Typologies

 29th June 2015

"Almost the same thing - Some thoughts on the collector-photographer" David Campany 

http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/

Notes

In 2003, the Tate Modern exhibited Cruel and Tender; a collection of works by different well known photographers such as August Sander (Face of our time 1929), Walker Evans (American Photographs 1938),  Robert Frank (The Americans 1958/9), the Bechers, Garry Winogrand, Martin Parr, Stephen Shore and more. The images were "characterised by a sense of disengagement[...] analytical and descriptive in its approach to landscape." (http://www.tate.org.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/cruel-and-tender-real-twentieth-century-photograph) Lincoln Kirstein in 1933 labelled Walker Evans' work as "tender cruelty" The Tate Modern review of the exhibition describes the exhibition as comparing the myth and mundane - or looking at the real wold around us.

Historically people have collected things. Museums collect artifacts arranged in groups or time periods. Photography is divided- in pictorialism in the 19th and early 20th century, photographs were not grouped together although straight photographs were. Pictorialism (or art photography) seems to rely on symbols and the viewer reading more into one image than requiring a series or body of work to explain / show the truth. Modernisation was concerned with the numbers and types of images. Campany suggests that this is because people began to see images in daily life and the amount of magazines and printed material made photobooks acceptable. By organising photographs into a book, types of images were grouped together and the books reached new audiences. The books took photography to a wider audience than displaying in a gallery.

As television became more popular, printed media began to decline. Pop, conceptual art and Postmodern art became popular and viewers wanted a single image instead of several. These images still fitted into land and cityscapes, still life and narrative.

The disadvantage of a photobook (catalogue, archive) was that the individual images described but did not articulate on their own. "Visual facts don't speak very well for themselves." (http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/ accessed 29/6/15) Campany cites Walker Evans as saying "a document has use, whereas art is really useless." (http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/ accessed 29/6/15)

The Bechers' placed their images centrally in the frame; Baltz' images were abstract and this created a challenge for the viewer not knowing how to read a single image because the brain prefers to look at contrast, differences, comparison, dialogue between the images, repetition etc.  Once the images were grouped together they were easier to look at. In a way, the viewer looked at the work twice - once as a stand alone image and as a montage.

When television viewing overtook photography as an art form, it enabled photography to be critiqued as art. Videos became the norm and photography was slow. It described things rather than instants.

The difference between a straight image and a snapshot is that a straight image describes people or things and a snapshot dramatises the event. With snapshots, the photographer takes hundreds of images (veracity and voracity) Winogrand and Egglestone. Two methods - reportage style versus amateur family album. All images are connected under capitalism - manufacture, leisure, consumption, work etc. Campany's final comment was that photography accumulates like modern life, so make one say something about the other.

This reminded me of an exhibition at Format Festival in Derby in 2013 looking at negatives retrieved from a rubbish dump of family life of the Chinese who had cameras. These amateur family snapshots had been grouped on the wall in categories such as the annual holiday, a trip to McDonalds, bedrooms decorated with posters of Western icons, documenting China's rise in capitalism.

References

http://www.tate.org.uk/about/press-office/press-releases/cruel-and-tender-real-twentieth-century-photograph accessed 29th June 2015

http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/ accessed 29/6/15

Bibliography
http://davidcampany.com/almost-the-same-thing-some-thoughts-on-the-photographer-as-collector/ accessed 29/6/15






New Topographics

Notes from Sean O'Hagan's article on New Topographies 

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/08/new-topographics-photographs-american-landscapes accessed 29/6/15

Nearly 40 years ago, William Jenkins curated an exhibition in New York entitled "Photographs of a Man altered Landscape" featuring 1970's urban America. It was not well received by the public. Mundane, surburban, reaction to ideological landscape images, going against tradition such as Adams and Weston.

Exhibiting photographers included:

Frank Golke

Robert Adams - political statements - empty streets, pristine trailer parks, suburban development, uniformity

Lewis Baltz- stark - office walls and buildings, industrial

Nicholas Nixon - inner city development, sky scrapers, grids, freeways, unreality, pedestrians seen as interlopers

Stephen Shore - colour. Influenced by Ed Ruscha. "Heightened sense of detachment of anonymous intersections and streets." 

The Bechers -stark salt mines, european

Walker Evans - billboards, motels, shop fronts, nostalgia

Described as mundane, banal, although at this time it was not acceptable to photograph this subject. People did have a concern in the world becoming urbanised. Students captured views of visitors.



Topographics Movement

Banal subjects are photographed, exhibited and collected as art. Other photographers include Andreas Gursky, Donovan Wylie, Paul Graham.

All the photographers featured use a different style to photograph the banal or mundane urban landscape. What constitutes a mundane subject, and is it mundane or uninteresting to everyone? In my opinion not all subjects are mundane to everyone. I think it depends on whether you are interested or bored with the familiarity of the subject. 

I was aware of the topographics movement and had previously studied the work of the Bechers, Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz. Their work interests me - the Bechers because of its uniformity and lack of people, Robert Adams for his political stance, especially his work on deforestation and Lewis Baltz's geometric designs. I think topography has an audience, and as O'Hagan suggested, the audience was not ready at the time. Contextually, the USA was enjoying capitalism and perhaps did not want to be shown how the landscape was changing around them and the countryside was being built on. Maybe it was too political an issue? Perhaps we look back with nostalgia at how American urban landscapes used to be, so our opinion of the work has changed because the images are now accepted. We may not have been directly involved with the political issues of the time and change for some people is never well accepted. However, this aside, reading another article by O'Hagan (2012), Gursky's Rhein III fetched £2.7m in 2011 at Christies Auction. So now there is an audience for topography. This image could be described as a banal subject, and I appreciate that it may fit in with a colour scheme in a minimalist modern house or office. 

Personally, I like the work of Robert Adams and Nicholas Nixon. Nixon's urban images of towns with skyscrapers or large buildings follow all the conventions of a landscape photographer and remind me of John Davies's work which I think follows similar conventions.

Having experimented in Photography 1 with topography and revisiting  the Lewis Baltz clip, I appreciate how this subject is about the angles of the buildings. I studied bridges across the River Trent (a banal subject) and I was surprised at just how many attempts it took me to get the angle right so that it became a straight image rather than a snapshot. 

I also looked at the Watchtowers and Maze Prison images by Donovan Wylie. To me there is repetition; however the images I could associate with were the cells with different curtains, allowing the prisoners a little individuality in a uniform building. I associate with the idea put forward by Campany that the viewer looks at these images twice. I think if they were exhibited in a group, The viewer would go from one to another looking at each individual image and then look at them as a whole.


Bibliography

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/08/new-topographics-photographs-american-landscapes accessed 29/6/15

https://fraenkelgallery.com/portfolios/new-topographics accessed 29/6/15

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tateshots-lewis-baltz accessed 29/6/15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQekhfX73zE (Donovan Wylie - Outposts) accessed 29/6/15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naoxP-iLvqU (Donovan Wylie - The Maze Prizon) accessed 29/6/15

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/nov/16/sean-ohagan-photography-art-form accessed 29/6/15

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53Z3Z3#/CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53Z3Z3&POPUPIID=29YL530X3SO5&POPUPPN=13 (Donovan Wylie) accessed 29/6/15

Explore a road

June 2015

...roads are all something we have in common. Make a short series of photographs about a road near where you live...use this exercise to develop the observational skills that will be challenged in Assignment 2. The object is to try to think about something that is familiar to you in a different way. ...Work intuitively and try not to labour the exercise. Compile a digital contact sheet from your shoot and evaluate your work, identifying images of particular interest-to you or, potentially to a wider audience.

Kirklington Road, Rainworth, Notts

My village is experiencing a growth period with the development of new housing estates and building of new playgrounds for the children. Services such as health care and schools have expanded and the way to sell a new house seems to be to make a "youtube" video of the new build to welcome people in. I found this quite limiting as it does not tell the interested party anything about the village itself. The village is based around a crossroads - one of these being the A617 which runs from Chesterfield to Newark. As the amount of traffic increased, a bypass was built around the village. This has not altered the use of the services and amenities.

I aimed to show the potential resident some of the facilities, amenities and historical points of interest along just one road in the village; from a range of houses, football ground, petrol station, fish and chip shop, village hall, miners welfare, function rooms, school, surgery, dentist, scrap metal collection and public transport. Pavements are wide for children and pushchairs, safety has been considered, houses are cared for and there are plenty of seats - for sitting and watching the world go by.

I considered taking the images in the style of Lee Friedlander's America by Car, because I often drive down this road. As it was a pleasant evening, I walked and found it more sociable as many of the older residents stopped to chat when they saw my camera. I learnt much more about the current affairs of the village and the vandalism to the newest play area which is just off this road. I would not have had this experience in the car. This is what appealed to me about the journey made along the HS2 line by Toby Smith.

This work could be developed by including people; for example a group of people playing bowls on the lawn, a resident sitting on one of the many benches, an event happening at the Village Hall. By photographing earlier in the day, the gates on the surgery would be open and the village would look more lively.

My selection - I discovered when narrowing down the images that I should have had a clear idea of what I was trying to show first. I could show for example, cigarette butts in the layby next to the bus stop, the wine bottles in the bin, the plaster peeling off the houses but does that fit with the audience I am trying to show? This will be important for my Assignment 2 plan.

Still thinking about Friedlander's work, I considered how the A1 might be represented  by a photographer using his style of work. My daughter took a couple of images for me when I was driving, such as moving traffic e.g. being behind a lorry and roadworks - typical of many a journey. I was able to experiment when I reached the destination. I can see how restrictive the view is with parts of the car in, and as a viewer I want to see what is around the corner or further to the left/right. The viewer is only seeing what I want them to see.

Watch one of the films mentioned in this section or any other "road movie" of your choice. Write a short review (around 500 words) focusing on how the road features within the film's narrative.

Road to Perdition (2002) Director Sam Mendes

The synopsis of the film is that a child whose father works for gangsters stows away in the family car to discover the occupation of his father. Upon witnessing his father at work, the son unintentionally puts the family at risk. His mother and brother are killed by gangsters and father and son flee on a road trip to Chicago, (perdition or Hell) during which time the father sets out to create an emotional bond with his son and teach him how to survive. The father robs banks of his former employers to survive and eventually Al Capone dispatches a hitman (photographer) to kill the father. By the end of the film the boy is safe.

The meaning of the film is that the father chose the road he was on which was not the best and he hopes that his son will choose differently.

At the beginning of the film, the boy rides his bike around the frozen town, symbolic of the boy’s emotionally cold relationship with his father. It gives a sense of place to the town which is referred to during the journey when things are not going well.

As the film moves to the road trip, there are beautiful shots of the car in wide open countryside with soft lighting (used throughout) and a sense that life will be alright. These scenes are light and airy, and features greens and browns as the predominant colours. The car is seen from all angles; inside the bonnet, an aerial shot and from inside observing the boy’s interest as the scenery changes from country to big city. The snow disappears and they carry straight on through the crossroads.

As the danger increases, the road becomes darker, especially when they approach the diner where the assassin will meet the father whilst the son is left alone in the car. At this point the father realizes that he needs to teach his son survival skills so he teaches his son to drive. His attitude changed and he started to enjoy his son. A ground level shot of the boy driving past added some speed.

As they approach the town to rob banks, the boy acted as the chauffer, dropping his father off and picking him up. There are some great scenes through the window of the car driving past with the boy driving. The relationship changed again, with the two acting as a partnership.

The boy drove his father when he became wounded and the journey became more urgent with close ups of action inside the car. They are looked after by an elderly couple and as they leave, the weather is brighter with sunshine and the journey has hope again.

The story takes another turn as the father goes back with the son to end the lives of the gangsters of the town and make life more bearable for the future. Once again, the scenes are dark, the rain is torrential and a little misty adding to the drama.

In the last part of the drive, the boy has his head out of the car; it has turned into excitement and the end of all their troubles; the start of a new life. However, the father is killed. The final part of the drive is long shot of the boy driving to the house with the elderly couple to start a new life.

This film summed up a road trip for me – it had a beginning and an end, was shot from different angles through diverse scenery and showed life inside and outside the car.

Territorial Photography

June 2015

Exercise 2.1 Territorial Photography

Read Snyder's essay and summarize the key points. Find and evaluate two photographs by any of the photographers Snyder mentions. Evaluate, reflecting on some of the key points that Snyder makes, as well as any other references.

Pre 1850 photographers were not competing with other mediums.  Photographers were from a privileged background and used the medium to record personal work. Audiences were small and there was no market for their work due to the cost of printing.

By the mid 1850's photographs were accepted as being a different form of art due to the "mechanical" nature of photographs. Contextually photography fitted in with industrialization. Attracted the middle classes who were able to develop the technology of printing and establish a "high finish and endless detail that consequently were thought to be precise, accurate and faithful to the objects or scenes they represented". (p175) Photography developed through new professionals and became gloss instead of matte and the tones were standardized to sepia.  Mass  production became the norm.

From the 1850's a commercial market developed for travel architecture and tourism. Small printing houses were set up to print and sell to tourists at or near to the geographic site as prints or albums. This was the beginning of commercialism.

Carelton Watkins (1829-1916)
In the 1860's, Watkins developed 20x24" negatives. He photographed places such as the Yosemite Park, Pacific Coast, Utah and Nevada. He set the standard for Commercial Landscape Photographers and was commissioned by California State Geological Survey for Mining and Lumbar Interests. He documented a "visual harmony between the land and new tokens of progress symbolized by the industrial landscape itself."(p187) He recorded the progress and change of landscape "by harmonising nature and industry"(p188) so that people felt they could develop a picturesque area. 

Timothy H O'Sullivan (1840-1882)
In contrast, O'Sullivan started his career as a war photographer documenting battlegrounds and was chosen by Clarence King, a geologist to explore the uncharted interior of the country. King refused military support for his venture, believing in new ways of working. During 1867-1874, O'Sullivan documented the inhospitable landscape during two expeditions; "Clarence King's Geological Explorations of the 40th Parallel and the Geographical and Geological Explorations West of the One Hundredth Meridian. His only brief was to "give a sense of the area" (p192) and his images were not included as evidence in the reports.

O'Sullivan's work was discovered by Ansel Adams who sent them to Beaumont Newhall, acting curator of photography at MOMA in New York who labelled them as prototypical modernist photographic landscapes.O'Sullivan portrayed the landscape as inhospitable, anti picturesque and sublime and not somewhere man would want to develop. If King sent images to the financiers of the project when requested, if the images were received as being inhospitable, King had complete control of the land.

Throughout the essay, I was reminded of the work in part 1 concerning photographers being photographers or art photographers. Watkins is a photographer and an O'Sullivan art photographer.

Carelton Watkins

Trestle on Central Pacific Rail Road 1880

This image was trimmed by Watkins to show the Chinese labourers and the Caucasian foreman working in the inhospitable landscape. The curve of the railroad linking the mountains to the foreground is elegant and leads the eye towards the back of the image. This shows man has tamed the land, transport will make places accessible and people would be encouraged to move to the area. Here Watkins has literally emphasized order of the environment. By using a completed foreground building and partially constructed railroad, reducing shadows and highlights, the mid tones do make the photograph easier on the eye. This image is balanced with the workers and reminiscent of his images of Yosemite. The left side looks untouched whilst the right side is busy with well spaced out carts. Watkins labelled this image himself as California Tourists Association.




Timothy H O'Sullivan

Southside of Insription Rock, New Mexico

O'Sullivan used a tight crop on this image giving the impression that the land surrounding this rock may have been inhospitable too. In choosing to photograph  this rock he was acknowledging that others had lived here too. There was a small amount of land visible in the image but not enough to colonize. This rock formation could be seen as a "monstrosity or grotesquerie". It is sublime in its grandeur, and does not conform to contemporary landscapes. If the viewer of the time looked at other photographs of the area, they would probably decide not to venture into this inhospitable land.









References
Mitchell WJT (ed) (2002) Landscape and Power, The University of Chicago Press (p175-201) p175, p177, p178, p192,

Bibliography
Mitchell WJT (ed) (2002) Landscape and Power, The University of Chicago Press (p175-201)
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/101195/carleton-watkins-trestle-on-central-pacific-railroad-american-negative-1877-print-about-1880/
http://www.carletonwatkins.org/index.php#
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/osullivan/index.cfm
http://petapixel.com/2013/09/02/amazing-19th-century-photographs-american-west-timothy-osullivan/

Assignment 1: Beauty and the sublime

May 2015

Assignment 1 Beauty and the Sublime - Roadside memorials in the landscape

In Burke’s sublime, there is a power or force greater than us at work which causes us to feel inadequate and question what happens beyond humanity. This is portrayed in visual arts by expressing the subject in such a way that the viewer connects with the work and experiences the emotion which completes the cycle. The understanding of the body, science and the universe has moved on since 1857 when Burke published his book “A philosophical enquiry into the sublime and beautiful.” Thus his categories do not work for everyone. In order to find the sublime and experience the emotion, one has to associate with a subject which has some spirituality / force/ power behind it which makes us question the subject.

When people drive past roadside memorials at speed, they notice them and experience some thought or emotion, even objecting to them being there, thinking they are an unnecessary way of expressing the grief by the significant others, whilst others think they act as a powerful reminder of how dangerous the roads are. Some people experience the meaning of them but the true power of them can only be felt by standing still and listening to the silence (similar to the noise one hears during an outdoors Remembrance Service.) Burke describes the sublime as being tied up in the emotion of the situation; feeling pain, grief, self-preservation and displaying sympathy for the tragic situation. Whilst the mourners will suffer grief and pain whilst coming to terms with an unexpected death, travellers along the road may associate with the tragedy rather like in play or think how fortunate that it wasn’t them involved in the incident. At one memorial, friends and family come together for a yearly celebration of life in the memorial garden created by the father next to the scene of the tragic accident (the last photograph).

On reading part 2 of Burkes’s Beauty and the Sublime, I understood the message of fear and ultimately terror linked to the sublime. The modern sublime gives the photographer a subject such as roadside memorials and questions people’s views on mortality which was once addressed by the church. As the world becomes more secular the opportunity to discuss this is opened up, although some people may consider their religious beliefs are being violated because this is a very private act on a public highway.  

Burke talks of obscurity and silence as contributing to the sublime. In the following images, I have concentrated on (where possible) not giving the viewer much information so that they focus on the location. When photographing, I experienced the silence of the traffic noise when traffic lights changed or the traffic stopped flowing, although most of these were shot at very busy locations. By using the landscape and the traffic, I hoped to represent the silence I experienced which travellers do not hear when passing the memorial and show how some of the memorials are being reclaimed by the landscape. The danger was in the locations themselves and I had to wear a high vis jacket. Even when photographing at the last location cars did not slow down when entering the 30MPH zone and for one I had to handhold the camera rather than use a tripod as it was too dangerous to kneel in the verge. Traffic influenced my technical choices in the direction of shooting, and where possible I shot on a cloudy day. However, time was limited and I had to visit when the roads were least busy; if necessary visiting or driving past on more than one occasion. The memorials were chosen for ease of access and were ones I drive past on a regular basis.

I found Burke’s description of beauty outdated. For example, when describing a beautiful flower it should have the correct proportions, or have flowing curves, or be frail, or pale in colour. Today we have different standards, shaped by the social and economic factors of our time. In my opinion the beauty in some of my images lies in the fact that wild flowers and trees are growing in the place of a collision, the land is naturalising and the landscape is changing back to how it was before. My personal opinion is that this is more beautiful than artificial flowers, and dead flowers in cellophane are not beautiful. Also, the beauty of the scene can be that people have taken time to visit and refresh the flowers or plaques. However, others may have different ideas. Reading Adams (1996) Essay on Beauty in photography, I came to the conclusion that beauty is linked to aesthetics and “for a picture to be beautiful it does not have to shocking, it must be in some significant respect unlike what has preceded it” (p27). However, even though this is a seldom photographed subject, I do not see the subject as having beauty. William Crane (as cited in the OCA newsletter accessed 21/5/15) states that “Every generation has a different ideal of beauty or perceives a different side of beauty and successively ever seeks some new form for its expression.” I think this still holds true.

A campaign by the local government introduced a sign with a yellow border, a lamppost and a bunch of flowers with the words “Slow down, better late than never” at high risk sites to raise awareness of the dangers because over the last 5 years there have been 68 fatalities on Nottinghamshire’s roads. The signs were removed by the public, so more speed cameras and a speed reduction scheme was introduced. My local government sees the roadside memorials as stark reminders of the dangers and does not remove them after 30 days. Despite this in place, fatalities still occur on the roads.

Barthes (2000) explained that to affect the viewer, the photographer has to take the sentimentality out of the subject and feel, notice, observe and think. To enable me to look objectively at the subject, I had to research and understand some of the psychology behind roadside memorials. Barthes (2000 ) also mentions that Janouch told Kafka that “we photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds” p53. I believe that this is partly true – in my opinion photography has become an art form and as artists we explore the subject and use the medium to improve on our original ideas. Todd Hido explains that you know when a subject is finished because you can move on from the subject – I think you move on with a greater understanding. I now have a greater understanding in the subject of roadside memorials and would consider documenting it further if it was of use. I have probably reached the end of my personal photography of this because it is a sublime subject and because of the danger involved.  The youngest victim was 15, the oldest was 35. It may be possible to work with authorities to help illustrate to young drivers who are being targeted by the council the effects of excessive use of speed and the consequences of dangerous driving. I could also revisit at a later date and see if they were being used differently.

The internet is a discursive site for discussions about roadside shrines with sites ranging from cyber shrines to photo essays to online roadside shrine tour books in the Americas. In the UK they are becoming a business with charity organisations such as BRAKE who work with solicitors to fight cases of shrines being removed. The difficulty is in finding art photography of shrines rather than unconsidered photographs. Photographer Peter Mitchell has published photographs on personal shrines which I am unable to find. Having looked at 2 photographers (David Nance and Ilan Ginzburg) who studied roadside memorials, and read around the subject, I aimed to show that they can fit into the landscape, be a sublime subject and enable viewers to appreciate the meaning and representation of a private place in a public space. .Their images show a memorial in a landscape – Ginzburg uses black and white which I think works in some but not all of his images, and shows that life carries on past the memorials. Nance’s are just about the memorial in the landscape. Although I appreciated both works as being different, I favoured Ginzburg’s which is my main influence. I considered whether I should desaturate my images and decided against it, although used a polariser and underexposed where necessary.

I questioned whether this subject would fit into an art gallery of a museum. This subject is not a collector’s item so it would not appear in a gallery. I would like to think a larger collection of work could be installed in light boxes as an outside exhibition subjected to the elements. My images conform to landscapes which have been ingrained since the 1800’s as they include diagonals, some foreground, middle and background, trees and hedges, use of thirds, horizon in the upper third, and a moment frozen in time. I think I have enabled people to feel some emotion of the subject by showing how I viewed the scene. As this is a sensitive subject I have not moved objects around thereby showing my version of the truth.

I think perhaps my first image is the weakest as this only focusses on the shrine and does not show the context of the road. I took advice from my tutor and decided to include the road and moving vehicles to illustrate the context rather than just have a sympathetic view of the shrine.

Rafal Zaborowski March 26^th 2012 Minibus passenger

Philip Dawn 2^nd May 2012 Cyclist

Keron Dawes 5^th May 2012 Motorcyclist

One of 2 possible motorcycle deaths 2009 or 2011

Marcus Karrigan Atkinson 25^th January 2014 Pillion passenger

Jay Thompson, Ross Johnson, Josh Drinkwater,
Tom Hudson 13^th February 2009 Car driver and passengers

Harrison Carlin 1^st July 2012 Cyclist

References

Adams, R (1996) Beauty in Photography, Essay Beauty in Photography p23-48, Aperture, New York (p27)

http://weareoca.com/fine_art/study-visit-manchester-artmmu/?utm_source=Student+Body+%28On+prog%2FDormant+-+Updated+23%2F04%2F2015%29&utm_campaign=f5d8b413bc-E_Bulletin_21_May_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ddfac2d64f-f5d8b413bc- accessed 21/5/15

Barthes R, (2000) Camera Lucida, Vintage, UK p53

Bibliography

Barthes R, (2000) Camera Lucida, Vintage, UK                                                                                                             

Burke, E (2015) The Beautiful and the Sublime, Oxford University Press, UK

Adams, R (1996) Beauty in Photography, Essay Beauty in Photography p23-48, Aperture, New York

Crane, W (1905) Ideals in Art, Chiswick Press, London

Hido, T (2014) On landscapes, interiors and the nude, Aperture, New York

http://weareoca.com/fine_art/study-visit-manchester-artmmu/?utm_source=Student+Body+%28On+prog%2FDormant+-+Updated+23%2F04%2F2015%29&utm_campaign=f5d8b413bc-E_Bulletin_21_May_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ddfac2d64f-f5d8b413bc- accessed 21/5/15

64600333http://www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/speedkills/accessed 15/5/15

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/christine-riding-and-nigel-llewellyn-british-art-and-the-sublime-r1109418accessed 5/5/15

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/julian-bell-contemporary-art-and-the-sublime-r1108499 accessed 5/5/15

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/staring-contemporary-abyss accessed 5/5/15

http://www.petercroteau.photography/roadside-sublime.html accessed 5/5/15

http://www.wildculture.com/article/new-english-landscape/1432 accessed 5/5/15

http://andybarter.com/main/?p=527accessed 5/5/15

http://webpages.charter.net/dnance/descansos accessed 5/5/15

http://www.murblanc.org/larue/passage/ accessed 5/5/15

http://memoryconnection.org/article/materialising-memory-the-public-lives-of-roadside-crash-shrines-2/accessed 5/5/15

http://emmaharding.weebly.com/personal-memorialisation.html accessed 5/5/15

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y23j accessed 5/5/15

Visual research and analysis - social contrasts

May 2015

Find photographs depicting at least two different social perspectives of the same place. ‘Place’ could refer to a province, a village, an event, an entire city or a small area of a city. For example, find a photograph depicting the affluent side of a city, and one that shows the poorer side. You may wish to use this as an opportunity to take a closer look at some of the photographers we’ve already discussed, or to look at completely new ones. You might find two or more contrasting images by the same photographer, or contrasting images of the same place by two or more different photographers. 

Then see if you can find two photographs where social contrasts are present within a single image. 

Having studied Stieglitz's "The Steerage" recently at an exhibition, I can now see the similarity with Paul Seawright's "Bridge" from Invisible Cities. The sentiments are similar; the first class passengers are looking down on the lower classes. It has been suggested that Stieglitz's image was taken whilst the boat was in anchorage. Stieglitz's image contains metaphors of the class struggle- the viewer is looking directly across at the man with the straw hat who belongs to the wealthy class on board and travelling in the luxury of state rooms. The viewer (and the first class travellers) look down on the steerage, which was a space for third class travellers and had really cramped, dark, unhealthy living  conditions. However, when the whole image is viewed, the shallow depth of field and crowding of people enable these people to be in a state of being in between, as in there is nothing to tell the viewer where they are going, what their ambitions are, or whether we belong with them.

In Seawright's "Bridge", the bus on the flyover is similar to the passengers on the top deck, whilst the people underneath are living in squalor reminiscent of the people in the steerage.  

I came across the work of Beatriz Veliz Argueta on The Association of Urban Photographers. She photographed the changing landscape of Tbilisi, Georgia following the changes from soviet to democratic times. Her images show views of the old buildings, where development and regeneration is planned for and the shiny new buildings already being erected. In this urban space, there is a distinct difference between the housing and space they occupy compared with the impressive, shiny new builds and paved footpaths. She illustrates the images with people who show the viewer who uses each space. In one of her images, she includes a street with fairly old car and on street bin, people walking along the road and the new build and landscaped trees and lamp-posts which gives the sense of two worlds in one.

Within Roland Barthe's Camera Lucida is an image from Koen Wessing of Nicaragua (1979) which depicts two nuns crossing through a rebellion. This would have been a picture of daily life at the time except for the nuns.

Bibliography
http://www.urbanphotographers.org/members-beatriz-veliz-argueta accessed may 2015
http://www.paulseawright.com/invisiblecities/ accessed may 2015
http://jasonfrancisco.net/alfred-stieglitz accessed may 2015
Barthes R (2000) Camera Lucida, Vintage, UK p22

Zone system in practice

30th April 2015

Demonstrate your awareness of the principles of the Zone System and your ability to take accurate light readings by producing three photographs taken in relatively high dynamic range, i.e. contrasting light conditions. Make sure that your exposure choice renders as much detail as possible in the brightest and darkest areas of the photograph. 

Collate your work and any reflections in your learning log.

I studied the Zone system in Photography 1: Digital Photographic Practice. The most helpful book I found which enabled me to work out the zone system in landscape photography was Frye M (2009). I revisited the technique to see if I was still using it correctly.

Frye (2009 p42) explains how the zone system works in relation to digital imaging. "its easy to increase contrast, but difficult or impossible to decrease it. So if an image looks too flat, it's easy to add more punch later in software. But if the scene has too much contrast - if it exceeds the dynamic range of the camera - then part of the image will either become pure black or pure white."

If the contrast range is fixed, the zone system is still useful to set the exposure accurately. I use the spot meter built into my camera. The difference between colour photography and black and white is that light colours loose saturation beyond zone 6 and although it retains detail, the colour is pale. A dark colour becomes muddy below zone 4. Ansel Adams used the zone system for colour photography. Frye cites Adams "I have found that the Zone System is invaluable in colour photography, primarily in relation to exposure, but of course its application poses very subtle considerations". (Frye 2009 p42)

This image shows how the zone system can be compared with the histogram and if checking the histogram and the flashing screen, the photographer has an idea at the time of shooting the image whether it will be OK or whether there will be too much loss of detail in the shadow or highlights. Ideally pixels should be between zone 2 and zone 8. Anything which falls outside of these zones will register as pure black or be over-exposed.













This guide shows what subjects equate to each zone...

...and in colour.
















Image 1

f16 1/20 ISO100 28mm tripod polarising filter

My Raw image shows that there is a very small amount of blue shading at the water's edge and in one patch of grass which indicates a little loss of detail. To go one stop up would overexpose the sky. I used a polariser filter to retain the colour detail in the sky. I decided that this small amount of loss of detail was acceptable for this image.


























Image 2

The screen shot below the image shows the Raw file and histogram. I have tidied up the original image; cloning out the spot in the sky, cropping out a stray stick and warming the colour up a little making it reminiscent of the late afternoon sun. The original image was taken to give the best exposure and this is what Ansel Adams means by visualization. If I had exposed differently, there would have been under or over exposure. 

f13 1/80 ISO 100 24mm

Rather than use auto bracketing, I take what I think is right and then take a photo half a stop either side of the original exposure. I tend not to rely on the camera's suggestions because I have found the camera can get it wrong, especially when faced with scenes of more dark or more light. I was advised to leave the white balance on auto by a previous tutor and adjust accordingly. This practice seems to work for me.


















Image 3

In this image of a tree in the late afternoon, there is a lot of shadow detail. Looking at the raw image, I exposed correctly for the scene because there is still detail in the sky (clouds) and the shadows have detail too. This is an occasion where the camera insisted on shooting one stop above my settings which would have over exposed the image. By measuring the scene and deciding where to set the mid point, I was able to expose correctly.

f14 1/80 ISO200 35mm

Bibliography
Frye M (2009) In the footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, Ilex press
http://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/understanding-using-ansel-adams-zone-system--photo-5607 accessed 30th April 2015

Assignment preparation

26th April 2015

Ideas for assignment 1 Beauty and the Sublime

Produce a series of 6–12 photographs that convey your own interpretation of beauty and/or the sublime within the context of landscape. You may choose to support, question or subvert accepted definitions of these terms. Your images don’t necessarily have to be made in the same place or type of location; however, they should complement one another and attempt to function as a cohesive series

Ideas (all images unedited)

fear of the location – being something to be frightened of

Idea 1
Mountain biking through technical trails cut into the landscape or down steep hills or mountains fills some people with fear and trepidation and they would rather look at other people’s achievements than their own (Burke’s self-preservation ideas)

Decided against as it would mean capturing facial expressions which could be quite difficult as the people change from worried to elated. Not all people feel the same – to some it would not be a sublime experience. Location would mean not close to home – time allowance would be great. Not followed up further at this point although something to consider. Inspiration - video of Danny McAskill on the Ridge, Cuillin Hills in Skye shot by Scott Marshall and Stu Thompson http://www.dannymacaskill.co.uk/ and previously researched MTB photographs for magazines before workshop.

Idea 2
My children do not like night riding in the forest. When questioned they think there are other creatures out there with scary eyes, the shadows and shapes play tricks on them and it is unnatural.

I explored this idea further by looking at some of the ancient oak trees in Sherwood Forest. When taken in late evening the long shadows accentuate the faces on the trees. Or the group of trees being reminiscent of Fangorn forest in my imagination.

There are also unusual shapes of old fallen trees which taken in the right light and from the right angle look like something they are not. I only explored a small corner of the forest and armed with an orienteering map, I can find other areas of the forest. I think this has potential for assignment 1– my difficulty was in the technical execution to make it look forest like because reviewing my first set of images it looks like I have treated them as sculptures. Carpark open in the evening and accessible.

I tried this in overcast weather and it did not work as effectively. It was easy enough to find the same trees for a reshoot.

Idea 2
Grimm's fairytales had shaped the imagination of not wanting to be alone in the forest.

Films such as Snow white, Hansel and Gretel, little red riding hood, into the woods, Jack and the beanstalk encouraged me to look at the landscape which would fit with this such as woodlands and more open spaces.  Decided I could not get the right weather effects easily. What I decided I was looking for was forest like I had come across in Scotland with moss, rocks, dry stone walls and lots of rain and maybe this was a project best saved for visiting later in the year. Influenced by Killian Schonberger (photographer)

I also looked at the effect I could achieve at twilight/ dark/ mist in my local woods. This needs more experimentation.

 At low light and night, the forest becomes unfamiliar to me and routes which I knew based on certain landmarks are still there but look different. Add to that the sounds of the forest such as the nightjars singing, owls hooting and squirrels scurrying and other people around such as dog walkers staying out later and mountain bikers with powerful lights and it becomes disorientating. Freud described this as the uncanny (feeling of discomfort when seeing something simultaneously familiar and alien). I would argue that this fits into nature based on Morley’s editorial of The sublime: Documents of contemporary art (2010)

Can rule out misty conditions as it is not the right time of year. Twilight and night time happen daily so photography just need to coincide with my shifts. Small patch of light / light trails – e.g riding through landscape in the dark may be creative.

The other idea I had which I have not taken any photographs of yet is of the destruction and disorientation which happens when deforestation takes place.  Although this was probably a better subject for the winter as the workers started early and the machines came out of the darkness like monsters.

Based on what I feel confident doing, I will either re-explore the low light shadow contrasts in the forest or look at the forest at twilight / night.

Twilight / night-time shots – mix of landscape and portrait, mix of heath and woodland, some structures such as a farmhouse with a light on, piles of cut logs that are a solid shape in the dark? Riders with lights on through narrow trails – trees close together, small pond, bracken (dragon like)

Low light shadow contrasts – mix of landscape and portrait images, mix of single trees and groups of trees, tree with hollow roots which fairytale creatures could live inside, some heathland, a sense of the landscape of the ancient hunting forest, Juxtaposition of trees creating different shapes, bracken (dragon like)

Having worked my way through a planning exercise, I think low light shadow contrasts will be easier to achieve initially, with the idea of developing it by delaying the time of day. 

Following email discussion with my tutor, I revised my plan for the assignment.

The key to understanding the assignment was to find a working definition for the sublime. After watching Gravity at my tutor's suggestion and revisiting Burke and listening to a Radio 4 show, I had a different definition which sparked ideas.

Revised ideas for sublime

My definition

In Burke’s sublime, there is a power or force greater than us at work which causes us to feel inadequate and question what happens beyond humanity. This is portrayed in visual arts by expressing the subject in such a way that the viewer connects with the work and experiences the emotion which completes the cycle. The understanding of the body, science and the universe has moved on since 1857 when Burke published his book “A philosophical enquiry into the sublime and beautiful.” Thus his categories do not work for everyone. In order to find the sublime and experience the emotion, one has to associate with a subject which has some spirituality / force/ power behind it which makes us question the subject.

(I will expand on this in my actual assignment).

Looked at reality and truth versus obscurity and artistic photography.  Some scientists acknowledge the power of something greater.

Idea to represent the sublime in landscape;

Assignment 1 Beauty and the Sublime update

Subject: Roadside memorials in the landscape

Images 1 and 2

3 needs reshooting at a different time of day

4 needs shooting early Sunday morning when the road is safer

5 and 6 need investigating further

My definition of sublime:

In Burke’s sublime, there is a power or force greater than us at work which causes us to feel inadequate and question what happens beyond humanity. This is portrayed in visual arts by expressing the subject in such a way that the viewer connects with the work and experiences the emotion which completes the cycle. The understanding of the body, science and the universe has moved on since 1857 when Burke published his book “A philosophical enquiry into the sublime and beautiful.” Thus his categories do not work for everyone. In order to find the sublime and experience the emotion, one has to associate with a subject which has some spirituality / force/ power behind it which makes us question the subject.

When people drive past roadside memorials at speed, they notice them and experience some thought or emotion, even objecting to them being there, thinking they are an unnecessary way of expressing the grief of the significant others, whilst others think they act as a powerful reminder of how dangerous the roads are. Some people experience the meaning of them but the true power of them can only be felt by standing still and listening to the silence (similar to the noise one hears during an outdoors Remembrance Service.)

A campaign by the local government introduced a sign with a yellow border, a lamppost and a bunch of flowers at high risk sites to raise awareness of the dangers. The signs were removed by the public. Another sign is being introduced as well as more speed cameras. It seems that roadside memorials stay because of the emotion attached to them. Some local governments have policies of removing them after 30 days. Ours seem to stay for several years. I have discovered it is a subject which people feel uncomfortable talking about.

Research into the subject has shown me that there are different types of shrines and when they are no longer needed, the landscape reclaims the site. Having looked at 2 photographers (David Nance and Ilan Ginzburg) who studied roadside memorials, I aimed to show that they can fit into the landscape, be a sublime subject and enable viewers to appreciate the meaning and representation of a private place in a public space. I had reservations about this subject as it is sensitive; however, I hope I have given it the respect the mourners would expect.

 Rafal Zaborowski March 26^th 2012 Minibus passenger

 Philip Dawn 2^nd May 2012 Cyclist

"There are many interesting angles to your proposal and the two photos you've sent over are sensitively done. I've been trying to find a series by the Leeds based photography Peter Mitchell as part of the Art Transpennine exhibition on personal shrines but he's notoriously elusive and I couldn't find anything online.

Make sure you differentiate the sublime from just 'spirituality'. You've mentioned Burke's idea of the Romantic sublime as being not very relevant to your idea, but you 'll need to back up your own usage with some solid references. You might find something under the modern sublime references on the Tate website   - 
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/project-overview-r1117556" Tutor comments 2015