Category: Digital

Tell Me A Story (Again)

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Knowing Narratives: Into a Sea of Stories

Intertextuality: The accumulation and generation of meaning across texts, where all meanings depend on other meanings. The self conscious citation of one text within another as an expression of enlarged cultural self consciousness’ (Barker, 2008, p.482)
Paula Rego (1989) Baa Baa Black Sheep

 

In this session, participants will explore themes of intertextuality and originality in thier images by constructing images in direct response to another (visual / written) ‘text’. They will consider the levels of ambiguity (or not) of such images and thay are encouraged to undertake in-depth independent research into Tom Hunter’s practice and its positioning within wider ideas regarding the nature of photographic representation and narrative within the constructed image.

‘Practitioners of staged photography invent their motifs, freely combining the real and the invented, photography and painting, photography and stage design, weaving historical and mythological references into their works, and do not hestiate for a moment to manipulate reality’ (Kohler, 1995, p.8)
Oscar Rejlander (1857) The Two Ways of Life

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

Anna Gaskell (1998) Hide
‘A text is… a multidimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash. The text is a tissue of quotations’ (Barthes 1977, p.146)

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to visually explore the loading of narrative into the single image
  • For participants to understand the difference between literal and ambigous imagery (and thier consequences)
  • For participants to respond photographically to recast / recreate another ‘text’
  • For participants to investigate the relationship between ‘texts’ and consider the notion of originality
  • Participant Take Away Outcome: 1 exhibition quality 10 x 8 print
‘Movies can shape a layer of memory, leading us into a shared past, sometimes false, dreamlike childlike, but a past we’ve all agreed to inhabit’ (Don De Lillo in Lewis, 2014)

You will need:

  • A selection of paintings, fairy stories, photographs, films, nursery rhymes, music video’s etc (a mix of visual and written ‘texts’)
  • Digital cameras for all participants (and appropriate memory cards) *This session can also be run using Camera phones or Lumix cameras
  • Card readers
  • Access to computers (or laptops)
  • Flashguns (or a Studio) to practice lighting techniques
  • An introductory brief & Presentation (below) for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessments

Research: the work of tom Hunter

Preparation Work:

  • Ask participants to read Helen Simpson (2007) ‘Femme fatale: Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber’ in The Guardian, 24th June 2006 available here
  • Ask participants to read / watch interview with Richard Tuschman on Hopper Meditations available via Lens Culture (2013) here
  • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
  • Make sure you have access to computers / image editing software
  • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
  • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
  • If you are printing it make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space to print the work.
  • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to printers or projectors
Martina Sauter (2011) Treppenhaus

Presentation Ideas: into a sea of stories

Suggested Session Outline:

  • Show participants the trailer for Shrek the Third (2007) (above). Ask them to count and write down every intertextual reference they can see in the clip. Does it matter if we don’t recognise all of them? How does it recast its reference points into a new narrative?
  • Give the Presentation (above). Invite participants to compare the intertextual work with its ‘original’ text. What are the similarities and differences? Is it a straight ‘copy’ or something new and original? How does the new work change or play with this ot create new meanings and narratives? Is it merely a literal / descriptive ‘copy / illustration’ or a more ambiguous image. Do we need to recognise the original source ‘text’?
  • Provide participants with a list of visual / written ‘texts’ (or they can think of thier own). Identify the key elements of the ‘text’: narrative, people, objects, places and motifs etc.
  • Identify how these might be translated in new ways (e.g. a ‘cauldron’ could become a microwave / a ‘princess in distress’ might be female / a ‘forest’ might be a playground / park or garden. How might the ‘text’ be translated in more ambigous ways? (e.g. the absence of people / the ‘feeling’ of the original text / a modern update)
  • Sketch out / brainstorm initial ideas (thinking of props, locations, characters etc)
  • Location lighting or studio induction. How does light colour / black and white / aesthetics influence the scene?
  • Shoot the image individually / in groups
  • Print / Project and critique the images with the original ‘text’ in mind /  on view and considering aspects of originality / description v’s ambiguiy / the construction narrative within the single image / audience respsonse
Thomas Demand (1999) Tunnel (video)

 

So Many Books, So Little Time

Posted on Posted in Adaptable, Book / Zine, Constructed Image, Digital, Image & Text, Narrative, Teresa WilliamsTagged , , Leave a comment

Storytelling, selecting & sequencing: The hand-made book

‘The camera may be thought of as comparable to the eye. The difference is that the camera is not more than an eye. It does not think. Any connection with judging, choosing, arranging, including, excluding, and snapping has to be with the photographer’ (Price, 1994, p.4)
Duane Michals (1973) The Bogeyman

 

In this session, participants will explore the sequencing of photographs to create a narrative. They will consider the ambiguity (or not) of images to create a story, as well as it’s relationship with accompanying text. They will produce a simple hand-made book to display the images.

 

 

 

‘Duane Michals has continually rebelled against and expanded the documentary and fine art traditions. At the onset, he baffled critics who knew not what to say of his work, rejecting the notion of the “decisive movement,” the supremacy of the sensational singular image, and the glorification of the perfect print. As an expressionist, rather than going out into the world to collect impressions of the eye, he looked inward to construct the images of his mind, exploring the unseeable themes of life, death, sensuality, and innocence’ (Reznik, 2014)

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

  • Tell Me a Story – (narrative in the single image) post to come (Jeff Wall / Gregory Crewdson)
  • (Don’t) Stop the Frame – (panorama’s) – post to come (Sam Taylor Wood / Fred Cray)
  • On this Site – post to come (Joel Sternfeld / Paul Seawright / Tom Hunter)
  • Tell Me A Story (Again)
  • Fake News?
Jeff Wall (1998-2000) The Flooded Grave
‘Like a poem, which is made up from ‘lines that resemble sentences’ but exceeds the normal way we read sentences, the poetic quality of an image transgresses the indexical truthfulness of a representation’ (Wall & Galassi, 2007, p.337)

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to visually explore the nature of constructing images and sequencing them to portray a narrative through 6 images
  • For participants to understand the difference between literal and ambigous imagery (and thier consequences)
  • For participants to explore the relationship between image and text.
  • Participant Take Away Outcome: A handmade book with 6 sequenced images
Tom Hunter (2000) The Way Home from Life and Death in Hackney

You will need:

  • Digital cameras for all participants (and appropriate memory cards) *This session can also be run using Camera phones or Lumix cameras
  • Card readers
  • Access to computers (or laptops)
  • A3 / A4 card or paper *Make sure you print the photograhs at the appropriate size to fit each page
  • Scissors, Bone Folder etc
  • An Introductory Brief & Presentation for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • Some song lyrics, poems, stories *Participants can also write thier own stories e.g. remembering a dream etc
  • *If there are time constraints – you could also work in groups (with Image 1 and Image 6 being provided in pre-made books – what is the narrative in the middle? (produce 4 images to ‘complete’ the story). Here, still demonstrate how to make the book (particularly useful with younger participants)
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector (powerpoint with text) or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessments
‘The caption permits me to focus not only my gaze, but also my understanding’ (Barthes, 1977, p.39)

Preparation Work:

  • Practice making books yourself and decide which size you will print the photographs
  • Ask participants to read David Seidner (1987) ‘Intverview with Duane Micheals’ in BOMB Magazine, 1st July 1987 available here
  • Ask participants to watch the video Presenting The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings by Kaylynn Deveney (2011) available here
  • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
  • Make sure you have access to computers / image editing software
  • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
  • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
  • If you are printing it make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space to print the work.
  • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to printers (or projectors if you are concentrating on sequencing a narrative only – create a powerpoint and include the text with each photograph)
Christopher Stewart (2002) from Insecurity

Suggested Session Outline: see Teresa williams’s website here

 

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Photo + Graphy = Light + Writing

Posted on Posted in Adaptable, Analogue, Constructed Image, Digital, Image & Text, Light Writing, StudioTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

/fəʊtəˌGrɑːf/: drawing with light

Sir John Herschel phrased the term ‘photo-graphy’ in 1839 in his Royal Society paper on photography (1839),  it is based on the Greek φῶς (phos), meaning ‘light’ and γραφή (graphê), meaning ‘drawing / writing’ – together meaning ‘drawing with light’ (in Schaaf, 2013)
Pablo Picasso / Gjon Mili (1949) from Light Drawings

 

In this session participants will produce images using light painting techniques / artifical light sources in order to explore the idea of the constructed image, the dependence of the photographic process on light and time, as well as further consolidating learning of photographic exposure / shutter speeds and the representation of time and motion

 

 

 

 

‘if I should ever seriously photograph, it would be…the flux of things. I wanted then, and still do, to express the ‘thing’ as part of total flow’ (Morgan in Morgan & margolis, 1980)

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

Barbara Morgan (1940) Pure Energy and Neurotic Man

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to visually explore the nature of photographic seeing and constructing images using light
  • For participants to understand how exposure and shutter speeds can influence the image
  • Participant Take Away Outcome: At least 3 different light writing photographs
Matthew Murray (2012-2018) from Saddleworth

You will need:

  • Digital Camera with a manual exposure setting
  • Tripods
  • A darkened room / studio or shoot outside at dusk / night
  • A selection of movable light sources (e.g. torches, phones, glo-sticks, maglights, fairy lights, flashguns, bicycle lights etc) *if you are outside, car headlights can also illuminate a space
  • Shutter release (for self portraits etc)
  • Card readers
  • Access to computers (or laptops)
  • An introductory brief & Presentation (below) for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessment
Man Ray (1935) Self Portrait from Space Writing

 

While the signature was of course apparent to [Man Ray], the photograph remained for many years an “abstract image” to others. The discovery of this inscription is both a revelation and a resolution. Now, seven decades after he made his own game of Hide-and-Seek, we can finally look back at Man Ray and say: “There you are!” (Carey, 2011)

preparation Work:

  • Plan at least 5 different approaches to drawing with light and make sure you have all materials. Think about;
    • Light Drawing: The light source can be seen by the camera, during a long exposure the artist uses this light source to draw, write or create a design within the frame
    • Kinetic Light Painting; The lights in the scene generally remain stationary while the camera itself is moved about during a long exposure to create color and design within the frame.
    • Light Painting; The artist uses handheld light sources to selectively illuminate parts of a scene during a long exposure photograph.
  • Ask participants to read A History of Light Painting Photography available here
  • Ask participants to think of and draw out some initial ideas for constructing images using light. There are a number of introductory videos to be found online but a good example for beginners is here
  • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
  • Make sure you have access to computers
  • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
  • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
  • If you are printing it (6×4) make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space in the session to print the work.
  • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to a darkened room, printers or projectors
Dean Chamberlain (1977) Two Polyesthene Bags and a Chaiselonge
‘The viewer is instantly confronted with how frequently we take for granted the light in our everyday lives, not to mention its role in traditional photography. After all, how else would one make a photograph without at least a minimal amount of available light in the environment? One look at [Chamberlains] works and it becomes clear–there are other ways. While Chamberlain paints with light through time and space, the light itself becomes the primary subject matter, shifting the focus from the subject/object to the very element through which the work (and our lives) are revealed’ (Meta Gallery, Toronto, 2008)

presentation ideas: drawing with light

‘Light used in its own right, as in light pictures, gives to photography the wonderful plasticity that paint gives to painting without loss of the unmatched reality of straight photography’ Wynn Bullock (in bullock Family 2019)

lightwriting: activity ideas

You might:
  • Draw a picture
  • Outline a person / object
  • Spin some fairy lights to create an orb
  • Do a double exposure
  • Use flash / torches to light certain aspects of an internal / external scene
  • Write a message / your name
  • Use glo-sticks to create abstractions
  • Use movement (either object or camera) to create abstractions

Suggested Session Outline:

 

 

 

 

A Walk on The Wild Side

Posted on Posted in 'Documentary', Adaptable, Analogue, Banal, Digital, Introductory, Object, Place, Primary School, Secondary School / CollegeTagged , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

(timed) Travels with a Camera

‘We cannot claim to have really seen anything before having photographed it’ (Zola in Sontag, 1977, p.87)
Todd Hido (2016) from Bright Black World

This session encourages participants to ‘notice’ the world around them, as well as ‘seeing’ it in individual / subjective and  photographic terms. Through a single walk / trip (with timed alarms for photographing) it encourages participants to notice the world around them, explore the role of aesthetics, framing, vantage point and depth of field, and investigate the idea of a more subjective ‘photographic’ voice as the ‘group’ walk / experience of the world is transformed / constructed into an individual and subjective vision.

Photographs substitute for direct encounter; they act as surrogates, mediating that which was seen through the camera viewfinder’ (Wells, 2011, p.6)

This session could be run in conjuction with:

Hamish Fulton (1985) Wind through the Pines

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to notice the world around them in a subjective manner and explore the nature of a ‘photographic’ way of seeing and framing the world. Are you merely photographing? Are you constructing? Are captions / text important?
  • For participants to consider the ‘intent’ of thier work: What are you ‘saying’ about the world around you?
  • For participants to conduct in depth research on the work of Robert Frank and apply these ideas to thier practice
  • Participant Outcome: 5 6×4 digital prints

Research: The Work of Robert Frank

‘Robert Frank…he sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film, taking rank among the tragic poets of the world’ (Jack Kerouac in Petrusich, 2019)
‘Seeing THE AMERICANS in a college bookshop was a stunning, ground-trembling experience for me. But I realized this man’s achievement could not be mined or imitated in any way, because he had already done it, sewn it up and gone home. What I was left with was the vapors of his talent. I had to make my own kind of art’ (Ed Ruscha in Casper, 2019)

You will need:

  • A planned / dedicated walk of a local area (with printed maps)
  • A planned study visit / school trip to a designated location (with printed maps)
  • Timers (egg timers or phone alarms will suffice) for timing of when participants will make thier photographs on the ‘walk’
  • You need to decide whether participants will photograph all at the same time / in small groups / individually
  • Digital cameras for all participants (and appropriate memory cards) *This session can also be run using analogue cameras, Camera phones, Lumix cameras
  • Card readers
  • Access to computers (or laptops)
  • An introductory brief & Presentation (below) for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessment
Uta Kögelsberger (2007) from Getting Lost

Preparation Work:

  • To design your walk / trip and provide maps. Walk the area yourself in preparation and note the times / any interesting features
  • Create a Google Map of your walk.
  • To identify alarm timings for participants taking photographs (either all together / in small groups / on thier own)
  • Ask participants to read Jelani Cobb (2019) ‘How Robert Frank’s Photographs Helped Define America’ in The New York Times (11th September 2019) available here
  • Ask participants to investigate the nature of the ‘road trip’ and watch the Aperture Foundation video The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip (2014) available here
  • Ask participants to independently research the work of Robert Frank
  • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
  • Make sure you have access to computers
  • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
  • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
  • If you are printing it (6×4) make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space to print the work.
  • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to printers or projectors

Presentation Ideas: Travels with a Camera

Suggested Session Outline:

  • Introduce the session / walk and the importance of really looking at the world around them, considering what they are trying to say about the object / scene / person etc and consider scale, composition, angle, vantage point, depth of field, etc
  • Give the presentation Travels with a Camera (or devise your own) to introduce particpants to the idea of photographing on a journey etc.
  • Ask participants to set thier alarms to go off every 5 minutes (if you want them all to photograph from the same point) / provide individual times (if you want them to photograph at different times along the walk)
  • Walk / photograph – give examples of what you might do and again remind participants of visual variety / typology etc.
  • Make a note of location on the map every time you photograph. You might use Google Maps here
  • Upload / edit / print photographs
  • Project the Google Map on the wall (large) and pin up / scan and insert the photographs at the locaitons in with they were taken
  • Critique / discuss
  • Photograph / save the projection of the map with the images on – you could print at 12×16 for each participant.
Mads Gamdrup (2002) from Renunciation

 

Fake News?

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reading is believing (or is it?)

‘The caption permits me to focus not only my gaze, but also my understanding’ (Barthes, 1977, p.39)
Dr R.K. Wilson (1934) Loch Ness Monster in The Daily Mail (21st April 1934)

This session aims to introduce participants to Barthes (1977) idea of the caption ‘anchoring’ photographs with meaning and they way we view / understand photographs in relation to such ‘informatory’ text, as well as the context they are viewed in. Using real-life news captions, participants will explore the veracity of the photograph (or not), as well as specifically practicing thier technical skills in construction and story-telling.

‘Photography’s plausibility has always rested on the uniqueness of its indexical relation to the world it images, a relation that is regarded as fundamental to its operation as a system of representation. For this reason, a photograph of something has long been held to be a proof of that thing’s being, even if not of its truth’ (Batchen, 2002, p.139)

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

John Baldessari (1973) from The Meaning of Various News Photos to Ed Henderson
‘In the Photograph, the power of authentication exceeds the power of representation’ Barthes, 1980, p.89)

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to explore the construction of photographs in response to real-life captions
  • For participants to consider the reality of the photograph (or not) and how our understanding may be led by caption / title / headlines and the context we consume them in
  • Participant Outcome: 3 (edited) final 6×4 digital prints
‘What is true of photographs is true of the world seen photographically’ (Sontag, 1977, p.79)
Donald Trump (2016) I Love Hispanics Twitter post

You Will Need:

  • Digital cameras for all participants (and appropriate memory cards) *This session can also be run using Camera phones or Lumix cameras
  • Card readers
  • Access to computers (or laptops)
  • A selection of real life news photographs (for participants to write captions). You can devise your own or there are some useful examples and questions here
  • A selection of real-life captions (for participants to make photographs)
  • An introductory brief & Presentation (below) for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessments
Joan Fontcuberta (2001) from Sirens

‘Various theories are being considered that would explain its exceptionally well preserved state. The arched posture of the spine and the fact that the front limbs are close together and the cranium side-on reveal that this hydropithicus was buried rapidly while it slept, which would also explain why the bones have not broken up, despite the disappearance of the soft parts (muscles, ligaments etc). The cause of death and subsequent covering up of the skeleton could be an underwater landslide’ (Fontcuberta in Cotton, 2004, p.202)

Caption ideas:

*You can also make your own using news stories, Twitter etc / or you might ask participants to find / bring them and swap with a partner.

  • Woman Finds Hat in a Tree (Harrogate Advertiser)
  • Yellow Object Spotted in the Sky (Metro Herald)
  • Anger at Recycling Banks Removal (Falmouth Packet)
  • Cows Lose thier Jobs as Milk Prices Drop (The Balitmore Sun)

  • Day of the Triffids gets real as horrific sheep-eating plant grows in Truro (Cornwall Live)

Presentation ideas: Is reading leading?

Preparation Work:

  • Ask participants to read Sandra Phillips (2017) ‘A History of the Evidence’ in The Paris Review, 3rd May 2017 available here
  • Ask participants to watch the video Joan Fontcuberta Stranger than Fiction (2014) available here
  • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
  • Make sure you have access to computers / image editing software
  • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
  • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
  • If you are printing it make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space to print the work.
  • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to printers or projectors
René Magritte (1929) The Treachery of Images

suggested session outline:

The Seen is the Sum of its parts

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Fragmented Scenes

‘If you don’t mind looking at the world from the point of view of a paralyzed Cyclops – for a split second. But that’s not what it’s like to live in the world’ (Hockney in Weschler, 2013)
David Hockney (1982) Kasmin, Los Angeles (12th March, 1982)

 

This is an adaptable session which aims to introduce participants to the construction of abstract / alternative scenes and spaces using simple joiner techniques. It encourages in-depth independent research into David Hockney’s practice and its positioning within wider ideas regarding the nature of photographic representation. It encourages participants to consider issues of perspective, scale, point of view, time and motion.

 

 

 

‘I never thought the world looked like photographs, really. A lot of people think it does but it’s just one little way of seeing it’ (Hockney in Jones, 2004)

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

David Hockney (1986) Pearblossom Highway (11th – 18th April, 1986)

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to explore the construction of meaning in fragmented photographic representations.
  • For participants to consider time, perspective, scale, point of view, composition and juxtapositions in the construction of photographic joiners.
  • For participants to conduct in depth research on the work of David Hockney, his Cubist influences and apply these ideas to thier photographic practice.
  • Participant Outcome: 1 final 12×16 digital print

Research: the work of david hockney

‘When is the present? When did the past end and the present occur, and when does the future start? Ordinary photography has one way of seeing only, which is fixed, as if there is kind of an objective reality, which simply cannot be. Picasso…knew that every time you look there’s something different. There is so much there but we´re not seeing it, that’s the problem’ (Hockney in Joyce, 1998, p.31)

You will Need:

  • Digital cameras for all participants (and appropriate memory cards) *This session can also be run using Camera phones or Lumix cameras
  • Card readers
  • Access to computers (or laptops) and Photoshop / image editing software to make joiners
  • Cardboard 6×4 ‘viewfinders’ (or ask participants to make them)
  • An introductory brief & Presentation (above) for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessments
  • Investigate the Tate resources for All About Cubism available here
  • Make sure you are confident making joiners in Photoshop

preparation work:

  • Ask participants to read Jonathan Jones (2004) ‘Disposable Cameras’ in The Guardian, 4th March 2004 available here
  • Ask participants to read Martin Gayford (2012) ‘Inverview with David Hockney in The Telegraph, 14th February 2012 available here
  • Ask participants to independently research the work of David Hockney 
  • Ask participants to watch the video David Hockney on What’s Unphotographable (2007) with Robert Hughes available here
  • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
  • Decide whether or not you wish participants to work in pairs / small groups to make thier joiners
  • Make sure you have access to computers / image editing software
  • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
  • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
  • If you are printing it (12×16 per joiner) make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space to print the work.
  • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to printers or projectors
David Hockney (1987) Caribbean Tea Time

suggested session outline:

A Model World

Posted on Posted in Constructed Image, Digital, Location Lighting, Object, StudioTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

Seeing the Miniature (Or is it?)

‘What is true of photographs is true of the world seen photographically’ (Sontag, 1977, p.79)
Marco Pece (2009) Mona Lisa

 

This session aims to introduce participants to the idea of the photograph as a constructed world of the real. Using miniature models, participants will explore the veracity of the photograph (or not), as well as specifically practicing thier technical skills in construction, story-telling, lighting and depth of field.

‘Photography can lie as to the meaning of a thing but never to its existence’ (Barthes, 1980, p.89)

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to explore the construction of scenes using miniature models and backdrops.
  • For participants to consider the reality of the photograph (or not) and practice lighting, and depth of field.
  • For participants to conduct in depth research on the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto and apply these ideas to thier practice.
  • Participant Outcome: 3 (edited) final 6×4 digital prints

Research: the work of hiroshi sugimoto:

When I first arrived in New York in 1974, I visited many of the city’s tourist sites, one of which was the the American Museum of Natural History. I made a curious discovery while looking at the exhibition of animal dioramas: the stuffed animals positioned before painted backdrops looked utterly fake, yet by taking a quick peek with one eye closed, all perspective vanished,and suddenly they looked very real. I had found a way to see the world as a camera does. However fake the subject, once photographed, it’s as good as real. (Sugimoto, 2019)

You Will Need:

  • Digital cameras for all participants (and appropriate memory cards) *This session can also be run using Camera phones or Lumix cameras
  • Card readers
  • Access to computers (or laptops)
  • A selection of miniature models and material to make backdrops / dioramas
  • Consider also environmental scenes you could use: puddles / grass / stones / concrete / sand as well as buildings / landscapes / road scenes / bus stops etc to explore depth of field.
  • Flash-guns, lamps (or tin foil) to demonstrate lighting ideas
  • An introductory brief & Presentation (below) for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • Prepared demonstrations on using apertures to effect the depth of field and using flash / reflected light
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessments

Presentation ideas: A (small) model world

Preparation Work:

  • Ask participants to read Karol Sienkiewicz (2010) ‘Lego Concentration Camp / Lego. Obóz koncentracyjny’ in Culture.Pl (March 2015) available here
  • Ask participants to watch Thomas Demand (2008) ‘Presidency’ from TateShots available here
  • Ask participants to independently research the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto
  • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
  • Make sure you have access to computers
  • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
  • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
  • If you are printing it (6×4) make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space to print the work.
  • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to printers or projectors
James Casebere (1994) Asylum

Suggested Session Outline:

 

Splitting Image

Posted on Posted in Collage, Constructed Image, Digital, Found Images, Portrait, Studio, Theory & Practice, TypologyTagged , , , , , Leave a comment

The dual worlds of John Stezaker

John Stezaker (2012) Muse XII

This is an adaptable session which aims to introduce participants to the construction (or confusion) of meaning using simple / dual collage techniques. It encourages in-depth independent research into John Stezaker’s practice and its positioning within wider ideas regarding collage/montage and the nature of photographic representation.

‘Since the 1970s, the celebrated artist John Stezaker (b. 1949) has created distinctive collages using found photographs and illustrated ephemera, particularly mid twentieth-century film stills, press and publicity portraits. His minimal, but impactful interventions in these works – cutting out, slicing and splicing images – create uncanny and psychologically charged results, which challenge our ways of seeing and interpreting images’ (National Portrait Gallery, 2019)

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

John Stezaker (2007) Pair IV

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to explore the construction / confusion of meaning in photographic representation.
  • For participants to consider scale, composition and juxtapositions in the construction of dual collage portraits.
  • For participants to conduct in depth research on the work of John Stezaker and apply these ideas to thier practice.
  • Participant Outcome: 3 (edited) final 6×4 digital prints

Research: the work of John Stezaker:

‘Montage is about producing something seamless and legible, whereas collage is about interrupting the seam and making something illegible’ (Stezaker in O’Hagan 2014)

You will Need:

  • An introductory brief & Presentation (below) for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessments
  • *If you are running this as a physical / craft session you will need: A selection of magazines, Glue, Scissors, A photocopier
  • *If you are running this as a digital session you will need: digital cameras for all participants (and appropriate memory cards) This session can also be run using Camera phones or Lumix cameras, Card readers, Access to the Internet, Photoshop and computers (or laptops)
  • If you are running this in conjunction with a Portait / Studio session you will need: Portraits of all participants, A booked studio, Access to the Internet, Photoshop and computers (or laptops).

Preparation work:

    • Ask participants to read John Stezaker in conversation with Sophie Cristello (2015) in The Seen available here
    • Ask participants to independently research John Stezaker’s practice and watch the video John Stezaker In Conversation (2011) for the Picture This Exhibition at Laurent Delaye Gallery available here
    • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
    • Make sure you have collected magazines / have access to computers
    • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
    • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
    • If you are printing it (6×4) make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space to print the work.
    • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to printers or projectors

suggested session outline:

Part 1: splitting image / dual portraits

Presentation ideas: the Neutral Portrait

part 2: splitting image / the photographed and the found

Presentation ideas: The constructed collage

Neutral Vision (s)

Posted on Posted in Adaptable, Banal, Digital, Introductory, Landscape, Object, Place, Portrait, Space, TypologyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Typologies & Types: Faces, Spaces, Places

‘Throughout the modern era, photography has been enlisted to classify the world and its people. Driven by a belief in the scientific objectivity of photographic evidence, the logics utilized to classify photographs-in groups and categories or sequences of identically organized images-also shape our visual consciousness’ (Baker, 2015)
Sophie Calle (1981) from The Hotel

This is an adaptable session which encourages participants to consider a potential neutrality and objectivity of photographic vision. Through the construction of a typology, it encourages participants to also think about the nature of comparative and investigative viewing (whether the subject matter is face, places or spaces).

 

‘I am an eye. A mechanical eye. I, the machine, show you a world the way only I can see it. My way leads towards a fresh perception of the world. Thus, I explain in a new way the world unknown to you’ (Vertov in Berger, 1972, p.17)

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

Andy Warhol (1962) Campbell’s Soup Cans

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to explore the aesthetic implications of a ‘neutral’ view. Can photographs ever be objective?
  • For participants to visually consider how typologies work. Do they encourage investigative viewing? Can they transform the banal?
  • Participant Outcome: 4 (edited) 6×4 digital prints per approach (Faces / Spaces / Places)
‘For the first time an image of the world is formed automatically without the creative intervention of man. The personality of the photographer enters into proceedings only in his selection of the object to be photographed and by way of the purpose he has in mind’
(Bazin (1967) in Trachtenberg, 1980, p.241)
Jochen Lempert (1993-2016) The Skins of Alca impennis

You will need:

  • Digital cameras for all participants (and appropriate memory cards) *This session can also be run using Camera phones or Lumix cameras
  • Card readers
  • Access to computers (or laptops)
  • An introductory brief & presentation for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessments
Bernd & Hilla Becher (1966-1997) from Winding Towers

 

‘This is a requiem for a lost world and shows that, through the passing of time, even that which was once considered purely functional and even ugly, can attain beauty when seen through the eyes of the most attentive photographers’ (O’Hagan, 2014)

 

 

Presentation ideas: constructing typologies:

Faces:
Spaces:
places:

Preparation Work:

    • Ask participants to read Sean O’Hagan (2014) ‘Lost world: Bernd and Hilla Becher’s legendary industrial photographs’ in The Guardian 3rd September 2014 available here
    • Ask participants to watch Francis Hodgson (2011) Thomas Struth – An Objective Photographer? In The Financial Times available here
    • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
    • Make sure you have access to computers
    • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
    • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
    • If you are printing it (6×4) make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space to print the work.
    • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to printers or projectors
Tim Flach (2014) for The Sunday Times

suggested Session Outline:

 

Me, Myself and Eye

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Looking at the ‘Selfie’

‘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’ (Barthes, 1980, p.10)
Chompoo Baritone (2015) from Instagram

 

This is an adaptable session which encourages participants to consider the ways in which we represent and project ourselves as well as constructed nature of the performed portrait. It encourages participants to also make relationships with a history of painting, and the nature of social media in our ‘image world’ today.

 

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

Adapted from: PhotoPedagogy / ‘The Selfie’ which can be accessed here
Nikki S. Lee (2001) from Projects

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to explore the nature of a ‘performed’ self. Is is all a mask?
  • For participants to consider the different ways in which the self might be represented. Do we have multiple selves?
  • For participants to consider the ‘intent’ of thier work. What aspect of the self are they trying to portray?
  • Participant Outcome: 3 (edited) 6×4 digital prints
Jen Davis (2014) from 11 Years

‘In my photographs I aim to raise questions regarding beauty, desire, body image, and identity through a focused observation of my personal story. I have built a relationship between the camera and myself where I transform the act of taking a photograph into a performance for the camera.  My work is partially based on personal experiences that I have re- constructed into a photograph, and the other part consists of made up fantasies of what I imagine a physical relationship to be regarding intimacy, love and desire’ (Davis in Smithson, 2014)

  • Digital cameras for all participants (and appropriate memory cards) *This session can also be run using Pinhole cameras, Camera phones or Lumix cameras
  • Card readers
  • Access to computers (or laptops)
  • An introductory brief & Presentation (below) for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • A printed ‘Selfie‘ list
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessments

Presentation ideas: Different selves

Create ‘Selves’ Which Are: Neutral / Performed / Disguised / Distorted / Reflected / Multiple / Hidden / Shadow / Partial / Constructed / Environmental

‘we have front-stage and backstage personalities, that we perform all the time, when we walk down the street, when we go into a shop. And when we are behind closed doors we go into a bit of a slump’ (Goffman, 1959)

Preparation Work:

    • Ask participants to read Interview with Daniel Herrmann on Gillian Wearing (2012) from 200% Magazine available here
    • Ask participants to independently research the From Selfie to Self Expression Exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery (2017) and watch the video available here
    • Ask participants if they have thier own digital cameras and cards
    • Make sure you have access to computers
    • Make sure there are enough team members to support participants (never assume thier prior knowledge)
    • Decide whether you will project the work or print it.
    • If you are printing it (6×4) make sure the Photo Lab are aware and be aware of timekeeping so they have space to print the work.
    • *If you are running this session off campus, make sure there is access to printers or projectors

 

Suggested Session Outline: