Visual Response: Initial Ideas/Concepts
In the brief, I have asked to produce a series photographs that respond to my individual curated essay title, and with the original “Truth and objectivity are important characteristics within the context of documentary photography and photojournalism. Identify where and why notions of truth and objectivity have historically arisen in photography. Explore the ways in which the idea of documentary truth has been analysed or challenged, through the examination of relevant theory and practice.” The photographs must correlate with the essay, whether I represent the context conceptually or visually, the imagery should obtain direct topical relations with the essay. As my essay title is a critique of photographic techniques, analysing the mass social impact and influence of post-production, the essay appears more theoretically structured with no direct references of photographing the hyperreality, as essentially, all post-produced photographs are continuously contributing fragments to the hyperreality. So, I have decided to take an alternative direction for the photographs. I want to emphasise the ideology of the hyperreality through a series of imagery revealing the deceptive features of the photographic medium and how the photograph can defy its indexical nature to naturally mislead the viewers through interpretation. I personally believe that the photographs should reference reality; use recognisable simulacra and common visions to increase the significance of the realism of the image - emphasising the truthful aspects of the photographs due to the viewers’ recognition of specific subjects in the frame; trees, grass, benches, shops etc. In the essay, I am examining the unknown procedures of the artist's intentions post photographing, whether there is distinctive post-production or subtle, the fundamental indexical feature appears defined to align with the expectational, the pre-existing vision of reality; morphed by the artists, almost creating a utopian perspective on reality.
It can become questionable about the accuracy and precision of digital sensors, whether the actually capture a truthful representation, or whether the artist must use post-production to retain this.
For the Visual Response, I have had an initial idea of constructing a short fictional story aligned with a series photographic images, referencing the presentation of journalism and considering the platform in which the photographs are presented; as this maintains the deceptive features for the viewer. In the fictional story, I will be exploring deceptive features to mislead the audience assisted with photographic representations to create an insight into the story through visuals. The context of the short story will unveil a specific fictional event that was never documented, as it was unknown to the public: the idea was to use location photographs with quick intentional exposures to emphasise the photographers fear positioned in front of the subject and to increase the realism of the situation. I want to delude the audience through the subject, I will post-process an existence of disorientated people situated in awkward unconventional positions in the composition, so the story would be adapted to the dysfunctional limbs (from an event that had happened? Almost like Chernobyl?) and the photographs will expose their existence, transforming the fictional subjects into a truthful representation from indexicality of the documents. I am extremely interested in the connection between photography and time, and how photography fossilises time in a tangible document. Is it inseparable or does it depend on what you photograph? So I believe that if the photographs appear void or irrelevant at the present from the public's understanding that the event didn’t happen and it was fake - in the future, the images will revitalise themselves through the mystery of the subject and recontextualise the photographs, as the observer will analyse the photographs while simultaneously referencing with the situated reality at the time.
I should consider the presentation of how I can showcase both the story and photographs together enthral the audience? In the style of journalism and news reportage, photographs are used as informative secondary sources enabling the viewer to depict the verisimilitude of the event, while the text or audio provides the story: a summary of the event. The two mediums, text and photographs, create a solidifed structured understanding to what is being perceived by the viewer, evidencing the event. While if the text wasn’t provided, the viewer's individual interpretations would dominate the photographs to enable open interpretations to the imagery, recontextualizing the original intentions and contexts associated with the photographs. Even if the photographs are unsuccessful at deceiving the viewers due to the nature of the subjects and the photographs, and the recognition of the fictional elements, in the future, the photographs should deceive the audience from the historical content and the forgotten tale of the dysfunctional bodies. I will superimpose the subjects into the compositions to emphasise the post-production implications. I then question this due to the aesthetic of the result. If I superimpose the subjects into the location photographs, would this indicate to the viewer that the people are fictional due to the technique of layering? Would it be visible to the viewer that I have superimposed the subjects into the compositions? If so, the photographs would defeat the object of deceiving the audience as the audience will be able to understand the fictional aspects of the photographs.
I wonder whether I should photograph the subjects in a studio environment? I specifically wanted to photograph the subjects on location to emphasise the banal nature of the encounters with the dysfunctional subjects while increasing the significance of the realism through the simulacra of the recognisable visions, accentuating the reality of the event. Although, on the other hand, if I was to photograph the subjects in the studio, without superimposing them into the compositions, would this accentuate the obscurity and anomalous situations? I believe it would direct more attention to the aesthetic of the subjects and centralise the focus on the subjects, emphasising their significance in the photographs. I do question whether photographing the subjects in the studio environment would make the supportive story seem less reportage to the situation, and maybe irrelevant? As conventionally the reportage photographer would document an event or situation in its raw organic form, without any studio considerations. Although, I could still use a story, but slightly alter it to align with the studio environment to inform the viewers on the subjects depicted. Instead of superimposing the subjects into the composition, I would create call out sheets for models to photograph the movement of limbs that I would later manipulate to create abstractions to the standard notion of movement, implying the dysfunctions. As I would like to photograph both male and female stripped back from identity, I would not like to ask for models imparticularly as this correlates to the theory of the hyperreality and the ‘expectational’ situated within the essay. I don’t want to curate a fashion or commercial shoot, so I must consider how the subjects will be represented within the photographs; rule of thirds, lighting etc. Defying the conventional means of studio photography. I will explore this further when I come to writing the story, in the meantime, I shall begin planning a test shoot to allow me to understand whether the dysfunctional subjects will appear visually appealing and relate to the brief.
Below, I have experimented with post-production techniques to manipulate the photograph seen below, swaying away from its original indexical expectations. I simply used the ‘Healing Tool’ in Photoshop to apply more dimensions within the photograph; exposing the subconscious emotions through the visual aesthetic, defying the indexicality and demonstrating fine-art methods and ideologies. Although I don’t believe I should preserve this approach for the final outcome, as I believe the Healing Tool technique subtracts the photograph from a document of reality, to appear manipulated, however, I want the photograph to appear not manipulated. I believe to deceiving the viewers successfully I must preserve the implications of reality but subtly altering the subjects. I am avoiding the photographs to becoming a straight reference to the essay by using cliche post-processing; I want to experiment with natural abstractions and how I could intentionally deceive the viewer through the photographic medium.