*PLEASE NOTE* Photography as Research

Hello and welcome to the blog. Please note that posts are in order of date posted, therefore it is necessary to scroll upwards from the bottom of the page in order to follow them in order. Thank you Michael

Working with a partner

1                                                                                  2

3                                                                                 4

   5

‘Photos taken of us by other people give us a chance to see the many ways that others may perceive us. They allow us to examine what it is about us that matters to others in our life and compare this with what we think is, or should be, most important about us to them. If we have posed for the photo, it shows our posing behaviour (to the person gazing at us through the lens). If it is spontaneous – a candid shot – then often a different self is captured’.¹

‘Re-enactment photography offers a methodology that can make visible and open up aspects of the self to scrutiny. It uses the languages of the body: gesture, facial expression and movement, in an embodied eloquence, which is photographically recorded’.²

Working in pairs for this project we would photograph each other in the form of a photo story. After discussing ideas we determined that we had a shared interest in the idea of the re-enactment photography of Jo Spence and Rosy Martin. However, as we both come from more of a Fine Art rather than a Therapeutic background we wanted to use the idea in an alternative way. The project is not so much re-enactment photography but more a reflection, documenting turning points in our ‘career’ aspirations, from a very young age to the present. Similarly to Spence and Martin it would allow us to think back and reflect on younger ages and allow for a potential re-enactment of emotion from that age. However, whereas Spence and Martin used re-enactment photography ‘by going to the source of an issue or an old trauma, re-enacting it and making a new ending’³, we would use it more as reflective nostalgia by interacting with an object from our past to potentially reveal facial expressions or emotions. These turning points would range from the very ambitious/ambiguous to the present with relation to career aspirations. Mine were selected as follows:

• Age 4-5                        – Astronaut
• Age 7-8                       – Spiderman
• Age 14 – 15                 – Footballer
• Age 17 – 18                 – Artist
• Present                       – Artist/Cinemaphotographer/Photographer

We made a conscious decision not to go overboard on the props; instead we would use signifiers in the setup of the images. As well as the practical implications of cost etc this would also enable us to focus more on the emotions we were trying to capture in facial expressions and the general feel of the photograph. We would interact with the object as the other would take photographs in the hope that an emotion or even punctum would be captured.

Photographer Irina Werning has used re-enactment photography in her ‘back to the future’ project where she literally stages re-enactments of youthful or old pictures using participants. She says ‘to me, its imagining how people would feel and look like if they re-enact them today’⁴. To some extent we used this idea but instead of literally re-enacting an old photograph we made a new imagined one, re-enacting an age in our historical timeline, a photograph that never existed but an emotion or aspiration that did.

The process of handing the camera over to another person was a new experience for me. Whilst I was in control of the whole photographic setup (the staging of the image, where I would sit/stand and the objects I would interact with) I wasn’t in control of the moment the shutter would be depressed. Therefore, I asked Kerry (my partner for this exercise) to put the camera in continuous shooting mode, this way Kerry would, on instruction be able to simply depress the shutter and hold it there until I said stop. This meant that the camera would take a series of images at less than one second intervals and I would be able to choose the images which best captured ‘me’ from the numerous quantity at the end of the shoot. Whilst initially apprehensive about handing over my camera to someone else I am pleased with the results of the photo shoot. I intentionally utilised and considered many of the previous techniques to culminate and use in this final task such as the use of the gaze and the interaction with objects.

I think the photographs speak for themselves in terms of what the content or object of the image is designed to be. Once again, however, I think that either subconscious or unknown things appeared in me that I was unaware of at the time, or maybe things that I ‘project’ into the image now. This could be a thousandth of a second emotion but nevertheless it was there and has been captured by the camera. The image that I feel best reflects me or captures the age/re-enactment best is image number (3). For this photograph I instructed Kerry to adjust the camera to a shutter speed that would be quick enough to capture a footballs aerial flight being thrown in the air and returning to my hands. What I hadn’t accounted for was dropping the ball and this photograph captures the exact moment when it slips out of my hands. There is a concentration on my face and the tendons of my hands protrude as I desperately attempt to cling to the football. I chose to use a deflated football as I thought it would reflect that the dream has died or never really existed in the first place. The accidental dropping of the ball allows this photograph to become a metaphor for this image, showing that the dream of becoming a footballer has slipped through my fingers or was just out of reach.  

Another image that surprises me is number (4), in that I appear to be confronting the photographer. This image was designed to reflect my ambition to be an artist or what I considered an artist to be at the time. Therefore, I decided that I would draw Kerry, the photographer, whilst she took photographs of me. There are occasions when I am looking down focussed on the sketch pad but this moment where I look up to view my subject was one that stood out. It is obvious that an engagement is taking place; whilst she is taking quite a high quality image I am drawing her in a quite quick and abstract way. I’ve exerted some authority over the situation and it is now unclear who is in control. Typically it will be photographer instructing model on a photo shoot but in the case of this assignment the roles could be reversed as we both capture each other with disparate techniques.

This final task has been particularly interesting and has allowed me to experiment with the various techniques and knowledge gleaned from this module. I initially considered these images not to be therapeutic but now assess them differently. The process of making them was a new and fun experience and one that I would repeat again. It allowed us to look back on these supposedly important turning points in our life in terms of career aspirations and ponder their significance. What if I had been an astronaut? Or a footballer? What has become apparent through this task is not what could have been but what is happening now, what the future holds is in my hands and what I need to deal with is the day to day of my present situation.

1. Weiser, J. Phototherapy Techniques: Exploring the Secrets of Personal Snapshots and Family Albums. USA: Jossey Bass Publisher of San Fransisco. (1999). pp 22

2. Martin, R. Inhabiting the image: photography, therapy and re-enactment photography. London: Routledge. (2009). pp. 48

3. Martin, R. Inhabiting the image: photography, therapy and re-enactment photography. London: Routledge. (2009). pp. 41

4. Werning, I. Irina Werning: Back to the Future. (Online resource accessed April 2011)  http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/

People who support me

'the most beautiful colours laid on without order, will not give one the same pleasure as a simple black and white sketch of a portrait’ Aristotle

1                                                                                 2

3                                                                                  4

   5

6

‘Candid shots that catch us unaware, and thus more naturally, often end up being less resonant with our inner picture of ourselves, so we may reject them as being only someone else’s accident’.¹

‘Now, once I feel myself observed by the lens, everything changes: I constitute myself in the process of “posing,” I instantaneously make another body for myself, I transform myself in advance into an image’.²

I have been considering what it is that attracts me to photographs and feel it is the potential for a narrative to take place. The moment when the shutter is depressed a fleeting second of something that has past is captured; the scene will continue but the photograph is a document of a moment gone by. I am drawn to black and white imagery within photography; the image or narrative is not distracted by colour as everything in the scene is treated as equal and in its raw state. I have chosen to use black and white for the portrait assignments not only because I find the images to be more aesthetically pleasing but because it reflects my minimalist sensibility. For example the equality in the photograph allows the viewer to focus more on the content of the image rather than be distracted by a colourful irrelevant object in the background. I also feel it is because I have an admiration and respect for the photographer in the primitive age of film photography when everything was black and white. When I look at old photographs I marvel at how each detail must have been meticulously worked out so as to avoid mistakes and get it right first time. Nowadays, however, with digital cameras it is easy to take thousands of pictures and edit unwanted details in Photoshop. A combination of these opposing methods, black and white but digital photography is what I have decided to use.

Roland Barthes in his famous book ‘Camera Lucida’ states that he ‘always feels (un-important what actually occurs) that in the same way, colour is a coating applied later on to the original truth of the black and white photograph. For me colour is an artifice, a cosmetic (like the kind used to paint corpses)’³. An interesting thought that somehow the black and white photograph is seen as more truthful than a coloured one. Perhaps this was more relevant when the book was published in the 1980s when most newspaper or documentary photographs supposedly representing the truth would have been printed in black and white. It is, however, a sentiment that I believe to be true, black and white photographs still seem, to me anyway, more truthful than coloured ones, more representative of the scene and more believable.

In his book Barthes describes what he calls the ‘punctum’ of an image as being ‘the element which rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces me…A photographs punctum is that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me)’⁴. So, as the photographer of these images I am drawn to question whether I can intentionally place punctums within an image. I believe the answer to be no! as I believe the it is something that the viewer brings to the image something from their own experiences. I believe it is subjective. Barthes continues ‘Certain details may “prick” me. If they do not, it is doubtless because the photographer has put them there intentionally…the deliberate (not to say, rhetorical) contrast produces no effect on me, except perhaps one of irritation’⁵. Therefore he suggests that an interesting facet of the photograph may be something overlooked or unconsidered by the photographer. He finally says of the punctum ‘whether or not it is triggered, it is an addition: it is what I add to the photograph and what is nonetheless already there’⁶.

Susan Sontag in her book ‘On Photography’ suggests ‘there is something on people’s faces when they don’t know they are being observed that never appears when they do’⁶. This idea is something that attracted me to capture people engaged in everyday activities, I hoped I could portray genuine emotion rather than a more considered or staged portrait. I also attempted to take the shots in non arranged environments so as to add to the unintentional potential for a viewer to observe ‘punctum’ within the image. The premise of this assignment was that I would take photographs of people that support me and in this case I chose family members. These are the people that know me really well and who would trust me to capture them in their daily setting without the pre-empted need for permission (I later asked them for permission to use the images and they all agreed). I didn’t stage any of the photographs but the subjects were aware of my presence. This obviously draws me back to Sontag’s quote about people showing different emotions when unaware that they are being photographed which, in turn, questions my photograph’s validities. However, in this setting it would have been difficult for me to photograph my subjects from a long distance and retain the intimacy of the indoor environment. Conversely, whilst it might have been interesting I would have felt quite uncomfortable with the approach of spying paparazzi style on my family members. I may also add that the awareness of the photographer’s presence hasn’t tarnished the power of images by Dianne Arbus for example, her subjects are however, ‘encouraged to be awkward’⁷ so the power of her images may come from that contrasting idea of posing her subjects to reveal truths about themselves through an unspoken dialogue with the photographer.

I proceeded with my concept and am really happy with the final outcomes. Although I mentioned earlier that I didn’t feel I could read punctum in my own images I was potentially mistaken. Some unintended things did occur, image number (5) for example, wasn’t staged but at the time I didn’t notice the title of the book ‘in your dreams’ and the possible subconscious sign of two fingers essentially telling me to ‘go away’. I do believe that I have captured something of a genuine emotion and simultaneous reflection of the individual’s personalities in the images. Image number (1) of my Mum probably organising something for a family member, number (2) my Dad chopping wood to provide warmth for the household, image (3) of my Sister, I feel, reflects her shy attitude and constant placing of barriers in her own path and image (5) of my Brother in his room playing on the x box, engaged in the fictional realm of a game but displaying unequivocal emotion.

I believe each individual supports me in different and equal ways and therefore I believe it inappropriate to place the photographs into some form of order. I wouldn’t be comfortable with ordering my families support, even if I had chosen to use friends for this project I would still find it equally invasive. Therefore with image (6) I have taken a different approach and placed them in a circle surrounding me. I feel I can go to each individual for support in a different way and I know that they are there when I need them. This arrangement suits me much better as it doesn’t necessitate a start or an end point. I think that this much better assess the way in which I value my families support and doesn’t feel disparaging of the people who know me best.

1. Weiser, J. Phototherapy Techniques: Exploring the Secrets of Personal Snapshots and Family Albums. USA: Jossey Bass Publisher of San Fransisco. (1999). pp.126

2. Barthes, R. Camera Lucida, Reflections on Photography. Trans. Howard, R. USA: Hill and Wang. (1981). pp. 10

3. Barthes, R. Camera Lucida, Reflections on Photography. Trans. Howard, R. USA: Hill and Wang. (1981). pp. 81

4. Barthes, R. Camera Lucida, Reflections on Photography. Trans. Howard, R. USA: Hill and Wang. (1981). pp. 27

5. Barthes, R. Camera Lucida, Reflections on Photography. Trans. Howard, R. USA: Hill and Wang.  (1981). pp. 55

6. Sontag, S. On Photography. England: Clays Ltd. (1997). pp.37

7. Sontag, S. On Photography. England: Clays Ltd. (1997). pp.37