RESEARCH AND REFLECTION: PHOTOGRAPHER TALKS

April 9, 2021August 2, 2021 / niki / Leave a comment

Talk: David Levi Strauss with Duncan Wooldridge (online) The Photographer’s gallery. 7.12.20 (zoom)

I attended this zoom event before I knew that I would be reading his new book as research for my assignment 5. At the first time of reading I found it challenging and did not complete my reflection, knowing that I would have to return to it to understand it.

A few months on with more background reading, I find that I can read his book now with a better understanding, perhaps I just needed a purpose! I have now revisited the recording of the talk, made notes and reflected.

The event: David Levi Strauss was in conversation with photographer, writer and curator Duncan Wooldridge examining belief in the image.

My notes:

In his new book Photography and Belief Levi Strauss writes:

“Visual images become more like testimony than like perception… If we do not find a way to believe what we see in images, we lose the ability to act socially.”

This book came out of an essay that he wrote Co-illusion: Dispatches from the end of communication (2020), which was the precursor to this book, and a response to the Trump phenomenon. Levi Strauss describes it as essays on the present and how we believe and allow ourselves to be manipulated by them. He explains that being part of a process that has been going on for a long time, we tend not to question images:

Belief is a commitment, the beginning of a process of manipulation
We are manipulated by images as we think of images as self-evident so we don’t question them or our belief in them.
Belief is social, as it is dependent on belief by a large part of society – a common belief
It is empowering if you read images knowing the discourse behind them
When he talks of “magic” he is describing the agency created by our technological devices.

Levi Strauss talked of Flusser who wrote Towards a Philosophy of Photography in 1983 that introduced theories about changes in our communication environment. Fusser is concerned that these “apparatuses” will reduce freedom and points to experimental photographers who he says play against the camera.

Much of the interview discussed his book co-illusion (Strauss, 2020) in which he describes how he adopts languages of power to reveal how they speak to the image. Here he Looks at the changes in our communications environment and how that allowed the political dangers that he talks about in the USA, as critical views have been reduced and even how political events can now be set up for the camera. Levi- Strauss call this closing down of questioning very dangerous.

An idea that came out in the Q&A session was on image production and dissemination: Does the photographer need to announce their active part in the work before an image can be read? To which Levi Stauss agreed as he did to the suggestion that ultimately it is the way that the viewer acts that’s important.

Even the second time of viewing I find the talk material challenging, so I will return to his book Photography and Belief to increase my understanding of his ideas.

See my post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/research/a5-research/a5-additional-research/levi-strauss/

References:

Strauss, D. L. (2020) Photography and Belief. David Zwirner Books.

Bajusz, O. (2020) ‘Co-illusion: Dispatches from the end of communication’ In: Visual Studies pp.1–2.

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/2021/04/09/research-assignment-five-contextual-research/

REFLECTION AND RESEARCH: PHOTOGRAPHER TALKS

October 31, 2020December 13, 2020 / niki / Leave a comment

Another Eye: Contemporary Women Photographers – Four corners project – Thursday, October 15, 2020 (Virtual)

Photographers Dragana Jurisic, Amak Mahmoodian and Eileen Perrier discussed their work and issues of identity, Britishness, exile and belonging as well as how their personal histories of migration and exile have influenced them. This talk runs alongside the exhibition ‘”Another Eye: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain after 19332″ (ANOTHER EYE: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain after 1933, 2020).

Dragana Jurisic – Visual artist who works with image, text and video

Yugoslavian, with Serb and creation parents, who moved to Ireland.
Learnt the power of photography over memory
Influenced by the writings of Rebecca West – Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. In her work “The lost country” she followed the ghost of this writer, who also experienced rejection, isolation, and was expressing her identity. This work freed her from needing a country or national identity.
Rejects being defined by nationally which is only an accident of birth

It is fascinating how she identified with a writer and followed her ghost for her work.

Amak Mahmoodian -Persian photographer who focuses on the effect of dreams on memory exile and photographs.

Her work Shenasnameh became known as a political statement, a “representation”, Photos and fingerprints of women in Iran where took photos of people she knew holding photos from archives, concealing their identities, thus was about women society and constructed identities. She used selected historical photographs as masks, asking her loved ones to hold the prints in front of them, framing her own kingdom and centring the sorrow of separation she feels for them because she lives and works three thousand miles away.
The images are surrounded by fragments of an imagined conversation – between Amak, and Princess Taj al-Saltanah, an Iranian princess who lived at the end of the 19th century. She found a mirror in al-Saltanah; these women find the opportunity to be vulnerable, sharing their individual experiences of family, distance, powerlessness, yearning, and hope.
A trailblazer for women’s rights in 19th century Iran, she defied her family and government and advocated for equality and democracy.
Mahmoodian is a curator and through the Ffotogallery touring exhibition Bi nam – Image and Identity in Iran she provided first European exposure for emergent Iranian artists and photographers, presenting work previously unseen outside Iran.
Has been forced into exile, but doesn’t think she’s lost her nationality

This work, though not relevant to me now, is very interesting; in particular her use of archive material alongside contemporary portraits. Her approach linking into a an imagined relationship with an Iranian Princess is unusual.

Eileen Perrier- Portrait artist, a Londoner of African descent whose work centers around identity Britishness and her roots.

Used her student loan to go to Ghana 1995/96 and using family photographs she revisited family there and developed this into portraits at home of her extended family.
Was taught by Anna Fox at Farnham
Recent commissions post degree: Afro hair and beauty 1998-2006, Grace 2000, her Africa remix work showed on the underground
When asked if nationality is negative how do you identify yourself? She answered “As human”.

These works focus on:

Imposed nationalities
Living with multiple identities
Women in societies breaking out of their national gender labels
Not being defined by your origins
Representations of borders

It was the bringing together of these artists and the discussions on how their work represents their feelings about identity, nationality, gender whilst also attempting to break out of these boundaries which I found thought provoking.

Interestingly they believe they should be assessed as artists free of these boundaries.

Reference:

ANOTHER EYE: Women Refugee Photographers in Britain after 1933 (2020) At: https://www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk/whats-on/another-eye-women-refugee-photographers-in-britain-after-1933?s=contemporary+women+photographers (Accessed 16/10/2020).

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/oca-tutor-led/andrea-norrington-28-10-20/

REFLECTION AND RESEARCH: PHOTOGRAHER TALKS

October 31, 2020December 13, 2020 / niki / Leave a comment

Photo London OCTOBER 2020 Nikon School: At home with Ben Moore 8.10.20

This was the only talk that I picked from this virtual event.; I chose it as I enjoy shooting contemporary architecture and I thought I might pick up some tips.

Moore an experienced urban architecture photographer explained that architecture is usually a tight brief without room for self expression and that though he began like this, as his work developed he was able to photographed to his own brief where he tried to be unique in order to be noticed.

Moore suggests to elevate your photography:

Research
Explore
Create
Train your eye to see interesting imagery
Reshoot if you know there was better image in a location
Need to see growth and improvement in your photography
Important to keep people looking around an image

This was a disappointing session as I was hoping for more practical tips however it underlined for me don’ t hesitate to reshoot and to remember to present images that viewers will keep looking around.

Reference:

🌍 London (2020) [Instagram photo] At: https://www.instagram.com/bemorephotos/ (Accessed 31/10/2020).

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/photographer-talks/contemporary-women-photographers-15-10-20/

RESEARCH AND REFLECTION: PHOTOGRAPHERS TALKS

October 31, 2020December 13, 2020 / niki / Leave a comment

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS GALLERY Talk: Laurel Chor (Zoom) 22.7.20

What can photography tell us about a city and its people at a time of political and social unrest?

Laurel Chor is a photojournalist and conservationist. She has documented the Rohingya refugee crisis, the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia in 2018, and recently the protests in her home Hong Kong. She was previously the Asia reporter/producer for VICE News Tonight on HBO, and says it has been different for her to tell a documentary photo story, but she has been able to because this work is a personal story about anger and hope of people fighting against their democratic rights.

Here she discusses the power of images, and how they can tell a story:

She shared with us many of her 2019 images, commenting that these images of protest are unlikely to be taken again in the light of the new rules imposed by China on Hong Kong. She describes it as a very visual movement, with lots of activity designed to be photographed by the media, saying they have a “a collective savviness”.

Her aim initially was to document and catch up as well as there was so much going on; though now she says it’s more challenging to tell the story as there’s not so many events, she is looking for more conceptual ways to tell the story, to convey a sense of loss, nostalgia, and defeat. She captured this elderly lady pleading with the police to go home. Chore was accused of egging the woman on and using perspective and photoshop to capture this moment, which disheartened her.

Laurel explains that protests followed the incident above when masked “thugs” attacked people on the streets with no provocation:

She asked advice of John Vaughn who took an iconic image at the Mexican border of a girl watching her mum being searched, for advice and he said “make sure your captions are accurate”.

She was asked by the chair (writer and editor En Liang Khong) :

Q: What were the challenges of covering this story? There were many photojournalists, local and international also telling the story; a local person can immerse themselves more and have their own emotions to invest,

Q: Is it still safe to document these things? There hasn’t been an overt crack down in the wake of the national security law, but journalist credentials are being checked carefully.

Q: Is there a place or context that you like this work shown? This is difficult under current constraints; in terms of audiences she would like to reach out and open a dialogue with other countries with similar rights problems.

My learning:

This work reinforces my subsequent learning on the value of “insider” documentary photography as I doubt she would have captured so much emotion in her work had she not been native to Hong Kong.

I will definitely follow her work from now on. During her time at VICE News, she produced the special episode “Year of the Dog” about migrant workers traveling home for Chinese New Year, and worked on stories such as the Chinese social credit system, the assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother to Chinese “boy” bands.

Reference:

Laural Chor (2020) At: http://www.laurelchor.com/ (Accessed 27/09/2020).

Talk: Laurel Chor (online) (2020) At: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/talks-and-events/talk-laurel-chor-online (Accessed 31/10/2020).

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/oca-tutor-led/andrea-norrington19-8-20/

RESEARCH AND RELECTION: PHOTOGRAHERS TALKS

October 30, 2020December 13, 2020 / niki / Leave a comment

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS GALLERY Talk: Hannah Reyes Morales (Online) 24.6.20

Hannah Reyes Morales is a storyteller, photojournalist and documentary maker. Born in Manila, as a child she looked to images to learn about the past. She uses the photograph to understand the present and the people in it. Her work, which often shows individuals in conditions of poverty, is tender and she photographs peoples with dignity aware of the social injustices and extreme inequalities there. I was attracted to this talk as I have visited and worked in the Philippines many times.

She grew up looking at images in history books that made her uncomfortable as they portrayed native Filipinos as savages; I remember seeing images like this when I visited the Philippines last year; for instance a poster about the human zoo that was set up in 1904. Though she couldn’t articulate the discomfort she felt, she understood the need to be equal with those we photograph, rather than photographing people out of context.

Hannah wanted to represent people around her, and became a photojournalist in the time of the drug war, with violence, death, mass incarceration. But she also saw life continuing and happening and wanted to help make space to show this other side: love and intimacy in a hostile environment. She described it as becoming more intentional about what she was capturing.

She reached a point where she had to do work that she aligned with even though she had to validate why her Filipino perspective was important; she explained how the Filipino perspective is unique but also global, partly because of the wide “diaspora” (a scattered population that originate from a geographic locality). Indeed her understanding of America was defined by the contents of the Balilkbayan boxes (corrugated box) containing items sent home by overseas Filipinos.

Hannah talks about the importance of the Filipino concept of other people “Kapwa” and seeing yourself in others, a shared inner self when she is working, as this is what she aspires to when taking photographs. She recognises the humanity in herself and others and this is how she engages in the act of story telling. . Kapwa is also about sharing burdens whilst at the beginning she was answering individual questions with her photos she now thinks in general about not forgetting the past but moving forward. Hannah realises now that she has enough bodies of works that are threaded together to begin to answer questions

Roots from ashes connects her to her grandmother who along with others was interred in 1944 bythe Japanese Imperial in red house, and repeatedly raped for days. Though many of the are now dead some gathered together to tell their story through the media, in the hope of seeking support and justice.

The Shelter from the storm is her work about women displaced by typhoons who wind up working in the sex trade. She remembers seeing historical news cuttings of women being used in the sex trade under Vietnamese rule as well as the American’s. The work is about how Filipino women’s’ bodies are commodified. She is also trying to understand intra generational trauma.

Her work on beauty culture and redefining beauty across 5 continents, focuses on how to reclaim or redefine beauty and how it is now much more inclusive:

She believes that as a photographer you need to learn when to step aside to let someone tell their own story, so a good translation is one that doesn’t alter someone else’s narrative.

In the time of Corona Virus she returns to the importance of understanding where she is in the context of history and to use photography to heal by moving forward. She hopes that the work that she’s done will have some effect on those situations. Hannah’s success is her immersion in the country is that she’s not capturing what’s literally in the photograph and that she widens the lens to open the image. I’m interested that she thinks it is important to document your own communities but would also like to see a more inclusive landscape for photographers; for instance that there is perspectives of the Philippines from outsiders and those outside of mainstream authorship -She has hopes that all will be able to be interpreters.

My Learning:

When documenting someone elses story consider stepping aside to let them tell their own story.
Try to photgrah people in context and with dignity
She has varied styles of photographing I terms of colour saturation, lighting and perspective but these can still sit together well as a series.

References:

Givhan, R. and Morales, H. R. (2020) ‘The idea of beauty is always shifting. Today, it’s more inclusive than ever’ In: National Geographic 07/01/2020 At: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/02/beauty-today-celebrates-all-social-media-plays-a-role-feature/ (Accessed 27/09/2020).

Talk: Hannah Reyes Morales (online) At https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/talks-and-events/talk-hannah-reyes-morales-online (Accessed 22/07/2020).

Hannah Reyes Morales (2020) At: https://hannah.ph/Redefining-Beauty (Accessed 27/9//2020).

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/zoom-oca-meetings/oca-tutor-led/andrea-norrington-20-7-20/

RESEARCH AND REFLECTION: PHOTOGRAPHERS TALKS

October 30, 2020December 13, 2020 / niki / Leave a comment

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY RECONSIDERED – AOP WEBINAR – 30th June 2020

Michelle Bogre moderated a panel discussion by: Stephen Mayes, Nina Berman, Ed Kashi and Paul Wenham-Clarke who presented work and then discussed how we should reconsider documentary photography during a time when it is more relevant than ever but at the same time is undergoing great changes.

Stephen Mayes who has managed top level photographers teaches and writes about the ethics and practice of photography. He believes we should consider digital photography as a separate discipline to traditional photography, and we should be aware how audiences are changing as our world does.

Nina Berman, a documentary photographer, filmmaker, author and educator, gave examples of how to photograph with dignity, in particular in areas of sexual abuse.

Paul Wenham-Clarke applies previous skills in advertising photography to documentary; he gave good examples of ways to involve subjects and be truthful.

Ed Kashi, photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker and educator, has transformed his photography from a traditional approach into a more hybrid one using a variety of media.

Lots of questions were raised such as:

Is the line between documentary and Art photography indelible?
Can we trust the photo or has photography been transformed into something different?
How does digital photography change the relationship between subject and presentation?
What is digital photography proof of?
whose truth is a photograph?
Do we need new ethical standards?

My learning:

This talk combined with the Lumix Festival talks that I have briefly summarised below has given me a lot of food for though for my critical essay, and hence I have only given a brief outline of the content of the discussion.

It has also led me to buy Michelle Borges book “Documentary Reconsidered” (2019) which I shall now read.

Reference:

Documentary Photography Reconsidered (2020) At: https://www.the-aop.org/what-s-on/events/current-events/documentary-photography-reconsidered (Accessed 30/06/2020).

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/photographer-talks/hannah-reyes-morales-24-6-20/

RESEARCH AND REFLECTION: PHOTOGRAPHERS TALKS

October 30, 2020July 13, 2021 / niki / Leave a comment

LUMIX FESTIVAL VIRTUAL TALK 22.6.20 STORYTELLERS OF THE FUTURE

Live talk with FRED RITCHIN moderated by Karen Fromm

This was the another Lumix Festival talk that I found particularly inspiring, so much so that I may build on some of the ideas for my assignment 4 critical review. The questions that are at the heart of this festival are important to me going forwards:

“How can visual storytellers be useful in the world?”
“How can they make the right kind of impact with their photographs?”
“How do the image-makers of the future create meaningful media?”

Ritchen is a professor in photography and a co-director of the New York University Magnum foundation photography program; he’s also worked as the picture editor of the New York Times Magazine. He co-founded PixelPress (1999) an online publication experimenting with new methods of storytelling and has recieved an award for ethicl behaviours in photojournalism.

The premise of his talk was that we should do things differently to get real responses to images. He pointed out that whilst digital media is fast changing in journalism image-based storytelling still largely consists of the single photograph, slide show, and short video. He asked:

Can the visual storyteller act as an author who interprets issues and events with subtlety and depth, rather than be employed mainly to illustrate text or provide images to attract readers?
Can the journalistic photograph be used to provoke important questions?
Can the visual journalist be respond in addition to what they see, be proactive and aim to reduce suffering ahead of time.
How can readers be encouraged to be come more engaged and given more complex narrative?
How do we preserve what’s left of the credibility of the photograph?

To support this Ritchen gave lots of examples of good practice, rather than images that will win prizes – some of them follow below:

Images of death:

In June 1969 in Life magazine “The Faces of the American Dead, One Week’s Toll,” were published just as the simple identity card pictures only of fallen US soldiers in the Vietnam war that week. These Ritchen says provoked stronger impact than war pictures would have, saying that “it was no longer the repetitive recitation of statistics concerning each week’s dead that was sufficient, but the requirement that each person killed must be looked at and recognized as a unique individual.” (Ritchen, 2020).

(*LIFE Magazine June 27, 1969*, in Ritchen, 2020)

This idea was also used more recently in the New York Times “Faces of the Dead” where you could click on one of thousands of squares to see images of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq or Afghanistan and also search for the war dead by location which enabled readers to engage more proactively with the information.

On May 24, 2020 the New York Times created a front-page memorial for those Americans who have died from COVID-19 in a different manner, detailing just the names, age and hometown of the dead, and a short phrase describing something important about each individual’s life. Ritchen applauds the way this individualises those that died and worked against the fatigue with numbers. Ritchen suggest that in the Age of Image there may be more effect in the less that can be seen (Ritchen, 2020).

New York Times, May 24 2020 (Ritchin, 2020)

Ritchin also cited the work I have previously studied by Anton Kusters (https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/photographer-talks/anton-kusters-4-3-20/) where a beep on the soundtrack represents a death in a concentration camp, and an image of the sky above represents each concentration camp. I can see that Ritchen is promoting is methods of visually narrating that provoke thoughts of the normal lives of those dying in wars, to show that there was life beyond the image.

Ritchen also drew attention to the book “Nuclear nightmare: Twenty Years since Chernobyl” (2006)

with photos by knoth, this was particularly interesting as I’d heard a talk by Knoth the previous day (https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/photographer-talks/knoth-and-barnard-photography-in-a-fragmented-world-21-6-20/ ). In this work Knoth’s images supports documentation of the impact of nuclear accidents in eastern Europe, on the health of people.

Nuclear NIGHTMARES (s.d.) At: http://www.pixelpress.org/chernobyl/ (Accessed 11/07/2021).

The idea of a “rollover” combined with an image for additional information was new to me.

I have also since explored the Four Corners Project” conceived and compiled by Fred Ritchin, supported by the International Center of Photography and the World Press Photo Foundation. The software is open-source and free for use by the public. Users can put information into the corners of photographs, eg code of ethics, backstory, image context, links or related images. This looks like a great resource that I must try out.

These examples above align with Ritchen’s belief that we need meta-photographers who think what to do with images and how to get good coverage from them. Interestingly he suggests that photo books are probably more respectful than the swipe cultures of social media photography.

This talk by Ritchen has been really inspiring.; the last time a photographer and panel impacted me so much was the Mark Neville talk 4.4.20 (https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/photographer-talks/mark-neville-4-3-20/ ).

MY LEARNING:

As a documentary photographer to make a difference:

Be accurate, don’t add or subtract things from the visual elements or stage to make something look exciting
Don’t revictimize people, by replaying negative, sordid or sad scenes.
Contextualise accurately
Don’t be reactive
Think about the impact of work on the world
Avoid stereotypical images
Try Interactive photos” portraits
Show images but the reveal information, such as “Rollovers” to give delayed information
Value photo books
Try using the template from The four corners

Generally it has made me think about how a visual storyteller should do things differently to:

Remember I am an author when photoraphing and have a responsibility to understand properly what I am seeing/showing
interpret with subtlety and depth
provoke important questions and photograph to create reaction/response
Respect and collaborate
be proactive
use diverse strategies available in the digital environment, to engage the reader and allow for more complexity in the narrative

References:

Four Corners Project (2020) At: https://fourcornersproject.org/en/about/ (Accessed 22/06/2020).

Nuclear NIGHTMARES (2020) At: http://www.pixelpress.org/chernobyl/ (Accessed 23/06/2020).

Ritchen, F. (2020) Remembering the Dead, Differently. At: https://www.fotodemic.org/features/remembering-the-dead-differently (Accessed 11/07/2021).

Storytellers of the Future | Lumix Festival für jungen Bildjournalismus (2020.) At: https://lumix-festival.de/en/themen/storytellers-of-the-future/ (Accessed 23/06/2020).

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/photographer-talks/documentary-reconsidered/

RESEARCH AND REFLECTION: PHOTOGRAPHERS TALKS

October 30, 2020December 13, 2020 / niki / Leave a comment

23.6.20 LIVE LUMIX FESTIVAL TALK – STORYTELLERS OF THE FUTURE

This photographer and his talk was along the same theme as Fred Ritchen’s talk above and I may use some of the material for my critical essay so I’ll only post a summary here for now.

Misha Vallejo

Like Ritchen he believes we need new approaches which aren’t romantic so tha we can bring truth to photography. He researches and works in a humanistic way, and shared his project “Secret Sarayaku”, which records the struggle of the Kichwas who live in Ecuador and are defending themselves from the exploitation and destruction of the rainforest for purposes of extracting oil. He used a variety of media to document the lives of the people in Sarayaku over three years, and works in a non- linear way. His work is collaborative and empowering for the subjects.

My learning: In relation to my assignment 3 I note his comment on book making: Start the project first, and the project will suggest what the end result should be like.

I was interested that Vallejo says it is important to listen to people outside the photography world and not to need validation from the photographic world – as Ritchin said, the best work doesn’t always win prizes.

References:

Gonzalez, D. (2018) ‘At Home in the Jungle, Everything Is ‘Alive and Has a Spirit’’ In: The New York Times 20/04/2018 At: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/lens/at-home-in-the-jungle-everything-is-alive-and-has-a-spirit.html (Accessed 22/06/2020).

Home (2020) At: https://secretsarayaku.net/home?locale=en (Accessed 22/06/2020).

Next Post: https://nkssite5.photo.blog/category/learning-log-research-and-reflection/photographer-talks/fred-ritchen-22-6-20/

RESEARCH AND REFLECTION: PHOTOGRAPHERS TALKS

October 30, 2020December 13, 2020 / niki / Leave a comment

I was lucky to be able to attend the lumix Festival virtually and captured 3 talks which were particularly thought provoking, this was the first one.

New Perspectives on Documentary Practices (virtual Lumix Festival 21.6.20)

HOW TO POSITION ONESELF IN A FRAGMENTED WORLD? A LIVE TALK: Iris Sikking in conversation with Lisa Barnard and Robert Knoth

The topic “New Perspectives on Documentary Practices” reflects on the changing role of journalistic photography in today’s world; current tendencies in visual-journalistic storytelling and the development of visual narrations that subvert the traditional viewing habits, expectations and stereotyping of classical documentary photographic narrative forms.

Lisa Barnard and Robert Knoth have broken away form the photojournalistic realm, finding their own visual approach in producing, conceptualising and presenting their projects. They discussed their choices for the presentation platforms, the value of in-depth research, and the tension between the hyper reality of journalism and the more abstract qualities of art and literature, which requires a self-reflexive documentary approach. The idea of fragmentation in society and representation is important in both their works.

ROBERT KNOTH

A Dutch photographer working with Antoinette de Jong produced Poppy-Trails of Afghanistan Heroin (2012) an exhibition video installation and book, then a few years later a web site:

The story is about the effect of heroin rather than the drugs themselves; the framework behind the heroin trade, such as the war in Afghanistan which is largely funded by drugs trafficking, as are the Somalia, Kosovo, Pakistan, Ukraine, Albania wars.
The Book has a non-linear timeline, with layered storytelling. It began as a show case for images of these trails, but this seemed dull, so they let go of traditional photography. They thought a visual urgency was needed for the work, and that it called for different types of photography, for instance different camera formats.
The Installation has 4 different screens to bombard viewers as a replication of how people today consume news from several devices at a time; the work also moves around in a random way. It is “fragmentated”, they struggled with how to make the issues clear and present a cohesive narrative so created a broader narrative on the topic to show the layered complexity of social, economic or political issues and the impact on the lives of ordinary people.

(Poppy interactive – Submarine Channel, 2020)

Q: When working on new visual language, can you predict whether galleries/editors will accept it? He never thinks about if it will be liked, his only criteria is will it work?

Q: Do you have advice for emerging photographers working on personal projects?

Collect your materials then get out into the field and see what works.
Follow your instincts as a creative person
Give yourself time to create your own narrative.
Hang around and something will happen, improvise, sometimes being flexible leads to things that are better than what you planned; he often uses material he hadn’t planned to.
There are always different ways of telling a story.
You need to have a vehicle through which you can navigate, a person, narrator

Lisa Barnard – The canary and the hammer (2015)

This work was followed by a book and exhibition (2019) it is her personal journey through the world of gold, its value today and its history:

“Through a mix of image, text and archival material, Lisa Barnard provides an insight into the troubled history of gold and the complex ways it intersects with our global economy”.

The project began from the financial crisis 2008 which affected her personally. It’s essentially about whether photography can show what’s hidden. The investigative strategy, often used by photo journalists exposes a deep concern for the needs of the ordinary people, such as the “Pallaqueras” in Peru, who sort the ore on the surfaces for pieces containing gold, photographed for “The Canary and the Hammer”.

It moves in and out of the fictional and documentary narrative, because this is what happens; there are always multiple truths, hence many different styles of photography. The fragmented work signifies the impossibility of representation and getting to the truth as documentary photographers and for viewers; look at the fragments and present these, rather than shy away from a story that is easy to tell. The exhibition was intended to reveal the hidden aspects of gold in an unsettling and claustrophobic way. I was struck by the 1950s newsreel music in the video and the way you navigate it in many directions.

Barnard is less motivated by books, more by web docs, and says that work should be about the viewer. The need for funding forces you to think about your motives and intention (audience, where they will be viewing), she suggests you should be true to your concept and ideas but make them accessible (not too text heavy, too fragmented), as a visual artist the visuals have to come through. Show your work to outsiders to check it’s accessible. She also believes it’s important to give photos back to those you’ve taken.

Both these photographers realised that traditional journalism was not working for them and decided to follow a different approach; these stories are too big for papers and magazines, but galleries regard them as photojournalists.

My learning:

Follow your instincts as a creative person.
Collect your materials then get out into the field and see what works.
Don’t make assumptions photograph everything otherwise you’ll miss the story that emerges – See laterally around the subject, improvise, being flexible may lead to things better than those planned.
Give yourself time to create your own narrative.
Work doesn’t have just one visual output and each work responds to the medium it’s presented with, this addresses the idea of fragmentation in society. There are always different ways of telling a story. look at the fragments and present these, rather than shy away from a story that is easy to tell
Be true to your concept and ideas but make them accessible (not too text heavy or fragmented.
In an exhibition you can tell well layered stories in non-linear ways.
Web docs or interactive web sites are more flexible than books, as once books are done they’re done; also they make things accessible to you that is difficult to do in a book and are an important addition to the cannon of photography.
As a visual artist the visuals must come through.

References:

Knoth, R. and de Jong, A. (2020) Robert Knoth and Antoinette De Jong. At: https://www.knothdejong.com (Accessed 24/06/2020).

New Perspectives on Documentary Practices | Lumix Festival für jungen Bildjournalismus (2020) At: https://lumix-festival.de/en/themen/neue-perspektiven-des-dokumentarischen/ (Accessed 24/06/2020).

News : Lisa Barnard (2020) At: http://lisabarnard.co.uk/news/ (Accessed 24/06/2020).

POPPY Interactive – Submarine Channel (2020) At: https://submarinechannel.com/poppy-interactive-documentary/ (Accessed 24/06/2020).

Warner, M. (2019) Lisa Barnard’s investigation into the troubled history of gold. At: https://www.bjp-online.com/2019/08/the-canary-and-the-hammer/ (Accessed 24/6/2020).

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RESEARCH AND REFLECTION: PHOTOGRAPHER TALKS

July 4, 2020July 7, 2020 / niki / Leave a comment

AOP Breakfast Club – In Conversation with Carol Allen-Storey 23.6.20 via Zoom

with Gideon Mendel, Simon Roberts, Jillian Edelstein, Liz Hingley

Q: HOW HAS COVID IMPACTED ON THEIR WORK?

Gideon Mendel

is recognized as one of the world’s leading contemporary photographers, he has an intimate style of image-making and long-term commitment to socially engaged projects. He has for instance made collaborative film with HIV patients’ film by themselves

We are Living Here – Gideon Mendel (2020)

He calls himself an interloper, between documentary, street photography and portrait photographer; he likes the different controls in each. He talked about his Ridley road project, where he saw yellow lines being painted on the road and then shot people with the lines and signage and masks; he still returns and has shot 260 portraits so far. Returning makes you notice things like the different weather. He takes the subject’s e mail and then sends the photographs and their stories they have told him:

Liz Hingley

a photographer, anthropologist and curator works on cross-disciplinary projects that explore systems of belief and belonging in cities. She collaborates with academics on long term basis, and was working on a project exploring privacy in a public space with cell phones and digital culture – this has stopped, as has her work with families that have been rehoused for the new high speed train route:

Instead she has been out locally, noticing how people were engaging with her local Hampstead heath in different ways during Covid. She is now interested in small rituals, their physicality and impact: like hand washing. She proposed and been accepted by local hospitals to give photography workshops to staff to engage with how it’s been for them during Covid; they’ll take the photos and curate them, afterwards they’ll be hung in the hospital.

She talked about a new body of work on portraits of workers on ventilator production line and composite of their gestures when working on a part on the production line:

Her web site shows many interesting projects which I shall explore when I have more time:

Projects – Liz Hingley (2020) At: http://lizhingley.com/projects (Accessed 24/06/2020).

Simon Roberts

is a British photographer known for creating wide-ranging surveys of our time, which examine contemporary economic, cultural, and political landscapes.

Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Shoreham Air Show, West Sussex, 15 September 2007

He has previously done a lot of work about gatherings, working about how people interact with the space, but this has had to stop now, and has found it hard as cannot carry on with previous projects. He’s spent more time with his family and thinking about the new reality; how he will he make work in the future and how will we carry on as visual artists?

During the Covid crisis he took 56 seascapes through the 56 days of lockdown and sold them to raise money for the NHS.

NHS Covid-19 Fundraising Print – (Simon Roberts, 2020)

Jillian Edelstein

works in both portrait and documentary photography. She is currently working on finishing her feature documentary about the Bipolar afflicted, Academy Award nominated American screenwriter, Norman Wexler.

Before Covid she was working on a “The Lonka Project” related to holocaust survivors, who became a vulnerable group because of their age, so had to pause it.

This portrait of John Hadju MBE, a survivor of the ghetto and the Holocaust in Hungary; he is with his teddy bear, ‘Teddy’, who came out of Hungary journeying with him as a refugee to the UK. This image will be included in an international collaboration of thirty professional photographers of all faiths who, since 2019, have each volunteered to donate one photograph of a survivor of the Holocaust to share their stories.

During Covid she tried photographing in Kilburn high Road, a multi-cultural community at the beginning of lockdown, but found most refused to have their photograph taken and stopped.

She has continued her ongoing series Affinities as ”Behind The Colorama” looking at past collaborations again now during a time of social distancing and self-isolation; to think about the richness and value of our relationships, friendships and creative associations. The videos include film clips made during the most recent shoots for the project.

Asked what kind of legacy as storytellers’ photographers are going to be leaving behind, Edelstein said:

Collaborative bodies of work
Curating on Instagram accounts
Feeling the experience through other people’s photographs

My learning:

The benefits of having long term commitments photographic commitments
The benefits of collaboration
I am not so different to these photographers; the Covid situation stopped my creativity and productivity for a while, and it has made me reflect on the importance and meaning of photography going forward.
Even professional photographers do not find it easy to engage people collaboratively on the street

References:

HOME | jillian-edelstein (2020) At: https://www.jillianedelstein.co.uk/ (Accessed 24/06/2020).

NHS Covid-19 Fundraising Print – Simon Roberts (2020) At: https://www.simoncroberts.com/news/nhs-covid-19-fundraising-print/ (Accessed 24/06/2020)

Projects – Liz Hingley (2020) At: http://lizhingley.com/projects (Accessed 24/06/2020).

We are Living Here – Gideon Mendel (2020) At: http://gideonmendel.com/we-are-living-here/ (Accessed 24/06/2020).

Work – Simon Roberts (2020) At: https://www.simoncroberts.com/work/ (Accessed 24/06/2020).

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