Leeds Study Visit : the bit after

SANITY WARNING: very long post...

Image courtesy of Amano Samarpan
Team 2012:  Amano, Teresa, Fiona, Rob, Helen, Shaun, John, Dave, Paul, Catherine, Jesse and Rob B.
Mark, David, Stan, Tim, Yiann, Eileen, Penny, Bicky, Gilly and Peter...no Sarah!

REFLECTIONS

I feel I have been surfing on the crest of the Leeds wave since returning home and I'm trying my best to hold on to the enthusiasm as long as I can, clawing at what seemed like an elevated plain of understanding, fearing that at any moment I may slide back to my old, confused and troubled ways. I am liking this inspired feeling and hoping it won't fade too fast...

There were, it transpired, a number of us who were seeking great things of ourselves from this weekend. Search parties were engaged to seek AWOL mojos, reduced strides and absent breakthroughs.  It was, with hindsight, quite a lot to ask of one weekend. Yet in the same breath it shouldn't be underestimated the commitment that twenty individuals made in buying in to this idea...it has never happened before, we all opted in 'blindly'...but hey guys...we pulled it off...the first twenty...'trailblazers for the OCA' in Gareth's words!

I have written an article for OCASA about the weekend and how to organise such an event so I don't want to repeat it all here...I will add a link when it is up. This link to a flickr thread I add too as it links to other student reviews from the weekend.

There really was a genuine desire and hunger to learn...an enthusiasm and interest in the subject that was intense and contagious. Infact, when we talk enviously of our fellow students in B&M universities, who have the student bar at their disposal and the opportunity for face-face discussions, I suspect rarely will those smoke stained walls bare witness to such involved and interesting conversations...well I am biassed!

And I cannot tell you how valuable and enjoyable being in an environment with fellow students, and indeed tutors, was/is. I didn't know how much I'd missed or needed it until this weekend...it has really highlighted to me the value of this interaction and I will seek it out more determinedly going forward.

The venue was The New Ellington in Leeds...and I swear to you, I did not know it was a Gin Bar before we arrived...anyway, I'm hear to talk about my other interest...

OBSERVATIONS

So anyway, what I have written above feels dated already as it is over a week past and this post still sits here waiting for me to finish this next section which goes on and on - there is almost too much to digest and write down so here are a few points of learning below and I may have to come back with the rest.  

In person

Image used courtesy of Mishka Henner
Less Americains

The presentation by Mishka Henner and indeed Jesse Alexander too, is evidence to me that there really is no substitute for hearing first hand the artist/photographer talk about their work...prior to hearing Mishka speak, the spurious articles and controversial nature of his work left me intrigued but perplexed by the work. But equally you can learn so much about their motivations in creating such work. I have read it elsewhere (Stan's blog I think) about being as inquisitive about the artist as the work itself...what drives such artists, what personality traits do they exhibit and where do their ideas come from. Their motivations are as diverse as their subject but the one underlying factor that seems to be common is uncompromising belief and interest in the subject, as well as dogged determination.  When projects extend, sometimes to years, that passion has to be unwavering, otherwise they will not reach completion...having that much confidence and perseverance in your own concepts is awe-inspiring!!

Photography v Art

Mishka Henner made a distinction between photographers and conceptual artists early on in the presentation. He said in 2009 he shifted to conceptual art turning his back on photo-journalism as he struggled to reconcile the issue of power that photographers have and use. He mentioned the unerring repetition of the subjects photographers are drawn to...usually the impoverished. Artists have a more critical view of the medium and their quest for the truth which he felt more comfortable with.

Joel Coelberg makes reference to this too:

The one thing that seems unique to photography (maybe this is just me not being familiar enough with other art forms) is that its practitioners for the most part are incredibly conservative as far as the medium is concerned....[I could have] asked whether photography will survive the conservatism the vast majority of its own practitioners have come to embrace. I currently doubt it will. 

It is this distinction that is intriguing and in many ways, fundamental. Mishka mentioned on more than one occasion the term Avant Garde. By this I am taking it that he means embarking in practice that is innovative, experimental and ahead of its time. This is reflected in all his most recent work. Astronomical, an encyclopedia represesenting a scale model of the solar system was nothing short of eccentric...and funny!


courtesy of Mishka Henner

Other work such as Less Americains and Collected Portraits he is offering a different view to what photography can mean. In each, he is making us question something that we have taken as a given. Take something away, or add something else to create something different...it is extremely refreshing to feel uncomfortable and feel our boundaries of protocol wobble as what we know is being challenged to its core.


Reflecting on my own work practices, threads of unclarified thought with regards the photographer/artist are not new to me...and may in part explain why my work output is slow and personally unsatisfying for the most part (see Outside in). I don't see myself as a photographer...for me it has always been about being creative and using photography as a means of self-expression, not an end in itself. I have no ambitions to 'be a photographer'.  I have photographed business events, weddings, child portraiture, product shoots...and each time I do, I realise, to my dismay, that another aspect of photography is not for me.

Another issue related to this is that I dislike in my photography what has been easy to achieve. It has no value to me. And I loiter in the regions of my mind that seem to make it impossible for me to create or achieve anything...I like the challenge, the unknown, the what if's, the impossibles...but find it too difficult to wade through.

And this is where I will have to stick my neck out going forward...to the point where I may fall flat on my face...again!! I need to break my own shackles from photography, from the traditional genre of landscape and the landscape course if necessary...I want to create...there is no conceptual art photography course. I've been 'landscaping' for ten months now and have very little to show for it. Perhaps by accepting this fact, I might actually start taking some photos. Or is this just an excuse to hide behind? This shift may not necessarily improve my work, but hopefully it may start to flow better and feel less abrasive than it does at the moment.

Now I just need the belief to start something and see it through before the self-doubts kick in...flounder, flounder...

New v Old

I am sensing a dichotomy in trends in photography at the moment between the cutting edge of technology and pushing the digital boundaries like Mishka's work or Duckrabbit's poignant photo-films.  The excerpt from this article Photography after Photography on conscientious crystallises in my mind the challenges we face:

Ironically, it is digital photography that has resulted in the current stasis of the medium. Given the possibilities, it is quite amazing to see how little digital photography has qualitatively changed photography. Quantitatively, oh sure. The number of photographs taken has exploded, especially since there are now cameras in places where there weren’t any before. You wouldn’t have a rotary phone with a camera in it or attached to it. Now, everybody has at least one camera, so we’re all photographers - or so we are being told.

There’s a lot of talk how making photographs has become so much harder given the state of things, given there are cameras everywhere. But then, if you are complaining about that - doesn’t that show the limitations of your own creativity? What can you photograph when every picture has already been taken? Well - isn’t it liberating to know that every photograph has been taken already, so now you can really take your photographs?

It is worth reading the whole article.

Don't you think this gets to the crux of the dilemma for photography students? I have been having so many queries about this in my head...and wish the Leeds weekend was coming up to discuss these ramblings...it takes so long to articulate what you're trying to say in writing. He goes on to say:

In fact, I think that it’s actually in the analog area where artists are producing the most interesting work right now, where artists are attempting to move if not forward then at least sidewards. 

Isn't it just peculiar...so bipolar...with all the technology at our feet, those making progress and turning tail, are heading in to the past, for a different future.  Has it just become too easy for us? Are there too many choices? And you can see this with Mishka Henner's work "no Man's land" where images from google street view were framed in traditional large format dimensions 5x4 because of the values associated with that format of camera or perhaps how the audience reads the context thereof.

courtesy Mishka Henner: No Man's Land

And strangely, having paid little attention to the google street view/earth photographers before Leeds, suddenly I've become aware of a whole raft such as John Rafman and Michael Wolf , amongst others. And shifting the definition too is John Stezaker, who again is an artist who creates art from photographs.

This article by Joerg Colberg, like many of his ruminations, has worked its way through all the fissures of my brain and has really puzzled me...there is one final quote I want to add:

Painting erupted once its burden of depiction was lifted. 

No 'blue sky', 'out of the box' thinking can at the moment, help me circumnavigate this dilemma. What is it that will lift the burden for photography going forward, if indeed there is one.

It is, I think confusing for budding photographers...there is a rich vein of photography heritage and iconic practitioners of the past that have formed a well-trodden path with clear and helpful framework and boundaries within which the genres have formed and many have since walked. Yet at the same time, photography is now a democratic practice...photography belongs to everybody...and at the other end of the scale, photography has infiltrated the art galleries and is gaining credence as an accepted art-form...it is really a fascinating time.

Maybe we have to learn it, before we abandon it...

That's it for now...I'll have to come back for a second bite, too much to go at...

Heard of a cinemagraph before? Well this is my first attempt...spent most of the day on it.  There is an article here and here about what they are...I can't decide if they're pretty cool or just a fad...either which way, I can't dismiss it on this basis, and at the minute I think they're pretty cool. 

This post is not directly linked to the landscape course but depending on how I get on with this technique, it may do...eventually. I was totally inspired after this weekend (photography residential in Leeds)...firstly I want to start experimenting with photo-films inspired by Peter Rudge's talk from Duckrabbit (and yes I've ordered an audio recorder too!!) and secondly, to throw out the conservative constraints of photography following Mishka Henner's disregard for convention and embrace technology. And then in the portfolio review it was suggested I should look at animating the drawings that were within some of my photos...so I thought I'd start by trying this technique. 

I can't believe how fired up I feel...there are so many things I want to try...

Write up on the weekend to follow...and more on this soon too...