Response to Tutor re Assignment 3

19/11/18

Tutors comments in blue. My responses in black.

Overall Comments.

 A clear indication of how the paraphernalia/context around the chairs infers a story is in the accompanying text “I don’t need to be in the picture to describe what I am doing. The place tells me the activity and brings back memories. The chairs describe my life”.

A good example of why the accompanying text can be critical – there seem to be two types of image making

1. The single image which is either whole of itself and very explicit, often single shot street photography works like this, or simple invokes your (the viewers) imagination
2. Series images which tell a story – words may well add to this and set the background

This also led on to discussion about why the images with added handwritten notes give a better/more rounded sense of what I was trying to do.

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills

One picture stands out as different to the rest as the colour balance is not correct (yellow cast) and greater contrast.

Very fair comment: obvious when pointed out and I might have spotted it if I had printed the pictures out. Easy to fix and makes the whole set more balanced.

Quality of Outcome

There’s room for interpretation of the significance of objects (see your example of the burnt doll and blades of a blender) – could be extracts from the diary. This adds contextually to viewer’s experience (try to see from outside, without the familiarity of the mundane).

This feeds into the above comments about story telling and how you interpret what you are looking at. An example of this might be the rubbish tip photographs of Keith Arnatt – are they abstract? Do they tell a story? Are they ‘Art’?

Demonstration of Creativity

Good spatial arrangements, leading to dynamic compositions of scenes that are not naturally dynamic

I am not sure how conscious these choices were, or how much they were dictated by the available space. Hopefully is is partly that my ‘photographers’ eye’ is improving.

Coursework

Rather than commenting on the story itself, I suggest trying to see the stories in 3.1 as a photographer: comment on the ways in which the photographer uses the medium, how in/effective that is, and how you can relate these ways of working to your own storytelling.

Analysis could be more personal as seen as a photographer telling the story: (how) does this work? why is it done (and presented) in this way? How would I do this? Has this changed my outlook and if so, how?

At present my analysis of any piece of work tends to be factual – who, what, how and sometimes why.  I have not (to date) really thought about how the photographer has chosen to tell the tale, would I have done it the same way – and if not, why not? Has their piece of work actively changed my work – or have I just looked at it and filed it in my mind as ‘interesting’ without using it as an active piece of learning.

Further suggested reading:

For my thoughts on this work see:

B=f(P,E)

 

Assignment 3 – rethink

12/11/18

The Brief:

To keep a diary for at least 2 weeks and then interpret it into a photographic project, using your own experience to explore your identity in some way, either directly or indirectly.

I have attempted to keep a diary many times over the years and have never been very successful in keeping it up for any length of time. I lose track, forget to do it for a few days and then struggle to restart. I have tried keeping short notes, writing long screeds, taking a photo a day and posting it online in the various social media sites, writing (bad) poetry. All with no real degree of success. Two weeks seemed manageable, and it was – just. I used a combination of notes on what had actually happened that day, thoughts that they gave rise to and an image, either taken on the day or sometime recently to make a page a day diary. In the end I actually quite enjoyed it.

Thoughts:

When I went back over it I realised that most of what I do is very repetitive and banal. Yes, I went shopping. Yes, I went to work. Yes, I read and pottered in the garden. Most of my days were spent circling around the same activities in the same place, living room, study, garden, kitchen, office. The place defined what I did. I sit and read in the living room. I do my photo work in my study. I sit and relax in the garden. I sit and eat in the kitchen. I sit and do paperwork in the office at work. The common theme is sitting. No one else sits in my places, or only very rarely. I am sitting at my study desk to write this. I just took a break sitting on the couch in the living room. I don’t need to be in the picture to describe what I am doing. The place tells me the activity and brings back memories. The chairs describe my life.

Research:

It has been said that all art is autobiographical in nature. Certainly, all art and literature says as least as much about the author as about the subject. Fellini said ‘“All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography” and “Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me” when talking about his films (Fellini, 1965).  Autobiographical photography can be produced in a variety of ways and does not always need to involve direct self-portraiture. The work of Nigel Shrafran is a good example of this, although if you were not aware it was his house the images of washing up could have multiple meanings.  Sophie Calle in Take Care of Yourself. (Calle, 2007) tells a very explicit story about the breakup of a relationship, interestingly mainly using others words and images to do so.

https://scottishzoecontextandnarrative.wordpress.com/2018/10/20/self-absented-portraiture/

https://scottishzoecontextandnarrative.wordpress.com/tag/sophie-calle/

While thinking about indirect self-portraiture I read this article about photographing items recovered from a devastating forest fire, which also uses small items to describe a life, in this case, a part of a life history that has now been destroyed.  They are very personal and poignant. The remnants of jewellery, parts of a burnt doll, the blades from a food mixer. They clearly tell a story of a home and family and the things that made up that home, now gone. However, they are not specific about any one family or person and need further written information to clarify the story.  (Smithson,2018)

http://lenscratch.com/2018/10/norma-i-quintana-forage-from-fire/

Another photographer whose work is often considered to be mainly autobiographical is Masahisa Fukase. His work is wide-ranging, and on the surface about Japan and the people and culture there, however he himself relates it to taking images that talk about himself. For one series of images about his cat Sasuke he says “I didn’t want to capture the most beautiful cats in the world, but rather their charm with my lens while being reflected in their pupils. One might accurately say that this collection is really a ‘self-portrait’ for which I adopted the form of Sakuke and Momoe” and also “I photographed ravens for ten years, at the end of which I realised that the raven was indeed me” (Fukase, Kosuga &Baker, 2018). The positive and negative sides of his personality, dark and light, play and despair.

Practice:

I took a series of pictures of the 5 areas at home and work where I spend most time. I did not tidy them up in advance. I did try some images where I had ‘organised the scene’ but these did not show the daily life that really happens, and I am not a naturally tidy person. I picked a series of 5 images that I felt were most representative of my life. Certainly, my family would be able to immediately identify what I would have been doing at any of these points. However, I was aware that the same might not be true of a stranger. So, after some thought I added a brief statement, handwritten, to each image, to give context to the pictures. The words act as a starting point to allow a degree of insight into what I might be doing at any place, while still allowing for a degree of imagination on the part of the reader.

Final Images:

References

Calle, S. (2007). Sophie Calle – Take care of yourself. Arles: Actes Sud.

Fellini, F. (1965). The Atlantic.

Fukase, M., Kosuga, T. and Baker, S. (2018). Masahisa Fukase. Paris: Editions Xavier Barral, p.148.

Smithson, A. (2018). Norma I. Quintana: Forage From Fire. [online] LENSCRATCH. Available at: http://lenscratch.com/2018/10/norma-i-quintana-forage-from-fire/ [Accessed 30 Oct. 2018].

Appendices:

Diary added as a PDF so can be downloaded:

Two week diary reduced size

Contact sheets:

 

 

Initial Reflections on Assignment 3

30/10/18

As usual I find the personal reflection and criticism very difficult.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills:

I feel this is reasonable. I deliberately choose to take images of ‘what was there’ rather than an idealised setting with everything tidied up. The images are all internal, so where possible I used a tripod to allow for longer shutter speeds. This was not possible at work in the office. I used minimal post processing, composing within the camera rather than altering afterwards, and did not change the exposures or white balance.

I did change cameras half way though this assignment and this seems to have made a slight difference to the feel of one of the images, but it was also the only one taken outside – so this may have also been part of the reason for the difference.

Quality of outcome:

Any form of auto-biographical work is a new departure for me. I deliberately choose to use a series of images without people to show that this is a value form of self-descriptive work. I thought though various presentation possibilities as discussed in the work-up but finally decided that the simpler the better and allowing the images to stand alone was more effective. I think the work probably needs a more condensed explanation of the intent without the longer explanation of the thinking process to act as an explanation.

Demonstration of creativity:

I experimented with several viewpoints where possible and also with the differences between an idealistic view of ‘my places’ and the real view. However, this is a very factual piece of work.

Context:

Use of the pictures of chairs and their surroundings was thought of secondary to reading about other people’s work such as the Shafran series in the suggested reading together with wider reading about auto-biography and self -disclosure and Brights book Auto-Focus.

Assignment 3

29/10/18

The brief:

To keep a diary for at least 2 weeks and then interpret it into a photographic project, using your own experience to explore your identity in some way, either directly or indirectly.

I have attempted to keep a diary many times over the years and have never been very successful in keeping it up for any length of time. I lose track, forget to do it for a few days and then struggle to restart. I have tried keeping short notes, writing long screeds, taking a photo a day and posting it online in the various social media sites, writing (bad) poetry. All with no real degree of success. Two weeks seemed manageable, and it was – just. I used a combination of notes on what had actually happened that day, thoughts that they gave rise to and an image, either taken on the day or sometime recently to make a page a day diary. In the end I actually quite enjoyed it.

Thoughts:

When I went back over it I realised that most of what I do is very repetitive and banal. Yes, I went shopping. Yes, I went to work. Yes, I read and pottered in the garden. Most of my days were spent circling around the same activities in the same place, living room, study, garden, kitchen, office. The place defined what I did. I sit and read in the living room. I do my photo work in my study. I sit and relax in the garden. I sit and eat in the kitchen. I sit and do paperwork in the office at work. The common theme is sitting. No one else sits in my places, or only very rarely. I am sitting at my study desk to write this. I just took a break sitting on the couch in the living room. I don’t need to be in the picture to describe what I am doing. The place tells me the activity and brings back memories. The chairs describe my life.

Research:

It has been said that all art is autobiographical in nature. Certainly, all art and literature says as least as much about the author as about the subject. Fellini said ‘“All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography” and “Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me” when talking about his films (Fellini, 1965).  Autobiographical photography can be produced in a variety of ways and does not always need to involve direct self-portraiture. The work of Nigel Shrafran is a good example of this as is that of Sophie Calle in Take Care of Yourself. (Calle, 2007)

https://scottishzoecontextandnarrative.wordpress.com/2018/10/20/self-absented-portraiture/

https://scottishzoecontextandnarrative.wordpress.com/tag/sophie-calle/

While thinking about indirect self-portraiture I read this article about photographing items recovered from a devastating forest fire, which also uses small items to describe a life, in this case, a part of a life history that has now been destroyed.  They are very personal and poignant. The remnants of jewellery, parts of a burnt doll, the blades from a food mixer. They clearly tell a story of a home and family and the things that made up that home, now gone. (Smithson,2018)

http://lenscratch.com/2018/10/norma-i-quintana-forage-from-fire/

Another photographer whose work is often considered to be mainly autobiographical is Masahisa Fukase. His work is wide-ranging, and on the surface about Japan and the people and culture there, however he himself relates it to taking images that talk about himself. For one series of images about his cat Sasuke he says “I didn’t want to capture the most beautiful cats in the world, but rather their charm with my lens while being reflected in their pupils. One might accurately say that this collection is really a ‘self-portrait’ for which I adopted the form of Sakuke and Momoe”  and also “I photographed ravens for ten years, at the end of which I realised that the raven was indeed me” (Fukase, Kosuga &Baker, 2018). The positive and negative sides of his personality, dark and light, play and despair.

Practice:

I took a series of pictures of the 5 areas at home and work where I spend most time. I did not tidy them up in advance. I did try some images where I had ‘organised the scene’ but these did not show the daily life that really happens, and I am not a naturally tidy person.

 

I picked a series of 5 images that I felt were most representative of my life. Certainly my family would be able to immediately identify what I would have been doing at any of these points.

I considered various ways of showing them:

• Monochrome versus colour

  

  

  
  
• Stand alone images versus shown with titles – handwritten or typed

  

  

  
  
• Paired with handwritten sections taken out of my two weeks of diary entries.

Final Choice:

I decided that simple was the best option, and to use a colour image with a handwritten title.

References

Calle, S. (2007). Sophie Calle – Take care of yourself. Arles: Actes Sud.

Fellini, F. (1965). The Atlantic.

Fukase, M., Kosuga, T. and Baker, S. (2018). Masahisa Fukase. Paris: Editions Xavier Barral, p.148.

Smithson, A. (2018). Norma I. Quintana: Forage From Fire. [online] LENSCRATCH. Available at: http://lenscratch.com/2018/10/norma-i-quintana-forage-from-fire/ [Accessed 30 Oct. 2018].

Appendices:

Two week diary reduced size

added as a PDF so available as a download

Contact sheets: