A Series of Photographs from the Street Photography Task

Editing on Photoshop

Unedited

The majority of the images I that I categorised on Adobe Bridge fell under the 'Maybe' or 'Maybe with Editing' categories. In our workshop we looked at a few ways we can edit images.

Firstly, we looked at what information the histogram feature on Photoshop can show us. A histogram has the ability to display an images tone range in graphical form. A histogram with gaps on the left of the graph indicated a photograph that is overexposed (image is too bright) and one with gaps on the right of the graph indicates an images that is underexposed (too dark). An image with a good tonal range and correctly exposed is one that will display pixels right across the graph. An interesting feature I would like to explore further is the 'All Channels View' which seems to show individual histograms for each colour channel.

I was demonstrated the Brightness/Contrast method of adjustment. This allows you to make simple adjustments to the tonal range of the images. From moving the Brightness slider to the right, it increases tonal values and expands image highlights. Moving the slider to the right decreases tonal values and expands the images shadows. A photograph that I took of an electrician in a doorway was one this feature definitely benefited from. It allowed his face to just come into view, but not so much that it didn't fit my subject criteria!

I also explored the vibrance adjustment tool for my images. I wanted to some more of the muted colours in my images to stand out a little more so increased the vibrance, I also slightly increased the saturation, which increases the intensity of all the colours in the image. I realised after experimenting with this tool not to over do it as it can make skin tones look unnatural.

Another obvious feature of my editing process was my use of cropping. The cropping tool allowed me to cut out sections of the whole image. As I like this image, but it doesn't fit my selection criteria, I used the cropping tool to remove the upper part of the face of one of the subjects in the image.

Edited

Inspiration for Project - Antoine Geiger "Sur-Fake"

I had initially struggled to find work of other photographers that dealt with my theme surrounding the human obsession of social media, photography on social media and how technology has affected our experience of the world.

I stumbled across the young, French photographer Antoine Geiger. In his exhibition "Sur-Fake" he is clearly making a point here of how our focus of reality is seen through a screen in modern times. Our attention is no longer drawn to what is actually happening around us in the real world and the way Geiger has manipulated the image to show how people are literally being 'sucked in' to their phones is a playful way of dealing with issue. I interpret this image by showing how technology has almost made us something inhuman; it changes us.

My favourite image is of the couple taking a 'selfie' in front of the Mona Lisa. It shows how people seem to be enjoying the process of taking an image of themselves rather than enjoying one of the most celebrated pieces of fine art in history. It hints at a certain level of narcissism of social media users and I find it strange how this couple would choose to focus on documenting the fact they have seen the Mona Lisa rather than actually seeing the Mona Lisa.

Selection Criteria

In this weeks workshop we looked through our street photography photographs and looked at what process to take when it comes to selecting photographs to potentially use as a final piece.

The street photography task was an interesting experiment, however, when taking lots of photographs on the move, it meant that there were many pictures that were not fit for purpose (see contact sheets for examples)

I used Adobe Bridge in order to view all of my photographs in succession.

In terms of quality, I looked out for images that had the right exposure, the subjects were in focus, there was no blurring and the images had good composition. 

I found the photographs that I had taken were very reflective of how I was feeling at the time of the shoot. I was quite shy about taken pictures of people without their permission, so I kept the camera held quite closely to my chest and took the pictures covertly. I was amused at some of the pictures that I had taken, where it appears I completely cut off the head of my subjects. With this in mind, I chose this as my subject criteria. They stood out to me visually and I found them humorous as they were indicative of the kind of photographer I am at the moment. I also chose photographs where this wasn't the case and the subjects were in full view - I may edit these using the cropping tool at a later date so they fit in with the overall theme that I'm going for.

In a series, I hope the repetition of this theme will cause a little bewilderment to viewers, but I hope they also see the humorous side to the photographs too.

Using Adobe Bridge, I selected the photographs you can see in the contact sheets and organised them into 5 categories under the following keywords:

1. Bin (for images I had no use for)
2. Definitely (for images that fitted all my criteria)
3. Maybe (for images that fitted my criteria but could use some minor editing)
4. Maybe with Edits (for images that generally fitted my criteria but required some major                                         editing)
5. Complete (this would remain empty until all editing is complete and I have a series of                                pictures ready for exhibition)

To begin with I was fairly overcritical and decided to bin a lot of my images. It wasn't until talking through my theme with my module leader that he pointed out that a lot of these images could be edited to fit my needs and to keep hold of ones that fitted the quality criteria and think more carefully about what could be done later in order for them to fit the rest of my criteria.

The contact sheet was beneficial in this task, allowing me to view images of the same subject next to each other for closer comparison. 

Street Photography Task - Contact Sheet

Creating a contact sheet is useful way to view a large selection of photographs in order to help pin point images of interest that we may want to consider to use in our final projects. By viewing them all across one page, we can compare with other images similar images we have taken and decide which ones stand out to us.

Exhibition Visits - Brighton Photo Biennial 2016

"Reimagine"

Olivia Arthur and Bharat Sikka

This exhibition features the work of two photographers. Olivia Arthur and Bharat Sikka work within communities in Brighton and Mumbai respectively. Both cities have completely different views on gender and sexuality.

The subjects of the images are people who identify with the LGBTQ+ community. I believe what the photographs are trying to represent is the ubiquity of of such communities around the globe. In places where the politics of gender and sexuality are remarkably different, they show how members of this worldwide community are connected with each other, regardless of where they are from or whether they have even met.

"The Dandy Lion Project"

Curated by Shantrelle P. Lewis

The Dandy Lion Projected is a series of 150 images from the work's of around 30 photographers from around the globe. The photographs depicts black men in Edwardian era attire in a cityscape environment.  These photographs defy stereotypes of black male identity, fashion and youth culture by bringing in to view an underrepresented group of people.

"Our City, How Do We Look?"
Chynna Guyat

Exploring the politics of age, gender and representation, Guyat, chooses to focus on older women who show off their individuality with unique fashion statements. It is usually the case that fashion is considered the domain of the trendy and young. In her images, Guyat undermines this assumption by representing fashion conscious individuals from a different generation. She proves that making fashion statements is not an age specific behaviour.

Reflection on Feedback from Elevator Pitch and Changes to Project

I am quite pleased with the feedback I received from the pitch I delivered in yesterday's class, both in the form of our discussion afterwards and the information collected from my peers by the module leader.

It was generally agreed that I had an interesting subject matter to tackle and that it was a very contemporary idea. Social media has taken a lot of focus out of our lives and I think everyone engaged in a good debate as to whether this was a positive or negative thing or not. This is promising, as this is what I want my photo-essay to achieve also.

One problem that others pointed out is that my photographs may end being too similar to each other. I agree with this and it was something that I was initially worried about. To overcome this, I have decided to pick out a feature of different social media platforms and put them in a real life setting to get us think whether or not these are true expressions of ourselves. Take for instance, the Facebook 'Like'. Are we able to fully express our feelings (and simultaneously show a true reflection of ourselves) towards someones post just by hitting a symbol on a screen? I find it's reduces us all to a singular, uniform expression to show we think positively about something - it takes a way our individuality. 

On further reflection, I have noticed how now Facebook has introduces different ways to 'Like' things on the social media platform to overcome the observation that I have made. This is by allowing users to select a facial expression to go alongside our 'Like' to indicate to the person receiving them some further information about the reaction their post evoked. I believe the same reductionist notion still stands, and these facial expressions, known online as the 'emoji' is also something I will explore in my photo-essay. Hopefully, this further reflection will avoid any repetition in my project that my peers have preemptively highlighted, but still manages to adhere to the brief I explore human identity through social media users and the platforms they use.

My peers have also highlighted to me the need to find some more photographers and artists that deal with the same themes. I found this incredibly difficult to achieve when putting my pitch together, but I will continue to explore. I may be able to widen my search by not being so specific about finding photographers and social media users that look at social media, and instead find ones that deal with technology and human behaviour more generally.

The Elevator Pitch Slides - Presented Week 5

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The test shot shown in the final slide is an interpretation of what Popova was discovering herself about the writing of Sontag. I wanted a piece of technology to be invasive in the photograph, and I also wanted it to depict a profile picture in the front of someones real face, like a mask. This is someone showing their 'idealised self' to an audience, but not in the format of a social media platform that is usually the case.

I wanted the image, and the future images of my photo-essay to show the absurd behaviour we, as social media users, sometimes adhere to online.

Gender, Gaze & Other - Key Photographers: Lee Miller, Nan Golding, Sarah Mapple

Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller

1907 - 1977

American-born, Miller started her career by becoming a fashion model. Even though she approached photography from a fashion viewpoint, she inevitably ended up capturing images of the Second World War by becoming a war correspondent for Vogue magazine.

These images were exhibited at the Imperial War Museum, a selection entitled Lee Miller: A Woman's War.

In relation to the weekly topic, here we see women being represented in an intriguing way. Under the conditions of World War 2, Miller depicts women performing tasks that go against the stereotypes of being female at that time. Miller shows that War is not necessarily a male domain, a women also fought, albeit not always on the front lines. I believe Miller sough it fair to represent what women were capable of at such a turbulent time in history.

From the first two images, we can also understand that she is dealing with the theme of femininity. These photographs were presented alongside each other, one depicting a resistance fighter who's hair is styled in such a way to reflect her rebelliousness and, the other, showing a woman who was understood to be collaborating with the Nazis, so her head was shaved. There is an interesting comparison to be made here, one woman uses her individuality in such a way to identify with the resistance of the Nazi regime and another whose head has been shaved by others people for not resisting. Miller has provides an interesting take on what femininity means during war time, with the focus being on hair style.

Nan Goldin

Born September 12th, 1953

Nan Goldin is an American photographer. Her photography explores themes of love, gender and sexuality in her snapshot style and aesthetic. Goldin's work offer her an insight into her life and the people in it. She depict a stark realism in her photographs and she actively avoids glamorising them. I have chosen the self-portrait of herself above as an example of this. Despite being one of her most celebrated and popular pieces of work, 'Nan One Month After Being Battered' was created show she could remind herself why she shouldn't return to an abusive relationship. 

I interpret this image to suggest a reflection of a male dominated society. Despite her bruised face, there is a strong message being conveyed about femininity. Her well kept hair and adornment of jewellery and make-up show that in the face of abuse by a man, she has still engaged in the systems of domination and common assumptions of the representation of women in photographs. She stares at the spectator, wanting them to question what an abused women symbolises in a male dominated society.

LGTB related themes also feature as theme of exploration in Goldin's work. In relation to the weeks topic, the meaning of gender can be explored through the binary opposition man/woman. Society at large has a number of assumptions about what makes a man a man and what makes a woman a woman, in terms of both physiology and personality.

Goldin has chosen to photograph a marginalised and under-represented group in these images. These pictures portraying drag queens undermines these assumptions we make about gender and how gender is represented in society.

Sarah Maple

Born 1985

Born to an Iranian Muslim mother and a English Christian father, Maple is inspired by her mixed religious and cultural background when it comes to her artistry. 

From the examples I have selected above, we can see that Maple's photography blends a lot of themes all at once. We can see a nod to popular culture and a strong message to the viewer that makes us question what is traditionally thought about religion, the role of women in society and personal identity.

A self-portrait of Maple wearing traditional religious headdress worn by Muslim women, whilst at the same time holding a cigarette, calls into question any preconceived notions and assumptions we have about Muslim women, religious women in general and the Maple's very own identity. 

The Spectacle of the 'Other' - Stuart Hall - An In depth look at the representational practice of 'Stereotyping'

1988 Olympics - 100m Final

How do you read the picture?

Denotative -  The above image is the depicts Ben Johnson, a Canadian sprinter, winning the 100m race against Carl Lewis and Linford Christie. The five men are shown to have amazing physical stature and prowess.

Connotative - All of the athletes here are of the same race. We could read this picture, alone, to show a triumphant moment for a group that has been known to be discriminated against. However, the caption accompanying the picture hints towards this not being a triumphant or heroic moment for all of these men.

This appears to be true. The reading explains that Ben Johnson had taken performance enhancing drugs leading to his disqualification. Hall explains in this image that Johnson is both a 'hero' and 'villain'.

Meaning 'floats'. There are many meaning in this image and it isn't fixed. In order to fix we need to ask if there is a preferred or privileged meaning. The caption helps us here it is preferred meaning is both heroism and villainy. It is Johnson who fulfils the meaning by both winning the race, but suffering moral defeat for using performance enhancing drugs.

Hall argues that the connotative meaning has changes as well in light of the preferred meaning. The meaning in respect of 'race' and, therefore, 'otherness' has changed. This frequently happens when people who are different from the majority a subject to this binary form of representation.

'Reading' the above photograph of Linford Christie winning a different 100m race:

Denotative - Linford celebrates, with his arms outstretched to the crowd, on a victory lap of stadium. A union jack flag is draped over him.

The above image is the depicts Ben Johnson, a Canadian sprinter, winning the 100m race against Carl Lewis and Linford Christie. 

Connotative - We could read this image in terms of 'difference' and 'otherness' in terms of how people who are racially and ethnically different from the wider populace are being represented. We could as what it says about 'Britishness', a celebration for Christie in being both Black and identifying himself as a British person.  

Hall explains how images like the ones above also carry messages and connotations about gender and sexuality.

Carl Lewis Advert for Pirelli

Image of 'Flo-Jo' 3x Gold Olympic champion. Text showed a remark by this image made by Flo-Jos husband, Al Joyner:
"Someone Says my wife looks like a Man"

In the same article, this image of Al Joyner's sister Jackie Joyner-Kersee next to another caption from Al:
"Someone Says my Sister looks like a Gorilla."

Hall explains how images like the ones above also carry messages and connotations about gender and sexuality.

Multiple meanings are gained when all of these pictures are read against or in connection to each other. This accumulation of meanings is the representation of people of a particular race at any one one moment. This is called inter-textuality.

With the Pirelli advert, common assumptions of 'super-masculinity' regarding the identity of black male athletes is undermined by the 'femininity' expressed by seeing him in high heel shoes. The high heels are signifier here of femininity. The ambiguity of the meaning of this image is changed when we make connections with the other images we have explored above.

                                                       Why does difference matter?

Linguistic Approach

Saussure's argues that difference matters because it is essential to meaning or meaning can't exist without difference. We understand the meaning of the term 'black' or 'British'  not from the word itself, but in comparison to it's opposite 'white' or it's 'others', 'not-Pakistani' or 'not-French', respectively. 

The problem is with these binary oppositions is that it's a rather reductionist way to establish meaning inherent in something. It struggles to explain the complexities of something - a person may have both feminine and masculine traits.

Derrida explores this. He postulates that there is always a dominant side to a binary opposition when put into context. From the images explored above we have derived a meaning from them in understanding 'white' being the dominant notion here. This is understood through a relation of power between the two terms.

Theories of Language

Here, meaning arises through the 'difference' between two participants taking place in a dialogue.

Bakhtin argues meaning does not belong to one of the speakers, but arises in the give-and-take between the different speakers. For example, what is means to be 'homosexual' or 'heterosexual' is not fully defined by homosexuals and heterosexuals themselves, but it can be found in the negotiations between them and their 'others'. It is down to the participant to then take the word and apply meaning.

Anthropological Approach

du Gay, Hall et al argues that culture is dependent on giving things meaning by assigning them to different positions within a classificatory system. Marking 'differen' is the basis of this symbolic order that we call 'culture'.

This makes sense of binary oppositions as they are crucial in being able to determine clear differences between different things in order to organise them in this system. We can understand 'difference' in terms of whether they fit a particular category or not.

Mary Douglas is outlines how this allows for negative feelings and practices. When something appears in a category it doesn't belong due to it being ambiguous, it unsettles culture as it breaks the symbolic boundaries put in place undermining the purity of a category.

Stereotyping as a Signifying Practice

Stereotyping is the reduction of people to a few, simple and essential characteristics that are represented as fixed by nature. This can be found, and is central to, the representation of racial difference.

Richard Dyer - makes the distinction between types and stereotypes. Like the anthropological approach, we understand objects through the classificatory systems (defined by our culture) we are able to generalise them to. We understand something 'particular' through its 'type'.

Personality types are created when we come to 'know' something about a person; their occupation, gender or sexuality for example, and then attribute a type that can be characterised from them.

The stereotype occurs when we take a personality type and simplify and/or exaggerate them and then make them fixed. Stereotyping, then, is a way of reducing, essentialising and fixing somethings 'difference'. It also implements exclusion of anything outside the symbolic orders of classification. Stereotyping seems to come about when there is an inequality of power, with power directed against those who are not on the side of dominance in a binary opposition.