VPA104
INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL IMAGING WEEK 3
ABOUT
LAST WEEK:
THIS WEEK: We look into some more difficult debates around voyuerism, as well as and the importance of photographic modality in relation to photojournalism, and what the notion of ‘truth’ means to the press photographers and historians in particular. There are readings for this week that will help you to further understand the importance of some of these ideas. (Check out the two links below for some interesting takes on digital collage). Image on cover page: Digital Collage by Jackie Leebrick (Source: https://francismarionphoto.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/the-digital-collage/). Banner images are part of the collage, “French Collage” by Jorge Florioano. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jorgefloriano/)
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The Pictorialists were one of the first photographic groups to use photography as an expressive artistic medium, opening up the great photographic debate: IT IS ART? Those of the New Vision used it as a way of extending the perspective of the human eye, of emphasising the diagonal against the horizontal and vertical frame of the image, and using cropping to remove meaning from images.
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We looked at the emergence of photography as an art form in the Pictorialist era, and then how those of the New Vision movement used it as a way of celebrating mechanical modernity.
CONNOISSEURS & SKEPTICS
HOW REAL IS
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VOYEURS,
AND WHO CAN WE TRUST?
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THIS WEEK: THE TRUTH?
REAL?
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“Hero Big Mac” (n.d) Source: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/content/dam/ McDonaldsUK/Food/Category/HERO_BIG_MAC.jpg
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“Zero Big Mac” (n.d) Source: http://aht.seriouseats.com/ images/2009-09-31-mcd-bigmac2.jpg
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“Fresh Produce” 2012 Source: http://www.thenutritionpost.com/wpcontent/uploads/2012/08/organic-food.jpg
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“Organic food box” 2014 Source: http://media.mercola.com/ ImageServer/Public/2014/July/ organic-food-fb.jpg
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FRANCISCO GOYA 1746-1828
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Francisco Goya (1810-1820) “Rightly or Wrongly” Plate 2 Source: http://www.richardharrisartcollection.com/portfolioview/francisco-goya-2/li-goya-plate2b-2/
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Francisco Goya (1810-1820) “And They Are Like Wild Beasts” Plate 5B Source:http://www.richardharrisartcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/LI-Goya-plate5b.jpg
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DIANE ARBUS 1923-1971
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Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City (1962) by Diane Arbus
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Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey (1967) Diane Arbus
John Malcovich as Arbus’ Indentical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, Photograph by Sandro Miller
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Not being John Malcovich...
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Unknown title, Diane Arbus (n.d) Source: https://www.pinterest.com/ pin/575897871072038459/ Title and year unknown, by Diane Arbus
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DON MCCULLIN 1935-
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“I want you to look at my photographs. I don’t want you to reject and say: ‘No, I can’t do that. I can’t look at those pictures. They are atrocity pictures.’ Of course, they are. But I want to become the voices of the people in those pictures.” – Don McCullin
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Don McCullin, “Turkish Cypriot Woman Mourning” (1964). Gelatin Silver Print. Source: http://www.mattwhittingham.com/wpcontentuploads/2013/03/Don-McCullin.jpeg
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Don McCullin (c. 1970) “Kids on Bradfor Estate” Source: Art Blart
Source: The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/ artanddesign/2015/nov/27/don-mccullin-warphotographer-digital-images Image: Don McCullin (1968) “Hue, Vietnam” Source: https://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/ don-mccullin-darkness-visible/
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“[Don McCullin] said photography had been ‘hijacked’ because ‘the digital cameras are extraordinary. I have a dark room and I still process film but digital photography can be a totally lying kind of experience, you can move anything you want... the whole thing can’t be trusted really.’”
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EDDIE ADAMS 1933-2004
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– Rare Historial Photos
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“Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world,” AP photojournalist Eddie Adams once wrote. A fitting quote for Adams, because his 1968 photograph of an officer shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the head at point-blank range not only earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, but also went a long way toward souring Americans’ attitudes about the Vietnam War. For all the image’s political impact, though, the situation wasn’t as black-and-white as it’s rendered. What Adams’ photograph doesn’t reveal is that the man being shot (named Nguyen Van Lem) was the captain of a Vietcong “revenge squad” that had executed dozens of unarmed civilians earlier the same day. Regardless, it instantly became an icon of the war’s savagery and made the official pulling the trigger – General Nguyen Ngoc Loan – its iconic villain.”
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“After Nguyen Ngoc Loan raised his sidearm and shot Vietcong operative Nguyen Van Lem in the head he walked over to the reporters and told them that, “These guys kill a lot of our people, and I think Buddha will forgive me.” Captured on NBC TV cameras and by AP photographer Eddie Adams, the picture and film footage flashed around the world and quickly became a symbol of the Vietnam War’s brutality. Eddie Adams’ picture was especially striking, as the moment frozen is one almost at the instant of death. Taken a split second after the trigger was pulled, Lem’s final expression is one of pain as the bullet rips through his head. A closer look of the photo actually reveals the bullet exiting his skull. The gif from the execution (graphic images!).
“Two people died in that photograph: the recipient of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapons in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. … What the photograph didn’t say was, ‘What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American people?’…. This picture really messed up his life. He never blamed me. He told me if I hadn’t taken the picture, someone else would have, but I’ve felt bad for him and his family for a long time...I sent flowers when I heard that he had died and wrote, “I’m sorry. There are tears in my eyes.”
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Eddie Adams, Time Magazine, 1998
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KEVIN CARTER 1960-1994
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Kevin Carter (1993) “Vulture and a Girl” Source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2bC4tzzNunE/ VeHwwrlUDJI/AAAAAAAAJ70/V_j37Pbwt8E/s1600/ The%2Bvulture%2Band%2Bthe%2Blittle%2Bgirl.jpg
How does framing change the way we view Carter’s image of the Vulture and Girl? Consider what’s INSIDE the frame and what’s OUTSIDE of it as well.
FRAMING: IN SOCIAL SEMIOTICS, FRAMING REFERS TO THE ELEMENTS WITHIN A FRAME THAT CREATE EITHER CONTINUITY OR DISCONTINUITY BETWEEN ELEMENTS: FRAME LINES, PICTORIAL FRAMING DEVICES, COLOUR, BOUNDARIES FORMED BY OBJECTS, SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCE.
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FRAMING
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Yasushi Nagao (1960) “17-Year-old Otoya Yamaguchi stabs Socialist Party Leader Inejiro Asanuma” Source: Rare Historical Photographs
As a genre, there’s an underlying assumption that what the lens has captured is ‘true’.
Warning: The following video contains images of Aboriginal people from the Port Macquarie area that are now deceased.
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But how do we frame this when we think about photographers who considered themselves more as historians than journalists?
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http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4358901.htm
What are some of the possible issues raised by these photographs in terms of truth?
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What do you think of representation of people and how does it help or hinder people coming to understand each other? What role does photography-as-document play in this?
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What do these photographs mean to us today, as modern-day inhabitants of the region?
TRUTH MATTERS
(but reality is in the eye of the beholder)
In this week’s workshop: Compositing “Vivica” & “Judi Dench” •
Review of week 2 workshop and questions
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Workshop 3 Task 1: Simple Compositing exercise
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Workshop 3 Task 2: Alternative compositing exercise
Image from previous page: New York street reflection. Is this a real image? Or composed in Photoshop? (Source: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4c/27/60/4c27602ed0494faf33e0fd7e056cd100.jpg)
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SKILLS (Task 2): Quick selection tool, refine edge, inner glow, erasing, cropping, save & save as.
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SKILLS (TASK 1): Magic Wand tool, Refine Edge, Erasing, Flip Canvas, transform, B&W adjustment layers, clipping mask, save & save as.