The word 'evidence' by definition is something that furnishes proof. There are a series of factors to concider to prove that something is true or not. We used proof to prove whether something is a fact or fiction and photography has been used a factual evidence to back this up. Photography is widely open to interpretation and in the past has been a very valuable source of evidence due to it capturing moments in time for the first time. Photography is not always straight forward and clear to understand what is happening.
All images are excessive and enigmatic. That is their essential condition. For reasons both technical and social, photography was responsible for a quantum intensification of this essence. The camera always captured more than anyone wanted, more than anyone could be held responsible for. Of course, it rarely seemed that way. As soon as photography had been invented steps were taken to contain its wildness: the explanatory and reassuring caption, the instructive sequence, the album, the forced laws of genre. But none of these containments hold fast forever. Eventually a photograph works itself loose and even the simplest, most functional document will burst wide open.”
-- David Campany, discussing Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa’s ‘All My Gone Life’, 2016
Experimenting:photograph of a photograph:
We were given a photograph from a scientific/industrialarchive, and when we were instructed to:
- photograph the photograph so that light is reflected on its surface, partly obscuring the subject
- Photograph the photograph with someone else's hand holding,obscuring,pointing at the image ect
- photograph the photograph in an unusual place
- photograph the photograph inside a book.Consider the relationship between the photograph andthe adjacent text/image
- photocopy the photograph and do it in a way you like
- disrupt but not damage the photograph in some way and photograph the photograph
'Evidence' book:
The photobook 'evidence' created in 1978 by artists Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel is a book concidered the 2nd most important in history and it combindes a collection of photographs that were found in the archives of American industrial organisations. Here is a small selection of images from the book.These images have none or very little writting descibling where and what they are so you can think of them in any way you perceive
|
Images from the book:
Experiment 1:
In experiment one of our evidence project we were given photographs from an archive which we knew nothing about and were given the task to look around school and follow a list of tasks and respond to them in our own way. For example we needed to photograph a photograph with light reflecting off it and could do this is anyway we thought was appropriate. This task gave us lots of freedom as we could interpret it in anyway we pleased and got to figure out what places looked good to photograph and where lighting was good.
My response:
'Beyond evidence'
This video "beyond evidence" documents an exhibition in which several artists explored the idea of evidence.
My notes:
- The main purpose Sultan and Mandel had for the book 'evidence' was to take photographs that were made for one usage of context and putting them into another.
- The process behind he book 'edidence' was to create a narrative behind every picture within the book and do this with a
- The book 'evidence' has gone on to inspire a lot of young photographers by the abstact approach the book has taken and the narrative story line that Mandel and Sultan has created it to be.
- The worker magazine co-operative that was inspirered by 'evidence' has taken the route Sultan and Mandel have taken and exploring the collaborative process when creating the narratives for the pictures.Another way the narratives of the book evidence has inspired other photographers is by looking back into forgoten archives and exploring differnt photos that may or may not relate and turning them into one new and consistant narrative.
- 38 years later the 'evidence' book was made at the format international photography festival the book became a seedling for a exebition looking at contemporary approaches to a narrative
- The book has proven that there is a point of view and a narrative and that there is a sequence that each of the photographs explore.
- Each picture within 'evidence' does not show one truth or there is no exact way of proving the story behind each individual photograph even if the viewer knows facts about where the image came from.
- The book only shows people looking at it one angle and a flat surface of the world even if we are constantly looking for the truth about it.
- Within 'evidence' there are links within each image depending on the way you view the images and explore more thoroughly into them and this can be seen as the case for every piece of photography ever created.
Sequencing photographs:
This task we were told to create a narrative with the photographs we took independently outside of school.We were given freedom into how we made our photographs relate to each other and create a story however i mainly focused on colours and shapes within the plants and flowers.
A story of photos:
The Grey Area
Within history we have become less trustful of photography and there are several reasons of this. As young people who are very active and influenced by the media and the photography that is uploaded online we are also aware of the untruthful pictures that we have accsess to that might purposfuly be uploaded to lie to us and because there is a chance this might occur we keep our guard up and question photos more and more. This is more challenging for documentary photographs due to people questioning the photos that people are payed to take and due to the media there are now only a few sites that we can fully trust now.The grey area between fact and fiction might be a interesting space for photographers to explore due to the unknown and never being fully sure if there is no evidence to back the photo up that it is factual. 'Documentary uncertainty' means to me the factual information that is made to show people are make them more informed however are we ever sure wheather the 'factual information' is truthfuly telling us what we are being presented with.
Grey Area - peaceful moments
These range of pictures that have been taken in and outside of school are moments that for me represent the grey area in a peaceful setting even if the moments taken before and after might not of been.By capturing these pictures they represent calmness in a busy environment however you would not essentually know that unless you were there in the moment.
Jack Latham research
Jack Latham is a photographer who is based in the UK and is the author of many photobooks he also has featured in many shows and won several awards.Latham was born in 1989 and had written photobooks such as pink flamingo, sugar paper theories and parliment of owls.Pink flamingos is a photobook that explores the american dream from an outsiders perspective.It explores still life images in portraite and landscape form,this book process took place over a three year period.A quote from Latham while he was creating his photbook is "I was interested in this idea of travelling west as a metaphore for the hope that things will get better".Latham's sugar paper theories book has more of a set theme throughout as it is following the Guomundur and Geirfinnur case where six people were convicted of a murder of two men despite no witness and lack of evidence.During this process Jack Latham said "he like exploring the area between truth and fiction, photojournalism and conceptual art". The last photobook that Latham has created so far is Parliment of owls which focuses on a specific private mens club in california and what goes on in that world that the majority of people will never experience.
Parliament of Owls:
Clocks for seeing:
Research:
John Goto:
John Goto is a Britsh Photographer who explored historical and political areas through his photography,Goto began a series of photographs in 1977 at a Lewisham Youth club where he would photograph young Carabian/African couples who would go and dance,listen to music and just enjoy themselves.He began to create a photography archive with these photographs called and called it Lovers Rock.Even though these photographs were taken in the 1970s cercumstances meant that he was not able to pushlish them until 2013 and seeing these photographs all these years later meant that his book was very popular and he was able to exhibit them.I included this artist within my Clocks for seeing project as i felt that by Goto capturing these photos are simple yet so detailed and there is something so beautiful in that these photographs were published so many years later that if they wernt they would of been forgoten.Another reason why i wanted to choose John Goto as one of my photographers is because each of these photographs tell an individual story and the only thing we can tell about them is a simple photograph with not writting of detail telling us any more information.
Julian Germain:
Julian Germain is a British photographer who has published several photography books since becoming interested in photography in school and going on to study photography in Royal Collage of Art in London.Germain has found an interest in historical images such as family photo albums as well as his own newer and contempory work.For every minute you are angry you loose sixty seconds of happiness is an archive of photographs of a man who Germain met called Charie.Germain says that the colours of Charlies house,car and flowers was what drew Germain in to knock on charlies door.Germain found out that Charlies wife had died and he wascliving all alone,from there Germain and Charlie became good friends and he ended up spending the next 8 years photographing Charlie and his life.The book for every minuite you are angry you loose sixty seconds of happiness came from a saying that Charlie used to say to Germain.The book ended up coming out 5 years after Charlie has passed away.I wanted to choose this photographer to use in my project as i think that Germain really captured the beauty of a simple life and how the composition of colours of the photographs are so natural and effortlessly beautiful without having to change how Charlie was living or putting on a filter.
Berris Conolly:
Berris Conolly is another British photographer who born in 1948 and began by working in comercial photography befor becoming independent in 1984 where he began to focus on documentery photography.Conolly then spent many years photographing Hackney where he was living at the time and created his photography book LONDON 1977-1987.Conolly wanted to capture all his photos in black and white even with the option on having them i9n colour,he did this to add to the simplicity of the photographs with it adding personality to the photos.Within his arcive of photos they are taken all over Hackney exploring differnt areas with differnt people in the background and taken from differnt angles with differnt composition.I chose Berris Conolly as one of my photographers as i found the way he could capture one part of a big city without any of the photographs being repetive or boring in anyway very eye capturing and interesting to see a part of London very close to where i live in a differnt light to how we might see it now.
A photoshoot:
Niall McDiarmid:
My response:
In the photographs i took insperation from Niall Mcdiarmid's photography project Town to Town. As i couldnt ask members of the public to photograph them we partnered up in class and took pictures of each other.In my photographs i really looked into the colour contrast of what my partner was wearing and the colours in the background.I wanted some colours in the photograph to compliment each other and others to be the opposite.As Harry was wearing a purple jumper with dark denium i looked out the opposite colours and found purple,red and orange were the colours that made Harry in the photograph pop.
A Photoshoot:
Environmental portraits:
Last week in class we all got given a film camera to share and we were told to partner up and take portraite or landscape of each other.Some of us took insperation from Niall Mcdiarmid in his project town to town where he would take pitchures of members of the public without them smiling.As this was our first time taking photographs with a film camera some of them are not how we would of liked them however we are able to try again.Below are the photographs that i took of my partner and a analysis of what i like about them and what i would change next time i use the camera.
Analysis of my work:
Within my photograph overall i wanted to work on the small details of my photograph.I had Harry leaning against the ping pong tables for a more naturalistic look and as we only had two photographs to take per person i wanted to try two different things in my photos.The first thing i had Harry do was to talk to me and have his hand in his pocket this meant that Harry didn't know when i was taking the photograph so he is not posed.In this photograph i really liked the detail of Harry having his thumb poking out of his pocket and how this compliments the design on his jumper.In the second photo i took of Harry i told him not to talk or smile and just look straight into the camera lens, this gave the photo a more posed look however the viewer would be unsure how Harry is feeling due to the lack of facial expressions
|
Creating a zene:
Within todays class we creating a zene from our Clocks for seeing project,with this we had to choose ruffly 15 photos from our clocks for seeing that stood out for us the most and that we wanted to be presented as a zene.I went with my photos from walking around areas for central london that i was not familiar with,i found these photos most intreging for me as they were new as i had never done anything like that before.In the photos i had also taken insperation from Moriyama so i decided to edit them in black and white for me zene even though i was originally contemplating keeping them in colour.When we had chosen the images that we wanted to use we went on Indesign and took a pre made templated to put our chosen phoptos in.Then we needed to print of our photos on A3 so we could then fold them into our final product.I decided to take a video or me going through my zene that is presented below as well as some photos of each page.