Assignment brief; Time & the image

Brief

I'm going to produce an A3 image that explores both time and narrative; the boundaries of interpretation are vast. The element of time can be taken literally, technically, historically or personally depending on the outcome I want to achieve.  The narrative is either linear (it has a beginning, middle and end) or non-linear.

Exploring time

Chemical processes were the most significant discovery within photography.

Mark Magnan

http://weburbanist.com/2008/11/06/pinhole-photogram-photography-creative-photographers/

Pinhole photography

http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/round-ups/40-classic-pinhole-photos/

“Pinhole photography is a technique that mirrors the way the first cameras were used.”

http://startstudioarts.si.edu/2010/01/tips-and-techniques-pinhole-photography.html

Long exposures

http://www.pxleyes.com/blog/2009/06/50-beautiful-long-exposure-photos/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2195752/Artist-takes-light-photography-grave-detailed-designs-skeletons-living-up.html

Fast shutter speeds

http://photo.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/100-stunning-photos-that-freeze-time-with-a-fast-shutter/

The following article really helped me understand what contexts I could use to portray the sense of time, without being too literal with the word.

http://www.robinurton.com/history/photography.htm

Narrative

Linear

Duane Michals

http://www.faheykleingallery.com/photographers/michals/personal/michals_pp_frames.htm

Non-Linear

http://zero1magazine.com/2012/07/lightning-appears-for-a-clear-sky/

http://www.kk-tf.com/

After looking into different aspects of the brief, it's now down to me to produce a print that complies with all the requirements of the brief. With a deadline of 7th December I have to plan my shoot with precision as I haven't got much time to amend mistakes.

Exhibition; Taryn Simon

Introduction

The American photographer has produced a full body of work that includes text with her images; this presents the audience with her intentions, motives and the understanding of each image. This body of work is not left to interpretation.  

‘An American index of the hidden and unfamiliar’  

http://www.dphoto.co.nz/photography-news-6900/an-american-index-of-the-hidden-and-unfamiliar-exhibition/

My work

I’m going to present my work within the style of Simon, however I’m going to be using an image I found really compelling within an exhibition that I’ve visited. I’m going to explore how they’ve created the image, the motives behind the image and the desired effect to the target audience.

Shadow catchers exhibition

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/january/shadow-catchers-camera-less-photography

Floris Neususs

Installation shot of Floris Neususs'work at the V&A's Shadow Catchers exhibition

The exhibition offered me an insight into photographic practises before the camera became the photographic medium of choice. The work was impressive considering there was nothing digital present; the cyanotypes of Susan Derges are vibrant, the photograms of Floris Neususs are inspiring and innovating. The exhibition really strips photography back to basics with bodies of work that keep the audience in awe; this is a well-equipped exhibition that will even challenge digital practitioners to explore chemical photography.     

'SHADOW CATCHERS, camera-less photography, Martin Barnes, Merrell publishers, 2010'

Here's an interesting forum that starts to discuss the exhibition but then leads to other topics;

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/36924144

Digital workshop; Imagery a historical document

Introduction

   “What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.”
                      ― Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography

The quote by Barthes really defines the image, it can be re-produced on countless occasions but the true worth is that what’s been captured, it can never be re-captured in time. This gives me a strong sense of value within photography, what we are seeing and producing are certainly periods of history without even acknowledging this fact, to even capture the fashion will be of historical value within the future.

http://youtu.be/rptbXU_qwXw

http://listverse.com/2007/08/15/15-incredible-historical-photographs/

'Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs'- Ansel Adams

Due to imagery playing an important role within preserving history, it’s important to handle images with caution and care. Here’s an interesting clip on how Glasgow university expect their students to handle work of others and their own: http://youtu.be/Mcx5l5czVTc

Digital workshop- Photoshop

Introduction

 “In a sense, I suspect photography theory has begun to evaporate, for a whole range of reasons. Perhaps the main one is that photography itself in its analogue form has already been dispersed by scientists, media institutions, the police, artists, and travelers: its dispersion began as soon as it was invented, so that photography has served a myriad of institutional purposes. Now photography is mutating into a digital environment where the boundaries are even less clear”- Sharon Sliwinski

“The oldest of modern media, photography (and radio and the telephone) now exists in a media ecology that was probably unthinkable even fifteen years ago”- Martin Lister

James Elkins, ed., Photography Theory (New York: Routledge, 2007)

Photography has developed at a rapid pace, as a photographer I feel that these statements really clarify the intensity of the digital age and what its affects have on older methods. Now a photographer doesn't even have to think about getting the image correct in the first instance, as we can go into Photoshop and make any adjustments necessary to make the image technically correct. Does Photoshop incoherently deminish the teachings of photography?

  

Photoshop Practitioners

Iain Crawford

http://www.iaincrawford.com/#/ABOUT/

http://www.iaincrawford.com/#/BEAUTY

My Images

Here’s a few examples of images I’ve produced using layers in Photoshop, the first image was part of the assignment while the other three were practise efforts;

This image is a representation of what matters to me, memories and experiences are the most valuable things in life. I opted for the image to be compiled in B & W as this prevents any areas from standing out against the rest, all my experiences have made me who I am today.

 Complete guide to digital photography, Ian Farrell, 2011



Exhibition Design; Darkroom work

Introduction

Exhibitions are a great way to showcase individual pieces or bodies of work, this helps both artists and photographers to make a reputable impact. The Great Exhibition was one of the first successful exhibitions which was held in Crystal Palace in 1851.

 http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/history-of-london/when-london-made-an-exhibition-of-itself.html

http://www.history.co.uk/explore-history/history-of-london/when-london-made-an-exhibition-of-itself/gallery.html

Exhibiting our work

We all had different opinions about exhibiting work; one of the main negatives was the way the work was hung by clips. In my opinion this made the exhibition appear as if it was temporarily hung in order to amend any adjustments that was required. Another factor to why it didn’t work for me was the prints themselves; the paper wasn’t cut into neat proportions and this made the whole exhibition look as if it was thrown together without any consideration.  Others argued that these factors made the whole exhibition more effective as we were displaying pinhole images; they stated that the images looked like darkroom experiments rather than controlled outcomes.  

Examples of other exhibition

I looked at Aperture to find my exhibition resources as it contains both ancient and cotemporary examples followed by an article, which really helped me understand the history behind each exhibition.  

http://www.aperture.org/2012/08/a-couple-of-ways-of-doing-something/

http://www.aperture.org/2012/07/subway/

http://www.aperture.org/2011/11/abstraction-in-contemporary-photography/

http://www.aperture.org/2012/03/petrochemical-america-project-room/

http://www.aperture.org/2012/05/invasion-68-prague/

Conclusion

There are numerous examples of exhibitions that I’ve included yet each have a setup that looks professional and works with their style of photography. The most unusual design I’ve seen was that of Martin Parr that was hung by drawing pins;

The images are presented professionally even though he’s opted for this format of display. I felt this was lacking within our exhibition and maybe if clips were placed underneath as well as on top the images, this would have appeared far more presentable. From the experience I have discovered a whole range of designs within exhibitions, like the use of drawing pins but it’s the time, planning and thought process that makes the exhibition successful.  

Digital workshop; Studio practice

Introduction

The Daguerreotype was the first photographic process that permitted people having their portraits taken, before this period portraits were only possible through the medium of art. Daguerre had made his invention public in 1839; by 1850 there were over 70 Daguerre studios within America alone. This was the first instance where studios were required for the medium of photography, just by looking at images from the studios back then to now, we’ll see how things have developed throughout the age of time.       

Back then the studio appeared like a torture setup with all the gadgets required to keep the human as still as possible, these gadgets were required due to the lengthy exposure times. Now the modern day studio is far less intimidating even with a multitude of gadgets.

Why photographers use the studio

Here’s a full length article that I found interesting and answers all the questions to studio photography;  http://photo.net/learn/studio/primer

During my research into studio practices I came across a project created by the photographer Peter Dicampo; Life without lights.

                        http://www.lifewithoutlights.com/contents/About%20the%20Project/
                                                                  
                                                         http://vimeo.com/10930099

                          

The project really had me thinking about the importance of light within photography, especially within the studio environment. Then we have Dicampo completely defeating the studio practice by utilising minimalistic lighting that he has no control over and producing an extremely powerful body of work.

My studio practice

Throughout these series of images I’m going to show the different equipment that was used and a few images I’ve created within the studio environment.

Beauty dish

Large softbox

Honeycomb

Barn doors

Throughout my studio practice I found that the following book really helped me understand what effects certain lighting setups will achieve and how the setups work; The portrait lighting referance, Peter Hince, 2011.