Portfolio part 2. My aim is produce a separate constructed document (from existing photographs) that challenges notion the idealised wedding album records the event accurately by creating an alternative version from existing snapshot images taken by amateurs and mixing with some of the photographers on the day . This is to examine how the family album can only show a little glimpse of the real situation. The Family Album.
Phil Coomes |
09:17 UK time, Wednesday, 8 July 2009
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BBC NEWS VIEW FINDER. As time passes I find that my eye turns more often to pictures that depict little moments in people's lives. Photographs that capture the tales of a life passing, dreams realised, and those that just got away. The family album is something we all treasure and is often cited as the item we'd grab if we were allowed to keep only one possession. Yet, I'd guess we have all seen old family albums for sale at auction, in charity shops or at photographic fairs, and this seems odd, personal pictures so out of context, images of loved ones no longer remembered. How do they get there and what stories do they hold?
Dawn Parsonage is also interested in this field. Indeed she likes to collect things, pictures and children's books anyway. She is the proud owner of a large collection of children's books that were once owned by the late Spike Milligan, including one with an inscription from Peter Sellers. Fascinating stuff, but of course my interest lies in her growing collection of old family photo albums, not her family you understand, those of What can you tell from a photo? strangers. I asked Dawn to explain why she is drawn to collect other people's pictures: Is it just conjecture? Are images enough? I think context is important as
well. "I'm fascinated by photography and social history so old photo albums are the perfect marriage of the two. They're windows into a day, a moment, a captured fraction of a second a long time ago that can tell you so much about the person and the time they lived in.
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"I've been collecting old photo albums for 10 years now. It all started with a 1930s album and diary of a Brownie leader and her antics on camping trips I found in a market for ÂŁ8. Some of the pictures are beautiful, some comical and some surprisingly modern. "After that I kept my eye out for other interesting albums with images that were more than just the snaps on the beach, or pictures of the new baby. I love images that tell a story, which have humour; images that show the personality of the subject or the photographer, bringing the moment to life again.
We do not know the real story we are happy provide our own narrative.
"I think it's so sad that all these images could so easily have been lost. When I see a ripped album page I wonder what moments have already gone forever, and how long it will be until the photographs I work so hard to create and capture today are forgotten and lost too. I guess there's part of me that holds onto other people's memories and moments to give them a second life. "I love photographers such as Robert Capa, and I guess these albums do a similar thing to his work, documenting life, but the difference being these were never published.
Why? Because the person portrayed was not famous or important enough at
the time. "In my bookshelves I have the album of a sailor who travelled to the Far East and proud of his ship, the Glaswegian who tried to document his city with the modern technology of photography, the woman who was amazed by the life sized inflatable elephant hovering over the corner shop and a picture of a hideous dress lovingly made and never worn again. I'd love to share all of these images and stories somehow, ideally getting a book together in the future. "I not only collect these images but I also take photographs in the old way too, with a twin lens camera with no light meter. I guess the exposure the same way as they would have done for most of the images from my albums; this has so far worked well due to the latitude of black and white negative film.
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"I love the silence and unobtrusive nature of my old camera, the preciousness of each image in this day of digital. There's something about old techniques that feel warmer, with more of an atmosphere to it, although it's difficult to put you're finger on why I love it so much really."
Indeed, how long before the photographs we all take are forgotten and lost too, and if you follow that through to its conclusion, how long before our lives are forgotten and cast aside at a car boot sale. It's not just pictures of people, places too, photographs of record that are abandoned without any captions. Can you identify any of these found by Nicky Clark? Pictures can be cruel,
all photographs are in some ways about death, the moment that will never
come again, mantelpieces dotted with children's faces, long grown and now hidden in the world. Clarisse d'Arcimoles, who has just completed a photography course at Central Saint Martins College in London, has attempted to turn back the clock, restaging her own family pictures. The details are exquisite, and each frame took days to plan, yet for all that she notes that "what is being reconstructed is no longer reachable". These frozen moments also play an important part in shaping our own history and can over time begin to shape our memories. Do we remember the event as it happened, or do we remember it because there is a picture of it?
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That of course doesn't only apply to personal pictures, but also the grand moments of history, those split seconds caught by the lens that define whether a moment is important or not, but maybe that's a post for another time.
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This might be possible for some images on our wedding day.
After a bit of asking around it was not possible to do as there was only one person who still had their clothes from the day. I had thought of doing the group shot but there are too many people missing. I had thought of still doing it but leaving the space but after a few phone calls it was going to be almost impossible to get everyone together.
Wedding do bring people together and people are generally given plenty of notice so they can plan ahead. I do not have the time scale.
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Photo elicitation refers to any approach in which participants are shown photographic images and asked questions relevant to the research topic. The photographs, usually a series of related images in printed or digital form, provide a means of stimulating comments, memories and open discussion. Photo elicitation can be used in structured or semi-structured interviews. It is a useful tool for exploring abstractions, generalities and reactions to specific events or themes. Interviewing with images can also be used to gather encyclopaedic information, document knowledge distribution within a community and validate data gathered during other interviews or field methods.
I could take this approach with my wedding day photographs http://www.bdln.net/node/614
The Hand written notes add more depth to the images and make them more personal
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Strengths + Photographs focus and sharpen the memory and can be used to assess informants’ knowledge of specific topics. + Photo elicitation is useful for identifying, in the early stages of fieldwork, “experts” or knowledgeable individuals who may later become key informants or hired as field research assistants investigating folk classification systems and gathering vernacular names of flora and fauna understanding the ways informants identify and distinguish objects. + Interviewing with photographs can be useful for alleviating the discomfort informants can experience during intense periods of questioning. +Photographs are engaging. They offer the informant a gratifying sense of self-expression, as he/she is able to explain and identify the image content and educate the interviewer in the process. Furthermore, photographic content that includes the informants may generate considerable amusement and as a novelty can engage surrounding family members who are eager to see the images. This can lead to group discussions, which may be helpful for revealing differences of opinion or understanding within a household unit.
Weaknesses - Photographs do not always adequately represent an object in its natural context. Seeing something in the flesh is distinct from viewing a photograph and in contexts where people are unfamiliar with photographs, items may be misidentified because they are “out of context”. For example, if images are being used to elicit information about flora and fauna, informants’ responses may significantly differ from the data collected in relation to living or collected biological material. - In some communities people are uncomfortable being photographed or in general with the depiction of people or even animals. In these areas, photo elicitation may have to be limited to plants, artefacts and other images that are culturally appropriate.
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These Images are not your typical wedding album shots. They capture the “Real” what is actually happening without causing offence. There is no illusion or fantasy in these images unlike my commercial album where the focus was on making everything perfect and magazine like. Leeming’s images show how these people live. Their pride and culture is played out for all to see.
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Layering is a technique that I have tried before but the feedback I got was people found it hard to understand the resulting abstractions and I want to create a narrative with my family album so I must consider other 11 options.
We all have pictures of moments that “have� to be recorded but these really tell a false story. We are smiling yet our world may have fallen apart. Moods and emotions may be guessed at 12
'Jo Spence characterizes the 'Family Album' exhibition as a first step in investigating her own family and class background, and what it means to be a woman', she quotes Spence in saying, 'the cross-fertilization between class and sexuality has informed all my work since this period.' She goes on to outline how an interest in class politics is central to all her work, but how in later years 'questions around class are nuanced by concerns with the psyche, with the inner life and fantasy; by concerns raised in 1980s feminist thinking on representation and sexual difference and, more importantly perhaps, by Spence's less overtly theorized work on the family album and in phototherapy.' Spence described Beyond the Family Album as a work-in-progress aiming 'to better understand how, through visual forms of representation, our subjective views of selves, and others, are structured and held across the institutions of media, and through hierarchical social relationships.'
Spence identified popular photography as the complex site of ideological negotiation between family, class, gender and social life. She emphasised the need for a 'counter-photography' of the family, one that breaks with the strict conventions of popular photography, to portray a more realistic representation of family life. She critiqued how most family photography is reduced to a limited set of typifying narratives and how much of what constitutes family life remains undocumented. She advocated collaboration between participants, willing to engage with questions of sexuality and complex family relations. Beyond the Family Album, Private Images, Public Conventions, was originally shown at the Hayward Gallery, London in June 1979 as part of a survey show of contemporary British photography called Three Perspectives on Photography. Alongside this work, the exhibition includes some of Spence's early work with the Hackney Flashers on childcare and work on family produced 13
by The Polysnappers while studying at the then Polytechnic of Central London. It will also include photographs that she made with her brother during his divorce, Phototherapy work examining her relationship with her mother and some material from her leukaemia diaries. Jo Spence's work on extending the categories of the family album continues to function as a stimulating and practical model for thinking about what photographs do. Her project becomes more complicated when considered in relation to
sensationalised depictions of dysfunctional family relations displayed in contemporary art galleries. However, in a context where art is increasingly viewed as entertainment, her contribution can be valued as a current media trends of confessional display and
necessary intervention into everyday social practice and as a tool-kit for understanding and critiquing representational and media conventions.
What do photographs do? They please, excite, horrify and record what’s in front of them. They can be manipulated by selecting a view point or post production. With context they can be used to document the world around us. We interpret them or treat them as aesthetic surfaces. Old family snapshots can tell us things like style at the time but not the emotional state of the person in them, we may guess that the person is happy because they are smiling but that smile may be a performance for the camera. Does shooting candidly improve the situation, marginally I believe.
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photography quickly assumed a documentary role in anthropology, based on the underlying premise that photographs are visual transcriptions of reality, which appear to contain fact, evidence, and truth in an objectivity that is the cornerstone of factual documentary reporting. Objectivity also requires the image maker to be as unobtrusive and candid as possible in taking photographs, and to reveal visual information impartially in a manner that can both describe visual contexts and alter events as little as possible from reality. However, the photographer also has to frame the scene and choose the moment, so perfect objectivity is not possible. It is not always possible to be unobtrusive; for example, if a dark scene has to be lit with electronic flash. Within these limitations, anthropological photographers adopt a strictly documentary approach and combine it with scientific method to interrelate, synthesize, and finally interpret visual and written information. When used in this way, photography is a valuable adjunct to anthropological and ethnographic research. As a research tool, photography’s apparent verisimilitude creates a special category of document, which can be used as a visual counterpart to written observation, merging direct observation with realistic representation. Within its limitations, photography thus provides a consistent, tangible record for analysis and recordkeeping in an objective and commonly understood visual language. It is also a reliable means of storing, ordering, and interpreting visual information. Most of the photographic evidence that finds practical use in anthropological research is concerned with counting, measuring, comparing, qualifying, and tracking. More specifically, the primary applications of anthropological photography demonstrate patterns in cultural diversity and its integration, societal control, religious behaviour, marriage customs, festivals, etc., as well as to document the effects of
st. Photography is especially useful in this regard, because it allows the wholeness of each behavioural pattern to be essentially preserved while maintaining the spatial and contextual separation necessary for analytical cross-referencing and scientific study. these patterns on both the culture and the environment of intere
Read more: Anthropological Photography - Visual, Cultural, Scientific, and Research - JRank Articles http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/1110/Anthropological-Photography.html#ixzz1eNzejUnX
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As a result of my research I will look at photographs my wife and I were given of our wedding from all sources. The aim is to create an album that captures more of the emotions than the official album. The official album skirts certain issues. I intend to use Photo elicitation to draw more of the story out. Whilst Sian and I wanted to get married we were both apprehensive and aware of issues that could ruin our day. My Mum being a prime concern, she has caused trouble before at both my sisters and brothers weddings. I wanted my step dad Tony Hancock (George Anthony Hancock) as my best man (Tony and my mum were divorced) this took some negotiating. My mother has never been not very fond of the chief bridesmaid. (Rhian Hancock, my Brother, Mark’s wife. My mum caused a lot of upset at my brother’s wedding. First by refusing to come (I cannot remember why), then drinking as well as taking prescription pills and being very embarrassing at the reception. She had to be taken home.
I decided to arrange the images in the same chronology as my commercial wedding album. The exception was to put the Wedding days of both sets of parents. When I searched through the packets of photographs, it awoke emotions that I had suppressed. The family politics that had been forgotten by both sides are hinted at but when forced to recall they resurface. 16
I had a very disturbing childhood and this effect’s me today. I times of stress I can revert back to how my parents behaved. I do not want my daughter to suffer like I did so things have to change perhaps I can stop it from happening, un learn the behaviour. Making this album as a work of art has kept memories of people alive. The re-evaluation and questioning of the characters portrayed is important social history. Also the retelling of key events has a cathartic effect. In getting people to look at the photographs and recounting experiences some of the hurt is reconciled. Also some of the joy is preserved.
I chose to put the photographs in a cheap album representing the ones I was used to as a child. I started to put texts with the images and had done a few pages before presenting it for feedback. The feedback I got was that it was that my spoken descriptions were more interesting than the photographs. The images only hinted at what I wanted to say. The work needed a shock value to it. I have to ask myself how personal I want to be. How much I want to reveal. Would almost essays of text give that shock? No I needed something that would focus the personal. I remember some of Tracey Emin’s videos from the Exhibition “love Is what you want.” They were not highly elaborate piece of cinematography but made using low tec equipment; this may work in some form with my wedding memories.
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I thought about this and decided to record people’s reactions to the photographs. It’s a shame the conversation with my mother about when she married Tony was not recorded. I think she was avoiding the question. I am unable at this time able to pursue her about it.
From the feedback I decided to include the spoken word in my project. Text was rejected because it can be a bit dry to go to a gallery and be faced with a novel to read on the walls. What did I want? Do I record voice only or a video interview? I thought as we are looking at photographs it would be appropriate to show the photograph with the voice over. Did I want a long Interview? Not really that could be as dull as text so I thought just to record short sound bites max 10 minutes for each photograph. The First photograph I chose to talk about myself. It was the Picture taken by the official photographer of myself with Tony outside the church waiting for the bride to arrive. (He gave us a CD of all the images as well as the Album.)
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I was so disappointed that none of the pictures of us outside the
church are technically correct; Tony was being prompted by the photographer to show me the rings so he nearly stuffed them up my nose messing about. This is the only time during the wedding that we were photographed together with no one else in the picture. None of the sequence is in any way aesthetically pleasing. This is exasperated by the fact that a few months later he was dead and this was our last day together.
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This was my best effort to Photoshop the image to see if it could be recovered. It could not so I typed over a digital copy to show my disappointment.
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The recording was not scripted and was done in one take. I did not want it to sound rehearsed. I wanted the raw emotion to be there. I have a cold as well which affects my voice but this is what I will use. It is a un-mediated response to the image, my initial feelings if I go back and polish it will not sound like me, I might edit the content after I have had time to think of the consequences. (One consequence is that the written comment 7 years after the event might upset Sian’s dad who arranged the photographer) Now I have the voice over what do I do with it? Options
Display as a print and use ear phones for sound
Display as a print and sound loud in gallery.
Video projection in dark room.
Display electronically video or interactive display
Web video. I think making a show reel will enable many possibilities. I think I should only show the comment for a short time during the voice over then fade it out as it becomes less important with time more important is the memory of Tony. I decided to fade the photo out and just end with a blank screen. 21
The second photo despite its technical imperfections is special to Sian as some of the people are no longer with us.
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This photo was selected as the one where Sian explains why this venue was selected I chose this Picture of me and my Mum. This was directed by the photographer. I was feeling apprehensive. I just wanted everything to go smoothly and it had so far! I was reminded of my Brother, Mark’s wedding. My mum had started drinking early, upset people misbehaved; fell asleep, in her dinner. I phoned Mark and recorded the conversation I was surprised how casual he sounded about it. He did not tell me anything really that I did not know but enabled me to laugh about it now. It was very traumatic at the time. But this conversation brought back a repressed memory of the day. I remember my mum’s attitude as she arrived. She was looking for trouble. (Still not sure why she does not get on with Rhian marks bride, I suppose the feeling is mutual.) This made me nervous and I did not see the signs that one of the bride’s maids (Sian), was interested in me. Lucky for me she persevered! And this is our wedding day! I guess it was easy to repress the negative at Marks wedding but talking about a photograph it still brings the memory back perhaps only in part.
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Repression Repression involves placing uncomfortable thoughts in relatively inaccessible areas of the subconscious mind. Thus when things occur that we are unable to cope with now, we push them away, either planning to deal with them at another time or hoping that they will fade away on their own accord. The level of 'forgetting' in repression can vary from a temporary abolition of uncomfortable thoughts to a high level of amnesia, where events that caused the anxiety are buried very deep. Repressed memories do not disappear. They can have an accumulative effect and reappear as unattributable anxiety or dysfunctional behavior. A high level of repression can cause a high level of anxiety or dysfunction, although this may also be caused by the repression of one particularly traumatic incident. Repressed memories may appear through subconscious means and in altered forms, such as dreams or slips of the tongue ('Freudian slips').
Example A child who is abused by a parent later has no recollection of the events, but has trouble forming relationships. A woman who found childbirth particularly painful continues to have children (and each time the level of pain is surprising). An optimist remembers the past with a rosy glow and constantly repeats mistakes. A man has a phobia of spiders but cannot remember the first time he was afraid of them. A person greets another with 'pleased to beat you' (the repressed idea of violence toward the other person creeping through).
Discussion Repression (sometimes called motivated forgetting) is a primary ego defense mechanism since the other ego mechanisms use it in tandem with other methods. Thus defense is often 'repression + ....'. Repression is unconscious. When we deliberately and consciously try to push away thoughts, this is suppression. In Freudian terminology, repression is the restraining of a cathexis by an anti-cathexis. It is not all bad. If all uncomfortable memories were easily brought to mind we would be faced with a non-stop pain of reliving them. To Freud, the goal of treatment, i.e., of psychoanalysis, was to bring repressed memories, fears and thoughts back to the conscious level of awareness. Repression is one of Anna Freud's original defense mechanisms.
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So what? When a person is being defensive in some way, think about the repressions that may be at the root of their problem. Also listen for speech errors and other signals from the subconscious. You can even start a conversation about recent weird dreams and then listen for further symbols, though be careful with this, as dreams can be very symbolic. Help a person recover from the discomfort and dysfunction that repression brings by digging out the original memory. Be very careful with this, of course - done wrong, it may only cause more pain. If you have caused a person stress and they feel unable to respond, you may find that they act as if nothing had happened. This is a surprisingly common attribute of persuasive situations. It can gain compliance in the shorter term, but can build up problems for later.
In this Image Sian Talks about her experience at Marks Wedding and her fears for our wedding day. This clip tells the same point as mark in the last clip but Sian elaborates more. Sian remembers more than Mark or is just prepared to tell more. Perhaps the reality is deeply repressed by Mark. It is no surprise that it is so much else has gone by and been forgiven. Mark now has two daughters which he takes to see their grandmother and why should they suffer for the past
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For these to be exemplars of oral history there are a few things missing, the structure of the encounters with the photographs was not precisely defined. There were no searching questions planned but a level of emotion has come out.
“For the historian, oral history interviews are valuable as sources of new knowledge about the past and as new interpretive perspectives on it. Interviews have especially enriched the work of a generation of social historians, providing information about everyday life and insights into the mentalities of what are sometimes termed "ordinary people" that are simply unavailable from more traditional sources. Oral histories also eloquently make the case for the active agency of individuals whose lives have been lived within deeply constraining circumstances
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/how.html
”
This “all smiles” photograph shows how everything can be forgotten so we have a record that appears to show harmony when in fact that is everything is on the edge of falling apart.
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The question now I have made these individual clips is how to present it. In total the clips add up to 18minutes and 57 seconds. Options To make them in to one slideshow or projection would be I feel too much for the Viewer. To decide what to do I must take a look at video art. GENERAL INTRODUCTION Video installation is a contemporary art method that combines video technology with installation art. It is an art form that utilizes all aspects of its surrounding environment as a vehicle of affecting the audience. Its origins tracing back to the birth of video art in the 1970s, it has increased in popularity as the means of digital video production have become more readily accessible. Today, video installation is ubiquitous, visible in a range of environments—from galleries and museums to an expanded field that includes site-specific work in urban or industrial landscapes. Popular formats include monitor work, projection, and performance. The only requirements are electricity and darkness. One of the main strategies used by video-installation artists is the incorporation of the space as a key element in the narrative structure. This way, the well-known linear cinematic narrative is spread throughout the space creating an immersive ambient. In this situation, the viewer plays an active role as he/she creates the narrative sequence by evolving in the space. Sometimes, the idea of a participatory audience is stretched further in interactive video installation. Some other times, the video is displayed in such a way that the viewer becomes part of the plot as a character in a film. Video art is named after the video tape, which was most commonly used in the form’s early years, but before that artists had already been working on film, and with changes in technology Hard Disk, CD-ROM, DVD, and solid state are superseding the video tape as the carrier. Despite obvious parallels and relationships, video art is not film. One of the key differences between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema. Video art may not employ the use of actors, may contain no dialogue, may have no discernible narrative or plot, or adhere to any of the other conventions that generally define motion pictures as entertainment. This distinction is important, because it delineates video art not only from cinema but also from the subcategories where those definitions may become muddy (as in the case of avant garde cinema or short films). Perhaps the simplest, most straightforward defining distinction in this respect would then be to say that (perhaps) cinema’s ultimate goal is to entertain,[citation needed] whereas video art’s intentions are more varied, be they to
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simply explore the boundaries of the medium itself (e.g., Peter Campus, Double Vision) or to rigorously attack the viewer’s expectations of video as shaped by conventional cinema (e.g., Joan Jonas, Organic Honey’s Vertical Roll).
Is it TV, Or is it Art?: Video in the Artist’s Hands For over 30 years, artists have experimented with ways in which video images and technologies can expand and enhance their work both as a medium and as a tool. Although controversial at first, the collaboration has changed the arts, producing new art forms, new visual languages, new ways of relating images and sounds to performance, and new means of making and distributing art. And as new digital technologies emerge, artists are finding even more creative, exciting applications. A Whole New Way of Seeing In 1965, Nam June Paik, a musician and conceptual artist, purchased the very first Sony Portapak video system delivered to New York City. By today’s standards, it was a monstrous contraption with a separate black and white camera and portable VCR. Within days, he began producing videotapes that pushed the accepted boundaries of television and art. At the time, video images and technologies were rarely seen outside the nation’s living rooms and TV stations. But the new, affordable half-inch-
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tape portable video cameras and special effects generators (SEGs) offered artists an opportunity to use the tools of television to expand their work and explore ideas about culture and communication, aesthetics and technology. Early video art, as Paik, Bruce Naumann, Woody Vasulka and others call it, ranged from single-channel, non-narrative videotapes screened on a gallery monitor to multi-monitor, multi-image video installations. Challenging traditional ideas of art and television, these artists used video images and technologies as moving canvases and sculptures for often surreal, sometimes self-indulgent, usually powerful art works. They expanded the visual vocabulary and forced viewers to think about the relationship between art and media in a new way. Understandably, critics and art-lovers were confused: is it television, or is it art? Click here to download an essay from the book, “Art of Projection� by Tom Gunning
The Album and the sentiments in the clips are very personal so it is appropriate they be projected large to fill a large apace? No I feel the method looking at this work should be intimate and personal. The deliberate use of technically incorrect images (snapshots) is a significant part of the work. Content is more important here than aesthetics. They are images that invite the viewer to see the cultural coding of the relationships. This might cause the viewer discomfort and reflect on their relationships. I want the viewer to examine their relationships. How can I display the work in a personal way? The album contains hand written comments, my attempt to find out more information to pass on. The album could be digitalised and converted into a PDF that could be read on an interactive screen. The clips could also be on the same interactive device. The original could be on display in a case and the interactive displays could show what the viewer chose, they have the power to decide how long they spend watching and what they listen to.
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Not only do Galleries use interactive displays but they can be anywhere.
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The Family album is now being replaced by the internet. Facebook and other social network sites are commonly used to upload family snaps (amongst drunken antics) so maybe a web site could be the interactive method of viewing the work. I decided to create a temporary web site to give an impression of what the interactive content would include.
http://jonhancockportfolio.webs.com/ In this project, the wedding Album of Sian & Jon is reconstructed using images shot both by the guests and the official photographer. The purpose of using snapshots is to examine the strained relationships present in the Hancock family. The snap shot is employed here to communicate private experience to the viewer. These images are taken at a symbolic time and acknowledge family bonds and social status as well as memories we want to hold on to. The interviews however reveal the fears and dysfunctional relationships behind the posed smiles.
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Evaluation. The web I think works with this project. The viewer can go away and come back if they want. The mixture of sound and image I believe develops the narrative. “Ultimately — or at the limit — in order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes. 'The necessary condition for an image is sight,'Janouch told Kafka; and Kafka smiled and replied: 'We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes.” ― Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
This is why I let the images fade to black so you could reflect on the images. Producing the interviews was emotionally difficult for me. My relationship with images has changed over the last 2 years this is due to reading works by critics such as Sontag, Barthes, Walter Benjamin and Azoulay. It is now more evident to me that the meaning of an image can be manipulated and the viewer must be aware that photographs require interpreting. This interoperation may differ from the author’s intent. Postmodernism considers the image in terms of its production, dissemination and reception rather than technical mastery of the modernist canon. Photographs are seen as signs that acquire their significance and value from a system of social and cultural coding. The expectation is that everyone is happy on their wedding day this series shows that this is not always the case. It also shows that through discussion with people present at the time of the image making, different parts of the story can be relived. I had completely forgotten about my mum getting angry about not being able to sign the register at my brother’s wedding. On a personal level talking about the photographs had a cathartic effect. 34
I was looking back at images that I have probably not looked at for six years or so. They were in a box hidden in the top of the wardrobe. Why? If they mean so much why do they not get looked at regularly? Are the good memories treats waiting to be discovered? Just knowing the images are there is a comforting thought. Confessing the soul has become a part of modern living and this is what this project does. Carrying out more Photo elicitation would expand the project. Others my find entertainment into the encounter between the photograph and the voice over but for me as an artist it reveals my roots and has helped me remember some of the past hardships, mistakes and good times. For me at the moment this is as much as I want to reveal. Other things have come to light whilst reminiscing over the past. Things that now I am older I never want my daughter to experience for so I need to resolve by letting the anger and pain out.
For this module I have created two completely different Albums. One made for profit and one that shows the use of photography as a tool for understanding social relationships. One is the ideal fantasy wedding and one shows the everyday reality of a Couple who grew up in a tough neighbourhood. However one feeds into the other. My commercial wedding business has benefited by my understanding of the importance of each image. You must try to capture everyone who attends as you never know how close their relationship with the client is. 35
The commercial album is a stepping stone to getting a real wedding and making an album to show the wedding start to finish with crowd and full bridal party. This will be a step up and I will be able to show variety at larger wedding fairs. The documentary side of my practice has benefitted by adopting techniques that enable images to be captured in low light and by looking at how people behave. Things happen spontaneously in the real world and the wedding photography sharpens those skills. You have to make a story for the couple just as you would for an editorial documentary. Aesthetics is important for both types of photography.
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