To me, Photography is capturing moments whether they are considered simple or chaotic and appreciate that a photo allows you to capture moments in that second, there is no adjustment to the photo whether that is cropping it, enhancing the saturation, adding a filter or photoshopping it, it is just that one specific moment in time that has been caught on camera. Photography to me is also the idea of individuality, it's very expressive in the sense that there is no such thing as a photo that is right or wrong unless it is considered immoral. I also like how a photo is never simple, there is always something that can be interpreted from the picture.
Evidence - Sultan and Mandel
The photography book made by Sultan and Mandel contains photographs that have been taken from an old American archive. The book contains a series of uncaptioned images that are from the American technological and research institutions. I think that they have been left uncaptioned so that the viewer of the book can use their imagination and interpret what they want from the photo rather then being told what they should think about it. Despite there being no captions with the photographs, Mandel and Sultan have evidently considered how the photos should be placed in the book and whether a picture should be on the left or on the right page. This does help to simulate thoughts about the pictures and what they could mean but in a less constrictive way.
I think that Sultan and Mandel chose to recontextualize industrial images because the very thorough way they have thought about the placement of these industrial photos gives them a completely new story. For example, there are two photos in the book one is of a monkey who we presume to be being held down and next to it there is a photo of a person with their arm voluntarily elongated. These two photos being placed together is a perfect example of how the context of an image changes when it is placed next to another photo. The interpretation of these two photos that I have is that it is a comparison between how we dehumanize animals and take away their right and freewill while we are perfectly comfortable doing whatever we want and having the power to escape from something that we don't want to be forced into despite knowing animals do not have this same power.
Another way to interpret this photo is that the human arm is an extension of the monkey's arm. This highlights a mocking tone to the people who ignore the very obvious animal abuse that exists in our society. It also suggests how humans will always be superior to animals and do whatever they want to them despite it causing them obvious harm and discomfort. The interpretations from these photos suggest why they decided to recontextualize industrial images, they develop a new meaning and endless interpretations.
Experiment 1
In this experiment, we used the pictures that we took from the first experiment to create a sequence. We had to think about how to pair the photos and our group decided to pair the pictures by colour similarities as well as similarities in the pictures in terms of patterns or what the main focus of the photo was.
For this task, we were given a set of instructions that we followed to then take the pictures. In the first picture, the instruction was to take a picture of the photo with a hand obscuring the image. I chose to place my hand over the picture in that way because it changes the interpretation of the photo. The background is a deep black hole which could represent lack of knowledge or the unknown so the hand over the dark space dramatizes the notion of the unknown.
The instruction for the second image was to take a photo of the image in a book, I chose to place it the way I did because there is a linear structure and the corner of the photo, and the book meet at the top.
The instructions of the third image were to damage the picture in any way. I decided to put it onto the red background because it is a bold contrast between the black and white.
The instructions for the last photo were to place the photo in an unusual place. I decided to put the photo in-between books on a bookshelf because compared to the books on the shelf, the photo looks abnormal which to me makes the photo abstract.
Experiment 1 (continued)
Collaborative Beyond Evidence Response
Beyond Evidence
Summary of Beyond Evidence:
the book creates a photographic narrative
the book helps to highlight that gaining reliability and trust is a difficulty for photographers
Sultan has inspired a lot of young photographers due to the fascination that the book holds because of its mysterious element
it created a new culture for working with photography and how to create narratives
A photographer named Lukas Einzelle uses the metaphor of a reverse trajectory of a cluster bomb to trace back the web of connectivity as to how the bomb exploded, this is an interesting way to create a photographic narrative because it is evident that he had to very carefully considered the placements of the photographs both on display and in the actual picture
Experiment 2: caught
We decided to base our photography story on a murder mystery. When we started to talk about what evidence meant to us, the one that we spoke about the most was how photography is used as evidence in murder mysteries and police investigations. The choice to not include people's faces in the photos was because how there is an element of wanting to remain anonymous when you have been caught out for doing something wrong due to the inevitable guilt that you will end up feeling because of people consistently talking about what you have done. Photography is a permanent reminder of what you have done wether it was good or bad.
Stories through photography
never always happens
My story is about the realisation that you cannot change growing up even though sometimes it's a difficult concept to understand as well as accept. The aim of the photos is to establish that growing up is something than can be looked forward to because you can grow mentally as a person and gain intellectual experiences as well as fun ones that can then be considered core memories as you continue to grow up. I chose to put the photos in black and white because black and white photos are usually used in pictures that reference memories. This links to my concept of the photos I have taken becoming core memories as you grow up.
Experiment 3
We were given a set of 12 photos, and we had to arrange them so that they would all work together to create a story. We had to consider the use of black and white photos in contrast to colour photos. Colour photos can be used to represent a period time presently and black and white photos can be used to represent photos from the past. The story I decided for my photos was two people very interested in history and researching archives. The first man in the sequence of images is at his house researching archaeological findings that he finds fascinating when he discovers a picture of a copper head. He then writes up his findings and then decides to email the man who took the photo of the metal sculpture, to then discover he was the one who found it and took a picture of it. They then converse over email where the man who took the picture of the sculpture discloses that he found it when he was on an expedition in the mountains in Norway.
If I was to make this sequence again, I wouldn't change the order because before deciding on a final order, I rearranged it quite a few times to make sure I could explain how each of the photos corelated and were relevant to the story.
Story Telling
20 Seconds of Silence
For this task, it was similar to the previous one however the difference is that instead of the story being fiction, it had to be a true story. When I was doing this task, I had to think about how I would angle the frame of the photo and what would be in the composition. My story has very specific aspects to it so I had to pay close attention to what was in the background, side and front of the photos to make sure that the story couldn't be misinterpreted due to unwanted inanimate objects being in the frame. The story is about when I got a concussion while I was boating. It is called 20 seconds of silence because I was underwater for about 20 seconds before I came back up but I didn't think it was that long while I was under the water. It stuck in my head because I found it so strange how your perception of things is altered so much when you faint.
Research Task- Sugar Paper Theories
This photography book was created by Jack Lantham, and it was a response to the notorious double murder case of two men in Iceland. His book received multiple awards for his complex and innovative composition and combination between original photos and ones from archives. This book is an interesting way of interpreting the double murder because instead of having facts and statements telling us what to think about people potentially involved in the murder and the event itself, we are allowed to use our imagination to see if we can work out what happened ourselves.
These are images from the book Sugar Paper Theories. With context about what the pictures represent, there is an eery and uncomfortable atmosphere that the images create because you can't help but wonder what happened in the places in the pictures, why they happened there and if the people responsible for the incident are anywhere in the pictures.
Sugar paper theories is a documentary type of photography and in some ways, it challenges our perception of reality and reliability when we look at photos especially about something as serious as a murder case. The photographs taken by him offer a fresh perspective because as an award-winning photographer, he knows the things to take pictures of to make people think, especially as his photographs break away from certitude and contemporary consciousness.
Photograph Analysis- Parliament of Owls
We looked at a photograph from another one of Jack Lantham's photography books which is called Parliament of Owls. We discussed the composition of the photo and how we thought it was abnormal
the person in the photo looks as though they are wearing clothes from a physciatric ward
the mask they are wearing is of the impeached president Richard Nixon
the photo rebels against photography normalities which is to not put the subject matter in the centre of the image because it is considered boring however in this photo, I think it makes it more interesting as there is a linear structure to how the objects and the person standing next to them have been positioned
How do we know we can trust photography ?
Why are we less trusting of photographs at this point in history ?
I think we are less trusting of photography in this part of history because the world of technology has improved dramatically. We now have millions of editing apps that allow us to alter photographs to what we would call a perfect photo. Magazines edit models to become more tanned, skinner, their eyes to have a bolder colour or the saturation of the background to be brighter and tabloids use photoshop to edit people or objects into a photo for dramatic purpose to get more views and money. With this information, we begin to question the reliability of photos because we know how easy it is for them to be changed. Why is this challenging for documentary photographers ? This is difficult for documentary photographers because their photos may have been trusted in the past however due to the editing software now available, people are constantly questioning photos that are reliable for fear of being tricked into believing something that is false.Some photos that went viral in 2015 because people believed that they were true. All of these pictures have things in the picture that have been placed there from other sources to make the picture seem real. Because we have been so over exposed to fake news, some people easily believe it however this is a big problem because photos that are real are also being questioned by a lot of people. Conspiracy theorists are the main people initiating these conversations about real documentary photos being fake and because they make such a strong case a lot of people are doubting the reliability of perfectly factual photos.
Why might the grey area between fact or fiction be an interesting space for photographers to explore ? The grey are may be an interesting space for photographers to experiment in because taking photos of things that seem fake but are actually real will get people to question photographs more rather than always being presumptuous and assuming that all photos are fake. Despite a lot of photos being photoshopped or altered therefore decreasing their reliability when they are put in the media, experimenting with abnormal photos or editing software for personal use can be an intriguing way to work out how you can tell if a photo is fake or real.
What does the phrase documentary uncertainty mean to you To me the term documentary uncertainty means when you can't figure out a reason why but a photo makes you feel uncomfortable or feel like you can't trust it. Because there is so much fake photography in the media, it has become very hard to determine what photographs are reliable and which ones aren't, it becomes very easy to overanalyse a photo and look at every single thing in detail: The saturation, the surroundings of the photo, the time and date on the picture if there is one.
Further research - Sugar Paper Theories
My response to Jack Lantham
The photograph I chose to make a recreation of from Jack Lantham's book Sugar Paper Theories is similar to the one above (a news article, black and white photo, colour photo) I thought that this photo was interesting because it makes the composition of the book very innovative and perceptive. He cleverly demonstrates that a mystery cannot be solved from one simple photograph and that you need multiple sources of different forms of photography to be able to truly understand something.
The photo that I decided to recreate here is because I like the composition on the page as well as the message. The minimal captioning on the page is a suggestion to society that we need to become more independent and try to work things out for ourselves. The lack of written words on the page could also be an indication as to how to some Jack's book is supposed to be confusing and not understood straight away.
Task 4
Imagine that you are commissioned to photograph your family/and or friends or local community for posterity (a record for the future)
What places or things or people of value would you chose to capture
How would you choose to photograph your chosen subject
What additional material (texts, objects, images) might you choose to accompany the photograph
What kind of message do your pictures convey to future generations?
What will the title be for your chosen set of photographs?
Your Blues - Micheal Schmelling
Micheal's work in his photo book ' Your Blues' is collaborative because he worked with musicians, artists, other photographers and writers. The photos in his book don't have any captions on it which makes the pictures the viewers interpretation without any forced influence from text on the pages. I prefer it when there aren't any captions in photography books because it makes them more interesting to look through as I can see the pictures and guess what they're about or where they are myself, a way I think is more engaging to look through a photo book.
Like Micheal Schmelling, a passion of mine is music and I know I will be able to convey that passion through my photography. Music is something that connects me and my family very closely because of how similar our music tastes are. There are also songs that remind me of my family because I listened to them while we were together last summer and those songs are going to influence my pictures.
Songs that are influencing my project
Miss America - Bazzi
San Francisco - The Mowgli's
Caledonia Swing- Van Morrison
There she goes - The La's
Calling Elvis- Dire Straits
Tiny Dancer - Elton John
Rocketman - Elton John
Blitzkreig Bop- Ramones
I ain't worried- Republic
Inner smile- Texas
Life goes on - E^ST
Authority Song - John Mellencamp
Where'd all the time go - Dr dog
Move on Up- Curtis Mayfield
When completing this task, I looked at the pictures I had and realized that they were not that similar to the images created by Micheal. I strayed from my original idea that I had when I started thinking about this task and instead decided to combine the element of music and photography in a different way. The songs that I decided to use to represent the images are all songs that mean something to this generation for various reasons. The images are also a reflection of our society and community today because they include things that are most important to us : friends, family, traveling... This is the impression that I got from Micheal's book. Something else I considered when I was doing this task was his use of colour in his photos, they are very bright and bold which is something that I tried to convey in my pictures.
Archaeology in Reverse - Stephen Gill
My project is influenced by Stephen Gill and his photography book Archaeology in Reverse. Something I like about his book is that they're such simple photos but they have a deep and interesting meaning. He took pictures of Stratford before the area was renovated so that people would know what it looked like because of the changes. The pictures aren't in the same area, but that is an idea that I have chosen to convey through my images.
Clocks for Seeing
For this project I have taken pictures of places where I feel at home or feel connected for various reasons. I chose to take pictures of places like central London because I feel like it is a city that is changing constantly in terms of both architecture and people. Something I like about photographs is that they are something that can never be identical, so the pictures I have taken of the city now will be completely different to someone who takes pictures of it in 10 years time.
For this project, we used a 16 page zine template on photoshop and put in pictures, we rotated some of them and also made some of the photos smaller then the page to make it more interesting to look through. I experimented with different colours of sugar paper and I think they came out very well. Because my photos were brightly coloured and had a lot of red and blue in them, they took well to the colour of the sugar paper and were still very visible. For the next set of photos I took for this task, I decided to do a contrast between my local area during the day and during the night. I took pictures in similar locations to show how different everything looks between the two different times in the day.
I had to experiment with different sizes of zines to see which one I liked best. I prefer the 16 page zine because you can use more pictures in it. The two 16 page zines I have made are from the same project but the pictures are polar opposites in certain asepcts. I took pictures in similar places but at different times of the day to see how
Final Zine
I have decided to make a 16 page zine because I like the layout and that you can have more pictures in it. I am approaching this collaboratively with my cousin and I have asked her to send me family photos as well as photos she has of recent trips to the states. The two communities I feel most connected to is central London because I have been there with my family when they have come over from America. The other area I have chose to photograph is the town the county which my family live in, I am going to use a camera to rephotograph the images I have because I prefer how photos look on a digital camera then they do on a phone camera. I am also going to take pictures of family friends they're a big part of my community.
I got my cousin to send me photos of places in the states that we have been to all together and then I photographed places here in the UK that remind me of those places in America. I also took pictures that look similar to ones that she and I have taken which represents how we are connected even if we don't live in the same place.
I have organised my photos so that the photos in the first half are places where I have been with my family in the UK and then the second half is a combination of pictures from my cosuin of places we have been together which i rephotographed as well as ones i've taken myself
ldn to sfo
When taking these images, I wanted to make sure that I had a balance between people and locations that meant that most to me, my friends and family. Due to living in different places, getting pictures all together was difficult so I chose to take pictures of my friends because they're very important people to me and are like family. Another aim I had for this project was to take pictures of places in America that reminded me of places in England and places in England that reminded me of America. Sometimes because the location was similar or because I had been there with my family before.
Zine
I chose to do the 16 page zine because it meant that I could have more images in it. I feel like this project has gone well because I am happy with the images I have used and I feel that they represent the aim of the task well. If I were to do this again something I'd want to improve on is time management and making sure that I save my finished outcomes correctly; I had to restart making the zine a couple times because I lost them however a positive perspective I have on it is that having to restart made me consider the layout and the images that I chose carefully. When producing the zines, I also made sure that I was cautious when using the scapel and the ruler to ensure that the cuts were clean and precise.
As part of this project, we made 20 versions of our zines so that we could give them to people in our class. This was a way of sharing our work and showing everyone how are project has developed from the development stages to the making stages.