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Check out the latest post on the Visual Culture Blog 'Every System has a Breaking Point'

"The more the photograph of the world leaders gathering in Paris is analyzed the more it reveals itself as a deeply conflicted sign. The visual rhetoric it exercises has less to do with a stance on freedom of speech than it does with the PR machinations of individuals attending a photo opportunity. And what about that tripartite motto of the French Revolution that was so beautifully displayed by the masses that day?" Read more here.

#jesuischarlie #photojournalism #photo #charlie hebdo #photo ops

Unveiling of White House Christmas decorations, 2013, AP Images/Charles Dharapak.

The photo opportunity, or the photo op as it is more commonly known, is usually a carefully choreographed affair in which PR advisors stage-manage the visual representation of a public figure stepping out in front of the media. Even the smallest detail in the photo op is planned long in advance: the central focus of the image, the vantage point of the cameras, the distance between the camera to the main event, the lighting, the time of day, the length of the photo op, the visual appearance of the public figure, whether there is interaction with the media or whether the media remains in the position of the silent observer.

Yet as Charles Dharapak’s photograph taken in 2013 during the unveiling of the White House Christmas decorations clearly shows, photos ops don’t always work out as planned. In the photograph we see a little girl, two-year-old Ashtyn Gardner from Mobile, Alabama, who has just fallen to the floor. She was startled by Sunny, the Obama’s new dog, before falling backwards. In comparison to the dog standing on his back feet, she appears small and vulnerable. At this moment, the central focus of the photo op dramatically shifts from the gentile mingling at the buffet table to the little girl on the floor. It is by all accounts an innocent accident as indicated by the wry smile of the serviceman in the background. But Michelle Obama, perhaps recognizing how this scene would appear as an image, immediately tries to keep Sunny under control and help the girl up.

For the assembled press, this type of accident represents a golden opportunity, particularly for photographers burdened by the fact that they are photographing a contrived event that provides very little opportunity for creative expression. The two-year-old girl tumbling to the floor interrupts and even subverts the façade of the photo op. In the far-right corner of Dharapak’s image, we can see a camera angled downward in an attempt to capture this event within an event. In an instance like this, photographers must act quickly: there is no time to change lenses or make adjustments. Whoever has the right lens, the camera on the right setting, and stands at the right vantage point has the best chance to depict an aspect of the photo op that was entirely unplanned.

Photographs created at such a media event become so predictable that they generally lack a sense of realness usually associated with photography. The viewer thus tends to read such images as artificial, factitious, and perhaps even boring. In that sense the photo op can undermine its very purpose: even though the media event is entirely centered on facilitating the production of images, the final outcome is often unspectacular in the true sense of the word. The little girl’s involuntary tumble to the floor disrupts the sleek appearance of the photo op and re-inserts the spectacle in an otherwise highly controlled environment. Here is where Dharapak’s photograph assumes a second life, away from the fluffy PR story created by the White House, to an image that signifies the false reality of the event itself. It is perhaps for this reason that the photograph went viral and was picked up by newspapers and magazines across the world.

Dharapak’s photograph alludes to the fact that the theatricality of the photo op can be taken away very quickly once little accidents occur. When the veneer of the photo op has been stripped off, the viewer is confronted with a situation that is more “real” in the sense that the moment has not been planned or constructed. Such a moment can be compared to a stage actor forgetting his lines or perhaps an audience member interrupting the performance. These are things that are not meant to happen, but when they do they provide an immediate juxtaposition between the real and the fictional.

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izumimiyazaki

2/10

Izumi Miyazaki, 19-year old Tumblr Star from Japan. izumimiyazaki.tumblr.com

Charles-Henry Bédué, from the series L’Habit fait Le Moine, 2011-2013. Click here for more.

Julien Gremaud, from the series 'Thatcher is Dead', 2014

"Gremaud’s photography project 'Thatcher is Dead' alludes to the fact that there is a flipside to the expansion of credit, unyielding consumption and the hyperbolic rise in asset prices. While on one hand markets are exuberant, on the other hand, this economic system can only be propped up by the depletion of natural resources and the exploitation of labour. The trickle-down effect meanwhile is exposed as a myth: what is occurring instead is a tremendous transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich. It is a system that simply cannot survive in its current form. To that extent the neoliberal project displays anthropophagic, or cannibalistic tendencies to destroy itself. The dichotomies addressed in Gremaud’s double images precisely signify the chaos, paradoxes, injustices and inequality caused by such a plutocratic economic system. Gremaud’s double images represent a world that is not freed or liberated by the markets, but rather is subservient to its destructive forces." - Marco Bohr

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#art #capitalism #neoliberalism #photography #ideology #contemporary art

Julien Gremaud, from the series 'Thatcher is Dead', 2014 Click here for more.

Gaza City before and after.

As the brutality and ugliness of the war in Gaza takes on a new dimension with every day passing, Western media outlets face a growing dilemma: how can they visually represent the horrors of war? It is quite clear that photo editors have a difficult task at hand because the pictures that they choose for their magazines and newspapers become representative for the conflict as a whole. Scanning through a variety of Western mainstream media reveals quite quickly that the photographs chosen for publication rarely, if ever, directly depict the true destruction in Gaza. In newspaper articles journalists consistently address this fact by speaking about images that are ‘too graphic’ to show in the publication. It’s as if they can’t burden the readers with what they have seen themselves. There is a growing sentiment that the viewer must somehow be protected from what is really going on. - Marco Bohr

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#Gaza #photojournalism #Photography #War Photography

Richard Mosse, Madonna and Child, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2012. Click here for more.

#Richard Mosse #Irish Photography #Photography #Congo #DRC #Representation #War #War Photography #photojournalism

Saba Alizadeh, from the series ‘Light and Soil’, 2013

For his project ‘Light and Soil’, Saba Alizadeh has projected glorified propaganda images from the Iran-Iraq War onto domestic interior spaces. The project ostensibly alludes to the friction between emitting and receiving state-sponsored ideology. The banality of the living room spaces creates an eerie contrast to images that celebrate Iranian soldiers as heroes of the state. - Marco Bohr

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#iranian photography #art #Photography #Iran

Morteza Khaki, from the series ‘Purse Snatching’, 2013

Morteza Khaki’s project ‘Purse Snatching’ which depicts the interiors of purses the artist had access to. Passport photographs on identity cards provide an insight into the public appearance of an individual, yet within the purse sometimes resides a tiny piece of individuality which is best kept away from the public eye. A case in point is a 50 US Dollar note, perhaps as form of security or as way to enter the black market, which is neatly tucked away in one purse. The Dollar note indicates a sense of duality which is explored in a whole variety of projects on display: the clear separation and also tension between the private and the public. - Marco Bohr

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#Iran #iranian photography #Photography #art

Mohsen Yazdipour, ‘My First Name; Soldier’, 2013

Mohsen Yazdipour’s photography project ‘My First Name; Soldier’ alludes to the transition of young Iranian men entering mandatory military service. Regardless of their profession, education or social status, once they have entered the military their individuality is broken down: a fact that is brilliantly signified with a grid of passport style photographs depicting men whose hair has been shorn off. The project references how photography is traditionally used by the state apparatus: a way to identify, categorize and control citizens. - Marco Bohr

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#Iran #Photography #art #iranian photography

Kiana Hayeri, from the series ‘Beyond the Veil’, 2013

‘Beyond the Veil’ by Kiana Hayeri, depicts young women pushing against cultural taboos through their clothing, makeup, hairstyles and appearance in public life. The project underlines the fact that it is women who are predominantly observed and kept in check by the ‘morality police’. In this context, a hijab that is slightly pulled back to show a fringe is not as much a fashion statement as it becomes an act of defiance and subversion against the patriarchy. - Marco Bohr

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#iran #hijab #iranian photography #art #Photography #patriarchy

Did Luis #Suárez confuse Giorgio #Chiellini's shoulder with an Italian delicacy?

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