Response to Tutor for Assignment Five

Thank You for your comments on my Assignment 5.

I know I have to include more people but actually I did photograph everyone was that was there that day, I was quite impressed at doing so,  but I shall move forward to try and increase this in future.

I have struggled with my contextual summary mainly, like my essay, because it is something I have never done before and have struggled with whats right and wrong - and wasn't sure how to do it or whats required.  Anyway you have given me some ideas so I shall try and do this and add to my Assignment along with my changes. Now can be seen here ... (File Name : Contextual Summary)

Reading through your comments I shall make some amendments,  I shall remove the reception sign and have a look at cropping the pigeons.

I shall also remove the kittens - which is hard as they are so cute - but your right we need to move on - I want to keep the barn image as it is a main part of the Centre and is where the dogs are kept.   (I shall have a look to see if there is something I prefer and will consider it, maybe )..

Also, the picture you didn't like is the main cattery so I felt it needed to be included as it was a part of the set up there but I appreciate that the picture itself doesn't tell that story.  So again I will look at a replacement.

I shall also look at page / picture numbering ... even reading your notes I see how it would help !!

My Blog is now up to date with the course work and I am still adding other extra bits.. (including David Bailey review )..

Below is the image of the cattery and I was thinking to use one of the other two images.  The first is of the cattery interior which tells more of a story .. or the girl with the slightly unfriendly cat - her favourite - she is wearing her uniform and the picture is taken in the cattery, although you cant really see this from the photo.  I think I shall go with her .. for now !

Crowd Funding / Documentary Projects

Other Students Documentary work

Not  Our Time By Penny Watson

The work is about Pennys Grandmother, her blog can be seen here..

And also Chris white and Maggie Milner are talking about it here...


Behind the Scenes By Beth Aston

This is about her own body image, this is not really my favourite type of work although I can appreciate the photos.  It isn't something I would ever chose to do.  But it always interests me what people chose to pick as their subject. Its very hard to be original.


A Dozen Eggs by Harry Pearce

This is his view of a family album of his family and siblings.  Again its a good idea and it looks like he has different angles on his pictures.

I like these pictures and they are very unglamorous with a sense of humour about them and for their family a good collection of the 'tribe'..
His website link is here...


Feet by Omar Camilleri

Omars web page can be seen here...

I didnt personally feel that this collection photos of feet was documentary, maybe I was missing the point, but I was getting confused looking at these as I wouldnt have chosen all pictures of the same thing as telling a story.

Why FEET? This is an original project which will bring out the diversities of life and at the same time it reflects today’s realities and challenges. Any theme is a challenge for any artist. And any theme can be a source of inspiration.

FEET – is an interesting theme that surely provoked the participating artists to look at their creativity from a different angle, with beautiful and surprising results. A painter-artist, Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci and a Photographer-artist Omar Camilleri were brought together by Josephine Vassallo, who instigated this event and together, three people from different spheres and professions had to see and interpret reality through the concept and visual parameters of ‘feet’.

The installation is a path between death-rebirth-birth. A continuous passage, a continuous pilgrimage leading to what one may believe in. The photo material was carefully chosen to reflect this particular element. As in nature which is full of cylical repetitions, the photo development underlines similarly this cyclic character. One keeps on toiling and getting back onto a similar position of toil, sufferance and death. Toiling, life, love, death, birth, toiling, life, love, death, rebirth, toiling, life, love, death, rebirth. The work, a cooperation between three individuals stemming from different fields and beliefs succeeded to synthesise their artistic differences in one organic entity. Josephine with her pragmatic-managerial skills and acute artistic eye, with Giuseppe’s philosophical-artistic stubbornness, coupled with Omar’s love of technical perfection, all went into this fascinating

result. The installation is the result of more than three months of love and work—more than three thousand photographs were taken, – discussions, convincing, arguments and great solidarity – from which ninety were shortlisted, and further on 27 chosen. These 27 had to tell a story and as in life the story cannot be just a nice linear narrative, the story as in life has to have its distortions, its dead-ends, its sufferance. Artistically the method chosen was to install the works within a Maltese festa form i.e. within a ‘pavaljun’ form. Each pavaljun tells a story, sometimes in a sharp clear way, sometimes in a strange bizarre way and sometimes in a contorted way, as life itself is clear, contorted and bizarre. Each ‘pavaljun’ leads onto the other until a whole cycle with all its repetitions becomes manifest.

The installation tried to amalgamate the aesthetic element with the philosophical-spiritual task. Both had to be integrally and organically linked. Neither the aesthetic nor the philosophical-spiritual side had the right to overpower the other. Both are vitally necessary to create a work that must have meaning, existential meaning.

FEET is being brought to you thanks to the support of Bank of Valletta, Kinnie, Salvo Grima, The Merchants Street Business Community, Notte Bianca and Ladybird Organic Farm.

The Dad Project - by Briony Campbell

This is her time prior to her dads death, as said is both personal and universal.  Her web page can be seen here.. here...

I found this hard to read and view, and I don't know if i would have taken such pictures of my own father for a project but I am moved and they have definitely had an effect on me.

100th Street by Tanya Ahmed

You can listen to Tanya talking about her project here..

and listen to Maggy Milner also discussing this here ...

In the 1960 Bruce Davidson photograph a block in East Harlem - 40 years later Tanya Ahmed returned to the street to photograph the new residents.
I really like this idea, returning to a project and finding a whole new set of images, new people and new stories.



BJP online - with a little help from my friends ...

www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/feature/1936101/crowd-funding-little-help-friends



Oca Crowd Funding ....

http://www.weareoca.com/photography/crowd-funding/ here ..

Had Jacob Riis been born in the age of the Internet he may well have invented crowd funding. As a photographer committed to bring about social change, as Miles Orvell noted in his book American Photography, the late-19th-century photographer used his images to influence public opinion and as an instrument for direct appeal. Riis was a dedicated social documentary photographer; he epitomised the concerned photojournalist committed to a noble cause. Thanks to recent crowd-funding strategies such as those offered by Kickstarter it seems to me that we are finally coming full circle, going back to the very essence of documentary more than one hundred years after photographers like Jacob Riis lay the foundations of the genre.

Launched in 2009 as a web platform for funding personal creative projects,Kickstarter is the original crowd-funding concept. Thanks to Kickstarterphotographer Pete Brook has been able to raise nearly $8,000 for his Prison Photography project. A worthwhile cause of universal social appeal, coupled with an intelligent marketing strategy, will allow Brook to develop his project and, like Riis, put pressure through public opinion and raise awareness of the social issues he is concerned with. Pete Brook’s pitch is sophisticated and extremely well conceived. By engaging award-winning photographers he made sure that the web worked for him doing what it does best: creating viral connections, disseminating information. By tapping the collective conscience, that boiling pot full of conflicting feelings about ‘the other’, and offering attractive consumer goods as ‘rewards’ (limited editions prints, signed prints, books on the project, etc…) Brook has enticed 142 people so far to support him financially. Kickstarter projects are only funded if the fundraising target is met. Amazon manages donations but no money exchanges hands until the deadline for raising funds is over. It is only then that Kickstarter and Amazon get their commission – 5% and 3-5% respectively. So simple, so effective. Here in the UK WeFund has been live for nearly 1 year. As the first UK-based crowd-funding platform for creative projects it has had great success and has helped to fund many worthwhile projects.

Earlier this year Empash.is, a specialist photojournalism crowd-funding forum, was launched. As a platform to bring an audience and a source of funding for photojournalists, Emphas.is is a direct-action solution to the financial crisis that photojournalism is facing.  Engaged, long-term documentary projects, traditionally difficult to finance, have a new channel for raising funds. Emphas.is deals with donations and takes 15% commission for operational costs if the bid is successful – projects have to reach 100% or more of its fundraising target.

The benefits of crowd-funding platforms for photography projects are pretty obvious. Not only do they provide with a realistic source of financial support but they also open new forums for documentary photography. But most importantly, they are helping to redefine the concept of ‘professional’ photography: professional work reaches its intended audience. Whether that is done for profit or not is not necessarily the issue. For the traditionalists of you reading this and choking as a result of my statement please bear in mind that a great deal of the most inspiring photographic work being done out there, that which truly brings about social change, is actually done on a non-for-profit basis – think about any of the documentary awards such as the W.E.Smith Memorial Fund, or the Alexia Foundation Award.

So far so good. Now that Kickstarter and Emphas.is are in place we wonder how come similar solutions weren’t conceived a decade ago. But is it all truly good though? Or is there a caveat somewhere? I’m concerned that the boundary between that which is of public interest and has universal appeal and that which is comparatively trivial and self-indulgent may be dangerously blurred in crowd-funding. You only have to browse the eclectic range of bids on Kickstarter andWeFund to realise that. But I suppose that web users are savvy enough to tell a genuine bid from a fanciful project.  However, what really preoccupies me is what happens to all the visual material generated before and during the crowd-funded projects. Specifically, whether successful documentary bidders, having been funded, may decide to publicise their work on a pro-bono basis. The result would be a surplus of quality and free documentary work. In other words, a panacea for editors.

Which brings me back to the concept of ‘professional’ work. 15 years ago professional and commercial would have gone hand-in-hand. Nowadays that is not the case anymore. Work can be professional even if its non-commercial. The quality of the work that you can see inEmphas.is, the funds it can raise, and the wide audience it reaches out are good evidence of it. I’m not saying that is necessarily good, but it’s an inevitable side effect of the web.

Digital democratised photography and crowd-funding is democratising documentary. It all makes sense to me.

ASSIGNMENT FIVE - PERSONAL PROJECT

I have a word document for my assignment 5 which can be seen here....

The file name is .. TraceyFieldDocAss5

The shortlist of photos are also on this link and the file name is .. Ass5 photos shortlist

Exercise - Kingsmead Eyes

Visit web pages of ...

www. kingsmeadeyes.org

One example of collaborative documentary is that of Photographer Gideon Mendel and the school children of Kingsmead, a deprived Hackney school.

Kingsmead Eyes Speak’ is a radical collaboration between the children and staff of Kingsmead Primary School and photographers Gideon Mendel and Crispin Hughes . A class of 10 year old pupils spent an intensive week working with the photographers in the school, then a month documenting their friends, families, community and school life..

I have been looking at the images on the website here ...

ABOUT KINGSMEAD EYES 2009

Kingsmead Eyes was the result of a unique collaboration between photographer Gideon Mendel and 28 pupils from Kingsmead School in Hackney which took place in 2009. The children documented their world over six months, photographing their friends, families, community and school to create an accomplished and vibrant body of work. At the same time Mendel undertook a parallel photographic engagement in the school and the Kingsmead Estate. Using old Rolleiflex cameras he made a portrait of every child in the school. These 249 portraits were all used in this video and assembled into a composite image for the exhibition. With the remarkable diversity and origins of these children in more than 46 countries this became a truly global portrait, taken in a small Hackney school. This video installation was part of the Kingsmead Eyes exhibition which was on display at the V&A Museum of Childhood between November 2009 and February 2010.

ABOUT THE KINGSMEAD ESTATE

The Kingsmead Estate, home to many of the pupils, is recognised as among the highest 4% for deprivation in the UK. The estate has suffered from a negative reputation in the past but conditions have improved in recent years and regeneration initiatives have encouraged a stronger sense of community. The school has played a major role in this turnaround, striving to achieve the highest standards with academic achievement above the national average – all the more impressive considering that 85% of pupils speak English as a second language. The success and creativity of the school has long been a source of local pride. For this project the ten year-old pupils were trained in the use of digital cameras in a series of workshops led by photographer, Crispin Hughes.

Kings Mead Eyes and Kings mead eyes Speak

I really like this idea of photographers working with children.  I think as I am sometimes stilted for ideas I would love their fresh approach.  They have no fear of camera or surroundings and just click away developing their projects.

It is good that the photographers are critical of their work and make them make a selection of their best work, editing harshly and also then looking at their own image in a completely different way and writing a poem to go with it.  This can be either explanatory  or completely imaginary, making a whole new story for their picture.  Giving their picture flexibility and removing any ‘rules’ or restrictions, allowing them to look at their work in many different ways and having fun.

They we free to make anything they wanted keeping it of their home life and surroundings.  They were taught to compose a picture not just snap one, and they experimented with light ( not using a flash ) composition etc ..

I loved to look at their  work and poems, this would be a lovely thing to be apart of.  I really hope the children got something out of this and maybe get them interested in photography in the long term.   I can imagine it was great fun  and something more fun than normal in the school reportoir .. 

At first when I looked at the website it just looked like lots of school pictures of children from a very multi national school and wasn’t sure what it was all about.

I later discovered that each child had their own space and you click on their photo to discover their work, their written poem and the poem spoken on a video link.

This is great the children must be so proud, it makes it accessible if you only want to look at a specific child and I feel all the media types work well together.  In fact very organised.  Much better then my very first glance..

Post Documentary Photography, Art and Ethics

...


http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/oca-content/key-resources/res-files/inegevers.pdf


When looking at documentary photographs we can be made to feel many different ways.  Sometimes
we are unaffected, and others can be life changing, if not for us then for others around us.

Documentary has its own history and over the years there has been a blurring of the boundaries and a mixing of disciplines. Its hard to tell if something is a document, piece of information, or just an art form.

There are a number of difficulties in post documentary that inspire critical action. Image makers are managing to stretch the boundaries of perception. Where aesthetics and ethics meet each other is not just with post documentary, it happens with all disciplines.
Aesthetics stood for the capacity to remove yourself from your own framework so you could learn to see the unprecedented from that view point. It grew from an 'ethics of perception' into a concept that appeared to be more autonomous, only accountable to itself.  Previously, beauty and good meant the same, but ended in a stalemate.

Aesthetics seduces you to open and broaden.  I makes you notice what you had not previously seen.
We are no longer capable of anything but perceive and recognise according to endless repeated principles.  Aesthetics threatens to colonise our gaze.

Post documentary photographers are asking themselves whether their engagement can be defined on the basis of an ethical instead of purely aesthetic perspective.  Oscar Van Alphen, a documentary photographer, was inspired to give a form to his engagement and turn away from aesthetics and images that functioned as illustrations of other peoples interpretations.

Photography opens up our world and enlarges our awareness, it creates knowledge and makes everyone share experiences.

Anton Corbijn seduces us into another way of seeing his photograph of musicians.  Firstly you see musicians its only on the second look that you see they are handicapped in some way.  Instead of sensationalising the fact they are handicapped, it creates space for the viewer and those who are represented in the picture.
Photography can also bring the opposite, turning people into objects reducing their vitality to a picture, losing their individuality

Sontag concludes that photography has contributed at least as much to the numbering of our conscience as to it development.   Documentary made a false start presenting itself as a mirror of reality, it has too been subservient to that reality.   Photographic pictures of the world around us are experienced as more real than real.   Although nobody believes anymore in the reality effects of documentary photography everyone is still expected to behave as though they do.  In this way image perception, language and consciousness continually reproduce and confirm each other.

Documentary photography has endured much post colonial criticism at the moment that ‘documentary practice’ seems to have had its day. 

After photographys invention it was used also in scientific areas.  The camera became not only suitable for building up an archive but also used for research. 

In the medical area electric shocks were carried out before the camera and a record was made of the outcome.  Also the convulsions of a person having a fit .

These weren’t shown to the person as they were just kept for medical reasons.  These pictures were not only intended to record reality but to explain it.

These images were a violation to the person involved.

This medical view of people perverted to a monstrous degree during the Nazi regime.  Pictures of children were taken like a normal album and then after that there were pictures taken of their skulls once they were killed.

Martha Rosler not herself a documentary photographer but makes use of it in her work.  Her work – The Bowery – is about the homeless and alcoholism in her neighbourhood.  By emphasising the inadequacy she give the people space to regain  control.  These people get back their individuality rather than an identity judged by their condition and hence their life. 

Roslers works are conceived on the basis of an ethical awareness and are never just about people, they combined projects and people, giving the people a voice.

A similar approach is the work of Allan Sekula who is a documentary photographer.   He opts for a more consciously for a recognisable aesthetic approach, with the goal of involving the viewer in an ambiguous world with all its pitfalls.  His project focus on social, political and cultural in todays society.

The photographic work never stands by itself, text is added to tell the story.

His work has a sense of humour which engages the viewer.

Another example of harrowing photographic documents were during Pol Pots reign of terror – there were portraits taken of the prisoners just before their execution.  Two photographers, Douglas Niven and Christopher Riley developed a project to save this threatened archive.  They were presented to a worldwide audience and finally had their book printed in 1995 – The Killing Fields.

In 1997 the MoMA in New York exhibited a selection of these portraits oblivious to their problematic role in the politics of misrepresentation.  The public however regarded them as art. 

The presentation of this archive also came in for criticism because of the ‘muteness’ of those portrayed.  The medium of photography was seen as preventing the deceased subject from speaking.  Powerless to give the subject a voice when living.

In 1950, Hannah Arendt – the choice is to no longer accept the world as it is or as it appears, but to see the world that we experience and participate in as a complex of problems and challenges that we have to face. 

Alan Badiou’s essay Understanding of Evil,  says the artist is someone who feels the necessity to pursue a personal truth and to remain faithful to it in spite of considerable opposition.  According to this argument, being an artist an ethics are inextricable bound up with each other.

Badiou is looking for an intiating, active and processual form of ethics.

According to Badiou abstract ethics is a farce if only because there is no such thing as an abstract subject.

Martha Rosler argues todays  documentary photography is no longer seduced by grand narratives.  Photographers have moved to the small and personal.  Their goal no longer seems to want to change the world but to know it.

The danger of this is that it becomes swallowed up in what you would call general visual culture and is them made harmless by the system.

It is up to the viewer as co author to give weight to pictures.

A process that gives the viewer a ‘ moment of insight’ which is able to help resist the prison of quotation perception.  A process that enables not only the first maker but also the one who consummates to become someone. 

It is here that ethics and aesthetics merge.  Images that initiate something that is expressive of more than what the material thing ‘a sich’ reveals, have the potential to appeal to the viewer in a aesthetical / ethical sense.

A broad minded perception is the beginning and it is precisely there that ethics and aesthetics can achieve a great deal in partnership. 

Jim Goldberg - Open See

Watch Video ...

http://vimeo.com/22120588


Visit ..

www.opensee.org

This below was copied from the open see web page ..

Open See tells the story of refugees, immigrants, and trafficked individuals journeying from their countries of origin to their new homes in Europe. This project addresses the struggle of immigrants to leave conditions where war, disease, and economic devastation prevail. It also addresses their struggle to adapt to new European cultures and the reciprocal struggle of those cultures to adapt to them in turn. My approach to creation and distribution requires personal, active engagement with the material from both artist and participant. With this work, I hope to shift attitudes, experience, and public perception. 

-Jim Goldberg, 2011




Golberg was asked to take pictures in Greece in the run up to the 2004 Olympics.

As above the open see project tells the story of refugees and immigrants and trafficked persons and their journeys from their homes to a new place in Europe.

The first pictures in the video were in a multi level building and each floor there was a different imigrent of refugee group, most of them illegal.  Prostitution is legal in Greece and his picture of a working woman shows a fair woman and he also notice the men are blond too.  This shows that these people are not native Greek.  These people were forced to be there and not there of there own choice.

These people had a dream to come to Europe and hoped for a better life and try to get a better life.

There is a picture of a boy crossing a river which could have been an idyllic setting but the boy probably has a more desperate story, crossing a polluted river filled with dead fish and near an industrial area, and the boy is trying to cross the river to a better place.

There is also a picture of a human trafficker, he used to be a fisherman but like so many lost his job and the said picture tells of his journey getting to Europe.

There is an underground economy, globalisation and wars starting all have an effect and push these people to search for something new and better.

I dont think this would have given a very upbeat image prior to the olympics but maybe thats the point, we sweep all the problems under the carpet whilst we watch the glossy sports.

The Judgement Seat of Photography

Read the article ...

http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/TheJudgementSeat.pdf

From a photographic print you can make any number of prints .. to ask for an authentic print makes no sense. ( Walter Benjamin ) .

Alfred Stieglitz - my ideal is to achieve the ability to produce numberless prints from each negative, prints all significantly alive, yet indistinguishably alike, and to be able to circulate them at a price no higher than that of a popular magazine or daily paper.  To gain that ability there has been no choice but to follow the path that I have chosen.  

Photography would be the very type of Jean Baudrillards, industrial simulacrum, the modern industrial processes produce endless chains of identical objects.  Duplicates, copies that refer back to the original.

The fact that photography's  sheer multiplicity informs much of todays discussion of the medium. 

From a museums point of view the photographic print is much less predictable product than the print from an engraving or etching.  

MoMA department of photography, for over 50 years, has with increasing authority set our horizon of expectation with respect to photography.  Through investing in photography, with what Walter Benjamin called the 'Aura' of traditional art.  Equally important has been the museums considerable effort to reappropriate those very aspects of of photographic reproducibility believed by Benjamin to signal the Auras demise.  

The cultural transformation of photography into a museum art provides an ironic post script to the thesis of Benjamins 1936 essay, and retained in this discussion are the terms .. 'Cult value' and 'Exhibition value'...  Their opposition provides the basis for Benjamins claim that "that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the works art".

Cult value was rooted in arts origin in religious and magical ritual.  Exhibition value involved the gradually changing function of the work of art as it gradually became portable and, later, duplicable.  religious mystery was progressively displaced by the mysteries of creative genius, who's meanings could only be interpreted by connoisseurs or art critics.

Benjamin saw the 19th century perfection of technically precise reproduction media with regard to photograph and film.  Because of this duplication it gave way to a previous gap between the aart and the people, but now it was universally available and accessible.
The techniques or reproducibility , Adorno claimed having arisen within the framework of the capitalist
order, were not to be so easily disentangled from their role in the functioning of that order.
Adorno insisted, Both bear the scars of capitalism, both contain the elements of change.
Benjamin, unaware of the utopian aspect of exhibition, he can see the two modes of reception as providing a useful starting point for the consideration of a remarkable process - the way in which photography - the medium believed by Benjamin to have effectively overthrown the 'Judgement Seat' of traditional art - has in turn been subjected to the transfiguring gaze of arts institutional guardian - THE MUSEUM.

MOMA opened in 1929 and photography has been recognised as a modernist practice. Alfre H Barr Jr, recognised photographic activity with the european avant-garde. In 1932 the first photography exhibition was at the museum.
Newhalls exhibition 'Photography' 1839-1937 was cited as a crucial step in the acceptance of photography as a full fledged museum art.
Prior to these first exhibitions the museum, the role of them had been historical or educational / scientific.  The art museum started to become a service of joy rather than knowledge.  It began to serve as a treasure house of 'eternal' monuments of art.
The four exhibitions of 1936-38 with their vast installations, exhaustive documentation, and ambitious catalogue essays - they carried the process one step further.

Referring again to photography 1839 - 1937, we see that Newhalls exhibition is frankly uninterested in the old question of photography's status among the fine arts it signalled MoMA recognition.
Newhalls exhibition ( over 800 items ) .. was grouped as per their technical process ie : daguerreotypy, wet plate, dry plate, x-ray, infrared etc ..  Stiegolitz, on the other hand, who still insisted on their utter
opposition of the fine art and applied photography, not only did he decline to cooperate with Newhall but refused to allow his later photographs to be represented.

Newhall carried on and presented this way, Lewis Mumford raised the question in the New Yorker - What is lacking in the present exhibition is a weighing and an assessment of photography in terms of
pure aesthetic merit.  In Newhalls long essay we find an articulated program for teh isolation and expert judging of  the aesthetic merit of photographs, virtually any photograph regardless of derivation.
Newhall outlined photographys history as a succession of technical innovations, independent of developments in the neighbouring graphic arts or painting - that were to be assessed for their aesthetic consequences.  For Newhall the recognition of significant detail and in the arrangement of large simple masses or a fine range of shimmering tones.

In 1940 Newhall was appointed Curator of Photography - this was the first time the museum had had such a post - and he redirected his interests to photographys creative rather than practical side.

Newhall  went on to imply a comparative system of classification - physical authenticity rather than the technical process.  Newhall called attention to the photographic interpretation of such traditional genres as Landscape, Portraiture and architectural studies. The main claim made for work presented in '60 photographs' was that each print was an individual personal expression.'  
This change couldnt always be applied to older prints as many old photographs were not intended to be art. 
In 1947 Newhall resigned after his exhibition program failed to retrieve photography from its marginal status among the fine arts and to attract what the museum would consider a substantial popular following.  Newhalls insistent championing of photography as fine art drew the open hostility of that section of the photographic press that claimed to speak for the nations millions of amateurs.  
The next 15 years at Moma were marked by Steichens inclination not to give a hoot for photography conceived as an autonomous fine art.  

Bayer called on the modern exhibition to apply all the techniques of the new vision in combination with colour, scale, elevation and typography. All of these serve to a decidedly instrumental end.  
He wrote.. The Modern exhibition.. 
... should not retain its distance from the spectator, it should be brought close to him, penetrate and leave an impression on him, should explain, demonstrate and even persuade and lead him to a planned and direct reaction.  Therefore we may say that exhibition design runs parallel with the psychology of advertising. 

The 'Road to victory' depended on the ingenious installation divised for Steichen by Herbert Bayer, who left Germany in 1938.  Spectators were guided along the twisting path of enormous freestanding enlargements of documentary photographs - some 10 x 40 feet !
This arrangement was calculated to produce visual narrative that combine the most dramatic devices of film and lifestyle photojournalism.   They didn't sit on the wall, they jutted out and up from the floor to assault your vision. The exhibition attracted large crowds.

Photographers complied to signing over to the museum giving them the right to print, crop and even edit images, - the photographer as autonomous artist, the original print as personal expression  was promptly filled at another by the museums emergence as orchestrator of meaning. 
Under Steichen the typical gallery installation resembled nothing so much as an oversized magazine layout, designed to reward rapid scanning rather than leisurely contemplation.
Although it should not be thought the fine art photography of the kind Newhall had sponsored vanished entirely from the MoMA gallery as it did not. 

During photographys first century it was generally understood that what photography did best was to 'describe things'  -  their shapes and textures, situations and relationships.  The highest virtues of such photographs were clarity of statement and density of information. They could read as well as seen - their value was literally and intellectual as well as visceral and visual.

As we study photographs we recognise that although in the conventional sense they may be impersonal, they are also consistently informed by what in a poem we would call a voice. This voice is, in turn, comic, harsh, ironic, delighted even cruel.  But it is always active and distinct - always infact a narrative voice. 

Unfortunately, since photography has never been simply an art medium - since it has operated both within and at the intersections of a variety of institutional disclosures.  

Thus endowed with a privilege origin - in painting - and an inherent nature that is modernist avant la lettre, photography is removed to its own aesthetic realm, free to get on with its own vocation of producing 'millions of profoundly radical pictures'.. the formal isolation and cultural legitimation of the 'great undifferentiated whole' of photography - is the disquieting message handed down from the museums's Judgement seat.

Exercise - Cruel and Tender

Look at the Cruel and Tender brochure ..


http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/CruelTender.pdf




Listen to two videos ...


here..

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/rineke-dijkstra-cruel-and-tender

Rineke Dijkstras photos at this exhibition was a contrasting selection of new mothers, lets say in their raw state, alongside the equal raw, but different, macho Bullfighters.

I dont think its is something I would immediately put together as a 'pair' but she explains her reasons.

She had been at a close friends birth of her child and was amazed at all the emotions.  Maybe a little fear, exhaustion, proud and very happy, all in the same space of time.  She wanted to see if it was possible to capture all of this in a picture.

Prior to that, she had been on a school art trip and they had visited a Bullfight in Portugal.  Here they don't kill the bull just wrestle them down, very dangerous.  She felt both the mothers and the Bullfighters were in a life threatening situations.

She wanted to take pictures which showed something of the person, as people are too guarded when they see a camera today. Different from when August Sender took his portraits, people then were much more giving of themselves.  She doesn't like to force this but it makes a picture much more interesting.

Her initial intentions were not to hang theses two set together as one exhibition but they seemed to go together,  something to fight and a baby to protect. A male / female role.. showing women are more protecting and men are more fighting.

Most of the photographs she isolates, not giving much away about their surroundings or personal life, as thats not what its about.

I think its an interesting combination, if slightly strange, but it works, I think I would have gone more for the beauty in new life and motherhood, but then thats probably boring and not as memorable.


here..

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/fazal-sheikh-cruel-and-tender


I listened to the video by Fazal Sheikh about his pictures for the project.  His father was born in Kenya and he was going to the coast to document the Somali communities but it was at this time that 1/2 a million people, refugees, were fleeing to north Kenya so he felt this was a more important issue.

Between 1992 and 1994 he visited various camps and returned to revisit families. He wanted to find out what life really meant to these people.  He had been annoyed by the media for depicting them as frail and starving, victims of a cruel world.  He knew the area before the the refugees, and knew there was more to these people than the papers were reporting.

He photographed people in their own settings, in their camps and outdoors, but keeping it simple to avoid any distraction away from the sitter.  He showed a grid of work which were taken in a food tent and later he returned to see if he could find some of these children, 8 years later.
It was interesting for him as some of the desperate children had survived and lived on.

Fazal says he is drawn to places where others do not really want to go.  Most of his images were taken on a polaroid camera.  He also drew on everyone to make decisions on who was to be photographed and where, giving the images a more relaxed feel about them.

He felt that for this exhibition it was essential for him to have text because in this instance the photos do not tell you the full story, so need text from him or the sitter to make them complete.  Text married with the image make the overall piece.  Both a good picture and good text can stand alone, but can be even better when bought together.

Response to tutor for Assignment 4 .

Thank You for your comments on my Assignment four.  The Critical Review.

I feel this essay is a good representation of me at this time.  I haven't written an essay or anything like this for many, many years, if ever. This is an honest account of me and how I would write something prior to any comments and tutoring.  I liked the subject and was happy with what I wrote down.

I have however learnt a lot from the comments that you made and will approach my next essay in a different way.

I can see now that my essay is a very personal approach and needs to be more of a critical review. It doesn't make my writings incorrect it just needs to be written in a different way. Which I now understand.  I was a bit blind as to what is expected, but I felt the comments made were really helpful and explained how to improve on my next essay.

I have to do more research and not be my opinions, and reference properly, again referencing is all new to me and I take note.

I realise also that everything I have said can always be expanded further, things I have touched on which maybe didn't seem so important, even they can have a for and against argument.  Its all about looking deeper all the time, expanding on all things.

So I actually quite enjoyed doing this and feel I have learnt a lot mostly from the tutor comments and hopefully I am now in the right direction for my next essay.

The Personal Project

THE PERSONAL PROJECT 

The word document for my personal project can be seen in dropbox here ....

File name ... Personal Project Ass 5

ASSIGNMENT FOUR - THE CRITICAL REVIEW

ASSIGNMENT FOUR - THE CRITICAL REVIEW


IS STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AN INVASION OF PRIVACY ?


Which can be seen here in dropbox in a word document called .... TraceyFieldDocAss4 ..

View here...

ASSIGNMENT FOUR - The Critical Review - PLAN

Assignment 4 - A Plan


Is Street Photography an Invasion of Privacy ?


Ask the question .. for the intro

Compare other styles :

Portraits
Lanscapes
Wedding
photo journalism

The Gaze - permission given or not

Evidence for and against

Other photographer examples :

Bresson
Winogrand
Trent Parke
Paul Reas
Daniel Meadows
Gregory Crewdson
Di Corcia

Balance issues

make your own opinion

Be clear in conclusion

Discuss photos of women on the tube - news re: facebook - is this an invasion

Exercise - Tribal Portraits

Tribal Portraits - Vintage and Contemporary Photographs from the African Continent 


http://www.oca-student.com/resource-type/tribalportraits


I have looked through these numerous Tribal Portraits, a couple of landscape but not many.  They seem of a good quality which is alway surprising due to the age and the life some of these picture must see.
I do quite like Tribal Pictures, I am always fascinated by the lives of these people and some of the dress is so elaborate .. well their head dress, clothes seem a little sparse on many occasion.

There is also along side each one a price varying from a couple of hundred pounds to one, I think the top value was £7000.  I have always struggled with art and its valuations, how someone decided on how much to sell one of these Photographs for and who would buy at these prices.  Why is it worth 'that' much .. a subject for another time.  Also I presume they are to be sold individually but it seems a shame, maybe collections should stay together..

The photographs in the exhibition are very rare, taken by western and African photographers, and documents over 150 years.  This is the first time there has been a selling show devoted to the history of Africa.  Some of these pictures may even be unique.

Its ambitious to exhibit vintage and historical alongside each other with work from both African and western photographers.  Taken in Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya, taken between 1850's and 2002.

Felix Moulin, 1856, photographs were taken as documentary images, they have survived decades and now found in a different context as portraiture, fine art.

The pictures make interesting viewing, the wonder of their lives.  My favourites from here are The Dinka Girls - George Rodger.  Early Morning Wait ( bit cheeky ), bit I love the shapes, bodies and reflections, its a very still picture.  Masai Bride - beautiful in its own way.  Two Rendille, adjusting jewellery.. it seems quite tender.
Lastly a bit different but I like the sparse Giraffe picture, Tanzania, I am a Giraffe fan and I like the void space, showing the vast emptiness.  Its a good contrast to the others.

Another favourite, The Egyptian Woman by Sebah, Veiled women look mysteriously beautiful.
The group photo made me smile.. it looks like a school photo, they are tightly packed, their shiney bloated bodies stand upright and proud and it has a fun element with the children on shoulders, although not many smiles !

Exercise - BPB 2008

BPB 2008


http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/BPB2008.pdf



The Brighton Biennial is the UKs leading festival of photography offers an ambitious celebration of international photographic practice.  Its stimulates debates on photography in all its forms, new, old, digital, analogue, still and moving.  An extensive education program develops local audiences through which the Biennial aims to reach the widest possible audiences and creates exciting opportunities for the participation and engagement.

The Brighton Photo Biennial 2008 exhibition is entitled 'Memory of Fire' : The war of images and the
images of war.  Exploring how they were made, how they were used and their circulation.

The shows curator is writer Jullian Stallabrass and he will speak at 10 exhibitions.  He will be presenting Photography, films and online material that was produced and circulated at the time of war.
These have been produced by photojournalists, artists and non professionals.

They will look at the conditions of conflict, power and displacement and the radically different perspectives of the opposing sides of various conflicts.  It will also explore collective and individual memory of such images and their rebirth at times of crisis and war.

There will be a total of four exhibition centres extending its boundaries .. offering extensive film programme, talks, workshops and portfolio reviews.

Also the Brighton Photo Biennial will reach a large online audience which will also offer a platform for online discussion on the theme of photography and conflict. You will be able to upload images and post comments.

Jullian Stallabrass lectures in modern and contemporary art, post war British Art and the history of photography, he is a prolific writer and his photography has been exhibited and published internationally.

Exercise - Guerreros Photograph by Claire Cozens

Guerreros Photograph

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/mar/12/pressandpublishing.spain


The discussion here is about a photograph that was given to our press to publish, it was a photograph of the Madrid Bombing in March 2004.  The picture was altered by some, and the discussion is whether this is right or wrong.  Print or not to print..

The harrowing image was of the Madrid train bombing which appeared on the front of several newspaper front pages.  The picture had been altered as many had removed a limb which was very visible and its was thought  that it would offend the readers.

Many papers removed the blood soaked limb via photoshop, the bodies were still strewn about but this
limb seemed offensive.  Other papers changed the image to black and white so the colours were not too graphic, this seemed to them as a good alternative.

This extraordinary picture was just within the boundaries of a front page photo, and this body part
put them over this threshold.

Cleaning up this image didn't change the context in any way .. but it didn't add to the picture.  Sometimes you need to see all the horrors and a photograph should remain untouched, but this was a good photograph any way and the alterations made no difference - not in a negative way.

Questions were asked why had the limb been removed .. I would have thought calls would have been made the other way, asking for it to be removed.  They try not to alter an image if possible.
The french papers printed the unaltered picture and also other more horrific pictures of people and the internal shot of the train.  I have seen some of these images on the internet and they are truly awful and although they are making a point i'm sure these people do not want, or would not have wanted these images of themselves blasted to pieces all over the papers.   Im glad we were protected from them by Reuters.  Although I feel a bit sheltered.

Removing items isn't really acceptable.  The Press Complaints Commission bans newspapers from publishing inaccurate, misleading, or distorted material, including pictures.

Celebrated artist David Hockney said of modern photography, that it is now so extensively and easily altered that it can no longer be seen as true or factual.
You cant believe a photograph taken after a certain date because of this.  

Having seen the picture, the limb makes it quite gory and removing it doesn't make a lesser picture so perhaps for the mass media it should be done.  But the truth is that this awful bomb did blow off someones arm and thats a fact.  The truth shows how bad this bomb really was.

I am undecided,  I like to be protected by the alteration, but we need to see the truth to truly understand the horror.














Should you print it ..

http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/ShouldYouPrint.pdf

Exercise - The Ethics of Aesthetics

The Ethics of Aesthetics

http://www.weareoca.com/photography/the-ethics-of-aesthetics/



On looking at the work of Alejandro Chaskielberg, I find the images instantly take my interest.  I don't have that immediate shock or sorrow but they have taken my attention.  I am looking, enjoying the pictures but not instantly knowing what the effect is ... these pictures - although I wouldn't have known without reading, have been taken in the moonlight, and where the light has not been good enough, in fill lights have been added.

I like the effect it gives, and you can tell that the subjects are in on this set up, a more posed photo. The colours are bold and the effect slightly artificial.  The subjects seem confident in their attire.
I feel these pictures are telling me about the people and the place they live rather than me feeling pity for them and reaching for my purse.  So maybe we are not donating because we haven't felt this pity or shock.

But maybe this is the way forward, maybe we have bored a little with the shock tactics and this fresh approach captures new attention.

I do not feel sorry for these people but maybe have a sense of pride that they are proud of their achievements and of the small life improvements and we can donate to promote this further.  Helping them to improve further.

Oxfam and the photographer have worked with the communities who knew they were collaborating to achieve the picture, they welcomed the ideas and see this approach as a positive thing, not to be photographed as victims, and they are being represented in a positive way.

These new style photographs were then shown at an exhibition raising funds and awareness for the charity ..  It may be that these photos need more of an explanation with them as they don't have the impact of shock and sorrow

I like this new approach, its fresh and interesting.








Also ...

To Print or not to print

http://elpais.com/elpaismedia/ultimahora/media/200403/11/espana/20040311elpepunac_1_P_PDF.pdf

Exercise - Imaging Famine

IMAGING FAMINE 

http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/ImagingFamine.pdf


In September 2005 the exhibition  Imaging Famine was held at the newsroom of Guardian and Observer archive and visitor centre, it posed poignant questions of ethical documentary practice.

The G8 summit at Gleneagles in 2005 debated global poverty and disasters.  It came two decades after the Ethiopian famine - time is ripe for reconsideration of the power and purpose of disaster pictures.

We saw many pictures of the Ethiopian disaster with Live Aid.

1984, Mohamed Amin and Michael Buerk drew the worlds attention to Ethiopia with a report, which was said to have been as if each clip was an award winning still photo. 425 TV stations around the world, showed the report, reaching millions.

These images were a watershed for how aid agencies thought about disaster images.  Out of this came
new codes of practice.

The live Aid legacy has been to equate famine with africa - 57 countries, 900 million people and numerous cultures = a single impoverished place !

The aim of the exhibition was to draw the public attention to issues that should animate debate among the producers and consumers of disaster imagery and to encourage further reflection by all concerned.

Oxfam has change its use of images, now trying to represent people with respect and dignity.

Charity appeals are often organised around stereotypical images of victims and raise millions of pounds.
So this demonstrates the power of pictures. But these are short term benefits. These pictures still give cultural / racial stereotypes.

Is it possible for the media to present positive images of people in need? and are negative images necessary for fundraising, or do they breed despair and the feeling nothing can be done.
An alternative method would be to focus on the positive - showing how the funds had helped the people.

Is an image negative if it makes people donate and therefore have a positive outcome ?

I personally have donated on both occasions, when there has been a disaster I have made a donation for an image that saddens me.  Also I have been effected by when seeing women in Africa who have used there money, one was with a bee hive and she progressed and sold honey and got more hives .. etc and I was really touched by this ... and I think I would give more money for positive reasons.

A well chosen picture has an immediate effect but can also be greatly changed by adding captions and text.  But what exactly is the purpose ?
It conveys a message, advertises good work and raise funds, also rouse emotion.  Who is writing the text?

The photographer is the witness so should write the text,  but that isn't always the case once the picture has been passed to the papers.  They may have their own text that could completely conflicting to what the photographer had wanted his message could have been totally different.
Text can also be effected by whether or not its a quiet news day or not !

We may be suffering from 'compassion fatigue'  ( 5 dead english bobbies v 500 africans ) .. the suggestion here is the audiences care most about those with whom they identify. What are the basis of identification.  How can other areas command public attention.  Stories are only newsworthy if they involve death and disaster on a massive scale.

Famine images focus on women and children, children in particular raise strong feelings as they are vulnerable and weak, and stimulate charity giving.
With live aid it was said that people gave because they were angry and outraged, but maybe that was just Bob Geldof.  Maybe some pictures were powerful enough to make change.

Over the years has any of the public controversy changed the governments agenda ? Political issues remain unresolved.
It questions what images would be required to effectively stimulate structural change.

British peoples perceptions of African countries remains dominated by negative stereotypes of famine seeing it as an impoverished place.  On a positive side we see Africa as our long term responsibility.
The discussion goes on about what type of images we need to continue this aid.  Would it be better to have a indigenous photographer to get another type of picture, close to all around him maybe getting a more accurate but maybe more distressing image.

Moving images now dominate but does this mean the still image has lost its importance.  The truth is, in the case that we remember events in terms of a single image as opposed to a video.

New technologies have bought new opportunities - images are now transmitted digitally and immediacy is the key - is the photographers eye being replaced for the need of impact and speed. Tight competition means tight budgets.  So photographers are not sent somewhere for months on end to get a stack of photographs to choose from, but can you get the same effect if a project is rush and items unexplored due to pressures and lack of time.

This again would make sense to have an indigenous image maker, but would they be allowed their own voice? or would we still put a northern perspective to it. It would be nice to have both to see the contrast. That would be interesting.
The change in our lifestyles, serious photo essays are often compressed into one image, leaving space for celebrity features.  Can you tell the whole story with one picture, will this be the future of photography.

Are photographers just image makers or do they have more responsibility ?  for example if they see a child in danger or difficulty, should they take the photo or help the distressed child.. my feeling is that if you are there as a professional then you should concentrate on the image taking, but speaking as a mother I would probably find that impossible.  You are trying to help long term with taking the picture back home and raising awareness but that wont help that child at that moment.  But even if you did help the child that would only be so short term it would have less effect than taking the photo.

If you don't have the images then you don't have the proof of what is happening, so nothing will be done.

Exercise - Walk the Line by Max Houghton and Imaging War by Jonathan Kaplan

http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/Foto823_KaplanHoughton.pdf

Read here ..


Imaging War - Jonathan Kaplan  (war surgeon, author, photographer).

This article talks about turning doctors into surgeons and how it used to be such a hands on learning experience.  21,000 hours of training were required in emergency rooms and theatres.  A very hands on experience of the body and its parts, the instruments and how to use them all planning outcomes and responding to problems.

The first part of the learning was to deal with stab wounds and bullet holes, but it was said 'to learn the art of surgery you had to go to war'.

Perhaps there are similarities in the assimilation of the practice of photojournalism.  A certain amount can be learned by studying images, but in the end you need to take your own photographs.  Go to war !

The problem of being a war surgeon is how not to become a casualty yourself.  War wounds are
particularly awful and gory.  Over the years he discovered that their was an interest for his photographs of the casualties.  Graphic surgical pictures do exist, although not sure whether there is a market. But in reality surgery is hugh entertainment.

Over the past decade surgical training has been cut back to 9,500 hours, and many of these changes have been made possible by introducing imaging technology.  Computer generated digital casualties can give the surgeons a wide range of injuries to treat.. and there is even now remote telepresence surgery, robotically manipulated.

Televised surgery is also booming - so what are the limits on what we might wish to be shown. ?
Once having submitted an amputation for landmine injury for publication, they wouldn't submit incase someone saw it and was put off and so therefore wouldn't make a purchase.  So the question of what kind of images of the human body are considered suitable for publication is one that rightfully persists.


Walk the Line - Max Houghton 

The question of which images are fit for publication on the grounds of taste is one with which picture editors grapple with on a daily basis.
Dead American soldiers are a no no for the US press, yet the image of a war-battered American soldier
sweeps to victory at the world press awards.

Two examples, the first of Saddams sons who were displayed as trophy images, then at a conference one woman declared she couldn't look at the 'falling man' (twin towers), and issued a plea for the family. Yet no plea was issued on behalf of the dead Taliban.

Jonathan Kaplan words, "I usually find that the goriest pictures don't actually tell the story very well'
The gore tends to distract from any emotion or feeling other than basic revulsion at the image rather than the tragedy that is being illustrated.


One picture discussed was that of a bleeding dying mother who's baby son sat beside her distressed. There was question over wether to publish and / or whether to use black and white. A journalist Tracy McVeigh felt this woman should not be a nameless victim of the latest Kenyan violence.  She opened body bag to find this woman and eventually identified her as Grace Mungai.  After that she was able to find her husband and son - this picture was then a story not just an illustration.

Another story was that of the reports of down syndrome suicide bombers, they found themselves looking at the faces, trying to see, anyway that wasn't published, they drew a line.


Obviously there has to be lines, borders, that we don't cross and I think most people will get a gut feeling about something, if it make you wince and feel no way then thats a good sign !

I suppose its more difficult when the picture is less offensive, and some feel it acceptable and other do not.  It would also depend on the report also, if it was meant to shock then the picture would be appropriate.  Clear as mud I feel ..

Also when the reporter knows the person in the picture, or the name is known then that also makes it more personal to every one - I felt myself change about the Kenya picture when the journalist discovered who she was.