Format

Although I rarely take photographs in a 'street photography' style, I do find it interesting to see these images. I find photography festivals interesting after going to the Biennal in Brighton and seeing some really amazing things, it seemed only logical to also visit Derby.

After visiting the format festival in Derby,
only one piece of work really stuck in my mind.

Anthony Carr 

A Month of Nights, Derby

Makeshift time lapse pinhole cameras produce a nocturnal record of life in the city that show traces of its inhabitants. A FORMAT 2011 commission.

I did like the images based on how they look. As you can see in the one above the images are typical of pinhole photography in that they have a wide angled perspective on the scene. I love the little specks of light which look messy in comparison the normal night photography.

I really like how the aesthetic of film is clearly visible and find this much more special than digital images.

But what captured me most about the idea was the concept. In the museum, the room had been layed out with large pieces of wood, with wooden holes in that you looked through to see the image. As if you actually were a bird looking out.

I found this really interesting. It relates mildly to surveillance, a topic we looked into in our lecture series, as you begin to imagine yourself in the birdbox yourself, which is effectively an artistic version of a CCTV camera.

A lovely idea to see things from the point of view of birds.

Laura Mulvey

A lady who I looked at when researching my essay was Laura Mulvey who has been described as a 'feminist film theorist'.


"Laura Mulvey did not undertake empirical studies of actual filmgoers, but declared her intention to make ‘political use’ of Freudian psychoanalytic theory (in a version influenced by Jacques Lacan) in a study of cinematic spectatorship" This referenced work is included in my previous blog post about Lacan.


Although Mulvey's intention was to analyse cinema, her thoughts and comments directly relate to photographer and to my essay where the images I used were shot in a cinematic 'film stills' style. 


The quotes I have used in this blog post are from an article I found online, written by Daniel Chandler, which I found extremely interesting and helpful when I was researching my essay. 


"Mulvey argues that various features of cinema viewing conditions facilitate for the viewer both the voyeuristic process of objectification of female characters and also the narcissistic process of identification with an ‘ideal ego’ seen on the screen. She declares that in patriarchal society ‘pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female’ (Mulvey 1992, 27). This is reflected in the dominant forms of cinema. Conventional narrative films in the ‘classical’ Hollywood tradition not only typically focus on a male protagonist in the narrative but also assume a male spectator. ‘As the spectator identifies with the main male protagonist, he projects his look onto that of his like, his screen surrogate, so that the power of the male protagonist as he controls events coincides with the active power of the erotic look, both giving a satisfying sense of omnipotence’ (ibid., 28). Traditional films present men as active, controlling subjects and treat women as passive objects of desire for men in both the story and in the audience, and do not allow women to be desiring sexual subjects in their own right. Such films objectify women in relation to ‘the controlling male gaze’ (ibid., 33), presenting ‘woman as image’ (or ‘spectacle’) and man as ‘bearer of the look’ (ibid., 27). Men do the looking; women are there to be looked at. The cinematic codes of popular films ‘are obsessively subordinated to the neurotic needs of the male ego’ (ibid., 33). It was Mulvey who coined the term 'the male gaze'."


I find this paragraph one of the most interesting out of the analysis. Chandler mentions ideas of Berger (women as sights) which interweaves with Mulvey's opinions. 
This whole piece of text directly relates to my essay. In particular it relates to the main photograph I have tried to analyse within my essay. 

This photograph, shot by Annie Leibovitz is a perfect example of the comments made by Mulvey. It shows the objectification of the model as she walks along the train carriage and also the 'narcissistic process of identification' as not coincidentally the woman is strikingly beautiful and as spectators we can see that she is being stared at appreciatively by the man. We are in awe of her but we are also jealous of the attention she is getting and imagine ourselves in her shoes in an attempt to vicariously receive some of this confidence and attention. The woman practically glows in the male gaze.


Men can also relate to the protagonist as wanting to have the same control over women, having them parade in front of them and the wanting the gratifying power of the male gaze. Which is shown by the man sitting comfortably and confidently while the woman walks past him and is looked at. The feature was in a predominantly female magazine (Vogue) though so I believe it is unlikely that men will identify with the image in the magazine although I believe they would if it was in another context, an advert/billboard for example. 

Jacques Lacan

An introduction......




"The symbolic: a term used by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and by the literary theorist Julia Kristeva to designate the objective order (sometimes called the Symbolic Order) of language, law, morality, religion, and all social existence, which is held to constitute the identity of any human subject who enters it. Drawing on Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex and on the structuralist anthropology of Claude Lévi‐Strauss, Lacan developed an opposition between the ‘Imaginary’ state enjoyed by the infant who has no distinct sense of a self opposed to the world, and the Symbolic Order in which the child then becomes a separate subject within human culture. The Symbolic is the realm of distinctions and differences—between self and others, subject and object—and of absence or ‘lack’, since in it we are exiled from the completeness of the Imaginary, and can return to it only in fantasized identifications. The infant's entry into the Symbolic is associated with the ‘splitting’ of the subject by language, which allots distinct ‘subject‐positions’ (‘I’ and ‘you’) for us to occupy in turn. In Kristeva's literary theory, the Symbolic is opposed to the disruptive energies of the semiotic, which have their source in the Imaginary state."

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/the-symbolic#ixzz1Gf5X4Sxz


























I did a lot of reading on this website: http://www.iep.utm.edu/lacweb/#SH2d
it is well worth a look and has very detailed information on Lacan's different theories.


"what Lacan calls a symbolic identification with an “ego ideal.” This is precisely identification with and within something that cannot be seen, touched, devoured, or mastered: namely, the words, norms and directives of its given cultural collective. Symbolic identification is always idenification with a normatively circumscribed way of organising the social-intersubjective space within which the subject can take on its most lasting imaginary identifications: (For example, the hysterical-vulnerable female identifies at the symbolic level with the patriarchal way of structuring social relations between sexes, outside of which her imaginary identification would be meaningless)."


This quote, especially the bottom part, directly relates to the subject I was investigating within my essay of women's perceived roles within society. In other words, Lacan is describing the process that we go through psychologically when fitting into roles within society. He makes the point that this is completely of our doing and by using the word 'imaginary'. His views seem to suggest that it is our imaginations which forms these roles within society and this act in turn leads to the forming of society and the way it acts. It is almost like a circle and involves the hyper-real as it is difficult to determine whether it is societies roles that we fit into, or us making up the roles ourself, or possibly both. Almost a which came first, chicken or egg scenario...

Artist's Statement

Alice’s photographic practice tends to revolve around the two main elements of garden and floral photography and the genre of fine art. These elements interweave with images of places Alice has visited to create a collection of images involved with aestheticism and beauty.

Alice’s images focus on the ‘found’. they are natural and not usually preconcieved, produciing a snapshot of a place of moment in time Alice has found to be beautiful.

When photographing personal work Alice becomes immersed in the world around her and uses her camera to capture there moments and places.

She finds solace and comfort in producing these images and it acts as a theraputic practice, resulting in images reflecting the comfort she finds in these surroundings.

Continuing the process by surrounding herself with these images in her own home. A constant reminder of the beauty in the world. 

Alice enjoys using old photographic techniques such as film processing and using the darkroom. She always uses film for personal work and enjoys using slightly unusual cameras such as disposable and lomography alongside her collection of vintage cameras.

Alice's commercial practice deals with the same subject matter but is dealt with in a different photographic way. Alice shows her technical skills and nearly always uses film, capturing large amounts of detail with control over levels of focus.

Globalisation

The dictionary definition of globalisation is:

1.	the process enabling financial and investment markets tooperate internationally, largely as a result of deregulation andimproved communications
2.	the emergence since the 1980s of a single world marketdominated by multinational companies, leading to a diminishingcapacity for national governments to control their economies
3.	the process by which a company, etc, expands to operateinternationally
Session notes: globalisation can be associated with mulitiplicity & diversity. also uniformity and homogenity. paradox term first used to describe political and economic changes in the 80s gone on to include social and cultural associations Term first derived from Marshal Mcluhan 1970s, globalisation replaced internationalism 1st world countries loaned millions to 3rd world countries structural adjustment loans allowed multinational companies to trade without considering individual states Documenta 11 - production of art. cultural drive of globalisation today Fredrick Jameson - if everywhere is connected how can you be given an individual space, can't conceptualise the given space you live in Andreas Gursky - large scale images distinctive for critical look at effect of capitalism & globalisation people often tiny against huge backgrounds of machines etc Simon Starling - investigated historical processes by which objects and situations are created often focuses on how we transform raw materials into usable objects task: For the task this week I decided to explore the work of the parisian photographer who lives and works in Morocco Yto Bararda, as I've seen a couple of her images before and have found them quite beautiful. Top image: Yto Barrada, Hôtel Ahlen, Tangier (2006), from the ‘Iris Tingitana’ series Bottom image: Yto Barrada, Field of Irises, Tangier, 2007 "In a  documentary vein, colour photographs trace the contest between iris tingitana (Moroccan iris) and encroaching commercial developments outside of the city (‘Iris Tingitana’, 2007)." The work formed part of an exhibition in 2009 called 'face of our time' "Face of Our Time presents the work of four artists aligned for their shared interest in making pictures about the current condition of our world. Yto Barrada looks at the transformations occurring in northern Morocco as the area becomes a tourist destination and the local culture is disrupted." The images work really well as a series, seeing a photograph of the irises next to one showing dug up ground really highlights what is really being lost when these hotel complexes are being built. I really like the square format of the images, the look very beautiful. The photographs are taken in a very factual and objective way. I think this adds a responsibilty to us as viewers as we can form our own opinions of what is happening. I believe most people would see that this is bad and maybe it might cause some one to act upon this and could potentially change something. I think the aim of the project works and results in beautiful images that will raise awareness about something that we might not ordinarily see.

Repetition

Session notes:

aim: to examine how photographic practitioners have used repetition since the 1960s as a mean to examine the structure of visual experience

John Berger - painting and reproduction

virgin on the rocks by Leonardo da Vinci

even on google images all differ slightly, quality/style of reproduction etc

Walter Benjamin says after seeing reproductions 'one can go to the national gallery to see the original and discover what the reproduction lacks, or forget about the quality of reproduction, and when you see the image reminded that it's a famous painting, of which one has seen a reproduction'

original no longer valued for what it uniquely shows

unique simply for what it is.... the original of a series of copies

rarity - confirmed by it's price

Dan Graham, photographer and makes installations

'photo conceptualism movement' project: phot essay

instamatic camera, went and made photographs of the kinds of houses people live in

mechanical limitations

almost deskilling the photograph

(but surely still skill in creating a powerful/good image based mainly on composition)

Ed Ruscha - 26 gas stations

sunset strip, milk etc

repetitive structures

Thomas Demand - relates most to Baudrillard

takes images from mass media, makes large scale models purely to photograph them

Roni Horn - you are the weather

Task:

The task for this week was to consider repetition and create our own series of images.
I decided to photograph some flowers in my room. To standardise the images I photographed the same flowers at 4pm every day. I was going to do it for a week but I did 8 days instead to make an even number, this means it could be made into a grid or displayed in another way.
I purposely didn't use a tripod, I just held the camera in roughly the same place every day. I like this because it creates subtle differences within the images.
I like the photographs as if you look through them quickly you might think they are all exactly the same but then you look closely and see little details such as more leaves have fallen onto the table, the colours of the leaves have also lightened as the week has gone on.
This was an interesting project as it meant I looked closely at how the flowers changed with time, something I wouldn't have noticed as much if I hadn't been photographing them.
This is a project that could be continued for a very long time. It would look interesting to have a vast amount of images as an individual becomes less and less important and noticable and the focus becomes simply the differences between them.
I chose to end it at this point because after this the flowers will start to really die and I didn't want to photograph this because I wouldn't have liked it aesthetically.

Gerhard Richter/ the rhetoric of images

Session notes:

aim:

examine semiotic approaches to image analysis focussing upon key terms such as icon,index,symbol, denotation and connotation

Richard Prince - constructing personas

images involved with image making

Saussaure/Pierce

sign - communicate meaning

signifier - sound/image

signified - concept

arbitrary  - no reason, just is

Barthes - critiqued possibilty image

might convey a non coded message (direct)

system of associations

different elements in an image conspire (work together) to form its meaning

"Barthes suggests that at centre of photographic image, where we expect to find the denoted meaning, there is an absence, which is filled by rhetoric (persuasive speaking/writing) of associations"

depth - levels of meaning

Task:

Gerhard Richter has created numerous pieces of art in many different ways. But my favourites of his are from his 'overpainted photographs' in which he finds photographs and uses oil paints to paint on top of them. I have looked at his work before during sixth form and actually recreated images similar to his by painting on top of my own photographs. (unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this I can upload as they are all at my home in a sketchbook)

betty, 1989, 15x10cm

ohne titel(untitled) 1988, 10x15cm

laret, 1992, 15x10cm

"My concern is never art, but always what art can be used for."Gerhard Richter, 1962


"Photography altered ways of seeing and thinking. Photographs were regarded as true, paintings as artificial. The painted picture was no longer credible; its representation froze into immobility, because it was not authentic but invented." Gerhard Richter, 1964


"Unlike American artists Richter wasn't interested in the purity of art. Idealism had disillusioned him from an early age. Instead he painted images without glory; images that rendered the ridiculous, ordinary; the tragic, ordinary; the beautiful, ordinary. Throughout his career Richter has shrunk from giving a psychological insight into his art, leaving his admirers and critics guessing and at times confused. According to him, his work forms from structures and ideas that surround him, nothing more profound than that." from www.gerhard-richter.com


My favourites of this series are all from the beginning, as I feel the age of the photographs give them a much more vintage and aesthetic look that he loses as he continues the project into the modern day. 
I love the images and even though the photographs are found I don't think this detracts from the art form that they end up being.


I love the image 'laret' at the bottom. I think his subtle addition of blue paint onto the image is magical. I'm not saying in anyway that this is particularly challenging, in fact when I attempted this style with my own images I feel I made some beautiful images that could match his. Also by reading from the quotes I found above, I think it is also fair to say that Richter himself doesn't believe that he is doing anything particularly special or notable, I think he just enjoys what he is doing and the products of this. I feel he is not taking someone else's art (the photograph) and simply presenting it as his own, which is what some practitioners do and a process I detest, Richter actually creates a new piece of art. The original photograph can still be held as art, his images are something new and seperate, where he has made an addition which pushes the photograph even further. This is done with a different medium (paint) and by combining the two I think achieves results the photographer could never have. 


I feel there is also more value behind making new art out of found photographs, rather than someone else's photographs that are widely known and published, as I believe bringing found photographs into the public eye is an art in itself. If this didn't happen these photographs are likely to be lost forever as they are usually discarded, thrown away or being sold very cheaply at car boot sales. Richter is not trying to claim the photographs as his own, but highlighting the beauty of them by adding small detail on top of them. I think he does this very successfully and I love these images.