Youth's with Extreme Live's

In this blog I will be updating it with my research and personal thoughts about photojournalists. I will be looking into a range of different photographers and photographs that work to the same genre.

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I thought this would be an interesting photo to talk about. This photograph was taken by a photographer in Auschwitz, Poland in Spring 1944. The reason why I have chosen this particular photograph is that the photographer is unknown. All the other photographs in this blog have a named photographer, this one hasn’t.

This is quite an extreme photograph but not when you look at it at first glance. These boys have just been transported from Hungary to Poland, to the Auschwitz prisoner of war camp. Due to the boys being too young to work on the camp there was only one place they would be going, and this is the gas chambers. At this moment the boys wouldn’t know what was going on and they would probably feel disorientated due to traveling in a cattle cart in cramped and hot conditions for hours. Some people traveling to Auschwitz in these cattle carts don’t even make it to the camp because the conditions were so bad.

I believe this photograph shows exactly what was happening at this time. Confusion. When you look into the face of these young boys they obviously look confused.

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I have decided to talk about this photograph by Eugene Smith. This photograph was shot in June 1944 in the Saipan Mountains in the Northern Mariana Islands in Philippine Seas.

I feel this photograph has the right to be part of this blog because a child at such a young age should not be dealing with this kind of situation. This child was hurt during WWII. So young they wouldn’t have even known the war was happening yet they still somehow get injured.

Photographs like this would be used to so people in society today how bad war actually is.  Back in 1944, the weapons would not have been as high quality as today yet they were still able to kill thousands of people. What impact would today's weapons make if this is the impact they left nearly 75 years ago.

The way the photograph is composed is quite interesting. The soldier in the mid-ground holding the child is showing emotion and being compassionate. He is attempting to help the young person. Whereas they understand that this place is dangerous to the soldier in the background still has to stand guard with his gun drawn. I feel this shows the life of being a soldier. You have to help people as much as you can no matter who they are, yet you still have to be on guard and ready for any and the worst situations.

My opinion of this photograph is that I like how it put together. It tells a story about the kind of soldiers that fight to protect their country and also how war impacts everyone. This young child had an extreme start to life being injured during this war. I am unsure whether the child lived on after this moment but I believe it is unlikely. 

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This photograph that I have chosen to talk about is shot by Paul Trevor. This photograph is part of a series that Trevor began to shoot during the 1970′s.

The photograph above was shot in 1977 in New Islington in Liverpool. As you can see by the photograph it is of a young boy and a dog. The dog looks as if it was a stray and it had managed to get itself tangled up in the ropes. This stray dog could be point 1 of why I have chosen this photograph. This shouts out poverty. No money to look after the dog which is why it has got itself into this state. The young boy does not look the cleanest of boys and his clothes certainly aren’t. Again this could be because he has come from a family who do not have a lot of money.

Although this photograph again is a very different kind of extreme to the others that I have looked at I still think if you were in that boy's position life would sometimes be a struggle. And although the money struggles would be an impact on the boy's parents I feel he would still be feeling the struggle through life.

I feel this kind of work would work in today's life as a type of advertisement. It will show people the struggles that families went through and this is what life was really like back not so long ago. I think this photograph sums up what poverty is. If someone is not able to look after a dog surely they don’t really have an awful lot to live with.

Before starting this project Trevor was an accountant but decided to leave his job to create this work. Trevor decided to team up with a few photographers to help him on his way to complete this project. The group that was begun from this was called ‘Exit’. This group of photographers and now documentary photographers as part of Exit would now focus on social issues in cities around Britain. This photograph would be something that is the main focus and that is poverty. 

To get a real sense and understanding of what it was actually like living there in the conditions and in poverty and I have decided to include a few more photographs. I feel the other photographs will make you gain more of an understanding.

Trevor understands that his work is not very well known outside the United Kingdom but I think that’s okay with this project. This project I think works well for the insiders (the British people) to see what is actually happening in their country. But in the 1980′s this work hit an issue. Theorists inspired by an artist and writer Victor Burgin challenged the work. They questioned whether or not an outsider and a photographer were ‘entitled’ to describe the lives of these young people. This is something that helped his project and also his team.

My opinions of this work are quite mixed. I understand where the work is getting at and I think it does have a good reason to be on my blog. But I think some of the photographs are quite hard to understand. I don’t really see what is happening in some of the photographs and don’t understand exactly why they belong there, other than them being shot in close proximity to each other. There are definitely some stronger photographs than others.

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This photograph was shot by Steve McCurry in 1985. When I first saw this photograph I thought that this is definitely something that needs to appear in my blog. This is quite possibly one of the most extreme photographs in this blog. This child got blown up by a bomb and has been without his legs. This is what war does, it destroys peoples lives who had nothing to do with why the war is happening. This is just an innocent young boy.

This photograph would have an effect on today's society as it may help put a stop to war. This may also be the advert for people in war free countries to help young people such as this to get away from the violence and away from their “Extreme life”.

In my opinion, I believe this photograph would be looked at by lots of people. People would consider their position in and would see there are possibly people worse off than them.

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This is the next photograph. This photograph was shot by American photographer Diane Arbus. Arbus’s photographs including the one above are of people who are marginalized in society. The kind of people that are marginalized are people with disabilities and people who were so-called ‘different’. Other people that Arbus photographs are dwarfs, giants, and people with mental disorders such as down syndrome. During this time all these people were treated differently from the ‘normal everyday’ people.

The boy pictured above, in my opinion, looks possessed. He is holding them toy grenades as if they were the real thing. It almost looks as if he is ready to cause serious damage. The photograph was taken in 1962 in New York City Central Park. The boys' name is Colin Wood and is the son of tennis player Sidney Wood.

Her portraits are simple in the way they have been shot. There’s not much technical work that has been done in the way that this photograph has been shot, however, the content of the photographs holds a lot. 

This photograph shows the kind of like this young person lived and to have the thought in his mind that he wished his weapons were real is quite extreme. It’s not even as if he’s in his home playing a game, he’s out in a public park where lots of people could possibly see him.

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This is the next photograph that I wanted to talk about. This photograph was taken by a photographer named Radhika Chalasani. Chalasani is a photographer based in New York in America.

This photograph shows what looks like a mother and father helping and protecting their child. As you can see by the photograph they are weak. They are hungry. Yet the child's parents are still there protecting the young person.

The reason why I have chosen to analyze this photograph is that it’s different to the previous photographs that I chose for a few different reasons. For example, this photograph doesn’t only include a young person but their family too. It shows that no matter how extreme maybe their parents are always there to protect them when they're weak.

My opinion of this photograph is that its a very strong image. Whether it's correct to say I like the photograph is right I’m not sure because of its content, but it’s certainly a very good and strong photograph. This is a photograph that I think would be hard hitting towards families in first world countries when they argue or a family splits they need to ask themselves if their problems were this bad.

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Next, I have decided to talk about this photograph. This photograph was taken by American documentary photographer Mary Ellen Marks. Marks is one of my most favorite photographers due to the type of work she produces. I feel this photo below shows the extreme life of a youth. What young person and especially someone of that age sees the need to be smoking? That girl is actually 9 years old. This photograph was taken in 1990.

So I see this as being an extreme photograph as this is a situation that would not at all be socially acceptable in today’s society. Though there are a number of underage smokers around it is frowned upon, unlike this situation. This photograph is probably seen as normal, smoking is alright.

I think there is a clear punctum in this image.  I think this is the cigarette in the girl's hand. I think this is one of the most important points in the photograph. It is pointing up in the images and is one of the first things that you notice.

My opinion of this photograph is that I think it shows what life was really like back in the time this photograph was taken. It shows what young people could get away with back then which they would not get away with now. I think there is so more care between parents and children now which would mean this kind of situation would be avoided.

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Back to Vietnam for this next photograph. This is a very iconic and well-known photograph. This was shot by Nick Ut in 1973 during the Vietnam war. This photograph shows graphic imagery of young children and teenagers running from their homes after the Southern Vietnamese air force accidentally dropped nepalm on their village. Running with nothing with them and some this even includes their clothes. They are distrort after what has just happened and probably very confused.

The soldiers and moving the young people along away from the danger but also away from their probably deceased parents or guardians. As you can see the size of the explosion there would have been a very slim chance of survival.

The reason I have chosen to put this photograph into my blog is that out of all the other photographs that I have posted this one is probably the most upsetting and probably the hardest one to process. This actually happened. These children actually had to run with no clothes on through the streets to get away from the danger area, which was once home. The photograph doesn’t lie. What you see happened. Because of the young people being the main subjects in the photograph this image has total relevance to what I want to show.

(https://www.bttoronto.ca/videos/vietnam-wars-napalm-girl-on-the-iconic-photo-2-of-2/) If you click on the link you can see a video interview with Kim Phuc Phan Ti who is pictured in this devastating photographs. She talks about a book she has written and also about her experiences after the fire.

I think this photograph will tell people about how bad things can get in war if it's not sorted. It wasn’t even the enemies that got injured here it was their own people. Why put this village, the people and even the country through such a horrific event?

A photograph like this might help in society today as world leaders might look at this and think whether they want a replay of the same event where their own people are at risk of their countries own actions.

My opinions of this photograph are that I believe it shows reality. Through trying to kill and destroy the enemies lives the army have destroyed their own. It shows the extent that the army was willing to go to. This shows a devastating scene which is hard to look at but something that people should see. 

I feel discomfort and uneasy after reading the information to go with this photograph. Okay, war is something that is upsetting and if the enemy bombed these people with would also be really sad. But the fact is that this was caused by their own people. This could have been stopped. 

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This is the next photograph that I wanted to discuss and talk through. This is from a series of photographs called ‘Just Passing Through’. Photographs such as the one I’m showing you were found in an antique shop. 1500 glass-plate negatives were found in this shop and amongst them were what looked like 500 prisoner mugshots. It was Arne Svsenson who found the photographs.

The prisoner mugshots dated back to around 1900 to 1908. The photographer of these photographs was a woman called Clara Smith. Smith had the contract to work with the local police department. These photographs were shot in Marysville which recently before these photographs were taken was known for being rich and having lots of gold, but this all disappeared quite quickly. So when most people left Marysville, Smith stayed. When all the rich and well-off people left all the hobos came out and the criminal activity piled up.

So why is this extreme youth life? Well, the boy pictured above is a 16-year-old boy. His name is John Wadleigh and shortly after he moved to Marysville he found himself in trouble. He stole $13.60 from his employer and ended up in court. A very small amount of money and he ended up in so much trouble. This is quite extreme. Though this was a lot of money back in the 1900′s for a young boy to be taken to court its quite a lot. Though he was arrested again shortly after for stealing $900 I think the first time around may have been a little harsh.

In this series of photographs, there are a number of young people. Mainly for doing petty crimes such as Wadleigh.

I think these photographs could show something to today's young people. If you steal a small amount of money or an item from a shop, for example, today you probably wouldn't end up in court. You would probably just receive a warning or maybe a fine. So I think in today's society young people would see themselves as getting away with a lot.

In my opinion, I think the series is very interesting. You can able to see how time has changed since the 1900′s. I like how these photographs have made a reference to what life was like back then and people today can really see what it was like.

I liked using this photograph as an example for this blog as it is very different to everything I have shown and probably most I am going to show. This is not a very documentary piece, more of a reference, but I do believe it is still suitable to see here.  

To see more about this collection of photographs either click on the link (http://arnesvenson.com/prisoners.html) or look at the copy of Aperture magazine “Dark Days: Mystery, Murder, Mayhem” (No.149).

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The next photograph I have chosen to analyze is by Don McCullin. I have chosen this particular photo above because of how similar it is to one of the previous photographs by Eddie Adams.

This photograph was shot in 1964. The people in the foreground are suspected to be Lumumbist freedom fighters. The soldiers are first antagonizing them then later executed them in the street. This is why I chose this photo. Both McCullin and Adams saw the importance to photograph these public executions. Why? Well, this is what will grab the viewers attention when they would first see a news article.

McCullin got very close to the subject which makes the work more personal. Because of how close McCullin got you can see that one of the prisoners are looking straight at McCullin.

Although this photograph probably wouldn’t have taken too much time to compose there are still sightings of good practice. For example, you can see shapes within the photograph, triangles, and squares. This photograph is also off centered, this is something that may have not been taken into consideration when shooting due to the environment in which he was.

I think when you look at this photograph your eyes are drawn in straight to the prisoner on the right. But once you have reached him something else caught your eye, the finger on the trigger of the soldiers gun. This proves that the soldier is there to kill this prisoner.

Here is a link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=749qwPhPrxo) to a video from CNN where McCullin talks through his time in his job as a photojournalist and conflict photographer. He gives an insight into a number of photographs.

My opinion of the photograph is that it's quite hard-hitting. The photograph is straight to the point, you don’t need to look too far into it to realize what is happening.

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This is the next photograph and photographer I have decided to talk about. This photograph taken by David Hogsholt is called Neck Shot “Mia-Living Life Trying, 2003-2005.

I chose this particular photograph by Hogsholt as I feel as though it can hit the viewer quite hard. Even though the previous photographs I chose to write about can be quite a hard hit of emotion to the viewer, I feel as this feels different.

I mixed feelings that I get from this photograph is for one anger. This is because why and how does a young girl get into this kind of state so early in her life. This is another extreme case of a youth living an extreme life. 

A point that may anger a viewer is why nobody helped her through a hard time which resulted in her drug abuse. 

I believe this photograph would have a social impact. People will be looking at this photograph and begin to think whether they know anyone that may be getting close to this situation. I believe this would give someone a push in the direction to help somebody. Also, I believe if someone who has a drug addiction saw this photograph they may see a “reflection” of their life and see something that they don’t like. This photograph and Mia could save the lives of others.

This photograph is part of a series where Hogsholt photographed this girl Mia. Mia was a drug addict. These photographs were shot in Copenhagen in Denmark.

For this photograph and the series, Hogsholt shot a 35mm Canon EOS- 1 SLR and obviously black and white film. Hogsholt did also dabble a little in Medium format too but mainly in his other projects. He also always shot with a wide angle lens

Here are a few others of the photographs in this series:

Something that is different in this photograph and series compared to the previous photographs is that this would have been a private story if it had not been published. The other photographs people would have known about even if the photographers weren’t there. For example, the photograph by Eddie Adams of the prisoner being executed in the street would have traveled fast as this would be something that lots of people saw or heard. Also, this photograph would have been of public interest. 

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This is the second photograph and photojournalist I have decided to look into. Eddie Adams, born 12th June 1933 in Pensylvania, USA. He later died 18th September 2004 in New York, USA.

In 1951 Adams joined the US Marines as a combat photographer for the Korean War. But the photograph above that I have chosen to talk about was shot during the Vietnam war. This particular photograph was shot 1st February 1968. 

For the technical side of the photograph, this was shot on a 35mm camera. The main subjects are placed in the center of the frame. You do not need to work to find out what is happening in the frame as Adams and the subjects have made it quite clear.

This photograph is known as Saigon Execution. Nguyễn Văn Lém is the man in the photograph holding the gun just about to execute the prisoner in the middle of the street.

This photograph is quite hard to look at and process. The modern and normal human brain would find it hard to understand how someone can execute someone in the middle of a street in the middle of the day. Although the victim is a prisoner I believe this is still a very difficult photograph to understand.

If you click on the link you can see a number of other photographs that Adams shot during the Vietnam War. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42864421)

This is very different from the photograph that I looked into previously taken by Henri Cartier Bresson. Although Bresson did photograph conflict and violence during the French liberation I do not believe any of his photographs look as fierce as this photo by Adams.   

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Contextual Studies Blog Title

This blog I have decided to look into a genre of images that I have named and this is ‘Youths Extreme Lives’. When you look at modern and historical news articles or you go to galleries there will most often be a suffering young person somewhere.

This suffering may be self-inflicted or brought upon them through no fault of their own. Through creating this blog I am going to show a range of extreme issues that young people face in the world.

To gather my research I will be looking into a wide range of photographers and photographs so I can put together a vast range of scenarios and examples.