Assignment 2 – Review

Name: Tobin Lang s3606822

I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services

Blog reflections

Week 5 – Legacy Photography (practice analysis)

Week 6 – Legacy Video (practice analysis)

Week 7 – Online Photography (practice analysis)

Week 8 – Online Video (practice analysis)

 

Provide your own definition (in your own words) on ‘photography’ in relation to legacy and online media, by referring to the readings, additional research and the practice analyses completed in your blog.

When photography was a new technology in the early 19th century it wasn’t considered an art form, it played a mechanical role in reproducing images. A common practice for photography in the earlier period of the technology was for portraits which were, up until then, exclusively executed by painters. Photos were considered by some as a “dispassionate recording which displaced the artist’s compositional creativity” (Price, Wells 2015). It wasn’t until photography had been around a while that the composition of the photo was considered an art form. Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French street photographer born in 1908  who’s work was known for capturing a “decisive moment” It was legacy photographers like Cartier-Bresson who were changing the role of the photograph, it was moving from it’s mechanical role and entering the art space.

A famous picture taken by Cartier-Bresson encapsulates the idea of the fleeting moment, it’s entitled “Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare” where he takes a photo of a man jumping a puddle outside a train station in Paris. He captured his street photography on a portable 35mm Leica camera with no flash which enabled him to be discrete while taking pictures. This has a similarity to current day smartphone cameras which are now ubiquitous with everyday life. The technology is now so advanced and accessible that the line between professional and amateur photographer gets blurred. The volume in which photos are posted and shared on platforms like Instagram have changed the way we view photography.

 

Provide your own definition (in your own words) on ‘video practice’ in relation to legacy and online media, by referring to the readings, additional research and the practice analyses completed in your blog.

Video Practice is taking the moving image in the form of recorded video and creating content in what started in a countercultural environment. In America in the 1950’s the general population were receiving video information through television (85% of the population owned a television by the end of the decade) Advertising is the source of revenue for television broadcasting therefore whatever information is broadcast is ultimately aimed at demographics to drive consumerism. The turning point for this stronghold on video based communication came when Sony invented the portable video camera in 1965 which “launched an era of alternative media” Horsfield 2006. ‘Video practice’ became a new form of expression used in culture and politics that could now be used outside of the mainstream media.

Artists such as Nam June Paik, who was considered the pioneer of video art, embraced the new medium of video through installations like “Tv Buddha” which incorporated a camera and tv monitor to depict a buddha staring at itself on video loop. It is now common place to see video projections in varying forms as an expression of art pieces in galleries and museums. Youtube has become a hub for many forms of video media as it is the place most people upload their pieces, music videos are now broadcast online more. The power of ‘sharing’ video links instantly around the world through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter has created and expanded audiences for video art and documentaries.

What differences and similarities did you discover between the way legacy and online photos are authored, published and distributed?

When comparing today’s online photography with the early days of what is now considered legacy photography, the differing technologies play a major role in how photos are produced and shared. Up until the 21st century photography was shot on film which was an expense which limited the volume of pictures taken, this constraint influenced the authoring of photos in the sense that one could not take unlimited photos to get the ‘right shot’ without consequence. The developing of photos took time and was an added expense to the process. By comparison digital photography is an instant process that is only limited by mobile storage space which in todays technology is abundant which affords the photography to take images they may have deemed unworthy of a picture with an older camera.

Although smartphones have the capability of instantly capturing and storing high resolution photos, the aesthetic of a past era of photography can still be preferable to many amateur and professional photographers. This idea links the old with the new where apps and editing software are used to intentionally age the look of a photo. iPhone apps such as Hipstamatic are used to create a vintage aesthetic “appeal of the vintage look is clearly related to it’s ability to give flattering portraits and romanticise otherwise ordinary scenes” Palmer 2014 Using apps and filters can add a nostalgia to the photo which are based on “imperfections conspicuously missing in digital images” Halpern, Humphrey 2016.

What differences and similarities did you discover between the way legacy and online videos are authored, published and distributed?

A major difference between legacy and online video is in the way that video is distributed. The fact that Instagram only allows a one minute time limit for video already determines how the video artist authors their work if their audience is predominantly for that platform. Rachel Ryle is an animator who creates short story animations and has over one million followers on Instagram, her piece “Friday the 13th!” has had over 174K views on Instagram but only just over 800 views on her Youtube account, she has created a target audience for her work which fits the Instagram platform. If the duration of her videos exceeded one minute and were unable to be posted to her majority audience on Instagram they would not be as widely viewed and circulated through the internet which would adversely affect her career.

A similarity between legacy and online video is the way major corporations have been monetising certain genres of online video through sites like Youtube and Facebook. What started as a user generated platform was now turning back to the early days days of television where companies and governments were the gatekeepers to video content for the public viewing. The music videos shared on these platforms are highly produced with large budgets with the intent of creating revenue through sales and advertising.  Berry notes that the internet is moving into a more commercial direction using the genre of corporate sponsored music videos as an example  “Music videos occupy at least the top 5 most viewed videos on Youtube..often corporate sponsored” Berry 2018

 

References

Berry, Trine Bjorkmann. Videoblogging Before YouTube, Institute of Network Cultures, 2018, p.9

Halpern, Megan and Lee Humphrey, Iphoneography as an emergent art world. New Media and Society, 2016 

Horsfield, Kate. Busting the Tube: A Brief History of Video Art. Video Data Bank, School of Art Institute of Chicago, 2006, p.2.

Palmer, Daniel. ‘Mobile Media Photography’. The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, edited by Gerard Goggin and Larissa Hjorth, Routledge, 2014, p. 249.

Wells, Price. Photography: A Critical Introduction. 5th ed., Routledge, New York, 2015. p.14.