Week 10

In week 10, I was unable to attend the class because of illness, and it was unfortunately mostly practical, so I did not get to do it. Nonetheless, I looked at the PowerPoint and read the Strobist’s ‘learn how to light’. I enjoy reading about different ways to use light and cameras because I am still learning a lot about photography. I unfortunately do not have much to reflect on from the class due to my illness and absence.

I worked on my project this week by organising my participants and getting the photographs done. Thankfully, I had a few friends who were willing to take place, they were really good about it. I bought a white backdrop for the background of my photographs to make the editing later hopefully easier. The shoots went really smoothly and well, and honestly was a pretty quick process. I took a lot of images and just sorted through the best quality ones. I am excited to get started with progressing my project further, I am sort of nervous about the next few steps.

Week 9 (Pitch)

Week 9 was the pitch for our projects. Because I was very unwell, I was not able to do the presentation in person and unfortunately could not receive extra feedback. My idea to do ‘what’s in her bag’ was generally well received by my tutor. I think the main thing I was worried about, which I wasn’t really sure how I was going to do, was the editing part of my project. I was reassured in my feedback that it would be a good challenge and something I should take on. In terms of what programs I would use for the project, I was sure I was going to use Photoshop, otherwise, I was quite clueless. The project, as pointed out in the feedback, was largely inspired by gender, fashion and contemporary consumerism and I would like to think that the project displays that. I intentionally did not want to include men in the project, because I think it took away from the point I was trying to make on stereotyping and sexism in 2000s magazines. The feedback really inspired me to rather than putting a girl’s name on the bag, I would stereotype each girl’s persona based on the contents of their bags. The images I found for my pitch, remained the most important inspiration for me throughout my production.

Week 8

In Week 8, the prompt of the week was ‘Photography and AI: is it writing with light vs lighting with words?’. This topic fascinates me because I truly do believe AI is the future. I find it interesting universities, workplaces and schools are trying to shut down AI usage rather than using it to improve work and use it to their advantage. After reading ‘How AI Imagery is Shaking Photojournalism’ I now know how controversial it is in the photography landscape as well. “In a conversation with Michael Christopher Brown, he explained that it was created with the “intention to explore, analyse and discuss what AI may enable for reportage illustration and to surface public conversation and questioning around what work of this nature may mean for image-based storytellers who care about reality and truth.”” (Terranova, 2023). I think the main point of creating photojournalism with AI, was to not only portray the photographs and the story, but to see how the public eye reacts with the introduction of AI into the art world. The reading discusses how a lot of reactions were a disappointment and how the photographer ‘didn’t really do anything’. Despite years of research and work on the project and working with AI, the images are ‘inauthentic’ because they are not real. I’d be interested to hear what people would think of the project had he not disclosed the images were rendered by AI. The ABC’s discussion on whether AI has a place in photography also really interested me. Photography is an ever-changing and developing art form, and I think it will be very interesting to see where AI can take this.

REFERENCES

Amber Terranova, ‘How AI Imagery is Shaking Photojournalism Links to an external site.‘, Blind [online magazine], 26 April 2023.

ABC News, ‘Boris Eldagsen turned down a prize for his AI-generated image, and started a whole new conversation about art Links to an external site., 15 May 2023.

Week 7

In week 7, we discussed expanded photography with the prompt, ‘How can we use the term “expanded photography” to think about the possibilities of contemporary and photography? And how to extend our own media practice’. Expanded photography has interrelated but differing meanings from the week’s readings. Cramerotti (2011) argues the term makes sense of photography in ‘excess’ and how it exceeds it’s recognised meaning. Soutter (2016) argues that photography is not a destination in itself, but instead one method among many. I found it difficult to wrap my head around what really Expanded Photography really was, from my understanding after the readings and personal research, it is expanding the boundaries of traditional photography and giving the photography more context- literally expanding photography. Such as location, formal, and socio-cultural. The activity being creating a cinemagraph helped to further develop my understanding of expanded photography. Expanded photography breaks the grounds of what I traditionally understood as ‘photography’ by finishing the activity with a moving GIF file, something uncommon in photography.
With the rise of social media, it questioned photographers’ authenticity, “would digital technology undermine the craft of analogue photography and, more worryingly, its veracity? Would the invisible hand of Photoshop render not just the process, but the so-called “truth” of photography, obsolete?” (O’Hagan, 2018). I found this discussion very interesting, but I think digital technology and social media often add a lot of authenticity to photographs. Because anyone can take a picture at any time, I feel as though a lot of photographs now are more ‘organic’ or ‘informal’ than they used to be. Without having professional cameras, lights and backdrops, average people have a creative medium at their hands. Despite the rise in editing like Photoshop as well as Face Tune (which decreases authenticity), I think technological access and the digital rise has done a lot of good in terms of authenticity in photography.

 

REFERENCES
Lucy Soutter (2016), ‘Expanded Photography: Persistence of the Photographic’ PhotoResearcher 26, pp.36-43.

Alfredo Cramerotti (2011), ‘The Truth of Experience: Notes on Expanded Photography’, Digicult (66), August.

Sean O’Hagan (2018), ‘What next for photography in the age of Instagram’, The Guardian, 14 October

Week 6 

What were some key discoveries in this module in terms of your creative process? (It may be useful to break this down into the different phases of creative inspirations, pre-production planning and organisation, the actual shoot, and post-production and presentation).

In this module, I struggled a lot with the idea of creating something with a stranger as that seemed really out of my comfort zone. Luckily, we were able to do someone that wasn’t in our close family or friends. Thankfully, I have a friend who spends a lot of her free time doing little paintings for herself. I know she has always done this, and we’ve talked about it a few times and when this project came up, I knew she would be right for it. She does not do it to show off her work and does not claim to be a good painter, but rather does it out of enjoyment and as a sort of stress relief. I found it really interesting that it is something she does to unwind, whether it is printing a picture and colouring it in or doing watercolour scribbles. I’ve never been one to have a particular hobby, so I love that she has a ‘comfort’ activity to do in her spare time. The actual shoot was very easy-going, she was comfortable and communicated with me if there was anything I wanted her to do. I just let her do her thing as I snapped a few pictures around her. I got about 30 pictures and narrowed them down to my favourite 10, which demonstrated her ‘story’ of a break/downtime in her busy day-to-day life.

What were two key learnings in terms of the experience of ‘collaborating’ with your ‘stranger’/participant?

The first key learning experience was to let things happen organically. I found myself being quite stressed out about what the pictures were going to turn out like and what they were going to be of. I tried to write down some points on my phone of photos I thought would be essential for the ‘story’ but I found that it just came to me very naturally. In the environment she was in, I made to capture all her little painting equipment as well as her surroundings. She said she prefers to paint outside when she can although it is more rare, especially when the weather is no good; luckily, we got very fortunate.

My other key learning experience was time management. Now that someone I knew was doing a favour for me, everything was on her time. We found it quite difficult to find a day where everything matched up for the both of us, and I had originally planned to get two pictures of her at work and her at university to better display the ‘story’ of this being her ‘downtime’. Unfortunately, she went away for the week, and we were unable to do this. As a result, I learnt that I have to be a better planner and give more time for myself to carry out my ideas.

Otherwise, I think everything went pretty smoothly and generally I am happy with how my pictures turned out.

Week 5 

In week 5 we spent the whole of our Tuesday class testing out different lighting gadgets. We set up a few different pieces of equipment that each functioned in a different way as well as creating a different effect for lighting. The lighting equipment I spent most of my time on was a softbox lighting kit which was connected through a little remote to the camera and flashed when a picture was taken. I never realised how different lighting made pictures seem. Although the cameras are amazing, without the lighting the photos looked dull. With the lighting, the pictures looked as if they had been taken in a studio professionally. As well as following the ‘lighting handout’ we received we were able to create different effects for the photographs as we changed the position of the softbox and the camera. If the lighting was moved to create shadows (on the side or from a very high or very low position) the photos looked creepier and darker. If the softbox was moved only slightly to the side or directly front on, the face was well lit and gave the ‘professional’ effect. We also got to play around with the reflector kits, it was very interesting to see in particular using the silver or gold one. Depending on the outfit or tone of the person, the gold and silver reflectors either complimented the person or created a strange tinge to the images. The class was very fun, I have never experimented with lighting before, and it gave me a lot of new knowledge I would have never known otherwise. The reading of the week, ‘Reading the photobook’ (Badger, 2011), also gave great insight into the idea of a photo essay and how we consume this type of media. I liked the idea of the media form not having rules, no particular way to create one, “it doesn’t matter, you can do absolutely what you want. It’s all fiction anyway.” (Badger, 2011).

REFERENCES:

Badger, G 2011, “Reading” the photobook

Week 4 

In week 4 our main focus was on the documentary, ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ (2013). The documentary followed a man who uncovered some magnificent photographs in an auction and made it his mission to discover more about the mysterious photographer, Vivian Maier and to publish her work to the world. Vivian Maier was a complicated woman, and it begged the question in class discussions about the ethical morals of publishing this private photographer’s work. In my own personal opinion, I do find it hard to say, her work was clearly at a professional level, and she was proud of it and thought it was good- it showed the world some outstanding art they may never have seen otherwise. On the opposing end, she never published it herself, and being a very private person, she may never have wanted it to be. As well as the complicated legality of who deserves the money made from her art after her death, the whole documentary formed so many questions. Vivian Maier also took a lot of street photography, which as discussed in class and in the reading, ‘Is it OK for people to take photos of you in public and publish them?’ (Lake, 2014), was another controversial conversation. I personally would not like for someone to publish a picture of me without my knowledge in public. It is argued that the art of street photography must be protected as it is their right to do so in public, but other sources claim, “A right to privacy has always been weighed against the competing right to freedom of expression and has been protected by courts only in certain circumstances.” (Lake, 2014). Street photography is amazing, and I love that it captures a culture or timeframe (e.g. NYC photos in the 1950s) but it does offer the question of whether people like Vivian Maier were creating ethical art.

REFERENCES

Lake, J 2014, Is it OK for people to take pictures of you in public and publish them?, The Conversation.

‌Finding Vivian Maier (2013)

MIMESIS PORTFOLIO – SASKIA CHRISTENSEN_Mimesis

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What were some key discoveries in this module in terms of your creative process? (It may be useful to break this down in to the different phases of creative inspirations, pre-production planning and organisation, the actual shoot, and post-production and presentation).

Creative Inspirations + Pre-production 

In the first week I came back, I was told to research a photographer whose work inspired me, and I chose Bruce Weber. What particularly inspired me about his work was the vintage feel he has to his photographs, no matter how eccentric or posed the photograph is, there is always a level of simplicity and class to his usage of black-and-white. When I looked into the assignment shortly after I had finished my presentation, I realised that I was definitely not going to be able to mimic his work because it was far too planned, (especially being a fashion photographer). At this point, I began planning things that I would be able to photograph, and photograph well. I quickly created a small mind map to get my thoughts flowing on what I wanted to capture within my portfolio.

I realised that I was not as comfortable doing portraits or taking pictures of architecture but rather lent toward more raw and simple photos. I decided I wanted to capture ‘a home that people live in’ inspired by the readings from Susan Sontag on capturing memories and moments as they exist.

From here, I began looking further into photographers that sparked an interest, but would be more realistic for me to grab inspiration from. From this research, I ran upon an article where photographers displayed life from within the pandemic which displayed less flashy, more ‘authentic’ photographs. This is where I saw Hashim Badani’s picture and it really began to inspire what my photographs could look like.

 

Although he is not incredibly famous or well-known, he is still an influential photographer online, having 23,000+ people following him and viewing his photographs. Like Bruce Weber, I loved the black and white image as well as the photo seeming really genuine as to how people function in the home – something that is not often photographed.

The Actual Shoot 

The actual shoot was very simple for me, I began photographing ‘normal’ things throughout my house still keeping in mind the composition of the photograph. I really wanted to capture this idea of a house being lived in. I feel like it is not often we see interiors of places being messy and used, but this is real. My idea was to take as many pictures as I could, and I could filter through the bad ones and good ones later, and choose my favourite 5.

Post-Production + Presentation

In the 3rd week of class, for the first time I learnt how to use Lightroom, this meant after class I was able to sit down and enhance my pictures. I actually had a lot of fun tweaking and experimenting with my mimesis portfolio, and the in-class time actually benefitted me greatly with this module. It also highlighted to me the power of editing, and how elevated your pictures can look with a bit of modifying. I decided to make 3/5 of my photographs in black and white seeming as that was the trend of inspiration for me at the start.

From then, I just put all my pictures into a PowerPoint. I am proud of the work I have done, and although the photographs aren’t particularly stimulating (I’ll have to experiment a bit more), I am happy with the work I have done and have learnt a lot about photography already.

 

REFERENCES:

Hashim Badani’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/hashimbadani/

Nast, C 2020, 7 photographers capture family through their lens in the time of a pandemic, Vogue India, viewed 28th June 2023, <https://www.vogue.in/culture-and-living/content/photographers-capture-family-through-their-lens-in-the-time-of-a-pandemic>.