Final Image Selection:
In the photographic response to the essay, I have compiled a range of recontextualised photographic evidence to be presented correctly within the context of the project to form the consumption of the viewer for the deceptive influence. In Foncuberta’s Sputnik photo series, a wide-range of photographic evidence is presented to emphasise the realism of the event, the existence and actuality. Anyone unfamiliar with Joan Foncuberta or his photographic practice would perceive the photographs presented in the Sputnik publication as a truthful documentation from the orthodox indexical attachments and objectification's of reality, due to the mass amount of provided representations correlating contextually and visually with the context. Corresponding to the essay title through experimenting with the effects of post-production, superimposing the artist's ideal utopian expectations and intentions for the satisfaction with the aesthetic and analysing the impact of the viewer's consumption of the believed truthful photograph. In the final image selection, I must consider what evidence I should provide to the audience and how I can enable the viewers to interpret the project as an actual existing event.
So far, I have the chewing gum, pit-stack, machinery and distance photographs all accounting towards the representation of the Trappist-1f. When all the photographs are positioned together, I am able to see the series in full, at once, aligned against each other to analyse the interpretation I am providing. I believe all the photographs visually and conceptually symbolise the context of the discovery, however, I personally believe the machinery photographs don’t provide the correlative ambiguous consistency of the chewing gum, pit stack and distance photographs. Although the machinery photographs relate to the practicalities of the mission, I am not presenting the mission to the Trappist-1f as it has only recently been discovered I am presenting pre-conceived visions of the textural studies and atmospheres of the Trappist-1f exposing the truthful representations and enabling the viewers to participate on a journey into the discovery through the depths of the publication. I believe the machinery photographs don’t visually relate to the consistency of the aesthetics in the series and provide irrelevant information that doesn’t specifically account towards the evidence of the planets, more so of how the representations were perceived. I will remove the machinery photographs from the series to emphasise the ambiguity and mystery of the aesthetics presented in the series, while also emphasising the perplexing phenomenal discovery of the Trappist-1 and planets (e, f and g) positioned in the habitable zone of the orbit, possible to host life form. I will correlate the ambiguous aesthetics with the relatively minimal information provided from the discovery generate the viewer's attention and to raise awareness of the beauty and excellence in the solar system. The photographic series will be a celebration of the discovery and an informative document of the effects of post-production manipulation, exposing the results and transformations of perceivable reality.
I will employ the pit-stack, chewing gum and distance photographs to preconceive the Trappist-1, displayed below, considering the composition and depiction of the subjects and how they present the fictional entities. All of the photographs chosen below communicate the context of the project the most effectively from the preservation of the consistency in the aesthetics and the subtle informative features of the ambiguity. In the brief’s submission requirements there aren't no specific guidelines for the outcome of the visual responses, so I believe I shall produce a series of A4/A3 prints on Matte paper to reduce the light glare obstructing the depiction and to obtain the maximum amount of detail in the photographs. I wanted to scale all the photographs at A3/A2 as I believe they would work effectively at a large scale, referencing the infinite scale of space and exposing the minor details in the photograph to enthral the viewers into their individual discovery.
Furthermore, I wondered how I could possibly elevate the status of the photographic series to appear more professionally as factual information. I began researching into presentation alternatives, as the presentation of the images applies the status of the hierarchy, influencing the viewer's interpretation of the photographic evidence. I researched into making a zine and the practicalities of it to present my photographs, although zines are predominantly DIY constructed, I wanted a tangible platform to present the photographs in to elevate their purpose and intentions with a supporting context; to imply and inform through a photojournalistic approach. I will sequence the photographs in the zine to introduce the discovery, each page the viewer flicks through, the deeper into the innovative exploration, through the ambiguity and conceptual representations moving further towards the Trappist-1. As each page represents 1.528 x 10^13 miles further towards the Trappist-1, the viewer isn’t simply turning the pages they’re conceptually participating in their own individual discovery in the publication; emphasising the excitement of the actual discovery. I will align a short supporting description of information with the zine, not exposing the fictional aspects, or the recontextualizations, but simply informing the viewers of the Trappist-1 and it’s possibility to host life-form. I believe this will portray the photographs as factual information, employing photojournalistic methodologies of photographs and text to direct the viewer's interpretations, increasing the deceiving features of the photograph. Although, I must consider the number of photographs that will be presented in the zine: the 11 selected images below and the 15 black distance photographs will create a dense zine, so I should consider the practicalities of it and how it will affect the presentation of the images.
I personally believe that all the photographs selected for the final images correlate and communicate notions of truth and objectivity, literally and conceptually, while simultaneously implying a fragment of a perceivable formulation of hyperreality from post-production attributes. The selected images account together with a juxtaposition of informative depictions evidencing the event, displaying a selected range of photographs, not too broad simply due to the newly discovered phenomenon. I will continue researching further into the external presentation of the photographs to understand the best creative methods of elevating the purpose of the photographs to appear more informative and more factual to the viewers.
(15 of the black photographs each symbolising 1.528 x 10^13 miles, all contributing to the total distance between Earth & Trappist-1 = 39.5±1.3 ly).
