Hannah Booth PVD 223

Digital research file for PVD 223

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Presentation 25/4/16

Presentation Notes:

 Blog research:

General overview plus more specific family photography research

Victorian Era:

Post Mortem photography – how families used to take photos with deceased, normally due to infant mortality rates and how often death occurred at home, it wasn’t taboo.

Carte de Visite – More of a point later on but people and families would go get a professional portrait and then hand them out. Feels similar to selfies on social media and the like system. Often done by soldiers or people of professions.

Kodak Boom:

Early Kodak meant it was easy to take photographs at home. They always seemed to be ahead of photography and early family photography. Their whole advertising campaign was based around this need to take photos, otherwise you might forget!!! Or how easy it was to take photos so you might as well do so. The whole idea of the family ‘snapshot’ was born, no more professional studios needed you could just take photos of moments as they happened and cherish them. Baby photos, wedding photos, birthday party photos and nights out the image saturated world really started from Kodak and their advertising creating a need to take photographs and thus creating the “kodak moment”

Joan Fontcuberta:

Pandora’s Camera: Photogr@phy after Photography – interesting quotes from a chapter called “I photograph, therefore I am”. Discusses how his existence is down to photography and how a street photographer got this photo of his father during the Spanish Civil war and the soldiers would trade addresses of girls they knew and they would send letters out. Something about this photograph caught his mother’s eye and that’s how he was born.  Notable quotes shadow the idea of Kodak’s never miss a memory again and how the world is today. People have been having portraits taken (whether it was a portrait, carte de visite, snapshot or selfie) and using them to showcase themselves for centuries, it’s nothing to complain about.

Ray’s a Laugh – Richard Billingham

“Anti-Kodak” moments, documenting his life at home and how it was. He purposefully used cheap film and a cheap camera to capture the essence of his family’s being. They were a budget family and they were falling apart and they all had problems but they show the true sense of family which is being together for each other no matter what. He captures all the moments Kodak back in the 50s would not show, these aren’t the photographs you stick in an album and show your grandma. They’re a dirty realist genre and they work really well because of this.

Nick Waplington – Living Room Series

A little different to Billingham’s Waplington was more a fly on the wall. Again he takes anti-kodak moments but in a different sense. Rather than being completely the opposite end of the scale to a “Kodak moment” Waplington just shows the day to day life of a family. It’s a little bit of dirty realism as he doesn’t cut out the children’s tantrums or the parents looking tired or worn out. But it’s more just the unseen parts of family life and us, as the viewer, are getting a look into their lives and becoming a part of the family which is what makes it similar to Billingham’s. However, Billingham was directly related which makes his so gritty and real whereas Waplington wasn’t, they were family friends which sometimes feels like why he stayed at the edge most of the time.

Sally Mann – Immediate Family

Completely the opposite end of the spectrum, art world photography, large format, beautiful prints, black and white. The only similarity is to Billingham’s in that this is her family allowing her to create some more intimate shots. The poses feel almost slightly fashion photography and as if the children are models trying to appear to be older than they are (cigarette) but some just show them at their most natural playing in the dirt and lakes.

Modern Day

A lot of people have a feeling that the idea surround family albums is dying out, that people just upload photos and forget about them (which people did with old family albums as well). But it doesn’t have to be like that, Facebook gives the options to add captions but makes it more 21st century. It allows for tagging so you’re linked to others profiles, it allows for location tagging so you can see where the photos were taken, it allows for you to put the date it was taken and it even allows for shared albums so others can add to your album (imagine a wedding for example). The tools are here but many people don’t use them, I don’t feel like we’re that much different from the Victorian era just the medium has changed drastically.

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Joan Fontcuberta- Pandora’s Camera - I photograph, therefore I am chapter

 “My mother was smitten by the handsome character who has burst so impudently into her life, and even now, more than 60 years later, relates with a twinkle in her eyes how the mere revelations of his face won her heart at first sight”


“I am not surprised that nowadays some couples establish romantic relationships via the internet, and we should not forget that from the renaissance on many portraits have been used ambassadorially, as a form of introduction with a view to arranging a marriage of different dynasties or noble lineages”


“…photography embodies a symbolic death. The click of the shutter guillotines time, freezes the gesture, fossilises the body. Every photography is a promise of eternity, at the cost of our seeing ourselves”

 
“…so I have no problem in publishing the photograph of my father. And not just because it is surrounded by circumstances that are heartwarming, undramatic, but also because I am convinced that there, where the photograph as a manifestation of life cannot reach, we still have words, which are another effective way of constructing ourselves”

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Research into Victorian photography

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-strangest-tradition-of-the-victorian-era-post-mort-472772709

lots of info and photos

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Lecture notes 17/3/16 Continuing on Rineke Dijkstra and deadpan

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Lecture notes 14/03/16 - Deadpan Essay workshop comparing the work of Rineke Dijkstra

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Yasumasa Morimura - Various Works

Morimura’s work looks at three categories of image to ‘recreate’. These are Celebrity Culture, Art History and Photo Journalism pieces. He’s a japanese man masking himself as mainly public figures. Completely the opposite end of the spectrum to Gillian Wearing’s work as he does not know these people only the lives and identities they lived out in the spotlight. He is exploring the idea of this constructed identity that they lived in the media by masking as them. He also looks at the image of himself as people he idolises or others idolise, as in do you become like those you idolise because you idolise them? Either subconsciously or consciously. 

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Gillian Wearing - Various works

Wearing uses the technique of creating elaborate prosthetic masks to recreate images from her family album. These masks turn her into various family members or herself at a younger age. I feel that the mask is like an identity to her, and feel that in everyday life people wear different masks depending on the situation they’re in or the people they are with. This is just a physical representation of this to me but also explores similarity between family members and how photographs can easily be deceiving without even using photoshop.

In this interview (http://200-percent.com/gillian-wearing-2/) she also describes how dressing as her family members helped her with her own identity. She never really thought about the lives of each relative before being in their ‘skin’ (think To Kill a Mockingbird “ You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” but quite literally). 

The illusion of the photography becomes most uncanny around the eyes of the mask. This is the point where you realise something isn’t quite as it seems and you realise what’s going on in the photo.

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Lecture notes from 10/3/16

Constructed Identities: Portraits and Self-Portraits

In everyday life do people change their identity? I believe so, I think each person has a set of various different social ‘identities’ that they switch between. Whether this be through subtle appearance, the language they use or their mannerisms. I would feel uncomfortable talking to a lecturer the same way I speak to my friends as I feel the first is more formal. The same with appearance, I make more of an effort if I’m going somewhere with my boyfriend than I do for a 9am lecture in uni. Social situations change people in subtle ways and I guess you could call these ‘constructed identities’. The next set of portraits are constructed in this way and explore similar ideas to this, they also explore the idea of self-identity and the identity of others.

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References:

2008. Beneath the Roses. First Edition Edition. Abrams.

Darcey Steinke, 1998. Gregory Crewdson: Dream of Life. 1. ed Edition. Ediciones Universidad Salamanca.

Gregory Crewdson - Various Works

In his own words Crewdson wants to “tell the story through light and colour” (from the previous video). He uses elaborate settings and film crews and equipment to create his perfect image. As if this wasn’t enough he then superimposes each perfect bit from each negative to create a seamless image in which the lighting and colour is perfect in every way. This I believe is what makes his images look uncanny, they almost look unrealistic and more like a painting because like a painting the light and colours appear in a way that is not real (because it’s joined from a lot of negatives). He creates these huge narratives from one simple shot, often using domestic locations to tell the story of just ordinary people. The enormity of the backdrop and the work that takes place is what makes them feel dreamlike as well as the subject. He often makes his models look off camera and making their eyes look glazed, this again adds to the surreal effect of his photos.

The fact that his photos are in domestic locations creates a familiarity about them but the sheer scale of his productions plus the stitching together of his negatives make them at the same time unfamiliar which is why I feel his images are so engaging. 

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Gregory Crewdson video - watched during a session

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Work done in a group session

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Jeff Wall - Various works

Jeff Wall looks deeply into the idea of the constructed image. His earlier work of ‘Mimic’ questions the idea of the decisive moment. This photo was created after Wall saw this racial remark happen on the street. He then found actors and a location and re-enacted the whole incident therefore ‘mimicking’ it. It references the conventions of street and documentary photography genres. 

The whole questioning of what a decisive moment is and whether this can be recreated and if it still has the same sense of realness as documentary photographers. This is mainly what I find interesting about his work and the fact that he sees these things happening and then photographs them later to create a point about them.

His work ‘A Sudden Gust of Wind (After Hokusai)’ questions again the idea of the decisive moment. As at first glance the photo looks like a moment in time perfectly captured however it’s really a photomontage of over 100 negatives and actors were used. Taking direct reference from Hokusai’s painting (also pictured above) he references his name in the title much like Levine with her After Walker Evans. This is what mainly gives it away that this is constructed in any way as it proves it’s direct reference and therefore shows the planning that went into it. Amazingly enough, the image was created before photoshop and therefore was a painstaking process of combining different negatives together.

Finally his piece ‘Insomnia’ I feel is the most constructed. It’s clear to see that this image is in a studio/set-up and so the viewer looks at it with a clear look that it’s constructed and therefore has a well thought out meaning. This also gives way to people to feel more comfortable to come up with their own interpretations over it. With a decisive moment, or straight photography it feels that the photographer has seen and wanted to capture a moment for a specific reason, whereas with definitely, clearly constructed image it feels the meaning is more fluid. This is distinctly true for this image as there was a discussion within the class as the exact meaning. Our lecturer felt as if the photographer was the insomniac, and he had therefore caught a moment in time that was supposed to be unseen, as if he was intruding in this man’s house. However I feel the set-up of the image doesn’t feel like a sudden moment, it’s very orchestrated, and that the man in the photo is the insomniac. The cupboards suggest that he’s been trying to find something and at this point of desperation from lack of sleep he’s found a solace on the cold kitchen floor.

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Lecture notes from 7/3/16 Constructed image: once upon a time

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Images from http://aperture.org/shop/books/sally-mann-immediate-family-book

Sally Mann - Immediate Family

Mann’s work focuses mainly on the growth of her children. She creates typically beautiful ‘art-world’ prints by using a large format camera and black and white photography. The focus and gaze of the children again is also very art-world and almost model-esque.

This again fits into beyond the family album because she purposefully created art-world style photos but of typical family album subjects and ideas.

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Nick Waplington - Living Room

Reference:  Nick Waplington, 1991. Living Room. First Edition Edition. Cornerhouse Publications.

Waplington and Billingham’s work can be seen as similar in some aspects as they’re both about family life and shot in a similar way. However Waplington was only a family friend to the people he was shooting. Therefore he didn’t have a direct link to the family and didn’t know exactly what he was letting himself into as he hadn’t lived around it.

This fits Waplington’s work more into the classic documentary style, him being an ‘outsider’ allowed in to photograph the lifestyle and document it as such. Being of a similar time to Billingham the photographs still have the same aesthetic feel, although Waplington’s are less gaudy and more soft making them feel more like classic ‘Kodak moments’. The subject matter doesn’t always depict the classic ‘Kodak moment’ however as some of the photographs just show banal family life in the 80s/90s and some show the children throwing tantrums and general being unhappy.

I feel this is a much fonder take on family life, whereas Billingham’s was dirty and gritty, Waplington’s I feel achieves a wider scope on family life. It shows both the good and the bad times and everything in between. This fits into ‘beyond the family album’ as Waplington again is using the convention of the stereotypical family album but including a lot more and making it more art world.

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Richard Billingham - Ray’s a Laugh

Reference: Phyllis Rosenzweig, 2001. Richard Billingham: Ray's a Laugh. New edition Edition. Scalo Publishers.

Billingham’s work feels almost voyeuristic, as in these feel like the family photos we’re not supposed to see, they’re like the behind the scene shots that people don’t want you to know about. They’re like the photos that wouldn’t be included in the family album and very anti-kodak (as in Kodak are all about remembering the happy, stereotypical memories). 

It could also be described as ‘dirty realism’ as in the way it’s shot and because of it’s subject matter. Billingham purposefully used cheap film and a cheap camera to capture the life his parents were living in. Their gaudy nature adds to the whole ‘dirty realism’ in the photographs as it presents the photos in a high contrast completely realistic way. As in they’re not trying to be anything they’re not. 

The fact that Billingham is integrated with the family makes it a lot easier to take on. He knows that his dad’s an alcoholic as he’s lived with it and he didn’t know how far the photographs were going to go. This to him is normal and so I don’t think he would’ve seen any issues with photographing him because it’s his family and it was the 90s so people won’t have had the same sense of moral panic as they would now.

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Are Selfies Changing Ethics?

Taken at a memorial after Nelson Mandela’s funeral, this caused controversy over whether it was ethically a good thing to do. As most believe it was taken during the funeral you can see why people have felt it was distasteful but from the photographer himself:

 “It was a memorial, not a funeral. Schmidt says that at the moment he snapped the photo, all over the stadium thousands of South Africans were “dancing, singing and laughing to honor their departed leader,” in what he called a “carnival atmosphere. That’s far from the subdued atmosphere of a funeral, but befitting a celebration of Mandela’s life. The ceremony had gone or for two hours, and had another two hours to go. Schmidt said the atmosphere was “very relaxed.” So, this wasn’t an instance of people disrupting a somber moment to take a “selfie.””

(taken from http://www.republicoft.com/2013/12/12/how-the-right-missed-the-point-at-the-mandela-memorial/)

The fact that most people can take a photograph with ease at any point in time with today’s technology is definitely changing the ethics around them. Sometimes they’re not as shameful as others, as a funeral for some people is the only time a family gets together, so during the wake or gathering afterwards does it have the same stigma attached? 

Looking on http://selfiesatfunerals.tumblr.com/ I feel there’s a lot worse of what people can do. It seems that the ‘correct’ time to take a selfie really depends on the person and the family and I feel if someone feels comfortable enough to take a selfie then that’s their decision. The ethics around it I feel should be down to the person. 

I also feel this stigma around photographing the dead, or around death is a more recent thing. Victorians used to regularly photograph the dead to keep the memory (memento mori photography). I feel however this was more acceptable in their time as death was something that happened in the home and infant death was a lot more common so the only way they were going to remember them was through this.