Martin Parr

These four images are taken from three separate collections demonstrating Martin Parr’s documentary style photography. The first colour image was taken on the day of the Royal Wedding in 2011 and is the most recent example of his work here. The second colour image is from The Last Resort where Parr photographed New Brighton in the 1980s and the two black and white are from June Street where he worked with Daniel Meadows in 1973 and these were exhibited between 2011-2012. All four of these images are similar in the fact that they all focus around family portraiture/activities. The colour images both appear to be in the moment compositions with natural expressions as oppose to the black and white ones appearing more manufactured. It is interesting to see how the times have changed through these documentations, the way fashions and interiors have developed throughout the last forty years.

The second image is very indicative of the rest of the collection The Last Resort, displayed in a photo book. The other images in the collection are very naturally composed and of high colour with slight humour to each. Although the humour is not intended, it is captured through the documentation of a bank holiday in the town of New Brighton. Although some critics describes Parr’s work as ‘visitors at their worst’, others believe that one of the essential theme in the book is the ‘calm down and carry on’ British ideology whereby people are making the best of conditions that are not ideal. Some of his Last Resort images are included in a photo book themed Home and Abroad which again featured many colour images including subjects and families in their surroundings around the world.

The June Street images; the two final black and white images are also taken from a collection where a variety of different types of families neatly dressed and posing for the camera. Each image was stages so that all of the details, even those little things in the background were meaningful to the image and to portray the lifestyle that these people live. Martin Parr’s photographing style does not solely revolve around a certain class, he allows the viewers to see the lives of all of the classes.

I have taken a great interest in Martin Parr’s work and think I will continue to take influences from his work in future projects both in university and personal work. His relationship with colour is something I hope to achieve in my own work. He is proving to be one of my favourite photographers of the moment.

 

Bill Owens Suburbia

So I have begun the new project and have decided to use a documentary style again. For this one I want to look at life inside a middle class estate and see if people’s evolved views of the class system is the same as what it actually is. Bill Owens has proved to be influential in the previous project and will also be more relevant with this one. Having discovered his Suburbia collection last year, it has not been until now that he has proved to be one of the most influential resources in my work. Last year I must admit I was a little lost in the large world of photography but seem to have found enthusiasm through documentary photography.

Suburbia Is one of Owens’ most famous collections. He socially documented the lives of people in Suburban California in the 1970s. As oppose to other photographers of the time, Bill Owens planned events he wanted to photograph; Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July and birthdays (Bill Owens, Art A Go Go). The series demonstrates more than just these events as can be seen from the images displayed either side using black and white film due to the time period. Alongside these images, Owens has included short synopsises to allow the viewer to further understand the meaning of the images and become easier to relate to.

The subjects used in the images show a range of ages and activities that link to the theme of family life. Not only were there celebrations, but there were also those with children playing or even just relaxing around the home.

The fashions seen in Owens’ photographs are the same fashions seen in ads directed to contemporary youth. With suburban areas hosting for the middle class and the images being taken both of the interior and exterior of the properties, many of the materialistic items size of; properties, cars and toys reflect the overall conditions of living in these areas.

Exhibition Review

Exhibitions play a large part in the art world; not only do they showcase and advertise work they also enable viewers to challenge thoughts and ideologies through many different platforms. Two recent photographic exhibitions have opened in Mshed Bristol and Butetown History and Arts Centre, Cardiff. Although both exhibitions showcase the same platform they hold many similarities yet differ in a variety of ways. A comparison between the two will conclude with how successful they are.

Mshed has opened a photographic exhibition showcasing the works from The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The layout of the exhibition is clean and simple with single A3 sized landscape images against crisp white walls. Situated on the second floor of the building with only one window, it is necessary to light the exhibit with artificial ceiling lights. The direction of the photographs has a clear narrative following a range of species through portraiture, behavioural aspects, to botanical nature, birds and endangered species. Following this is a showcase of works from awards such; The Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year, The Urban Wildlife Photographer of the Year and the Eric Hosking Award, for young photographers and finishing with different ages of a range of animals. The first section Animal Portraits portrays both land and water animals with the idea being to ‘reveal something about its subject beyond the obvious’. Describing the winning image, Curiosity and the Cat, also used to advertise the exhibition, the judge states that ‘after years of looking at animal photographs it is amazing to see something fresh and new with a strong emotional energy. For me it is a masterpiece of photography’. The exhibition is easy to follow as each image was clearly labelled with the photographer and the name of the image. At the beginning of each collection there is a short description about the winning piece along with a few comments from the judge of the competition. Amidst the photographic work, an installation of stuffed birds and insects in glass cabinets with greenery are included to mimic their natural habitats and reinforce the theme of the exhibition.

The Mama Ma’s: Conversations for Transformation showcases images from personal experiences of motherhood from the chosen subjects. Showcased were five landscape, black and white A1 images with one of the photographers presenting a larger selection of both portrait and landscape A5 images. All images were portrayed in black and white to dramatise the theme and allow the viewer to focus on the intended emotions of the subjects. Exhibited in a small room at the back of the centre with large windows, the photographs are visible with natural daylight, no artificial light was used. Similarly to the first exhibition, the images were displayed against pure white walls making the images stronger and easy to follow. An interactive installation was found in the corner of the room where viewers could see a slideshow of more images whilst listening to the interviews with the subjects and had the opportunity to express their emotions or reactions in a notebook.

The images demonstrate the process women go through once they enter motherhood, from unattractive, to protective, fragility through to strength. The first image was captivating and unusual meaning it draws the attention of the viewer. Without reading the synopsis of the image it would be difficult to fully understand the intended meaning of feeling unattractive as a mother; the subject states that ‘my son has brought out the beauty of me by the fact that he loves me and with that comes responsibility.’ It can be seen that the photographer has addressed how women can ‘feel incredibly unattractive and feel uncomfortable in their own skin’. The final image implies both physical and mental strength with the subject having been tied in ropes to a tree. The subject describes that ‘there is something about being a mum, that process – it challenges you physically, emotionally and spiritually to the point that you can go further than you think you can.’

To conclude, as they are completely different exhibitions they both have differences, the main difference being the size of the exhibition. As the wildlife exhibit is primarily a competition for photographers there are limited amounts of final images showcased in each category but as a whole there is a vast selection. Opposing this the second exhibition only needs a small amount of images to portray the supposed message. The Bristol exhibition includes a colour theme mainly throughout the entire room whereas the Butetown uses only black and white. With this said, aspects such as the layout, simplicity and use of interactive installation of the exhibitions are virtually the same in both. It would be fair to say that each exhibition was successful of their intentions and the works were very strong imageries but the second one would not have been very clear without the texts that accompanied the images.

More Exhibitions

As I needed a second exhibition to compare with the Mshed one, I took a trip to Cardiff Bay and found an exhibition in the Butetown History & Arts Centre. This one called Mama Ma’s: Conversations for Transformation was based on the personal experiences of motherhood from five different subjects. Each image was complimented with a short synopsis of the experience and the name of the subject. The majority of the exhibition included large scale black and white images but there was a selection of small portrait and landscape images and an installation of two computer screens in the corner displaying more images and plays audio of interviews with the mothers through headphones. This was a really nice addition to the exhibition as it gave a more personal feel to the concept of the imagery.

 

 

Exhibition Time!

For the final written task for the project we had to write a comparison of two exhibitions so me and a few friends decided to take a road trip out to Bristol to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at Mshed. As I haven’t actually been to many exhibitions before (naughty photography student!) I actually really enjoyed it. There were a variety of species and all completely organised into groups of behaviours or portraits or certain awards so it was pretty inspiring to see so many other people’s work. It actually occurred to me whilst wandering round the exhibition that entering photography competitions in my spare time would be very beneficial and could lead to exhibiting my own work.

The exhibition showed how photographers will go to any length to get the shot, whether it be getting a little too close to dangerous animals or being underwater to get rare shots of turtles which made me question how far I would go and how much more I needed to push myself in order to better my photography.

Curiosity and The Cat

 

Eye of A Toad

 

 

Twin Hope

As well as visiting the Mshed exhibition, we also went to the Bristol Museum and had a look at the French painting exhibition and the ‘In The City Series’ which was a photographic and installation exhibition that featured work around the city of Bristol including work from Martin Parr. This exhibition was a much smaller scale exhibition of which I thought I would struggle to write about but nonetheless was useful to look at as it was a completely different exhibition to the wildlife one.

 

 

Photo Book Review

Photo Book Review

Social documentary photography focuses on people in their natural environment and tends to highlight the issues within social classes, predominantly those of a working classes or the underprivileged. Walker Evans was one of the most influential photographers about the ‘Great Depression-era’. Although he was not the only photographer to work on the Farm Security Administration project, many of his contributions are presented within the chosen photo book; Photographs for the Farm Security Administration 1935-1938.

The main purpose of the book, and in turn the project is to capture the quality of life in certain areas of America during the difficult years of 1935-1938 even ‘when no human being is represented in the picture’ (Jerald Maddox, 1970, cited in Walker Evans, 1973, p10) thus demonstrating that sometimes it is unnecessary to include people to portray poverty stricken living conditions. With this work being created in the early part of the twentieth century, Evans used only film to photograph. Through the use of black and white film, he was able to successfully capture more detail as film photography offers a wider range of highlights and shadows (Dixie Somers, 2012). In addition to this, by choosing to shoot in black and white, Evans was able to dramatise the images and add to the severity of the issues.

The book itself is divided into two main sections; the first has a simple layout of selected photographs and the second portrays a catalogue style of many of his several hundred photographs (Jerald Maddox, 1970, cited in Walker Evans, 1973 p9). The sequencing of the selected photographs has been linked through certain features and similarities in each image whether it be materialistic items such as cars, the shape of the properties or even text. As well as portraying the surroundings of the communities, Evans has incorporated four single portrait images and a family portrait all of which are wearing dirty or ragged clothing and express unhappy emotions again reiterating the understanding that these people are suffering due to a high level of poverty. With the diversity of his work, the viewer can see a very personal aspect of these peoples’ lives at the time and how basic their living conditions were,arguably these collections are some of Evans’ best work as ‘his personal artistic vision was made available and used for a definite social purpose without compromising that vision.’ (Jerald Maddox, 1970, cited in Walker Evans, 1973, p10).

The second part of the book begins with a contents page consisting of the states he has visited and photographed in chronological order. This makes the catalogue easy to follow and allows the viewer to independently conclude howthe issues differ between the years and places. Each image has been numbered and has a short caption and date to describe it, being the only inclusions of text other than the introductions found in the beginning of the book. The sequencing of the images do not seem too dissimilar to the first section, however there are sections where the link between images are not as strong. Images 15-20 of the catalogue show a mixture of the outside of properties, inside the properties and one image including subjects. With this said as a catalogue of chronological images, it lacks importance as the section is merely the sequence in which Walker Evans photographed West Virginia in 1935. The collection of images taken from Alabama in Summer 1936 appears to have a larger section of family orientated images with photographs of subjects outside their homes, despite not necessarily suggesting content in life.

It is interesting to see that the book Social-Documentary Photography in the USA constructed by R. J. Doherty in 1976 was published three years after Evans’ book and includes images from the same project but from other photographers, as well a small part of Evans’ work is included. These images seem to focus predominantly on the subjects themselves as oppose to their surroundings. It is apparent that the book is a more informative account of the photographer’s work and the living conditions during the Great Depression-era and uses the images to illustrate this. Doherty believes that other photographers’ work parallels to a form of propaganda and states that ‘they were trying to communicate and persuade a group of people to take action’ thus forcing an emotional reaction from the viewer.

In conclusion, the photo book can be seen as an emotionalwork of art and holds some of Walker Evans’ best photographic images. It does not need to include much text as the visual imagery speaks for itself and provides the freedom for the viewer to interpret the images in their own way. It highlights the suffering and poverty within many parts of America during the time of the Great Depression and unlike other sources, portrays the whole situation by using images of the surroundings without subjects. It’s photography that captures and highlights working class society and its issues.

The Project!

I decided to go into the streets of Newport for three days for shooting the elderly population and asking them a few questions about how they felt about about the benefits system of today and the upcoming eat and heat crisis. I chose this group as I thought that they would have a wider variety of opinions on the subject and would be easier to talk to as it’s normally a well known fact that the elderly will talk to anyone because… well because their nice. In addition they would have been round when the Welfare State was created and therefore would know the difference between the system then and now. This apparently was not the case. Many people I approached claimed that they were “late for the bus” or “didn’t want to talk” or they just ignored me and walked away. Obviously I know it can be quite intimidating when someone with a camera approaches you in the street but I can assure you I was probably more nervous inside than they were. I was friendly and especially nice but I can honestly say I have never known old people to be that rude… apart from the select few that allowed me to photograph them.

So below are my final images from this project, the inclusion of text is inspired by Bill Owen’s Suburbia collection and has been taken from the ‘interviews’ with the people in the images.

The Problems With Benefits

So my new project is just beginning and research is under way. I have chosen to look at the benefits system in Britain for this next project and have a slight passion for documentaries so came across three different programs about different aspects of benefit life; Benefits Britain 1949, On Benefits and Proud and Nick & Margaret: We Pay Your Benefits. Each program has a different intention of the reaction that they want the viewer to have, however all three are to show different areas of benefit claims and attempts to help the wider audiences understand the issues that revolve around benefit claimants.

In Benefits Britain 1949, the aim of the program was to see how the benefits system in 2013 compares with that of 1949 when the welfare state began. It challenged a variety of claimants from disabled, elderly, sick to single parents, migrants and unemployed to live a benefit life as they would have in 1949. The first image shows a retired gentleman who was featured and rose to the challenge, however he proved the most hard done by as he was unable to live on the allocated money resulting in him being moved into residential care and being unable to live. This case story really hit home with me as I’m a very sentimental person and even for the sake of the programme he has to sell his grandfather’s watch to get additional money so that he could stay in his home where all of his memories with his beloved wife were. These efforts failed and he still had to move into residential care for a few days which is what would have resulted in 1949. This is similar to the problems the elderly are facing this year with the ‘Eat vs Heat’ scenario. It would be fair to say that after working for a living his whole life, people were able to empathise with his situation as he had paid his way through life and was left with no choice than to sell off sentimental items and move out of his home.

The second image was from On Benefits & Proud, a program which mainly featured around children. One family had 11 children, another couple had 9 children in total but from previous relationships and a pair of single mothers living in London. The mother from the family in the image showed no desire to work and was happy to claim unemployment benefit along with child and housing benefits to the figure of £60,000+ a year. They were living in a converted council house where 2 properties had been knocked into one and were also being offered to move into a brand new house worth £500,000 which she was not particularly bothered about and took for granted however this eventually fell through. It was really enraging to think that this woman believed that benefits are a right and not a privilege and she deserved to be given a house because she kept popping out kids. It appeared that Heather Frost was content with the tax payers supporting her through life as “there is no limit to how many kids you can have”. This program clearly wanted to provoke a reaction to the ‘spongers of society’ to perhaps anger viewers, which in this case it really did anger me.

Finally, the third image was taken from Nick & Margaret: We Pay Your Benefits, which was a similar broadcast to Benefits Britain 1949 in the way that it showed a range of claimants with different attitudes towards work ethics and benefits but mainly focussed on the unemployment sector. Working people/families were teamed up with the unemployed to help them re-evaluate their attitudes towards work and help them realise their potential in the working environment. Hosted by Nick & Margaret, they present their findings and observations about the occurrences between the taxpayers and the unemployed. Interestingly, they discovered that the majority of the taxes goes towards the pensions rather than the unemployed and single parent families contrary to belief. The idea of the program was clearly to show a variety of benefit claimants, some with a strong ethic to work and others who weren’t so keen, some who were trying to support families and others who were young and just out of school. By doing this it highlights diverse opinions and perhaps challenge people’s opinions towards the problem.

Image Review

I had to complete an image review of 750 words as a short written task so I chose to look at an Araki image as his work is often seen as controversial. So here it is.

Image Review

This untitled image was taken from a collection of bondage and erotic imagery photographed by Nobuyoshi Araki and would have been featured in one of his bondage books from either 2004, 2006 or 2012 but can also be found in Couturier’s ‘Talk About Photography’. The denotational aspects of the image show a female Japanese subject, partially nude and being suspended from the ceiling. The art of Kinbaku, meaning to bind tightly (Jade Rope 2013) plays a major part in Araki’s work, especially here where it draws the viewers eye to the ropes binding the subject’s breasts and arms together. The photograph has many strong elements throughout with the main one being the use of colour; the dark blacks of the hair and part of of the blouse against the bright red of the blouse and lipstick. These colours have connotations that reference lust, desire and temptation which link directly to the idea of bondage and submission and the eroticism that Araki is intending. In contrast to this however, the incorporation of the white polka dots the the subject’s blouse provoke thoughts of youth and innocence and exploitation of a young female which as Natasha Walker states is ‘the main journey for a young girl is expected to lie along her path to winning the admiration of others for her appearance’. She also says that women have decided to enter the sex industry due to ‘the rise of a culture in which it is taken for granted that women will be valued primarily for their sexual attractiveness which has become inescapable for many young women.’ (Walker, N. 2010 p63/64).

It is true that the modern culture has begun an exploration into the idea of bondage and BDSM as it is becoming more accepted in society. Since the ‘sexual revolution’ of the 1970s, people have continued to become more sexually liberated and with the summer of ‘Fifty Shades’ in 2011 people are more willing to experiment as shown in Figures two and three. With this said, the Japanese have been practicing this culture since its origin in the late 1800s/early 1900s (Mantos, J, 2006), only they see it as primarily an artistic form. As Midori states ‘Japanese rope bondage contains an artistic element beyond that of erotic fulfilment.’ (Midori, 2001, p7) however Midori goes onto talk about the difference between a ‘top’ and a ‘bottom’ provoking thoughts of submission. The image itself references submission in the way that the subject has completely no control, although it is suggested that there is some level of control or even rebellion as the subject is clearly looking directly at the camera. If one was to feel more submissive, they would not make eye contact at all similarly to those shown in Figures three and six. The strong facial expression does suggest that she was directed to ‘look sexy’ in order to objectify her and make her appear sexually desirable for men, a technique that has been used widely over the fashion and advertising world. There are elements of bondage in earlier photography; Figures five and six demonstrate that even before the sexual revolution, there was still nude photography and in this case the female is wearing only a piece of ribbon around her neck and the ropes used in figure five have been sexualised through the context of the image.

Many people believe that Araki’s work borders on pornographic and would even say that there is a sense of violence to this photograph however in the current generation the art world is always trying to push the acceptability of sexual imagery. While certain people would say that this kind of imagery is unacceptable for the eyes of younger people and so easily accessible, the counter argument shows that imagery like this can be found in every day life with he most recent example being Miley Cyrus’ music video directed by Terry Richardson, similarly to Figure four, but then again just because it is available does not make it morally right. Nudity has become very common within the world of fashion photography in many different ways, but objectification of women appears to play a large part within the photographical world. It is obvious that Araki is objectifying and exploiting these females but these images ‘play with both exhibitionist desires and instinctual voyeurism’ (Couturier, E. 2012. p184) meaning that people have certain desires that Araki is just highlighting them.

In conclusion, it is apparent that this image appears to be one of controversy, however it is clear that it falls within his particular style of erotic imagery. With this generation continually pushing boundaries when it comes to sexualisation this image is just one of many that will continue to circulate around the photographic world. The image appears to have been portrayed tastefully considering the associated connotations, although the provoking thoughts of violence and objectification will always underlie these styles of photography.

Reportage/Street Workshop

So now I’m back at uni and starting my second year. This year hopes to extend my existing photography knowledge and explore different areas of photography. During a workshop at the beginning of the year, a documentary style photography brief was given in order to become more comfortable with the camera. By holding the camera at different heights and not looking through the viewfinder, it was an exercise where some photographs came from happy accidents. These three images were taken this way and all portray different ideas. The first image could have been more successful however the movement of the right subject’s arm caught the eye and the image was captured from the hip. It indicated that when documenting, a quick eye is needed to capture the image at just the right time.

The bottom left image was taken in a similar way to the top image, in just seconds of capturing the eye, however the one on the bottom right was more planned. It was obvious that the subject was aware that he was being photographed even though the camera was just hanging around my neck. After taking a few of these images that one proved to be the best.

The workshop proved a success as it allowed me to experiment with the camera and achieve a range of angles for the images without looking through the viewfinder. It seemed a little difficult to focus some of the images as I could not check the focus if something caught my eye. Street photography is a field that interests me greatly as so far my favourite projects have included this style. My new project will be loosely based around the streets of Newport and street photography is something that I will continue in my spare time.