Assignment 5 changes after tutor review 2

Following comments from my tutor I have reconsidered one of the images from assignment 5. The final image – moment

This image is the only image in the series to have faces. Most all other images save – connected are still life images in nature and so this image introduces inconsistency and a change in nature of the series.

I understand this and have considered how to resolve, however, I have decided to keep with this image for my submission. This image for me is the most important in the series in that it resolves the entire series which prior to this expresses time as something we are at best confused by and in many ways slaves to. Here we transcend and conquer time. It is a human triumph and so the image must be of people.

What have I learned from this?

Consider the viewpoint and opinion of others but ultimately be true to your vision.

Assignment 5 changes after tutor review

For final submission to assessment I have considered comments from my tutor on assignment 5.

The assignment has a strong consistency message brought across by using very low depth of field on many of the images. I used a 50mm prime lens with max aperture f1.4. There are two images for which this is less apparent however which I have decided to revisit and consider for change

Image 1 Connected

This image was taken with a wide aperture f2.2 however the composition is very flat and so the shallow depth of field is not apparent ( the background is actually grass about 3 feet away and is very out of focus ). I thought about retaking this image at an angle however I couldn’t visualize an acceptable way to bring across the message I wanted to. So I experimented with an alternative way to bring across the same message using a chain.

I have decided in this case to keep with the original image as I feel the message and the way it is presented is strong enough to overcome the downside of the lack of depth of field.

Another image from the series was even more pronounced in this respect and in retrospect was not a good fit for the series so I have revisited and replaced with an image which fits much better with the series

Rejected image

Replacement
I revisited the site and took another picture of the same memorial with an aperture of f1.4

What did I learn from this?

There is strength in individual images. I believe that in assignment 5 I have assembled the strongest set of individual images. There is also strength in the consistency within a series.

Assignment 5: Photography is simple

Brief

The final assignment is an open brief. Take a series of 10 photographs of any subject exploring the theme ‘Photography is Simple’. Each photograph should be a unique view; in other words, it should contain some new information, rather than repeat the information of the previous image.

Assignment notes

In your assignment notes explore how you think you’ve answered the brief. This is a chance for a little philosophical reflection. EYV student Tor Burridge:

‘I have reconsidered my standpoint that fundamentally photography is simple. When I shoot for the pure enjoyment of it photography does indeed feel simple. But really it is the product of layers of knowledge
– on composition, on light, the technicalities of my camera. It is also inevitably influenced by the work of others, the subtle lessons that I have unknowingly committed to memory about angles and viewpoint. So taking into consideration the effects of context, the mindset of

the viewer and also the subtleties of what influences a photographer to make an image in a particular way, I think it can be concluded that photography is simple – until it isn’t.’

Make sure you word process and spellcheck your notes as QWE (the Quality of Written English) is an important part of the presentation. Include a ‘Harvard’ bibliography to reference your reading and research for this assignment. The quality of your references and how deeply you’ve responded to them is more important than the quantity.

Photography is simple?

Through this assignment and the previous, I have become aware that my camera is like an extension of me. The difference I think has been the time spent in manual mode, now that this mode has sunk in I can’t see me reverting to the professional modes which I have used extensively in the past. In this way, photography is ( or is becoming simple ). In this assignment, the shots themselves simply took, however, there were much consideration and visioneering on my part to decide on ‘what’ to shoot. That does not, however, mean the effort was difficult or complex. For me, a large part of the benefit I have gained from the EYV course has been building my pre-consideration muscle. I am certain I now take considerably fewer shots to get the shot I want and I am more certain in my mind’s eye on what I hope to capture and represent. Serendipity is always there but I am more assured and pre-conceived in my approach to assignment 5 than I could have hoped to be on assignment 1. In this way, again, photography can appear simple.

Photography, its a bit like golf, simple to understand and gain a rudimentary capability in, even every now and then hit a world-class shot. To master golf, that’s a whole different bag of spoons. Not one of the top players in the history of the game would lay claim to mastery.

Assignment

For this series, I have chosen the theme of Time. For me this theme is enormous, I could say ‘infinite potential for the expression’ perhaps. It is also a fascinating subject to consider. In this series of 10 photographs, I aim to represent or symbolise in some way, how we as humans attempt to understand this phenomenon and indeed how the phenomenon affects us. To meet the brief, I aim in each photograph to consider a different viewpoint around this theme and thereby hope to express different information.
Try to explain the meaning of now, it is almost impossible to fully capture in words what now really is and how we interact and are impacted by it. As soon as you have it it is gone, it becomes then and joins the every increasing pantheon of the past as what was the future flows straight through now before you can grasp it. How long does now last anyway? Scientists have made a stab at how long now is as perceived by humans, this is deeply connected to consciousness and perception which is itself deeply connected to light as the universe unfolds to us in space-time. These concepts are fascinating and mysterious and deeply philosophical. Like the 2 dimensional flatlanders with only the merest glimpse of a 3-dimensional universe we 3-dimensional beings have an inkling of the phenomenon of the passage of time but to truly grasp it in all its totality is a mystery we may take to the end of our ….. time.

Photography is a representation in 2 dimensions of a 3-dimensional world caught in a single point of ‘now’ in the 4th dimension. That makes it a challenge but there is no other medium which addresses this challenge and can hope to be more successful.

Within the series I have written a short explanation for each shot, I think it is necessary for understanding but that may show a weakness in the imagery (at least in my mind). I like each shot in its own right, some more than others, of course, are stronger and more resolved but each I think has individual merit as well as working together as a series.

There are two choices I made which apply to all photographs in this series which can be explained at the outset. Both relate to the mystery of time and a photographic language aimed at representing this mystery. As mentioned a core idea here is that we can only grasp an understanding of time fleetingly and fractionally, we can never really hold it all at the same ‘time’. For this reason, all shots are monochrome so missing the dimension of colour and all are shot with wide-open aperture leading to much of each images being out of focus. Together with all shots taken at 50mm, these choices work to bring consistency across the series which counters the different compositions and information required by the brief.

Influences

It is not right for me to discuss individual photographers who may have influenced this series. In truth, I think myriad photographers have had some degree of influence and triggered inspiration for me in approaching this assignment. It is not true to say anyone or two can be highlighted as inspirational to the assignment.

Most if not all the photographs in this series are to some degree symbolic in essence with the image containing, at least I intend, some other meaning alongside that extracted directly from the actual information presented. Symbolism then is a core theme of the assignment and in completing the assignment I have conducted some degree of research into symbolism in photography. How this series could be viewed or classified with respect to symbolism. From this research I find the concept of equivalence is pertinent, with two main protagonists; Alfred Stieglitz and Minor White.

Alfred Steiglitz (1864..1946) dedicated himself to promoting photography as fine art. In creating the Photo-Secession group and gallery ( name shortened to 291) Steiglitz helped promote many contemporary photographers who were interested in photography as an art form. “In fact, all the Photo-Secessionist photographers were committed in greater or lesser degrees to what was called the Pictorialist style, meaning they favoured traditional genre subjects that had been sanctified by generations of conventional painters and techniques that tended to hide the intrinsic factuality of photography behind a softening mist.” encyclopedia Britannica. [2019]

Steiglitz is known for bringing forth an understanding of equivalence in photography. “a photographic image intended as a visual metaphor for a state of being.” encyclopedia Britannica. [2019]. This is resonant to many shots in this assignment.

Minor White (1908 .. 1976) who alongside Ansel Adams and others created the influential magazine Aperture, took Steiglitz idea of equivalence and expanded to sequences of image series rather than single images. White worked with a series of photographs, concentrating on the sequence to bring forth with the viewer a gestalt which is not necessarily apparent or connected to the individual images. “In one instant the sequence snapped into focus: The rise and fall of sexual tension,” wrote John Pultz describing his reaction to the series of 13 images ‘Songs without words’.

This is close to the idea I had with the series of images I present for this sequence. Each image intends to be symbolic in some way or at least allegorical to some aspect of time. Additionally, the series (and sequence) itself is intended to create in the viewer a deeper understanding of time and the impact this has on ourselves. For me, this is a feeling of increasing confusion and discomfort, building in tension towards the final two images which are aimed at resolving in a final conquering of these negative issues. I accept that this may well be different for each viewer.

The series

Limited

Our understanding of time is crystal clear but limited, we can see very clearly something of this concept and what it means to us but in reality, much is a mystery to us, out of our cognitive grasp.

Cascade

One explanation of the concept of time could be; that phenomenon which stops all the events in the universe happening together, that is, all the ‘nows’ existing in the same spacetime. Our conscious selves experience this possibly as a series of frames. If you watch a movie ( a pre-digital movie anyway ) it is presented to you at 30 frames per second and to us, it feels like a natural flow of time. This image aims to present the idea of all the ‘nows’ at the same time by colliding together just a few nows. I used photoshop & layers to create a multiple exposures of 4 images. The images were taken within a few minutes of each other on a walk through a local park.

Flow

Time flows as water does over a rock. The flow of time is perceived by us to be the most consistent and unerring of all phenomenon. Indeed like water flowing over rocks we expect to continue forever, unabated. We feel this but we feel it separately.

Arrow

A classic western view. For many of us, we think of time passing as an arrow, moving incessantly forward. The laws of thermodynamics and of increasing entropy dictate this to be true. The arrow shoots and we can have only ‘now’ in full focus, clear and detailed, it is immediately in the past though and the clarity begins to fade to memory. The future we head towards, we can visualise even control in some ways, but at some point, it too stretches and bends it’s way out of our knowledge beyond what we can know.

Circle

For all of history, time is perceived as circular and rhythmic; the daily cycle, lunar cycle, seasons and years, birth, death and rebirth. We are forever at some point in cyclic dances in time.

Connected

Through all time, every woman has an actual physical connection from their mother to every generation before that has gone before. The umbilical cord is that physical connection. A female child is physically connected to their mother, immediately after birth and before the cord is cut. In this way, every female child has a physical connection to every female ancestor going back to the first mammalian. The physical connection is only broken by the introduction of time. Symbolised here as a connection across 3 generations; My mother, my wife and my daughter.

Trap

For many of us, for far too much of our time, we feel trapped in and by time. The banality of our 9 to 5 existence, trapped and waiting for our weekend. The desperation of the 7-year-old child trapped and just needs to be older to be 8. We are slaves in our time, trapped!

Loss

We know that with the passage of time, eventuality time will bring for to us loss. What was once strong and beautiful, in time fades and in the end is lost to us.

Remember

We defy time and loss by remembering those we have loved and can no longer have in our time. This is how we fight our battle against the tyranny of time and the loss it brings.

Moment

We truly win our battle with time when we transcend the tyranny when we step out of time and live only in the moment with those we love.

Reflection

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

Materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills.

I believe compositional skills are most evident in this series in particular on; Arrow, Cycle, and Loss. I hope I am correct in thinking technical skill is evident in the use of focus and depth of field.

Quality of outcome

Content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.

I believe my ideas are conceptualised and communicated well within this series through the use of symbolism and allegory. Although I have felt the need to explain each shot with a brief introduction.

Demonstration of creativity

Imagination, experimentation, invention.

Some experimentation and invention are evident in cascade. Imagination is evident in the use of symbolism and allegory on most shots

Context

Reflection, research, critical thinking.

I was interested to find that after I had constructed the series I should research symbolism in photography to accompany the assignment. Discovery of equivalence fits well with the series. This research was a reaction to the series rather than leading the series.

References

Pultz, John. “Equivalence, Symbolism, and Minor White’s Way into the Language of Photography.” Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, vol. 39, no. 1/2, 1980, pp. 28–39. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3774627.

encyclopedia Britannica. 2019. Minor White AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Minor-White. [Accessed 11 August 2019].

Exercise 5.3: Looking at photography

The brief

‘When somebody sees something and experiences it – that’s when art happens’1

(Hans-Peter Feldman)

If photography is an event then looking at photography should also be an event.
Look again at Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photograph Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare in Part Three. (If you can get to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London you can see an original print
on permanent display in the Photography Gallery.) Is there a single element in the image that you could say is the pivotal ‘point’ to which the eye returns again and again? What information does this ‘point’ contain? Remember that a point is not a shape. It may be a place, or even a ‘discontinuity’ – a gap. The most important thing though is not to try to guess the ‘right answer’ but to make a creative response, to articulate your ‘personal voice’.

Include a short response to Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare in your learning log. You can be as imaginative as you like. In order to contextualise your discussion, you might want to include one or two of your own shots, and you may wish to refer to Rinko Kawauchi’s photograph mentioned above or the Theatres series by Hiroshi Sugimoto discussed in Part Three. Write about 300 words.

I will look again at :-

http://100photos.time.com/photos/henri-cartier-bresson-behind-gare-saint-lazare to meet the brief for this exercise.

Looking again at the photograph the area of the image I am continually drawn to is the space between the legs of the leaping man and his reflection ( or is it shadow ).

This area creates an almost perfect pentagon, broken only by the rails lying in the puddle. The rails break the pentagon at almost exactly the centre of the single vertical edge and almost horizontally. There is a very pleasing balance to this. Balance is the central theme of this image I feel and this pentagon is the centre of gravity for which this sense of balance permeates.

bresson

Balance is further enhanced by a line drawn following the railings which perfectly lies against the length of the main figure and their reflection.

The second most striking point about this image for me is energy and movement, for a still image there is a very strong sense of lateral movement. The energy is generated by the angle of the main subject in flight, the shape created between the legs and against the line of balance. The subject is running at pace rather than simply leaping over a puddle. All else appears still, static and fixed. There is for instance very little evidence of air movement as might be found by ripples in the puddle and I see evidence of mist or fog surrounding the buildings in the background again indicating a very still day. It may not be but the three formations through the fence in the background have a look of grave stones further emphasizing stillness and quiet, broken by the leaping man.

I notice a pleasing aesthetic produced by the random circular strips of metal just to the left of the leaping man again helps to complete and bring balance to the whole image.

To summarise; For me the most striking elements of this photograph are geometry, perfect balance and complex symmetry and juxtaposed explosive energy within a stillness. I could also sum this up by saying just about everytime I look at the shot I see something else of interest.

Exercise 5.2: Homage

The brief

Select an image by any photographer of your choice and take a photograph in response
to it. You can respond in any way you like to the whole image or to just a part of it, but you
must make explicit in your notes what it is that you’re responding to. Is it a stylistic device
such as John Davies’ high viewpoint, or Chris Steele Perkins’ juxtapositions? Is it an idea,
such as the decisive moment? Is it an approach, such as intention – creating a fully authored
image rather than discovering the world through the viewfinder?
Add the original photograph together with your response to your learning log. Which of the
three types of information discussed by Barrett provides the context in this case? Take your
time over writing your response because you’ll submit the relevant part of your learning log
as part of Assignment Five.
A photograph inspired by another is called ‘homage’ (pronounced the French or English
way). This is not the same as Picasso’s famous statement that ‘good artists borrow, great
artists steal’; the point of the homage must be apparent within the photograph. It’s also not
the same as ‘appropriation’ which re-contextualises its subject to create something new,
often in an ironic or humorous way. Instead, the homage should share some deep empathy
or kinship with the original work. An example is Victor Burgin’s series The Office at Night
(1986), based on Edward Hopper’s famous painting of the same name:
‘The hackneyed idea of ‘influence’ is not at issue here. I am not
interested in the question of what one artist may or may not
have taken from another. I am referring to the universally familiar
phenomenon of looking at one image and having another image
spontaneously come to mind.’
http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/separateness-things-victor-burgin
[accessed 25/01/18]
You may already have taken some homage photography where you’ve not tried to hide the
original inspiration but rather celebrated it. Refer back to your personal archive and add one
or two to your learning log together with a short caption to provide a context for the shot.

I took inspiration from Doug Aitken and his series of photographs – New Opposition. An example of this work is shown here :-

NewOpposition

In his series New Opposition, Doug Aitken explains that he was interested in fragmentation of an image, he wanted to form an image that was whole but also clearly constructed as fragments. In homage to this series I have adopted and concentrate on the ‘original context’ by creating my response using a very simalar construction technique and outcome. For my own purpose the concepts of fragmentation and whole were a perfect way to illustrate an idea I am currently interested in. Our perception of time can be thought of as a whole which we construct from fragments within past, present & future. These fragments we bring together to create our complete view of where we are, our place in time.

One definition of time could be – that hard to understand concept that stops all the events of the universe all happening at once.

For my image here I have not taken any new shots, instead I have constructed a whole image made up of fragments from other photographs I have taken over the past couple of years. In that time I have been lucky enough to travel a fair amount and have pictures here from; Brooklyn skyline, Alaskan Glacier, Scottish Highlands & Stockholm archipelago. The image then is a representation my past as fragments all happening at once in a denial of time, so we see the whole.

4 images manipulated in photoshop to cerate a single image in homage to New Opposition

During part 3 of EYV I was inspired by the decisive moment, the following shot is in my view the best example I achieved in direct homage to the idea of decisive moment. At the time it was my clear intent to capture what i understand to the decisive moment.

‘Homage to the decisive moment’

Bibliography

Bright, S., 2005. Art Photography Now. 1st ed. London: Thames and Hudson.

Project 1 The distance between us

The brief

Use your camera as a measuring device. This doesn’t refer to the distance scale on the focus ring. Rather, find a subject that you have an empathy with and take a sequence of shots to ‘explore the distance between you’. Add the sequence to your learning log, indicating which is your ‘select’ – your best shot.

When you review the set to decide upon a ‘select’, don’t evaluate the shots just according to the idea you had when you took the photographs; instead evaluate it by what you discover within the frame (you’ve already done this in Exercise 1.4). In other words, be open to the unexpected. In conversation with the author, the photographer Alexia Clorinda expressed this idea in the following way:

Look critically at the work you did by including what you didn’t mean to do. Include the mistake, or your unconscious, or whatever you want to call it, and analyse it not from the point of view of

your intention, but because it is there.

A study in Pants.

Meet Houdini Pantaloony, our cat. In this series of 6 shots taken a varying distances, I look to review the shots in order to discover what I didn’t mean to do. What I did not intend whilst creating these photographs, the accidents.

My select shot is 5, this provides the best expression of the thing I didn’t mean but in review is most apparent. The gaze of the predator.

The most striking thing I note about these shots is that Pants is fully focussed and concentrated on something in all shots. In shot 5 Pants happens to be fully focussed on me rather than something else. She is a very affectionate cat, getting on a bit now well into old lady territory but in shot 5 where I am the subject of her attention I can see the gaze of the predator. It is mildly disturbing! Pants and her sister Smudge ( sadly no longer with us ) have had a full and very active life where they have been able to satisfy their fundamental nature at the top of their food chain. They have successfully hunted mice, birds and rabbits all their life, sometimes working as a tag team – fascinating to watch if you can live with the gore and the violence. Pants has slowed down a bit now so the ‘little presents’ are not delivered with the same regularity. Make no mistake though, she is a hunter. I think this comes across in all the shots and was not part of what I intended. When she looks straight at me in 5 I see the calculation of a superior intelligence with zero compassion (why would there be); size? too big to bring down + I get fed by this potential victim every day + I am not very hungry right now. A different calculation and I could become victim number 1045 very easily.

In the wider shots; 1, 2, & 3 the suggested focus of attention could be just out of frame, almost there to be known but not quite. This gives these shots a narrative feel to them which is not so apparent in the tighter shots; 4, 5 & 6 these are more a personal introduction to Pants and her character.