Research for assignment 3 EYV
list of contents:
- Introduction
- Two shots done as test for assignment
- The assignment and chosen theme
- Researching photographers
- Some ideas and discussion around documentary and street photography
- Analysis of my images and self appraisal
- Bibliography and list of images
1.Intro:
I add this quote by the late John Szarkowski as a perpetual reminder to myself that ‘ideas are not enough’ in order to make good photography. Although indispensable and necessary, then comes the painful business of putting one’s ideas into practice to produce, in this case, a photograph.
1.’Some photographers think the idea is enough. I told a good story in my Getty talk, a beautiful story, to the point: Ducasse says to his friend Mallarmé — I think this is a true story — he says, “ You know, I’ve got a lot of good ideas for poems, but the poems are never very good.” Mallarmé says, “ Of course, you don’t make poems out of ideas, you make poems out of words.” Really good, huh? Really true. So, photographers who aren’t so good think that you make photographs out of ideas. And they generally get only about halfway to the photograph and think that they’re done.’
My reflection on Szarkowski’s saying here above
Basically I tend to agree with Szarkowski. The reason for this is that as I observe more and more photos and read statements about the photos, I see that some do not for me hit the mark. The idea might be extremely clear (if not a bit overly abstract at times) and then the photo might just not meet the idea. This sort of experience leaves me disappointed and cold. That the artist had great intentions to make a photo based on a great idea, then simply produces something quite normal and ordinary by way of a photo. So whilst the ideas are indispensable the photos need to complete and even surpass the idea visually to engage the viewer, from my point of view.
Research begins…
Some ideas for the assignment to get started:
- how we waste time…
- death and love
- significant moments in time…
Linking themes could be:
- angle of view
- place
- time of day
- building
- period of time
2.Two shots done as a test for street images
Two test images that I shot in order to examine what kind of photos I wanted to work with. These images represent practice rather than anything of the finished assignment.
From looking at these images I have decided that I neither want the images to have shallow d.o.f nor such a narrow angle of view. I aim to bring more of the scene into the photo so will use a 35 or 28mm.
My research proper began by looking at the work from an edition of BJP by Matt Stuart. His work is of the genre of street photography and he is inspired, amongst other photographers by the work of Bresson. His work is interesting and touches on the use of humour and irony in order to highlight his themes. I would say that his work is entertaining rather than conceptually or intellectually interesting. It has something of the interesting eye view of Bresson or Winogrand but somehow without the depth.
My style of organising the blog page here for research may at times take on a wandering element as I sift through the various ideas that I have been developing during the preparation of the assignment.
Here I list a few rules or guides from Bresson that I may use as background for the shoots.
- Be quick and don’t linger
- Use the environment to contextualize the image
- Use one lens in order to be consistent. (I plan to work with 28mm)
- Dont crop the image…(we’ll see!)
3.The assignment and theme chosen
So what I am aiming to do within the project is form a set of images with an interrelated theme. The photos will be done in the street and will be spontaneous. However, I am going to story board the images in advance and think through what and where I will do the shooting as best as I can. The main theme that interlinks each photo will be juxtaposition and ambiguity. I wanted to take this angle as I felt that the pictures should have a significant element, something that will define the set and tie them together as a group of photos. At the same time each image will be distinct.
In terms of juxtaposition I have investigated the work of various photographers to see a. Where they utilise juxtaposition and or ambiguity to good effect and b. What the linking elements is in their photos. It was an interesting exercise to see what different photographers use as a device in order to bring their work together as a body of photos.
As well as using the broad theme of juxtaposition and ambiguity I also thought about the possibility of using more than one juxtaposing element in each photo. Something more obvious and something then more subliminal. This may be easier to think about and discuss than to actually achieve in a photo as the images are not staged. Rather, they are going to be more spontaneous.
I also want to incorporate text into each photo so as to give each image a narrative. This inspiration in general has been taken from Duane Michals although not following his typical cinematic style of sequencing and perhaps finding suitable quotes to fit the images rather than writing my own text.
During my research I looked at the work of the following photographers a few of which I will analysis.
Lee Frielander, Harry Callahan, Cartier Bresson, Paul strand, Gary Winogrand, SzarKowski, Gordon Parks and Robert Frank. I also looked at the work of Tod Papergeorge, Duane Michals and Bruce Davidson, all of whom were influential photographers of time.
Szarkowski writes:
“It isn’t what the photograph is of, it is what its about”
(Szarkowski, J.)
This set me off thinking about this quote: 2.”at any given moment the accepted report of an event is of greater importance than the event, for what we think about and act upon is the symbolic report and not the concrete event itself.” (Ivins M.W, 1953)
Somehow these two quotes are related. They both point to the event in a photo being somehow either more than the actual happening in reality (exaggerated importance in some cases) or not identical with reality.
I followed up some writing on David Campbell’s website where he delivers a talk on: 3. Narrative, Power and responsibility (Campbell. D, 2010) The main thrust of this talk is about how an image is a narration of an event that has taken place previously and that by that very act of narration we as it were, create the story. He also says that “research means we are involved in the construction of narrative” but that there are “limits to the way that we use narrative”. In other words you can’t completely distort the truth through your images, it has to work within the bounds of comprehension and believability in a context. Also Campbell acknowledges that no narrative (or image) can tell every aspect of a story.
4.Researching photographers, starting with Photos by Bresson
I have reviewed two photos by Bresson, working to get a sense of the photographer and how he made pictures. The first image I looked at was one called Siphnos, taken in Greece in 1972.
Image 1: Black and white, horizontal frame with main focal point on a girl climbing stairs in a whitewashed Greek village. The sun is strong casting shadow into the stairs so that the girl is in shadow. The forms of the buildings are pleasing and with soft angles leading the eye into the stair space. I like the photo as it is a slice of time and a place that conjures up many associations that I have with the Mediterranean. Aesthetically I find the image pleasing. I find the girl a little too distant in the frame, so that she becomes a small figure within the picture.
Image 2: Two men facing into a large cloth that acts as a fence. The camera is positioned behind the men, one man looks to the right over his shoulder whilst the other looks into the cloth with his face against it. One cannot decipher what he is doing exactly. He looks like he might be urinating!! I like the unknowing of the event as it leaves space for interpretation of what is going on and what the photo is about. The image is black and white and contains only three main focal points. The image has little background or foreground because of the angle of view. The key focal point is gaze of the man with moustache.
The linking theme for Bresson’s photos has to be the context and the way in which he frames pertinent moments in time. His images are stories in themselves, each one giving a particular narrative of an event. One can also see a meaning in his photos that goes beyond the photo. There is often a spirit of mystery and beauty to his photos. There is room to interpret and analyse as it is not always clear what the meaning might be. The above photo is a case in point. Bresson’s hall-mark was also the way in which he utilised the space around for the framing of the image. He was particularly conscious of geometry and knew intuitively how to use that for the photo. This gives rise to much visual pleasure.
Gary Winogrand
Windogrand is definitely one of my favourites from this particular genre of 50’s 60’s 70’s American street photography. His images have a liveliness and energetic quality that brings to life the scene that he photographs. Robert Frank was an influential figure especially in his early days, for Winogrand.
Linking theme:
Winogrand habitually used a 21mm lens initially till he found it was not easy to control vertical lines. One of his devices was to tilt the frame as often seen in his images, which brings about a sort of peculiar dynamic within the frame. Liveliness and keenness of vision are two of the themes within his photos.
Image 3: Man on the side-walk in New York amidst pedestrians looking slightly suspiciously above the camera. Winogrands tilt to of the right side down of the camera can be seen here. The shot is close in to the subject. It seems that the central focal point of the image is the man in the middle with the disapproving look. It is a hard expression. Something has taken his attention up above the camera although what that is we don’t know. All around we can see other points of focus such as the man coming into the frame from the right and them the ‘walk’ sign. The image is conceptualised clearly as a street photo. A photo taken in a moment without permission I would suspect, from the hip. The image to me expresses the human condition on the street of NY at that time, overcrowded, busy and noisy. I can imagine myself in the scene almost.
Image 4. A man crossing the street. His body form and posture speak volumes. For me the man is a caricature of himself. He seems to be collapsing to the ground even as his walks and I find this a curios subtle juxtaposition. He is animated and falling. Again we see Winogrand’s tilted frame and we see his usual irony through this man’s posture. I see what he saw and had I been there I would have shot the same image. He seems to have had a height advantage in that he is apparently looking down somewhat onto the man. I wonder if this was intentional?
The shadow of the man’s legs offer a dimension also to the photo which brings the frame alive.
Bruce Davidson
“I’m just a humanist. I just photograph the human condition as I find it. It can be serious. It can also be ironic or humorous. I’m political, but not in an overt way. Of course, everything we do in life is political. Almost everything.” (Davidson B.)
During my preparation for this assignment I have become particularly fond of Bruce Davidson. His images resonate in some ways, more than other photographers of a similar genre. I am learning a lot about the motivations of photographers of this era, be they ‘fine art’, ‘Photojournalists’, or just…good or ‘fine’ photographers, as Davidson preferred to think of himself. He was a humanist “observing the human condition”.
Bruce Davidson produces some of the more tangible Juxtapositions in his work. We can see that he is consciously working to frame things, in order to exploit this device which he does very well. Below I’ll show two examples of his.
Davidson produced a series “The Dwarf” whereby he spent time with a circus crew, photographing them at his leisure. This image in particular resonates with me. It has both a visual impact from the strangeness of the scene as well as a sort of message about faces, personas and facade. The pretence of it all, the way we may try to look one way and be another, the social face and bullshit. He particularly focused on one character know as the “little man”. The little man was Jimmy Armstrong who was part of the circus in 1958.
Again here we see an example of how Davidson played with Juxtaposition to formally highlight the difference in this case between race. It was a time of oppression in America, “the land of freedom” when only some were actually free!
Linking theme: There seems to be a strong connecting theme here of Juxtaposition as pointed out already. As a device this helps to add drama and style to a photo as well as highlighting something that perhaps had not been seen previously. Also Davidson’s images take a rather human look at the world, tend to be quite warm and present and I think we can see how he interacted in many cases with his subjects, thus bringing this warmth to the fore.
Some ideas and discussion around documentary photography and art
In my research I have been asking various questions to myself. For example, what is the difference between so-called street photography and documentary photography. How are they different? Is one art and the other not? Is one more factual (therefore more valid) or do they both have the same value?
In reading the section on documentary photography in ‘photography a critical introduction’ (Wells L, 2009) Wells explores this area.
Allan Sekula (1978) says this:
“Documentary is thought to be art when it transcends its reference to the world (society) when the world can be regarded first and foremost as an act of self-expression on the part of the artist” (Sekula 1978: 236).
So in other words, according to Sekula the distinction is one of priority of emphasis? It would seem that he is saying so. However, more than that the photographer needs to define that emphasis clearly. The act of “Self expression” as opposed to documenting factual happenings is what seems to be the difference. The documenting of a thing or act or place has no particular angle or desire to express itself beyond what we see.
So in this assignment my aim with street photos (as context/genre) and the decisive moment (as concept) is to produce a set of images that are about self-expression of ideas and concepts that illustrate and make clear a feeling, mood or thought process about the world. Maybe the above statement is that ideally the photographer shows work that goes beyond the world and points to other dimensions of human experience. This however will depend upon a number of different factors. perhaps it is better that the photos just leave space for questions. Perhaps the pauses and empty spaces in an image communicate as much as the subjects in the frame?
references:
1.http://blogs.walkerart.org/visualarts/2006/12/20/john-szarkowski-the-perfect-photo/ [accessed October 2016]
2.William M. Ivins, Jr., Prints end Visual Communication.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953, p. 180.
3. Campbell D, 2010 Narrative, power and responsibility https://soundcloud.com/mattjohnston/david-campbell [accessed November 2016]
4. Images 1 and 2 Bresson C, 1972 (image 1) Siphnous https://es.images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A7x9Un978ypYaAoAT0i_.wt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsYWhiN2NvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw–?_adv_prop=image&fr=yhs-GenieoYaho-fh_hp&sz=all&va=cartier+bresson&hspart=GenieoYaho&hsimp=yhs-fh_hp [accessed November 2016]
5. Image 3 and 4 Winogrand G, 1962 New York https://es.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=GenieoYaho&hsimp=yhs-fh_hp&type=a87160058&p=photos+by+garry+winogrand [accessed November 2016]
6.Images 5 and 6 Davidson B, Dwarf and Brooklyn gang on the way home by bus
7. Allan Sekula (1978) ‘Dismantling modernism, reinventing documentary’ (notes on the politics of representation) in J. Liebling (ed.) PHOTOGRAPHY: Current perspectives, Rochester, NY: Light impressions Co.
OCA log level 1 Photography 