acedemic blog: https://loisolding.wordpress.com
I have always had a passion for photography and in September 2014 I started a Media Studies Course with the elective module "Photographic Practice". I thought that this was a brilliant opportunity to enhance my knowledge in Photography and become more improved at something which I enjoy enthusiastically. I hope to evoke and inspire viewers of my work by fearlessly putting on display my personal combination of work from the revolving environment around me. I consider my work to being very personal as the majority of my subjects tend to be my family, as well as natural and urban landscapes (whether they be related to my personal upbringing or simply places which I admire their beauty).
When given the brief "Sense of Place" for my elective University Course Module "Photographic Practice LM116" I was immensely happy due to taking photographs which commonly represent this theme. This Blog will follow my journey of responding to this brief, including my portfolio and research which will contribute to my overall marks for this project.
Here was my initial brainstorm for this project:
Photographic Practice
Sense of Place
Brainstorm ideas for brief:
▪ Being at one with Nature.
▪ Urban and cityscape.
▪ Disconnected/Connected with your surrounding environment (blurred/sharp images could introduce the idea of memories fading etcetera).
▪ Timeline (Maps of places included within the photograph somehow).
▪ Different Generations of people.
Obviously at the beginning of the project I had a few set ideas. Since then the ideas that I initially had were developed and warped. A reason because of this is due to researching other artists and being inspired by their work.
Artist one: Elliott Erwitt http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspxVP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_9_VForm&ERID=24KL53Z1OG
“It's about reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere. It's simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what's around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.”
“My wish for the future of photography is that it might continue to have some relevance to the human condition and might represent work that evokes knowledge and emotions.”
What I took from these quotes is that he perhaps is fixated on the form of Human Nature and existing. Like Erwitt I wish to also express a sense of "concern with humanity" as he says. I want to present the idea of being at one with family or with nature, two topics which I hold very close to my heart. What I love about Erwitt's work is how deeply personal and emotive his portraits are conveyed. I wish to portray my upcoming photoshoots as deeply emotive as Erwitt's work. Both photographs here are quite neutral yet extremely emotive; it purges emotions. The use of natural photography, on Erwitt's behalf, is rather beautiful. The bonding of people and their environment is strongly linked beautifully. To me, the artist is perhaps consolidating the relevance of people in their environment. This is something which I wish to portray in my photographs.
Artist two: Larry Sultan
"In 1982, while visiting his parents in Los Angeles, Larry Sultan pulled out a box of old home movies the family had not watched in years. Astounded by the films, Sultan later commented, "They were remarkable, more like a record of hopes and fantasies than of actual events. It was as if my parents had projected their dreams onto film emulsion.”
In a sense I can relate to Sultan's work. He is also very family orientated and his photos are beautiful. I believe his work to be good research material because what arguable drives his work is his admiration towards his family.
Sense of place, within family.
I wanted to take step away from nature and decided to see what I could do with the theme of sense of place within family. I am a very family oriented person and am lucky enough to have such close proximities with my family and to have them all live relatively close. Because of this I wanted to present family life as realistic as possible in a way that is personal to me. This idea, I believe, is presented in these photographs which I took in my grandparents home "A Home Away from Home"
After looking into Sultan's work this is the response I made with my own photography. I used similar techniques such as long shots, including accepts of home life like photographs in the background, sofa's etc, along with shots taken from behind. I believe that this was a very strong photo shoot!
Readings:
Photography
Author: David Bate. Pages: 212 Publisher: Bloomsbury UK A & C Black
Published: Jul 1, 2009
eISBN-13: 9781847883803
In Photography, Bate's explores how photography is used to confirm identity and is used to record and communicate personal movement. What struck me about his work was what he had to say on portraiture "Looking at portraits" (pg 67/200). The quotes which most struck me were "Portraits fix our identity in what is essentially an art of description" and "Universally abundant, they are a direct result of the massive impact photography has had."
What struck me most about this reading was the intense description of how photographs can typically be made up of four different elements (pg 73/200).
▪ Face - Personal appearance.
▪ Pose - Manner and attitude, 'upbringing'.
▪ Clothing - Social class, sex, cultural values and fashion
▪ Location - Social scene of the person in the picture.
After reading pages of extremely detailed descriptions, this made me look at portraiture differently. I believe that my photographs up until this point have been incredibly emotive. However, simply reading what Bate's says on 'the Face' made me think a little differently. He explores how the face is crucial and can evoke a considerable impact on how a portrait signifies meaning. It can signify a repertoire of 'states', indicating the potential mood. Reading this, I intend to try and present these new ideas. Because my theme is very family orientated I want to present a rather natural and soothing, relaxing environment, mimicking how it is within my home and grandparents home. By doing this I will potentially take photographs of my family in their neutral positions in the home with natural facial expressions, heightening a calming and soothing expression.
This then lead me on the reading on what Bate's has to say about 'the pose'. "The pose of sitters is itself a visual argument, a form of rhetoric. Whether the person in the picture is standing upright, slumped in a chair, ‘thinking’, has sternly folded arms or has them dangling loosely by their sides, such postures are ‘read’ in combination. It is the job of the portraitist to spot or direct these combinations, to understand (or control?) what they signify together. A pose can be a self-consciously adopted manner intended to express a specific cultural ‘identity’, e.g. as goth, punk or business manager." I found this incredibly interesting when thinking about each specific family member. I won't ask my sitters to pose, I will ask them to simply act how they would without the camera being infront of them. With my grandparents, for my first shoot, I took the approach of telling them that I was simply testing out the lighting when in fact I was taking photos of them. I knew that if I told them I was photographing them, they would slightly change from their natural state. I found that this worked very well and the photographs came out well. I may use this same approach when taking further photographs to get the best natural photographs that I can.
Artist three: "Warmth" by Karina Rocco
“Some leave and some arrive. Memories are left behind as fragile images that tend to fade away. Then, there’s memories that change with time and mold themselves to new experiences. Yet, some remain untouched. Photographs store permanent trails of something or someone at a specific point in time. We keep family albums to hold on to memories of those we love. Family images trace our identity by looking back at previous generations to discover and strengthen bonds otherwise unnoticed. All families are full of stories, dramas, secrets, anecdotes, as well as traditions and changes … These pictures are statements of love, appreciation, and remembrances. They outline an introspective journey about my family, how I perceive them, and how I see myself through them. It is within them, where I find a sense of place, a sense of self.”
I found Rocco's work extremely interesting and it links incredibly well to idea I wish to portray within my work. She clearly shows through her photographs a strong familial bond and sense of place within family, a key aspect I wish to portray through my photographs. Her photographs are beautifully embedded with natural aspects of everyday life which I hope to portray in my work.
Unintentionally I took similar photographs to Rocco before I found her work. However, she is a very good example on what I intend the final outcome of my project will be. Here are some of my photographs which link closely to how Rocco presents her family.
When taking these photographs I wished to present my family as naturally as possible. It is clear that I am a very family oriented person but I wanted my photographs to beautifully present normal aspects of everyday life and I believe to have accomplished this successfully. One of the strongest parts of my work, what I was talking about before was photographs that were taken from behind my subject, a technique that I frequently used. I used this technique, as I believed it captured the essence the strongest in my photographs, conveying the theme I decided to embark upon, “human nature”. It presents the manner and attitude portrayed beautifully by the subject within the social scene of the person in the picture. From the perspective of the viewer, I intended for the audience, like me, to view the photograph as if one was in the proximities of the environment. This intentionally would convey the close familial bond I share with my family and how close we are. By this, I mean that I wanted to portray conventionally everyday life in my familial relationships and present it in a way that was considered natural in the majority of households, potentially portraying a relatable set of photographs.
Bibliography:
David Bate (2009). “Photography” Bloomsbury UK A & C Black pages 1-212
Elliott Erwitt [online] Available at: http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspxVP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_9_VForm&ERID=24KL53Z1OG
Karina Rocco [online] Available at: https://www.lensculture.com/karina-rocco
Larry Sultan [online] Available at: http://larrysultan.com
