Component 2
Audience, viewers, spectators
exam paper
I chose the theme of 'Viewer, audience, spectators' as all the terms are based upon looking, and experimenting with ways they could be differentiated against each other would be interesting. I also chose this theme as looking is a large part of photography and life itself, therefore it will have a large range of subjects to photograph and investigate.
Robert Doisneau
Born in 1912, Robert Doisneau was a champion of humanist photography and a pioneer of photojournalism.
Raised by his aunt, he experimented with photography aged 16.
Doisneau is predominantly known for his unassuming, and often surreal portrayal of life on Paris streets, one of his most well known works is 'Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville' (Kiss by the Town Hall), showing a kissing couple embracing on the streets of Paris in 1950. He commented, "The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street." Capturing a variety of emotions from shock and discomfort, to intrigue and amusement – Doisneau’s witty portrayal of the Parisian voyeur, in the ultimate ‘candid camera’, was an assignment for Life Magazine and published in the same year. The series has become one of his most famous works. Doisneau’s work is synonymous with the image of post-war Paris, alongside Henri Cartier-Bresson, Édouard Boubat and Willy Ronis.
Raised by his aunt, he experimented with photography aged 16.
Doisneau is predominantly known for his unassuming, and often surreal portrayal of life on Paris streets, one of his most well known works is 'Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville' (Kiss by the Town Hall), showing a kissing couple embracing on the streets of Paris in 1950. He commented, "The marvels of daily life are so exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street." Capturing a variety of emotions from shock and discomfort, to intrigue and amusement – Doisneau’s witty portrayal of the Parisian voyeur, in the ultimate ‘candid camera’, was an assignment for Life Magazine and published in the same year. The series has become one of his most famous works. Doisneau’s work is synonymous with the image of post-war Paris, alongside Henri Cartier-Bresson, Édouard Boubat and Willy Ronis.
At the time the photograph was taken by Doisneau, image rights were protected by law. Therefore a cautious Doisneau resorted to using friends or young actors to avoid potential legal issues. In March 1950, Doisneau traveled out within the streets of Paris with friends and simply let them be: they walked, held hands, talked, and kissed, with Doisneau close behind. “His models weren’t models in the sense that they didn’t pose. Doisneau was simply catching them flirting and kissing, in a very natural way, ” says his daughter, Deroudille. The result, a kiss seized across from the city’s town hall, some may feel like this is the best of his photographs: an excluded moment whose beauty is appreciated solely to the lovers and the photographer. Neighboring them, routine Parisians walk, hardly noticing the budding couple, cars hurry by and characters seated at a café speak animatedly. But, we the viewer, participating in Doisneau’s gaze, stop in our tracks in front of this picture: the immediacy of it, the movement of their bodies and the place being a city of love, cast a romantic and exciting spell on the viewer. Hence who would care for the authenticity? The emotions showed in the photograph itself are authentic enough. The truth here prevails in the beauty of the drive and a inspiration that is closely linked to the French spirit and it's capital city.
MY RESPONSE
In my response to Doisneau, I took photographs of the people around me on my holiday to Florence, Italy, using a black and white filter and grain to replicate an image similar to one of a film camera's. These subjects were mostly of my grandparents and family members, making the photographs contain a sense of closeness and comfort. Revisiting family in Italy, I felt was a good way to experiment with the subject of 'audience' and 'spectator', as I was in a setting that wasn't particularly my own. Therefore, when capturing these images, I felt as though I was a watcher into the lives and routines of the people around me, specifically my grandad. I slowly began to become his own personal audience, as he lives alone, and my presence was something unfamiliar to him. I found myself absorbing so intensely into the mannerisms and general stance of my family. I felt as though I did not exist in that moment, and I see the magic on looking back into the moments I captured, is that only truth and a sense of the everyday reality shines radiates through.
Martine Franck
"A photograph isn't necessarily a lie, but nor is it the truth. It's more of a fleeting, subjective impression. What I like most about photography is the moment that you can't anticipate: you have to be constantly watching for it, ready to welcome the unexpected" - Martine Franck
MY RESPONSE
Black and white film response, capturing the everyday and the surroundings that build a sense of comfort and the ordinary life. Almost a contrast to my response to Doisneau as it captures the complete opposite, home and familiarity.
Paul Graham
'Television Portraits'
my RESPONSE
Three series response of Morgana on her phone, taken without her knowledge.
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Cinerama Dome 1993, Carpenter Center 1993, U. A. Play House 1978
Hiroshi Sugimoto is a modern Japanese photographer whose practice explores memory and time. Using long exposure photography, Sugimoto provides understanding of how the medium can both unknown and change reality. Influenced by Dadaist and , Sugimoto’s Seascapes, Dioramas, and Theaters, craft mysterious scenes from vernacular subject matter. “Photography is like a found object. A photographer never makes an actual subject; they just steal the image from the world,” the artist said. “Photography is a system of saving memories. It's a time machine, in a way, to preserve the memory, to preserve time.”
I'm a habitual self-interlocutor. One evening while taking photographs at the American Museum of Natural History, I had a near-hallucinatory vision. My internal question-and-answer session leading up to this vision went something like this: "Suppose you shoot a whole movie in a single frame? " The answer: "You get a shining screen. " Immediately I began experimenting in order to realize this vision. One afternoon I walked into a cheap cinema in the East Village with a large-format camera. As soon as the movie started, I fixed the shutter at a wide-open aperture. When the movie finished two hours later, I clicked the shutter closed. That evening I developed the film, and my vision exploded behind my eyes. - Hiroshi Sugimoto
I'm a habitual self-interlocutor. One evening while taking photographs at the American Museum of Natural History, I had a near-hallucinatory vision. My internal question-and-answer session leading up to this vision went something like this: "Suppose you shoot a whole movie in a single frame? " The answer: "You get a shining screen. " Immediately I began experimenting in order to realize this vision. One afternoon I walked into a cheap cinema in the East Village with a large-format camera. As soon as the movie started, I fixed the shutter at a wide-open aperture. When the movie finished two hours later, I clicked the shutter closed. That evening I developed the film, and my vision exploded behind my eyes. - Hiroshi Sugimoto
Sam Gregg
'Blighty'
Before starting his project called 'Blighty', Gregg had spent three years in Bangkok, working for a global film organisation. Upon his arrival to the UK in mid 2018, he understood that his time away, "combined with the present, steady talk about nationality", implied he was encountering a disassociation with being British. In light of this, he started investigating the place where he grew up in London by trying to reconnect to it the main way he knew how, with a camera around his neck.
'Blighty' not enables Gregg to invest energy into becoming more acquainted with his way of life once more, it also records an imperative minute for London overall. With sentimental photographs taken in pie and crush shops and bars, his photographs are a demonstration of the family-run organisations that are gradually being driven out and supplanted by huge corporate businesses.
'Blighty' not enables Gregg to invest energy into becoming more acquainted with his way of life once more, it also records an imperative minute for London overall. With sentimental photographs taken in pie and crush shops and bars, his photographs are a demonstration of the family-run organisations that are gradually being driven out and supplanted by huge corporate businesses.
MY RESPONSE
This response was taken inside of restaurant on a film camera. Through the process of taking these two images, I spotted the two men during their conversation whilst I waited for my order and found the composition of the frame and the shadow to be pleasing aesthetically. Meanwhile also finding myself fitting into the title of the 'viewer'. The decision to place these photographs together came after I took the image of the space they left, a way of reflecting myself joining and leaving their personal bubble through my photographs.
'Who's Looking at the Family' - Val Williams
Empty Rooms, Deserted Spaces
'June Street' - Martin Parr and Daniel Meadows 1973. Inspired by Bill Owens' 1973 book 'Suburbia'.
'Suburbia' - Bill Owens
insider and outsider - bedrooms.
Photographs taken at home
The theme audience, viewers, specators brought forward the motif of the insider and outsider throughout my work. This motif is an area of photography that I would like to explore, alongside the relationship of the photographer and it's subject. These lines seem to blur when talking of 'subject' as the object in the lens slowly gives power to the photographer, bringing forward an atmosphere and view where the target becomes a site for vulnerability. This vunerablilty would be useful in my work as the theme collectively is based on looking, therefore the photographer could be the viewer but also the audience, the subject of the photograph also slotting into these labels. In my eyes the theme brings together the basics of photography and the relationships photographers create through the act of taking images.
As a response to this idea, I decided upon taking photographs of bedrooms in my house and also in other houses. Bedroom spaces are places of rest and comfort, a space that is private and belongs only to the owner, this was why I decided on photographing them as the images break that privacy and opens it up for the viewer and the owner. The bedroom becomes a setting where the spectator, audience and viewer merge into one, being the photographer. This collection of photographs where inspired by (above) the book 'Who's Looking at The Family' by Val Williams alongside (above) 'Suburbia' by Bill Owens.
As a response to this idea, I decided upon taking photographs of bedrooms in my house and also in other houses. Bedroom spaces are places of rest and comfort, a space that is private and belongs only to the owner, this was why I decided on photographing them as the images break that privacy and opens it up for the viewer and the owner. The bedroom becomes a setting where the spectator, audience and viewer merge into one, being the photographer. This collection of photographs where inspired by (above) the book 'Who's Looking at The Family' by Val Williams alongside (above) 'Suburbia' by Bill Owens.
Photographs taken in other peoples houses
Sinem and Olivia's bedroom's
Issey and Morgana's bedrooms
Carolle benitah
'Photo souvenirs'
'These photographs are fragments of my past. I interpret them from a subjective perspective as confessions. I decided to explore the memories of my childhood to help me understand who I am and to define my current identity. To begin with, I carry out "excavations", like an archeologist, I dig out the pictures in which appear from family albums and the shoe boxes full of photographs. I choose snapshots because they are related to memories or loss."
"But the photos reawakened an anguish of something both familiar and totally unknown, the kind of disquieting strangeness that Freud spoke about. Those moments, fixed on paper, represented me, spoke about me and my family, told things about my identity, my place in the world, my family history and it's secrets, the fears that constructed me, and many other things that contributed to who I am today."
"But the photos reawakened an anguish of something both familiar and totally unknown, the kind of disquieting strangeness that Freud spoke about. Those moments, fixed on paper, represented me, spoke about me and my family, told things about my identity, my place in the world, my family history and it's secrets, the fears that constructed me, and many other things that contributed to who I am today."
In this response to Carolle Benitah, I used family photographs to explore the past. This idea was interesting to investigate as it ties to the 'insider' and 'outsider' theme I was previously looking at with the photographs of bedrooms.
Film photography
Film photographs documenting my trip to Florence.
Most successful
These photographs were in my perspective, the most successful as they caught the subjects of the photographs off guard, making the action in the photograph more natural and unplanned. This is seen primarily in the photograph of 'The Birth of Venus' painting where a man walks past quickly, this was caught un intentionally but came out successful as my aim was in taking this roll, to let life flow and capture everything as it came.
Diptychs
experimenting with text
I decided on writing on these photographs as they were shots that I did not like, and came out unsuccessful. The idea behind writing on them came through thinking about confessional text merged with photographs, and how that could link to my theme. I believe the text brought an element of secrecy to the photographs and was a successful experiment as it poses questions- a small insight into someone else’s life through writing.
tracing paper experiments
Using my photographs from my Florence film roll, I experimented with printing them onto tracing paper. The choice for tracing paper came by from conceptually thinking about how surface and texture can reflect deeper meaning, alongside the photographs. In this case, tracing paper was used to present the idea of transparency - the photographer looking into the lives of other people, and bringing forward a sense of vulnerability whilst doing so. The photographs can’t be seen through completely which also ties into my idea of being an on looker, the surface of my photography is the only thing that is certain to myself and the viewer.
overlapping photographs
Through overlapping my photographs, I wanted to create an sense of distortion by mixing two lives that I observed together.
RASTERBATOR EXPERIMENT
Using the website ‘Rasterbator’, I created a large print of one of my successful photographs, initially to practice and experiment with before my exam.
FABIO BOER
MY FIRST RESPONSE
responding in film
Photographs taken on film in the streets of London, inspired by Fabio Boer.
SUCCESSFUL PHOTOGRAPHS
These photographs are successful as they capture the everyday life of the people in London. Although my photographs weren't strictly based upon people like Boers, I enjoy that I captured the surroundings of the city that much of the people I did photograph experience, alongside myself.
helena almeida
'Inhabited Painting'
'Helena Almeida’s black-and-white photographs of herself depict performances and various actions inflicted upon canvases, color, and other art objects. She paints vibrant colors onto many of her photographs, and attaches objects to others, forcing the depicted events into dialogue with the surface and transforming the past action or performance into something perpetually ongoing and present. For her best known series “Study for Inner Improvement” (1977), Almeida altered photographs of herself so that she appeared to be manipulating blue paint on the surface of the photographs.'
RESPONSE TO 'INHABITED PAINTING'
Colour
Black and white
In these responses, I wanted to experiment with blocking out certain sections of my photographs to see how they could alter the story inside the images, almost as though myself as the viewer, was constructing the photograph for myself. When looking at the original coloured version, I prefer the black and white edit as the contrast is higher and makes the white paint stand out more, like the paint is a section that has been manually cut out.
overlapping
These overlapped images were created with an app called ‘Superimpose’. These responses were a follow up to my previous overlapped images with tracing paper as I wanted to further investigate with manipulating and distorting the photographs as a way to merge all ‘experiences’ together.
EXAM PLAN
Mind map of ideas and plans for my exam.