photography. British Journal of Photography [Online]
Available at: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/interview/1940374/john-stezaker-vandal-thief
[Accessed 26 September 2013]
Stezaker, J. (n.d.) Deutsche Börse Group Photography Prize. London: The Photographer's Gallery 13 July - 9 September 2012
Szarkowski, J. (2003) Introduction to the photographer's eye. In: L. Wells, ed. The Photography Reader. Oxon: Routledge, pp. 97-103
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, (2013) Photography and surrealism/thematic essay/heilbrunn timeline of art history. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [Online]
Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/phsr/hd_phsr.htm
[Accessed 20 September 2013]

Biblography
Barthes, R. (2000) Camera lucida. London: Vintage
Freeman, M. (2010) The Photographers Mind. Lewes: The Ilex Press Ltd
Klein, W. (2012) William Klein:ABC. London: Tate Publishing
Letinsky, L. (2010-2011.) Ill Form and Void Full. London: The Photographer's Gallery 18 January 2013 - 7 April 2013
Routex, D. (2012) Crazy Photography. London:  Vivays Publishing

*update feedback Here
*update reworked essay to be in assessment folder but can be viewed on my external website Here

Assignment Three Feedback

:o) I was really pleased with my feedback, lots of positives, and any suggestions were put forward politely and spot on. Being new to each other there were some useful reminders; especially helpful as I had such a long gap between thought processes and actually doing any projects!

General overview was a demonstration of "clear, methodical and professional approach...prepared well and did research prior to arrival...consideration to equipment required...good that I re-visited to take outside shots...final layout worked well...a wide selection of shots"

Was reminded that I should reference my work, yes I should, Thomas Struth and Candida Hofer were photographers who I had in mind before shooting but me being me and in a rush to get things underway forgot to mention this ;oD Both hoot architectural history, large interiors and use different vantage points, Hofer especially used upper levels to great effect when shooting her library series.

Born in 1954, Struth initially studied painting at the Düsseldorf academy under the German artist Gerhard Richter, before turning to photography. His "mastery of formal composition, colour and detail have made him one of the pre-eminent European art photographers of our time" Struth is best known for his large-scale cityscapes and his series of family portraits. He does shoot some work on digital, preferring to use 8x10mm plate cameras on tripods.

Thomas Struth Pantheon

Thomas Struth San Zaccaria

I liked the approach of Struth showing the large spaces, including people for scale and the columns of the buildings interiors.

Hofer’s also takes large-format photographs, with deeply saturated color and extraordinary detail. Born in 1944, she photographs buildings without people, often without any visible signs of human presence at all. For more than 30 years she has been compiling her deadpan inventory of public spaces, a social catalogue of architectural history.

From the website http://www.thamesandhudson.com/Candida_Hofer/9780500543146

Candida Höfer's photographs of libraries are sober and restrained – the atmosphere is disturbed by neither visitors nor users, especially as she forgoes any staging of the locations. The emptiness is imbued with substance by a subtle attention to colour, and the prevailing silence instilled with a metaphysical quality that gives voice to the objects, over and above the eloquence of the furnishings or the pathos of the architecture.

Candida Hofer Beautiful Libraries - Napoli

Candida Hofer Queluz Palace Portugal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfAmjCyPcZw

Great to see how she researches, books, internet, people who live there. Once there she walks around to take in the place first until she decides which perspective to shoot from. She likes using digital due to the versatility. Hofer thinks using a tripod makes the image look more static...interesting thought to ponder over..her last thought was be persistent!

A query as to why I had used a monochrome image and nowhere did I justify this, again true; there were a few reasons why I chose the monochrome version, firstly I thought an awful lot of my images looked "brown/rusty" in tone and wanted to have a contrast within the series. Also the bust of Bazalgette is very monochrome and was trying to tie the images together in that respect. Finally there was the association of the historical context but as the original image is actually very sepia-ish in its own right I possibly didn't need to do this? I'll create the spread again with the original and see what difference it makes. I had also been looking at some magazine spreads from Kew Gardens and they had a few mixed spreads so thought I would experiment.

Image below not monochrome.

Suggested reading/viewing

Londei, J.2007 Shutting Up Shop: The Decline of The Traditional Small Shop

I’m really pleased this was recommended.The publication reveals the scope of his project photographing “traditional small shops” for a seventeen year period starting in 1972. His project was not based on a specific community with the many shops featured  scattered across the county. The premises are shown devoid of people bar the owners.

With every shot there is an explanation about the history of the shop and  the people who ran them. Frequently he was capturing scenes that would soon be gone,with many of the shopkeepers being elderly; the last of their family keeping the business going. In some ways this reminded me of the Non-Conformists by Martin Parr, looking at a disappearing part of our heritage. Although Londei took the images in the 70s and 80s, the book was not published until 2007, by which time he returned to see what had happened in the ensuing years. Sadly, as to be expected, the majority are no longer trading with only seven of the original sixty shops featured remaining in business.

Interesting and useful project to review, a long term project and how to approach looking at something that will provide historical interest later on, finding out personal details that add to the images and how to hang each image together as a narrative.

Germain, J.2005 For Every Minute You Are Angry You Lose Sixty Seconds of Happiness

I must admit to only looking at this online and not getting hold of the book but it again looks to be a fascinating documentary project following the day to day happenings of an elderly man. It's a simple portrait of an elderly man's life.

Germain became friends with Charles Snelling in the early nineties, was interested in his life, and began photographing him. With visits instigated by companionship rather than than the idea of taking photographs Germain said "Photography was undoubtedly part of it because I always took my camera, but it was a relatively small part with no end product in mind, no deadline and no pressure to 'succeed'." Nevertheless, Germain produced a series of quality photos, enough to fill roughly two thirds of the book.

The remainder is filled with Snelling's own scrapbook albums, woven seamlessly into the material with Germain's own photographs. The albums are presented as true facsimiles with yellowed pages, dog-eared covers.Through these we gets a sense of Snelling's life before he met Germain. We are introduced to his deceased wife Betty,via a series of holiday photos and everyday snapshots.

The experience of thumbing Snelling's old scrapbooks has been described as "rich and cinematic, and the photos have an authenticity that no outside photographer can match. Indeed, this is one of the project's central paradoxes. Germain's photographs of Snelling -- artfully composed with shallow depth of field -- are wonderful. But they look like, well, fine art photographs."  He not only throws scrapbooks into the mix, but gives them the same respect as his own photos. This echoed for me the work of John Stezaker and Joachim Schmid's use of found photographs.

To summarise another brilliant technique to show a social documentary using a mix of older and current images and putting them together to tell a pertinent story.

Wood, T.1998.All Zones Off Peak

All Zones Off Peak is an epic fifteen-year bus journey through the streets of Irish-born Tom Wood’s adopted home, Liverpool. A body of work that documents a photographer’s (and a city’s) daily transit, All Zones Off Peak is a celebration of the ‘ordinary’ and an affectionate ode to Merseyside, narrated by its own inhabitants.

Those who share Tom Wood’s passage through the city are mostly unaware of the camera’s presence– often commuters lost in a pensive trance, as the monotony of the daily commute unfolds. Those who acknowledge their fellow traveler and his lens stare, blankly cocooned in their own private isolation. The pained reality of a city blighted by political neglect, poverty, and social disenchantment is depicted as the bus passes the littered and graffiti strewn urban streets. But in the passing of time and the turning of the page – a more confident city emerges and a more complex, layered portrait of a place and its people is depicted.

All Zones Off Peak begins as a gritty monochrome journey, but within the two decades and three thousand rolls of film, a city saturated in color emerges through the bus’ windows. In his accompanying essay, Mark Holborn describes the work: “On this repetitious route through the Liverpool streets the focus dissolves as the journey unwinds. The pictures move gradually through the sequence toward abstraction. The window becomes a screen, not a barrier, and the window frames form skeletons for the images in correspondence to the frames of the film itself.”

Affectionately named by locals the “Photie Man”, Tom Wood is a photographer anchored to place, a documentarian of home. Through his lens the anonymous, mundane, and everyday becomes strangely engaging and the rhythm of his Liverpool intimately compelling.

http://www.claxtonprojects.com/books/tom-wood/

Its really great that you can review books online sometimes brief notes - a mix of black and white and colour images, spreads different sizes, framing not always square on. if the main subject is in shot he does not worry about cropping out others, with arms legs and feet dangling into view.

These last few books are a sage reminder than it is not always good to have to rush a project....these have taken years to compile...if I want to do something interesting I ought to start now!!

Soth, A.2008. Sleeping By The Mississippi

http://www.aaronschuman.com/sothinterview.html

snipped on photography

"I went to school to be a painter, but I soon realized I wasn’t very good... attended a lecture by the photographer, Joel Sternfeld...realized that was what I wanted to do...fell in love with the process of taking pictures, with wandering around finding things....a kind of performance.  The picture is a document of that performance. What really frustrates is that photography is not very good at telling stories.  Stories are so satisfying.  Novels and movies satisfy, but photographs often leave me feel like something is missing."

on fragments

"...photographs can succeed in telling stories when they are collectively put into a narrative sequence... it seems to me that, in Sleeping by the Mississippi, you are trying to get away from overt sequencing, away from a clear narrative....you provide the viewer with a scattered assortment of fragments, which they can try to make sense of afterwards...question...would you prefer that the viewer regarded each image in Sleeping by the Mississippi individually, like a book of collected poems, or would you prefer that the entire body of work were considered a single unified whole, as in a film, a novel, or even a lengthy dream?"

answer " Definitely the unified whole..lesson learned that great pictures are all about luck...anyone can take a great picture...very few people can put together a great collection of pictures.  It is incredibly difficult to put these fragments together in a meaningful way...this is my goal."

on why photography Minnesota?
"This is a terrific question.  The obvious reason that I’ve photographed the Midwest is that I live there; in Minnesota.  So I have a feeling for the place..  The Midwest isn’t exotic.  And photographers (myself included) are attracted to the exotic.  Middle sometimes means bland. Of course, when you get involved in the Midwest, there are a lot of interesting nuances.  But it isn’t obvious. The Midwest doesn’t have the grandeur of the West or the exoticism of the South.  This was one of my favorite things about working along the Mississippi."

on social documentary..
" I understand that you never intended Sleeping by the Mississippi to be a social document. But grouped together, these images inevitably comment on the people, communities, and environments that you photographed.... Also, could you possibly discuss your reaction to being nominated to Magnum; how do you feel that you fit in with the agency’s history and its current output, and has this changed your work in any way?"

answer "I’m not entirely comfortable with this project being described as a social document.  This is why it is titled “Sleeping by…”... trying to suggest that this was more internal and dream-like.  Of course, as you say, the pictures do indeed comment on the people and places I photographed.  And thus it is a kind of document.  But there are just so many gaps.  I was shaping my own river.  This is what photographers usually do, right?  They create their own vision."
 
fascinating interview...I liked his comment on it NOT being social documentary..but it kind of is....

So...amendments to make, tasks to do and the next assignment...

*update re-working Here

Assignment Two Feedback

Some positives, lots of 'whys' and some useful pointers as to where to go next.

'Great research and write up' although the accompanying document sent was a bit long, so I need to sort out a good framework for next one.

I've added a bit more into my research, things to answer questions such as 'why red? what is the significance of colour? How did you know your problem was the velvet's nap?' 'Why a difference in the American covers?'All things I knew the answers to but hadn't included in my review. Problem is the more you ask the less you really find out! Or rather you find more out but it so contradicts each other...

The following link is to my original post now updated to reflect tutor feedback/issues raised.

http://janfairburnoca.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/assignment-two-photographic-book-cover_25.html 

Silly error that the 'double dice' one still had a slight colour cast so that has been corrected and Joe thought I could have boosted the colour more, so that's also been done, as well as making the image on the spine reflect the image on the front. I liked the way the dice stood out against the black but was advised that 'they don't fit.'

Also a suggestion that by using 'straight' photography I had limited my options. This is a valid point but I was torn between making something all singing and dancing with mad montages and surreal manipulations that showed what could be done in Photoshop but wouldn't make for a good design. I am thinking about doing a total rework but until then have done a couple of quick different takes based on my final design.

Adjusted colour cast and vibrance



Added Roulette Wheel

Have added an image of a roulette wheel which I nabbed from
http://www.lloyds.com/News-and-Insight/News-and-Features/Archive/2007/09/~/media/Lloyds/News/News%20Centre%20Gallery/2007/09/roulette_jpg.ashx

just to see what effect it would have. I quite like the way it flows across the whole cover, but it bears no relevance to the plot at all! If the book was The Gambling Man it may have been a brilliant idea but it isn't so it's not. But was a good experiment to try, even if just to dismiss it.


This next one, again just a quick idea takes a portrait I had done of a friend, converted to black and white and blended with the rest, possibly not done perfectly but just a draft idea of what could be done to give it another twist.

Added portrait

I like the way the face in the background runs over into the back cover and the positioning of the eye on the spine. However I don't think the design works properly when seen just from the front, the corner of the eye socket provides nothing visually, but again a good way of discovering what works and what doesn't. I'm also not happy with the main image on the spine. It has no impact and is a bit too busy for my liking as an image for the spine so a definite return to the drawing board I think :o)

Suggested reading is reviewing of white balance and possibly look a bit more into fonts, even though the course doesn't call for it, as they will come up again.

Feeling a bit fed up that no matter what I research it turns up more questions and feel like I'm getting nowhere with it all. Goal posts move but seems by yards not inches :o(

Joe mailed me a quote from Thomas Edison that says 'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.' ..........still got to decide if that makes me feel better or not, I only seem to have found a few ways that don't work, don't fancy wading through the 9998 left!

*update*

reworked here

http://janfairburnoca.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/pwdp-assignment-2-re-worked.html

Assignment One: Your own neighbourhood Feedback

I think I got more feedback for this first assignment than I did for the whole of the last course. Which can only be good but meant I have a lot to take in and digest. Another difference is that I have been asked not to quote any of the feedback online, no issue with that, just I did like to put bits onto my blog when I amended things as it made sure in my head that I had done the required work. Minor adjustment in thinking but not a problem.

A few issues with it being a new course and originally receiving a draft copy, the revised module arrived but I missed the fact a sentence had been removed meaning I sent printed final images when it's no longer an option. Also a disc containing my original unedited files went walkabout, I swear I put it in the parcel, but that meant Joe could only partially comment on the work :o/

Some handy tips about best practise, which I shall take on board. Level two requires you to think outside the box more, and communicate on every decision you make. In light of this I have revamped some of my earlier posts. I had done the research but not PROVED it.....so a fair amount of time this week was spent updating blog. A few more adjustments to make but you get 'worded out' after a while. The thing about having to think outside the box is you have to know the size of the box you are in, being my first level 2 I feel as if I am rattling around inside a huge one and finding the walls and edges is going to take a while. It is good that I am going to be pushed but just how far will I need to be pushed? I don't want too many bruises ;o)

Next assignment I shall make sure I send an in-depth document covering everything I did to achieve the final result, that all comments are relevant, no padding (that will be hard as I quite like to be anecdotal and a bit quirky with my observations) but I guess with educational documentation you need to be formal. Keep my quips to the blog ;o)

Some of my images still had fringing on them, which I should have spotted :o/ Means I also need to go off and do some more experimentation with my lens to see at what point this actually happens, also re-edit the offending photos.

So more experimentation with photographic techniques, read through all of the module now I have it, look at the links to the indicated sites and tie it in with the module aims.

Overall summary is that it was a reasonable assignment with scope for further detail and experimentation. Reasonable is better than poor. Honest feedback and I'll take onboard all the suggestions for improvement :o)

*update re-working Here