Re_view is NGV’s historical exhibition of photographs celebrating 40 years of its Department of Photography, their separate curatorial department which was the first of its kind.
Although the exhibition claims that each photo chosen from its horde of 15,000 has been selected because it tells a story, plays a particular role in the career of the photographer concerned and because of its unique social and cultural context, the emphasis in the accompanying text seems to be on the latter. From observation and personal experience, it is true that there is a limit to the amount of text most visitors will read, so exhibitions are designed to engage people at multiple levels. Thus, particularly with visual art, this is likely not to move beyond being an audience to the work who either likes or dislikes what they see in the moment’s attention they spare it.
About 25 photographs are hung in chronological order in a single line around the petite, third floor semi-circular photographic gallery. Entering the gallery one is confronted by a series of relatively small, black and white images in large cream matts and unadorned wooden frames: these are the pre-21st C images. The handful of large, highly coloured contemporary images is behind the viewer as they enter. This is a relevant decision in a small space not accessed casually by visitors: this is not a blockbuster, but an exhibition one has to intend to see and, as a consequence, I observed several people walking in and immediately out again.
However, I persisted and found that the one image selected per photographer to represent a significant move in photography was successful (if a bit teasing!). These significant moves revolved around the expansion of purposes to which photography was put, although a new purpose clearly did not eliminate older purposes. Thus, the earliest purposes were non-artistic but ‘realistic’ relating to surveying and documentation, for example Maxime du Camp’s (1849) Egyptian archaeological sites and Linneas Tripe’s ‘sites of interest’ in India as well as examples that relate to surveying natural resources and life in slums. What is not highlighted is what new technologies are present and how new interests (mostly those of colonial expansion and middle-classes with the wealth and leisure to travel) underlie what we are shown.
The move towards photography as an art medium is shown to be in the 1880s and we are shown portraiture (Nadar), landscape (Peter Henry Emerson) and visual trickery (Kasahabe Kimbei) which reveal the artist’s aesthetic thinking: unique personality, natural aesthetics and the nature of reality. The ‘art’ is readily apparent in Frederick Evans’ 1895 portrait of Aubrey Beardsley where he chooses to emphasise the subjects’ long hands and prominent nose and the play of light upon them. However, there are no links to the anti-industrial, anti-reason moves in the arts in general.
Around 1900 we are shown that the next significant move is to include non-realistic use of the camera (Edward Steichen’s 1901 ‘Moonrise’), the un-posed use of the hidden camera (Paul Strand), but the continued documentary use in exotic/’primitive’ cultures of the other...but there is no exploration of importance in the rise of psychoanalysis, the portability of cameras or the artistic fascination with ‘primitivism’ (and its links to constructing Western modernity).
Post WW1 (although neither the war nor the importance of that post war phase is mentioned) there are moves towards discovering meaning via our awe in nature’s patterns (Imogen Cunningham) and Rothko-like ‘optical experience’ experiments (Lazzlo Moholy-Nagy), as well as fears of meaninglessness with links to Dada and Surrealism (Man Ray), the harnessing of nature’s vistas to national reconstruction projects (Ansel Adams). Not that these links are explored. And, there is a return to documenting grim realities (Bill Brandt). Then, in the 1950s, there is a decisive move beyond the real into psychological interiors such as Robert Frank’s 1953 photo of the blackened faces of Welsh miners: without discernable features we are compelled to search their eyes.
Finally, Lee Friedlander’s (USA, 1934-) work on ‘people and people things’ shows the move to critiquing modernity, an acceptance of colour and manipulation of reality is seen in Franco Fontana’s 1978 vibrant formalised landscape.here is a move to post-modernist absurdist appropriation (Martin Parr’s 1997 vast close-up image of pig cupcakes) and the exhibition ends with political and ecological statements (the wilted ducks of Boyd Webb – Placebo, 1989 -, Huang Tan’s traditional ink landscapes tattooed on his body, Yee I-Lann’s spiritual power of women and indigenous connection to land).
I was willing to put in the time to make these connections, but most visitors will not. Most will just miss this gallery altogether. Perhaps a picture is not better than a 1000 words.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
W4 - art photographers featuring urban landscapes, transport and roads
from:
Cotton Charlotte 2009, The Photograph as Contemporary Art', Thames and Hudson, London.
Dan Holdsworth (p.95) but with more images here - of all the photographers I picked that might have road imagery, Holdsworth was the closest with deserted urban landscapes. Holdsworth maps hybrid spaces that resist separation '...into mutually exclusive poles: rural / urban, wilderness / civilisation, natural / artificial, third world / first world.' (Carlyle, 2001, Guardian).
Naoya Hatakeyama (p.93) - Examines 'relationship between humans and their [city] environment' (Prix Pictet). Ah, not so much transport, but some shots of mine vehicles and machinery - but fantastic water (such as from sewers and storm water drains) and blast images
Bridget Smith (p.86) - Generally, "the construction of fantasy, the architecture of entertainment, environments created principally for the consumption of pleasure" (Frith Street Gallery), this image of Las Vegas Airport in particular..and oasis of entertainment with the pyramids and everything...but also, clearly, a desert.
Ed Burtynsky (p.86) - Features 'nature transformed through industry' with this tyre pile an example of one of his urban mines. Such a beautiful 'unnatural' landscape echoing the earth landscape behind it, with the one green tyre in the centre and the white container at the back pulling my eyes between the two 'natural' and 'unnatural' landscapes. His work is not about transport, but can feature it, such this very formal image, as Container Ports No.18.
Miles Coolidge (p.72) - 'the Central Valley series (1998), the artist reduced panoramic California landscape photographs to thin strips ten inches high and ten feet long' (Guggenheim), probably the series I'm interested in, but not much on-line.
Jean-Marc Bustamante (p.123) For instance, LP VI - very large colour images from Switzerland usully including a road, 'reflections of the horizontality of the water’s surface, the position of the viewer and the relationships between things' (Donald Young Gallery)
Allan Sekula (p.181) the ships, ports, mines and their industry and workers feature heavily. There's a sense discontent, ecology disrrupted and politics of work, but they are always human (Dimendberg, 2005, Bomb).
Martin Smith - landscapes, often urban, with text cut out of them.
'Smith hacks into, scrubs back and cuts-up photographs...returns to photography's historical relevance as a tool for recording personal histories, and arrives at the impossibilitiy of reliving a moment.' (Rees in Smith, 2008, p.10)
See:
Smith Martin 2008, In Response To..., Queensland Cente for Photography, Brisbane,
Cotton Charlotte 2009, The Photograph as Contemporary Art', Thames and Hudson, London.
Dan Holdsworth (p.95) but with more images here - of all the photographers I picked that might have road imagery, Holdsworth was the closest with deserted urban landscapes. Holdsworth maps hybrid spaces that resist separation '...into mutually exclusive poles: rural / urban, wilderness / civilisation, natural / artificial, third world / first world.' (Carlyle, 2001, Guardian).
Naoya Hatakeyama (p.93) - Examines 'relationship between humans and their [city] environment' (Prix Pictet). Ah, not so much transport, but some shots of mine vehicles and machinery - but fantastic water (such as from sewers and storm water drains) and blast images
Bridget Smith (p.86) - Generally, "the construction of fantasy, the architecture of entertainment, environments created principally for the consumption of pleasure" (Frith Street Gallery), this image of Las Vegas Airport in particular..and oasis of entertainment with the pyramids and everything...but also, clearly, a desert.
Ed Burtynsky (p.86) - Features 'nature transformed through industry' with this tyre pile an example of one of his urban mines. Such a beautiful 'unnatural' landscape echoing the earth landscape behind it, with the one green tyre in the centre and the white container at the back pulling my eyes between the two 'natural' and 'unnatural' landscapes. His work is not about transport, but can feature it, such this very formal image, as Container Ports No.18.
Miles Coolidge (p.72) - 'the Central Valley series (1998), the artist reduced panoramic California landscape photographs to thin strips ten inches high and ten feet long' (Guggenheim), probably the series I'm interested in, but not much on-line.
Jean-Marc Bustamante (p.123) For instance, LP VI - very large colour images from Switzerland usully including a road, 'reflections of the horizontality of the water’s surface, the position of the viewer and the relationships between things' (Donald Young Gallery)
Allan Sekula (p.181) the ships, ports, mines and their industry and workers feature heavily. There's a sense discontent, ecology disrrupted and politics of work, but they are always human (Dimendberg, 2005, Bomb).
Martin Smith - landscapes, often urban, with text cut out of them.
'Smith hacks into, scrubs back and cuts-up photographs...returns to photography's historical relevance as a tool for recording personal histories, and arrives at the impossibilitiy of reliving a moment.' (Rees in Smith, 2008, p.10)
See:
Smith Martin 2008, In Response To..., Queensland Cente for Photography, Brisbane,
W4 - images of transport and freeways
Peter Stubbs, Transport in Edinburgh Stubbs has collected historical photographs of transport - both as isolated objects, objects in settings as well as his own studies. There's something quite Bruegel about some of his work, such as this shot from the 'Riding of the Marches' collection, King's Stables Road - there's a sense of positioning and of every figure having a purpose (whether or not that's true) and his Pedestrian series particularly Chambers Street with crisper figures caught in mid-stride and a more blurred background (as if it was Edinburgh's greystone buildings that were hurrying along).
Antony Edwards, freelance photographer
Here is a portfolio of his transport images. These images are taken from a stationery position, such as from a bridge over a freeway, beside the road or looking directly along the road at the form of a bridge.
Paul Chapo, photographer for annual reports
In this portfolio Chappo says he looks for 'motion' and 'awe' in his mundane subject matter. These photos have backgrounds (or foregrounds) with strong formal lines with the object (person or vehicle) blurred in motion. There is also a stunning ariel shot of a freeway road system.
Brian Weatherby, BigLorryBlog
Obviously the featured object is a truck, sometimes in very glossy publicity-style shots, but others in settings, such as bridges - ariel shots going across the curve of a dam (with some kind of sunset filter?) - or stationery on a bridge from a low angle in order to show the dominating frame of the bridges' suspension.
azbillboard, Flickr
A very focused photographer, azbillboard documents freeway billboards, in this photostream the Santan Freeway, Arizona, and logs others who do the same, such as this McDonald's sign by csavage31 in front of the skyline Philadelphia. They are clearly focused, high in colour and very similar in composition, but I cannot tell if the photos are taken in a moving car, or stationery from the side of the road. If the latter, then this photographer spends a lot of time on this road!
azbillboard's Loop 202 is a more general shot of the freeway with an interesting composition of lines within lines - which is moe the type of shot I'd be aiming towards.
iseeeverthing, Flickr
Focuses on roadside graffitti in dusty and abandoned structures. Do I find it 'good' (composition doesn't seem very thoughtful) or 'meaningful' (not sure), but the subject matter potential in both areas.
remo, Flickr
Abroad has a much more subtle effect shot through the windscreen on a wet evening - everything except the map on the dashboard is blurred and reduced to abstract tones.
Aqui_ali, Flickr
On Rain is another subtle shot through the windscreen on a very wet day - a comment mentions tilt shift (I don't understand it technically, but it means that the photo is taken at an extreme angle and this lens stops it looking like the bridge is going to fall over onto the viewer) - with moody cloud above, water spray on the road blow and divided by a silohoutted bridge.
c.Vale, Flickr
skYwaY is a lovely static composition of unclouded sky dominating the frame, low sun and the spaghetti form of the freeway across the bottom of the shot
Kevin Walker, Pixdaus
Freeway sky, I'm not sure if this static or moving - there's a tilt - but the geometry of the freeway spaghetti and the clouds blooming over the top - and the balance between the two without any traffic at all - is very exciting. However, I'm not sure if I like the re-colouring effects - except perhaps the blue freeway sign - I reckon grey tones would work beautifully.
Drive By Shooting pool, Flickr
From the car window pool, Flickr
Infrastructure pool, Flickr
Set of Freeway pools, Flickr.
Antony Edwards, freelance photographer
Here is a portfolio of his transport images. These images are taken from a stationery position, such as from a bridge over a freeway, beside the road or looking directly along the road at the form of a bridge.
Paul Chapo, photographer for annual reports
In this portfolio Chappo says he looks for 'motion' and 'awe' in his mundane subject matter. These photos have backgrounds (or foregrounds) with strong formal lines with the object (person or vehicle) blurred in motion. There is also a stunning ariel shot of a freeway road system.
Brian Weatherby, BigLorryBlog
Obviously the featured object is a truck, sometimes in very glossy publicity-style shots, but others in settings, such as bridges - ariel shots going across the curve of a dam (with some kind of sunset filter?) - or stationery on a bridge from a low angle in order to show the dominating frame of the bridges' suspension.
azbillboard, Flickr
A very focused photographer, azbillboard documents freeway billboards, in this photostream the Santan Freeway, Arizona, and logs others who do the same, such as this McDonald's sign by csavage31 in front of the skyline Philadelphia. They are clearly focused, high in colour and very similar in composition, but I cannot tell if the photos are taken in a moving car, or stationery from the side of the road. If the latter, then this photographer spends a lot of time on this road!
azbillboard's Loop 202 is a more general shot of the freeway with an interesting composition of lines within lines - which is moe the type of shot I'd be aiming towards.
iseeeverthing, Flickr
Focuses on roadside graffitti in dusty and abandoned structures. Do I find it 'good' (composition doesn't seem very thoughtful) or 'meaningful' (not sure), but the subject matter potential in both areas.
remo, Flickr
Abroad has a much more subtle effect shot through the windscreen on a wet evening - everything except the map on the dashboard is blurred and reduced to abstract tones.
Aqui_ali, Flickr
On Rain is another subtle shot through the windscreen on a very wet day - a comment mentions tilt shift (I don't understand it technically, but it means that the photo is taken at an extreme angle and this lens stops it looking like the bridge is going to fall over onto the viewer) - with moody cloud above, water spray on the road blow and divided by a silohoutted bridge.
c.Vale, Flickr
skYwaY is a lovely static composition of unclouded sky dominating the frame, low sun and the spaghetti form of the freeway across the bottom of the shot
Kevin Walker, Pixdaus
Freeway sky, I'm not sure if this static or moving - there's a tilt - but the geometry of the freeway spaghetti and the clouds blooming over the top - and the balance between the two without any traffic at all - is very exciting. However, I'm not sure if I like the re-colouring effects - except perhaps the blue freeway sign - I reckon grey tones would work beautifully.
Drive By Shooting pool, Flickr
From the car window pool, Flickr
Infrastructure pool, Flickr
Set of Freeway pools, Flickr.
W4 - Editing photographs, part 1
Maintaining Image Quality
5 megapixels is enough to make a good 8x10 prints.
To work out maximum size of print for my camera go to dpreview.com
Chip size - smaller get shorter depth of field and print size.
For shallow depth of field on any camera (any lens): use wide aperture and long focal length (extend zoom to maximum) and compose shot.
Tripods are invaluable for long exposures and stillness. Small flexible tripods for easier portage and can be attached or stuck in unusual places and at strange angles.
Lens - never touch a lens. Use a bulb, from the chemist, to blow dust off. Buy a UV filter to put over the
lens to protect it.
Environment - humidity and sea air are very bad for electronic cameras. Keep camera in ziplock bag. Clean cameras that have been used near sea. In a humid environment, take camera in bag out of room and leave it in the bag until condensation fills the bag.
One over shutter formula -
1/200s is the longest handheld shutter speed I can use with a lens with a range of 17-200mm (well, that explains a lot). May still make successful shots at 1/50-1/8s.
Suggested testing process for limits of my camera (and me): sunny day. Choose Av setting (auto aperture) and take photos at long, middle and sort aperture. Repeat with tripod. Examine closely on computer.
Viewfinder and composition -
I might not see everything that ends up in the shot.
suggested testing process: set up camera with tripod. Tape sheet of paper to wall with 1234 on edges. Adjust composition until only half of number of visible in viewfinder. Examine on screen - how does it differ from this precise composition.
Using Photoshop
Destroys pixels, that is it reduces quality the more you edit. Don't use it as a fix it, but minor corrections.
The image makes the meaning, not the process of Photoshopping. If one uses Photoshop one needs to do it with intention and with seamless effect (unlike me!).
Digital photography turns the world into a grid of pixels - units sensitive to RBG - and in subtle changes in tone, guesses are made. Where the change in tone is abrupt the guess can be too soft - photoshop is useful for Sharpening these edges.
JPEG or RAW
A form of file compression that takes areas of colour and removes what it decides is unnecessary for a smaller file. This represents a loss of information. Shoot in RAW rather than JPEG.
Using Adobe Bridge to make Collections:
Set-up shot and only take a few images or take lots of shots according to some idea and choose later. This can generate a lot of images!
In Adobe Bridge, I can take images and put them in a set.
Use Labels to rate the 'best*' images amongst the many and then filter, using Sort, to select the high ratings. Labels an be edited for my needs.
Click folder with plus sign.
Give collection a name.
Select images and drag over new folder.
* What's 'best'? Best represents the idea? Best composition, light, focus etc
Changing White Balance, Exposure etc
Old Rigid Way of Working with Film
Expose film - process the film - sleeve the film-contact sheet of film-choose a negative to enlarge-make a series of test strips to determine best exposure of print-make print
Digital Equivalent
Expose film - process film if its in RAW-sleeve film-make contact sheet (Bridge)-Use Photoshop to choose images-Use photoshop to manipulate images
In Bridge, Right click on any image. opens in RAW.
Global edit - effects entire shot.
Click ? Tool (fourth icon) takes readings. 0=black, 250=white (no detail), white skin ought to be about 168-175.
Use Auto White Balance on camera.
Dialogue box allows me to choose white balance eg shade as well as other sliders to recover detail.
Photoshop Exercise: Layer Masks
Take 3 photos of myself with a tripod and a timer. Everything in the composition is still, except me.
Open all three images in separate windows in Photoshop
Select one image, click the Move tool, hold down shift key and drop onto of other image (automatically aligns and resizes).
Create mask - Click on Layer menu, Click Layer mask and hide all (black) or show all (white).
Make sure you're on the right layer.
Click on brush tool. Paint on image to reveal additional self. Can adjust opacity, size of tool to remove (black)/add (white) fine detail.
Repeat and add the second image.
Save as .psd to keep layers for further adjustment, Save as JPEG to flatten image and choose a resolution.
The point: can combine images with subtle differences, such as bluer sky or greener grass.
Here is the rough result:
Re-Copying
Web images can be very small for blogging and presentations. Instead use photograph books and use mobile phone to take photos of the photos.
5 megapixels is enough to make a good 8x10 prints.
To work out maximum size of print for my camera go to dpreview.com
Chip size - smaller get shorter depth of field and print size.
For shallow depth of field on any camera (any lens): use wide aperture and long focal length (extend zoom to maximum) and compose shot.
Tripods are invaluable for long exposures and stillness. Small flexible tripods for easier portage and can be attached or stuck in unusual places and at strange angles.
Lens - never touch a lens. Use a bulb, from the chemist, to blow dust off. Buy a UV filter to put over the
lens to protect it.
Environment - humidity and sea air are very bad for electronic cameras. Keep camera in ziplock bag. Clean cameras that have been used near sea. In a humid environment, take camera in bag out of room and leave it in the bag until condensation fills the bag.
One over shutter formula -
1/200s is the longest handheld shutter speed I can use with a lens with a range of 17-200mm (well, that explains a lot). May still make successful shots at 1/50-1/8s.
Suggested testing process for limits of my camera (and me): sunny day. Choose Av setting (auto aperture) and take photos at long, middle and sort aperture. Repeat with tripod. Examine closely on computer.
Viewfinder and composition -
I might not see everything that ends up in the shot.
suggested testing process: set up camera with tripod. Tape sheet of paper to wall with 1234 on edges. Adjust composition until only half of number of visible in viewfinder. Examine on screen - how does it differ from this precise composition.
Using Photoshop
Destroys pixels, that is it reduces quality the more you edit. Don't use it as a fix it, but minor corrections.
The image makes the meaning, not the process of Photoshopping. If one uses Photoshop one needs to do it with intention and with seamless effect (unlike me!).
Digital photography turns the world into a grid of pixels - units sensitive to RBG - and in subtle changes in tone, guesses are made. Where the change in tone is abrupt the guess can be too soft - photoshop is useful for Sharpening these edges.
JPEG or RAW
A form of file compression that takes areas of colour and removes what it decides is unnecessary for a smaller file. This represents a loss of information. Shoot in RAW rather than JPEG.
Using Adobe Bridge to make Collections:
Set-up shot and only take a few images or take lots of shots according to some idea and choose later. This can generate a lot of images!
In Adobe Bridge, I can take images and put them in a set.
Use Labels to rate the 'best*' images amongst the many and then filter, using Sort, to select the high ratings. Labels an be edited for my needs.
Click folder with plus sign.
Give collection a name.
Select images and drag over new folder.
* What's 'best'? Best represents the idea? Best composition, light, focus etc
Changing White Balance, Exposure etc
Old Rigid Way of Working with Film
Expose film - process the film - sleeve the film-contact sheet of film-choose a negative to enlarge-make a series of test strips to determine best exposure of print-make print
Digital Equivalent
Expose film - process film if its in RAW-sleeve film-make contact sheet (Bridge)-Use Photoshop to choose images-Use photoshop to manipulate images
In Bridge, Right click on any image. opens in RAW.
Global edit - effects entire shot.
Click ? Tool (fourth icon) takes readings. 0=black, 250=white (no detail), white skin ought to be about 168-175.
Use Auto White Balance on camera.
Dialogue box allows me to choose white balance eg shade as well as other sliders to recover detail.
Photoshop Exercise: Layer Masks
Take 3 photos of myself with a tripod and a timer. Everything in the composition is still, except me.
Open all three images in separate windows in Photoshop
Select one image, click the Move tool, hold down shift key and drop onto of other image (automatically aligns and resizes).
Create mask - Click on Layer menu, Click Layer mask and hide all (black) or show all (white).
Make sure you're on the right layer.
Click on brush tool. Paint on image to reveal additional self. Can adjust opacity, size of tool to remove (black)/add (white) fine detail.
Repeat and add the second image.
Save as .psd to keep layers for further adjustment, Save as JPEG to flatten image and choose a resolution.
The point: can combine images with subtle differences, such as bluer sky or greener grass.
Here is the rough result:
Re-Copying
Web images can be very small for blogging and presentations. Instead use photograph books and use mobile phone to take photos of the photos.
Friday, March 19, 2010
W3 - Self-Portrait without Body
Shooting Brief: Self-portrait without mirror, reflection, or my body! Tell a story of myself.
Notes:
I used both the Optio, mostly on the flower macro that I love so much, and the Pentax dSLR for the bigger shots such as the car. My ideas evolved the more photos I took....basically to taking more and more out of the shot.
The 'I AM not' is more of a narrative photo; a poor woman's version of Gregory Creudson. I would loved to have the husband standing at the door on the right and the cat on the bonnet hood (I got some of the latter in a few shots) just to complete that idea of "I am all these material things and relationships and occupations" that we promulgate in daily conversation. You might just be able to see the chocolate bar wrapper on the seat - it would have been fabulous to have that in crystal focus and radiant colour, but I don't know how. The car idea evolved from two other ideas (1) filling the front seat with a pile of artefacts from my daily life, (2) taking photos of the empty chocolate bar wrapper on every I use in the house. However, (1) seemed really time-consuming, so I whittled it down to the wrapper and (2) I did a lot of but most of the pictures were very poor.
I can be quite limited physically in terms of squatting, kneeling, lying etc in order to get a 'not eye level' shot, and the monopod seemed really rigid and unhelpful, so I'm going to have to get that tripod out if I want to do more long exposure, big depth of field shots. As it was I wasted a lot of energy on shaky photos! I also found (with the Pentax) that I got some really odd light effects inside (really red) that I don't know how to correct or how to take mixed lighting conditions shots???
On the other hand, the 'I AM' is abstract and the more I took the more abstract it got...I shone the desk lamp along the computer monitor and took images of the surface and edges where the light caught it. The "I am" is a reference to Jesus' seven cryptic statements in the Gospel according to St John.
I AM
I AM not
More on Flickr.
See also the Flickr group self-portrait without reference to body.
Notes:
I used both the Optio, mostly on the flower macro that I love so much, and the Pentax dSLR for the bigger shots such as the car. My ideas evolved the more photos I took....basically to taking more and more out of the shot.
The 'I AM not' is more of a narrative photo; a poor woman's version of Gregory Creudson. I would loved to have the husband standing at the door on the right and the cat on the bonnet hood (I got some of the latter in a few shots) just to complete that idea of "I am all these material things and relationships and occupations" that we promulgate in daily conversation. You might just be able to see the chocolate bar wrapper on the seat - it would have been fabulous to have that in crystal focus and radiant colour, but I don't know how. The car idea evolved from two other ideas (1) filling the front seat with a pile of artefacts from my daily life, (2) taking photos of the empty chocolate bar wrapper on every I use in the house. However, (1) seemed really time-consuming, so I whittled it down to the wrapper and (2) I did a lot of but most of the pictures were very poor.
I can be quite limited physically in terms of squatting, kneeling, lying etc in order to get a 'not eye level' shot, and the monopod seemed really rigid and unhelpful, so I'm going to have to get that tripod out if I want to do more long exposure, big depth of field shots. As it was I wasted a lot of energy on shaky photos! I also found (with the Pentax) that I got some really odd light effects inside (really red) that I don't know how to correct or how to take mixed lighting conditions shots???
On the other hand, the 'I AM' is abstract and the more I took the more abstract it got...I shone the desk lamp along the computer monitor and took images of the surface and edges where the light caught it. The "I am" is a reference to Jesus' seven cryptic statements in the Gospel according to St John.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
W3 - More Folio Thoughts, West Gate Freeway
How to document the West Gate Freeway/Ring Road:
I need to be driven or to choose one or more static points are accessible such as my 'beloved' Montague Street off ramp and the wonky arch!
Definitely multiple trips required for different light, traffic conditions, focuses in.
I need to consider each of these carefully.
And why do it at all?
The freeway is a place of many paradoxes.
I spend too much time on it so it's a site of my life's 'drama' and yet it's so ordinary.
It's a place where I glimpse astonishing things and where I sit trying not to be enraged!
It's a place of transition and yet I can go nowhere and I repeat this cycle endlessly.
It's a place where I meet so many people, without meeting them: where we constantly interact and yet don't.
It's a place I travel through, but never touch: that I see and don't see.
For Sociologist John Carroll it is a place of democracy and vital interaction that holds hope for meaning in a global desecularised world.
Some more thoughts on the myth of the car.
Provisional title: Such Things
Technique/Presentation: Re-photographing/booklet
I saw a little anonymous booklet (catalogue? free magazine?), with 'Mama' on the back cover, on a friend's table this week. Its direct theme was childhood, but its indirect themes were mother and absence. The artist had taken photos of photos and stills from film of himself as a child taken by his mother. The re-photographing is often of arrangements of these photos on walls or are presented in the booklet as blown up images that bleed to the edge of the page (unlike the originals) and, which, as a consequence, are blurry given the quality of the originals (rather like memory). There was some text I didn't have time to read but it seemed to be mostly documenting his memories of the taking of the original. The colouring of the package probably had the most effect on me - it evoked similar photos from my own childhood - sort of faded. The overall impact was melancholic - here he was so long along as viewed by another (with a loving eye that will never be repeated), but where was his mum?
I need to be driven or to choose one or more static points are accessible such as my 'beloved' Montague Street off ramp and the wonky arch!
Definitely multiple trips required for different light, traffic conditions, focuses in.
I need to consider each of these carefully.
And why do it at all?
The freeway is a place of many paradoxes.
I spend too much time on it so it's a site of my life's 'drama' and yet it's so ordinary.
It's a place where I glimpse astonishing things and where I sit trying not to be enraged!
It's a place of transition and yet I can go nowhere and I repeat this cycle endlessly.
It's a place where I meet so many people, without meeting them: where we constantly interact and yet don't.
It's a place I travel through, but never touch: that I see and don't see.
For Sociologist John Carroll it is a place of democracy and vital interaction that holds hope for meaning in a global desecularised world.
Some more thoughts on the myth of the car.
Provisional title: Such Things
Technique/Presentation: Re-photographing/booklet
I saw a little anonymous booklet (catalogue? free magazine?), with 'Mama' on the back cover, on a friend's table this week. Its direct theme was childhood, but its indirect themes were mother and absence. The artist had taken photos of photos and stills from film of himself as a child taken by his mother. The re-photographing is often of arrangements of these photos on walls or are presented in the booklet as blown up images that bleed to the edge of the page (unlike the originals) and, which, as a consequence, are blurry given the quality of the originals (rather like memory). There was some text I didn't have time to read but it seemed to be mostly documenting his memories of the taking of the original. The colouring of the package probably had the most effect on me - it evoked similar photos from my own childhood - sort of faded. The overall impact was melancholic - here he was so long along as viewed by another (with a loving eye that will never be repeated), but where was his mum?
W3 Large Format Camera Photographers
8x10 or large format cameras
This technology is old, with its cameras heavy to carry and requiring a long time to set up and expose. 'Large format' is a generic term - 11x14", 5x7" and 4x5" are also considered large format and refers to the size of the sheet film used. Photographers using these cameras are often exploring big ideas, big images and how the level of detail, or its exclusion, can change our perception. Unlike the 35mm, these are not spontaneous photos, but highly planned and researched and requiring multiple visits to create them.
Richard Avedon
Shot iconic fashion and people in the 60s, clever use of B&W and shot the book, 'In The American West'. Travelled with 2 assistants and set up a tent before each shot for diffuse light. He directed the models while the assistants operated the front and back of the camera. Would print the whole frame to 'prove' he hadn't cropped to other photographers (cropping can completely alter the meaning). Avedon shot Americans of all kinds eg Ronald Reagan, abattoir worker, bee-keeper, with the camera able to create highly detailed (to pore level), confronting photographs at which we can look closely and give us a close look.
Richard Mizrach
Works predominantly in landscape. Organised his work into 'cantos' - 'the vision of a long poem'. Photographed the South and Midwest of the US such as the idosyncratic Burning Man Festival. His images are highly metaphorical, surreal and reveal sumptuous colour despite his subject matter eg wastelands of Saldon Sea. See images here.
Gregory Creudson
Contraversial in some respects as his shots are highly staged with film crews (more very expensive conceptual art than poor solitary genius). Creates narrative images with realistic-surreal mis en scene and brooding light.
Andreas Gursky
Vast walll-sized images of food production, consumerism and waste. Overwhelming impact of system versus insignificance of individuals. Scans images and stitches them together in Photoshop to emphasise his ideas. Perception, depth and scale are important to his images.
A review from New York Art, an essay on interpretation and some images.
This technology is old, with its cameras heavy to carry and requiring a long time to set up and expose. 'Large format' is a generic term - 11x14", 5x7" and 4x5" are also considered large format and refers to the size of the sheet film used. Photographers using these cameras are often exploring big ideas, big images and how the level of detail, or its exclusion, can change our perception. Unlike the 35mm, these are not spontaneous photos, but highly planned and researched and requiring multiple visits to create them.
Richard Avedon
Shot iconic fashion and people in the 60s, clever use of B&W and shot the book, 'In The American West'. Travelled with 2 assistants and set up a tent before each shot for diffuse light. He directed the models while the assistants operated the front and back of the camera. Would print the whole frame to 'prove' he hadn't cropped to other photographers (cropping can completely alter the meaning). Avedon shot Americans of all kinds eg Ronald Reagan, abattoir worker, bee-keeper, with the camera able to create highly detailed (to pore level), confronting photographs at which we can look closely and give us a close look.
Richard Mizrach
Works predominantly in landscape. Organised his work into 'cantos' - 'the vision of a long poem'. Photographed the South and Midwest of the US such as the idosyncratic Burning Man Festival. His images are highly metaphorical, surreal and reveal sumptuous colour despite his subject matter eg wastelands of Saldon Sea. See images here.
Gregory Creudson
Contraversial in some respects as his shots are highly staged with film crews (more very expensive conceptual art than poor solitary genius). Creates narrative images with realistic-surreal mis en scene and brooding light.
Andreas Gursky
Vast walll-sized images of food production, consumerism and waste. Overwhelming impact of system versus insignificance of individuals. Scans images and stitches them together in Photoshop to emphasise his ideas. Perception, depth and scale are important to his images.
A review from New York Art, an essay on interpretation and some images.
Recommended text: Susan Sontag, 'On Photography'
Some quotes from the book....visual editing, choosing between infinite possibilities...things you don't see...Gary Winnobrand - i photograph to find out what things look like photographed...in other words: the many reasons to photograph.
More quotes from photographers on photography.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
W2 Some initial Folio ideas
These ideas are more about subject matter than, the meaning or the idea explored or technique
Object of Desire
Documenting the destruction/transformation of a book. We tend to honour books as scriptural, as contianing truth and frown upon defacement. Mind you, visitng university libraries one often finds well-annotated books, which is often helpful, and surely evidence of honour even though it is also defaced.
Documenting the Westgate Freeway
Such as what Edward Ruscha did in the 1960s for Sunset Blvd.
I'm particularly interested in its sculpture...but there are many aspects that deserve exploration.
Not sure of an idea though. Not sure how to do it technically without dying.
Documenting the contents of people's shopping trolleys or their bins.
I wouldn't be alone in standing in the checkout queue wondering about other people's purchasing habits. But I'm not necessarily thinking of a judgemental thing here, more the colours and shapes...maybe I could create installations of my own weekly shopping? Hmm, needs an appropriate space other than my little kitchen.
What is missing?
Sylvie Blocher "What is Missing" 2010, video artist, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Under commission with an idea to target particular themes or people, Blocher films and interviews and screens the edited results on multiple huge screens. Blocher edits herself out of the interview leaving long awkward gaps in which we watch people react and feel uncomfortable and, in additon, she often asks people to look into the camera (at us) for a period of time. For this new work Blocher asked people what was missing in Australian culture. I was particularly struck by a male teen, with a visible 'Asian' heritage who spouted Fascist doctrine and a Mexican migrant (I think she was kidnapped at some point in her life?) who said '...what is missing in this country is spirituality...I would like everyone to learn the language of the birds.'
How would I photograph 'what is missing?'
Naturalness
A photographer I particularly enjoyed at the MCA was Rosemary Laing with her exploration of the artificalness of what we call 'natural' - a huge bugbear of mine!
You can see her Ground Speed (Red Piazza) #3, 2001.
A lovely mossy woodland with a floor of mass-produced red carpet.
Re-contextualising Re-presenting (something)
There's Stuart's re-photographing series of women in glossy ads - what becomes of these images of women away from the advertising purpose
There's John Pfahl's Altered Landscapes - adding a rope shape across a landscape to play with our Rennaisance ideas about depth.
And there's Tatzu Nishi, who created the witty installation, 'War and Peace and In Between', in front of the Art Gallery of NSW. Unfortunatley, I only saw it being dismantled. Fortunately, it's documented on Flickr. This lovely neo-classical institution -with all that that implies - has an allegorical statue either side of its columned front. Nishi enclosed each statue in a suburban rooms so that bits of the statue appear in TV cabinets or out of the table or bed!
Object of Desire
Documenting the destruction/transformation of a book. We tend to honour books as scriptural, as contianing truth and frown upon defacement. Mind you, visitng university libraries one often finds well-annotated books, which is often helpful, and surely evidence of honour even though it is also defaced.
Documenting the Westgate Freeway
Such as what Edward Ruscha did in the 1960s for Sunset Blvd.
I'm particularly interested in its sculpture...but there are many aspects that deserve exploration.
Not sure of an idea though. Not sure how to do it technically without dying.
Documenting the contents of people's shopping trolleys or their bins.
I wouldn't be alone in standing in the checkout queue wondering about other people's purchasing habits. But I'm not necessarily thinking of a judgemental thing here, more the colours and shapes...maybe I could create installations of my own weekly shopping? Hmm, needs an appropriate space other than my little kitchen.
What is missing?
Sylvie Blocher "What is Missing" 2010, video artist, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Under commission with an idea to target particular themes or people, Blocher films and interviews and screens the edited results on multiple huge screens. Blocher edits herself out of the interview leaving long awkward gaps in which we watch people react and feel uncomfortable and, in additon, she often asks people to look into the camera (at us) for a period of time. For this new work Blocher asked people what was missing in Australian culture. I was particularly struck by a male teen, with a visible 'Asian' heritage who spouted Fascist doctrine and a Mexican migrant (I think she was kidnapped at some point in her life?) who said '...what is missing in this country is spirituality...I would like everyone to learn the language of the birds.'
How would I photograph 'what is missing?'
Naturalness
A photographer I particularly enjoyed at the MCA was Rosemary Laing with her exploration of the artificalness of what we call 'natural' - a huge bugbear of mine!
You can see her Ground Speed (Red Piazza) #3, 2001.
A lovely mossy woodland with a floor of mass-produced red carpet.
Re-contextualising Re-presenting (something)
There's Stuart's re-photographing series of women in glossy ads - what becomes of these images of women away from the advertising purpose
There's John Pfahl's Altered Landscapes - adding a rope shape across a landscape to play with our Rennaisance ideas about depth.
And there's Tatzu Nishi, who created the witty installation, 'War and Peace and In Between', in front of the Art Gallery of NSW. Unfortunatley, I only saw it being dismantled. Fortunately, it's documented on Flickr. This lovely neo-classical institution -with all that that implies - has an allegorical statue either side of its columned front. Nishi enclosed each statue in a suburban rooms so that bits of the statue appear in TV cabinets or out of the table or bed!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
W2 - Results of aperture exercise
Extreme close up
1.30s
5.6f
focal length 170mm
ISO 200
Wide angle
1/125s
6.7f
focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Ugly
1/250s
13f
focal length 200mm
ISO 200
...and a few more on Flickr.
Feedback on Using phrases in a shooting brief
Check the dictionary.
The most obvious meaning is, of course, not necessarily the only meaning so 'semi' is not just 'half', but 'truck'. In addition, my interpretation also reveals 'where I'm at' - am I using metaphor, suggestive, allegory, symbolism or is my interpretation literal. Stuart's feedback on the W2 exercise is that students tended to the literal.
My feedback is 12 phrases is a lot to hold in the mind and I have a feeling of being tricked and exposed. A possible alternative: Select 1 phrase from a pool. Go out, shoot it, come back. Stuart takes about metaphor etc and then we go out and do a second lot of shooting to see the difference.
1.30s
5.6f
focal length 170mm
ISO 200
Wide angle
3.0s
9.5f
focal length 34mm
ISO 200
Surface
6.0s
16f
16f
focal length 63mm
ISO 200
Mixed lighting
1/180s
27f
focal length 53mm
ISO 200
Blurry
1/4s
5.6f
focal length 93mm
ISO 200
Drab
0.7s
8.0f
focal length 40mm
ISO 200
Tasty
Motorola
Self-portrait
1/125s
6.7f
focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Semi
1/1000s
5.6f
focal length 75mm
ISO 200
Portrait of a stranger
1/4s
38f
focal length 133mm
ISO 200
Beautiful
1/125s
6.7f
focal length 200mm
ISO 200
Ugly
1/250s
13f
focal length 200mm
ISO 200
...and a few more on Flickr.
Feedback on Using phrases in a shooting brief
Check the dictionary.
The most obvious meaning is, of course, not necessarily the only meaning so 'semi' is not just 'half', but 'truck'. In addition, my interpretation also reveals 'where I'm at' - am I using metaphor, suggestive, allegory, symbolism or is my interpretation literal. Stuart's feedback on the W2 exercise is that students tended to the literal.
My feedback is 12 phrases is a lot to hold in the mind and I have a feeling of being tricked and exposed. A possible alternative: Select 1 phrase from a pool. Go out, shoot it, come back. Stuart takes about metaphor etc and then we go out and do a second lot of shooting to see the difference.
W2 - variable aperture exercise and using manual on Dslr
Note: NGV has a private viewing room for prints contact Isabel Crombie, Susan Van Wyke.
Edward Weston Recommended
Shooting Brief:
Using ISO 1-200 and the Av setting (I can change aperture while the camera chooses exposure), take at least 50 images, up load 12, using these phrases as inspiration: Extreme close up / Wide angle / Surface / Mixed lighting / Blurry / Drab / Tasty / Self-portrait / Semi / Portrait of a stranger / Beautiful / Ugly
Using Manual on a DSLR:
Turn dial to M for Manual. Don't use P - fully automatic, can't inject my ideas. M requires me to adjust the Shutter (eyelid blinking and is about capturing speed) and Aperture (iris - depth of field). Av setting or Tv will be acceptable and camera will choose either aperture or shutter.
About Apertures:
Aperture ranges between F 29 - 4.5. The higher the number the deeper the depth of field - that is what is in focus. Most landscape is short with high DOF. This gives a small hole: a small amount of light in and needs a tripod to expand exposure time to 1/4 to 30 seconds.
Taking a photo:
Rest camera in hand, feet slightly apart and squeeze trigger with other hand.
With ISO100 and high DOF the exposures will be long. Should use a tripod (didn't!)
Take both landscape and portrait of everything and both in front of you and behind.
End ring is focus. MF means I can twist the ring. AF means camera adjusts focus.
Middle ring is zoom.
Changing aperture: wheel on TR corner
Upload photos via Image Capture:
Connecting this camera to...' and select "Image Capture"
Select "Import to - other' and choose my drive and this week's folder
Click "Import All".
Bridge CS4 - will take in a large volume of data and quickly allow you to select preferred images.
Edward Weston Recommended
Shooting Brief:
Using ISO 1-200 and the Av setting (I can change aperture while the camera chooses exposure), take at least 50 images, up load 12, using these phrases as inspiration: Extreme close up / Wide angle / Surface / Mixed lighting / Blurry / Drab / Tasty / Self-portrait / Semi / Portrait of a stranger / Beautiful / Ugly
Using Manual on a DSLR:
Turn dial to M for Manual. Don't use P - fully automatic, can't inject my ideas. M requires me to adjust the Shutter (eyelid blinking and is about capturing speed) and Aperture (iris - depth of field). Av setting or Tv will be acceptable and camera will choose either aperture or shutter.
About Apertures:
Aperture ranges between F 29 - 4.5. The higher the number the deeper the depth of field - that is what is in focus. Most landscape is short with high DOF. This gives a small hole: a small amount of light in and needs a tripod to expand exposure time to 1/4 to 30 seconds.
Taking a photo:
Rest camera in hand, feet slightly apart and squeeze trigger with other hand.
With ISO100 and high DOF the exposures will be long. Should use a tripod (didn't!)
Take both landscape and portrait of everything and both in front of you and behind.
End ring is focus. MF means I can twist the ring. AF means camera adjusts focus.
Middle ring is zoom.
Changing aperture: wheel on TR corner
Upload photos via Image Capture:
Connecting this camera to...' and select "Image Capture"
Select "Import to - other' and choose my drive and this week's folder
Click "Import All".
Bridge CS4 - will take in a large volume of data and quickly allow you to select preferred images.
W2 - 35mm, Cameras get smaller
Two people worked out how to fix images in the 1830s: photogenic drawing (Henry Fox Talbot, UK) and Daguerreotype processes (Louis Daguerre, France), both based on camera obscura process (a box with a lens and a mirror inside - used by artists and architects).
Cameras of the time were large boxes with glass plates to be exposed to sunlight but their size didn't change for a long time. 1890s, George Easton, Kodak founder, found a way to make the camera and film much smaller (this included developing roll film and the Box Brownie in 1900). Kodak took entire camera back, took them apart, developed film. These 35mm cameras were revolutionary being small and light enough to be able to be transported anywhere. however, photographers were still restricted to subjects without speed and early cameras were very sensitive to the blue end of the spectrum which meant that skies appeared washed-out. Early photographers would collect images of skies and then add in a sky via a photo montage of negatives.
For a historical timeline by Philip Greenspun, click here: http://photo.net/history/timeline
And a liast of 'firstst' in photogragraphy, click here: http://www.neatorama.com/2006/08/29/the-wonderful-world-of-early-photography/
Revolutionary users of 35mm cameras:
Henri Cartier-Bresson (France)
Idea: The Decisive Moment
Link: http://www.henricartierbresson.org/hcb/home_en.htm with more photos here: http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bresson.htm
He worked to capture 'the decisive moment' where all the elements come together and make a wonderful image only in a particular instant. Would research locations and be very well prepared before he arrived.
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, 1932, 14 x 9½ inches: $18,000.00
- a person in mid-stride, mirroring in puddle and figure in background
There seems to be a similar quality (sponteneity and mirroring ) in Elliot Erwitt (b.1928 in France to Russian parents and migrated to the US) and some lovely humour, especially with his dogs (and other leg shots!): http://www.elliotterwitt.com/lang/en/index.html
Lee Freidlander (USA, b.1934)
Idea: picture planes and two-dimensions to add layers of meaning
Typical technique: extreme depth of field, mirrors and glass, strong composition (rule of thirds and repeating lines and shapes)
Link: http://www.fraenkelgallery.com/index.php
eg a memorial (?) statue of a rifleman which appears to be stalking two other people walking by. Contains strong verticals (the central black pole divides photo into two images - impression of movement? time?) and is composed using a soft, long scale - many tones in his black and white work (new art photographers often choose few tones - extreme blacks and white).
eg shot from inside a bus or truck capturing the wing-mirror and bust road behind. Strong verticals again chop up the image and the string of cars.
eg a cyclist riding past an external staircase - curve of road edge in background, foreground curve of staircase.
Often experimented with juxtaposition of objects to create a surreal setup as in these people who seem to be walking into each other
Willam Eggleston (USA, b.1939)
Idea: colour (of very ordinary objects, pople, interiors)
Link: http://www.egglestontrust.com/
Amongst first art photographers to use colour. While colour film became cheap enough for most people to use in 1960s, prior to 1970s, most fine art photographers did not us it as black and white was accepted as the preferred presentation.
eg elder woman on a sagging sofa - her floral dress is reflected in both the pattern of the sofa as well as the leaves behind the trellis and under her feet. Strong repeating pattern of squares in trellis and paving.
eg tricycle - a very low angle with a wide angle lens (can be seen in the distortion) of a mundane object.
eg corner of a red ceiling with a central naked globe with three cables leading to and bits of a door and dubious posters - hints of seediness.
There's not just seediness in this photo, but threat - I can't help feeling afraid for any woman who enters this claustrophobic box. The attempt at homeliness with the gingham curtains fails next to the fan and the red drawers on top of the white box, which suggest to me some sort of diabolical machine within with the lonely broom to the right the evidence of the last victim.
Gary Winogrand
See YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eitfGxc6vbw,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl4f-QFCUek&feature=related etc
Idea: 'I see life'...'I frame picutres in terms of what I want to include...I don't worry what they'll look like'.
He also says that the picture must be complete in the frame - Virginia Woold says something similar about novels when she's condemning the laboured, indirect and doctrine-loaded writing styles of the 19thC.
Winogrand used a Leica and walked around the street (particularly LA and Texas) with a camera held to his eye and just took photos - he left behind thousands of unprocessed rolls of film.
It's hard to believe that shots like this aren't staged (talk about narrative), but then I don't know how many shots he took that day and rejected. Apart from the 'Chinese whispers' affect, I like the framing of the women by the men and the pole/tree separating black from white.
It reminds me of Da Vinci's Last Supper:
Is the 35mm too big for current paranoia (privacy, Paparrazzi, paedophillia etc) - not very discreet?
Cameras of the time were large boxes with glass plates to be exposed to sunlight but their size didn't change for a long time. 1890s, George Easton, Kodak founder, found a way to make the camera and film much smaller (this included developing roll film and the Box Brownie in 1900). Kodak took entire camera back, took them apart, developed film. These 35mm cameras were revolutionary being small and light enough to be able to be transported anywhere. however, photographers were still restricted to subjects without speed and early cameras were very sensitive to the blue end of the spectrum which meant that skies appeared washed-out. Early photographers would collect images of skies and then add in a sky via a photo montage of negatives.
For a historical timeline by Philip Greenspun, click here: http://photo.net/history/timeline
And a liast of 'firstst' in photogragraphy, click here: http://www.neatorama.com/2006/08/29/the-wonderful-world-of-early-photography/
Revolutionary users of 35mm cameras:
Henri Cartier-Bresson (France)
Idea: The Decisive Moment
Link: http://www.henricartierbresson.org/hcb/home_en.htm with more photos here: http://www.afterimagegallery.com/bresson.htm
He worked to capture 'the decisive moment' where all the elements come together and make a wonderful image only in a particular instant. Would research locations and be very well prepared before he arrived.
- a person in mid-stride, mirroring in puddle and figure in background
There seems to be a similar quality (sponteneity and mirroring ) in Elliot Erwitt (b.1928 in France to Russian parents and migrated to the US) and some lovely humour, especially with his dogs (and other leg shots!): http://www.elliotterwitt.com/lang/en/index.html
Lee Freidlander (USA, b.1934)
Idea: picture planes and two-dimensions to add layers of meaning
Typical technique: extreme depth of field, mirrors and glass, strong composition (rule of thirds and repeating lines and shapes)
Link: http://www.fraenkelgallery.com/index.php
eg a memorial (?) statue of a rifleman which appears to be stalking two other people walking by. Contains strong verticals (the central black pole divides photo into two images - impression of movement? time?) and is composed using a soft, long scale - many tones in his black and white work (new art photographers often choose few tones - extreme blacks and white).
eg shot from inside a bus or truck capturing the wing-mirror and bust road behind. Strong verticals again chop up the image and the string of cars.
eg a cyclist riding past an external staircase - curve of road edge in background, foreground curve of staircase.
Often experimented with juxtaposition of objects to create a surreal setup as in these people who seem to be walking into each other
Willam Eggleston (USA, b.1939)
Idea: colour (of very ordinary objects, pople, interiors)
Link: http://www.egglestontrust.com/
Amongst first art photographers to use colour. While colour film became cheap enough for most people to use in 1960s, prior to 1970s, most fine art photographers did not us it as black and white was accepted as the preferred presentation.
eg elder woman on a sagging sofa - her floral dress is reflected in both the pattern of the sofa as well as the leaves behind the trellis and under her feet. Strong repeating pattern of squares in trellis and paving.
eg tricycle - a very low angle with a wide angle lens (can be seen in the distortion) of a mundane object.
eg corner of a red ceiling with a central naked globe with three cables leading to and bits of a door and dubious posters - hints of seediness.
There's not just seediness in this photo, but threat - I can't help feeling afraid for any woman who enters this claustrophobic box. The attempt at homeliness with the gingham curtains fails next to the fan and the red drawers on top of the white box, which suggest to me some sort of diabolical machine within with the lonely broom to the right the evidence of the last victim.
Gary Winogrand
See YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eitfGxc6vbw,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl4f-QFCUek&feature=related etc
Idea: 'I see life'...'I frame picutres in terms of what I want to include...I don't worry what they'll look like'.
He also says that the picture must be complete in the frame - Virginia Woold says something similar about novels when she's condemning the laboured, indirect and doctrine-loaded writing styles of the 19thC.
Winogrand used a Leica and walked around the street (particularly LA and Texas) with a camera held to his eye and just took photos - he left behind thousands of unprocessed rolls of film.
It's hard to believe that shots like this aren't staged (talk about narrative), but then I don't know how many shots he took that day and rejected. Apart from the 'Chinese whispers' affect, I like the framing of the women by the men and the pole/tree separating black from white.
It reminds me of Da Vinci's Last Supper:
...which concerns a moment of revelation, a scandalous truth, and the painting freezes this moment of action. given that Da Vinci was not terribly good at finishing anything he started, he might have appreciated a Leica.
Another 35mm revolutionary: Robert Frank, 1950s, and his revolutionary 'The Americans'.
Is the 35mm too big for current paranoia (privacy, Paparrazzi, paedophillia etc) - not very discreet?
Thursday, March 4, 2010
W1: notes from video, Genius of Photography
Everything changed: Horrors of war
Machine age - 'holding the future', 'a contemporary being'
Documenting what it means to be human
Role of photography in art and society in 1920s? Who did it serve? masses/individual. operator of rules or free reign.
Systematic records of people and places. 'Removes photographer', factual style, mechanical reproduction of same shooting conditions. Early uses: botanic-like images of flora. Police mug shots.
Germany, Sander. Documentation of occupation, human typology of 7 types. 'sense of world pregnant with things that cannot be spoken' ie conditions in Germany and the fall of he Weimar Republic eg the notary - 'i am not less that what i was' - a subtle sense of solidness but his fine coat has not been replaced recently. Qualities of expression 'in what way can you help me?'
USSR, Alexanda Rodchenko. Art is dead, free of bourgeoiuse degeneracy. 'tool of the new man'. new society needs new ways of seeing. New compact cameras eg Leica, 'freed from tripod' and 'bellybutton' photos - can use any angle, 'photograph world differently' and alter perception. eg montage, cues form cinema. Collectivising their individuality. Meaning remains fluid, ambiguous - 'mute documents' - therefore can be harnessed to causes such as propaganda. Both techniques used in shooting the building of the White Sea Canal with its reeducated labour.
'Amplified human vision and the inability to see'
Paris, Eugene Atget: documenting city's inner core before redevelopment. Used old-fashioned equipment into the 1920s. Geometric, almost abstract, people are small. Documents were personal, but allowed 'everyone to see the same thing'. constantly photographs things in a way that does not document eg a tree cross Notre Dame, 'documenting a different range of reality'.
Technique for critiquing a photo: turn it up-side-down.
Paris, Man Ray. the territory of the unreal: the unconscious mind, dreams and desires. 'a natural maverick...discovered ways of being a photographer that were new' eg solarisation - aluminium look, robotic. On ground floor or Surrealism. Friends with Duchamp eg photographed dust over Duchamps' glass work. Reality does not need to be documented as a 'sober reality'.
Meets Atget in 1926. Surrealists like 'found objects' used out-of-context to project one into another consciousness. 'the great broth of detail that the world offers at any given moment'. Highly appropriated.
1929, Stuttgart - defining show of film and photography.
1934, Stalin, great terror, USSR - heroes declared enemies - even records liquidated. Rodchenko had to doctor books, ones he'd created to make 'unpeople'. Blacked out faces, clothes and shoulders remain 'proclaiming the human being'.
In Germany 1933, Sander fell foul of Nazis. They wanted racial types to be documented: 'highly idealised version of what its people should be'. Didn't want his ideosyncracy. Books banned. Photographed Nazis instead and passport photos of those trying to migrate. He had a category called 'the lost people' - included his son's death mask.
USA, Walker Evans - studied in Paris, influenced by Atget. Images of democracy - same sized portraits? rigid, imprisoned in cells? Dissonant voice in an age of utopias 'human society is a failure'. Seem simple: 'saying less forces subject to say more'. Used old fashioned camera - forced him to look.
Commissioned to take propaganda images related to Depression to portray government positively and idealise relief recipients. eg Ally May against weatherboard, 1936 - eyes and weatherboard are creased. All composition, no production methods.
Documentary - thought of as delivering truth and social agent - Evans hated both uses, 'just looks like the facts...not objective'. When he photographed poor houses he would arrange objects, minimise squalor and elevate objects to iconic status - clarity and beauty to better represent American life. Not sufficient for FSA who sacked him.
UK, Bill Brandt - human vulnerability. worked for photo magazines and worked in Man Ray's studios. 'a picture can be like a sculpture representing only what a photographer want to be represented'. Inventor of 'half way house between truth and fiction' eg photographed London in Blitz by moonlight.
Concluding thought: is photography a mirror or a window?
Machine age - 'holding the future', 'a contemporary being'
Documenting what it means to be human
Role of photography in art and society in 1920s? Who did it serve? masses/individual. operator of rules or free reign.
Systematic records of people and places. 'Removes photographer', factual style, mechanical reproduction of same shooting conditions. Early uses: botanic-like images of flora. Police mug shots.
Germany, Sander. Documentation of occupation, human typology of 7 types. 'sense of world pregnant with things that cannot be spoken' ie conditions in Germany and the fall of he Weimar Republic eg the notary - 'i am not less that what i was' - a subtle sense of solidness but his fine coat has not been replaced recently. Qualities of expression 'in what way can you help me?'
USSR, Alexanda Rodchenko. Art is dead, free of bourgeoiuse degeneracy. 'tool of the new man'. new society needs new ways of seeing. New compact cameras eg Leica, 'freed from tripod' and 'bellybutton' photos - can use any angle, 'photograph world differently' and alter perception. eg montage, cues form cinema. Collectivising their individuality. Meaning remains fluid, ambiguous - 'mute documents' - therefore can be harnessed to causes such as propaganda. Both techniques used in shooting the building of the White Sea Canal with its reeducated labour.
'Amplified human vision and the inability to see'
Paris, Eugene Atget: documenting city's inner core before redevelopment. Used old-fashioned equipment into the 1920s. Geometric, almost abstract, people are small. Documents were personal, but allowed 'everyone to see the same thing'. constantly photographs things in a way that does not document eg a tree cross Notre Dame, 'documenting a different range of reality'.
Technique for critiquing a photo: turn it up-side-down.
Paris, Man Ray. the territory of the unreal: the unconscious mind, dreams and desires. 'a natural maverick...discovered ways of being a photographer that were new' eg solarisation - aluminium look, robotic. On ground floor or Surrealism. Friends with Duchamp eg photographed dust over Duchamps' glass work. Reality does not need to be documented as a 'sober reality'.
Meets Atget in 1926. Surrealists like 'found objects' used out-of-context to project one into another consciousness. 'the great broth of detail that the world offers at any given moment'. Highly appropriated.
1929, Stuttgart - defining show of film and photography.
1934, Stalin, great terror, USSR - heroes declared enemies - even records liquidated. Rodchenko had to doctor books, ones he'd created to make 'unpeople'. Blacked out faces, clothes and shoulders remain 'proclaiming the human being'.
In Germany 1933, Sander fell foul of Nazis. They wanted racial types to be documented: 'highly idealised version of what its people should be'. Didn't want his ideosyncracy. Books banned. Photographed Nazis instead and passport photos of those trying to migrate. He had a category called 'the lost people' - included his son's death mask.
USA, Walker Evans - studied in Paris, influenced by Atget. Images of democracy - same sized portraits? rigid, imprisoned in cells? Dissonant voice in an age of utopias 'human society is a failure'. Seem simple: 'saying less forces subject to say more'. Used old fashioned camera - forced him to look.
Commissioned to take propaganda images related to Depression to portray government positively and idealise relief recipients. eg Ally May against weatherboard, 1936 - eyes and weatherboard are creased. All composition, no production methods.
Documentary - thought of as delivering truth and social agent - Evans hated both uses, 'just looks like the facts...not objective'. When he photographed poor houses he would arrange objects, minimise squalor and elevate objects to iconic status - clarity and beauty to better represent American life. Not sufficient for FSA who sacked him.
UK, Bill Brandt - human vulnerability. worked for photo magazines and worked in Man Ray's studios. 'a picture can be like a sculpture representing only what a photographer want to be represented'. Inventor of 'half way house between truth and fiction' eg photographed London in Blitz by moonlight.
Concluding thought: is photography a mirror or a window?
W1 Introductory Information
Lecturer:
stuart.murdoch@vu.edu.au
Key unit sites:
dfapatvu.blogspot.com - unit guide, reading, main avenue of communicationstuart.murdoch@vu.edu.au
Key unit sites:
http://stunik.com/vu/2010
Bring:
external drive for formatting and storage, dSLR (3-10 Mpixels) with instruction manual, tripod
Software:
Image Capture
Abode Bridge CS4
Tasks:
Renew password
Put software in dock
Set up Blog
Set up Flickr
Join Group - DFAP (and other groups recommended)
Send details to lecturer
Flickr:
Explore - most viewed photos
Ignore 'interestingness'
Characteristics of better photos: How is the person revealed, relation to subject, subtly, intriuge where does the photo lead us?
Tags - labelling with meta data to enable searching
Look for /group/DFAP and Discussion
Access level for group - enable us to view work and copy and paste images and their URL. Look at what buttons are revealed over the top of the image.
To add a photo into a blog:
Depends on access, might need to contact artist or make them a contact.
Or else click Small or Thumbnail
Copy and paste code into blog.
Tasks:
Renew password
Put software in dock
Set up Blog
Set up Flickr
Join Group - DFAP (and other groups recommended)
Send details to lecturer
Flickr:
Explore - most viewed photos
Ignore 'interestingness'
Characteristics of better photos: How is the person revealed, relation to subject, subtly, intriuge where does the photo lead us?
Tags - labelling with meta data to enable searching
Look for /group/DFAP and Discussion
Access level for group - enable us to view work and copy and paste images and their URL. Look at what buttons are revealed over the top of the image.
To add a photo into a blog:
Depends on access, might need to contact artist or make them a contact.
Or else click Small or Thumbnail
Copy and paste code into blog.
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