Documentary Course Notes

Page 114 of the new Documentary course notes will feature a piece about my 'not our time' project, which is pleasing...must look up John Mraz now!

Two to return to

Two interesting links to bookmark:

Landscape documentary
On the BBC website there is another example of landscape being used to evidence a social documentary story: Auschwitz-Birkenau, then and now.

Parent, Woman and/or Artist
Over on the Little Brown Mushroom blog there is an article on 'being an artist and a mother' which is a fascinating read given my own hectic family life.  The challenge of finding the balance between the roles of 'parent, woman and artist' it seems is not an uncommon one and is something I wrangle with frequently.

Would like to go in to this more at some point, but struggling with time to go in to more depth right now.

Nothing but the truth

So I have been thinking about 'truth' on and off a lot recently thanks to a comment John Umney made on here a while back...I'm sure it wasn't intended to provoke such extended thought, all the same it has...what to make of the importance and meaning of 'truth'. Not the ethical type of truth referred to in social documentary photography. I'm thinking about the notion of what we consider to be our truth...and how everybody's truth is 'a' truth, necessarily different yet equally valid. It intrigues me. And when I think about photos I have taken in the past and indeed tried to read of others, you are learning as much about the photographer as you are from what you see in the image they have taken. Is that realisation not a tad scary? Oh, you knew all along...I'm catching up slowly!!

If you consider this thought then with landscape photography I wonder if the same applies. The landscape is a shared canvas and in some ways harder to express your own truth on to it or of it. As essentially when the focus is the landscape, we are the transient ones...the landscape has been and will be here comparatively forever...it changes of course...but can you imagine being the landscape and viewing us...we're here for a mere blink of an eye...the land must have seen so much...what authority do we have? 

So to define your own brand of truth I think can be challenging within the landscape photography genre...and then on the OCA Forum recently, I saw this referral to Ori Gersht work. It was Ori Gersht's recent work about the holocaust that for me showed how a landscape can be used as a reference point to a narrative derived from a social documentary perspective...the humanistic aspect of the land. It is quite a challenge to achieve I think!!

Coming at it from the other end, Heidi Lender's recent project, which has nothing to do with landscapes at all, struck a chord with me. Her conceptual self portraits 'give a humorous nod to women who can do it all'. Despite my own ideas being less developed or accomplished, my thought processes and personal motivations are not too far removed from hers with regards a mechanism of self expression. So how can this be applied to a landscape, is it relevant or useful to take this approach...or is flippant and meaningless? Particularly when the history of the landscape genre is steeped in objectivity, a quality so revered, at your peril are you to ignore it...I have made two attempts at my own subjective view of the landscape, but I will have to wait to see if the execution has been successful as it's all on film anyway. 

Going back to the idea of truth, here is another experimental series looking at the landscape, with the eye or sensibility of a street photographer, albeit a rural slant (this has been discussed at length in previous blog posts). I don't consider these the real deal by any means, for one there is an absence of people - but you know my history with street photography...strangely I still feel compelled to keep trying. 

So to conclude with truth, I have some way to go on this still as you can tell, but as a final comment, what truths can you determine about this photographer who focusses her gaze on a cow's arse? Case closed your honour!!!

If genres were a personality....

This is one of those made up theories based on nothing other than my own thoughts...so take it as such...

It goes like this...bear with flagrant generalisations - it is the genre not the photographer I'm trying distil...if each genre of photography was a personality at a party...I would have street photography as the spontaneous, quick witted, humorous one...highly engaging, a flighty, social butterfly...not making long-term relationships and bestowed with that curious, intangible charisma! Photojournalism is the slightly more sensible older sibling. It is absent from the party...working...this genre is an adventurous free spirit with an engaging, determined demeanour. You can't help but listen to its fascinating anecdotes!!

I don't want to go through all the genres as I've only really thought of the two extremes on the continuum which is street photography and...landscape.  Now landscape is a relative party pooper...quiet, often alone, contemplative and rarely spontaneous.  This genre avoids people and is often intense. It has an eye for detail, will analyse endlessly and never stops planning. It is earnest and serious... 'deep and meaningful'...you feel compelled to get to know this enigmatic guest, intriguing and beguiling as they are.

Where am I going with this...well, it is my way of articulating the differences between the genres.  You have to draw on different sides of your personality depending on the type of photography you are pursuing. And some skills are likely to come easier to us depending on what we are like as individuals. I can see the benefit of trying all genres at this stage and seeing which 'fits' best. Or even amalgamating.  I like the idea that the soc doc course I have just completed, where the aesthetics and technical aspects are secondary to capturing a moment, provides an interesting starting point for landscape, which has a rich history of technical precision and a predisposition to the aesthetics.

As I start to think 'landscape', I can feel my approach is already shifting.  However, I'm reluctant to let go of the people side of photography altogether...landscapes can be quite dry unless there is some 'human' interest either in the picture or implied. Can humour and 'currentness' be incorporated in to the landscape occasionally?

I have today sent off my enrolment form for landscape. I'm doggedly pursued by thoughts, questions and ideas about landscape already and looking forward to exploring this genre.

David Ellison

Just found some of David Ellison's work today on BJP, who has done some photography work in Cumbria and has taken this environment for the subject of his recent work.  He says in BJP:

“I’m obsessed with the notion of the North, anything North I love,” he says. “It’s the remote poetry of the place. When I visit home and get out onto the fells of Cumbria, I feel an intense connection with the area, and the rural heritage of the North is very interesting. The folk art of Britain inspires me, and the industrial past. I want to document it in my own style.”

His recent work takes the ancient heritage of the Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling carrying out a number of portraits of the contestants and the wrestling landscape.

Jane Fulton Alt, Misha Friedman & Phillip Toledano

Two Photographers from Critical Mass and a third I have just come across that I have found inspiring:

Jane Fulton Alt's images of controlled burning on the prairies are so unusual, it is hard to believe they are real.  They are so beautiful to look at, intriguing and with a poignant metaphor behind them. They are the sort of images I could imagine blowing up large and putting on your wall...very striking.

Misha Friedman's work on the Ukraine is a series I am drawn to as well.  The aesthetic is almost painterly. I don't quite understand how she has achieved it, particularly the lighting in the portraits. They almost look HDR'ed, which I'm sure is unlikely.

Phillip Toledano's 'Days with my Father' is a photographical account about his 98 year old father who has lost his short term memory...it is a beautifully created piece of work, showing sensitivity and emotion as well as important insights in to the difficulties of living with memory loss. I also like the format of the website...I find so many photographers websites, in their endeavour to be minimalistic, are so difficult to get around.

PHONAR

Dipping in to this Photography and Narrative course by Coventry University at the moment.  Some very helpful and interesting lectures, links and book references with regards Narrative.  It's free (thank you!) so anyone can benefit from the material on this site...

On Reflection Part Two

Where to next? The last post was looking back, this post is looking ahead. 

I'm thinking landscape at the moment. I'm mindful of...

• keeping things simple and succinct
• rural street photography
• environmental portraiture
• 'surrealism' in photography
• large format photography
• the Lakes landscape
• cliches

LANDSCAPE v PWDP

It's a toughy...I resented the 'genre' based nature of social documentary and no doubt I will have similar issues with 'landscape'. Here's where I'm at:

•  My starting point was landscape...that is why I took the OCA route...I wanted to take photos of the Lakes that didn't look like all the others before them...
• The PWDP course seems to be more current, probably more fun to complete and in many ways more wide open.
• Large format photography doesn't necessarily sit neatly with PWDP. 
• A number of projects I want to explore could be tackled within the landscape modules. I'm thinking Gursky, Epstein, Struth, Soth... 
• The conceptual photography is an anomaly. I may carry out a couple of personal projects to satisfy this need if it doesn't 'slot' in to the landscape curriculum. See this post.

All being well, my Christmas present will be one of these two courses...

BLOGGING

I have enjoyed the blogging process hugely. Headline stats:

Pageviews: nearly 10,000 (most of my own probably!!)

Most viewed post: Life's a Beach

Number of Posts: 163

• I didn't keep a paper logbook for this course which I did regret...more from the continued appeals from tutors than having a real need for one. I will keep an electronic and paper log for my next course. 
• Blogspot has limitations. I want to explore building a website with integrated blog as a number of other OCA students have adopted.  
• I do not want one blog for each course...I'm interested in the 'timeline' and the development from the beginning...not just each course...I think this approach will be interesting as a long-term retrospective. 

MOTIVATION

I want to come back to this earlier post written in March this year where I considered four interrelated factors: motivation, satisfaction, expectation and success.

Having reached no conclusion then, I have tried to sum up my thoughts succinctly and fairly honestly here!!  

What motivates me is the making and creating...what drives me forward is maximising the potential of 'me' and possible success therein. By success I mean recognition. Recognition by who or what will change depending on my stage of development. My expectations will inevitably outstrip my success by the nature of who I am.  This expectation is my driving force and biggest critic.   My destination is unknown...this frustrates and delights me in equal measures. I know I want to exhibit my work at some point. I am not ready yet...I think I will know when I am.  The dis-ease is my own fear of failing, fluctuating confidence and becoming too focussed. The cure will continue to be enjoyment, perseverance and patience...

On Reflection Part One

The following post is one of two posts that act as a 'what have you learnt from this course' type of post. I wanted to do this before receiving my results. Just in case you don't feel like reading the whole post, I'll summarise quickly:

Admit it, the journey has been tortuous at times, but I can't imagine I'm the first to think that. And yet the course has provided me with an invaluable conduit in which, as cliched as it sounds, an entirely new world opened up for me. Result, yes. But equally, disturbing. The foundations on which I stood floundered, the benchmarks were picked up and hurled way in to the distance. The greats seemed to tower overhead territorially and my efforts however gallant, seemed feeble and belittled. Yet finally, I have reached a point of acceptance. The photographer I was at the beginning of the course is quite different to that which I am now. And the new skills, confidence and understanding that I've picked up along the way, I realise I can take with me to the next stage of my artistic journey. And that's what its about. Now I get that...  

-/-

Anyway, apologies as this post is long winded, 'messy' and not that useful to anyone but me. It is here for my own reference. If you're still with me, I've taken this post uploaded in March last year to see if I have achieved what I had hoped I would from the Social Documentary course. Although what I don't cover here is all the other stuff I didn't expect to learn and how my demands changed. The indented paragraphs are extracted from my previous post. My comments follow below each. (Apologies for some formatting issues below, there seems to be glitch as I can't remedy them!!)

ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITURE

I am hoping to experiment more with 'landscape portraiture', there probably is a proper name for it but I don't know what it is. But what I am meaning is the relationship people have with and in their environment. For example Alec Soth's Sleeping by the Missisippi Project where the photograph is part social documentary but also landscape is a significant contributing factor to the interpretation of the portfolio. 

At what point does a portrait become an 'environmental portrait'? Assignments one and two are within a 'home' environment. To include the environment in these images was a conscious decision at the time. I really want to pursue this type of photography further with the next course.

PORTRAITURE

Conversely, I would also like to experiment with 'landscape-less' portraiture which seems to be ever-present in contemporary photography at the moment. For example Rineke Dijkstra's Beach Project where the landscape is purposefully 'absent' in so much as it offers little to distract or add meaning to the photograph. Another quite harrowing portfolio by Izabella Damavlys of victims of acid attacks takes this confrontational approach (read this interview on eyeteeth with her). Another example is Kathryn Obermaier's Ashray School where she purposefully omits any background. She speaks of her approach on this website:  

I choose to focus mainly on their faces eliminating distraction, or clues to their surroundings, leaving only the details of their faces to tell their stories. 

Assignment five was all about portraits...over forty of them in total taken at the World Gurning Championships. I have not forgotten Dijkstra's work. I had however, forgotten about the other two photographers (Damavlys and Obermaier) and that they had inspired me. Looking particularly at Obermaier's work I can see I am still drawn to the same aesthetic.

SUBJECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

Another approach I have enjoyed viewing is less objective, but nevertheless has had extraordinary results. Two examples are Richard Renaldi's Touching Strangers and Manjari Sharma's In The Shower. Both photographers created the environment in which their subject's posed, in quite unusual situations. I love the awkwardness and surprising results from these projects. I would like to explore 'awkwardness' further. 

It wasn't my original intention but the portfolio I submitted was a personal study of my family. The photographs are 'snapshots' in appearance and the study takes a personal 'fly on the wall' documentary approach.  However, it is unashamedly subjective and in no part do I hide 'me' from the people I'm photographing. This study will continue.

With regards the examples, I still find Manjari Sharma's work intriguing and I really like the natural lighting. The Touching Strangers project is somewhat 'niche' and less easy to learn from...

With regards exploring 'awkwardness', I haven't. Infact I'd forgotten about it. Am I still interested in it? Hmmm, probably not...

OBJECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

I want to pick up on something my tutor said in the past about a piece of work. I am not quite sure what or how I can achieve this but will be giving this further thought:

. . . I think you could make much more from a close, personal reportage assignment where this kind of subject was handled objectively. 

In assignments two and five I took a more objective approach. Although I have come to realise it is a continuum and achieving objectivity as a goal in itself is futile. The subjective v objective, candid v posed photography and outside in posts are at least three occasions during this course in which I have addressed this. I can say at this stage the boundaries, benefits, drawbacks and usage of each is much clearer in my mind.

LOCAL

I would like to explore my local environment and its inhabitants and try to find the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. 

I think I have started to make some headway on this objective...the rural street photography work at the country fairs for my resubmission for assignment four and the gurning are examples of this. It is perhaps not how I envisaged it when I wrote back then, but this has been an important development area for me.

PEOPLE PHOTOGRAPHY

I would like to gain confidence in photographing in public and be comfortable to ask subjects to 'sit' for me. 

and this is where you don't notice yourself growing, as I have made big inroads in both formal and informal situations without really realising when or how that changed.

LARGE FORMAT PHOTOGRAPHY

Eventually, when I lay my hands on a large format camera I would like to experiment with contemplative portraiture. Many of the photographers I have highlighted above use a 5x4 large format camera.

Well, I have purchased a gorgeous 5x4 camera but not applied it as much as I should have...the costs are shockingly high and it didn't really sit well with the street photography I was doing. However...assignment two has been completed with a large format camera. This area of photography will be something I will develop further on my next course. In addition I would like to do a course on the wet plate collodian process sometime next year if possible.

OTHER AREAS OF LEARNING NOT MENTIONED IN THE EARLIER POST

• Ethics and morals
• Art
• Street photography
• Changing roles in photojournalism
• Greater understanding and knowledge of photography, photographers, the history and its links to art
• Improved technical application

...

Going only one way

One of the hardest things about documenting the erosion at Skipsea has been a lack of 'immovable' objects (see this post for previous update). You wouldn't think it, given it was an inhabited community. Yet the infrastructure appears as transient as the land it was built on. Telegraph poles, garden furniture, even houses are and have been moved, changed and adapted. So that on every visit, it is difficult to reference where the last set of pictures was taken from and the amount of actual erosion because the whole 'make-up' of the site evolves. 

Let me illustrate this point with this blue dwelling (keep an eye on the telegraph poles too). The first location I find it at in 2008 is on the cliff edge see here:

it is to the left (cliff-side) of the road

Then October 2010 the building has been relocated to the other side of the road:

And then February this year, the Council have cleared much of the site. It appears the smaller buildings have disappeared and a static caravan has been moved back. And I have no idea about the telegraph poles! It is possible the poles were moved or the building was shifted sideways to a different plot.

Then finally, last week I photograph the same building from what is left of the road and see the building has been moved back to the furthest point of the plot and there are no telegraph poles to reference any of the previous images:

And this is the tricky thing I find with long-term projects in general, they evolve and you evolve with them. And what you set out to do is quite different to how the series come together.  I didn't set out to do a time-lapse study. Had I known how fast the erosion would be my emphasis may have been different.  Originally I was interested in the 'edge' and how the houses were literally slipping in to the sea, however, I now see the road was the main point of reference, not the edge.  This piece of bark is one of the only landmarks that remains at the end of the road, literally.  Here it is as photographed last week, facing north first...  

and then below, facing south

and in February this year

and further back still in October 2008

So, going forward, the erosion will wait for no one, if anything it seems to be accelerating. I won't stop photographing the change.  But I am aware there are other sites close by that face a similar future. Here is one below...and the houses here are less holiday home and more permanent residences.  Again, I need to consider the angle and nature of my shots so that I can record change here too.  I guess on the shot below I have failed, as the land from which I have photographed will not be there for my next visit!

post edit: just found this link on the bbc website - massive landslip in the Vale of Glamorgan with some very precarious caravans on the edge.

Day at the Cattle Mart

Tipped off as a potentially good show to photograph by a local farmer friend I attended the Yews, Gimmers and Lambs sale about a month ago (sorry, late posting). I was reliably informed this was a good sale as it was well attended and these animals were the best of the 'crop', sold not merely for meat.  Not an environment I'm particularly comfortable or familiar with I was given access to all areas and learned how important it is to 'blend' in.  And as it happens, the official photographer didn't turn up so I carried out a number of best of show formal photographs too. Taken the day before the gurning, this was another back up series for assignment five and was really helpful to get me 'in the thick of it'. I was happy with the results from this day, but they were not included in the assessment.  They'll may be have a use one day...

Assignment Five: Gurning

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Egremont Crab Fair last month and gained permission to photograph the World Gurning Championships. As mentioned in this post, I wanted to use this series of images for assignment five, a photo-essay.  Egremont Crab Fair is one of the World's oldest fairs, dating back to 1267. The fair is still characterised by its 800 year old traditions and heritage, with ancient events such as the Parade of the Crab Apple Cart, Climbing the Greasy Pole, Pig's Bladder Football and the famous World Gurning Championship. This exceptional fair attracts visitors from all over the world. 

'Gurning' is the art of contorting your facial expression. Framed by a horse's collar, contestants are judged on their relative transformation before and after pulling a face. The late champion Peter Jackman described it; 

Say you're oogly in the first place, and ya pull a gurn, an you don't look much different, well, just because you're oogly doesn't mean to say that ya win it. Because gurnin' means the Art of Pullin' Faces, not oogliness.

My intention was to make a collection of black and white portraits of each contestant, gurning and also, not gurning. I could then record the transformations taking place. This turned out to be impossible in all but the three placed males which I photographed backstage after the event.

I wanted to focus on the 'texture' of the gurn; contorted facial features, ungainly expressions and protruding lines which I felt wasn’t coming through in images I’d seen.  To address this, I decided a mono, low-key aesthetic would ‘bring-out’ this aspect of their faces and provide a framework for a consistent format. I found the work of Jane Bown and John Angerson's 'Last Man Smoking' an exemplar for the aesthetic I wished to adopt. However, I was aware that to be too prescriptive I was in danger of not allowing the event to show its' own magic. In addition, low-light conditions and the unpredictable nature of the event would demand my flexibility. I had been warned to 'expect the unexpected' and justifiably so, it was one of the most extraordinary evenings I have ever attended!  

The images are neither manipulated nor orchestrated. In this sense they could be considered as newsworthy as any other. Arguably less objective was how I executed it.  I had considered the aesthetic and technical aspects well in advance. I knew how I wanted the images to look but did not know if this was practicable. I experimented with settings at home and ultimately used manual settings; direct flash to ‘counteract’ the stage lighting, light the face and recede the background; and underexposed it a touch to avoid glare.  I used the same settings for all the gurning portraits.  I have chosen to present a typological series, with thumbnails of each gurner to enhance the humourous and peculiarity of the event. The purpose of this assignment I have produced a mock-up which follows at the bottom of this post.

Tommy Mattinson (below) won for the 13th time. Anne Woods, sadly retired after winning 28 times. The new champ is Claire Moffat.  I'm happy with how the images turned out.

The 2011 World Gurning Champion

Women's Champion: Claire Moffat

Previous winner Anne Woods

Publication Mock-up

Paul Russell

A man after my own heart, or more like I'm after his - street gone rural in this set on the BBC website. Paul Russell has been visiting some of the country shows, taking images in the 'street photography' style. What a keen eye, there are some priceless ones in there.

Planning for Assignment Five

You may already have heard of the Egremont Crab Fair or if not, I'm sure you'll have heard about or seen pictures of the gurners.  Well, I am intrigued, this seems to be no ordinary country fair. The first one was held in 1267...it is one of the World's oldest fairs and has a number of very ancient events too such as the 'greasy pole' climb and the parade of the crab apple cart. But probably its most famous event is the World Gurning Championships. The fair and its unusual events sound beautifully eccentric to me, in a very quirky British way. So I have asked permission to photograph the gurners.

I'm hoping not to tempt providence here, but the plan is this, I would like to take a black and white portrait of each gurner, gurning and another of each gurner, not gurning, preferably head-on with eye-contact, although I'm not sure how feasible this will be. I have seen images by Jane Bown and this image by John Angerson that I particularly like. The event goes on well in to the night so light conditions will be extremely challenging and I know my camera is deficient in such conditions.  However, I do have a couple of relatively fast lenses and I do have an excellent speedlight flash which I have complete confidence in.  So there you have it....it takes place in just under a month...so in the meantime I've time to practice shooting in low-light conditions. My attention will turn to finalising the assessment stuff such as tweaking my critical review which I should have done months ago, fine tuning my images for assessment and forging forward with the portfolio. I will write a separate post on the portfolio soon. An essential element of assignment five (which incidently is to create a photo-essay) is the planning. The idea is this:

PLANNING DETAILS

Location: Egremont Crab Fair
Date: 17 September 2011

Event: World Gurning Championship

Permissions: no unauthorised photography. Have written and been given authorisation 

Concept: a series of straight faced competitors and a series of gurning competitors

Aesthetic: to be black and white, and ideally I would like to go for low key, wanting to avoid distractions behind or different colour lights. See my practice shot below (my husband will not thank me for this!!). I think mono will draw out the lines, tensions and features of the faces when gurning. This was taken with flash -2/3, shutter speed 1/2000 and F3.  I really do not want these images to be blurred.

Concerns: I have no control or idea what the lighting will be like.  It is indoors and I suspect relatively dark. But I am anxious about this. To get a low key image may therefore be impossible. However I would like ideally to make an A2 poster with all the gurners, a bit like the one below. Again, sorry hubby!!

  

And then a similar poster with the faces straight. Again, whilst I have been given permission, I'm not sure whether it will be feasible getting the straight faced photos. I suspect I'll be photographing what happens rather than staged portraits. So will have to play this one by year.

Assignment Five: The Plan

Well, for November assessment, I need to have everything tied up by the beginning of October ideally, to ensure this assignment, plus the portfolio have been viewed by my tutor and then his comments incorporated in time.  I want to put this course to bed so, funds allowing, I can start a new module in January...that's the plan!!

I have, in this blog, hinted at all sorts of different ideas and projects in the past...and for a variety of reasons...they haven't all come to fruition...like me failing to continue with the spn project in a phase of despondency and how an interview I was hoping to have with an artist from Skipsea for my portfolio failed to materialise... I worry about stating my future plans just in case they come to nothing. But then, that is sort of the purpose of this blog...

To bring you up to speed, for this assignment I can think of the landscape/personality idea, the holga idea and more recently and not posted on here are the market, beach, holiday/nature themed projects I tried whilst away. Well, I haven't worked out how to photograph the landscape/personality idea yet, the holga idea is quite an undertaking and won't be ready to submit for October and didn't really fit the brief anyway, then the market and beach ideas I tried and abandoned. Finally the holiday/nature project was based on the concept of va.ca.tion - the desire to vacate our home and our need to control and manage our 'vacated-to' home and the battle thereof between man and nature. I have a set I could submit for assignment five which I kind of like but probably won't submit now.  I explain why further down this post.

What do you do with the sets you don't submit?  I'm not sure...do they just sit on your hard drive until you forget about them?...mine tend to! Anyway, I've posted below the unrefined va.ca.tion set. Entitled va.ca.tion as firstly a derivative of vacation is used in many languages and to have the phonic version emphasises the definition of the word too. I quite liked the postcard idea, like Martin Parr, as a way of emphasising the disparity between the idyllic postcard scenes we're accustomed to seeing, and the reality.

I do like this set, however, I suspect this will probably become my back up set as there is something else I really wish to do and have just gained permission to do, yay! I was going to allude to it here, but have hesitated, just in case for whatever reason it doesn't come off.  It is a simple idea that will entail making a series of black and white portraits at an event, much closer to home. Assignment five requires an objective approach without 'an angle' which I suspect will fit this idea better than the more 'subjective' va.ca.tion idea. Apologies for my caution but I really want it to work and don't want to tempt providence. By late September I'll hopefully be able to share the results...