Tag: Man Ray

The Unbearable ‘Thingness’ of Being

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Still(ed) Life

‘We do not want objects to fall back into a bare thingness. We want to see them as symbols, emblems, metaphors. We want them to remind us of states of mind or soul. And yet how can they do such a thing?’ (Glover, 2011)
Juan Sánchez Cotán (1602) Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber

This session encourages participants to consider the relationship between the still life in painting and photography. It encourages in-depth independent research into Laura Letinsky’s practice and its positioning within wider ideas regarding the nature of photographic representation of the object without human presence. Participants should consider issues of perspective, scale, point of view, time and metaphor.

‘in quince, cabbage, melon and cucumber no-one can touch the suspended quince of cabbage without disturbing them and sending them rocking in space. Thier motionlessness is the mark of human absence’ (bryson (1990) in Hall, 1999, p.66)

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

Louis Daguerre (1839) Shells & Fossils
‘The beginnings of photography were epitomised by the stillness of the images which the new medium generated’ (Williams in Newton & Rolph, 2006, p.6)

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to explore the construction of meaning in within a still life ‘genre’
  • For participants to consider time, perspective, scale, point of view, composition, juxtapositions and the absence of human presence in their photographic practice.
  • For participants to conduct in depth research on the work of Laura Letinsky and her  influences and apply these ideas to thier photographic practice.
  • Participant Outcome: 1 final 10×8 digital print
‘Metaphor and allegory and the hint of something bigger are instrinsic to still life, the oldest study of objects through art and the most traditional of genres’ (Bright, 2011, p.109)

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 objects and material to make backdrops / dioramas *black velvet would work here
  • Flash-guns, lamps (or tin foil) to demonstrate lighting ideas *or studio lighting
  • 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 / studio lighting
  • A booked room to critique participants work (either via a projector or via print)
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • Costings and Risk Assessments
‘In painting, the iconography has significant and symbolic meaning known to those familiar with the language of art history. In contemporary photography, tends to avoid the weight of such a history, it’s connotations and baggage and instead turns to those ordinary and everyday objects that might be passed by, ignored or not worthy of becoming the subject of art. Such contemplation makes us, as viewers, think about everday objects differently, possibly as art objects rather than as merely funcitonal ones’ (Bright, 2011, p.109)

Research: the work of Laura Letinsky

preparation work:

  • Ask participants to read Sophie Arkette (2009) ‘Olivier Richon / Anima(l)’ in Studio International (26th February 2009) available here
  • Ask participants to watch Ori Gersht & His Still Life Series (2017) from The Guggenheim Museum available here
  • Ask participants to independently research the work of Laura Letinsky
  • 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 (10×8) 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
Giorgio Morandi (1955) Still Life
‘Morandi gives us silence, observation and a deep love of vision itself, divorced from interpretation. He invites us to see, rather than read’ (uta Barth in Ollman, 2008)
Uta Barth (2017) from In the Light and Shadow of Morandi
‘Seeing the same information in repetition so often creates a very contemplative state of mind. Much like Morandi painting the same few bottles and crockery for most of his life, the images become a sort of mantra and allow us to tune in to the subtlest, the most ephemeral information that I am trying to chase down’ (uta Barth in Soto, 2011)

Presentation ideas: Still(ed) Life

Suggested Session Outline:

Advertising Objects

Pringles Advert (2012)

 

 

Photo + Graphy = Light + Writing

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/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:

 

 

 

 

Sculpted by Light

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The Light (and Delight) of the Photogram

‘I am doing Photograms! I am having such fun. They reveal the most beautiful new world of light & form’ (Hepworth in Bowness, 2013)
Barbara Hepworth (1932-33) Self Portrait Photogram

 

This is a fun session in which participants will make photograms, as well as learn the basics of analogue processes. It also serves as an introduction to the constructed image, the dependence of the photographic process on light and time, as well as basic darkroom development principles.

 

 

 

 

‘A photogram is not a photograph, not really. Sure, it is usually discussed as a subset of photography, and it was born around the same time, from similar chemistry, but is practically and conceptually only remotely related. A photogram is a 1:1 scale negative record of a shadow. It is unique and unpredictable. Photographs tell sweeping, barefaced lies; photograms tell the truth, but only a thin slice of it. the ocean of images that surges and swells around us is mainly photographic; we are awash with manipulated half-truths and shameless fictions’ (Griffin, 2019)

This Session could be run in conjunction with:

Lloyd Godman (1993-94) from Evidence from the Religion of Technology
‘An automatic reproduction by the action of light’ (Niepce (1839) in Trachtenberg, 1980, p.5)
‘It is not an instrument which serves to draw nature but a chemical and physical process which gives her the power to reproduce herself’ (Daguerre (1839) in Trachtenberg, 1980, p.13)
‘By optical and chemical means alone [the image is] impressed by Nature’s hand’ (Talbot (1839) in Wood, 2001, p.192)

Aims & Outcomes:

  • For participants to discuss and visually explore the nature of photographic seeing
  • For participants to experience and understand the nature of darkroom processing
  • Participant Take Away Outcome: At least 3 photograms
Dan Peyton (2015) Forsythia Elegy

You will need:

  • A selection of small objects / materials to make photograms with (participants can also bring / find objects / materials)
  • 10 x 8 inch Ilford Multigrade Paper
  • A Darkroom / Darkroom chemicals
  • *if you are working off-campus you will need a light tight room, chemicals, trays and red lights
  • An introductory brief & Presentation (below) for participants to outline the ideas and provide examples
  • A booked room to critique participants work
  • Blue tack to pin the work
  • * Access to Photocopiers with a scan function / Scanners, Printers etc if you are planning on making digital photograms
  • Costings and Risk Assessments
‘Photography can lie as to the meaning of a thing but never to its existence’ (Barthes, 1980, p.89)
Jochen Lempert (2010) Glow-worm

presentation ideas: The Light (and Delight) of the photogram

Preparation Work:

  • Make sure you have all of the required materials (including some objects)
  • Make sure you have booked the darkrooms if you are working on campus / have chemicals, lights, trays etc if off campus.
  • Set up the enlargers (with carriers / lenses) and easels (9×6) in advance of the session
  • Introduce participants / teachers to darkroom processes / photograms by asking them to watch ‘Making a Photogram’ (2017) for Ilford available here
  • If you are working with Secondary School / College participants to read Jonathan Griffin (2019) ‘Out of the Light / Into the Shadow’ for Tate available here
  • If you are working with Primary School participants you could ask them to make a montage with some / the objects you have chosen on A4 paper and draw or photograph it. In the sesison / in advance, younger children can also cut out shapes and images from magazines (and mount onto card) as ‘objects’ to make storytelling photograms with.
  • You might encourage participants to make digital photograms using a photocopier / scanner. Some useful ideas are available here
‘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. Although the final result may reflect something of his personality, this does not play the same role as that of the painter’ (Bazin (1967) in Trachtenberg, 1980, p.241)

Constructing Photograms: objects & Visual ideas

Suggested Session Outline: