Lyndsay Cadden Photojournalism
I have always been interested in photography, and the different style and techniques which are involved. Taking an image an either involve detailed and crucial planning or it can be taken in the moment. Journalism is a part which i have started to become interetsed in when i started studying media for GCSE and further on in A level. My dream job after finishing this course would be working for a magazine either paper based or online.
CONTENTS What is a myth and the Loch Ness monster page 3&4 Photograhic timeline page 5&6&7 Manipulated images page 8&9 Frozen imag page 10 Propaganda page 11&12 Social Comment page 13 Journey page 14&15&16 Bradford impressionist gallery page 17&18 Summary page 19
What is a myth? A myth is a story with a purpose or something to learn from, they have usually been told over a long period of time. Myths try and explain events or phenomenon’s which could not at the time be answered by science. In ancient Greece many questions were being asked in regards of the weather system and the universe. Since science had not yet developed enough to help explain, gods and myths were created in order to help people understand.
On the 22nd of July 1933 it was reported that a creature was inhabiting the Loch ness. The Loch ness is the largest freshwater lake in the UK stretching over 24 miles. This myth is still a fairly recent one compared to other myths which stretch back thousdans of years. Although one of the first official reports was in 1933, spotting of the creature date back as early as the seventh century CE. Shortly after in 1934 a surgeon named Colonel Robert Wilson took the most convincing picture of the monster, which was later published in a book. The picture taken was in black and white and quite grainy, so being able to make out whether the creature is real or not in this image proves to be difficult. However it was exposed that the ‘creature’ in the water is a plastic head attached to a toy submarine.
zues from ancient greek mythology
hese myths usually involved Greek gods or religion, who was there to teach people on earth the main differences between right and wrong. Zues is a popular Greek mythology character people reference when talking about myths. He along with his two brothers controlled the elements of the world, and his domain was the sky and thunder. In Greek mythology Zues was known to have a raging temper, which at times caused thunder to striker. When people asked about the weather or why thunder strikes zues was the example give to explain this.
Minimal evidence has surfaced over the years to prove there is a creature living in the loch. Many of the pictures and sonar readings which have been carried out have either been a hoax or are highly criticised. One of the theories which try to explain why the creature is not spotted regularly is underwater caves have formed over the years.
However from the sheer size and depth of the loch you would not need any caves to be able to hide in a space that big. The scientific community regards the loch ness monster as a myth, and explains the ‘sightings’ of the creature as wishful thinking or practical jokes. Not one creature could have the life span to cover the amount of years the sightings have gone on for. There would have to be another creature in order for children to be reproduced. If this was the case, more than one creature would have been spotted over the years. Over the past years this popular myth has become part of Scotland’s identity which manages to attract a number of tourists to the loch annually. There are a number of solutions which could be carried out to find out if there is a monster living in loch ness. However if it was proven to be un-true the numbers of tourists descending on Inverness would no doubt decline. Local Skipper on the loch ness took this image in 2011, but was not released until 2012. The image was sent to the American military to ensure that this image was not taken of an inanimate object. The myth of the loch ness monster has become a part of Scotland’s heritage. People from all of the country and world travel to inverness to see if they too can get a glimpse of the creature. Whether this myth is real or not tourist are exploited by buying souvenirs like this which represents the supposed ‘monster’ which lives in the loch.
Myths are usually created to explain something which science or any other reason cant. Many children stop beleieving in magical creatures from a young age, as they are taught they dont exist. Perhaps the point of the loch ness monster is to keep the ‘inner’ child of us alive, as there is no evidence to suggest the monster does not exist. So we are left with our own conclusions to whether the creature exists or not.
Photographic timeline 1031-1095: chinese scientists experimented with camera obscura, geometrical and quantative attributes were applied.
1850’s - From this decade onwards most phtograpghs were made for a commerical basis.
1839- Photography invented by henry fox talbert and louis dagurre 1858- Felix nadar became first person to take aerial shots.
1843- Anna Atkins produced the first book to included photograms. The images were made without a camera , they were placed onto a surface of light sensitive paper and expose it to the light.
1844- Friedrich von martens built a cmaera containing a swivelling lens that can take panorama of 150 degrees.
1860’s- The dagurreotype was being used seen as ‘polaroid’ of its day. Image on a polished silver surface , under protective glass. Brightly lit sheet of paper held so it reflects the mirror like material surface. Image will appear first negative, dark - to light areas then reverse. Instead of normal positive 1872- Edweard Muybridge: Hired to settle question about all horses lighting all four legs in the air when they gallop. He was Successful in doing so.
1878- Numerous glass plated cameras placed in a long line on the edge on a racing track. Shutter was tiggered by a thread as the horse passed. Images were copied as a form of silhetoes to a disc to be viewed in a machine he has invented (200 praxiscope) device has later regarded as an early move project.
1934- Henry fox talbot creates permnament nagative images.
1948 - Poloroid camera invented 1885- George Eastman invented a roll of film used by early film makers and Thomas Edison. 1888- Kodak revolution. Bought out a brownie camera in the 1900’s priced pirced at $, photraphy was available to everyone ‘you press the button, and we’ll do the rest’. 1963- Poloroid develops first colour film. And Kodak relases its instamatic camera.
1926- First under water colour photos
1982- Sony introduces its still video camera.
1991- Kodak reveals its first SLR camera
1992- Kodak introduces photo CD 2000- camera phone introduced in Japan
2003- Kodak ceases production of film cameras
2012- Nikon releases latest SLR camera
Manipulated image Salvador dali; the persistence of time. Salvador dali’s work is reknowned for being seen as surrealist art. This image in particular is one of dali’s most known works and was completed in 1931. It was first put on display in 1932, and has been on display in the museuem of modern art in new york since 1934. The overall connoation of this image is about the ‘uselessness’ of time when sleeping. Elephants reguarly appear in many pieces of Dali’s work. The red clock in the bottom left hand corner which is crawling with ants, is supposed to represent death. The colours used in the painting can also represent the sleep state. The colours at the top of the painting are quite light and neatral colours, which symbolises when you first fall asleep your still aware of what is happening around you, so you are able to wake up easily. Towards the bottom of the painting the colours are gradually getting darker untill it is completly black. This connotes the further you are in a dream the harder it is to wake from it, also it could mean the scary nightmares you have, but find it difficult to wake from them.
Salvador Dali’s Three Sphinxes of Bikini. 1947 Dali painted this after world war two, the united states carried out nuclear tests at Micronesian atoll, Bikini. Many of the residents who occupied the island were evacuated straight away into other parts of the country. Although this image is supposed to represent the nuclear test, from the surrealist way this has been painted it looks as though the nearest object to us, is a set of shoulders, and smoke which substitues as the head. This could represent the mental side of the nuclear test, having to clear families from their homoes to practise with a weapon that can kill people in secounds, ruin homes, and a weapon to primarily to be used in wars. The secound object looks quite similar to a tree trunk and tree shubbery at the top. This could represent the nature side of using the nuclear weapons. Even practising with them, causes harm to the surrounding areas, and by having the tree trunk having a massive chunk missing in the middle is able to clearly demonstrate this. The overall colours clash with the theme of the painting as the colours are mainly different shaded of green which have the connoatation of being linked to nature and new begingings.
Frozen image This image is known as the ‘falling’ man and is an iconic image in regards of the 9/11 terroist attacks. The picture was taken by Richard Drew who was working with Associated Press photo journalists. The identity of the man falling is still unknown, on average around 200 people chose to jump from the world trade centre while the attack was being carried out. This image espically stands out as there was so much chaos happening this picture was able to capture the man falling perfectly, with no blurring. My Interpretation- The falling man could represent survival of the fittest, from the planes hitting the towers it was instantly filled with smoke and fire. Some people who had no way of escape took it into their own hands to jump and end their lives before further explosions/ attackes were carried out on the world trade centre. The picture shows how tragic the attacks were that people resorted to taking their own lifes, however alothough the amouth of chaos which was occuring at the time, the image seems to be some what peaceful. The man falls straight down from the window, tumbing in the air and at some points falling gracefully. Since the image does not provide any sound effects, it looks as though the whole scene would have been in dead silence.
PROPAGANDA What is propaganda? Propaganda is when a group of people try to persuade a community/mass of people a specific biased message. They maintain that their viewpoint is correct, and the people who do not share their thoughts are incorrect . A weapon which is usually used to convey this is through types of media e.g posters which are posted all around a city, this allows their message to be recieved by a large amount of people. A prime example of this would be nazi Germany. Hitler came into power in 1933, and between him and the government they were able to ‘brainwash’ citizens into beleiveing many things, including not socialising with people with jewish origins. They were able to demonstate this to the public by burning book which did not fit the nazi criteria of a well run country. They were so adament about this idea and taking over many of the countries in europe such as poland, that it started a war between germany and England. This image is advertising world war 2 against England, and encouraging germas to join the army to fight for their country. The man who is the central figure of the image, has been designed with many weapons. This would be encouraging germas to think violence is good, and the fact they have many weapons to fight with, will help them to win the war against England.
The hand sign which is being pulled in this image, is iconic for nazi germany. Having many hands in this image which is not of soldiers, may encourage the general public to feel being apart of this extreme movement is bringing everybody together. There has even been some childrens hands which have been included. So the message being given out would be all of germany united.
This poster is of Hitler waving the flag with the nazi symbol on it, with his soldiers in the background also waving the nazi flag. This is making hitler to look good, as he has his army in quite a large number behind him. Also behind his head the clouds have parted and the sun is shining over hitlers head. The message this particular part of the poster would want to communicate with the public is as though hitler is doing what god wants, and therefore the people who share his values and fight for the country will also be in gods favour.
This poster relates to the act Hitler and the government carried out after a short while of Hitler being in power. This was when books were burnt in a public space were these books not share the same ideas and values the german government at the time.
SOCIAL COMMENT This image was created by Banksy. Banksy is an established ‘artist’ and is espically known for his work in London, as many of his ‘works’ are on the side of buildings and in public areas for all to see. His work has strong polictal value’s and in relation to do with society. On the identity front Banksy still remains anymous in terms of what he looks like and his real name, which is a major advantage so he can carry on creating pieces of ‘art’ in and around London. This image in particular features disney worlds Mickey Mouse on the left, and ronald mcdonald which is an iconic character who represents the worldwide food chain mcdonalds and in the middle is a victim from the vietnam war. It was an attack with (tear gas?) which harmed many people and was so lethal that it burned off the clothes she was wearing. This image is very ironic as both characters promote happiness and are favoured by many children around the world, however the child they are featured with is in much pain and distress. And it might also coincide with the capitalsm is our society today, both characters represent major chains which make billions of pounds on an annual basis. Also both charcters were created in the USA, and the bombings which has harmed the child in the middle was from american soldiers in the vietnam. –––
Journey Julia fullerton Batten
This image is part of a series to do with scale photography, in this case the subject is bigger than their surroundings, much like the fairytale alice in wonderland and jack and the beanstalk. In both fairytales some sort of magic is involved to cause these drastic size changes, Alice drinks out of a bottle labelled ‘Drink me’ which casues her to grow and also shrinks during the story. The building the the girl is standing in front of seems to be ‘prison like’ it may be a school etc. With the facial expression of the girl looking quite unhappy, a type of magic may have been used for her to drasticly grow bigger than the building behind her, whether this magic be in her mind or through a prob e.g. magical beans/ drinks. The young girl seems to be rebelling against the institution, she has a text book in her arms with what seems to be pieces of paper flaoting in the water in the shape of boats. It could also represent rebellion of mainstream itself. The young girl is wearing a red dress, the colour can connote hatred, anger and rebeliion.Many people do what they are told by others and society, the subject in this image might be fed up with following the ‘rules’. This image tells a story of a girl who has outgrown her childhood. The book could symbloise a book of fairytales and she’s throwing them away as she feels she has outgrown them. When you are younger everything including buildings seems to be massive, in this picture you can still tell the building is a fair size but since the girl has also grown it shows she has had a rushed childhood.
Fashion is an industry which has which has been going for centuries and they still have the same values today as they did when they first started which is the the size zero craze. In fashion you are not condisdered or beautiful or normal if you are not the same size as a model. There has been many campaigns for fashion modeling to include curves but this has been very rare. Many fashion brands have been known to photoshop the models used in the advertisements to make them look even thinner. This would encourage women to think they are not worthy enough to wear such brands and to alter themselves to do so. Girls are concious from a very young age about sizes and how they look. This can encourage girls to think whether they fit in the ‘norm’ Alot of fashion models are already skinny from the job they have, however the computer programmes photoshop is usually used when editing pictures for fashion companies. Every so often there is a flaw which has been over looked when editing an image. For example this image the womans hand has been edited way to much showing the image has clearly been tampered with, this might have been a tempt to make her hand etc to look thinned then they actually are. This again gives out the negative message of even if women are not skinny enough to feature on fashion adverts they are to be photoshopped.
This was an ad campaign by ralph lauren advertising their jeans range. This particular image caused quite a stir as the model featured in the ad is very skinny. When it comes to the world of fashion seeing skinny models has now become the norm. But it seems the fashion idustry has taken this concept too far, as the models featured for premium fashion labels such as ralph lauren are getting thinner. As a whole people are now becoming used to seeing images such as this, therefore thinking it is the norm and being inadeqate. The film stepford wives (2004) also encourages this message, of a idealistic woman. TThe basic outline of the story is the remote town of stepford has a small population where everyone knows each other. A new family moves into the town, but the wife joanna soon realises she does not fit in with the other ‘perfect, obedient and well groomed’ women. One by one different female characters of the town seems to be turning into this ‘perfect prototype’. She soons realises the private mens ‘club’ have been plotting to insert micro chips into the womens brains to transform them into the perfect house wives. She is finally been micro chipped, and now seems to match the other women in the town. At the end of the film her husband was too reluctant to turn her into a ‘robot’ The main culpurit who was behind the whole idea of turning these women into robots turns out to also be a robot. Who was constructed by his ‘wife’. This dennotes that as a female the woman didnt feel confortable enough to show off her talent and knowledge as she was a brilliant mechanic. She felt she had to be the perfect housewife and the men should be the ones who have the knowledge and final say over things.
Once upon a time
Cinderlla is a fairytale which was at first a story book. However it is mianly known for the animaed movie created in the 1950’s by walt disney. The basic outline of the story is a young girl named Cinderella becomes an orphan, she lives in her childhood home with her stepmother and two step- sistsers. Since Cinderella has no living relatives this has allowed her ‘wicked’ step mother to get away with treating her cruely and making cinderella the house slave, meaning she has to do all the chores. There is a ball in the kingdom for the young prince charming to find a suitable wife. Cinderella who is not treated as an equal in the household has been forbidden to attend the ball. However her fairy god moth appears and magically transforms cinderella into a fairytale ball gown and transportation to arrive at the ball in ‘style’. She meets the prince and they fall in love straight away, because of the spell her fairy god mother has used it means she has to leave before midnight when the spell will wear off. Before leaving cinderella drops one of her glass slippers which the prince picks up, and orders his men to search the whole kingdom until they find the young woman who was wearing the slipper at the ball, the woman of his ‘dreams’.
he men search far and wide all around the kingdom to find this fair maiden, cinderellas step mother ensures cinderella is oblivious and out of the way when the men turn up, but she manages to catch them before they leave so she also has a chance to try on the glass slipper. The step mother trips one of the men up ending up in the glass slipper being smashed into tiny pieces. At this point cinerella ensures the men its fine and brings out the secound glass slipper. This results in both cinerella and her prince charming getting married and living ‘happily ever after’.
This fairytale has been a ‘classic’ for many years for children growing up. It in a symbolises no matter how bad you feel your life is, it can always get better. However many people have commented on the fact this story could be sending children the wrong message. The lesson children could mistakely be learning is if your marry someone famous or rich after a short period of time, you too will be happy and have your happy ending.
As an excursion for the course we went to the impressionist gallery in Bradford for the day. The gallery itself changes its exhibitions about every 3 months, the exhibition we attended was ‘the roads to Wigan Pier’. We had to find an image which we felt attracted our attention and answer severeal questions given to us about the image. Bradford- Impressionist galery 3. Do you like the image? Explain your answer i do like the image, the image it self is quite ironic as there is a playground is empty and is the connotation of childhood and innocence. And in the background is a industrial view where, its known for harming the enviroment. It can be seen as a sign of the times. 4. Consider the composition - where are things placed within the image? what effect does this have? A lot of sky is included in the image, the main cluster of objects is located in the centre of the picture, the playground is abandoned. ‘abondoment of childhood’. Shows clear contrast between power plant and church. The image i chose to focus on was by John Kemp, who has over 25 years of experience in photography and has studied art and design. The questions gieven to me to answer were. 1. What is the name of the work and who is the photographer? John Kemp (name of image was not given) 2. Desciribe what you can see? You can see an empty playground and a power plant building in the background. an ‘industrial background’. The image i chose to write about, by photograpgher John Kemp
5. What is the point of view - where was the camera positioned? Close up or far away? What does this imply? The camera has been positioned central in the images and quite far back. The image may have been taken so far back in order to include the important buildings in the image. 7. What type of light is present within in the image? is it natural or artifical? what atmosphere/mood does this create? 8. Are any relationships formed between the image and other works in the exhibition? Is it part of a series? How does this effect its meaning? 9. What associations does the work have for you? What does it make you think about, how does it make you feel?
Summary Overall i enjoyed the project, and liked giving in the different parts of the work during the weeks. One of the things i found easy about the course is having a task each week, which allowed me to focus on the main task given. And therefore write and research as much as i could in detail. One of the things i found difficult about the project, is if you fell behind on one of the tasks it can make the rest of the tasks a bit more difficult, as it meant you had to complete the previous weeks task as well as the new weeks task. The tasks we were given were usually worded in a question, i liked the work being given to us this way as a lot of it is left to interpretation and it allows you to develop your own ideas for the work being asked. Some of the tasks also gave me the chance to research into things i would normally not have usually looked into . Such as propaganda in nazi germany and the chance to visit the impressionist gallery in Bradford.
BibleograpghyFirst impressions - Peter Pal Rubens