Street Photography Research

In the feedback I received to Assignment Two, my tutor recommended I also look at the following street photographers:

• Joel Sternfeld
• Stephen Shore
• Saul Leiter
• William Eggleston
• Helen Levitt.

Joel Sternfeld

Sternfeld's website doesn't appear to work, so I had to look around through google images and so on.  No doubting the artistic qualities of Sternfeld's images, but the people shots looked posed to me, not candid.  To me this makes the photographs more documentary than street.  To understand them, I would therefore need some context about their story, why they were being photographed, connection with their environment.  Not really what I'm looking for in street photography.  

Stephen Shore

To research Shore, I looked at his website.  Now I'm confused, I wouldn't describe this as Street Photography either, although the American Surfaces images could be.  I did like the Israel/West Bank series though, as having read the book Extreme Rambling by Mark Thomas, which documents his journey along the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank, and have been wondering what it would be like to repeat the exercise and document the differences in people's lives.

Saul Leiter

I am familiar with Leiter, in fact, Matt Stuart once said that one of my images of Piccadilly Circus looked like one of his :)  (see https://www.flickr.com/photos/alisonadcock/14045898482/), which is nice!

Leiter, who started out as a fashion photographer, was a great pioneer of colour and abstract Street Photography;  he does not seem to have his own site, and sadly he passed away in 2013.  So I turned to lensculture magazine for material to look at.  I like these images; I particularly like Snow (1960) published in The Guardian in his obituary article: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/29/saul-leiter.  I love the colour, condensation, sense of cold, simple palette, sense of fleeting moment; and you can see this influence in Nick Turpin's recent work "Through a Glass Darkly", beautiful but calm and peaceful images.  

William Eggleston

Eggleson's own website doesn't show his images.  I saw a couple of other articles and got the sense that he was a great pioneer of colour photography also (how many pioneers do we need?) but in the end, I turned to Eric Kim's Photography blog for some information.   Like Kim, I looked at the pictures of seemingly banal everyday subjects and wondered what....?  I can see the lessons are important, photograph where you live etc, I tried this with Feltham, my local neighbourhood, both for the Bleeding London project (which I got really tired of) and Assignment One.  I didn't like doing it.  I want to make images that are funny, confusing, perplexing, even surreal, but not banal and everyday.

Helen Levitt

Briefly looking at Google images before I tried to find a specific website, and I saw instantly that her work is more akin to what I can relate to, and bears similarities to that of Vivian Meier.  Also sadly no longer with us, and not having a website of her own, I turned again to lensculture magazine to an article entitled New York Streets 1938 to 1990 showing both her black and white image and super saturated colour shots.  The image of the girl by the green car taken in New York in 1970 I had seen before at the Question of Colour exhibition at Somerset House a couple of years ago.  I like her work and have put Slide Show on my Amazon wishlist!  I think that looking at a collection of Street Photography that has built up over a period of time is very interesting - it shows society, history, culture and change.
Websites:

• 10 Lessons William Eggleston Has Taught Me About Street Photography in Eric Kim Photography available from http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/04/01/10-lessons-william-eggleston-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/ [accessed 25 January 2015]
• Helen Levitt: New York Streets 1938 to 1990s in lensculture magazine available from https://www.lensculture.com/articles/helen-levitt-helen-levitt-new-york-streets-1938-to-1990s [accessed 25 January 2015]
• Nick Turpin: Through a Glass Darkly available from http://nickturpin.com/portfolio/winter-bus/ [accessed 25 January 2015]
• Saul Leiter: 1950-60s color and black-and-white in lensculture magazine available from  https://www.lensculture.com/articles/saul-leiter-saul-leiter-1950-60s-color-and-black-and-white [accessed 25 January 2015]
• Saul Leiter Obituary in The Guardian available from http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/29/saul-leiter [accessed 25 January 2015] 
• Stephen Shore available from http://stephenshore.net/index.php [accessed 25 January 2015]

Own work referred to:

• Cartier Bresson: A Question of Colour 11/11/2012 in Alison Adcock Scrapbook blog (as part of TAOP) available from http://jointheaascrapbook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/cartier-bresson-question-of-colour.html [accessed 25 January 2014]

Assignment Two - Reflections

I took a gamble with Assignment Two in shooting it overseas knowing that I would not be able to go back and reshoot in the same location.  My tutor warned me about this, however, as the direction I want my photography to progress with is exactly this blend of street/travel photography, I am going to have to learn to get it right on location.  In fact, this is the kind of pressure that many commercial photographers and photojournalists are under each time they shoot, so for me this is a reality I will also have to live with and should therefore practice.  And I will do it again and again, as this is what I want to improve on, and I have decided that I will try to shoot Assignment Three in Japan over Christmas in Street/Travel Photography style.

I think though, the gamble paid off.  I have a series of 7 images that I believe fulfill the brief.  The assignment specifically mentioned that the series must be visually consistent and tightly edited, and I think they are, or at least I tried to achieve that.  The colours/tones are very similar: mostly cool with the exception of the orange in the sunrise picture which punctuates the start of the series.  In addition, each photograph leads into the next: they are all visually connected with each other by colour/tone or also by an element within the frame:

• In photos 1 & 2, both men are covering their faces
• Photo 3 provides the head and upper torso that is hidden from view in photo 2
• In Photo 3, the man is peering into the room in photo 4
• Photos 4 and 5 both have an activity taking place inside a rectangle - similar compositions
• Photo 5 the man is looking out of the frame slightly alarmed at the dog in photo 6
• In photo 7, the child is looking back at the dog (also looking alarmed).

I could have used more than seven photographs, but the other three I had did not really add anything more to the story.  This was definitely a case of less is more! 

Presenting these images for an assignment though was also an emotive decision.  I had such an amazing time during that week with Maciej Dakowicz, that there was no way I was not going to use the images!  But, I hope it works out as a complete assignment - the emotional stakes are quite high, so I will be disappointed if it's not a success!

In terms of the Assessment Criteria, here are my thoughts:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

During that week in India, I found that my technical and visual skills progressed way beyond my expectations.  I was so happy with the process that I booked another workshop in Myanmar in March again with Dakowicz as I wanted to take it further still.  I learnt so much about exposure, composition, story telling, observing, and so on, and I think it is reflected in these images.  I also became a lot braver about being closer to people when I took photographs.  I also learnt from Dakowicz how to put a portfolio together - how images need to connect with each other, and this has also been demonstrated in this assignment.

Quality of outcome

I'm happy with the quality of outcome - of course I am - I've never produced anything like this standard of work before (hope that doesn't sound too immodest but I'm still on a high from the whole experience)!  The images are all clear, correctly exposed, no noise etc.  My only concern is with the text - should I have captioned the images or included more text?  I think the approach I took is the right one, I do want the viewer to wonder what is going on and think about their own reaction of wonder, without too much guidance, but I'm not 100% certain that I should not have included more guidance text.

Demonstration of creativity

This is definitely my most creative piece of work yet and I believe that personal voice is now starting to show.  The best thing though is that I have "found myself".  I've realised that I can combine my two biggest passions in life: travel and photography, and that my photography now has some direction.  In my Reflections to Assignment One, I mentioned that I felt that various strands of photography were emerging.  That's all over now.  This experience was so exciting that I cannot bring myself to photograph anything else at the moment, and certainly not every day urban scenes.  I can't wait to be able to have another experience like this.  I get an adrenalin rush from Street Photography anyway, and I think it's time now to just focus on that, and combine it with travel where I can.

I am aware though, that, although the way in which I've used these photos is original, on account of the assignment directions, but, overall, my images from Varanasi look similar to other photographs I've seen taken by other people, and of course they are inspired by the style of Dakowicz.  They are original for me, but overall, I need to step up still in finding more a more unique perspective.  These broadly look like many people's travel photographs, so I feel like I'm just on the first step of the ladder now.  But, I am thrilled though that I've found my ladder!  I think it might have always been there, and I have spent the past six months intensely focusing on Street Photography, but until now, I wasn't really ready to rule out other avenues.  But I am now :)

Context 

Research for this assignment was limited to the work directed by the course materials.  I got a really good sense through the projects, exercises and research points of what photographing the unseen can mean, i.e. through gesture, traces, metaphoric illustration, so I hope that this has come through in this piece of work.

Overall

Overall I am extremely pleased (as you probably gathered....sorry....) with this work.  I think where I may get some learning points / constructive feedback will be in how I put the series together - were the photos in the right order - does the onion layers idea come through?  Have I really captured the concept of "wonder"?  Is this too illustrative and not sufficiently metaphorical?  And also whether I should have used more text/captions.  I will be interested to see my tutor's response and whether the ambiguity I tried to achieve came through.

Websites:

• Maciej Dakowicz available from http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/ [accessed 23 November 2014]

Part Two - Narrative: Project Three - Photographing the unseen: Exercise 1 - Non-visible themes

This exercise is about our reactions to three cases studies by Level 3 OCA students presented in the course materials, who have explored metaphorically non-visible themes:

• Peter Mansell
• Dewald Botha
• Jodie Taylor.

We are asked to consider our reactions to these projects, as in which resonates most, and how we feel about the loss of authorial control that comes when the viewer projects their own experiences and emotions onto the images we've created.

My reactions to the three pieces of work are set out below.

Peter Mansell

I found Mansell's story very moving and tried a google search to find more images but unfortunately to no avail.  I haven't been in Mansell's situation, nor do I have a personal relationship with someone who has experienced such a traumatic event, so can only sympathise rather than empathise, but I can see that self-expression through art/photography can be a therapeutic process.  I found it interesting how Mansell documented aspects of his life, e.g. the space his wheelchair occupied rather than him sitting in his wheelchair.  Somehow, this seems to be more moving than a self-portrait.  It gives you an idea of the planning and logistics of living with a wheelchair - you need to make space.  I wondered if it was also a metaphor for time as well - how much extra time does Mansell need to factor in to get from A to B?

Dewald Botha

Botha's work resonated very strongly with me and from two, maybe three, different perspectives.  His project "Ring Road" documents metaphorically his reactions to living in China and his search for "beauty and relief" in a place of "busy-ness and intensity".  Firstly I worked in Dakar, Senegal for four years (over 20 years ago now) and to describe that experience as intense and claustrophobic would have been an understatement.  It was during that period that I first became interested in art and took up painting, plus I also read and read and read as a form of escapism.  I did take photos during that time - but these were tourist shots - I was not a student photographer then!  Secondly the exercise of walking and capturing is a process I have been through recently through my participation with the Bleeding London project, however, this is a documentary process not a quest for peace.  But, I realised post-hoc that my recent submission for Assignment One, could well have been a subconscious expression of frustration with the state of my local neighbourhood.  Thirdly, my life at the moment is crazy.  Both home and work calendars are back-to-back - one meeting after the next - one event after the next, and I spend a lot of time commuting, rushing, and generally living at 100mph trying to combine work, OCA, home, personal practice, and last year, I went through a period of time (during DPP) of feeling drawn to negative space images in a search for peace and tranquility.  That is no longer the case though now, I now work with the momentum and ride the crest of the wave, rather than trying to retreat from it.

Jodie Taylor

I also found that Taylor's work resonated with me.  My third assignment for DPP was on a very similar theme in which I revisited the town of Felixstowe and photographed places that I remembered from my childhood holidays with my parents and grandparents, and submitted the final body of work as a presentation.  All the posts relating to this piece of work can be accessed by following this link to my DPP blog http://jointheaadpp.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html and then clicking on each separate link under Assignment Three. 

Authorial control

How do I feel about the loss of authorial control that comes when the viewer projects their own experiences and emotions onto the images I've created?  If I'm honest, I don't really feel anything, other than this is inevitable and part of the process.  If you take the view that art, and in our case, photography, is a form of expression and communication, there have to be two people minimum in that relationship: the communicator and the receiver.  The creation of the art is only complete, once there has been interaction or reception, and the translation or interpretation into personal experience or resonance on the part of the audience is just part of the process.

I think that for a photograph to be appreciated, it has to mean something to someone, and there therefore needs to be that reaction.  It may not be the reaction that the author intends, in which case, yes, there is a loss of authorial control, but I see it more as the continuation of the story that may have several directions of travel.  Someone is able to take that form of expression and make it their own.  In fact, I do feel something, I feel that it means that the piece of work is successful.  If it means something to somebody, if someone can apply some meaning to my expression then my work is successful.  It may not be the reaction that I intended, but seeing as that is something that I may never be able to control (beyond guidance through the use of text), I'm not going to worry about it.  I will just be pleased that there has been a reaction.

References

• Boothroyd, S. (2014) Three Case Studies. The Open College of the Arts course materials for Context and Narrative, pp 62-68

Own work referenced

• Alison Adcock (2013) Assignment Three - Felixstowe Rediscovered (for OCA Digital Photographic Practice) available from http://jointheaadpp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/assignment-three-monochrome-submission.html [accessed 23 November 2014]

Feedback and response to Assignment One: Two Sides of the Same Story

Delighted to receive very constructive feedback to Assignment One, with the decay aspects working better.  The main learning points being to avoid being too literal in interpretation and try to be more organic.  The examples I chose to illustrate the two sides of the town were a little obvious and clichéed, and did not show enough difference between the two sets of photographs, although my tutor did mention that some of the photographs worked well.  Had I used different approaches/techniques, I might have captured a more distinct view.  Annoyingly, I considered this, and then rejected it to avoid a clichéed response!

My tutor recommended that I try to rework some of the assignment to show more polarised view and perhaps present the images in different styles, e.g. a facebook style approach to the positive and retaining the square restricted view of the negative.  She also suggested that I actually didn't need the captions, as the photographs spoke for themselves and adding them ended up restricting me somewhat in my approach.

I think that what I will try to do is to reshoot in May/June before I submit for final assignment.  Feltham becomes very garish in the summer and this will help more with snapshotty style imagery.  I also think I might reshoot the whole lot in street photography style, rather than looking at urban structures and try to focus on people's behaviour within the space, rather than looking at structures.  This is the direction my photography is now heading in!

Assignment Two - Preparation - Photographing the unseen

Sunday 5 October

The assignment asks us to reflect on what kinds of subjects might be seen as un-photographable and how we might go about portraying them using photography (around seven ideas), with the objective of developing one of those ideas into a visually consistent series of 7-10 images.  Here are my reflections:

1. The five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell.  You could photograph somebody actively performing a sense, e.g. a person sniffing something or walking with headphones on, but you could not photograph the sensation of experiencing the sense.  For instance, you would not be able to photograph what something smells like - you can only photograph the thing itself and hope that the viewer can imagine the smell.
2. Emotions: happiness, sadness.  You could photograph somebody's expression and hope that their face shows emotion, but can you really capture what they are feeling?  Can a photographer capture their own emotions?  In addition, the emotion conveyed also depends on the interpretation of the viewer.  For instance, I could capture a desolate landscape with mist and a lot of negative space, which one person might interpret as me feeling sad and isolated, but in actual fact, I would feel happy in such a scene, so it's relative.  The Dad Project by Briony Campbell is a very poignant example of a piece of work that has captured strong emotions in photography.
3. Anticipation: how would you capture anticipation?  You would have to set a scene so that it was obvious what was about to happen next?  How would you show photographically what you are anticipating?
4. Fear: you could capture fear by the expression in somebody's face, but can you really capture fear that you as a photographer are experiencing?  How would you show your own sense of dread, sickness, shakes?
5. Dreams: dreams are a unique and subconscious experience - each person's dreams are individual, personal and not seen by other people.  They could however be reconstructed in photography as a narrative, but I don't think you'd be able to just go out and photograph a dream, you'd have to stage a scene and be creative, possibly even surreal.
6. Needs: hunger, thirst.  Again, you could capture another person's hunger or thirst, but not your own.  You'd have to photograph things that conveyed the concepts of hunger and thirst.
7. Wonder: how do you capture the wonder?  Is it seeing something amazing for the very first time?  Could it also be applied to something sinister?  Sure you can photograph the thing or the scene itself, but how do you capture the reaction of wonder.  Is it excitement (or even trepidation) in response to a situation?  Is it more ambiguous than that?  Is it a state of confusion?

For Assignment Two, I am going to attempt the 7th idea, which I hope to execute in Varanasi in India.  Having never been to India before, I really don't know what to expect.  Sure I've seen other people's photographs, but how do I capture the concept of wonder, in a way that the viewer understands that from the output?

This will be an unplanned exercise, as the images will need to reflect spontaneity to convey the excitement and discovery.  I will be participating in an intensive seven-day street photography workshop with Maciej Dakowicz, so there is also the element of excitement of working with a photography hero and learning new techniques.  I have no idea how this is going to turn out as a finished piece of work!  All I know is that it will be in colour :)

Sunday 23 November

Once I'd completed all the exercises and set about finalising my assignment submission, I wondered about the inclusion of text.  The Assignment instructions did not ask for text or captions, and my feedback from Assignment One was that I did not need the captions in that particular context.  BUT a lot of the work that we did for Part Two was about text and the relationship between text and image.  Would it be an error to omit text on that basis?  Did I want to guide the viewer into a reaction or did I want the photos to speak for themselves?

I searched other students' blogs for ideas, and came across Malcolm Burton.  He did use text to accompany his images for this assignment, but I felt that for my purposes it would give too much away and not leave enough ambiguity.

That decided, I realised that the images needed to speak for themselves and that I wanted amiguity.  Wonder by its very definition is ambiguous as it is not about certainty, so I therefore needed to preserve that concept.  The whole subject of wonder is interpretative and I did not to guide the reaction to individual photographs but more to take the reader on a journey - like peeling an onion - I wanted to strip off layers.  What I did do though was to include a brief introduction to set the scene by attempting a meaning of the word itself.  Fingers crossed.....

In terms of executing the assignment, it happened as I'd predicted: completely right-brained.  I did not plan these photographs, they were selected from my overall portfolio produced in Varanasi during the workshop I took part in.  I did have the subject matter in the back of my mind while I was there but I was not consciously shooting for this assignment.  I then selected the photographs afterwards using the usual star system in my software for editing.  The pictures I selected for this assignment are the best of those I considered illustrated the theme metaphorically and I also aimed for similar colours and tones (cool, apart from the orange in the first one chosen to punctuate the start of the journey and the wonder of every new day).  I put them together in a sequence of what you can image is the start of a positive experience of wonder, through to confusion, looking in to another scene from the outside (but not really being able to see what's going on), followed by a sense of alarm, and then on to something more sinister, ending with possible fear.

See here for my submission.

References:

• Campbell, B. (2011) The Dad Project [online] available from http://www.brionycampbell.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/The_Dad_Project_Briony_Campbell.pdf [accessed 11 October 2014]

Websites:

• Maciej Dakowicz available from http://www.maciejdakowicz.com/ [accessed 5 October 2014]
• Burton, M. (2014) Context and Narrative Learning Blog: Assignment Two - time goes faster as you get older available from http://malsblog322.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/assignment-2-photographing-the-unseen/ [accessed 23 November 2014]

Assignment One - Post Script - Two Sides of the Same Story

A few after thoughts about Assignment One Two Sides of the Same Story (post submission):

First of all, I showed the work to the Crossing Lines group I belong to in the form of a power point presentation.  This is a group that is primarily interested in urban and social development.  The presentation seemed to be generally well received, and I was asked questions about the brief, planning, my own reactions to it.  One thing that came out of that conversation, which I hadn't realised at the time was that in the negative concept representations (the first of each pair), I was venting my own frustration at living (accidentally) in such an area.  The other point made was that my tight framing had excluded the environment to such an extent, that the photographs could have been taken anywhere - they did not necessarily represent Feltham as a study of place.  I explained that this was necessary due to the requirements to exclude any details that might influence the aspect of the story that I was trying to present in the wrong way.

Another perspective that I had meant to write about in my reflections and basically forgot at the time, was that there are also a lot of similarities and resonances in the pairs.   For example:

• In pair A - the composition and colour schemes are very similar
• In pair C - composition and elements (vertical and horizontal lines) are similar
• In pair D - blue/yellow and diagonals
• In pair F - red/white/blue

I also wondered post submission, if I could have reordered them so that a narrative of paths of conceptual travel could have been made.  For example:

• Pair C - bust/booming (beginning of economic decline)
• Pair E - cramped/comfy (impact on living conditions)
• Pair D - decaying/developing (impact on environment)
• Pair B - abandoned/rescued (neglected society / invested society)
• Pair F  - deposits/withdrawals (life of crime/functioning economy)
• Pair A - confined/open (prison/free life)
• Pair G - pushing up daisies/new life (end of life (due to being in prison) / life goes on)

In fact, I wish I'd thought of this before submitting as it creates more of a narrative in this order!

p.s. in F - Withdrawals, I think I missed the shot.  Had I used spot metering and measured from the whitest point and underexposed by half a stop, I would have got very dramatic light/shade effect.

Part One - Photograph as document: Project Four - The gallery wall - documentary as art: Exercise - Documentary

The exercise requires us to review images from Sarah Pickering's series Public Order available from her website.  We are asked to consider:

• How do these images make us feel?
• Whether Public Order is an effective use of documentary or is it misleading?

First of all, if I hadn't read in the course materials that the images were taken in police training grounds, I would not have been able to tell that from looking at the images online.  But, the conclusion that I would have come to is that photographs might have been from a TV set.  It's clear from the images that the buildings are facades only, and that there is an absence of real life.  And although there is the presence of debris, it appears ordered and designed.  Other than curious about the construction of the sets and relief that the police have somewhere to train, these images don't really make me feel anything.  I certainly don't feel uncomfortable or disturbed.

So to answer the second question, I need to suspend disbelief as I know too much already about this series.  If the purpose of the documentary is to present police training grounds, then yes it is effective.  If the purpose is anything else, i.e. to show the impact of social chaos, or why we need a police force in the first place, then the answer is no, it is not effective.  Although compositionally pleasing, the images in Public Order have the impression of being clearly contrived. There are plenty of real life situations that you can photograph that would do this trick better, for example, a picture I took of a weapons deposit bin in Feltham for Assignment One:

I find this far more chilling and a subject that raises a lot more questions than an articially created environment that has a distinct purpose.  For instance, if I didn't know the area, the first thing I would ask is why there is a weapons bin so close to residential housing (the building directly behind).

Websites:

• Pickering, S. (n.d.) Public Order available from http://www.sarahpickering.co.uk/Works/Pulic-Order/workpg-01.html [accessed 28 September 2014]

Context and Narrative by Maria Short

Another incredibly useful text for this module!

Context and Narrative by Maria Short takes you through the various critical aspects of preparing a narrative from:

• The photograph's role in the narrative: its function and context
• Choice of subject, concept and external factors to consider
• Audience: content, intent and response
• The narrative itself - what it is - series/set of photographs / single image
• Use of signs and symbols: theory, enigmas, truths
• Use of text

Although I didn't directly refer to this in my preparation of Assignment One, I did draw on the section on signs and symbols, as a number of my photographs were metaphorical ideas, rather than directly visual representations.

Bibliography

• Short, M. (2011) Context and Narrative, Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA

Assignment One - Reflections - Two Sides of the Same Story

Here are my critical reflection on my assignment submission for Two Sides of the Same Story:

I chose to represent two different perspectives of my local neighbourhood of Feltham in Middlesex (just outside Heathrow airport).  Feltham is an area that has enormous potential due to its strategic location, yet it is run down, under invested and generally quite rough.  I wanted to see whether I could present this perspective (which was easy) and another more uplifting, positive view (not so easy).  I found a few visual representations that with the exclusion of surrounding areas in the frame, could isolate the good, but I also had to use metaphorical representations.  The narrative I constructed was not a linear narrative (as in one event happened after another), but more of a study of place that should enable the viewer to form an opinion.  Was this objective achieved?  I think that with the help of captions of the photos that opinion could be directed, and so yes, the objective was achieved.

Funnily enough, I realised later when I was putting the work together that I had recreated the first exercise of TAOP on contrasts!  Hopefully, my photography has improved since then!

Did I take any risks?  To be perfectly frank, walking through Feltham with £4k worth of camera and lens is a massive risk.  On top of that I climbed walls, walked around an unsafe building (inside the barrier), stood in the road, photographed people, and stood around a weapons bin for ages.  These are all risks that as a street photographer I'm comfortable with, my equipment is insured, so I didn't really step outside my own comfort zone, although others may not have been comfortable with that.

During the shooting itself, particularly on the second day where I had an ideas list to work through, I felt quite down about the photography.  I didn't enjoy working through a checklist that in the end I wasn't that passionate about.  I nearly gave up on this idea, but when I looked through the images, realised they were ok, and that I could crop them consistently to make a stronger collective, I decided to go with it.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

I think this was probably quite average.  These were all landscape shots and my objective was to take clear sharp images that were correctly exposed, with suitable background blurring where advantageous (in B - Rescued and G - New Life).

Quality of outcome

I think the images have been presented well with coherent narrative.  I stuck to the same format for each image so that they look and feel as part of the same series.  I would have preferred consistent lighting throughout, but the images were taken over two different days, so I couldn't control that.  I think I have conceptualised and communicated my ideas of the two different states of the area, its inhabitants and its economy.  I think the concept of two different economies comes through quite clearly in C - Bust / Booming, D - Decaying / Developing, E - Cramped / E - Comfy, F - Deposits / Withdrawals.

Demonstration of creativity

Have I shown imagination?  I honestly don't know.  The depiction of the graveyard as the end of the life cycle in G - Pushing up the daisies is imaginative, from the point of view that this is shown as a negative concept.  I thought through various captions for this including not needing light, buried, asleep, end of life, and although the image in itself is lovely i.e. green, bright light, happy feel, it is in the negative set because it is supposed to convey the extinction of life (versus the conkers in G - New Life), as an extension of the idea conveyed by the weapons bin in F - Deposits.  In the end, I didn't want to offend anyone or be too morbid, so I added some humour with the popular daisy phrase.  There is also a distinct metaphorical representation of the whole concept of a neglected suburb vs one undergoing regeneration in B - Abandoned / Rescued.

Does this work show personal voice?  I don't think it does; I'm not really at that point yet.  The street photography exercise I did in Brighton is much closer to where I think I'm heading with personal voice.  Although, this said, I can see 4-5 strands emerging, and an urban social commentary is starting to become one of them.  The images A - Confined / Open is quite similar to the work I did previously for Assignment One in DPP (at HMP The Verne, Portland).

Context

Aside the two authors mentioned in my Preparation and Execution post, I struggled with research and context, although this was not without trying (including asking the OCA Photography 1 Facebook group, Crossing Lines and my tutor).

All in all, I think my work has improved since TAOP, without doubt; I am now thinking more conceptually and metaphorically than I used to.  My biggest problem with this exercise was that I didn't feel that I had a good story. 

Assignment One - Submission - Two Sides of the Same Story

Feltham, TW13: 28 minutes from London Waterloo, two miles from the rest of the world.  Run down, under-invested west London suburb littered with danger zones or multicultural, convenient transport hub sprouting pockets of growth? 

Walking around, you easily get the impression that is an area in dire need of regeneration, investment and quite frankly up-scaling.  Its location is amazing - close to Central London, four major motorways, and an international airport - and surrounded by the greenery of Richmond and Surrey:

Yet, to me it seems that Feltham is a neglected area.  Its strategic location is perfect for commuters and travelers alike, it is surrounded by thriving areas of business, yet somehow it has missed out on growth and opportunity.

In September 2014, I set out to capture the dual personality of this London suburb in which I live; well actually, in which I sleep, eat and commute from.  I created two views of the same place: one which shows its more obvious nature of neglect, underinvestment and no future, and the other set showing a brighter and more hopeful state of being.  I compiled two sets of seven photographs accordingly, and arranged them in pairs, so that within each pair there is either a visual or metaphorical contrast, to present two sides of the same story:

A - Confined

A - Open

B - Abandoned

B - Rescued

C - Bust

C - Booming

D - Decaying

D - Developing

E - Cramped

E - Comfy

F - Deposits

F - Withdrawals

G - Pushing up the daisies

G - New life

Assignment One - Two Sides of the Story - Preparation and Execution

Assignment One asks that we choose a theme and prepare 5-7 images for each of two sets of photographs telling different versions of the same story.

23 August

For my theme, my first idea was to show life in a zoo park from two different perspectives: outsiders looking in, and animals looking out.  The idea for this has come from two different sources: firstly because I want to try out my D810 plus new lenses on animals (it has only been used for street photography so far!) and particularly to test whether the ability to handle dynamic range i.e. black creatures in midday sun, is better than the D5000 I was previously using (and for reasons of time I need to multitask!), and secondly I'm intrigued by the image taken by Count de Montizon in 1852 in London of the Hippopotamus at the Zoological Gardens, Regents Park, see Bate, 2013, p24 (which I first wrote about during Digital Photographic Practice - see here for a summary).

Bate uses the image to demonstrate the that there may be different points of view within a photograph.  In this instance, we know from our general knowledge that it is extremely likely that the hippo is the one in the cage, however, looking at the photograph, the onlookers appear to be in the cage.  There is a realism that we know to be true, and then there is doubt about where the viewer is placed, and indeed where the hippo is placed in relation to the viewer (Bate, 2013, pp37-40).  It asks the question whether humans been imprisoned by nature.

So, I'm going try to take 5-7 pairs of photographs showing the perspective of the animal, or the viewer inside the cage, looking out, and the perspective of onlookers looking in, to produce representations of the juxtapositions of these two worlds that are forced to co-exist.

I don't know yet whether these will be colour or black and white, or square or rectangle format.  Being right-brained, I will decide later!  A lot will depend on the lighting, background detail, what stands out.  I suspect the outcome will be colour and rectangle landscapes, but we will see.

24 August
So I tried to put my idea into practice at Drusillas and realised very quickly that I would end up with 5-7 photographs that all looked the same and which would not demonstrate any great technical or creative ability...so idea abandoned. 

But, on a spontaneous trip to Worthing on the way back from Drusillas, another idea came to mind.  I could try to show two different perspectives on English life - "This is England or is it?", with one perspective being themes that are quintessentially English and the contradiction being themes whereby due to the framing (e.g. a palm tree against a hotel) could be from somewhere that is not England.  Back to Worthing tomorrow to try it out!  Themes could include (and not necessarily be tied or limited to this):

• Ethnic diversity
• Food
• Plants
• Buildings
• Restaurants
• Street signs in different languages or the London tube map / Hong Kong tube map in Newport Court in London WC2
• Customs e.g. tea and scones / drinking starbucks coffee  

Inspiration for this partly comes from work by Martin Parr and his portraits showing English life and images of English things.  Other photographers that also come to mind that show a truly English perspective also include Paul Russell from a satirical perspective!  Venues for shooting include central London, Keswick and perhaps a September trip to the seaside if the weather improves....

7 September 2014

I missed the boat on the last idea.  The season for people eating ice creams on the pier is really over.  I love the theme of English summer and Englishness, so I will save this for another occasion.  But, fortunately, another idea has come to mind!  Through my participation in the Bleeding London project, I've got to know my local area, Feltham, very well.  And I've noticed that there are two very distinct sides of the same story.  The area is typically run down, lacking investment, rough, dilapidated and so on, but there are pockets of more attractive qualities, which if photographed selectively and shown out of context, would present a very different story and also present a distinct series of contrasts:

• confinement vs space (Young Offenders vs the open space in front of it)
• dilapidation vs regeneration (building opposite Macdonalds vs the new academy being built)
• struggling economy vs booming economy (empty restaurant vs full (and happy) kebab shop
• neglected front garden vs elaborately tended front garden (multiple gardens to chose from full of junk vs the lovely one with the amazing happy hedges in Cedar Road, which although awful just makes me smile)! (see photo below taken earlier this year - to be reshot though)
• rowdiness vs peace (outside the Weatherspoon Pub vs the cemetery)
• crowded living space vs beautiful house (blocks of flats with railings vs original beamed house on Ashford Road)
• angry scary people vs happy people (people at bus stop vs people exercising dogs)

Cedar Road

My intention is to process the positives in colour, and the negatives in black and white (to enhance a gritty and more documentary feel and reduce the risk of colour/light making it seem more positive).  My only reservation on that is that I have been told many times not to mix colour with b&w in the same project/series, so I'm taking advice on that from fellow students/Crossing Lines members. 

These images are most likely to be viewed in an academic context only, so by my tutor, the assessors, other students, and also members of Crossing Lines.  I think I will be unlikely to show these images to people in a social context or to print and hang them on my own walls, although with any photos I take, there is always a chance that they will be entered into an exhibition!   

Am I taking any risks with this?  In a word, yes.  Walking through Feltham with a DLSR is always a risk, and especially with a D810 (it is insured!); taking the pair of street photographs of people might be tricky....might get punched.... ;-)

15 September 2014

So my thoughts are evolving - along the lines of the above, I'm thinking of looking for contrasts that I can shoot by being in the same position and pivoting 180 degrees - and also finding resonance and contrast within each pair in the process:

• weapons bin / cash machine
• dilapidated building / new look shop
• pub / church or cemetery
• young offenders / open space
• garden opposite / garden with hedges

22 September 2014

In the end, I went with the option described on 7 September 2014 above, but with the colour option only.  I decided it was too cliched to present the negative concepts in black and white.  I wanted to present the opposite views with resonances also and colour would help significantly with that.

The objective of this exercise was really to see if by careful framing, I could produce a convincing series of the better qualities of Feltham.  This illustrates the point made by Susan Sontag (2003) about a photograph:

"It is always the image that someone chose; to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude".

What I would be doing is, as photographers do with every shot, presenting a selective and subjective view.  Hopefully by looking at each set, the viewer would be able to form an opinion of the area dictated by choices I made.  I will comment on whether this is successful in the reflections post.

I tried the 180 degrees option described on 15 September 2014, but found very quickly that this wouldn't work with the sun shining in my face...and I didn't have the time flexibility to make two trips to each point.  Unfortunately, I didn't get my hedges - the sun was in the wrong place at the wrong time, plus there were cars parked outside the house each time I went to have a look :(.  But I did get seven sets of contrasts:

• weapons / cash machine
• dilapidated building / new building
• end of life (cemetery) / new life (conkers)
• bust business / thriving business
• abandoned toy / rescued toy
• cramped living (flats) / detached living ground (house)
• confined (young offenders) / open (green space)

The execution took place during two days towards the end of September - one day with beautiful light, and I also used four pictures taken on the previous day which was dull and flat; this accounts for the different lighting in the series, which would not have been my preference, but it is what it is.

My approach to editing and processing is very simple.  For a start, I did not have to make many choices, all the good light photographs were deliberately shot, and the four with flat light (pairs B and E) were in fact chosen from a bank of Bleeding London photographs taken on the previous day that were better in terms of concept and composition than two of the pairs intended.  All were shot with Nikon D810 body and a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G lens.  Processing took place in ViewNX 2 and followed a simple routine: straighten, crop, exposure adjustment, shadow protection adjustment, (in same cases picture control reset to Landscape) contrast, colour boost and sharpening.  As the lens is new there were no blemishes to remove.  That's all I do.  I'm capable of a little more in Elements, but for this piece of work, there really was no need.

All pictures submitted are in square format.  This is a personal preference from a creative perspective, which I can't really explain.  I just really like square images!  Matt Stuart told me that I need to be able to answer this question if I'm going to continue to use square format, so it might be because I like pictures that are straight to the point and which exclude unnecessary information.  But I can't be certain of that theory!  In some cases, I prefer rectangle pictures (landscape), so it just depends.  I tend to avoid vertical rectangles if I can.  In any case, for this submission, square format seemed to work well in terms of composition, so I will be interested to see what the feedback is.  In addition, I think square format works for viewing on personal devices.

These photographs were mostly taken for the purposes of the assignment, with the exception of pairs B and E, as previously mentioned.  It is likely that they will only be seen by my tutor, fellow students and the assessors, plus the Crossing Lines group that I'm going to show them to (on account of their interest in urban conditions).  Pairs B and E are online on the Bleeding London submission site, and hopefully will be included in the Bleeding London exhibition (if they are selected).

See submission for the final results.

References

• Bate, D. (2013), Photography The Key Concepts, London: Bloomsbury Academic
• Sontag, S. (2003), Regarding the Pain of Others, London: Penguin Group

Websites

• Martin Parr (2014) [online] available from http://www.martinparr.com/ [accessed 24 August 2014]  
• Paul Russell (2014) [online] available from http://www.paulrussell.info/ [accessed 25 August 2014]