In researching for assignment 2 ‘Collecting’ I found this article inspirational :-

Amy Elkins Black is the Day Black is the Night. (2019)

I found this series by Amy Elkins fascinating and beautiful as well as unsettling, haunting. I have difficulty settling my view on whether Amy is presenting a vision of optimism and humanity found even under the most extreme constraint or a deeply sorrowful expression of lives sadly lost with only fragments remaining. Do I think for my assignment 2 Collecting, I will consider anything approaching such clarity and gravity of symbolism, absolutely not. However i take great inspiration from the use of transformation on the images used to express the Amy’s vision. The use of lower resolution levels to denote the amount of the subjects life spent in jail and number of images in the composites denoting the number of years spent behind bars I find inspirational – “The rules are mine to set and use.”

The output especially on the landscape composites are beautiful, haunting and sorrowful.

For my series I am considering using different Lightroom adjustments (presets) to help express the impression I want to convey of the lighthouse images i take. As an example here are two images of the same shot. The first is almost straight from the camera RAW converted to jpeg the other has a ‘vintage instant’ preset applied, which flattens the image and compresses the colour range. The day I took this shot was overcast and very cold, the modifications help here to bring this dimension through.

Other shots of the same lighthouse in different weather conditions demand a different process, as here with the same lighthouse a few days earlier and in very different weather conditions, here an increase in vibrancy creates a much more optimistic a pleasant view. Although still taken in the depths of winter, the sun managed to bring warmth to the world such that this shot could have been taken in mid summer.

The first shot again straight out of camera RAW converted to JPEG the second uses ‘vibrant’ preset from Lightroom

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References

Daniel C. Blight. 2019. Amy Elkins Black is the Day Black is the Night. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.1000wordsmag.com/amy-elkins/. [Accessed 24 January 2019].

Depth of field spectrums

In considering this research I see the application of depth of field in association with depth of realism that creates a spectrum;

The clarity of realism provided by full depth of field which attracted the F64 group, who considered it necessary for photography to represent the world in full detail at one end point.

Quote from F64 Group Manifesto, 1932

‘to remain independent of ideological conventions of art and aesthetics that are reminiscent of a period and culture antedating the growth of the medium itself’

Found from google search on “f/64 manifesto” and referenced via wikipedia

(Heyman, Therese Thau 1992:20-24, back cover)

The opposite endpoint of shallow depth of field  providing opportunity for photography to represent the world in ambiguous dreamlike sequences such as that exhibited by Mona Kuhn.

I see a parallel spectrum also with respect to politics and photography again in application of depth of field; 

Photojournalism must represent the world in full depth in order to honestly and openly allow the observer to create their own view and opinion on what they see in the image without the corruption of direction by the photographer.   

“I’m inclined to think that there is no such thing as a photojournalistic image, only a photojournalistic use of an image”

Found from google search of the quote itself in an article on Foto Countervisuality Museum. (2013)

Note, The quote itself is not found in the article but in a reply to a comment on the article.

This is challenged where the impact of the world including the political dimension can be represented. As depicted by Gianluca Cosci Panem Et Circenses where the use of shallow depth of field alongside a low viewpoint creates the impression of a restricted view or possibly political oppression. 

This is discussed by Cosci in interview 

“I am interested in the point of view of the excluded, the marginalised. Often one is forced to have only restricted views, in awkward positions, difficult to maintain. Nevertheless we could take advantage of this apparent fault to observe and understand things in a different, unexpected way.” Panem Et Circenses (2006)

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From my archive the following shot most closely aligns with the ambiguous and dreamlike imagery of Mona Kuhn’s work. I selected this image, as in my view, duality is introduced by the fact that although the building in the background is entirely out of focus it is also unmistakably the Empire State building.

Title: How to view the Empire State building from Top of The Rock

 

Bibliography

Foto Countervisuality Museum. (2013) Still Searching…3. Backwards and Forwards[online] At: https://www.fotomuseum.ch/en/explore/stillsearching/articles/26952_backwards_and_forwards (Accessed on 01.03.19)

Heyman, Therese Thau (1992). Seeing Straight: The f.64 Revolution in Photography. Oakland Museum. pp. 20–24, back cover.

 

 

Main points selected from reviews of Thomas Ruff’s JPEGs

David Campany

Complexity of RUFF’s JPEGs

Ruff’s JPEGs series are considered by David Campany as offering up a number of opposing concepts ie “Intellectual & aesthetic”, “public as is private”, “anonymous as it is personal”, “The effect is to simultaneously emphasize and de-emphasize due to Ruff’s serialisation”

The juxtapositions within the series culminates in a complex of rational and irrational tension caused by the low resolution pixelation as stated “These are all phenomena that cannot be mapped or modelled in their detail. They are in a sense irrational, anarchic. We see these subjects throughout Ruff’s  grids of pixels. We switch from looking at figuration to abstraction and back again. The result is a great tension or drama. And it is tempting to see in this drama something of the character of modern life with its great forces of rationality and irrationality.”

The archive has influence

Ruff’s images come from the Internet and the series lives on the internet in many archives. Campany’s considerations on the tension between order created through the archival process and entropy created through wild and chaotic nature of images never mind the shear number.

Photography should reflect the medium

“Ruff has done a great deal to introduce into photographic art what we might call an ‘art of the pixel’, allowing us to contemplate at an aesthetic and philosophical level the basic condition of the electronic image.”

Terribly poorly resolved but still visually aesthetical images my way. ‘Terribly beautiful’ images they were.” In a nutshell, this is the idea behind jpegs.

Printed medium works

Although taken from the internet, is in the form of digital data and designed to be presented on a screen, as stated by Jorg Colberg, “Ruff’s jpegs work amazingly well in book form”

Ruff’s JPEGs promise meaning but don’t deliver on depth

For Jorg Colberg Ruff’s JPEGs have an aesthetic value which is clear and strong enough to be justification in  it’s won right, however in searching for deeper meaning, which is apparently there to be seen he is unsuccessful or not convinced. “Images are beautiful but cant see what else there is with the concept of the JPegs which is thin”

I compare 2 photographs which i have taken myself over the past year or so with two of Ruff’s collection which I downloaded from the Internet. I selected my shots as I found them compositionally similar to Ruff’s. I found the process of reducing resolution to create a Ruff like pixelated version simple.

Alaska glacier

 

From the list research in the assignment i have paid attention to….

 

Gawain Bernard https://www.gawainbarnard.com/photo_13162026.html

Boredom to burn: The landscape of youth is laden with memories

Lines up well with my first idea of childhood square mile

Thoughts on Gawain, ‘sit’ the series of young people with pensive expressions coupled with images of trees and bushes ( can’t see a direct connection ) but provides a consistency of imagery.

Tom Hunter

http://www.purdyhicks.com/display.php?aID=10#16

Inspirational idea connecting environment now to some mythical elements. Edinburgh has many examples where the past mythical, dangerous, gothic, horrific lives side by side with the world today, an interesting theme which could build a series

From Jodie Taylor – https://weareoca.com/subject/photography/photography-and-nostalgia/

This really resonates with me, Jodie’s series here comes from the same place as my first idea. In my mind though for my square mile, I am 6 I think here Jodie is more like 16.

Jodie’s photographs are I would say on the face of it, mundane, boring even. How does Jodie have the confidence to know this work is worthy of others attention? I don’t mean this as a criticism at all I want to know. The photographs could come from anywhere in the UK including my home town ~1972