Exercise: A decisive moment
Read Simon Bainbridge’s article on the 2011 Hereford Photography Festival. Core resources: Hereford_Bainbridge.pdf. Select one of the bodies of work in the article and write a 200-word reflective commentary in your learning log. (Open college of the arts, 2014:30)
Simon Bainbridge’s Time & Motion Studies presents work that results from deliberate and sustained observation. The five photographer’s concepts with carefully considered strategies are more prominent than their aesthetics. They are communicating ideas about subjects that aren’t necessarily photogenic. Each work has appeared in the British Journal of Photography.
Donald Webber’s Interrogations are real ones of suspected criminals in Ukraine, ‘the result of his personal quest to uncover the hidden meaning of private, unpleasant encounters with unrestricted Power.’ For this Webber worked hard to access to his subject.
Robbie Cooper’s work Immersion is acollection of stills and videos that show the various expressions appearing on people’s faces as they play video games and watch YouTube. In this case Cooper collaborated with psychologists and learnt new technologies to capture his images.
Manuel Vasquez work Traces is based on surveillance culture, images captured mainly in anonymous public places.
I was most interested in the work of George Georgiou (The Shadow of The Bear, 2009-10) and that of his partner Vanessa Winship (Georgia 2009-10) as they shot in the same places at the same time but with completely different agendas.
Georgiou’s project looks at the aftermath of the peaceful ‘colour’ revolution that took place in Ukraine, against a backdrop of Russia resurging as a major international power and is interested in the ongoing interference in both their sovereign and domestic affairs. It shows how people of Georgia and the Ukraine negotiate the space that they find themselves in, individually though with their shared history in the Soviet Union. Georgiou, whilst staying hidden, captures people in their everyday lives and shoots repeatedly from the same vantage point. If there is a decisive moment in his work it comes when he edits from hundreds of his images. The images are sequential but he disrupts the sequences when he presents them, another way that he forms decisive moments.
Vanessa Winship shoots the same subjects but in the open, with their knowledge and usually engages them with a direct stare seeking a connection. Her subjects are usually shot with minimal context and look vunerable. Winship describes their existence as a “Kind of fantasy of sorts” as “there is a kind of melancholia, an underbelly that almost inevitably sets itself against such exuberance”; this is especially so when she visits after a summer of war .
“I found my friends exhausted but very much alive, alive in a way that is only possible when one is so close to the possibility of death” (Agence, 2020). Against this backdrop she says that she searched for those that represented this romanatic fantasy, dancers, wedding guests and so on. Her work explores memory, identity and history (Agence, 2020).
“My work explores concepts of borders, land, memory, desire, identity and history,” wrote Vanessa Winship in 2011. She is a thoughtful photographer who moves between genres – reportage, documentary, portraiture, landscape. Her most memorable images are quiet and luminous.
I find Winship’s work reflective in a melancholy and enigmatic way both on the place and the people. Whilst I find Georgiou’s work more brutal and honest possibly. The work of these two photographers illustrates how motive affects the way that subjects are captured, edited and presented to form the decisive moment in their work.
References:
Agence, V. U. (2020) Georgia, A small piece of Eden – Winship / Agence VU. At: https://www.agencevu.com/stories/index.php?id=697&p=148 (Accessed 01/05/2020).
IN THE SHADOW OF THE BEAR, UKRAINE | prospekt | photographers (2020) At: http://www.prospektphoto.net/stories/george-georgiou-in-the-shadow-of-the-bear-ukraine/ (Accessed 01/05/2020).
Open College of the Arts (2014) Photography 2: Documentary-Fact and Fiction (Course Manual). Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.
Next, listen to Jon Levy, founder of Foto8, talking about documentary in the art gallery at http://oca-student.com/node/100127 Note down your reactions to Levy’s comments in your learning log (Open college of the arts, 2014:30).
Jon Levy on the intention of the photographer
He talks about the intent of the magazine Foto8 being about storytelling, not fictional but as reports of issues that are out there. His main criteria for photojournalism is being able to see the intention of the photographer, and this before the work is presented; this for him is the judge of whether a photograph is photojournalism. He suggests that bringing in work that isn’t obvious photojournalism is useful (for instance local, personal stories) as they can initiate a wider understanding of photojournalism. Sometimes the quieter and sometimes emotional stories can reveal important issues and connect more. Levy says it’s how they work that really matters, rather than how they look, that should decide whether they are photojournalism. Photojournalism has tended to be a western view of the rest of the world, but this shouldn’t necessarily be so; the trend for vernacular photography, which can be at home not in the rest of the world can be effective. Levy suggests that if you want to tell a story whether you have your own point of view or bring an outside point of view, both are equally valid. Accessibility has broadened photography and gives more points of view and different perspectives which can only be good.
A summary of Levy’s perspective:
- Its an interesting comment that photojournalism should clearly show the intention of the photographer.
- Quieter stories can be equally effective at revealing issues and connect with viewers better.
- It is how stories work that is important; I guess whether they work or not rather than whether they are conventional photojournalism.
- Photojournalism should just be that that is viewed as a Western view of the world.
- Both inside and outsider views are equally valid for photojournalism.
- We should embrace the broadened view of photojournalism that greater accessibility brings.
My thoughts:
I don’t feel qualified at the beginning of this course and my first forays into documentary photography to do much except take notes of these ideas. However going forward I will take serious note of the importance of showing the intention of my work, and comfort in the notion that quieter can be good at revealing issues and connecting with an audience, and to be aware that t is how stories work that is important.
References:
Open College of the Arts (2014) Photography 2: Documentary-Fact and Fiction (Course Manual). Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.
In Transit (2020) Hereford Photography Festival. At: http://georgegeorgiou-intransit.blogspot.com/2011/10/hereford-photography-festival.html (Accessed 01/05/2020).
Photography 2: Documentary 