#lizham

[garyyyzhao]

Week4 Liz Ham review

Week4  Liz Ham                     Hang Zhao  13727565

 The keynote speaker in week4 is Liz Ham, as a black and white portrait photographer. She has displayed many works in her lecture. For example, she wrote a book called Punk Girl. In the work, the shape of the characters and the viewers resonate with the photography. At the same time I also have some doubts.

I was curious at the time, shouldn't punk girls use colour to add to the picture? My starting point of thinking is to have a good sense of creative colour matching with punk itself, but since the photos are all black and white, the viewers can focus more on the characters themselves. The original purpose of finding ideas about punk girls on the Internet was to reflect the often controversial collisions between politics, fashion and music that are usually associated with punk sports. Punk girls urged against stereotyped influences to explain how Australian women can use their lives and bodies to guide and develop new situations through their original punk spirit and aesthetic concepts. It is also because of these factors that I dispel why punk photography is not. Colour obsessions are mostly derived from the portrayal of characters.

                https://www.amazon.com/Punk-Girls-artist-Price-introduction/dp/0648059812

On the other hand, it is the fashion photography done by Liz. I also resonate with it. In the current society, more works are derived from fashion, but I wonder whether these are commercial photography. According to Liz Ham Art Monthly, Ham believes that fashion has never stopped, it seems that the same shapes and styles always appear over and over again. I feel sympathy for her statement. Fashion is everywhere. It is not surprising even if it appears in business. In the end, she provided a post-modern style of fashion photography, further emphasizing the use of contemporary clothing.

[janaibrahim]

Liz Ham: Subculture

Liz Ham, Teddy Girls for Oyster Magazine, 2009

Liz Ham morphs fashion and documentary photography together through her candid shots which further give off elements of nostalgia and humour. She herself once identifying as a punk, hippy, goth and raver, is aware of the “parallels she draws between herself and her subjects” (Smith, 2011). Hence, why Ham refers to her photography as a way of documenting memories in her life with the people she surrounded herself with. These subjects are usually part of “tribes committed to whatever subculture at the time” (Smith, 2011). Through this, she captures a diverse range of people from different cultures/subcultures, ages and genders which plays a big role in her ability to harmoniously collaborate with different people.

“I’ve always been a part of subcultures, not so much anymore, but I’m still fascinated by them.” (Smith and Ham, 2011)

Inspired by Ken Russell’s Picture Post documentary of Teddy Girls in 1955, Ham’s take on her own Teddy Girls series highlights the grungy aesthetics and androgynous fashion adorned by young women. The images feel quite candid, with little to no direction and are exploring the free-spirited side of youth culture which was referenced from the 50s.

Liz Ham, Punk Girls, 2017

Ham’s Series Punk Girls further explores women part of, yet another subculture adorned in extravagant outfits, wild hair colours/styles, and piercing makeup looks. Her fashion and documentary crossover in Punk Girls celebrates these minorities while they may be viewed negatively by others in the public eye. Ham’s inclusiveness is evident through her desire to photograph all women who had responded to her flyers in the casting process for Punk Girls. In fact, Ham deems that there was “no casting process” and all people who “responded to the flyer were included” (Ham, 2020).

References:

Ham, L. (2021). Liz Ham Lecture [80067 Photography Guest Lecture Program]. UTS Canvas. https://canvas.uts.edu.au/

Ham, L. (2017). Punk Girls [Photograph]. Punk Girls Book.https://www.punkgirlsbook.com/

Ham, L. (2009). Teddy Girls [Photograph]. Oyster Magazine. http://www.oystermag.com/

Oakley Smith, M. (2011). Liz Ham: Postwar to punk. Art Monthly Australia, #242, 44–47

[rebeccasbrain]

Book 3 is underway and I'm getting inspiration from the Punk Girls series by @lizhamdotcom Liz is an old friend and an amazing photographer and her photo series is coming out world wide in November. Expect to see a lot more reposts from me on this! 👩‍🎤🎸 ・・・ Happy International Women's Day! Here's @le_pie_music with her band The Lonely Girls for #PunkGirlsBook being released late this year. Le Pie and all of the women I have come into contact with on this project give me so much hope for the future. There is a powerful movement happening all over the world, and I salute you radical, fierce women and female identifying folk out there making it happen, encouraging each other, challenging stereotypes and just being bad ass boss bitches!! 💪💅🙌 #punkgirls #internationalwomensday #powerbabes #powerbabesunite #lizham #LePie #thelonelygirls hair and makeup @keziah_sugarat_mua post production @grace_testa

[phaseoneaustralia]

“The tethering never dropped off, the focus was bang on, and fast, and always where I wanted it to be! Most importantly I achieved a film like quality that I haven’t really seen in Digital“ Spanning two decades, Liz Ham's work is both broad in form and appeal, comprising a signature style of humour, nostalgia and narrative. Here she takes the Phase One XF and IQ3 60 for a test over 2 days and 90 looks!  “It has been quite a few years since I have had a good play with a Medium Format Digital camera… mostly because I finally bit the bullet and invested in a DSLR system and stopped hiring the P40+ on EVERY shoot! Also because there were always little issue I had with the old systems… How much has changed in a few years though! The first impression I had was just how lovely it was to hold the Phase One XF, i love touchy feely things, good ergonomics, and have always felt really happy hand-holding medium format cameras. My first proper camera was the Mamiya 645, so it’s kind of like returning home for me… On this particular shoot the brief was EPIC so I wasn’t at all sure the Phase One would handle it! The project was for the UTS fashion design honours graduate students, each year UTS produces a beautiful printed book for the graduate collection, and this years theme was ‘Process’ - I felt it would be fun to throw this incredible high end camera in the mix, and was also going to use my DSLR, and my 1960’s polaroid rangefinder.  We had to execute around 90 separate shots, all of which required different settings, lighting, and general moods. Some were lit with beautiful soft flash lighting, others utilising a speed-light combined with fill flash, others were outdoors and some lit with the ambient light in my studio. 40 student designers, 90 looks, 3 models, 2 days and a crew of what felt like 20 on set!! I quickly put away my DSLR… Each and every person on the shoot was blown away by the beautiful quality of these Phase XF files… where I would usually struggle in a situation with super contrasty sunlight and hard shadow, the camera’s great dynamic range held it all together. I began to realise how this camera was serving us best when a close up examination of a file showed the most unbelievable detail and focus on the most minute and delicate of details, it was really doing justice to the designers and their amazing hard work. What I always look for (and hope to achieve) in my photographs was happening so effortlessly and with none of the pesky old problems and glitches I used to experience in Digital Medium Format cameras. The tethering never dropped off, the focus was bang on, and fast, and always where I wanted it to be! Most importantly I achieved a film like quality that I haven’t really seen in Digital before…The lenses we used on the day were absolutely beautiful. I was mostly handling the camera off tripod, and sometimes in very low light, at very shallow depth of fields and not un-reasonable ISO’s - situations that would usually be a complete fail with a DSLR. I can’t wait to use this amazing camera again soon!”

photos by Liz Ham behind the scenes photos by Ben Pyke