Gender and Otherness

What we perceive as normal and ordinary is a question of everyday life that has been a popular subject for over the last 70 years or so. The terms 'Otherness' and 'Gaze' are the way we look at things and people, which determine our opinions and how we see them. Otherness is how we see the differences between one group and another showing how one is superior to the other one. The Gaze is   how an individual person or group's appearance is presented and how they look is set into our opinions. Their are many stereotypes surrounding these issues such as the Male Gaze that shows a group of assumptions that seep into our mind because of the media. The Male Gaze includes the cowboy, war hero, romantic and in most cases that fill our cinema, television and books is just a general hero. In all these platforms around 80% of the time the protagonist is a male and presents a gaze to how the character is shown. For females this does not happen as much, but appears in more softer versions such as romance films ect. The female gaze was challenged in the second world war through propaganda posters such as the Rosie the Riveter poster that shows a woman working hard to keep the country going whilst the men where at war. This was then challenged again by the male gaze after the end of the war that convinced women that their essential role in life was to be a mother and a housewife. It was not only cinema and the media that expressed this but fashion and arts such as photography. Clothes shown in the 1950's and 60's present how they were designed to cover up the female body and highlight their practicality rather than usefulness. However on the other hand women were and still are represented as sexual objects to the male gaze, it is represented through porn, cinema ect. The female Gaze presents men this way also, which were not as common in the 60s as it is today. Overall 'Otherness' and 'Gaze' is exploited through media and the commercial world. Photography has been a way of doing this as presenting the interests of the world depending on the opinions of what is normal. The dominance of women over the past 70 years is shown through photography and how the Male Gaze over powered females. It has shaped our opinions over the years  to how we see things and decide how we perceive them.

The image as Documentary

Documentary photography is supposed to present a fact of time and record the truth, which does not lie. However the way we see and decodes things leads to the questioning of photographs, that are meant to be documentary. Roland Barthes, french theorist created an analysis called 'The Photographic Message'. Barthes explained that there is two levels of meaning when looking at images, which are Denoting the image for what we can see in front of us and connoting the image for what we can see is telling us that is also purposely put there. Press photography is generally believable from first glance because it is placed next to information that is presented on the television news and newspapers, that we believe is truthful. Newspapers such as The Guardian and The Times display how press photography can be perceived. The Guardian is the type of newspaper to put across more political and left wing opinions of events that are happening around the world, however there is a danger than when we see an image, it is seen from just one point of view, rather than denoting it and looking deeply into the other meanings. Barthe's argument is further extended to how the meaning of a documentary image is produces. The artist e.g the photographer selects what they do and do not want in the image and has a certain attitude towards the events they want in the image. This straight away creates the first opinion of the documentary photograph. The next step is the text that goes along side the image, which automatically can change the thoughts when read next to something depending on what it is about. Finally the viewers opinion on the image is how successful the story is and if it is going to be believed. Documentary photographers such as Steve McCurry and James Nachtway show how their work can be perceived when next to text. Below is one of Nachtway's images for TIME magazine, showing how the image can be one thing but when it is presented with text it shows a whole other layer to the story.

Overall it seems that for ever how long press photography has been used to record an event or object, the meaning depends on how the photographer captures and feels about what is selected for the image and how the viewer also see's it.

Portrait and Photography

Portraits initially define the subject but also what the photographers intention of what the image means and speaks out to its audience and if it creates a reaction. Portrait's originate from centuries ago and has been a symbolic use of showing identity and power ever since. They were extremely popular during the 16th century and famous painter of this period, Han's Holbein reflects how portraits were an important part of everyday life, which now presents history and development of this subject. The painting "The Ambassadors" painting in 1533 and by Holbein is one of his most famous pieces of work. It contains two men of power, which is known through the colours used and the way they are dressed. The painting has many objects that has created debate over the years because of the religious status of that period. Holbein also included an anamorphosis, a distorted skull on an angle at the bottom of the painting, this will of had a symbolic meaning when it was produced, which again has been much debated. Another famous portrait painting by Gainsborough "Mr and Mrs Andrews" presents a view of power because of the land and body language of the subjects and also the fact Gainsborough has included their land, that shows the couple are very self assured of themselves and their lives. As photography has developed it is clear to see that the painting's I have mentioned have had influence in a number of portrait photographs, keeping some of the themes seen in paintings centuries ago. American photographer Tina Barney reflects this is her work such as her portrait "New York Couple" that also presents wealth and shows the identity of the subjects. Not only has portrait paintings and photography presented wealth, power and identity, but how it shows us history. Photography was and is an amazing invention that has allowed to see how people lived from the late 1800's. Edward Curtis' work is a great example of this because he documented the American West and its native people who also lived there, which was interesting at the time because the people Curtis was photographing were also the ones that fighting and killing them, but is great because he has documented this people that we do not hear of anymore. Sociology also has an impact on portrait photography because of the issues that surround society. Photographers over the decades have captured an objective way of seeing which can can be confrontational in the issues that are going on or have been around the world, that presents the subject of what photographers should and should not photograph. Portrait's also create a passage of time and embraces the sitter in photographs that is clear depending on what clothes are worn, furniture surrounding the subject or when comparing two images together that maybe of the same people, but within that moment of the photograph it is gone, which Roland Barthes explained in his theory of photography a "mini death" because it is gone in seconds. When presenting their portrait work, photographers generally always have a context behind it, which they want its audience to see and deconstruct, that photographys such as William Eggleston and Cindy Sherman present, but depending on our beliefs it may come across differently. Eggleston creates a prejudice in his images because of the narrative that he creates, which makes the audience question the background of the image and what is going on. Sherman however uses everyday situations in her portraits of herself that makes the audience shocked and question todays society.
Portrait photography has filled the world with history and identity that makes us question the world and want to know more about the person in the photograph's that show us different situations and circumstances effect us and our lives.

Workshop - Colour

Today (5.12.14) with Tim we learned how to use the Hasselblad camera's with film backs and how to load the film. After a well informed discussion and demonstration the camera seemed quite easy to use and once loading the film was straight forward we all bought some film in pairs so that we could have 6 exposures each. 'Colour' was the theme we were given for these first 6 shots and strangers has seemed to follow with this from the black and white images. This shoot was successful in that I had taken my 6 exposures of strangers. I found it quite difficult to get used to the camera at first as the Hasselblad is used from a lower angle than other cameras, however I feel that once processed it will be clear to see whether the images have worked and if they are in focus. I kept using the same angle on each shot to keep it simple, focusing on a small depth of field, only of the shoulders upwards and focusing in on closely to the face. As my first shoot with the Hasselblad I feel it went well and the next few shoots will be even more successful and I will look forward to printing in the colour darkroom.

Boy's Don't Cry

Ukranian photography collective GORSAD produces very candid, white wall, relatable images. The series below is called 'Boy's Don't Cry' and includes portraits of young boys and girls who seem to be rebelling against their parents and challenging society. The images straight away give off a sense of controversy because these kids are smoking, under the influence of alcohol, their dress sense's are a little different and the way they are posing gives off an attitude and an opinion about their behaviour. GORSAD states that this series is about the period in everyone's life when you do not care and do not think about the consequences. The narrative of these photographs is clear, which I think makes these portraits successful because when you look at them, the story of these children and teenagers jumps out.

http://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/22534/1/boys-don-t-cry

http://gorsadkiev.tumblr.com

Shoot 2

Today (20.11.14) I went out shooting again hopeful to capture some more black and white portraits on the 5x4 camera. With a change of location, it was much more successful in capturing strangers passing by my set up. It seemed that out of the people that I asked to get in my images, only one man said no. As I only captured three images, it did not take me long to shoot and with careful consideration of who I was going to take pictures of, it was overall a successful shoot. Unfortunately when processing the negatives I did not develop it for long enough and came out a bit thin, but I will still be able to print them, which I am looking forward to. Overall I feel that I have successfully captured portraits that I can use and have been a development in capturing strangers and and skills in portrait photography. Below are my scanned images from this shoot.

Shoot 1

Today (17.11.14) I went out to shoot on the 5x4. The location of the shoot was in hartlepool town centre, where the first image I captured was a young girl and guy, which I chose the medium depth of field where it would only be from the waist up of the people in the image. The second one I did was a long focal point so that it would be a long depth of field, so a full length body shot, which was of two middle aged women. This was the first time that I have gone out and asked for strangers to be in the photographs, it turned out the majority of people did not want to be in the images and the ones that did needed quite a bit of convincing. It was also interesting to see, what type of people were more willing to have there picture taken, young lads who attend Hartlepool college were up for it as it seemed it was for a laugh and more of a joke, older people also seemed more interested because we are using a camera that has been around for decades and is different to the digital cameras we tend to use today. Overall todays shoot was a success because I captured two images that I can use and print after they were shot and processed. I now feel more confident in going out to shoot and asking strangers if I can photograph them. Below are my two scanned negative's from today.

Commercial

Some recent commercial portraits I have done for a charity event earlier this month.

Mike Harvey - TAXI

I came across Mike Harvey's taxi portraits scrolling through Vice as he was interviewed for the website  because of his unique project. He worked as a taxi driver for 4 years in a community called Neath in Swansea, Wales so that it would fund his adventures of travelling around the world. He described each journey as a unique experience and had a narrative, which is definitely clear in his work as every passenger was different and brought stories and details of their lives and personality's. The intention of this project, which is also ongoing, is to present the culture and society of this area and how they use the taxi space and also how being the taxi driver gave him and insight into these peoples lives, but also what he has experienced with the passengers such as being offered drugs, permission for the passengers to drugs, sexual acts ect. I think the meaning behind these portraits is so interesting because each one is different and would offer knowledge about their lives to the driver, Mike that gives us, the audience an insight that is portrayed in these images. All images were taken on a DSLR Mike Harvey bought especially to shoot this project, a more easier option to photograph his passengers quickly after they had reached their destination. Each image was also captioned as however much that journey cost.

£13.90

£5.15

£4.66

Article: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/mike-harvey-south-wales-taxi-photos-101
Images from Mike Harvey's Website: http://www.mikeharvey.co.uk

Brian Duffy

Below is a documentary called "The man who shot the sixties" that I have recently watched about photographer Brian Duffy. It concentrates on his fashion work he did in that era and how he stepped away from photography in the  70s, but then goes back to it decades later in 2007 and starts shooting one of his former models again, Joanna Lumley. Although Duffy's work is seen as essentially fashion, it can also be considered as portraits as well as other editorial and adverts he has produced. Duffy worked with Elle and Vogue magazine's during his career in the 1960's and 70's,  his photography style appealed to the fashion world because it was so different to what they were used to. Duffy would not let the models pose the 'normal' way, but would bring a electric vibe to his shoots that would turn out to look more like theatrical poses and have a exaggerated angles that no other fashion photographer had brought to these magazines before. Joanna Lumley who was featured in the documentary, mentioned that Duffy would not let her stand in certain ways, so that it would create unique poses that would interest the reader. By 1979 Duffy was unhappy and scrapped photography all together as it apparently made him unhealthy as became much more of a routine rather than a passion and burned most of his negatives in his studio back garden, however many of them were saved resulting in some of his work being published many years on after his absence in the photography world.  His work is generally more black & white, which is what he believed brought more power to an image, the total opposite to colourful glossy images what his clients in the fashion industry would of wanted, however his colour photography was also powerful. The portraits that I have included below are they pieces of work that show Duffy had his own style of photographing, but also the appearance of the images that was popular at the time to what was similar to David Bailey's portraits, who was also a close friend. Looking through his archive on his website, all of his portraits seem to bring a sense of emotion and forcefulness about them, which is what I think makes them successful.

"The Man who Shot the Sixties"

David Bowie as 'ALADDIN SANE', 1973

Grace Coddington 1962

Franis Wyndham 1978

Joanna Lumley and Son.

John Lennon

All portraits featured are from http://www.duffyphotographer.com

Depth of Field

Depth of Field is a key element of photography that is important to understand to be able to capture a successful image, with the subject in focus what ever the focal length is. It is a complex thing to understand in my own experience, especially when using film cameras such as the 5x4 that we are using for this assignment. After a few explanations from Tim and research online, depth of field is finally making more sense to me. It refers to how much is clear in the background and what is in foes.  A large depth of field means the the focused area would be a lot greater for example with this assignment, the person who's portrait you want to capture would include the person in focus but also the background behind them. This can be achieved by using smaller apertures and higher f-stops. A shallow depth of field means it has less of a focused area, which would be focused on just the person in the portrait photograph, using a larger aperture and smaller f-stop would produce this in the image.

Initial Ideas Part One

For this first part of the project, we are producing three black and white portraits on a 5x4 film camera, which individually have to be different in the positioning of the person in the portrait. Initially they are to be strangers that pass me on the street, wherever I set the camera up. The images also have to be of pairs, whether that maybe two friends, spouse, family or even their pet, as it creates a total different meaning to how the audience see's the picture and how it looks all together. I am not too over ally fussed on what type of people are in my photographs or what they look like, just as long as they appear to be interesting, so that it will come out in my prints. I want the location of my photographs to look quite urban and gritty, such as a town centre or near a pub to help create and link with an abrasive appearance to my black and white portraits.

On thursday (13.11.14), Tim gave us a workshop on depth of field and a run through of how to use the camera again to recap how to set it up, as we have not used it since our Landscape module in Level 4. After relearning to set the camera up and seeing how it works again, we went through different levels of depth of field, which will be featured in our black and white portraits. Long, medium and shallow are the focal lengths that we are to include in our images. Tim also went through focal lengths and how f stops effect how the photograph will turn out, with what is in focus and what is blurry. This workshop was really useful because it helped me understand depth of  field a lot more than I already did, by seeing it in demonstration and realising that DOF is bigger the further away the subject is, portraits in this case. We then went out with our first piece of film, using one of the lengths of depth of field in our image. Unfortunately my negative for this was fogged due to me accidentally pulling the slide out exposing the negative. A mistake I will not be doing again.

Portrait Photography Assignment

Portrait photography captures the expressions and personalities of people, whether it be of a single person or in a group. It can also include the full body of a person and not just a close up headshot. I think this is important in portraits because a lot of information and meaning can be displayed depending on what is including in the framing. Depending on the subject matter and concept of the photograph, it should be clear with what depth of field has been used. However other peoples opinions may differ from the original idea of the photograph, which is what I am going to keep in mind for this project. For this assignment I am to capture the faces of strangers, that are willing to be in my photographs. Using the 5x4 cameras, I am going to produce images that are considered to be portraits of my own personal opinion and style have to be of an individual person or in groups. The fact that the people in the photographs have to be strangers is going to be quite challenging, not everyone likes being in pictures and especially not if they are not going to see them or do not know who is taking them, however I am confident in going out and asking people and hopeful of capturing some interesting shots, that will be successful in portraying portraits and show my development through research of portrait photographers and work of my own. The idea of strangers being in my images seems more interesting than shooting people that I know, because I do not know these people or what they do or if they are nice people or not, which creates more of a challenge overall.

Tourism, Landscape and Myth

The Myths of Tourism

The imagery of tourism is seen to create realities of places through how it can occur to look positive and somewhere that appeals to the eye. The actual place that is being advertised is often not shown in what the actual reality of the place is but is shown to how stereotypes of tourist area's are supposed to look like, that are featured in travel brochures and postcards. We as people are attracted to are's that we have never been before because of the images that are used on tourism consumption, as we expect to see these countries and area's to look exactly how they appear and forget about any negativity that could come with it. Stereotypes of tourism is what we see has places of interest and landmarks in countries and cities that we want visit from seeing our friend's photographs and also reviews that we can read about these places, such as the Eiffel Tower, Berlin Wall and the Colosseum. Photographer Martin Parr has produced a number of pieces or work that show tourism in different ways. He breaks down tourist attractions by concentrating on what surrounds them rather than the actual object that tourists are interested in. Advertisement places a huge role in tourism as they only show us what they want us to, to make us want to visit. Travel brochures are a key example to this as they only show the reader selected images that highlight the best parts. Photography's role in tourism is how photographs can create a safeness as the photographer can choose what is in the image and in this case of tourism, is assigned to capture the right things that will make the audience feel safe. Although it all seems very positive, sometimes tourism can objectify the exotic other that is presented through photographs because it will often include images of the people who live in the tourist area, working and making their living. It is offensive as the tourist obviously has time on their hands and has money to be able to visit places because they appear to be looking down on them.

Martin Parr - Small World (Book)

The landscape has also been seen as a myth over time. Artists often included landscapes in paintings of people because they wanted it to view themselves as having land which meant they were wealthy. However in the 18th Century painters would also produce images of people who were peasants in their homes, that would appear more positive that what their lives actually were such as 'Cottage Door' By Gainsborough, the image included warm colours and the husband providing firewood making it seem normal. The landscape appeared to be a place where people could live and work safe and be happy. Photography also show's how landscape can be a myth, John Kippin's work is shown to be ironic in ways because of its link with the past. His piece 'Shakespeare Country' shows this because of how different the landscape is in a lot of places compared to what images of the more positive part of an area is. We often forgot that everywhere has a bad part to it, rather than what we are just shown.

Above all Tourism and Landscape is seen as a Myth in many different way. The art of painting and photography presents a view, that can fool its audience to believing, what the image appears like in front of us. This can often cause problems with our expectations and what we think the place in the image is actually going to be like, because of what is chosen to be in its framing. They often miss out the negativity, but photographers such as Martin Parr and John Kippin have produced work that contrasts the views we are expected to have in the stereotypes that are given to us.

The Art of Landscape

The Image as Space: The Art of Landscape

Photographs appear and are considered on a number of levels. The physical level of a photograph means that it is an object, which is usually in print form, rather than just on a computer screen. The print holds an image that the photographer has taken, which is argued to be an insight into the place and objects of where the photograph was taken, like a window. The physical level is where we devise what is in the image and what it appears to mean. This level also means the plain flatness of the print, contributed from the flatness of the camera. Colour photographs and prints also as another level of descriptive information to the image because it is how we as people see things and they have an effect on what we believe, such as when the photograph was taken could appear to look like something totally different. Photographs can be kept as a record and saved for years to come, be bought and produced as a visual work of art, showing how the audience ties different approaches to how an individual see's the context. Another level of images is the Depictive level. This level means what is in the images analytical context. The photographer decide's where we look and what to select when taking an image, what equipment is used and what settings to produce what the image will end up like. Our senses can not be used on a photograph because it is a deception of space, the only attributes which can define a photograph is the flatness, timing, focus and framing. These characteristics define how the image looks. Framing separates what you want in the images, making it different because you decide what is in it as the edges show what in, rather than what is not. There is two types of framing, that are passive and active. Passive framing means that there is not a lot going on and focus's on fewer objects rather than a lot. Active is when there is a lot of things have been including and more is happening and objects have been clearly cut out. Our attention span of different objects also effects how we see images and how their meaning appear's, depending on what we find most interesting and what stick's out, which makes photography good at provoking feeling's.

Landscape photography has an intelligent effect on people because it is not questioned on what is real in the image. One of the most famous landscape photographers and it still well know today, Ansel Adams ones said "Not everybody trusts painting's but people believe photographs". This shows how easy it is to have an effect on people's emotions and how photographs can be so significant not only in landscape photography, but in all genre's. But landscape photography presents how beautiful the natural world is, such as in Ansel Adam's work in the Yosemite National park. There are many other landscape photographers in the world that also present the power of nature, such as John Blackmore who tend's to spend a lot of time in the area's he takes photographs and is more about the idea's that come with that place. William Christenberry works with landscapes that surrounded him in his childhood, making it appear to be about memories. Photography with the same concept as Christenberry's help us learn about cultures and where the images are taken. William Eggleston also can be seen as using this idea in his work, because it put's across feelings that are quite sentimental and what seem like familiar places.

Overall the use of Landscape photography can be an escape from reality for its audience because f its beauty and power. We as individuals are drawn to this type of photography because of feelings it can trigger inside of us and how we can deeply analyse images of places that make us want to know more about or even visit. 

Ansel Adams - Image from http://www.archives.gov/research/ansel-adams/

William Eggleston - Image from book 'William Eggleston Guide'

Evaluation

The idea of extraordinary that has been included in Editorial photography could be seen as a number of subjects in the assignment that I had been given. To each individual person the word extraordinary means a different thing, this generally results in a range of ideas and concepts. As long as the photographers work supports the written work, whether it be in a book, magazine or newspaper it is seen as editorial. This assignment has been an enjoyable challenge from start to finish because of its difference to everything else I have experienced and produced before. At the beginning the thought of this project was quite overwhelming because I had a number of ideas that overall seemed too hard and confusing to go out and do. After a few discussions and help, my subject matter was decided and conclusive on focusing on my part time job that I have outside of University. This seemed extraordinary because no one else I know and who is also doing this assignment does not have access to photograph the place that is significant to me, making it a totally different subject matter than everyone else’s. Another reason is that the public and other audience's seem to think the store is unique in itself because there is no other clothing shop in Middlesbrough that is like Psyche because of its reputation of being quite overly priced and it stocks designer labels that no where else in the area does. During the seven weeks of this assignment I have explored the shop mostly in the stockrooms, which is what I would call behind the scenes rather than capturing more images on the shop floor. I have done this because my subject matter was to present the process of the clothes that Psyche sells, from the beginning of the items being delivered, to its journey of them being hung up and sold. I wanted to show this because this is what the public do not see, because most of the time people don't think about what goes on behind the walls of the shop that they identify with, they just look at this clothes and consider trying them on or buying them, which I find quite curious, as personally it is what I find most interesting to see the stories behind the clothes, rather than just hung up. Throughout this assignment I have used my own camera, a Canon DSLR 500D, also using a 60mm size lens. I used my own camera because I feel comfortable using it and I knew I wouldn't become confused when taking photographs. Looking through magazines and books helped me broaden my knowledge and understanding on editorial work and researching Photographers such as very successful famous photographers like Mario Testino and William Eggleston, but also photographers who I have came across by just researching for this assignment like Anthony Kwan and Rebecca Tate. If I was to start this assignment again and do things differently, I would definitely shoot and capture a lot more around or even outside the shop so that I would of had more choice of photographs to choose from for my final images. I would have also maybe explored the subject extraordinary and presented a contrast of different images, by shooting in different locations or including a different genre of photography such as portraits of the people I work with. Looking back I would have liked to use different cameras and maybe the use of film to create a different appearance to the images. Above all in my opinion my final prints do represent the term extraordinary and could be used in editorial work. My reason behind these images being the whole process of the clothing explains this and is clear to see in the photograph, although I do think could be more apparent if I had taken more photographs from different objects and areas.

Furthermore this assignment has been a challenge in how vast the subject matter could be, being able to choose my own concept was very difficult at the start because of being able to choose anything as their was no specific route to take as long as it was linked with the term extraordinary and presented Editorial photography. However overall this assignment has helped me progress in understanding what Editorial photography is and includes a lot more and has gave me experience in this genre of photography, which I did not have before. It is something that I did not think about previously to this project, but will continue to progress and want to learn more about in to the future by exploring different genre's surrounding photography that can be editorial work.

Final Prints

Below are the images that I have chosen to use for my final prints to hand in. Throughout the shoots that I have done, these are the photographs that stand out to me as the most extraordinary and editorial. I have chosen these images because they each have an individual story to them that I feel is interesting when knowing what the subject matter is. However I do not think that it is that clear to see what my reason behind taking these photographs where, which is needed to be explained when looking at them, but in the order I have placed them presents the story that I want to put across which is initially the process from the buying of the clothes to the selling of the clothes and the parts of the store that the average person does not see. Overall I feel that my final photographs are successful in representing my subject matter and are extraordinary because I have access to this store that no one else does so it will be different and unique to what others will be presenting. 

Shoot 4

During this shoot I wanted to capture a little more behind the scene's at work. I was told to focus on boxes which is what I tried to do in some of the images below. I feel like I have captures area's in which people can not see, only me and others who have access to the shop in the stockrooms, and in the shop when it is closed and not open to the public, making it seem a lot more desolate and brings a feeling of emptiness. Personally I don't really like the majority of these photographs as I did not have a lot of time to take them so they were a bit rushed. Although the first two images are not in focus, there is something about them that makes them a little bit interesting. The fact that they are not in focus makes them appear to be ghostly, bleak and cold, which adds to my subject matter of the process of the clothes because the clothes don't have feeling, they are hung up and left waiting to be bought. The images of the stairs and fire escape adds a sense of emergency and a difference to what is  on the other side of the walls, that is the clothes that makes people feel happy. Out of all the photographs these ones are my favourite because they show a contrast to what the public see overall.