Category: Learning log

The parent category for research and reflection posts.

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.

5.2 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.

Exploration of the Banal and Mundane

Nigel Shafran’s body of work, initially “washing up” encouraged this exploration of this genre. The definition of banal is given in Macmillan Dictionary as “something that is banal is boring because it contains nothing new, original, or unusual” The additional term “Mundane” equally applies to photography in this genre, the definition of which is described as”ordinary and not interesting or exciting, especially because of happening too regularly.

Shafran’s portfolio includes projects titled: Dad’s Office, Compost Pictures, suburban garages. All of his subjects at first glance would meet the definition of “boring” “ordinary” or “not unusual” but the is the point. Shafran carefully frames and lights his subjects for the viewer to delight in an exploration of the trivial.

Nigel Shafran – Compost Pictures 2008/9

William Eggleston’s work also depicts the mundane. Eggleston’s use of strong colour and simple framing draws the viewers attention to the finer detail in his images.

William Eggleston Untitled, c. 1973

Eugene Shinkle argues the “Aesthetic engagement with the banal … has the capacity to open up a different kind of vision, an attention to the material circumstances of looking” (Shinkle E. (2004) Boredom, Repetition, Inertia: Contemporary Photography and the Aesthetics of the Banal [online]. Redorbit.com. Available from: https://www.redorbit.com/news/health/115307/boredom_repetition_inertia_contemporary_photography_and_the_aesthetics_of_the/

In “Southampton’s Women” Magda Segal captured images of women between the ages of 20-34 years old, originally to support a health study. She captured images of the women in their own homes and also took images of the inside of the fridges. (examples below)

In all of the above works there is an intimacy. The viewer is not confronted by spectacle in order to excite the senses. Rather, the mundane, everyday, unexciting nature of the images allows the viewer to spend time analysing the imagery, inspecting the detail and recognising familiar items. I am reminded of the fascination with what is in other people’s trolley at the supermarket checkout.

References

Macmillan Dictionary (n.d.) mundane definitions and synonyms [online] Macmillan website. Available from: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/. Last accessed: 19/08/2020.

Macmillan Dictionary (n.d.) banal definitions and synonyms [online] Macmillan website. Available from: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/. Last accessed: 19/08/2020.

Eggleston W. (n.d.) Eggleston Art Foundation [online]. Eggleston Art Foundation website. Available from: http://egglestonartfoundation.org/. Last accessed: 19/08/2020.

Segal M. (2000) Southampton’s Women: by Magda Segal [online]. International Journal of Epidemiology website. Available from: https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/31/2/333/617701. Last Accessed 19/08/2020.

Shinkle E. (2004) Boredom, Repetition, Inertia: Contemporary Photography and the Aesthetics of the Banal [online] redorbit.com Available from: https://www.redorbit.com/news/health/115307/boredom_repetition_inertia_contemporary_photography_and_the_aesthetics_of_the/. Last accessed 19/08/2020.

Semiotics Notes

Roland Bathes applied Semiotic theory to the study of images. Prior to this Semiotics were only considered for written communication. Actually Semiotics  apply to all forms of communication.

Definition: 

Sign = Signifier + Signified

Signifier:   includes the codes presented by the creator to show their intent. (the intent)

Signified: includes the interpretation of those codes by the recipient. (the perception)

Sign: is the outcome of both (the effect)

The Signifier may use denotation and connotation to describe it’s meaning. These elements of the communication process can be broken down into codes as follows

Symbolic Codes

Within imagery symbolic codes are very easy to read. An image of an apple symbolises an apple. Whatever symbol is presented our brain accepts it as the item intended. This is very useful as otherwise we would not be able to understand the moving images on our television. What we look at are millions of moving specs of light but what our brain recognises feels so realistic that the barrier between imagery and real life is broken down.

Symbolic Denotation = “This is an apple”

Symbolic connotation = “It is a juicy apple / tasty apple”

 

Semantic Codes

Semantic codes describe the generally accepted hidden meaning in the communication. For example a red traffic light is recognised to mean stop, smoke issuing from a building might indicate the it is on fire. These are learned meanings which we acquire throughout our lives. The most significant of these codes is how we learn to read the expressions on another human face. These codes are subtle and complex and take time to learn, hence children are poor at reading adult emotions. Individuals with Autistic brains may also be unable to read the semantic codes in faces or verbal communication amongst other forms of communication.

Proairetic (action codes)

These “action” codes describe the presumption of follow on actions to those displayed in the image. For example, an image of a bowler running on a cricket pitch with a ball in his hand or a man drawing a gun or person wildly off balance all imply a follow on action or conclusion to the action.

Hermeneutic Codes (or Enigma Codes)

This is nothing to do with WW2 decoding machines. These codes describe a sense of mystery in the communication.  An examples of Hermeneutic coding might include obscuring part of a image in dark shadow. i.e. a dubious looking man standing under the light of a street lamp so that only part of his body/face can be seen.

 Cultural or Referential Codes.

These codes refer to signs that require the recipient to have a particular point of reference such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion, being a member of a group or industry. These reference points mean that the recipient can/will perceive and interpret a sign that otherwise may be misread or not understood at all. Industry specific abbreviations and codes are an example where in a hospital a CAT scan has nothing to do with a small domesticated feline.

Francesca Woodman

Susan Bright said of Wooodman’s work “It is difficult not to read Woodman’s many self-portraits – she produced over five hundred during her short lifetime – as alluding to a troubled state of mind. She committed suicide at the age of twenty-two.”
(Bright, 2010, p.25)

220px-Francesca_Woodman_self_portrait

Reflection

When viewing Woodman’s images I do find them disturbing. They have a dark, moody and chaotic appearance. I am reminded of Diane Arbus who’s images of societies marginalised groups also had a rather uncomfortable feel about them. Diane Arbus also committed suicide, so is this need or drive to produce images that shock or disturb the senses an indicator of “troubled” mental health?                                          ghost

Woodman’s handwriting is included in a number of her images. Handwritten notes to her boyfriend and even scrawled on walls. Her writing style shares that chaotic appearance. There is no apparent effort to achieve uniformity or even correct spelling. Some of the messages to her boyfriend might also suggest low self esteem?

my house

Woodman is well known for including herself, often naked or partially clothed in her images. This alone isn’t uncomfortable viewing but he way in which her images present her form is. In this age of the selfie there are billions of self portraits on social media where the photographer / model is doing their utmost to display themselves as perfectly as they possibly can. Such images expose the ego and narcissism inherent in our human makeup.  When photographing yourself is it not normal to want to present the best version? Does deliberately depicting oneself in a unflattering or dismissive way suggest struggles with esteem or sense of self?  I believe that to depict yourself in this way is antithetical to ego or self worth and this could be considered by Bright as “a troubled state of mind”.

wallpaper

It is a matter of historic fact that Woodman killed herself at the age of 22 and this leads us (somewhat by the nose) to reach a retrospective conclusion that Woodman was a tormented soul and she used photography to express her pain.

But her parents would state otherwise and they, if anyone, would have known Woodman better than any art critic. In their interview in the Guardian they tell the story of a young (very young) hard working talented artist. One that modelled her own images because it made sense to do so as it meant she was unrestricted by the availability of others and unhampered by the need to convey her ideas verbally to a model. They dismissed the art establishment’s reading of her images as a representation of feminism and  pointed to the witticism and humour in her work. They described her life in this way; “she wasn’t a “deeply serious intellectual”; she was witty, amusing. “She had a good time,” says Betty. “Her life wasn’t a series of miseries. She was fun to be with. It’s a basic fallacy that her death is what she was all about, and people read that into the photographs”

Without hesitation I accept Woodman’s parents viewpoint. Woodman’s work appeared dark, but we should be looking not at the darkness but at how she manipulated and managed light. Her inclusion of herself in her images is well explained and has an authentic ring. I agree with her parents that we tend to focus upon her untimely end and allow that to colour our perception of her life.

References

Tate (n.d.) Francesca Woodman 1958-1981 [online] Tate. Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francesca-woodman-10512. Last accessed 07/05/2020

Levy D (2018) Francesca WoodmanVanishing Act [online] Tate. Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-43-summer-2018/francesca-woodman-vanishing-act-deborah-levy. Last accessed 07/05/2020

Cooke R. (2014) Searching for the real Francesca Woodman [online] The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/aug/31/searching-for-the-real-francesca-woodman. Last accessed 07/05/2020

o ego. 

The day to day life of Alfred Hastings

Briefly referenced in the Context and Narrative course material, I am really glad that I followed the link and discovered this thought provoking work.

Kaylyn Deveney spent time getting to know “Bert” (Albert) in his flat in south Wales whilst photographing him. Her photographs document Bert’s day to life but also the background to his life and living conditions.  Bert’s comments below each image add context to what I think is a gentle, sympathetic documentary of a period of Bert’s life. 

Deveney uses Relay text as an accompaniment to her images, but what is really enjoyable about them is that rather than write them herself she has asked Bert for his thoughts. Bert’s comments add complexity to the work in that they enable us to compare Bert’s perception of himself and his way of living to that of how others, including me as the viewer might see him. 

I really enjoyed reading Bert’s simple direct commentary, his perspective and images of his lifestyle reminded me greatly of elderly relatives and friends that I have known through my life. I drifted into nostalgic memories and reflected upon the lessons that we should be learning from our elders. I really enjoyed this work. 

Deveney describes it as:

“This work is sited where Bert’s autobiographical vision, based in life experience and feeling, meets the new eye of a stranger. Together our visions and versions of his day-to-day experience sit side by side to create a new tale. At the end of this project Bert and I, of course, maintained our individual perspectives, but I think we were richer, too, for being informed by one another. I know I am.”

References

Deveney K. (2007) The day to day life of Albert Hastings [online]. Kaylyn Deveney Photographer (website) Available from: https://kaylynndeveney.com/the-day-to-day-life-of-albert-hastings. Last accessed 24/04/2020.

David Hurn (b.1934)

Referenced in the Context and Narrative course literature, David Hurn is internationally recognised in the photographic community as a successful photographer, educator  and member of Magnum Photos. 

Born in 1934 in Wales, UK. Hurn was an undiagnosed dyslexic. In the early 1950s Hurn was enlisted under the UK’s compulsory National Service program. He was successful enough in the Army to be invited to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he trained as an officer in the British Army. 

It was during his time at Sandhurst that he had a “seminal moment” which would completely change his future career path. In Lensculture’s interview Hurn describes “I picked up a copy of the Picture Post, a really fine British magazine at the time. I still remember the date: February 12, 1955. I was looking through it and came across a picture—it struck me so forcefully and so immediately, I began to cry.” The image, made by Henri Cartier-Bresson, of a Russian soldier buying a hat for his wife had such an effect because of the powerful memory it evoked of his parents shopping after his father returned from the war.

From that moment Hurn wanted to be a photographer and when he left the Army in 1955 he started working in photojournalism. Hurn eventually moved away from journalistic imagery towards documentary work. This move, influenced by a chance meeting with Sergio Larrain in Trafalgar Square in 1965 led to him joining the renowned Magnum Photos. 

Hurn described his preferred work as “mundane”. He photographed everyday life, looking for “Mundane but special moments, all over the world”.  When asked to describe his approach to photography Hurn took a quotation from Michel Montaigne’s writings which had inspired him and applied it to photography;

USA. Arizona. Sun City Outdoor group fitness early in the morning in the retirement Sun City. Ages range from 60 to a 94 year old who had run a 50secs hundred meters in the Senior Olympics. The sense of fun and community was very infectious. 1980
G.B. SCOTLAND. Edinborough. Retired gentleman at the MG Car owners Ball. 1967.

“If you are yourself, then something of your particular personality and way of looking at the world will come out in what you do. But you only get there if you genuinely follow your own interests.”

In 1973 Hurn set up the now famous School of Documentary Photography in Newport, Wales.  He resigned from the school in 1989, some 26 years later. He continues to live and to work from his home in Tintern, Wales and in 2016 was awarded an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society. 

David Hurn/Magnum

References

Strecker A. (n.d.) The Picture That Changed My Life: Interview with David Hurn [online]. Lensculture. Available from: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/david-hurn-the-picture-that-changed-my-life-interview-with-david-hurn. Last accessed 24/04/2020.

Magnum Photos. (n.d.) David Hurn [online]. Magnum Photos. Available from: https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/david-hurn/. Last accessed 24/04/2020.

 

The structure of Photographic Metaphors

In Feinstein’s essay “Meaning and Visual Metaphor” (1982) she reasons that the metaphor is fundamental to human thinking. In the abstract to her essay she states that it “elaborates on (Susanne K) Langer’s thesis, discussing symbolisation and the fundamental components of metaphor. Langer contends that metaphor is not only an essential process and product of thought, but also that art is metaphor”.

Feinstein H. (1982) Meaning and Visual Metaphor. Studies in Art Education, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 45–55. JSTOR, Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1319679. Last accessed 16/04/2020.

I agree with Feinstein. I believe that metaphor may be seen in every aspect of modern photography. Metaphor might not be apparent to all and might be understood differently by individuals based upon their understanding of the world. Metaphorical meaning may be intended by the photographer or incidental or accidental to the intended meaning. For example a photograph of a snowy scene denotes snow but it connotes Winter. If the image contains holly or a church or deer the connotation may move towards Christmas.

In advertising or those motivational posters that have been popular on office walls over recent decades the metaphor is helped along with anchor text, in the case of posters, or verbal anchors in television adverts. Clouds, sailing, starring out to sea, team mates playing sport and many many more are examples of regularly used metaphors in such publications. These are easy to spot. They are deliberate and calculated to produce a particular response from the viewer.

Of more interest to me however are the less obvious metaphors, two examples of which would be; intended but devised to be very subtle (subliminal) and those not intended (accidental).

Advertising is an example of the former as it contains many subliminal metaphors including but by no means limited to; the sex of the individual and the background to the advertisement. There will not be a single element of the background to an advertisement that hasn’t been carefully thought out. These subliminal messages evoke feelings of belonging or aspiration to connoted wealth or happiness. We need to look back to the advertisements of the 1950s or earlier to see advertisements that seek to sell items purely on the attributes of the item alone.

Accidental metaphors are those not intended by the photographer. Where these exist they are open to use in order to deliberately change the meaning of the image away from that which was intended. Use of anchor or relay text or description can be used to change the images meaning, however these textual tools would not work without the metaphor that connotes the new meaning being present in the image. Examples of this are shown in exercise 2.2 Image and Text (Anchor Vs Relay)

Collins English Dictionary describes Metaphor as a noun which is “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action that it does not literally denote in order to imply a resemblance“

There are very few, if any, succinct definitions of Visual Metaphor however. Collins and Cambridge dictionaries are yet to include a definition of visual metaphor.

Collins (n.d.), definition of Metaphor [online], Collins website,  Available from: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/metaphor, last accessed 17/04/2020.

Additional References:

Stern, J. (1997). Metaphors in Pictures. Philosophical Topics,25(1), 255-293. available from: www.jstor.org/stable/43154256, Last accessed 17/04/2020

Hostetler L. (2004)  “The Structure of Photographic Metaphors.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History [online], The Met Website, Available from: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pmet/hd_pmet.htm, Last Accessed 17/04/2020.

Siskin A. (1955) Uruapan 11 [online], The Met Website, Available from: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/266508, Last Accessed 17/04/2020.

2.4 Photographing the Unseen.

Exercise:

Research the following three case studies from Level 3 OCA students who have chosen to explore themes that are not necessarily visible. All use metaphor to portray their ideas rather than a more straightforward method of representation.

Peter Mansell – Paralysis

Pete suffered a spinal cord injury as a result of a traffic accident when he was 20 and has lived most of his life as a paraplegic. His projects deal with how his injury has affected his life.

Dewald Botha – Ring Road

As a South African living in China, Dewald often felt like an outsider. He found the busy-ness and intensity of life in China smothering so began to use his camera to explore this personal issue. Ring Road is the outcome of this visual exploration and the resultant images portray a searching for beauty or relief in a place of difficulty.

Jodie Taylor – Childhood Memories

Jodie Taylor’s work deals with nostalgia, which at first may seem like an un- photographable subject. She got around this problem by revisiting her childhood area and photographing it in a way that marries her memories and family history with her present interaction with those formative places. The outcome is a visually consistent and poignant view of her childhood. The subject drove her photography, not the other way around. The final presentation consisted of 6×4 photographs presented in the sort of flimsy plastic family album she’d have had at home. Read more about Jodie’s work here:
www.weareoca.com/photography/photography-and-nostalgia/

All three of these projects are examples of personally driven work but they become universal when we can relate to the feeling they present by visiting our own personal histories.

1. Which of these projects resonates most with you, and why?
2. How do you feel about the loss of authorial control that comes when the viewer projects their own experiences and emotions onto the images you’ve created?

Research

Peter Mansell – Paralysis

 

masell1

Presented as a photo book and a website. powerful, thought provoking, images of the individual items that make up Mansell’s world. Some of the images are difficult viewing. The titles of each chapter of the act as a relay which steers the viewer to an understanding of what they are looking at and the context within which they should be considered. As I viewed the images and read the associated text Mansell’s images conjured the feelings of frustration, loss of freedom, of planned future and the bitter sadness and concern for the future that I can only assume disabling conditions bring in waves.

Mansell has an extensive portfolio online over several individual websites. They are all navigable from a central landing page (listed below) The images in his photographic essay can be expanded by clicking them. Each expanded view provides explanation text below. I felt with this work that the metaphorical message of the image was better served by not reading the text.

Mansell P. (2016) Peter Mansell Imagery (online), Weebly.com website, available from: https://paralysed.weebly.com/#, last accessed 09/04/2020.

 

Dewald Botha – Ring Road

Botha1

 

Botha’s extensive portfolio is available in part on his website

Botha’s images tend to be, rather like Mansell’s, images of multiple individual elements that fit together to make a whole. It is the sum total of the images that give rise to the understanding of the work and the feelings they convey. I spent some time viewing several of Botha’s projects, in them he questions what places mean by showing us so many versions of the place that I initially questioned how they could possibly fit together other than by being located in the same geographic location. I  noted that Botha treated these urban images in a similar way to which a landscape photographer captures a scene in that all that is captured is landscape. There are signs of man’s mark on the world but no sign of man, or beast for that matter. No distractions from Botha’s aim of capturing the essence of the place.

Botha D. (2013) Ring Road [online] DEWALD website, available from: https://www.dewaldbotha.net/ring-road.html,last accessed 09/04/2020.

Jodie Taylor – Memories of Childhood.

taylor3

Taylor’s work resonated with me more than the examples above. Not because of the powerful subject matter, if it were merely subject matter then Paralysis would be my choice, but Taylor’s work resonated most because she took me back to my childhood.

I first came across Taylor’s images whilst completing the “Expressing Your Vision” module. The photographs, which Tayor cleverly presented took look as if they were taken in the 1970s,  immediately took me back to my childhood and with that evoked memories of days spent out on my bicycle with friends, exploring new neighbourhoods, endless panel fenced and walled footpaths and garage blocks with “up and over” metal doors. Memories of my parents, since departed. Memories of friends that I have lost contact with, and memories of the freedom that existed for children of the sixties and seventies.

Taylors work inspired me to go back to the village of my childhood. I went back there in 2019 to reminisce and whilst there to visit old neighbours who had stayed. I spent the remainder of the day wandering the nostagia steeped footpaths and pathways of my youth. Much had changed in the sleepy village that I called home for so many years but it’s essence remained. Obviously, I took my camera and recorded images for my personal collection. Many had similarities to those of Jodie Taylors. I remain grateful to her for inspiring me to return.

Lomas M. (2015) Jodie Taylor [online], Open College of the Arts website, Available from: https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/photography/jodie-taylor/, Last accessed 16/04/2020

n.k. (2013) Photography and Nostalgia [online], Open College of the Arts website, Available from: https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/ photography/photography-and-nostalgia/, Last accessed 16/04/2020

 

Lack of Authorial Control?

When I started learning with the Open College of the Arts, working on the first module of my course “Expressing Your Vision” my tutor questioned my choice of adding titles to all of my images, suggesting instead that it might be better to allow the viewer to find their own meaning. I had never considered such a option until that point. In fact I had added titles because I wanted to direct the viewer towards my way of thinking, to the meaning that I had intended.

Since then, and thanks to my tutor, I have allowed the viewer the opportunity to read into my images whatever their past, their current circumstances, social or political views or their environment suggest.  Dictatorial messaging has its place, in news media, adverts, government messaging etc. But I do not need or want to dictate meaning for my images. Images that allow the viewer to have their own emotional or intellectual response are far more powerful and are meaningful to many many more people than those that are closed and heavily anchored. My preference would be for the lightest of relay text where necessary.

 

 

Relay in Contemporary Photographic Practice

Research point

Examples of relay in contemporary photographic practice include Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself and Sophy Rickett’s Objects in the Field where clashes of understanding or interpretation work together to create a perhaps incomplete but nonetheless enriching dialogue between artist and viewer.

Look these pieces up online. Investigate the rationale behind the pieces and see if you can find any critical responses to them. Write down your own responses in your learning log.

  • How do these two pieces of work reflect postmodern approaches to narrative?
  • Another way to incorporate text into an image-based project is to include interviews or audio.

Response

“Relay” Is a method of using text in conjunction with images discussed in the course material. Relay is where the text has equal status with the image. This is described in the course material as where “the Image and text bounce off each other to create a fuller picture that allows for ambiguity and various interpretations.

Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself

Sophie Calle’s work take care of yourself is a mixed media work consisting of letters writings and video. The work represents Kelly’s response to a break up email from her ex-boyfriend.

Calle’s presentation consists of the research, dissection, and musings about the content of that message. Calle asked 107 different women to interpret the contents of the message and it is these responses she presents to the viewer. Relay is apparent in this work because the text is presented without external instruction on how to interpret it. The letters and writings are shown as originally created without guidance to the viewer.

Her introduction to this work reads:

“I received an email telling me it was over.
I didn’t know how to respond.
It was almost as if it hadn’t been meant for me.
It ended with the words, “Take care of yourself.”
And so I did.
I asked 107 women (including two made from wood and one with feathers),
chosen for their profession or skills, to interpret this letter.
To analyse it, comment on it, dance it, sing it.
Dissect it. Exhaust it. Understand it for me.
Answer for me.
It was a way of taking the time to break up.
A way of taking care of myself.“

The presentation embraces post-modernism by rejecting the linear timeline. This is not a presentation you walk through chronologically from beginning to end. This is not a story, it is a collection of responses from professional women. In terms of timeline, there would have been a timeline to Calle’s quest for information but the responses are being presented as a single moment. The viewer is not directed from one “piece of evidence “to the next in order to build a case but rather left to make their own judgement based upon their own life experiences or maybe their gender. it is very unlikely that a man viewing this work will have the same perspective or experience as woman.

Clare Harris described in her critique of the work in 2009 that it left her feeling frustrated and overwhelmed by the amount of information conveyed and the way in which it was presented. I feel that the creation of these feelings were intentional on the part of Calle. When I look back on times of rejection or breakup In my own life I recollect feelings and thoughts that time were numerous, diverse, and sometimes distressing. Overwhelming and sometimes frustrating sums up my experience and this is probably the normal reaction of most people. Only by resisting temptations to Anchor the meaning of her exhibits was it possible for Calle to evoke the complex emotions she intended with this work.

 Sophy Rickett’s Objects in the Field.

Objects in the field came about through Rickett’s encounter with Dr Roderick Willstrop at the University of Cambridge IoA. Willstrop in the 1980s designed the 3 Mirror Telescope which he then used for 12 years to photograph distant stars and planets. Willstrop’s historic use of photography was as a tool to support his scientific studies whereas in contrast, Rickett’s use was for artistic values.

The work seeks to find common ground between the practices of the two individuals. Something that Rickett in her interviews with Sharon Boothroyd for Photoparley, November 2013 describes as mainly failing. However, by utilising some of Willstrop’s original negatives but printing them herself Rickett adds an artistic interpretation to what were originally produced as scientific artefacts. Rickets adds a number of her own images to add context.

Again, Objects in the Field is not chronological. There would have been a timeline to Ricketts time with Willstrop and she describes this within her interview. It makes sense not to present the images chronologically because whilst research is chronological the outcome is not fully clear until the end of the process. These images allow the viewer to appreciate Rickett’s conclusion, which was only fully formed at the end of her time with Willstrop.

 

My Reflection.

I feel very comfortable with the postmodernist approach of rejecting a chronological narrative. A lack of chronological structure resonates with the way my own thoughts meander and jump about when taking in a scene. For me Calle’s work was the more compelling and adhered more closely to my understanding of the postmodernist rejection of chronology. She had a story to tell and she did so in a postmodernist way. Rickett’s work didn’t present itself to me as a story, it appeared to me as more a presentation of the result of her studies.

References.

Harris C. (2010) Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself [online], A-N [website] available from:  https://www.a-n.co.uk/reviews/sophie-calle-take-care-of-yourself/, last accessed 03/04/2020

Tate Shots. (2007) Sophie Calle: Dumped by Email [online], Tate website, available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sophie-calle-2692/sophie-calle-dumped-email, last accessed 03/04/2020

Chrisafis A. (2007) He Loves me Not [online] The Guardian website, available from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/16/artnews.art, last accessed 03/04/2020

Franchi D. (2014) Exhibition Object in the Field by Sophy Rickett at the Grimaldi Gallery, London [online] London Art Reviews Website, available from: https://londonartreviews.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/exhibition-object-in-the-field-by-sophy-rickett-at-the-grimaldi-gallery-london/, Last accessed 03/04/2020

Rickett S. (n.d.) Objects in the Field [online], Sophie Rickets.com, available from: https://sophyrickett.com/objects-in-the-field-1, last accessed 08/04/2020