Reworking Assignment 5 – Photography is Simple.

After receiving feedback from my tutor there were some good suggestions for reworking the assignment.

My tutor suggested that I could even make the images even more less revealing and use the practical experiment from interviewing the two ex servicemen and putting this into further experimentation. My tutor also suggested that I could potentially create/have three series; one creating a portrait of my husband, another creating a portrait of the rifleman that left through injury and finally one of the ex cavalryman who left after completing his full military career plus extension. This is something I touch on more in my learning log here. Although creating more series would benefit my assignment I feel that time is not on my side given that I am already in the submission window. I have however, looked more into Hetherington’s work and how the anonymity of his soldiers in the image ‘Liberia at Peace’ followings the same concept I use in my series.

I have not made any direct changes to my series just added to my research & supported learning log here.

Brief:

The final assignment is an open brief. Take a series of 10 photographs of any subject exploring the theme ‘Photography is Simple’. Each photograph should be a unique view; in other words it should contain some new information, rather than repeat the information of the previous image.

Assignment Notes:

In your assignment notes explore how you think you’ve answered the brief. This is a chance for a little philosophical reflection. EYV Student Tor Burridge says below:

I have reconsidered my stand point that fundamentally photography is simple. When I shoot for the pure enjoyment of it photography does indeed feel simple. But really it is the product of layers of knowledge – on composition, on light, the technicalities of my camera. It is also inevitably influenced by the work of others, the subtle lessons that I have unknowingly committed to memory about angles and viewpoint. So taking that into consideration the effects of context, the mind – set of the views and also the subtleties of what influences a photographer to make an image in a particular way, I think it can be concluded that photography is simple – until it isn’t.

My personal voice on photography is simple:

Throughout this course I have become more aware that photography is like a form of science and art mixed into one. I have found this as I only used to use auto mode before, but now I would never not use manual mode as there are so many different aspects to explore and having more control allows for an overall better picture. This has helped unravel to me that, photography can be simple especially when you are in charge. It is obvious to me that photography is built upon, pre considering your shot, the light you are working with and the technicalities your camera can withhold. But in photography you must not only think about your feelings but also how viewers may perceive your work. In conclusion, photography can be simple until you start thinking unpicking the full process and suddenly it has become complex again.

Initial thoughts:

Given that this assignment was open for us to choose the subject, I decided to have a think about what I would like base my theme on. I wanted to go for something that is personal to me and something I had life experience on. This made me decide on the theme; Military. My husband served nine years as part of the Household Cavalary mounted regiment in the Lifeguards squadron. For the best part of six years I spent moving around with him as an army wife to several different married quarters. Often, partners would be left for weeks/months at a time whilst our husbands/wives were deployed or attended courses.

Thinking back to the assignment brief on how I could create a series of ten images all revealing different information to the previous made me reflect back to assignment 5.2 – homage. In this exercise we selected an image from a photographer of our choice and took a photograph in response to this image we then analysed the image in regards to Barrett’s theory of the image containing three types of information which are, internal, external and original context. When looking back at exercise 5.2 I realised I really enjoyed reading up on Edward Weston’s abstract work of natural objects and decided I would like to experiment with this more within this assignment but in my own way, perhaps not on natural objects but the aspect of knowing what the object is you are photographing but in an abstract way. Therefore, I intend to photograph a series of ten images with the theme of ‘military’.

As with all previous assignments I like to brainstorm and make a form of plan before I begin the assignment just to make a clearer expectation from myself. As a result of this I want to:

• Explore abstract photography.
• To express my personal feelings and thoughts on my given subject.
• To develop further knowledge and skills in abstract & close up photography.
• Further develop more extensive research and experiments to help support my assignment.

Research:

After choosing the subject Military as my choice for assignment five – photography is simple, I looked into some war photographers and also some abstract photographers so I could further my knowledge in these areas.

Firstly, I looked into war photography, this is where I came across Roger Fenton (1819-1869) a British photographer who is most famous for being one of the very first war photographers as well as an artist who helped set up the Royal Photography Society (Chapman, P 2005). Fenton was commissioned by the Agnews, a Manchester based publisher to take photos of the Crimean War in 1855 taking place in Britain, France and Turkey as allies against Russia (Fletcher, J 2015). Fenton mostly focused on capturing moving portraits of the troops and the empty eerie battlefields at the end of battle. He also did well at capturing camp life and the generic living during the war scenes. There weren’t any photographs of battle or explosions this was due to the year that they were taken the photographic technicalities and techniques were different back then (Fletcher, J 2015). It is believed that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were big fans of his work. Looking through Fenton’s exhibition at the Royal Collection Trust it explains that Agnews also commissioned a painter called Thomas Barker, he was to use one of Fenton’s photographs to create a large oil painting (RCT ND) I found Fenton’s work inspiring and have chosen the image below to show of his work. This is one of his famous Crimean War images, I like the way that the soldiers all look very similar, I think back then this was very common with the facial hair whereas, now it is frowned upon if soldiers are not shaved. I also like the dynamics of how they appear to be in a pattern, one sat down, one stood up and so on.. I interpreted this as they are team, connected, in sync with each other.

Next, I looked into Tim Hetherington also a war photographer but from a completely different aspect. Fenton was photographing the war but was not involved oppose to Hetherington who was a solider within the military and deployed to many countries. Sadly, ended up with him being killed in the Libyan civil war in 2011 when he was killed by a piece of Shrapnel rupturing an artery. Hetherington was born in 1970 and died in 2011 at just 41 years old. He was a famous photojournalist who is known for his creative approaches and his long term narrative projects (Hughe, H S 2008). Hetherington quotes in his book Long Story: bit by bit that he likes to bridge the gap between viewer and subject through intimate small details. In 2011 two months prior to his death Hetherington received a nomination for best documentary catergory alongside co – dorector Sebastian Junger in the film called Perfect Storm. This was a film that Hetherington had created based upon lives of platoon soldiers in Pakistan (Hughes, S 2013). The Tim Hetherington Trust is a trust that has been created since his death to preserve his legacy and keep his photographs archived. Through this site I learnt that it was after he graduated the first time from Oxford in 1992 that he began looking into visual media which, would help him communicate issues that fascinated him, for example, he was very concerned about damage to the world and he continually tried to understand why people used violence. The first image I have chosen of Hetheringtons to share is called “Exhausted US soldier“, a troop who is resting in the Restrepo bunker in Afghanistan. This image won the world press photo of the year in 2007.

The second image of Tim Hetherington’s I was intrigued by was one from his series called Liberia At Peace (2004-2006). I saw this image on his trust page and found it fascinating. I see it as two different images. The top of the images looks like a silhouette of troops that are patrolling on guard, looking over the building and ensuring everyone is safe. Whereas, below I see people arriving to see a form of music performance? My eye is drawn to the only colour of the image, the red carpet which, lead me to believe that someone important was arriving to an army base or maybe it was family day? This bought back familiar feelings of when it was visiting day at the barracks after being separated from my husband for two months training. The soldiers being like silhouettes in this image lead me to believe that we are not to know who they are, they remain anonymous. This is similar to my series where I don’t actually reveal the person I am creating a portrait on in the end I just slowly reveal more and more information as the series runs on leading the viewer to build their own image. You can read more on my thoughts around this here.

After researching Hethington I decided to further my research on Edward Weston, a American photographer who I used for my homeage exercise in 5.2 which you can see here. Weston was born in 1886 – 1958, his work involved a great deal of realism, purity and he closely observed reality working with a large format camera, small apertures and long exposure times to create maximum detail and depth of field (Morgan, A L 2018). Weston was originally known for his landscapes and nudes but in 1926 he decided to turn his focus to realism in objective studies. This is when the famous pepper image was produced, this was called Pepper no.30 (image below). Weston explained in O’Hagan, S (2010) article that: “It is classic, completely satisfying – a pepper – but more than a pepper: abstract, in that it is completely outside subject matter.” The pepper was photographed in a way that made it look like a modern sculpture by Hans Harp. I like the way that although Weston’s images are in an abstract manner you can still work out what they are for example the mushroom in exercise 5.2 and this pepper. Although you can see what they are often the patterns and imaging techniques used on them can make them appear to look like something else.

In 1922 Weston had a meeting with Alfred Stieglitz who was the Dean of American photographers at the time, this meeting followed with great results and effect on Weston’s work which was identifiably becoming more abstract throughout the years (Hamilton J W 2012). When reading an article by Zhang, M (2017) based around the famous pepper image I came across an interesting youtube video where we get to look around Weston’s old home and they discuss some of his work and the techniques he used to use for his images, he is described by his Grandson, Kim who is taking the tour as “A master of composition” . Please note there is some nudity within the video.

For my final research I wanted to look at another abstract photographer. Although Weston did have some abstract work in his later years he was also a very well known landscape artist and therefore, I wanted to look at an artist who solely worked on abstract techniques focusing on more patterns. This lead me to find the work of Angie McMonigal a fine art, commercial architecture photographer based in Chicago. McMonigal’s work is based on building patterns, lines and curves. McMonigal says that all her images are actively shaped by human and the buildings themselves hold ambition of the planners. She is drawn to big cities from her interest in symmetry, lines, curves and she finds the contrast held within a city interesting (Struppert, N 2015). I have chosen an image from McMonigal called Miami (below). This is a clear example of the work that she produces, often in black and white, with lines and points that draw attention to the viewer.

Taking on the feedback from my previous assignment, I decided to interview two other Ex British Army Servicemen to get some thoughts and feelings around their experience in the military. They have both asked to not be named for privacy purposes.

The first person I spoke to was an ex rifleman who had been discharged through a medical condition. He had served in many different countries on a variety of deployments and worked hard to work his way up through the ranking system. He said “It absolutely broke me to be told I wasn’t medical fit to serve anymore, I didn’t want to leave, it wasn’t my choice, it was all I knew, what was I going to do when I got out?” I could tell by the emotion in his voice that this was still obviously a raw situation. Although, now he has a clear vision on what he wants to do, it must of been a scary experience to go through. I believe that once you have been in the military you never fully leave, often soldiers go on to join the reserves or to help run the local cadets in their area.

The second ex serviceman that I spoke to was someone who had served their full time in the army plus extension and left as they couldn’t extend any longer. This is very different to the first person I spoke to who was told he needed to leave. This man who had done his full serving time had a sense of completion about him, he seemed whole. The stories he told me about some of the countries he had visited were fascinating, describing scenes to me that you only see in movies. It makes it feel very real when you speak to someone who has experienced such life events and makes us feel very grateful for a) what they have done for our country and b) that they are still here to tell us these amazing stories. He explained the military as a “brotherhood, family & something he would never regret.

Chapman, P (2005) Art: Roger Fenton http://kb7qr2lp2e.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Art%3A+Roger+Fenton&rft.jtitle=The+Independent&rft.au=Peter+Chapman&rft.date=2005-09-17&rft.pub=Independent+Digital+News+%26+Media&rft.issn=0951-9467&rft.externalDocID=897695101&paramdict=en-US Date accessed 02/01/2020.

Fletcher, J (2015) Roger Fenton https://www-tandfonline-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/doi/abs/10.1080/03087298.2005.10442822 Date accessed: 02/01/2020.

Hamilton, J W (2012) A psychoanalytic approach to visual artists. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=887963 Date Accessed:02/01/2020.

Hetherington, T Trust. About Tim https://www.timhetheringtontrust.org/about-tim Date accessed: 02/01/2020.

Hughes, S (2013) Tim Hetherington, his life and death. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21041645 Date accessed: 02/01/2020.

Hughes, H S (2018) Long Story Told: Daniel Castro Garcia On Tim Hetherington. http://kb7qr2lp2e.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Long+Stories+Told%3A+Daniel+Castro+Garcia+on+Tim+Hetherington&rft.jtitle=PDN+%3B+Photo+District+News&rft.au=Holly+Stuart+Hughes&rft.date=2018-01-01&rft.pub=Emerald+Expositions+LLC&rft.issn=1543-0294&rft.volume=38&rft.issue=1&rft.spage=96&rft.epage=96&paramdict=en-US Date accessed: 02/01/2020.

Morgan, A L (2018) The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists 2nd Edition. Weston, Edward (1886-1958) https://www-oxfordreference-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/acref/9780191807671.001.0001/acref-9780191807671-e-1416 Date accessed: 02/01/2020.

O’Hagon, S (2010) Edward Weston: the greatest American photographer of his generation? https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/aug/18/edward-weston-photography Date Accessed: 03/01/2020.

Royal Collection Trust (ND) Fenton’s Crimean Commission: 8 March – June 1855 Fenton’s Crimean Commission: 8 March – June 1855 Date accessed: 02/01/2020.

Struppert, N (2015) Angie McMonigal / Chicago http://www.womeninphotography.info/blog/2015/12/16/angie-mcmonigal-chicago Date accessed: 03/01/2020.

Zhang, M (2017) This Famous Pepper Photo by Edward Weston Was a 4hr+ Exposure at f/240 https://petapixel.com/2017/08/15/famous-pepper-photo-edward-weston-4hr-exposure-f240/ Date accessed 03/01/2020

The series:

Contact sheets can be viewed here.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills:

I am happy with the visual and technical skills that I managed to use and execute for this assignment. I am happy with how my images have come out and I believe they tell my journey/narrative well. I thought more about composition throughout shooting these images. Looking at the patterns that were on the objects that I was imaging and ensuring they were tilted or at funny angles that could be less appealing to a viewer.

Quality of outcome:

I am pleased with the quality of the outcome of my images, this is the first time I have tried doing some abstract work and actually found it difficult not just fitting the whole object into the frame. For example the boots, at first I went to just take a full framed image with the boots as the middle focal point. Often I found myself questioning, will the viewer know what it is? When, actually this doesn’t matter, each viewer could see it differently and not the way I visualised it or portrayed it to be.

Demonstration of creativity:

I believe my images show some creativity, I had to try and place the equipment where I needed them and when I wasn’t happy I reshot them. For example, the blues and number twos (khaki) jacket I firstly shot hung up, I wasn’t happy with these images. So, I took them again. The blues outfit is used for smart parades so I kept this arm straight and crease free but the Lifeguard khaki jacket, is a general riding jacket, I tried to show that this was ‘of less importance’ by having the creases.

Context:

I think I understood and showed that context of this assignment ok. With it being an open brief it is slightly different and almost similar to assignment 1 – the square mile where we are able to chose the subject. Sometimes this can be daunting and other times its exciting. I believe I grasped the concept of each image needing to not repeat the previous information but to help reveal further information. I tried to do this as a journey through my series for example this is how I read the series: Image one – a cap badge this can get you thinking it is someone in the military? Image 2, shows you the number twos jacket sleeve, this reveals the information of “Life Guards” and shows a horse shoe. This could make you think, so someone is in the army and this is their regiment. Next, Image 3, this provides us the information of 3 stripes this tells us the persons rank, 3 stripes = sergeant which, could tell us this person was in the army sometime! Also, this outfit seems crease free, smart maybe this person does parades? Image 4 – a stable belt, the colours on this belt reveal the information of the regiment. Image 5, shows us that although this person is of rank they still polish and clean their kit but what for? Image 6, it could be making sense now? Polished boots, maybe this person is a drill instructor? Or stands on parade, I wonder if that is all the job entails? Image 7, answered my previous question – dirty used army boots, this information tells me that although their is parade uniform there could be another side to this regiment where they have to work out on the fields? Image 8, shows us the camo hat outside, hiding amongst the grass – maybe this person is armoured as well as ceremonial? Image 8, slightly similar to the image prior however, you can see the chin strap is undone here, maybe the soldier is resting now.. The final image is the kit bag, it shows that this soldier might spend time away from family. These are the feelings/emotions and thoughts I had around my images and the questions I would wonder if a viewer was thinking?

Strengths and weaknesses:

My strengths are that I had a clear idea on the subject I wanted to choose with a good idea of how I wanted to create and portray the series. I also think in terms of the series I am happy that it flows, something which I have struggled with in previous assignment. I also spent a lot longer pondering over my final set of images, I had them laid out on my kitchen table for several days so every time I walked past or sat down I had a fresh mind and thoughts on them. I also took on the feedback from my previous assignment in regards to the research and spoke to two other ex servicemen. My weaknesses are that I would of liked to spend a lot longer on this. With the festive period and lots of family gatherings I did not get the full time I would of spent on this assignment. Especially as I found the war photography so interesting such as, the likes of Roger Fenton and Tim Hetherington.