Week 10 Enter The Academy

APRIL 21, 2018MEGANRINGROSEEDIT"WEEK 10 INTRODUCTION: ENTER, THE ACADEMY?"

In this session, we shall explore the problematic issues around the spaces and means by which we might identify and discern exactly what we mean when we say something is ‘art’. We will consider the shifting position and function of the photographic medium within these ‘spectacles’ of consumption.

What is ‘art’ and who has the authority to decide what is ‘good art’?

Define Art: Art is anything that is appreciated by another.I firmly believe that you can display Art in your car, in your house or in a gallery situation.A situation has been formed throughout the history which is the idea that the art can only be seen in a gallery is, in my mind difficult to understand. What has gone before serves to shape our idea of a gallery. The viewer has the authority to accept or reject the given piece of art .That is a personal opinion that should be nurtured and not forced into liking or disliking Art.

We are drawn to galleries to see Art.We make personal choices to engage with Art and why? Personally, I want to be challenged and awakened from my bubble-like existence.The bubble-like existence is the world in which I choose to live in.Perhaps seeing Art in any space will challenge us into some new ideas or ways of thinking.

Do we place value upon these artefacts? How and Why? In my personal opinion, a display of any artefact is worthy of an inspection and perhaps my personal appraisal of whether the artefact is actually Art for me is actually my own business.

This image dating back to 1917 questions the idea of acceptable art.

I have had the good fortune of visiting Dali’s house and museum in Spain and was truly fascinated by the surrealist idea of what was art.

Surrealism, movement in visual art and literature, flourishing in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason; but Surrealism’s emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression. The movement represented a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the “rationalism” that had guided European culture and politics in the past and that had culminated in the horrors of World War I. According to the major spokesman of the movement, the poet and critic André Breton, who published The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in “an absolute reality, a surreality.” Drawing heavily on theories adapted from Sigmund Freud, Breton saw the unconscious as the wellspring of the imagination. He defined genius in terms of accessibility to this normally untapped realm, which, he believed, could be attained by poets and painters alike.REF 2

“Art, through the imagination, represents an idea in order to produce emotions.” I would argue if that defines art then photography can certainly do the same. Throughout much of the text De Zayas is focused on the ‘form’ of an image and the lack of any new form. He appears to be suggesting, that there is nothing new in Art – how, in searching for something new, we are merely following the circumference of a circle. Photography is seen as a way of breaking out of the circle, but substitutes a representation of truth & fact for the emotional & intellectual. Again he sees only a factual depiction, with no appreciation of the nuances of the medium.

“Photography is not Art, but can be made to be Art”. This appears to tie in with Krauss’ discussion of how an image is displayed influences the context in which it is seen. Which of course is true for any work not just photography. But also De Zayas talks to the actions and intentions of the person making the photograph “Artistic Photography…uses the objectivity of form to express a preconceived idea in order to convey an emotion”  So there is an acceptance that photography can be art assuming certain criteria are met.

“Photography, and only Photography, started man on the road of the cognition of the condition of the phenomena of Form” Comparing two artists using photography he call one and artist (Art Photographer) and the other an experimentalist (Photographer), it is interesting to note however in his last sentence “It would be difficult to say which of these two sides of photography would be more important”

“Art, through the imagination, represents an idea in order to produce emotions.” I would argue if that defines art then photography can certainly do the same. Throughout much of the text De Zayas is focused on the ‘form’ of an image and the lack of any new form. He appears to be suggesting, that there is nothing new in Art – how, in searching for something new, we are merely following the circumference of a circle. Photography is seen as a way of breaking out of the circle, but substitutes a representation of truth & fact for the emotional & intellectual. Again he sees only a factual depiction, with no appreciation of the nuances of the medium.

This essay was written in 1913, when photography was still emerging from chemical science so it is natural that there was an optical/mechanical stigma associated with much of its operation and output. The photographer during this time was a specialist and with limited means to influence the final image. Much has changed since 1913.

• CONTEMPORARY CULTURES OF DISPLAY

How do photographs acquire value and meaning?

Images acquire meaning and value originally through the historical contexts of display. By historical context, I mean mainly gallery exposure, books and media.Photographs gain in value and meaning by curators and director of art institutes worldwide passing on the work to their peers.These people play an important part in the ‘activation of artists work’ To gain appreciation from this set of academic is one way to gain some recognition in the Artwork as a photographic artist.Increasingly though we see avenues or strands of promotion that cannot be categorised in the historical context.

An extraordinary way of exhibiting work that artsits have been able to access through The White Chapel Gallery in 2018.

Spectacular new public art commissions by British and international artists will be unveiled across London from December 2018. The Crossrail Art Programme is working with artists to create public art in and around the new central London Elizabeth line stations. This unprecedented project will significantly enrich the presence of contemporary art in the capital’s public realm.

In the first overview of the Crossrail artworks, material such as maquettes, sketches and prototypes are displayed in the gallery’s project and archive spaces. The exhibition reveals the artists’ ideas and the complex process for turning artistic proposals into deliverable public art.REF 1

• The work of Christo and Jean Claude is a classic buck against what has been before.The two artists wrap various large objects and in particular they made a political statement to wrap  Reichstag which was signifying the end of the cold war although cost 8m to build.

After a struggle spanning the seventies, eighties and nineties, the wrapping of the Reichstag was completed in June 1995. For two weeks, the building was shrouded with silvery fabric, shaped by the blue ropes, highlighting the features and proportions of the imposing structure.

• Photographs must be delivered in the right context and I think that the platform chosen for ‘delivering’ artwork is crucial.I believe that there many art patforms that are undiscovered or untapped.

  • Is ‘art’ separate from society?

  I would like to think that art is not separate from society, however, I think that society is separate from ART.Art is accessible for all but sometimes a percentage of the population feel that they are excluded.This I blame on culture and ‘doing things that we must do, as it how things are done’.This is quite a British phenomenon and one that holds British society back.Art is there for the taking.It is free.It is everywhere. Separate it is not.

Is contemporary ‘art’ photography different from earlier forms of ‘art’ photography?
Contemporary photography differs greatly from earlier forms of photographic art as the techniques for producing the work have changed and given the artist infinite choices about how to execute the work.

The creativity within an artist hasn’t changed although I think that there is a mass of photographs and genres to research and draw from for inspiration

“In the 21st century the art world has fully embraced the photograph as a legitimate medium, equal in status to painting and sculpture.Photographers frequently display their work in art galleries and illustrated fine art monographs.”REF:3

 Take Care
Anthony Huberman

I REALLY THINK THIS IS VALID!Let’s STOP PRANCING AND GET DOWN TO LEARNING FROM OTHERS BIG OR LITTLE ACADEMIC OR NON ACADEMIC.

“Traditionally, it’s the other way around: curators open their shows and play the
role of explicators, working to enlighten visitors who don’t know what they know.
They are expert performers of the I Know and avoid displaying any sign of the I
Don’t Know. Instead, an alternative curatorial behavior could be to embrace
a more vulnerable relationship to knowledge. An institution could stop
behaving like an explanation machine, where those who know are teaching
those who don’t know, and invest in what philosopher Jacques Rancière calls the
equality of intelligences1
, where those who know something engage with those
who know something else. It’s not about preparing explanations in advance, but
about following the life of an idea, in public, with others.”

“The goal is not to engage in a competition to attract more
audiences, but to establish a smaller gift economy for anyone who is
curious enough and makes the effort to come by for a visit, whether a
friend or a stranger.
More than anything, the challenge for a contemporary alternative space
today is to behave the way Martin Luther King Jr. called upon all people to
behave: to be maladjusted. By evoking a term usually associated with a
psychological defect or illness, Dr. King famously declared that he was proud to
be maladjusted, and that he would never adjust himself to a society that
discriminates against racial minorities. In the art context, these smaller
institutions are proud to be maladjusted: they do not adjust themselves to
an art community obsessed with knowledge, power, and scale. Instead, they
step onto the smaller and more vulnerable roads and allow learning to replace
teaching, camaraderie to replace competition, the homage to replace the
explanation, and the dance move to replace the chess move.” REF 4

• Who writes interpretation material for galleries / museums?

• What do you notice about this voice or voices?The speakers are all women and by interviewing only women about an exhibition about women the interviewer is acting exclusively and not asking a whole section of society to comment on all female show.

• Does it speak to you?

REF 1:http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/art-capital-art-elizabeth-line/

REF 2:https://www.britannica.com/art/Surrealism

REF 3: Charlotte Cotton,The photograph as Contemporary Art (2016) Thames and Hudson

Week 8

Week 7 An Agent for Change

MARCH 11, 2018MEGANRINGROSEEDIT"WEEK 7: AN AGENT FOR CHANGE."

I am inclined to think that photography can provoke change.  By the same token I think that we are becoming a society of numb observers.

Are news stories like 911 and Grenfell tower slowly becoming the norm and are merely wallpaper.If these events impact on our lives we have a stake in the occurrence.The media frenzy that surrounded both events was valid yet I found my self-slightly repulsed by graphitic nature. Yes, it was incredibly sad.Photography can provoke change.It creates awareness for a whole nation and then what.Change.Cause and Effect.An incident can create change or an awareness and a catalyst for us to try to understand an incident and react.

These images of Grenfell tower provoke a sense of loss for me.I think this fire could have been avoided through a different approach to the refurbishment of the building.

The images that exist today tell a tragic story of loss, surviving the story as a resident must have been equally as horrific.

These images serve the public in preserving the current affair for the future.The images need to be archived for future reference.

• What images provoke a sense of responsibility for you?
  

In photographing scenes of this nature it is important to preserve the dignity of humans.To show honesty and integrity in our work is crucial in transmitting an image of this nature.

A colour photograph would achieve the honesty.To photograph a scene of this nature in black and white would remove the scene from reality.To sensationalise the situation.

Responsibility could be achieved through photographing the positives rather than the negatives aspects of such a story.Perhaps focussing on the help that is unfolding rather than the destruction.

Throughout history photographs have been used as a means of control in democratic and authoritarian governments alike.

In On Photography, Susan Sontag claims, “Just as a camera is a sublimation of
the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminal murder,” making a startling, yet valid
accusation that a camera is a weapon, able to manipulate and take ownership of anything in its path. Throughout World War Two, photographs were used as a means of
controlling both subjects and audiences. People have a natural tendency to believe
whatever is evident in an image, which makes photography the perfect foundation for
propaganda.

Are they merely propaganda?

As Susan Sontag claimed, “To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing
them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never
have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. To photograph
someone is a subliminal murder.”

Photography is a powerful tool in any society—whether it is a corrupt dictatorship
as in Germany, or a democracy as in America. The FSA :Farm Security Administration was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty, photographs, although intended to improve the lives of rural Americans, were politically motivated and had the intention of controlling the public; therefore, they can be considered propaganda. While the FSA photographers were given instructions not to stage their subjects and not to manipulate their photographs in any way, the presence of the camera is, in itself, a manipulation;
Subjects are inclined to change their behavior in the presence of a camera. Moreover, the
subjects in the FSA photographs may have been particularly disposed to behaving a
certain way in front of the camera, knowing that the photos could result in government
aid. Another way the FSA photographer could have easily manipulated their photographs
and viewers was simply by only photographing negative, unappealing scenes, leaving
viewers only to guess what the rest of rural America looks like. REFhthfgv

What types of images provoke change for you? I recently visited an exhibition of Gursky’s work.I was particularly taken with the subtly of his work.Even though the scale of his pieces are gigantic I found the images were very thought provoking and reflective.The images can be surprisingly ambiguous.The obvious themes of Global capitalism are ever present.The underlying current however reflects the paradoxes of photography and make us question our preconceived ideas about photographs and how they represent reality.Some images reflect on the role of photography in the world at large, how it shapes and even packages our perceptions.His work resists simplistic readings, they challenge our thinking and our outlooks.His photographs invite us look afresh at the way we make sense of what we see.

Gursky makes photographs that are not just depictions of places or situations, but reflections on the nature of image-making and the limits of human perception.

Are we desensitised to images of conflict today? Yes I feel that with the plethora of images bombarded at us we are becoming immune to news or reality.And then some of it is fake news.Where do we draw the line between Real or No Real.

• The main ideas / points / arguments that you think Sischy makes about Salgado’s work?

I agree with Sischy, Solgados work is very premeditated and often too ‘pretty’ and not gritty enough given the gritty real situations he photographs in.

• Whether you agree or disagree with this view and why?

I guess my point of view on Solgados work is….MM well great marketing and in a way, this work has to attract if you live in the states and have a tax system that promotes giving to charity as a TAX DEDUCTION.The charities must then compete for donations.By getting a large recognised artist like Solgado with real photographic evidence-based photographs the charities ‘win’ donations.The work is a cog in the charity wheel.

Solgado started out as a economist and now as an artist is feeding back into the economy through charity.Very interesting!

                                                   

• What are you looking at?

• I am looking at paired back and simplistic approach to a vast subject.The colours of the colour field Painters.The simplistic shapes and lines or zips that are employed and effective in this work.At the moment I am using a simple digital 35mm camera to record a scrapbook of works.I am using Instagram to showcase my test results and to get a feel for images and how the public will perceive the work.

• I am particularly interested in shape and texture in my work.

• I have experimented with cyanotypes this weekend.I am really interested in saturated blues that can be achieved by varying percentage of the chemicals.

(Think about colour, composition, lighting, perspective, subject matter, equipment used, format, film used, location, context etc)

I am interested in the home madeness of the paper and the brush strokes that is a nod to the medium of painting.

I like the process of Cyanotypes as it has a calm phase and an immediate phase.

Calm phase:The creation of the chemicals.Sensitising the paper.

Immediate Phase:The Exposure phase is quick and quick in thought.

The placement of the objects is crucial.

• What do you know for certain about this image?

I am calmed by this image and its simplicity.I needs nothing from its veiwers.

A self sufficient photograph!

I would say that this image would be catergorised as a deadpan image.

Abstract in physical form.I see the group of images (or body of work) in a gallery situation.

My intent in producing this work is a purely an artistic point of view.To create ART is very selfish.

When looking at Inherit the dust by Nick Brandt works depicting the loss of environment and habitat for animals

• Which images are the most successful?

I like the idea of the canvas theatrically positioned in a scene previously a habitat for the animal depicted in the canvas.I particularly like the water levels actually matching in this image.

This work present breathtaking scenes of people going about their daily lives in what are now industrialized and polluted landscapes, seemingly watched over by the mythic animals who preceded them but are now gone. Elephants stand nearly fifteen feet tall near factory pipelines and below highway underpasses; lions, cheetahs, and rhinos of a similar scale rest in wastelands where local people pick through the trash; giraffes, chimpanzees, and a lone buffalo sit at the edges of roads, alleyways, and construction sites as workers, dwarfed by the presence of these temporary monuments to the majesty of the animal kingdom, pass by them in a blur of motion.

How effective is the use of ‘shock tactics’?

The images of this collection of works are arresting.They make you search for answers about the canvas.Questioning the authenticity of the juxtaposition of the canvas and real situation.The images are taken including a collection of people to produce and I wonder if it was a sombre occasion to be a part of this eerie shoot/concept.

How do aesthetics influence our response?

My response is that of digust.Why have we changed our planet so much in order to create more products to be consumed in the western world.More plastic products.

We need to really think about our commercial needs.In my own small way, what can one individual do to make such a large change.

The images do make me think about our consumption of goods and at what cost.

Are there any implications for your practice?

Well I have thought I could produce photographs on recyled paper not plastic paper.

 Thinking Points document (attached) to prompt some initial notes regarding the reflection on your own practice.

Write a brief summary in your Research Journal.

• How might your work be (or not be) considered as a ‘message’
  

In our fast world of communications and manufacturing and consumption on a colossal scale I wonder if my images could serve to slow the mind.To offer an escape route to the fast pace of our modern world.

‘Photographs don’t only show things, they do things. They engage us optically, neurologically, intellectually, emotionally, viscerally, physically. They demand our scrutiny and attention. Photographs seduce and motivate us; they promote ideas, embed values, and shape public opinion. We look at certain photographs because they calm or excite us. Others solve problems or create them, empower or demean us. Photographs may foster empathy, but can be equally effective at distancing us from whatever they depict’ (Heiferman, 2012: 16).

THE NEW YORKER: Photography Good Intentions by Ingred Sischy

In reading Sischy (1991) you should independently reflect on:

• The main ideas / points / arguments that you think Sischy makes about Sebastiao Salgado work?

In this article Sischy sets out to validate the work by Photographer Sebastiao Salgado.

The work is presented to us with a description of ‘Concerned Photography’ A term dreamed up by Robert Capa’s brother , Cornell Capa director and founder of the ICP(International Centre of Photography, New York)

The point that Sischy is making that the theme of Concerned Photography is strong the actual content of the work although conveying beauty does not address the reality of the situations found in such areas like war zones, gold mines, The Gulf War,Areas of turmoil.

Solgados elevation to godlike status is in Sischy’s opinion difficult to believe.She cites some of his work as being direct copies of historical works.I think that she saying that the images although they contain beauty lack a real quality.

“Vivid Solgado photographs are, but the people in them, and the situations that he is supposedly penetrating, rarely are.”

• Whether you agree or disagree with this view and why?

I do agree with Sischys point of view however I cany help thinking that work gained a lot of traction through the channels of charity.He was showcasing the lives of others to a different audience.His godlike status was achieved because he donated the profit from the book from the show to medic san frontiers.Did he blaze trail for others to make donations to causes that were affected in his photographs?

He says on his biography on a UNicef website:”I hope that the person who visits my exhibitions, and the person who comes out, are not quite the same,” says Mr. Salgado. “I believe that the average person can help a lot, not by giving material goods but by participating, by being part of the discussion, by being truly concerned about what is going on in the world.”

Mr. Salgado has also donated reproduction rights to several of his photographs to support the Global Movement for Children and to illustrate a book by Mozambique’s Graça Machel, updating her 1996 report as United Nations Special Representative on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. Presently, in a joint project with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, he is documenting the global campaign to eradicate this disease.

His images are original but they also have another agenda.They educate and perhaps persuade people who are frequent galleries to donate to various causes. Solgado trained as an economist, this might set him apart from his peers.

Any issues raised that apply to your own practice?

No not really.

 Week 7

NOVEMBER 14, 2017MEGANRINGROSEEDIT"WEEK 7"

This week I managed a test shoot in a woodland near my house.I was experimenting with the idea of ambiguity and mystery.

I was trying to get closer to the idea of my personal practice.It turns out that my slot with Gary was taken up with technical hitches probable due to living in deepest darkest Oxfordshire.So as a result I didn’t really get any feedback.

LESS NORMAL IMAGES
I want to explore this idea. Ideas: A woodland landscape: tall trees all around but something unexplained is happening in the photograph. It is staged. Perhaps it could look accidental. Something we are not expecting. I am drawn to the mystery of this image. It’s ambibuity, it’s questions that are raised to the viewer.

The idea would be test the ideas on digital and then shoot them on black and white film.

Susan Sontag page 31 Nobody demands that photography be literate. What is expected of us as photographers?

Normal: NO
Today I saw one high heel on a wall in Oxford. It has a story……A narrative….

Test to see where this idea of the unexpected would go… I think that could be more refined. I think I am trying to create mystery and intrigue. Perhaps the leg/shoe could be more stylised. I could also look at the playfulness of images. I was always experimenting with asking models to create shapes and behave in a way that they had not behaved before. Accepting that anything goes. Working with models that have preconceived ideas of what modelling is was always a huge drain for me creatively.

CONVEY: MYSTERY AMBIGUITY CLASS AMBIGUITY DISPLACEMENT The unexpectedness of a situation or environment is for me unnormalizing a subject.
I love the silver of the nail in this one. I enjoy the human element in this as well.

REF 1:On Photography, Susan Sontag

REF2: THE NEW YORKER:Photography Good Intentions by Ingred Sischy

REF 3 :https://www.unicef.org/salgado/

http://www.nybooks.com/event/inherit-the-dust/

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Related

Week 6 Introduction:A sea of images

Week 5 Gazing at photographs

Week 2: The index and the icon

Week 6 A Sea of Images

What ‘ordinary’ images do you make?

I do struggle with the use of the word ‘ordinary’.If we strive for ‘ordinary’ in our own imagery in whatever genre we are working within I wonder if we ever create ‘extraordinary’ imagery.

I have been photographing family and employees in normal everyday situations for twenty years.I would class these as ‘ordinary’ images.Images that are celebrating a moment in a person’s life or depicting knowledge at work.I have recently launched a new website selling a service and all the images were created by myself.

The photographs had to portray a story and knowledge and to some extent were thought about prior to taking the images.Where possible I managed to input some creativity into the images.

To blinker creativity just because the subject is not worthy is by its own virtue limiting!

Mass existence, I wonder ….is this question about quantity over quality.I would always prefer to strive for a unique existence even if I never achieve it.

How a reproduction can reach us in ‘our own situation’ today.

In this Banksy reproduction of a painting by Vermeer we have access to the work as it is situated on the side of the building . We no longer view the work in a stuffy art gallery where only a certain type of viewer will visit.

I believe Banksy was very conscious of this exposure to the elite few when he decided to expose girl with a pearl earring on the side of a building in Albion Docks in Hanover Place, in Bristol’s Harbourside in October 2014.The image is slightly changed as it depicts a take on Vermeer’s famous Girl with a Pearl Earring,

Banksy maintains an anonymous graffiti artist Banksy is known all across the world for his satirical, anti-establishment and thought-provoking street art.

In thinking about this, how do you interrogate your images, and what strategies do you use to reflect on them?

How do you want them to be read?

Do you play on any existing ideas,

Are any contexts particularly important to you?

Do you recycle any cultural myths, and if you do, for what reason?

Is it still possible to be original?

And, in a sea of images today, can we be original anymore?

‘Photography does not just simply reproduce the real, it recycles it, a key procedure of a modern society. In the form of photographic images, things and events are put to new uses, assigned new meanings’.

Reflect on the contexts which are open to disseminate photographs today, eg, print portfolio, book, magazine, Internet, zine and gallery.

New meanings are constantly being created in today’s fast paced world.Society’s fascination with what has gone before is paramount.We not only find examples in the art world.We find examples in the music world with the 1980’s and 1990s music groups reforming and their consequential re birthing in the 21st century.This is a modern example of an age old process.In looking for something new do we always look at reference points from the past.Honestly I think that would be fair however there will always exceptions to this rule.

New frontiers like the internet produced fresh breeding grounds for fresh and exciting new work,certainly with the way an artists work can be viewed.It wasn’t long ago that all work was bound in books or portfolio and pedalled from customer to customer in a very ‘time hungry’ way.

Today the consumption of imagery is fast and perhaps the images must be more robust or eye catching to create a rise or following of an artists work.The genres or categories of photographic images have changed since I studied photography back in the early 1980s. In Charlotte Cottons book:The Photograph as Contemporary Art.Cotton describes genres as

1:Once upon a time;Story telling Art

2:Deadpan:Photography that has a distinct lack of visual drama

3:Something and Nothing:Pushing boundary that might be considered ‘credible visual subjects’

4:Intimate Life:Concentrating on emotional and personal relationships.

5:Moments in History:Highlighting the use of documentary capacity of photography in Art.

6:Revived and Remade:Exploits are preexisting knowledge of imagery.

7:Physical and material:The very nature of the medium is part of the medium o fthe work.

SOCIAL MEDIA and the knock on….

The emergence of image-led social media has opened up a whole new realm of display for photographers. Unlike in a gallery or print publication, photographic work published on these platforms reaches a much larger audience. But, in the absence of a curator or editor, photographers are tasked with making a selection of their own work and the choice of how to organise and caption their images is entirely up to them.

A recent quote by Maisie Cousins and Instagrammer:

‘With things like Instagram I just post when I feel like it, whenever I’ve made something. It’s more of a scrapbook. It’s like picture vomiting.’

Artvisor contributor Lele examines how the art world is using digital channels as both a means of artist discovery and a method of reaching collectors

Nowadays art can be with us at any time and in any place, offering fresh perspectives, raising new questions and adding a spark of curiosity to our daily routines. Through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, an increasing number of people can enjoy art and find out about exhibitions happening all around the world. Recent surveys show that an ever-growing percentage of the general public discovers art primarily through social media, rather than by visiting museums and galleries, especially amongst younger demographics. But how is social media influencing the contemporary art world, and which art forms are artists shaping to interpret contemporary cultural and social trends?

Instagram is arguably the most important social network for contemporary art today, and it stands out as a key case-study to understand the digital wave that is shaking the art world. Launched in 2010, the image-sharing platform now counts over 600 million active users. As recent studies have shown, Instagram’s incredible success is due to people’s need for “interaction, archiving, self-expression, escapism and peeking”, – this makes it clear why the visually-driven platform seems to be art enthusiasts’ favourite place to share artworks, and it is also becoming a legitimate contemporary art medium of its own.The role of social media in contemporary art collecting

Furthermore, while artists are commenting on contemporary culture through its own resourceful means of expression, a concurrent shift from physical to digital venues is taking place for artist discovery. Therefore, Instagram and other social networks are also changing the way collectors buy artworks, as online purchases account for an increasing amount of transactions. And since a large portion of the market now lives online, it’s increasingly important for contemporary art galleries to successfully engage with collectors through digital means. On top of being a great way for artists, institutions and galleries to improve outreach and audience engagement, the effective use of social media is becoming an invaluable marketing tool to engage with new audiences and create new sales channels.

Identify and reflect on ways in which this might inform the optimal context for viewing your own practice.

Personally I have started to use instagram: not for watching others work but to platform my own work.I have registered meganringrose.com and have started to use this instagram like a scrapbook.

Equally Facebook offers this

Fast Camera, Unique Art and 3D Special Effects

By Peter Martinazzi, Product Manager, Messenger

‘Today we are excited to launch a brand new, faster and easier-to-use camera with art and special effects to help make your conversations better than ever. Rolling out globally over the coming days, we hope you’ll be as happy as we are with the new experience in your favorite messaging app. We’ve seen that the way people are messaging is becoming much more visual. In fact, over 2.5 billion emojis, photos, stickers and videos are sent every day on Messenger.

In some ways the camera is now replacing the keyboard. As more people use Messenger in their everyday lives, we wanted to make it faster, simpler and more fun to send photos and videos — so we built the new Messenger camera.’

Although messanger is a direct message service.I see no real value in this as a way to accentuate work as it is private .

Most artists today understand how important social media has become for driving viewers to their website and cultivating a global market. Using social media does more than simply deliver information; it allows us to become curators of our media content by engaging with our audience and creating new information based on their wants and needs. Never before has there been the ability to exchange information or images in such an immediate way, and the effects and benefits of using social media continue to grow at exponential rates.

Over the past few years, Pinterest, one of the newer social media platforms, has taken the social media world by storm. Do you ever use corkboards to visually keep track of ideas? Pinterest has taken that old-fashioned concept and made it entirely new and entirely online. Since its creation in 2010, Pinterest  has become an incredibly important tool for any artist or gallery, as it revolves around the use of images and has established itself as a major resource for both professional and DIY interior designers. Do you want your work to reach beyond your website or Facebook page? With over 10 million unique visitors per month, Pinterest allows people to share images found online with ease, connecting users from around the world.

Optimal Context for my practice will be through Instagram and Pinterest. To develop the new website to show case my work.I have set myself a few goals this year.

1:To obtain some two pieces of published works by the end of the year.

2:To maintain the MA work while working and earning money.This will ultimately swap roles over the next two years.So the paid work will slide and the photographic work will increase.For this I need to make a time line.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC :Reflect on:

Upon listening to the National Geographic series :I looked up the media pack for the magazine.

This is how it read.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
M AGA Z I N E I S MO R E V I B R A N T
T H A N E V E R , A D D I N G N E A R LY
1.9 MILLION READERS YEAROV
E R-Y E A R F O R 6.6% AU D I E N C E
G ROW T H A N D TOTA L R E AC H O F
3 0,8 5 0,0 0 0 A D U LTS. B U T MO R E
I M P O RTA N T T H A N T H E S I Z E O F
O U R AU D I E N C E I S I TS Q UA L I T Y,
W H I C H P ROV I D E S O U R  PA RT N E R S
T H E O P P O RT U N I T Y TO C O N N EC T
W I T H A F F LU E N T, E D U C AT E D,
INFLUENTIAL CONSUMERS.

Compared with all MRI-measured magazines,
National Geographic ranks #1 in reach of:
| Men
| Generation Z
| Net worth $1,000,000+
| Postgraduate degree
| Top management
| C-suite/top management
| Influentials
| Super Influentials

Generation Z:Born from 1997 to 2010

The main ideas that Grundberg sites are that National Geographic produces a homogenised world to a homogenised audience.I see the NG as a glorified holiday brochure.Aspirations to photograph for such a publication would be non existent to me although I could see how this would A:Inspire some photographers to start taking pictures This should not be the end goal.I feel that it would a be a disappointment to work for this publication as the ‘editor’ has the last say and this is not ‘ART’ It is edited pictorial photography.

Grundberg is showing …..

Douple world is right.Reality is very edited out.Dentists answer to leaving playboy in their waiting room! Only its ‘educating’ to see dark skinned woman with no clothes on!

Not objective at all.I would even go so far as to say I find NG offensive, non-inclusive and elitist.You won’t find an advert with a black skinned human selling a Tag Heuer watch!

NG creates a fictious ideal of the rest of the world.Maybe even a fantasy for white american males to identify with.

The North American Indians said that a photograph steals the soul, and to a certain extent, National Geographic’s images do just that. They steal the individual and replace him with a stereotype of our own creation.

The North American Indians said that a photograph steals the soul, and to a certain extent, National Geographic’s images do just that. They steal the individual and replace him with a stereotype of our own creation.

Are there any power relations inherent in your work, and are there any ideological issues that you should consider? How do you choose to represent and re-present, and do you reproduce?

I choose to represent a truth in my images.Yes I do edit my photograph,I think we all do.

As photographers, we should not control a situation if you are a gatherer of images.If however, you are a collector that is a producer and director of images the control lies with the artist.You have a choice of what is your message.

How do you choose to represent and re-present, and do you reproduce?

I found this quote from Jim Jarmusch after watching Broken Flowers the film.

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery – celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”REF

I totally agree with this idea of reproduction.You are free to push an idea further and therefore recreate the idea.

Are there any power relations inherent in your work, and are there any ideological issues that you should consider? How do you choose to represent and re-present, and do you reproduce?

• The main ideas / points / arguments Grundberg makes about photography.

• Whether you agree or disagree with Grundberg and why.

• Any issues raised that apply to your own practice.

This quote was raised by a fellow student Trudy L Waterman and I think it is a very right.

“Stereotypes in the United States are rampant, and getting worse.  We are moving from an age of acceptance,  back into an age of categorizing and diminishing.  I have coined the phrase passive supremacy and it doesn’t sit well with my white friends.  I immediately get the backlash about how they are not racist, no, neither am I, but let me explain.”

She goes on to explain that the current uplift in black and mixed-race advertising in the U.S. is due to Obama’s presidency.Perhaps the demographics are now actually important to our advertisers!Among other factors, this does make sense.It also says to me that there are very few black people able to push boundaries in advertising.Advertising assumes a lot in our society, maybe this group of people would do better to look at the science behind the advertising.Percentage of societies and minority groups with a huge spending power.

Brands have increasingly been reflecting broader changes in society. IKEA has been using diverse imagery in its ads since 1994, when it became the first marketer to feature a gay couple in a mainstream ad. REF

In this week’s webinar you will discuss how ideology and power relations are relevant to your own practice.

You will informally present your thoughts and relevant examples of your practice to your peers and tutor. Contextualise your reflections with other relevant visual material and critical ideas.

Identify aspects of this week’s content that have / could influence your own developing practice.

For example, you might choose to think about:

• Identify any aspects of this week’s sessions have influenced your own developing practice, your reading in Grundberg (1988) and your peers’ contributions and feedback on this week’s forums.

• Discuss any reproduction or recycling within your own practice and state why this is the case.

• Provide examples of your work – both successful and unsuccessful – and discuss how the power relations might change, given the different visual choices you have made.

• Outline your intention for your practice to be received / interpreted in the light of this.

REF:https://www.artvisor.com/blog/social-media

REG:https://www.agora-gallery.com/advice/blog/2015/08/18/use-pinterest-promote-artwork/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000464/bio?ref_=nm_dyk_tm_sm#trademark

https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/coming-out-advertising-lgbt+-representation-ads-falling-short/1436860

Bibliography

Debord, G, The Society of the Spectacle: Chapter 1. (2014) The Bureau of Public Secrets, Berkeley.

Grundberg, A. The Crisis of the real: writings on photography since 1974.1999. Aperture. New York. 2nd ed.

What ‘ordinary’ images do you make?

I do struggle with the use of the word 'ordinary'.If we strive for 'ordinary' in our own imagery in whatever genre we are working within I wonder if we ever create 'extraordinary' imagery.

I have been photographing family and employees in normal everyday situations for twenty years.I would class these as 'ordinary' images.Images that are celebrating a moment in a person's life or depicting knowledge at work.I have recently launched a new website selling a service and all the images were created by myself.

The photographs had to portray a story and knowledge and to some extent were thought about prior to taking the images.Where possible I managed to input some creativity into the images.

To blinker creativity just because the subject is not worthy is by its own virtue limiting!

Mass existence, I wonder ....is this question about quantity over quality.I would always prefer to strive for a unique existence even if I never achieve it.

How a reproduction can reach us in ‘our own situation’ today.

In this Banksy reproduction of a painting by Vermeer we have access to the work as it is situated on the side of the building . We no longer view the work in a stuffy art gallery where only a certain type of viewer will visit.

I believe Banksy was very conscious of this exposure to the elite few when he decided to expose girl with a pearl earring on the side of a building in Albion Docks in Hanover Place, in Bristol's Harbourside in October 2014.The image is slightly changed as it depicts a take on Vermeer’s famous Girl with a Pearl Earring,

Banksy maintains an anonymous graffiti artist Banksy is known all across the world for his satirical, anti-establishment and thought-provoking street art.

In thinking about this, how do you interrogate your images, and what strategies do you use to reflect on them?

How do you want them to be read?

Do you play on any existing ideas,

Are any contexts particularly important to you?

Do you recycle any cultural myths, and if you do, for what reason?

Is it still possible to be original?

Week 5 Gazing at Photographs

CRITICAL RESEARCH JOURNAL MEGAN RINGROSE

• INFORMING CONTEXTS PHO702 17/18

FEBRUARY 27, 2018MEGANRINGROSEEDIT"WEEK 5 GAZING AT PHOTOGRAPHS"

The Land and the Body

I really enjoyed the presentation called The Land and the Body, however, I tend to disagree with the idea of the landscape being seen as an embodyment of the feminine.

‘For instance, is the way in which we look at and think about the land similar to ways in which we look at images of the female body, that is, through a male gaze?’

‘A Freudian answer to this question would be that we certainly do anthropomorphise the land into something embodying the feminine. We would all be familiar with the personification of Mother Nature. Adams’, if you like, brand of celebratory landscape practice might be described as speaking of an untouched, virgin landscape.’

I don’t see correlations with gender when I look at landscapes or landscape photography.

In history the male was the figure who explored and went on global trips to collect scenes of nature in paintings or photographs.Were these artists in search of the untouched virgin landscape that personified the female form? Good question I am hoping in this day and age men are not so suppressed and they are producing landscape imagery for more deeper and more valid reasons.

‘John Taylor expands on this idea. Though women have been, and remain identified with nature in the mythic text, nature remains an enclosed space, which men enter for leisure, pleasure, and to test themselves and their authority. Nature is what men are not. In other words, the mythic experience of nature is not primarily addressed to women, but establishes and reinforces a patriarchal version of masculinity.’

I see the male form as also being rooted in nature.Nature is what men and women are.

This idea that men and women are not equal takes me back to the 1980s when male photographers would think of female photographers as a rare breed.(personal experience) I am hoping that this unbalanced idea back then has been redressed in the 21st Century.

How the process of looking is culturally shaped.

We are the sum total of all our own experiences.Whatever has gone before in our world helps to shape how we see the world.Perception and how we read images.

How we gain pleasure from looking.

Task: 

• Post a short illustrated statement below which contextualises your own practice.

• Discuss:

Where is your gaze?

I gaze or read everything.Evaluating light and content.This is something that has been learned over many years of shooting.I have recently started to measure light and press the shutter for the guessed time frame.This is an education and quite novel.

Firstly: To choose a situation to photograph is the first stage in the creation of an image.

Secondly, the composition within whichever format that is being used.More often 35mm or 645mm.How do I arrange or construct the elements so that all the information I think is worthy of inclusion?I work hard to exclude negatives things that appear in a photo graph that need to be edited out prior to clicking the shutter.I think that is something developed through working in an analogue age.Shoot to print.

I am constantly framing life mostly in black and white.

How do you look at and understand the world? I see the world as an opportunity or invitation to create something that has weight and substance.A meaning for others to interpret.

Are you a voyeur in your practice? Yes I am constantly watching for a photographic opportunity.I enjoy looking and seeing and being seen.

 JUST GIVING?

DON’T STARE it’s IMPOLITE

We are brought up not to stare and I can’t help feeling that it is our upbringing that shapes the way we look upon disability in general.

The singling out or ‘pidgeon-holing’ of disabled humans is perhaps the single most ridiculous thing that most humans are guilty of.It is this idea of difference in society that is difficult to advertise to the mainstream population.Perhaps by preaching to mainstream individuals we are therefore made to feel good about our own circumstance and should donate money to the cause being pedalled.

The Brazillian Vogue campaign using ‘fake’ Paralympians to raise awareness of disability and inclusiveness in our society makes a mockery of where we really are in 2018 in terms of level playing fields or respect for all humans being equal.

Brazilian Vogue then washed their hands by saying…..
Speaking to HuffPost UK, a spokesperson from Vogue Brasil said the campaign had not been created by Vogue.

“Vogue respects the opinions of readers who disagreed with the campaign format, but reiterates its commitment to promote the importance of Paralympic Games. We will continue to support all of the Paralympic committee initiatives that can increase the number of attendees at the Paralympic Games.”

The Toyota advert depicting Amy Purdy as an equal is commendable.They are selling cars and are looking for an inclusive publicity.

However, Mencap are looking to raise awareness of something entirely different.They are trying to make contrasts between two different types of humans to raise awareness and raise our accpetability into society.

Their cause:

Together we can create a world in which people with a learning disability are valued equally, listened to and included. Where the 1.4 million people who have a learning disability can feel proud of who they are and accepted by society.

We want you, your friends and your family to join with us to campaign, raise money and volunteer alongside people with a learning disability – we can’t think of a more rewarding way to spend your time.

Task:

Think about:

• What is the ‘nature’ of your own photographic gaze?

• How is the body represented to us?

• Where do we see this?

• Do we maintain views of certain bodies as ‘inferior’ or ‘dangerous’?

Then, write a brief summary in your Research Journal that reflects on your work in the context of:

• Your own ‘look’.

• How it might be interpreted, by whom and why?

• Any ideas / visual practices that you were particularly interested in.

• Any ideas / visual practices that challenged/shed new light on your existing practice.

• Your work / ideas in the context of other visual practices and critical ideas.

• Identify any aspects of how this week’s sessions, the Bright article and your peers’ contributions and feedback have influenced your own developing practice.For example, you might choose to think about:

  • Evaluate the nature of the gaze(s) in your work and how this adheres to, or disrupts, any cultural sensitivities.

  • Reflect on any ethical issues associated with your work.

  • Select, share and discuss a single new or important image, which you feel encapsulates your approach.

  • Discuss your choice and critically contextualise it both visually and contextually.

WeeK 4

Week 4 Into the Image World

APRIL 4, 2018MEGANRINGROSEEDIT"WEEK 4 INTO THE IMAGE WORLD"

I have been thinking a lot about my practice recently, following the symposium in Falmouth on 18 and 19 Feb 2018.

Photographic imagery and what it means to me is central in my mind.Using the photographic processes like paint on a canvas.I am interested in exploring the emergence of photography as a means of understanding the limitations of the naked eye (convex) to assist artists to understand big ideas like scale and perspective in the 1800s.

The image is a conduit for what the artist is feeling towards an idea.Psychology plays a large part in an artists mark making/ self-expression.I intend to research this.Colour always features highly on my radar when I think about the work in my final major project.

CRAIG KAUFFMAN

I recently visited Kauffman’s work at Monika Spruce and Philomene Magers (Spruce and Magers) exhibition.

This is an excerpt of his book:

‘I didn’t start out with the idea of industrial aesthetic’

‘I believe the artists strength lies not primarily in his intellect, but in his sensibility turned into is intelligence. I began working in plastic with an idea of form it is true but my principle impetus was a passion for colour, a kind of light, a sensual response to material.’

When I look back to artworks being produced in the 1960s I am constantly overwhelmed in the artist’s ability to embrace new materials ie: perspex and plastic.Interestingly Kauffman was really picked up as a major player in the art world until much later in his career.I am interested in seeing works of photography that pushed the boundaries of materials in the same innovative way.

Press Release

Crossroads: Kauffman, Judd and Morris

Donald Judd, Craig Kauffman Estate, Robert Morris

 Sprüth Magers London   january 19 – march 31 2018

Public reception: January 18, 6-8pm

Crossroads: Kauffman, Judd and Morris, is Sprüth Magers’ second curated exhibition of Craig Kauffman’s work, displayed alongside his influences and contemporaries. The show presents six works from Kauffman’s fertile period of 1966—1971, when he addressed the issues of structure and form in painting, the use of industrial materials, painting’s relationship to the wall, and dematerialisation. His work is contextualised by the inclusion of the stack piece Untitled (Bernstein 80-4) (1980) and the floor piece Untitled, DSS 234 (1970) by Donald Judd and the two felt works Untitled (1968) and Fountain (1971) by Robert Morris, as well as supplemental materials from the Kauffman archives. The exhibition presents the three artists together for the first time in Europe, and is Kauffman’s debut exhibition with the gallery in London.

Although primarily known as a Los Angeles based artist, Craig Kauffman had a long history of engagement with the New York scene. In 1967, Kauffman relocated to New York, encouraged by the successes of his recent exhibitions in the city. While there, he began a friendship with Donald Judd, the artist who coined the phrase “specific objects” to describe his own work, a format which operated between painting and sculpture. Like the work of Judd, Kauffman’s three-dimensional plastic paintings occupy this liminal category. Their volume suggests that they are sculpture, but their presence on the wall reinforces their status as paintings. The unity of colour and form, achieved through the use of industrial materials, is another point of similarity between the two artists’ objectives.

Kauffman’s move to New York also reignited his friendship with Robert Morris, whom he had met in San Francisco ten years earlier. Their frequent discussions resulted in a short-lived collaboration for the exhibition Using Walls (Indoors) at the Jewish Museum in 1970, which remained open for only one day, and which Kauffman described as a combination of both of the artists’ ideas. Only a few years prior, Morris began making process-oriented felt pieces, in which he hung strips of industrial felt on the wall and allowed gravity to determine their shape. This influenced Kauffman’s conception of his series of Loops, in which sheets of spray-painted Plexiglas seem to casually droop over a wire.

In Kauffman’s work, the environment constantly shifts as the viewer moves around each object. The light that moves across the curved edges of each piece facilitates the full comprehension of their forms. This draws comparisons to Morris’s own textual formulations in his influential Notes on Sculpture series, which advocated a phenomenological reading of the art object, how they change under varying conditions of light and space. The coloured shadows of the hanging Loops and the cast plastic forms that project into space directly implicate both the viewer and their supports.

Two of the earliest works from 1966 demonstrate how Kauffman addressed some of the issues which were important to Minimalist art and theory: seriality, industrial multiples, and anonymity. But where the New Yorkers’ opted for material and formal austerity—Kauffman’s supple plastic works were coloured and full of curves.

This exhibition is curated by Frank Lloyd, and follows Craig Kauffman: Works from 1962 – 1964 in dialogue with Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp, Sprüth Magers debut of the gallery’s representation of the Estate of Craig Kauffman in Berlin in 2016. The show is timed to run concurrently with the gallery’s Los Angeles presentation of Robert Irwin, who, along with Kauffman, was a major force in the definition of art from Los Angeles in the 1960s.

Watch the video and reflect on how you read these images:

• Do you experience a dominant, oppositional or negotiated interpretation?

• To whom might the images appeal. Why?
  

   ‘His’ and ‘Hers’ – The Gendered Ad

• .  Look at the two adverts, the his and the hers version.  Do you think they are gendered?

• Look for an advert yourself which has an interesting relationship to gender.  Do a semiotic analysis of the advert, identifying as many signs as you can, explaining how they are formed and what they mean

On first glance this advert contains a family signifier: Mum,dad and Two kids.On closer inspection I see a very different message.Is it advocating teenage pregnancy as the older boy looks six years old.The model looks 20 years old therefore the son would have been born when the ‘mum’ was fifteen years old. My analysis goes on… has she found her son from a previous relationship or adopted a son from her partners previous relationship?

An analysis of gender is also interesting in this photograph by Bruce Webber. The denotation from this advert is that it is a family unit.On closer inspection the traditional roles of stroller pusher have been reversed.Would the father figure always push the stroller? In a contemporary world such as Versace we question our traditional values.’We role reverse and its cool’.

This advert actually attracted a lot of attention from the public mainly because the girl in the stroller is chained to the stroller.Was this consciously included? My feeling is that Versace, a well monied firm, would have included key elements in this advert to attract a sensation and were interested in the media attention that would follow.Key elements were:

1:Interracial family,

2:teen mum,

3:child in chains,

4:children not interacial.

5:Power mum

The campaign also picked 31 132 likes on Instagram.

The media said:

‘The fashion industry frequently comes under fire for its obsession with youth and a penchant for casting young teens in fashion shows. But while Versace’s latest campaign spotlights supermodels who are, at least, out of high school, the designer is still catching some flack for placing them in age-inappropriate roes.In the new Fall/Winter 2016, 21-year-old Gigi Hadid and 23-year-old Karlie Kloss both play mothers, each with two children old enough to have made them teen moms.

And while some people are calling out the designer for the strange casting, others are taking issue with another aspect of the ads, charging that a chain wrapped around a baby’s stroller is racist.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3633597/Teen-Mom-Versace-Edition-Critics-call-Italian-fashion-label-choosing-Gigi-Hadid-21-Karlie-Kloss-23-play-mothers-two-controversial-new-ad.html#ixzz5ByRkXVP7
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Reflect on the content of this week’s presentations and the personal response you had to the images we discussed, as well as any different readings of the adverts you discussed in the forums. Reflect on the response to your work.

Write a passage in your Research Journal that reflects on:

The ‘intent’ of your work.

Having worked within the fashion photography I am interested in the world that doesn’t appear made up.I have spent years working with models that have been clipped,prodded and cajoled into situations that sell a product.Creating narratives that are fantasical.

My position now is to produce work that is far more pure in essence. Looking for a reality that is believable.Learning from other artists but not copying their work but drawing from their work.Recently I visited The work of Andreas Gursky at the Hayward Gallery in London.I enjoyed his subtle dig at our world and the unusual angles that he shows us in.

The strategies you use to achieve this intent.

On the way home I photographed in the underground using an open shutter so predicting the light and shutter speed.I really like some of the results.This work is very much a luck game with regards to colours that are available.

Whether you think these strategies are successful and, if so, for whom?

At this stage I am not thinking about a successful strategy.I’m thinking about experimentation with different strategies to find the best fit for me.

Is photographic ambiguity an intent in it’s own right?

Photographic ambiguity

Ambiguity in photography begins with confusion over who or what is the photographer, the picture-maker.  “I’m a photographer,” I might say. Actually, it’s the camera that is taking the picture, and processing the image data. I am guiding the lens to face the subject, putting the subject at ease, making some adjustments, steadying the machine, making decisions about when the picture should be taken, what should be framed, and how the picture space should be organized.

Principally, I’m a pointer and arranger of content. The camera does the rest. This ontological crisis is something rarely, if ever, addressed. Photography is entirely different from painting or drawing where the mark-making, all of it, is governed by the artist who has a zillion choices to make regarding expression.

Maybe it’s felt that the discussion is inconsequential. It’s not. It faces us the moment we open the door on the question of photography and ambiguity. Any discussion about describing the content or context of the photograph must begin with the magic —that we only partly govern —behind the image itself.

“I think photographs should have no caption, just location and date,” Henri Cartier-Bresson famously commented to an interviewer in the early 1970s. He wasn’t the first photographer to ration knowledge, nor was he the most extreme (I’ll come to that), but since Cartier-Bresson’s axiomatic declaration the photographic community has been split, or at least conflicted.REF 1

I am very interested in the idea that a photographer is an artist not merely a collector of reality/images.The camera is the paintbrush through which the image is formed.Regardless of the process painting, screen printing, etching, drawing, photgraphy these are all processes by which an image or art work  is created.The problem with photography and screen printing is the image can be produced more than once in most cases.This is where the notion of Photography becoming collectable art is difficult.How many prints are available to buy?

REF1 :www.magnumphotos.com/theory-and-practice/stuart-franklin-ambiguity/

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Week 5 Gazing at photographs

Week 2: The index and the icon

Week 10 Introduction: Enter, the Academy?

Installation by Es Devlin

Week 3 Real or No Real

Week 3: Constructed Realities Real or no real

APRIL 3, 2018MEGANRINGROSEEDIT"WEEK 3: CONSTRUCTED REALITIES REAL OR NO REAL"

 How many photographs you have seen today.

• The contexts in which you saw them.

• Whether you read them as records or recognised their artifice.

• How you balance fact and fiction in your own work.

The images that I consume daily are mainly in social media and the internet.

Our consumption and how we view them is very much influenced by our own knowledge of manipulation.To put this into context.If you show an image of a cat in a tree to the person that wasn't bought up in the digital age.Someone over the age of 60.The understanding of post-production editing could fox the viewer.If the viewer understands how easy it might be to take a picture of a cat on the ground and then transpose the image into a tree, a more digitally educated viewer might question the image and look for signs of manipulation.

'While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph’ (Hine 1909: 111).

Similarly, Sontag (1977: 6) recognised the interpretative nature of the photographic image as a subjective construction: 'Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are’.

With your peers, discuss:

• Whether you think the constructed photographs included in this session ‘lie’.

The word 'lie' is difficult.We could also say that all artists could be liars also.Reality is the starting point for some work.Imagination and creativity are used to create work by an artist.This is not a lie.It has been imagined and constructed.An artwork is an expresson of artists interpretation.

'The common view of the impact of photography on art is that it freed painting.Left it to explore other avenues and ideas.The ambition to explore mimetic likenesses was no longer required, this could now be left to photography.'REF 1

• The extent that these photographs are fictional.

• The methods you use to ‘interpret’ the world.

• Illustrate your discussion with examples from your own practice, using a diverse range of imagery to justify your points (eg film, photography, advertising, painting, performance and / or theatre).

Those concerned with cloned and genetically modified animals often ask: Have scientists gone too far? What are the implications of new frontiers in genetics?

One horrific answer appeared recently in a widely-circulated story: "Israeli scientists are examining what appears to be a trans-species between a Labrador retriever and human. While genetically considered impossible, humane workers found remains of an earlier trans-species, believed to be the parent of the animal pictured above, shallow buried in the owner's property. The human parent of the animals is believed to be the teen-aged son of the family well known in politics. DNA studies are in process and results are expected early next month."

It was accompanied by a photo of what appeared to be a strange half-woman, half-dog (or pig) hybrid mother nursing its young. The image has flooded inboxes around the world, accompanied by messages—some satirical, others clearly serious — often suggesting that the image is a horrific warning of the consequences of genetic manipulation (or, perhaps, bestiality).

 Of course this hybrid doesn't exist. It's not an actual animal but instead a sculpture by artist Patricia Piccinini, from her 2003 exhibition "We Are Family."

It's not clear how many people were actually fooled by the photograph — it's likely that many simply forwarded the image (or a link to the image) to friends as time-killing curiosity instead of a dire warning. The Snopes Urban Legend Web site debunked this photograph back in 2007, though the humanpigdog photo has a life of its own and will likely continue to be resurrected from time to time, either accidentally or intentionally as a hoax.

People love a mystery, and people especially love a mystery that comes with a weird photo.

The Half-Human Hybrid hoax is only the latest in a long series of supposedly mysterious photos. Typically these photographs have three elements in common: They are at least somewhat realistic; they are odd or strange enough to attract curiosity; and perhaps most importantly, they are misidentified.

How do these things get started?

Often, as in this case, there is no intentional hoaxing: It is a legitimate, straightforward photograph of something curious. Often the photographs were created as an art project, as was the case with the Borneo Monsterimage that circulated (and which I helped disprove) in February. Many artworks, such as those by Piccinini and hyperrealist sculptor Ron Mueck, could easily be mistaken for a bizarre, seemingly mysterious phenomenon when seen out of context.

Other times the subject is real but presumably unknown to the photographer, as was the case with the Montauk Monsters (aka decaying raccoons) found in July 2008 and May 2009. After all, it's much easier to create a "mystery photo" than a half-human hybrid.

HUNTERS or FARMERS

or rather Hunters or Gatherers.Directors or opportunists.

Gatherers of beautiful imagery are just as passionate about their imagery as Hunters our archetypal stagers who must conjure an image and create or construct it from scratch.

The gatherer waits for the scene to unfold.The imagery of Solgado seems like a waiting game, a moment during a disaster scene.Is this a chance encounter or a genius at work?

“My pictures gave me 10 times more pleasure than the reports I was working on. To be a photographer was, for me, an incredible way to express myself, an incredible way to the see the world from another point.” Sebastiao Solgado

Solgado captures a moment that happens in history that will otherwise be forgotten.

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2015/03/02/5-lessons-sebastiao-salgado-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/

Tim Walker captures moments that have been totally constructed for clients.He has become the director of a still.

The two ideas Hunter or Gatherer, photographically, are two different channels in creating an image.I wonder if Tim Walker saw a lot of Disney films when he was growing up.This director type quality yearns for perfection and control.In a world of imperfection I wonder should we be trying to create perfection.A quote from week one comes to mind.

Rather than painting realism Malevich wanted to ‘Free art from the weight of the real world.’ Is Tim Walker creating the same in our 21st Century?

Do you think that Sugimoto’s Dioramas are actually convincing as historical or scientific documents, and how do you think they work in an intertextual way? Personally I am not taken by Sugimoto's work.He comes to my mind as a trickster.I always want to interpret an image before I read about the works.Does it speak to me? Not instantly although I have enjoyed the works description and validation.

How would you compare and contrast this work with that of Jeff Wall, Lucy Levene, or Tom Hunter, that we looked at earlier? And, which do you prefer, and why?

To compare Wall and Levine I found Levine's work more predatory and sinister in its subject matter.I am very much in awe of photographers 'collecting or gathering' this kind of imagery.Is it that Levine is one of them, the subjects, and therefore accepted into the world without question.I can't help think about the legal responsibility in such photographs.Where does she stand on ownership? She didn't choose the clothes the people, the actions, yet her finger on the shutter did!

Jeff Wall's staging of reality is interesting to me.His interest in reenacting real life is interesting and I could see how and why he continues in this vein.Let me describe why I think this copying technique is interesting: To try to copy an image or painting from the past is for me much more difficult than actually creating from imagination.I believe that all images /artworks are products of subconscious a regurgitation of work or feeling that has been encountered before by the creator.

'Ophelia is certainly a superstar in the realm of staged and constructed photography, having been referenced by Gregory Crewdson, as well as Ann [Windsor], and in numerous advertising campaigns today. Is she so easily recognisable that we can’t see past it, or is she a touchstone that we can use to encourage a narrative reading?' REF 3

Tom Hunters work of which I am new to and having read up on the work The Way Home,(2000) I am truly inspired by Hunter and his 'Gathering' of all the elements to create an Ophelia for the 21st Century.I am interested in snipet of industrialisation in the top half of the image.The rich blues , although not bejewelled, in garment chosen by Hunter.The hand placement of the model.The hands are closed into the body yet the hand in Orphelia are opened out which suggest to me 'helpnessness'.

'When historical visual motifs are used in a contemporary photographic subject in this way, they act as confirmation that contemporary life carried a degree of symbolism and cultural preoccupation parallel with other times in history, and arts' position of being a chronicler of contemporary fables is asserted.'REF 2

And, what images do you think that they raise about an assumed truth of the photographic image?

Linda Hutcheon (2003: 117) thinks that contemporary photography 'exploits and challenges both the objective and the subjective, the technological and the creative’.

Sam Taylor Wood (1998) from Soliloquy

Task: Post a response, including visual examples, discussing:

How you balance the ‘objective and the subjective’.

The relationship between the ‘technological’ and the ‘creative’:

Is it a dichotomy or a continuum?

How does viewing context influence this relationship?

Whether this is important to you.

I believe if anything needed to be achieved, technological and creative are both essential. Being creative is the ability to locate a goal and a direction, being technological is knowing how to get there.

I also think that the technological and creative aspects of the contemporary image are a continuum, they work alongside each other, complimenting each other. Again, this largely depends on the image and it's context, but I do think that they both play roles in contemporary photography.

Personal Perspective: On Doing Something That No-one's Seen Before

Juergen Teller says:

"I want to photograph what I feel like and what I want to feel like. I just want to create a picture that no-one's ever seen before - these days anyone can do a great photograph on their iPhone, they do every fucking five minutes, so you need to put more thought into it. I want to do something that people haven't seen before, and if people don't like it I don't mind."

Do we live a world where everything has been created before? My belief is that we create images with a baggage of other inspiration trailing after us in our subconscious.To truly create images with no reference points or inspiration would be difficult.This photograph created above by Jurgen Teller is actually very similar to the work of fellow peer Ellon Von Unworth.

CRJ HOMEWORK

PIC 1:Elliot Erwitt

This work by Erwitt is constructed by clever positioning of the camera.The comical value of this photograph.It is not a lie although it may have taken a few goes to get this image.The original Erwitt might have witnessed this first hand and then tried to replicate the image.

Known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings— a master of Henri Cartier Bessons "decisive moment". The use of black and white is also constructive and this lends itself to the ambiguity of the 'lap owner'. Male or female?

My reading of this image has been shaped by a knowledge of Erwitt's work.To expect humour.Immediately we are drawn to the centre of the image.Thought process:

Dog, Two dogs 'what' human legs oh let's analyse this a little closer.Oh human male or female or yeah airy legs male.Wow what a great snapshot.

Erwitt almost always invite the viewer to look twice to question and then resolve.

PIC 2: Paris, Montparnasse Andreas Gursky

Contemporary artist, he usually chooses large format camera and shoots from above.

This work is constructed by formatting the image into sectors much like a spreadsheet.In my opinion, appealing to an organised mind.

My reading of this image: We also begin to feel one of the billions when we look at this image.A feeling of insignificance comes over me when I view much of Gursky's work.The large bold surface area of these works is chosen to overwhelm the viewer.The use of anonymous, man-made spaces gives me the feeling that Gursky finds beauty in our human condition.Our need to live in large concrete structures far removed from how humans have lived in history.I can't help also feeling that Gursky is making a social comment on the world as we know it.

'In a 2001 retrospective, New York's Museum of Modern Art described the artist's work, "a sophisticated art of unembellished observation. It is thanks to the artfulness of Gursky's fictions that we recognize his world as our own." Gursky’s style is enigmatic and deadpan. There is little to no explanation or manipulation on the works. His photography is straightforward.'REF 4.

Although the works have been recognised as unembellished observations I actually disagree.The works are mostly devoid of inhabitants or any social interaction.There is 'nothing happening' in the image and yet it is a definite comment on is exactly that, 'nothing happening'.He therefore chooses or constructs the moment to photograph the subject perhaps digitally removing any human references.

Paris, Montparnasse is one of the first examples of digitally manipulated Andreas Gursky photography. Executed in 1993, this image is a symbol of the anonymity in the urban society, high-tech communication, and globalization, as well as the growing alienation of the individuals within one community. The artist began photographing the French capital in the early 1990s, and since architecture is one of the central themes in his works, this image is one of his most iconic artworks and one of the most memorable pieces he created to this day. Gursky deliberately cropped the end of the building from this photo, making the viewers feel as if it could run endlessly, which is a technique he used in Rhein II in 1999.REF 6

The photograph was sold for $2,395,570. in 2013.

PIC 3: Peggy SerotaIn this image which has been definitely constructed with the purpose of selling a drink. Sirota's works are lively and fun and very contemporary in depicting youth and energy.I thought the choice of this image was particularly interesting given my first two choices.

Construction: The use of the females that are dressed up to look like gymnasts is very prescribed.This gives us the feeling that when you drink this drink you are buying into the sporty nature.I 'consume'drink therefore I am.I wonder how many people actually consciously buy into this and how many will subconsciously store the link for the future.There has been a lot of studies on advertising and the consumer.

I read the image above quite cynically.The image says

'line the pockets of fat Americans that actually don't give a hoot about your well being or health! to me'

Position your own practice in relation to this, both aesthetically and conceptually.

Identify any aspects of this session that have influenced your own developing practice, eg the session presentations.

Reflect on the nature of the photograph as construction and how you might articulate this in your practice.

THE THEATRE OF THE PHOTOGRAPH

‘The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled’ (Berger 1972: 7).

Provide a short statement which encapsulates the intent of your work, and the specific visual strategies you use to achieve this.

Select one image from your current practice that you feel is successful and note why this is.

I’m in Falmouth this week at the IOP symposium.The morning lectures were very inspiring.I particularly enjoyed Jenny Lewis.

Talking about her euphoric experience of giving birth and the total industrial rejection after the fact.She reinvented herself through shooting 'one year young' and from my perspective hasn’t looked back since.Three reprints of her book.Three projects later and a very large helping of personal gratification for taking a personal journey fulfil her insatiable need to take pictures.

Discuss your current plans for developing your practice.

REF 1: Bate, David (2016) The Key Concepts Photography:Bloomsbury Academic

REF 2: Cotton,Charlotte (2009)The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Thames and Hudson

REF 3 : Falmouth University Hunters and Farmers  Transcipt of webinar Week 3

http://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/juergen-teller-talks-collaborating-with-vivienne-westwood

https://www.ellenvonunwerth.com/

REF 4:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Gursky

REF 6:https://www.widewalls.ch/most-expensive-andreas-gursky-photography/paris-montparnasse-1993/

• How many photographs you have seen today.

• The contexts in which you saw them.

• Whether you read them as records or recognised their artifice.

• How you balance fact and fiction in your own work.

The images that I consume daily are mainly in social media and the internet.

Our consumption and how we view them is very much influenced by our own knowledge of manipulation.To put this into context.If you show an image of a cat in a tree to the person that wasn’t bought up in the digital age.Someone over the age of 60.The understanding of post-production editing could fox the viewer.If the viewer understands how easy it might be to take a picture of a cat on the ground and then transpose the image into a tree, a more digitally educated viewer might question the image and look for signs of manipulation.

‘While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph’ (Hine 1909: 111).

Similarly, Sontag (1977: 6) recognised the interpretative nature of the photographic image as a subjective construction: ‘Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the world as paintings and drawings are’.

With your peers, discuss:

• Whether you think the constructed photographs included in this session ‘lie’.

The word ‘lie’ is difficult.We could also say that all artists could be liars also.Reality is the starting point for some work.Imagination and creativity are used to create work by an artist.This is not a lie.It has been imagined and constructed.An artwork is an expresson of artists interpretation.

‘The common view of the impact of photography on art is that it freed painting.Left it to explore other avenues and ideas.The ambition to explore mimetic likenesses was no longer required, this could now be left to photography.’REF 1

• The extent that these photographs are fictional.

• The methods you use to ‘interpret’ the world.

• Illustrate your discussion with examples from your own practice, using a diverse range of imagery to justify your points (eg film, photography, advertising, painting, performance and / or theatre).

Those concerned with cloned and genetically modified animals often ask: Have scientists gone too far? What are the implications of new frontiers in genetics?

One horrific answer appeared recently in a widely-circulated story: “Israeli scientists are examining what appears to be a trans-species between a Labrador retriever and human. While genetically considered impossible, humane workers found remains of an earlier trans-species, believed to be the parent of the animal pictured above, shallow buried in the owner’s property. The human parent of the animals is believed to be the teen-aged son of the family well known in politics. DNA studies are in process and results are expected early next month.”

It was accompanied by a photo of what appeared to be a strange half-woman, half-dog (or pig) hybrid mother nursing its young. The image has flooded inboxes around the world, accompanied by messages—some satirical, others clearly serious — often suggesting that the image is a horrific warning of the consequences of genetic manipulation (or, perhaps, bestiality).

 Of course this hybrid doesn’t exist. It’s not an actual animal but instead a sculpture by artist Patricia Piccinini, from her 2003 exhibition “We Are Family.”

It’s not clear how many people were actually fooled by the photograph — it’s likely that many simply forwarded the image (or a link to the image) to friends as time-killing curiosity instead of a dire warning. The Snopes Urban Legend Web site debunked this photograph back in 2007, though the humanpigdog photo has a life of its own and will likely continue to be resurrected from time to time, either accidentally or intentionally as a hoax.

People love a mystery, and people especially love a mystery that comes with a weird photo.

The Half-Human Hybrid hoax is only the latest in a long series of supposedly mysterious photos. Typically these photographs have three elements in common: They are at least somewhat realistic; they are odd or strange enough to attract curiosity; and perhaps most importantly, they are misidentified.

How do these things get started?

Often, as in this case, there is no intentional hoaxing: It is a legitimate, straightforward photograph of something curious. Often the photographs were created as an art project, as was the case with the Borneo Monsterimage that circulated (and which I helped disprove) in February. Many artworks, such as those by Piccinini and hyperrealist sculptor Ron Mueck, could easily be mistaken for a bizarre, seemingly mysterious phenomenon when seen out of context.

Other times the subject is real but presumably unknown to the photographer, as was the case with the Montauk Monsters (aka decaying raccoons) found in July 2008 and May 2009. After all, it’s much easier to create a “mystery photo” than a half-human hybrid.

HUNTERS or FARMERS

or rather Hunters or Gatherers.Directors or opportunists.

Gatherers of beautiful imagery are just as passionate about their imagery as Hunters our archetypal stagers who must conjure an image and create or construct it from scratch.

The gatherer waits for the scene to unfold.The imagery of Solgado seems like a waiting game, a moment during a disaster scene.Is this a chance encounter or a genius at work?

“My pictures gave me 10 times more pleasure than the reports I was working on. To be a photographer was, for me, an incredible way to express myself, an incredible way to the see the world from another point.” Sebastiao Solgado

Solgado captures a moment that happens in history that will otherwise be forgotten.

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2015/03/02/5-lessons-sebastiao-salgado-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/

Tim Walker captures moments that have been totally constructed for clients.He has become the director of a still.

The two ideas Hunter or Gatherer, photographically, are two different channels in creating an image.I wonder if Tim Walker saw a lot of Disney films when he was growing up.This director type quality yearns for perfection and control.In a world of imperfection I wonder should we be trying to create perfection.A quote from week one comes to mind.

Rather than painting realism Malevich wanted to ‘Free art from the weight of the real world.’ Is Tim Walker creating the same in our 21st Century?

Do you think that Sugimoto’s Dioramas are actually convincing as historical or scientific documents, and how do you think they work in an intertextual way? Personally I am not taken by Sugimoto’s work.He comes to my mind as a trickster.I always want to interpret an image before I read about the works.Does it speak to me? Not instantly although I have enjoyed the works description and validation.

How would you compare and contrast this work with that of Jeff Wall, Lucy Levene, or Tom Hunter, that we looked at earlier? And, which do you prefer, and why?

To compare Wall and Levine I found Levine’s work more predatory and sinister in its subject matter.I am very much in awe of photographers ‘collecting or gathering’ this kind of imagery.Is it that Levine is one of them, the subjects, and therefore accepted into the world without question.I can’t help think about the legal responsibility in such photographs.Where does she stand on ownership? She didn’t choose the clothes the people, the actions, yet her finger on the shutter did!

Jeff Wall’s staging of reality is interesting to me.His interest in reenacting real life is interesting and I could see how and why he continues in this vein.Let me describe why I think this copying technique is interesting: To try to copy an image or painting from the past is for me much more difficult than actually creating from imagination.I believe that all images /artworks are products of subconscious a regurgitation of work or feeling that has been encountered before by the creator.

‘Ophelia is certainly a superstar in the realm of staged and constructed photography, having been referenced by Gregory Crewdson, as well as Ann [Windsor], and in numerous advertising campaigns today. Is she so easily recognisable that we can’t see past it, or is she a touchstone that we can use to encourage a narrative reading?’ REF 3

Tom Hunters work of which I am new to and having read up on the work The Way Home,(2000) I am truly inspired by Hunter and his ‘Gathering’ of all the elements to create an Ophelia for the 21st Century.I am interested in snipet of industrialisation in the top half of the image.The rich blues , although not bejewelled, in garment chosen by Hunter.The hand placement of the model.The hands are closed into the body yet the hand in Orphelia are opened out which suggest to me ‘helpnessness’.

‘When historical visual motifs are used in a contemporary photographic subject in this way, they act as confirmation that contemporary life carried a degree of symbolism and cultural preoccupation parallel with other times in history, and arts’ position of being a chronicler of contemporary fables is asserted.’REF 2

And, what images do you think that they raise about an assumed truth of the photographic image?

Linda Hutcheon (2003: 117) thinks that contemporary photography ‘exploits and challenges both the objective and the subjective, the technological and the creative’.

Sam Taylor Wood (1998) from Soliloquy

Task: Post a response, including visual examples, discussing:

How you balance the ‘objective and the subjective’.

The relationship between the ‘technological’ and the ‘creative’:

Is it a dichotomy or a continuum?

How does viewing context influence this relationship?

Whether this is important to you.

I believe if anything needed to be achieved, technological and creative are both essential. Being creative is the ability to locate a goal and a direction, being technological is knowing how to get there.

I also think that the technological and creative aspects of the contemporary image are a continuum, they work alongside each other, complimenting each other. Again, this largely depends on the image and it’s context, but I do think that they both play roles in contemporary photography.

Personal Perspective: On Doing Something That No-one’s Seen Before

Juergen Teller says:

“I want to photograph what I feel like and what I want to feel like. I just want to create a picture that no-one’s ever seen before – these days anyone can do a great photograph on their iPhone, they do every fucking five minutes, so you need to put more thought into it. I want to do something that people haven’t seen before, and if people don’t like it I don’t mind.”

Do we live a world where everything has been created before? My belief is that we create images with a baggage of other inspiration trailing after us in our subconscious.To truly create images with no reference points or inspiration would be difficult.This photograph created above by Jurgen Teller is actually very similar to the work of fellow peer Ellon Von Unworth.

CRJ HOMEWORK

PIC 1:Elliot Erwitt

This work by Erwitt is constructed by clever positioning of the camera.The comical value of this photograph.It is not a lie although it may have taken a few goes to get this image.The original Erwitt might have witnessed this first hand and then tried to replicate the image.

Known for his black and white candid shots of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings— a master of Henri Cartier Bessons “decisive moment”. The use of black and white is also constructive and this lends itself to the ambiguity of the ‘lap owner’. Male or female?

My reading of this image has been shaped by a knowledge of Erwitt’s work.To expect humour.Immediately we are drawn to the centre of the image.Thought process:

Dog, Two dogs ‘what’ human legs oh let’s analyse this a little closer.Oh human male or female or yeah airy legs male.Wow what a great snapshot.

Erwitt almost always invite the viewer to look twice to question and then resolve.

PIC 2: Paris, Montparnasse Andreas Gursky

Contemporary artist, he usually chooses large format camera and shoots from above.

This work is constructed by formatting the image into sectors much like a spreadsheet.In my opinion, appealing to an organised mind.

My reading of this image: We also begin to feel one of the billions when we look at this image.A feeling of insignificance comes over me when I view much of Gursky’s work.The large bold surface area of these works is chosen to overwhelm the viewer.The use of anonymous, man-made spaces gives me the feeling that Gursky finds beauty in our human condition.Our need to live in large concrete structures far removed from how humans have lived in history.I can’t help also feeling that Gursky is making a social comment on the world as we know it.

‘In a 2001 retrospective, New York’s Museum of Modern Art described the artist’s work, “a sophisticated art of unembellished observation. It is thanks to the artfulness of Gursky’s fictions that we recognize his world as our own.” Gursky’s style is enigmatic and deadpan. There is little to no explanation or manipulation on the works. His photography is straightforward.’REF 4.

Although the works have been recognised as unembellished observations I actually disagree.The works are mostly devoid of inhabitants or any social interaction.There is ‘nothing happening’ in the image and yet it is a definite comment on is exactly that, ‘nothing happening’.He therefore chooses or constructs the moment to photograph the subject perhaps digitally removing any human references.

Paris, Montparnasse is one of the first examples of digitally manipulated Andreas Gursky photography. Executed in 1993, this image is a symbol of the anonymity in the urban society, high-tech communication, and globalization, as well as the growing alienation of the individuals within one community. The artist began photographing the French capital in the early 1990s, and since architecture is one of the central themes in his works, this image is one of his most iconic artworks and one of the most memorable pieces he created to this day. Gursky deliberately cropped the end of the building from this photo, making the viewers feel as if it could run endlessly, which is a technique he used in Rhein II in 1999.REF 6

The photograph was sold for $2,395,570. in 2013.

PIC 3: Peggy SerotaIn this image which has been definitely constructed with the purpose of selling a drink. Sirota’s works are lively and fun and very contemporary in depicting youth and energy.I thought the choice of this image was particularly interesting given my first two choices.

Construction: The use of the females that are dressed up to look like gymnasts is very prescribed.This gives us the feeling that when you drink this drink you are buying into the sporty nature.I ‘consume’drink therefore I am.I wonder how many people actually consciously buy into this and how many will subconsciously store the link for the future.There has been a lot of studies on advertising and the consumer.

I read the image above quite cynically.The image says

‘line the pockets of fat Americans that actually don’t give a hoot about your well being or health! to me’

Position your own practice in relation to this, both aesthetically and conceptually.

Identify any aspects of this session that have influenced your own developing practice, eg the session presentations.

Reflect on the nature of the photograph as construction and how you might articulate this in your practice.

THE THEATRE OF THE PHOTOGRAPH

‘The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled’ (Berger 1972: 7).

Provide a short statement which encapsulates the intent of your work, and the specific visual strategies you use to achieve this.

Select one image from your current practice that you feel is successful and note why this is.

I’m in Falmouth this week at the IOP symposium.The morning lectures were very inspiring.I particularly enjoyed Jenny Lewis.

Talking about her euphoric experience of giving birth and the total industrial rejection after the fact.She reinvented herself through shooting ‘one year young’ and from my perspective hasn’t looked back since.Three reprints of her book.Three projects later and a very large helping of personal gratification for taking a personal journey fulfil her insatiable need to take pictures.

Discuss your current plans for developing your practice.

REF 1: Bate, David (2016) The Key Concepts Photography:Bloomsbury Academic

REF 2: Cotton,Charlotte (2009)The Photograph as Contemporary Art, Thames and Hudson

REF 3 : Falmouth University Hunters and Farmers  Transcipt of webinar Week 3

http://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/juergen-teller-talks-collaborating-with-vivienne-westwood

https://www.ellenvonunwerth.com/

REF 4:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Gursky

REF 6:https://www.widewalls.ch/most-expensive-andreas-gursky-photography/paris-montparnasse-1993/

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Week 2 The INDEX AND THE ICON

What sort of 'truth' do you think photography can / might offer?

In my opinion, Photography offers a moment of reality, often a fraction of a second, that is open to manipulation after the moment.Our perception of what is real is often preset by factors like readability which can occur in upbringing and the exposure to the visual symbols that are culturally significant.Nature versus nurture plays a large part in how we see and process imagery whether it is a painting for example or a photographic image.

Example: The famous Cottingley Fairies

In 1920 a series of photos of fairies captured the attention of the world. The photos had been taken by two young girls, the cousins Frances Griffith and Elsie Wright, while playing in the garden of Elsie's Cottingley village home. Photographic experts examined the pictures and declared them genuine. Spiritualists promoted them as proof of the existence of supernatural creatures, and despite criticism by sceptics, the pictures became among the most widely recognized photos in the world. It was only decades later, in the late 1970s, that the photos were definitively debunked.REF 1

The girls had produced mystery for the viewer to believe.

Photographs can offer truth/reality but can also offer hope and belief.The viewer must be highly discerning and perhaps sometimes the viewer may not want to believe the reality or truth and would rather a 'bent' reality is acceptable to the viewer.Photographers are masters of reality and visual trickery.The job of editing a 'body of work' can be the difference between beauty and reality.In our contemporary world, we, the photographers, have access to sophisticated editing tools.In history, the use of flattering light or print manipulation were available to enhance or degrade a photograph.

Berger wrote: No painting or drawing, however, naturalist belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.

Photographs start with a reality, a reality chosen by the photographer. A reality that only exists in the creator's mind in much the same way that a painting or drawing is created by an artist.The treatment of the art in this case, the photograph exists only in the creator's mind until the art has been finished.That is, edited from a group of images taken at the same time, manipulated, thought about, cropped, and signed.The artist chose the time of the finish to exhibit the image.

In the case of Vivian Maier the work was not shown until after her death.The artist never really edited or processed her works.This was left to the finder of the works.

Therefore we only see what the 'owner' of the work has edited not what Ms Maier intended.

The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.

I disagree with Susan Sontag 1977 Page 92 that dismisses photographers as non constructors.I find the act of making a photograph very constructive.The idea of the photographer as merely a collector of the 'real' is difficult for me.

What, if any, truth do you think photography can or might offer us?

The photographer and the reputation that serves the title has a moral undertaking in preserving or changing the reality that is captured.Will it be that some photographers won't be trusted as creators of truth because of their past work that may have used manipulation?Will there be two schools of thought photographers puristic in their approach and photographers that skew reality?

Do you think the photograph is different to other forms of visual representation? 

Historically painting, drawing or sculpture was a human hand, guided by a human eye and mind. Photographers, by contrast, had managed to fix an image on a metal, paper, or glass support, but the image itself was formed by light and a chemical reaction, and because it seemed to come from a machine – not from a human hand – viewers doubted its artistic merit. Even the word “photograph” means “light writing.”REF:3

I see photography as an art form that can be used to express personally.It does offer a different perspective in that it offers both a representational and abstract solution to the artist.

Definition of abstract art:  'Abstract art uses a visual language of shape, form, colour and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.'REF 2

A finished art piece is generally born from a theme or a feeling from the artist.A need to convey to others this idea.
Why is this or not?  Is a certain veracity, particularly specific to the myriad of different contexts in which we consume photographs today?  As such are there any considerations that might be important to your own practice?

In Camera Lucida (1980: 89) Roland Barthes states that 'In the Photograph, the power of authentication exceeds the power of representation'

Stanley Cavell expresses this difference in the following
way: "So far as photography satisfied a wish, it satisfied a wish not
confined to painters, but the human wish, intensifying since the Reformation,
to escape subjectivity and metaphysical isolation-a wish for the
power to reach this world, having for so long tried, at last hopelessly, to
manifest fidelity to another. Photography overcame subjectivity in a
way undreamed of by painting, one which does not so much defeat the
act of painting as escape it altogether: by automatism, by removing the
human agent from the act of reproduction."REF 3

Photographs are not simply different from other kinds of pictorial representation in certain detailed respects; on the contrary, photographs are not really representations
at all. REF:4

Excerpt from Photography, Vision, and Representation
Joel Snyder and Neil Walsh Allen: The photographic process consists of the more-or-less permanent recording of an image made by a camera. The use of cameras with lenses
for making pictures was first described by Giovanni Battista della Porta
in the second edition of his book Magica Naturalis, published in 1589.
Cameras were used by draughtsmen and painters, including Canaletto
and probably Vermeer as an aid in rendering perspective and detail. By
the time Niepce, Daguerre, and Fox Talbot began to try to fix the camera
image, cameras had been used by artists for more than 200 years,
and the requirements of "traditional" art had already influenced their
design; whereas a round lens "naturally" creates a circular image (fig. 1)
which shades off into obscurity around its circumference, the portable
camera obscura of the early nineteenth century was fitted with a square or
rectangular ground glass which showed only the central part of the
image made by the lens.

The beginning of the photograph was actually not a fixed print but a magical image that presented itself upside down on a ground grass.This enabled painters to understand perspective and tonal ranges in a two-dimensional form.I see this birth of photography as a feed from one art form into another.

Do you think that photographs hold more veracity than painting? Which of these
representations of Las Meninas do you find most authentic? Is this aesthetically or
contextually specific? Why do you think this? Pre-digital photographs did hold more veracity although a painting can tell a story like in 'Las Meninas' the manipulation of the stare in all the subjects in the painting is a play and very much the central theme in the painting.The relationship between the other subjects.In the centre of the painting, the subjects look onto the king and queen being painted.Rather than the importance being placed on the King and queen, we are really looking at the political/hierarchial situations of the individuals.The gaze from the princess is much like one that is staring into a mirror.This gaze is very different from looking at something.They are gazing at themselves.The scale of the painting is also very interesting it seems to be a mammoth work.Perhaps this is to capture the subjects importance and social gravity.This artwork is all about looking.Looking at yourself and looking at others.The look we take on when looking at others.In a Post Digital art world as Barthes suggests 'In photography, I  can never deny the thing has been there.

The importance of indexicality for photography.
The iconic, indexical and symbolic characteristics of the photograph.
How these ideas and visual practices inform your position on a presumed photographic veracity.

We read visual imagery in three ways

1: Iconic: Looks like or visually resembles something that has been seen before.

2: Indexical

3: Symbolic: Conventional must be learned.Could be culturally learned.EG: The ok symbol.

'The unique visual appeal of photography results from combining the basically iconic code (resemblance between image and referent) with indexicality. Photography is indexical insofar as the represented object is “imprinted” by light and the chemical (or electronic) process on the image, creating a visual likeness that possesses a degree of accuracy and “truthfulness” unattainable in purely iconic signs such as painting, drawing, or sculpture. The indexical origin of the photographic image explains why discussions of the photographic media (including film and television) often employ categories normally reserved for the emotive and irrational effects produced in traditional societies by sympathetic magic, with its objectively wrong but psychologically compelling sense of direct causal link between objects once physically connected but later separated. The essay discusses the iconic indexicality in the context of its historic antecedents such as imprints of hands, death masks, wax effigies, shadow portraits, and experiments with camera obscura.'REF 5

How do you respond to Snyder and Allen’s comments regarding photographic vision? How did these ideas and visual practices inform your reflections about a presumed photographic veracity? Where do you think the iconic, indexical and symbolic photograph is now? With this in mind where are you now?

Task: Spend a few moments looking back on your reflective notes from the two presentations, the Snyder & Allen (1975) article and your peers' contributions to the forums so far. Take into account:

Did any ideas particularly interest you?  Yes, I am very interested in the notion of painting struggling to be a recognised art form now that photography has clearly been accepted as an art form yet the notion of photography was created through a necessity to understand basic artistic understanding Eg: Tone and perspective.

It is this history that really make me want to combine the two thoughts and mediums to create visually arresting images.
What challenged you? The idea of ICONIC, INDEXICAL and SYMBOLIC.

Reading visual communication on any level is a very subjective past time.

The surrounding environment of an individual will always have a huge bearing on our perception of art and life for that matter.And so here we are again asking ourselves does photography belong.

I’ve been reading about the origins of photography in the book by Batchen called  Burning of Desire.

The definition of when photography started and more to the point the actual definition of the process and whether it is an art form and what point did this happen.It seems to me photography is a three stage process

The moment at when the shutter is clicked engaged synapses decide that a fraction of a second is the right time to depress a shutter.Then we have the manipulative phase-in process that can really change a pictures context and meaning.The third stage is the viewers interpretation and understanding of an image presented.

The camera acts as a tool, similar to a painters brush, a pencil an apparatus to record a mark.

Definition of art is mark making, photographers are using the camera to mark make within an artistic context.

In formulating ideas I have been thinking about the latent image, the image exposed and not made yet.Holding potential for the art to unfold.

Recently I have enjoyed the sculpture of Donald Judd and have looked at other works from his archive.I have also visited Spruth Magers gallery in Mayfair to see Kauffman sculptures on folded Perspex. Highly inspiring for me.Probably in the 60s a groundbreaking material!

Interestingly when reading Contemporary Art Photography chapter in the Key Concepts of Photography by David Bate  He says that The Tate says they collect artists rather than photographs though they would not collect an artist if he or she was an artist purely in the photographic media.It might appear then that the Tate collects artists who are photographers but not photographers who are artists if this is so it not terribly clear what distinction is being drawn between artist photographer and photographer/artist.REF:6

The Tate museums did not collect or exhibit photography at all until the first photography exhibition 'Cruel and Tender'in 2003.The description underneath the title :

THE REAL IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PHOTOGRAPH

It goes on to say:

Though photography has been included in a number of previous exhibitions at Tate, and regularly features in its Collections displays, this is the first major exhibition dedicated purely to the medium. As such, it signals Tate’s acknowledgement that photography is a key component of contemporary visual culture and now regularly features in the programme of the museum.

• Analyse the potential importance of ‘the real’ within your own practice.

The real or no real question is a very valid question for my work.While I am working with real objects they are being abstracted and perhaps need to reference from prior memory.Reality needs to be simplified for my work.I would like to transfer the viewer to another place.A place of thoughtfulness and contemplation.The images should give rise to a euphoric felling.

http://www.spruethmagers.com/exhibitions/464

http://www.craigkauffman.com/works/1960_69/index.html

Bibliography

REF:1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies

REF:2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_art

REF:3 http://theconversation.com/how-photography-evolved-from-science-to-art-37146

REF 4:Stanley Cavell, The World Viewed (New York, 1971), pp. 21, 23.

REF:5 Semblance and Signification Sadowski, Piotr► pp. 353–368

https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.10.20sad

REF 6: The key Concepts Photography David Bate Bloomsbury 2016 Edition2

Bate, D. ‘Art Photography’. The Tate Gallery. London

Burgin, V.  Evans, J. Art Common Sense and Photography: the Camera Work Essays. 1997.  Oram Press. London

Chaskielberg. A  Untitled Image Available at  https://chaskielberg.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [accessed 04/02/2018]

Pingwei, R   Chinese Funeral Ritual in the Philippines Available at   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqDDpMq1OP4 [accessed 04/02/20-18]

Robert Frost Quotes Available at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robert_frost_151832, [accessed 04022018].

Synder, J Allen,NW. Photography Vision and Representation Available at https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/81/pages/week-2-presentation-is-it-really-real?module_item_id=5254 [accessed 03/02/2018]

I’ve been reading about the origins of photography in the book by burning of desire by backer.

the definition of when photography started and more to the point the actual definition of the process and weather it is an art form and what point did this happen.it seems to me photography is a two stage process

the moment at when the shutter is clicked engaged synapses decide that a fraction of a second is the right time to depresss a shutter.

then we have the manipulative phase in process that can really change a pictures context and meaning .

the third stage is the viewers interpretation and understanding of an image presented.

the camera acts as a tool,

similar to a painters brush,

a pencil an aparatus to record a mark

Definition of art is mark making so photographers are using a camera to mark make within an artistic context.

latent image is the image starred and not made yet.Holding potential for the art to unfold.

i have enjoyed the sculpture of Donald judd and have looked other works from his archive.

i have also busted math spritzer gallery in Mayfair to see Kauffman sculptures on folded Perspex .

highly inspiring for me.Probable in the 60s a ground breaking material!

Week 1 The Shape Shifter

WEEK ONE:THE SHAPE SHIFTER

I am currently reading a book called The Edge of Vision by Lyle Rexer.

The book mentions an artist called Aaron Siskind.(December 4, 1903 – February 8, 1991) He was an American photographer widely considered to be closely involved with, if not a part of, the abstract expressionism movement.

Siskind’s work focuses on the details of nature and architecture He presents them as flat surfaces to create a new image out of them, which, he claimed, stands independent of the original subject. His work has been described as crossing the line between photography and painting.

This blurring from one media into another fascinates me since painting once spurred the production of the camera obscura.

I am particularly interested in completing a circle of creativity with painting and photography.

One feeds into the other.

What context your practice operates within?

At the moment I am producing images that are juvenile in quality.Processing transparency film through C41.A technique that gives a rich quality yet erases reality and documentation from the image.

I am keen to see these images in large spaces against white walls.While I was shooting these images I was thinking about my research in the last module.(Perspectives and Practices)

Referencing the work of Rothko and Kazimir Malevich ‘Black square’

Kazimir Malevich ‘Black square’ Oil on canvas – Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918)

I am increasingly looking at painting for inspiration and find the whole cyclical flip onto photography as an art form immensely interesting.

So ‘Black Square’ for me was a pivotal moment in the global art scene even though it was first exhibited in 1915 the work remains hugely influential and inspirational.The original idea according to Malevich was that he felt that a painting like this conveyed a sense that the real world was a negative place and this has been said about this particular work.

Rather than painting realism Malevich wanted to ‘Free art from the weight of the real world.’

This piece epitomized the theoretical principles of Suprematism developed by Malevich in his 1915 essay From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Realism in Painting. Although earlier Malevich had been influenced by Cubism, he believed that the Cubists had not taken abstraction far enough. Thus, here the purely abstract shape of the black square (painted before the white background) is the single pictorial element in the composition. Even though the painting seems simple, there are such subtleties as brushstrokes, fingerprints, and colours visible underneath the cracked black layer of paint. If nothing else, one can distinguish the visual weight of the black square, the sense of an “image” against a background, and the tension around the edges of the square. But according to Malevich, the perception of such forms should always be free of logic and reason, for the absolute truth can only be realized through pure feeling. For the artist, the square represented feelings, and the white, nothingness. Additionally, Malevich saw the black square as a kind of godlike presence, an icon – or even the godlike quality in himself. In fact, Black Square was to become the new holy image for non-representational art. Even at the exhibition it was hung in the corner where an Orthodox icon would traditionally be placed in the Russian home.REF:1

Malevich reduced his compositions to shape and colour, or in his words “zero form” that lacked convention.In short, you’ll encounter an art that attempts to recreate the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface.  To mirror the natural world in this way was, to Malevich, outdated and in need of change, revision, and revolution.

Suprematist Composition: White on White (1918) is an abstract oil-on-canvas painting by Kazimir Malevich. It is one of the more well-known examples of the Russian Suprematism movement, painted the year after the October Revolution.

Part of a series of “white on white” works begun by Malevich in 1916, the work depicts a white square, portrayed off centre and at an angle on a ground which is also a white square of a slightly warmer tone. The work measures 79.5 by 79.5 centimetres (31.3 in × 31.3 in). Malevich dispenses with most of the characteristics of representational art, with no sense of colour, depth, or volume, leaving a simple monochrome geometrical shape, not precisely symmetrical, with imprecisely defined boundaries. Although the artwork is stripped of most detail, brush strokes are evident in this painting and the artist tried to make it look as if the tilted square is coming out of the canvas. Malevich intended the painting to evoke a feeling of floating, with the colour white symbolising infinity, and the slight tilt of the square suggests movement.

A critic from the rival Constructivist movement quipped that it was the only good canvas in an exhibition by Malevich’s UNOVIS group: “an absolutely pure, white canvas with a very good prime coating. Something could be done on it.”

Malevich took the work to Berlin in 1927, where it was displayed at the Große Berliner Austellung. When he returned to Leningrad later that year, Malevich left it with the architect Hugo Häring; in 1930 he passed it on to Alexander Dorner, director of the Provinzialmuseum in Hanover, who put it into storage after the Nazi party came to power in 1933. Malevich did not ask for the work to be returned, and died in 1935 without leaving instructions on the inheritance of his estate. It was put on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1935, and added to the Museum’s collection in 1963; the acquisition was confirmed by the estate of Kazimir Malevich in 1999, using funds from the bequest of Mrs. John Hay Whitney.

Photographing exclusively in her own home, Uta Barth seeks to make viewers conscious of their own perceptual process in relationship to what they see in a gallery. “In most photographs the subject and the content are one and the same thing. My work is first and foremost about perception,” she explains. An early realization that using a camera lens changed how she saw things resulted in a visual acuity to the mundane and ephemeral. For instance, in her series “Ground” and “Field” (1992-98), Barth created images of blurry backgrounds by focusing her camera on empty foregrounds. In her recent three-part project “And to draw a bright white line with light” (2011), a ribbon of light streaming through a window ripples across a set of curtains, which Barth has drawn to manipulate the abstract forms cast through it’s openings. Barth was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012.

Whether or not there are more than one means by which we can consume your practice.Consumption of practice: The works will be displayed in galleries and private spaces.I would also like explore alternative roots to ‘Air’ the work.

In terms of understanding or context the works will be better understand in the collective form.A singular work may not give strength or gravity to the work.I am interested in portraying the idea of a photograph that also could be mistaken for a painting.I will experiment with painting with light.

How your own practice may be received.

The ideas are still very much in their embryonic form and need to be fully formed before I can begin to think about how they are received.

Write a brief summary in your Research Journal regarding:

Where you are now? I have produced several images using gels in hard light to try recreate ‘Rothkoesq’type feeling.To my mind they are not professional in quality.

I am thinking about minimsalist work that gives rise emotion.The work will reference the abstract painters of the 1930s in particular.

The ‘nature’ and intent of your practice.

Intent is an interesting word.I think my work will be individual and reflect my simplistic view of photographs as art.I am reading a book called The Edge of Vision by Lyle Rexer (REF 3) and am quite inspired to read about the 1980s movement that was started in Dusseldorf Art Academy inspired by Bernd and Hilda Becher.In its simplest form it involved a large format camera and a large colour or black and white print.Marco Breuer was a conformer and experimented with the photographic surface which he maintained had ‘magical properties’

• Your practice in the context of other visual practices and critical ideas.

I’ve been down at Falmouth University being inspired by my peers.I was taken by Stella’s very sensitive use of mylor and her use of residencies to hone her craft

It took me to back to surrealist uses of shadows.Dali chair shadow on wall.I managed to see this in Canberra Australia many years ago.

Lately I’ve been thinking and reading about the colour spectrum I’ve been using A4 gels to photograph and thinking about the overlapping of several gels.

• I also am interested in iconic things in life in the 21st century things we can’t live without now that they have been invented.

• Gummy bears depict the human condition

• Walt Disney has sprinkled us with fantasy and unrealistic view of life:This I have gathered through talking to young teenagers.

• Everything is sugar coated

• Phones can’t do without it seems.

REF 1:http://www.theartstory.org/artist-malevich-kasimir.htm

REF 2:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28327449http://www.theartstory.org/artist-rodchenko-alexander-artworks.htm#pnt_2

REF 3: Lyle Rexer The Edge of Vision 2009 Aperture

REF 4: Charlotte Cotton The Photograph as Contemporary Art 2016 Thames and Hudson