Exercise - Seeing is Believing (PAGE 82)

SEEING IS BELIEVING 

http://www.weareoca.com/photography/seeing-is-believing/

This article is all about Bin Laden's death and whether we need to see photographic evidence.  I remember quite clearly at the time that I felt I did want to see evidence .. I was really unbelieving of the whole affair.

But also I have always felt that who was Bin Laden anyway.  They all look the same in their dress and long beards.  ( not too PC I know but honest )I would have walked past him in the street I'm sure.

And that really is how I feel, I do want photographic evidence to prove his death.  But then even if we were to look at a photograph of a dead Bin Laden how for definite would we know it to be him.

Reading everyone else's comments I think we all feel the same.  One interesting comment was that forensic students were taught to use film cameras when taking photos for evidence so that the pictures could not be manipulated in photoshop, but I think even that now isn't the case, digital is used. But would make sense and be more convincing.

I would want some DNA !!!

Exercise - Jeff Wall in Pluk Magazine

JEFF WALL - HOLE IN THE WALL 


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

Jeff Wall pictures can be seen here....


A View From an Apartment  2004

This is the newest of 50 works in the long awaited Jeff Wall Retrospective at the Tate Modern.  In the picture above two young women occupy the cluttered but orderly modern interior dominated by the
imposing Vancouver docks outside their apartment window.  Impossibly real, the photograph is the result of a laborious process of intricate fakery whereby the docks are as sharply defined as the upholstery.  By merging seamlessly more than 100 individual still life images taken during the course of several weeks, both at the apartment and on a purpose built set, the camera effectively imitates the hi res  immediacy of human sight.

The cinematographic technique described as 'near-documentary'has made his photographs influential, although Wall insists that cinematography is just a way of practicing photography ( 30% of my pictures are straight photographs ). The snapshots that many of thee pictures resemble are in fact a collection of momentary details reassembled long after the event.  Rather than the pursuit of authenticity, traditionally the poetic principle of photo journalism, it is the authenticating eye of the audience that Wall is, at times
playful with.  The photographs meaning comes from how we look for that which is absent.

Walls photography has come to occupy the uncertain in between space of the storytellers.
'Writing is something to experience' Wall says 'and my pictures are made from my experience.'

Seeing Walls pictures in the flesh its hard not to notice an otherwise undetectable seam that runs through the middle of many of the transparencies, suggesting that two prints had been sown together in order to achieve the grand master piece.  He now has a printer large enough to avoid the 'seams'..
Walls abiding preoccupation with the fabricated nature of his images and ultimately his ambitions to both foreground such artifice whilst simultaneuosly masking it.

Exercise - Hasan and Husain Essop - Figures and Fictions

HASAN AND HUSAIN ESSOP - FIGURES AND FICTIONS 

Hasan and Husain's images can be seen.. here..

Watch the video at the link below..

http://www.vam.ac.uk/channel/people/photography/figures_and_fictions_hasan_and_husain_essop/

Hasan and Husain are twin brothers and they live in Cape Town, South Africa.  They are both artist and Photographers, although you wont find any pictures in their parents home.  The islamic law forbids
them to have pictures of other people or to display them.  The way they got round this was to use themselves as the models.

The images are about themselves and other young people who are interested in the pop culture and media, but also they still have to stick to their strict islamic religion. Its an East meets West conflict.

They think together about ideas then act them out taking up all the positions and making the required photo.  Its the muslim islamic life in Cape Town.  They go to the location armed with cameras, tripod, etc .. and start with a series of test shots then working through to the final. They work well together managing to produce the image they were both thinking of.

You really get a feel for these photographs of the strong islamic religion which the young people adhere to but they are bursting to be like the west and enjoy the same things.

They twins are very religious but can see the changes and the wonder what the next generations will be like, whether the religion will stay as strong.

I really like the way they have improvised and used themselves in all the pictures, they didn't see that as a problem - I probably wouldn't even have thought of that.

Exercise - Think Global, Act Local by Diane Smyth TOM HUNTER

THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL  -  DIANE SMYTH

http://www.tomhunter.org/think-global-act-local/


Tom Hunter explores themes that depict his local neighbourhood, wanting to show Hackney in a different or better light to how its normally portrayed in the papers.

Three years ago Paul Wombell curated a group exhibition in Madrid drawing the attention to  a small but growing band of photographers who were responding to the world at a local, neighbourhood level.
Arguing that they offered an important counterpart to the 'totalised view of the world' .
Because Hunter had spent 10 years in his local area it offered more depth to his work.
Hunter agrees with Wombell on two counts, undoubtably his work is local, an attempt to 'think global, act local. - shooting friends and local hackney people.  And secondly, he concurs about the failed promise of technology - he prefers the more traditional approach and uses a Wista 4x5 and a large format pinhole.  He says its not about the camera equipment, its about capturing the light. You don't
need to spend thousands on a camera to get a good picture ( better not tell my husband this or he might get a refund on my Christmas present ).
He says he likes to take his time and take three really slow thought out pictures, rather then rush around snapping loads.

Tom Hunter was born in 1965 in Dorset, leaving school at 15 and working as a labourer, which he hated.  He then became a tree surgeon which allowed him to travel, he took his camera and discovered photography.  On his return he decided to take a photography degree. He graduated with a first class honours degree.

He began taking pictures of his neighbours of Hackney where he was living in a squat.  He was sick of seeing similar pictures taken in black and white and nearly always giving off a bad image.  He decided to take his pictures in colour and try and give a new feel.

His work was shown at the museum of London but his breakthrough came when the picture (shown Below )  won a photographic Portrait Award in 1998.

With regard to his work he said "its nice to be in your own backyard, rather than being the great white explorer, Anthropologists going off to deepest Africa to see other cultures don't realise whats going on on their own doorstep."

Hunters art historical references are designed to lend gravity to the people and scenes he depicts.
He feels the medium is a part of the message, and he is happy to use elements of fiction in his work. At the very least posing his subjects, and at most staging the whole scene.
He argues that his fictions aren't necessarily less truthful than straight documentary.
He says.. Newspaper stories are historical narratives of our time..

He favours photography because it has its feet in reality - where as painting is always an abstraction.  All his work is taken on location, so no matter how staged some of the elements are, they retain an historical veracity.

The image below of the girl he see as an historical document.  Photography does that, it captures time.  You can slightly alter the scene, you can bring in a fiction in a way, but underlying it the core foundations are reality.

There are advantages and disadvantages for having your work in exhibitions. You don't have people editing your work without your permission.  A downside is that I becomes a product for the wealthy, both viewing and buying but you want to give your message to all.  He now has control over where and when his work is shown, and the text that goes with it is his own not someone else's.

Tom Hunter aims to act locally and then get the message out to as many people as possible.  He wants to talk to everyone so that the same mistakes are not repeated.


TOM HUNTER


http://www.tomhunter.org/

http://www.tomhunter.org/html/news.php



ttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zt7ky

TOM HUNTER  Video can be seen here..

I listened to Tom Hunter on the BBC 3 recording.  The name wasn't familiar to me but I seem to have a recollection of him once he started talking and telling his story.

He left school at 15 and worked various jobs, he settled on as a tree surgeon.
He lived in a squat in Hackney and he study for a photography degree in 1994, he was a very keen student.  His main inspiration was Johan Vemeer.  His first photographs were 5"x 4" transparencies, they showed all lovely colours when on a light box and he was completely transfixed.  The images he took of his street and surrounding areas looked like a cathedral in his imagination.

His photographs 'The Ghetto' he showed to his lecturers and they suggested that he look at the artist Vermeer - The Golden Age of Dutch painting.

When he came across Vermeer he was transfixed by his use of colour and lighting.  He was intrigued and inspired by his life and art.  He wrote in his appraisal for his degree show quoting Vermeer as his influence.

He had a couple of years travelling before returning to London and the squat.  Which he was subsequently evicted from, along with his friends.  The picture above is of a girl with her baby who have received an eviction notice.  He took the photo in the style of Vermeer.
It took a long time for him to find his voice in his work.
He studied Vermeer further finding out more details and facts.  A lot of his work was open to interpretations and he used the camera to study optical images and effects, he used for his compositional arrangements.

Hunter likes that the camera never lies - photographs are real but can be manipulated by the photographer to create an image.
Vermeer worked closely with the local communities, intimate scenes and minute details.

People expected Hunter to produce harsh black and white images probably because of his subject matter and how he was as a person, taking pictures of squatters, travellers, drug taking, fights with bailiffs but his work was always influenced by Vermeer.  He too stayed local in his environment of Hackney.  Photography the local people and surroundings, which he has done for 25 years.
He likes to make the Ordinary, extraordinary.

Exercise - England Uncensored - Peter Dench

PETER DENCH - ENGLAND UNCENSORED


Images can be seen here ..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/17190001

For the past ten years Peter Dench has been photographing the antics of the english.  He studied at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art & Design and was inspired by people like Bill Brandt and Tony Ray Jones.

Peter liked the idea of not having to travel to produce his work - getting on a bus to take photos ! and making people laugh and think was a good thing to do with your photos.

He has worked in over 50 countries with a wide range of clients.

Growing up by the sea, he was drawn to Martin Parr look at New Brighton.  (The Last Resort ).  He said the bright colours of the deck chairs and punch and judy reminded him of his childhood.  As it did many I expect .. After experience of working abroad it clarified just how different, fabulous, and at times ridiculous the english are.
His book - England Uncensored - reflects this view.  Its is not simply a compilation of clever photographs, there is a voice within the work, one that offers a social commentary.

 His work Drinking of England was published across 11 pages of the Sunday Times and went on to win a World Press Photo Award.

He was conscious to continue the humour approach with underlying social commentary to themes.  Themes of ethnicity, love, the weather, clothing and food.  Peter says.. the humour disarms the viewer allowing the impact of a more serious image dropped into sequence to be tenfold.

He wanted to record what was familiar to him from his youth, along with things that were not - posh schools, social summer events, jollies and jamborees.  This would create a rounded look at the english both geographically and socially.

Peter made a pilgrimage to New Brighton and re traced some of the photos take by Martin Parr.

Peters work was published in the jubilee year - its important for us as a nation to remember who we really are, wart and all.

Most of the pictures have a humour about them.  Some may feel it as mickey taking, and it is both I suppose.  But it is the eccentric British public do silly humorous things and it is a skill to capture the humour on camera for others to enjoy.  I feel it definitely works, as long as there are some borders to keep to so that people do not become offended by their own image. I should think most people can see the funny side of things.  But care would have to be taken as maybe someone could be sensitive about their 'combover' hairstyle !!

Exercise - Martin Parr - Photographic Works 1971 - 2000

MARTIN PARR - Val Williams 


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


Val Williams discusses the career of Martin Parr and I have taken the following notes ..

Martin Parr is arguable the most influential and innovative figure in social documentary photography.
He is humorous, provocative and has a distinct vision.

He was born in 1952 and was bought up in suburban Surrey- described by him as drab, suburban and
dreary.  His Grandfather , who lived in Yorkshire, was a photographer and was a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.  He was self taught and his enthusiasm had an impact on Martin who visited regularly.

It was his grandfather George who first took him to northern seaside resorts. Martin was fascinated by the brash side of English life.   At the age of 15 he visited a Bill Brandt exhibition and it had a profound effect on him. His first series was of Harry Ramsdens Fish and Chip restaurant.

In 1970 he studied at Manchester Polytechnic college to study photography. It was after this that he moved to Hebden Bridge, in his 20's. His personal interest in Britishness became a major part of his work.  He and his friend Meadows got jobs at Butlins holiday camps and took hundreds of photos whilst they were there.

Parr developed his fascination with human life and behaviour.  He was interested in the ordinariness of life.

The non-conformists was first shown in 1981.  A culmination of 6 years of work, and showed the people of Hebden, and concentrated on the Methodist and Baptist traditions.  His images demonstrated
loyalty to tradition and a concern for the decline of traditional values and activities of local communities.

Humour, juxtaposition, oddity, irony,poignancy and sometimes sadness can be seen in his work. He
photographs unguarded moments.

He began to use colour and fill in flash, which he stayed with.  Parrs particular interest were class and consumerism - previously unexplored by documentary photographers.  There had been photographs of the very rich or very poor, but not the middle classes.  Documentary photography was changing in a new and exciting way.

Between 1983 - 1985 Parr photographed the British working class at New Brighton, on the Wirral.
The Last Resort. This established Parr to becoming one of the most important photographers of his generation.

Parr took up a teaching post at Newport in Gwent.

The cost of living focuses on the middle classes.  For the first time Par began to scrutinise his own position as someone who ( like many of his subjects ) had flourished financially from the Thatcher years, despite it being a time and political climate to which he opposed.  Recognising himself as the product of middle class suburbia, the cost of living sees Parr exploring his own class, rectifying any imbalance left after the last resort and its examination of the working class.
The work is pre occupied with consumerism.  Asserting still further his right to photograph subjectively, the pictures concentrate on the then newly affluent middle classes - the retail generation.

A small world - is pictures of tourist roaming around various parts of the world with videos and cameras recording all the tourist sites and familiar landmarks. - determining the success of their trip - but its not just about peoples love of landmarks its a fascinating critique of the tourist industry and the manufacture of 'heritage'.

Parr gives us symbols, icons, cliches and trivia.  He is a cultural commentator but doubles as a pessimist.  He is a satirist and an exaggerator.  He is a consummate photographer with a love of
tradition and a wicked streak.









MARTIN PARR - YOU TUBE VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJinAgBYaLs


I listen to you tube .. and Martin Parr tells of his work.
He says he doesn't hide as a photographer, he has a large camera and flash - unlike me who does ! -
so take note and have some self confidence.. anyway he says he just wanders around and take the pictures he wants.

He also started his documentary in black and white - in a time when black and white dominated this area.  He got the photography bug at 14 years of age.  He started off looking at the local chapels and english life.

He discussed a buffet picture and the people in it were all scurrying for food and pushing and shoving - i've been to many a buffet like that 'nearly' fighting for food, but there is lots of activity and expression in this picture.

He decided in 1982 to change to colour, and has since stayed this way.

He discusses pictures that show people relaxing by the coast and look to be enjoying themselves but they are surrounded by litter and building but they seem unbothered its a juxtaposition.  These were productive times for him, the busier the area became the more litter there was more photo opportunities.

Another area was the British at the French duty free, grabbing at packs of beer, a real personal challenge for the people. Facial expressions tell all.

He was photographing the wealth of the world, rather than the poor, which had been the tradition and they were showing their true colours.
He says himself his work show hypocrisy and prejudice, we'll discuss that later.
The next spoken about is couples in cars, maybe arguing ?! men and women will always clash in the same car, for one reason or another.
He moved on to Bored couple, people sitting together often over the table - looking bored - but is that the camera / photographer - who says they are bored.  The are probably not .. Photos can be manipulated.

The next was Boring Postcards ... he then decided to go to a place called Boring and photograph everything he could, ending up with 468 photographs, which he called BORING PHOTOGRAPHS !

Tourism was talked about saying about our expectations and the reality. He went about exploring the difference between the two.

Over the years he has had his portrait taken in various studios over the world all producing many varied portraits of himself.  Some quite strange ..

In 1995 he used a 35mm with flash ring to get a different close up view, these accumulated over 4 years and he put them all together and made a exhibition.  It was cheap, nasty, colourful and bright.

He has a confusion about England ..

Finally he talks about the bacon rind photo... a man struggles with the rind of bacon trying to pull it from his sandwich with his teeth and it is just getting longer and longer .. This problem joins us all together ... its a classless problem !!!

Exercise - Brett Rogers - Documentary Dilemmas

BRETT ROGERS - DOCUMENTARY DILEMMAS

The images can be seen here here...


The exhibition traced the development of Documentary Practice over a decade to 1993.  There was 80 works and 13 artists, and they were all selected by Brett Rogers.

In Bretts essay she tells that the term documentary was not coined until the 1920's and then it was used by a british film maker referring to moving pictures.  Defined as ' the systematic recording of visual reality for the purpose of providing information and encouraging understanding of the world.
There was a belief that a photograph represents a 'slice of reality', easily understood by the viewer.

Photographers as far back as 1876, John Thomson - Street Life - were using documentary, up to the present day.  This new aesthetic found its most persuasive outlet through mass produced magazines.
In time however pressure from advertisers curtailed the independence of creative photographers.

Mass Observation was designed to emulate the radical achievements of the worker- photography movement.
The side gallery Newcastle  philosophy is that an authentic document can only be generated by those familiar with the local community.

Across the atlantic the more enduring legacy of ethics and status was found in the work of the photographers employed by the Farm Security Administration, to document the plight of the American rural poor during the depression.
Others used sign and symbols - they chose to portray people, situations and artefacts in a casual and objective way that allowed the viewer to interpret the work freely. This strategy became known as the 'snapshot aesthetic' ..




http://collection.britishcouncil.org/whats_on/exhibition/11/14136


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


http://www.foto8.com/live/anna-fox-photographs-1983-2007-2/


TONY RAY JONES - A DAY OFF 


http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tony+ray+jones+a+day+off&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=dSf5Uv-7H6ev7Qb68oHoBQ&ved=0CDkQsAQ&biw=1178&bih=609

Exercise - We English

WE ENGLISH - WORK IN PROGRESS - SIMON ROBERTS

the ' We English' images can be seen here...

http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/Foto825_WeEnglish.pdf

http://simoncroberts.com/work/we-english/#PHOTO_0 here...


We English Blog ..here ..

Simon Roberts spent a year travelling Russia and returned to England with 5,000 photographs
and no publishing deal.  He did manage to get his work published and it was very successful.

Four years later he completed another tour this time of England this time with a publisher. It was to be of the English at play and there hadn't been anything like this for a long while.  It was going to be both beautiful and romantic ..

He needed to promote the project and luckily knew the picture editor at the BBC website, which is the second most popular website in terms of traffic.
Whilst he was on tour the 'Times' published a weekly dispatch which was an invitation to readers to suggest a location or event for Roberts to visit the following week.
The dedicated website then became a living archive - this was crucial in audience building which in turn sells books which in turn pleases publishers.

Roberts had a good relationship with the art council and gained a £ 10,000 grant.

Roberts made a conscious decision to move away from the individuals he had photographed across Russia.  He found himself drawn to how people interact with the landscape, how the english spend their leisure time.  To achieve this he decided people should occupy no more than one third of the frame, which lead to harsh editing.

He is looking to his next project - a portrait of bethlehem.

Exercise - Cia Rinne - The Roma Journeys

CIA RINNE - THE ROMA JOURNEYS


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



The article was in an interview format and it was interviewing Cia Rinne about her and Joakim Eskildsen photographs - The Roma Journeys - I have put a link to view the images .here ...

I have made a few points she made in her replies. Cia Rinne said ..

... she found most of the Roma families to be open and helpful once they explained what they were doing and that they would cause them no harm.  The Romas were interested in seeing photographs of other Roma families from other countries.  One family didn't want them around but even that dismissal was done in a nice way.

They had explained that they were not there to try and change any thing or their living standards, but there as artists, they would just tell about them as Romas.
They were surprised at the poor living conditions in Greece and also in Russia.  The Romas have a bad reputation and are accused - the tradition of blaming them is so deeply rooted it takes an enormous effort to fight it.

The Roma were surprisingly hospitable and helpful, and ingenious human understanding. We often thought that we were not doing this merely to learn about, but also from the Roma.
The Roma share a common historical, cultural and linguistic background.

The Romas are different groups from country to counrty and even areas, so it is wrong to speak of the collectively.  The Roma were not at unease in their presence and used to having guests.
The Romas are aware of their identity but do not refer to themselves as Roma.   Most of them do know their forefathers come from India and about their recent history.

They usually keep their family photographs in their homes, old photographs are rare.

There was seldom any objections from the people to have their photographs taken.




KOUDELKA'S  -   GYPSIES 

Koudelka's photographs - Gypsies can be seen on the link .. here ...





Comparative Photographs 

Exercise - Paul Close's Environmental Portraits

PAUL CLOSE - ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS - SNAKEBOX ODYSSEY

I really enjoyed Paul Close's photographs on the link below.  They were all very clean and bright
which I like - dark and dourer have their place, but maybe because its so dreary here at the moment,
the sunshine I enjoyed.  On my first look I must admit that I liked the photographs as they were, wasn't sure if the white background enhanced them at all.  But they do stand out as being different and making them memorable.  I had seen something like this before, and the more I look at them the more I like them.  If it were me I would have liked to have taken three images, and he may have done so, but this image, one with just the white background, so seeing the person up close and in detail. And finally, one without the white background.  He may have done this.

This series of photographs gives a moving insight into the peoples lives of the Sahara and through West, central and East Africa.  For Paul Close what started his adventure was when his daughter broke a souvenir of his - a jack in the box type, with finger biting snake!!  It realised his ambition to travel across Africa on a motorcycle.  He set off with a friend, but he unfortunately had a bad accident, this was in 2006, and the trip was abandoned.  Paul went on his own to complete the trip in 2008.

The images in this exhibition we taken on the last two legs of the journey.  He would ask one person each day to sit for him.  Always using a white sheet to highlight the subject against the background and colour of everyday African life.  He would ask each sitter just one question..
Is there one thing that could make your life better ?

This remarkable collection of portraits and Paul's sensitive and deeply personal recounting of the subjects responses is always humbling and often humorous.
He is currently working on a book to share his African experiences with a wider audience.

Below are samples of the pictures, the first two have something that would make their life better, but picture three said .. nothing .. he was happy with his life ... isn't that lovely, because I should think he is far from having everything.

http://www.insight-visual.com/paul-exhibition.html

Paul Close's images can be seen here..

Exercise - The Tourist Gaze

THE TOURIST GAZE 


The Tourist Gaze is a book about pleasure, holidays, tourism.  Discussing why people leave home for short periods of time, leaving their place of residence and workplace.  They consume goods and services which are unnecessary but pleasurable, which are different to what we normally have.

Part of the experience is to gaze upon a new landscape.  When we go away we look at the environment with interest and curiosity.  We gaze at what we encounter.  In the production of 'unnecessary' pleasure
there are professional experts who help to construct and develop our gaze as tourists.  There is no single gaze .. the gaze in any historical period is constructed in relation to its opposite.

Tourism seems a trivial subject for a book but it investigates the bizarre and idiosyncratic social practices which happen to be defined as deviant in some societies but not necessarily in others.
Practices involve the notion of departure, a limited breaking with establishment.

Tourism is a leisure activity which presupposes its opposite, regulated and organised work.  Tourist relationships arise from a movement of people to their various destinations.
The journey and where to stay are not the norm and you have  clear intention to return home.  The places gazed upon are for the purposes not directly connected with paid work.
A substantial proportion of the population engages in such practices.
Places are chosen to be gazed upon because of daydreaming and fantasy.  Film, TV, magazines all
reinforce the gaze.
The tourist gaze is directed to landscape away from your everyday experiences.  People linger over such a gaze which is then normally captured by a photograph, postcard, film and this enable this gaze to be reproduced and recaptured.
The gaze is constructed through signs, for example, 'timeless romantic Paris', Real Olde England, traditional pubs, traditional Italy etc ....
An array of tourist professionals develop who attempt to reproduce ever new object of the tourist gaze.

Travel is thought to occupy 40% of available free time in Britain.  Travel is the marker of status and good for peoples physical and mental health, getting away from time to time. 

Car ownership had permitted some increase in the number of domestic holidays taken in Britain, these were normally short in length. 

Shopping is also significant to tourism, both as an area for spending and as an incentive for travel.    

The tourist tries to seek and authenticity in other times and places.. away from their everyday life. 

We look for the opposite, the inversion of everyday that being a holiday.  The middle class tourist will seek to be a peasant for the day, whilst the lower middle class will want to be a king for the day. 

Satisfaction stems from anticipation , from imaginative pleasure- seeking.  Peoples basic motivation for consumption is not therefore simply materialistic.  It is rather that they seek to experience the reality of what they have in their imagination.  However since 'reality' rarely provides the perfected pleasures experienced in daydreams, each purchase leads to disillusionment and to the longing for ever new products.

GEOGRAPHIES OF TOURIST PHOTOGRAPHY - JONAS LARSEN 

Since its invention, photography has become associated with travelling.  The modern worlds lust for visuality and geographical movement accelerated with these inventions, Photography is very much a travelling phenomenon. It would be unthinkable to travel without your camera.
It is suggested that the nature of tourist photography is a complex theatrical one, actors and scripts.
As photos became easier to reproduce it then made the world more visible and desirable.  Tourism is one social practice shaped by the compulsive photographic culture of cameras and images.  Photographs offer evidence that the trip was made.  Tourism and photography became welded together and the development of each cannot be separated from the other.

The tourist gaze suggests that tourist places are produced and consumed through images and that gazing is constructed through and involves a collection of signs.  Urry suggests that photographic reproductions produce appetites for seeing places at their unique place of residence.
Tourist consume places visually through participating in a sign relation between markers and sight. A tourist may elect to get his thrills from the marker instead of the sight.

Tourism vision is increasingly media mediated.  Increasingly people travel to actual places to experience virtual places.  Major films and soap opera often cause a flow of tourist as the flee to the location of the show or film.
Tourist places are not fixed, they can appear, disappear, change meaning and character.  It is virtually impossible for western people to visit places that they have not travelled to imaginatively some time ago , if not many times.
Much tourism involves a hermeneutic circle.  What is sought for in a holiday is a set of photographic images, which have already been seen in tour company brochures or on TV. The tourist then tracks down the location and captures that image for oneself.  It ends up with travellers demonstrating that they have been there by showing their version of the images that they had seen before they set off.

People have learnt the importance and the pleasure of exhibiting themselves in a world in which the consciousness of ones constant visibility has never been more intense.  Family frictions are almost at once put on hold when the camera appears. Tourist photography simultaneously produces and displays the family closeness.  The proximity comes into existence because the camera event draws people together.  A proper family, relaxed and intimate.

Almost no matter how the image turned out on paper, every click of the shutter was destined for life long as material object.  However with digital photography unloved images can be quickly removed at no cost.  At present with camera phones, internet, etc.. images are transported instantly,  The new temporal order of tourist photography seems to be 'I am here' ... rather than 'I was here' ...







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

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

Exercise - FIve Surrealist Style Images - PETER DENCH

FIVE of your own Surreal images ...

PETER DENCH 

Anaylise Dench's style ..

Having looked at Peter Dench's work I can see similarities to the work of Martin Parr although it seems a little coarser.  More untidy images and some of the images make you feel a little uncomfortable.  Parr's work some of it boarders on being cartoonish and amusing, bright and breezy. 

Peter Dench work is also approached with humour and I have picked a few pictures below.  The back of the ladies hair I must admit makes me snigger.  Its like all documentary photography, it does poke fun at people and things.  He is not my favourite of the photographers, maybe a little untidy for me. He is very colourful, which I like and the colour adds to his style.

I think his surrealism is effective in most cases, in a subtle way.  

The images have an earthiness,  I don't think I would buy a book of his work and enjoy looking at it over and over, maybe he will grow on me.

http://www.peterdench.com

Exercise - Seeing and Believing

SEEING IS BELIEVING 

http://www.oca-student.com/book/export/html/94202


Talks are taking place to try and stop or change, the 'them and us' attitudes we have towards to the developing world.
Whilst the media are a sitting target for criticism  and held responsible for misrepresentation but a lot of their images are commissioned by the NGO, who are controlling over images.
A code of conduct was drawn up in1989 by a group of NGO's, giving structured thought for the first time to the way others are perceived. (although this was not taken on board officially ).
They need to be aware of themselves before helping or representing others.  The truth remains as a society we still look at people in the developing world, we may feel sympathy or at worst indifference.
Paul Lowe believes NGO should invest heavily in photography and use indigenous photographers to represent their own country when there is no local voice, to avoid the constant western view.
Adrian Evans of Panos pictures feels the NGO have a responsibility to teach photojournalism - the African tradition is still studio and portrait based.

The western media are no longer interested in afghanistan so its essential that photographers continue to
record the daily life independently.
The need for the NGO to examine their own practice is urgent.  It would be journalistically irresponsible to ignore the starving or dying but the way in which the images are used need searching and with ongoing consideration.


Eight Ways to change the World 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/108690054/Panos-8-Ways?secret_password=8nckcyz5uvv9rmuka3h


I have selected a couple of photos from eight ways to change the world.

This first one really took my eye .. our babies are so overprotected when born from germs and mostly born in hospital with the minimum of one midwife, usually more.
Only a third of these tribal women receive any attention from a midwife and only 8% give birth in hospital.

This chair is part of a lesson where the children do the actions of putting the ball on the chair to learn the english phrases.

Here meagre food from begging, borrowing or maybe what the stalls have left over.  What a contrast to 

my weekly Tesco shop, done online and delivered in abundance.

Finally I liked this colourful image of women celebrating the new water well.  Everyone joyous and dancing.. again something we take completely for granted.

The first image shows the lighting is poor where if it were in england the colours would be bright white
scrubbed clean and the bare wire and light bulb are stark. The walls look unclean and the tin tray the baby lay in cold and uncomfortable.  Probably just sprayed down after use.  The midwife working o the new born, the tube in his nose suggests maybe a problem and so make you feel a little anxious. This image would have worked in black and white but I feel the colour give it a lot more depth of feeling.

In contrast the final image is colourful and everyone is give off the air of joy and happiness.  The sky is cloudy otherwise this would have been an even brighter picture if the sky had been blue.  The clothes and buckets are very colourful.  This image would have been quite dull had it been black and white.

Documentary - Part Three - A colour Vision

WILLIAM EGGLESTON - THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

William Eggleston is one of the most accomplished colour photographers and used colour with great
confidence.
Colour was more than just descriptive or decorative but a central place in the pictures content. They are photos of experience, not just shapes textures etc.
Egglestons photographs comprise of a remarkable and surprising commentary of contemporary American life, a personal vision.  He made his pictures with a deeply felt expression of his vision and intentions.

His images can be seen here ..

Brighton Photo Biennial

http://www.weareoca.com/photography/on-an-exhibition-crawl-at-brighton-photo-biennial/


Varied collection of all types of photography.
Exhibition - Myths, manners and memory.
Liked Dhruv Malhotra - Sleeper
Disliked Roberts - Election
Most people agreed although some suggested you maybe had to look harder at the Roberts pictures.

Hereford Festival

http://www.weareoca.com/photography/oca-students-visit-hereford-photography-festival/

Exhibition - Time and Motion : New documentary photography.
Robbie Cooper - people playing computer games. Lack of expression they had.
Interrogations - Donald Weber - Petty criminals
And Manuel Vazquez. ( couldnt see website )


Right Here Right Now

http://www.weareoca.com/photography/right-here-right-nowsecond-thoughts/

Format Photography Festival

Denches images were about multiculturalism and drunks etc..
Talks about .. Mass observation ... everyone has a camera and is taking photos of everyone else. MAD!

Response to Tutor feedback - ASS 2

RESPONSE TO FEEDBACK 

Thank You for the feedback, firstly my textual commentary was, as I explained by email, in and around my photos on my word document, which I had put on Dropbox and you have since seen.

I note your comments on lighting, which I am still learning. I am reading the book you recommended
'The basics of Photography - Lighting' but I must say I found this section to have so much reading that I haven't read much of it.  But its there and I will ..

I have taken on board your comments on the photos.  The one of Grandma with baby, should be looking at the baby and not the camera.  I do have one of dad and baby and he doing just that so I might use this image.

Its funny how when you point out (the obvious ) you can see it for yourself and I too was thinking that about looking at the camera but was focusing more on the 'adoration' of grandma rather than the exact image.  All a learning process.

All blog now fully up to date, any gaps now filled.