Category: Part 5

The category containing all posts for part 5.

5.4 Conversation with a Friend

Record a real conversation with a friend. (It’s up to you whether you ask permission or not!)


Before listening to the recording, write your account of both sides of the conversation. Then listen to the recording and make note of the discrepancies. Perhaps there are unfinished sentences, stammers, pauses, miscommunications etc.
Reflect upon the believability of re-enacted narratives and how this can be applied to constructed photography. What do you learn from the conversation recording process and how can you transfer what you learned into making pictures?

Lessons Learned

Upon replaying the conversation I recognised that whilst I had my own interpretation of the discussion and the salient points, actually more things were discussed than I had remembered. Whilst I hadn’t remembered all of the detail I felt that the conversation was relaxed and enjoyable. I felt good afterwards.

Reflection

My understanding was based on a real time conversation. We have conversations every day and take for granted what is a complicated process. It takes concentration and a lot of brain power to keep track of a conversation thread whilst we translate the words into meanings, recognise and understand inflection, tonal changes, hand gestures and facial expressions.

The process of understanding the dialogue requires cultural and linguistic knowledge. Our understanding of language includes embedded semiotic codes such as; semantic codes which describe a hidden but generally accepted meaning or symbolic codes, denoting or connoting an object or its qualities.

With all this going on it is not surprising that we don’t remember everything that is said during a conversation. We latch on to what we think are the main points, but these are affected by our perspective or point of view. Our perspective is created from our lived experience, it is the sum total of all our memories and experiences. It is further affected by our current surroundings and circumstances.

The process of re-enactment relies upon a recognition or understanding of an original event or object. All such understanding is, however, flawed due to the above. Technically no re-enactment will ever be an accurate depiction of an original.The use of Semiotics within the constructed or re-enacted image is a good method for creating narrative within the tableau. In addition to the semiotic codes mentioned above , visual codes include Proairetic (or action codes), and Hermeneutic Codes (or Enigma Codes) can also be used.

A re-enacted narrative within photographic art leverages our process of understanding. It recognises that our perception at any point in time is influenced by our individual perspective. When viewing the still image each viewer’s perception will be different. If a photographic image is presented in the form of a triptych, a series of images displayed on a gallery wall or within a book, our appreciation of each image is affected by our understanding of the preceding, thus creating narrative across set. The images in Robert Frank’s book The Americans are presented in a particular order and the viewer requested to view them accordingly. Jack Kerouac likened the order of the images to a visual poem.

Where cinematic re-enactment of historical events might be broadly accurate the viewer understands that much of the underlying detail will be fictional. Nevertheless we accept the story and we are drawn into the narrative. We apply our own emotional and moral perspective, resulting our rooting for the hero, disliking the villain and feeling empathy for the characters. The same perspective can be applied to the still image.

5.3 Question for the Seller

Question for Seller re-situates images in a different context and in so doing allows for a new dialogue to take place. Reflect on the following in your learning log:

  • Does their presence on a gallery wall give these images an elevated status?
  • Where does their meaning derive from?
  • When they are sold (again on eBay, via auction direct from the gallery) is their value increased by the fact that they’re now ‘art’?

Reflection

Nicky Bird’s Question for Seller came about from an interest that she had in other people’s family photographs that appeared for sale on eBay.

“I purchased photographs that no-one else bid for, with the connotation that they were unwanted, and therefore with no significant value. The seller was approached with the question – How did you come across the photos and what, if anything, do you know about them? Their replies, however brief, are as important as the photographs they are selling – sometimes alluding to a part of a discarded family history, or the everyday, where personal photographs have long since lost their original meaning.” https://www.nickybird.com/projects/question-for-seller/ [Accessed 26/05/2021]

By placing these photographs on a gallery wall their status is changed:

  • They are no longer private or personal items their original emotional connection to the original owner is removed
  • They become an object, to be viewed by the masses and become voyeuristically attractive as they provide a glimpse into the life of the unknown subjects
  • They have been removed from their original context and are now displayed with other images with which they have no connection which creates new context and new connections.
  • They cease to be a single entity and become part of an exhibit, an art work.
  • The written background to each image creates interest for a much wider audience and as such increases the status of the image. It is transformed from a discarded, almost worthless item into an artwork.

I think that the meaning of the artwork is that the photographs are items that show how little value is associated to mementos from the past, both in monetary terms and interest. By displaying the photographs as a “collection” with explanatory text Bird has transformed the photographs into an object and objects of interest.

When the exhibition is broken down and resold through auction I believe that the items did increase in value because they were considered an art exhibit. It is not unusual for discarded items to be acquired, “polished up” and resold for a profit, the same principle applies to the photographs, albeit that this wasn’t Bird’s original intention.

5.2 The Work of Gregory Crewdson

Look up the work of Gregory Crewdson online. Watch this YouTube video about Gregory Crewdson and his work and consider the questions below. www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7CvoTtus34&feature=youtu.be [accessed 24/02/14]

  • Do you think there is more to this work than aesthetic beauty?
  • Do you think Crewdson succeeds in making his work ‘psychological’? What does this mean?
  • What is your main goal when making pictures?
  • Do you think there’s anything wrong with making beauty your main goal? Why or why not? 

Note:

The YouTube link above failed to work. I therefore used the following sources for my research:

Reflection

Crewdson creates large scale photographic images depicting dystopian tableaux set in modern day America. The images are created using large sets where everything is controlled. This extends from the people within it to the ambience of the scene. The resulting effect is cinematic in style and resembles a still taken from a movie film roll.

I think that Crewdson’s work conveys his perspective on the suffering of people in the poorer parts of society in America, many of his images depict absolute poverty, young people without hope or even shoes. Many of his subjects look beaten down and forlorn. In this respect Crewdson’s images remind me of the work of Robert Frank. Frank sought to depict the reality of life in America at the time of the depression. Frank’s black and white images also have a psychological element. Frank’s images were candid photographs of society whereas Crewdson’s are a constructed reality but each convey a similar message.

Within the tableaux are examples of previously prosperous industry. Commercial premises are now abandoned and decaying, whilst the surrounding texture of trees and the natural environment appear to be thriving.

With the exception of the carefully placed subjects the scenes are deserted giving them an eerie emptiness. The use of colour, light and the creation of mist in some images adds to the cinematic effect. There is almost too much information to take in. The viewer’s eye is drawn into an altered reality. If the image was a still within a movie the viewer would have grown familiar with the colour grading and the “feel” of the imaginary world in which it was set. But as a single image the tableau confronts the viewer, the presented reality appears slightly skewed, I believe that this is why his work could be considered as having a psychological aspect.

When I create images I want to encourage emotion in the viewer. Occasionally I enjoy creating images for the sake of beauty, but overall I am disinterested in the portrayal of beauty. I wish to make a statement with my work and seek to question the status quo. Within the social network audience to which I post my work the preference is for images that portray beauty, the most popular consisting of sunrises and sunsets. I post my work regardless of any admiration or lack thereof as I want to evoke a more emotional response than “that’s nice” or “wow”

There is nothing wrong with photographers wanting to create or capture beauty in their imagery. A huge part of the photographic industry pertains to the production of “beautiful” images, be they landscapes, fashion, glamour or portraiture. Even architectural photography seeks to create beauty within arrangement of lines with the tableau. The modern ubiquitous trend “the selfie” has created a world of budding narcissistic photographers attempting to capture their own beauty. Such is the need for personal reassurance through the beautiful selfie that there are now a plethora of photographic filters available to artificially retouch, smooth and reshape the face into something more “socially appealing” I intensely dislike these effects.

I recognise that despite my goal being to create images with which I can express my rebelliousness I still seek to compose in an aesthetically pleasing way. In that respect I am compelled to chase a notion of beauty even if it is only within compositional rules.

5.1 Setting the Scene.

Exercise:

Watch this famous scene from Goodfellas directed by Martin Scorsese in 1990: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJEEVtqXdK8 [accessed 24/02/14] Don’t read on until you’ve answered the following questions. • What does this scene tell you about the main character?

  • How does it do this? List the ‘clues’.
  • Make some notes in your learning log. 

Findings:

The main character appears to be an influential and important person within the plot. He is well dressed and has plenty of money, this is seen as he holds wads of banknotes in his hand as he walks through the building tipping each of the staff as he goes, he even has someone to look after his car.

He is respected, everyone knows who he is and greets him in a polite and friendly way.

He is in a position of power because he can walk right through a working kitchen without any issue. The club owner sets a table up especially for him when he arrives and he also knows other people in the club who are important.

He is not the most important or powerful person there, this is demonstrated by his age and his acknowledgment of the older guy on a table close by when the guy gives him a bottle of champagne as a gift.