Presentations – Martin Parr

• British documentary photographer who was most famous for his critical outlook and documentation of the British middle class

• Initially started taking photos in black and white, but became one of the pioneers for colour photography

• Used a satirical method in his photography that poked fun in a somewhat light-hearted but critical manner. For example one of his most influential published works ‘The Last Resort’ was said to display a ‘stunning satire of Britain’, but it was also highly criticized for perhaps being too cruel

• He provoked photographers to think ‘out of the box’ and encouraged to take the viewer’s gaze away to a different side of a situation and to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. In terms of my own personal project I hope to take cultural objects and put them in positions that are out out of place to provoke the viewer to gain a sense of confusion and discomfort to reflect my own personal feelings about my own cultural position in society. My last intended photo, the cultural portrait double exposure shot, very much agrees with Parr’s method of finding the ‘extraordinary in the ordinary’. I hope to overlay an image within my own personal portrait that is reminiscent of my own culture.

[R6] Roland Barthes (1980) Camera Lucida

Camera Lucida is an insurmountably significant resource for any budding photographer. It goes into great depth about the three practices of photography (To do, To look and To undergo), how photography has transformed ‘subject’ into ‘object’ (and the irony that comes with this notion) and how the photograph is a “a cunning dissociation of consciousness from identity” among many other valuable facts/notions of photography.

Perhaps the most significant for me and my personal project though was how Barthes stated how photography can only signify by using myth, by letting something specific stand for something abstract:

“Society, it seems, mistrusts pure meaning: It wants meaning, but at the same time it wants this meaning to be surrounded by a noise” (p.g. 36)

This has proved to be invaluable information when preparing for my project, as the very nature of my intended photo series is to evoke an emotional discourse through abstract and representational imagery. This ‘noise’ can very well be a series of cultural objects shot in an unconventional manner to produce the desired feelings in the image. Similarly the photos’ punctum can also be achieved using me as the subject in relation to cultural imagery.

Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida New York: Hill and Wang, 1981.

Presentations – Robert Frank

• Created his perhaps most celebrated work, ‘The Americans’, a highly influential post- war American photographic book. He took a staggering 28,000 photos but only used around 87. This shows how taking a wide breadth and variety of photos is good to develop an effective photographic language and is particularly an important lesson for me when I am undergoing my final project.

• Due to a divergence from contemporary photography it gave Frank difficulty in attaining an American publisher for his work

• One aspect of his method was that he believed very strongly in the practice of taking photographs every day to be able to develop as an effective and artistically emotive photographer

• He approached photography emotionally rather than intellectually, and, with regards to my project, I believe I would like to undergo my photo series in a similar style. As my project is very personal to me every shot will try to capture some of the raw emotion through representative imagery

• He regarded content to be more important than aesthetic value, and usually worked with a hidden camera to gather a more naturalistic and ‘un-posed’ style.

The Genius of Photography – Episode 4 – ‘Paper Movies’ (study direct video)

Photo by Tony Ray Jones

Episode 4 of the ‘Genius of Photography’ explores the golden age of photographic ‘journeys’ and relives some of the best photographers of that era. It also looks at the artistic credibility of colour for serious photographers. The image above was taken by Tony Ray Jones and was of particular interest to me as it depicts a candid representation of 60s Britain – the beach was a place where the nation could ‘recline and bare it’s soul’. He reveled in seeing how people were ‘performing in a way that that they wouldn’t normally do and then in that performance they’re revealing something of themselves that they wouldn’t normally do’. I unfortunately cannot use this sort of candid photography for my project due to the direction I’m going in (set up photographs using representative imagery), but I did think that this was a very pertinent observation that particularly stood out to me.

[R5] John Berger – About Looking – Uses of Photography 52 – 67.

The ‘Use of Photography’ chapter in Berger’s ‘About Looking’ begins by stating that when photography first came into existence it offered a new way of ‘habitual reading’ of an unexamined part of modern perception, and was therefore was a useful tool in capturing parts of history that were previously lost in time. As society became more accustomed to photography people began to realise the power being the photographic image. Berger stated that ‘unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does’ (p.g. 54).

However, meaning from a photograph can only be gathered through narration:

‘photographs do not in themselves preserve meaning… Meaning is the result of understanding functions… Photographs in themselves do not narrate. Photographs preserve instant appearances…’ (p.g. 55)

Therefore it’s only through my own analysis and feedback on my own photo series that the viewer will understand my images – especially if I intend to take abstract imagery to evoke feelings of discomfort. They need to be explained for context and generate intrigue through discussion and meaning.

Berger, John (1980), About Looking, London, Oxford University Press

[R4] John Berger Ways of seeing chapter 1

John Berger’s ‘Ways of seeing’ firstly discusses how we ‘see’ and perceive things in the world around us, and later relates this to the photographic image. He states how ‘every time we look at a photograph, we are aware, however slightly, of the photographer selecting that sight from an infinity of other possible sights’ (p.g. 6). This is important as rather than perceiving the external world in general, when analyzing photographs it is the personal choice of the photographer his/herself to specifically focus on one aspect for their own personal reasoning. This gives the photograph much more artistic insight and meaning and as ‘the photographer’s way of seeing is reflected in his choice of subject’ (p.g. 6), more understanding of the image is gained as a result. When taking my final project photos I fully aim to take this into account, and choose wisely the subjects of my images as to infer exactly what I want to in the photo series.

Berger, John (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-021631-6.