Ideas for layout/Dissertation

Even though my Dissertation isn’t until next year, since visiting Wolverhampton Gallery it has given me some layout ideas of how I would like to portray my work in an Exhibition. At the moment as far as I am aware, majority of my class are looking to put all of our work together in an exhibition. Not sure on the location as of yet, but there has been a few places mentioned such as Birmingham and London. This is not a definite plan, myself and the group have only spoke about this briefly and nothing has been set in stone.

Up above are just a couple of examples of how I may choose to present my work. I decided to pay extra attention to how the work has been mounted and framed, which then made me think about setting my work into acrylics. Depending on what subject I choose to focus on, I will hopefully have more of an idea on what colour frames etc. Also one thing I did like about one of the exhibitions, ‘Home of Metal’ was how the audience could feedback their likes and dislikes. This particular exhibition wasn’t really a photographic one, instead it explored the roots of Heavy metal music in the Black Country, which featured vintage t-shirts, archival imagery and film.

Steve McCurry

Over the weekend I decided to visit the Birmingham Art Gallery, where the exhibition of photo journalist Steve McCurry was being held. It was only by chance that I noticed that this exhibition was on luckily I managed to get there just in time before it finished! Having no idea that this was the photographer who had produced this image previously….

Quite a striking image, that I have always been influenced by, I just never knew the photographers name. This image was present within the exhibition along with a vast amount of other images which I found to have gave me huge inspiration. His collection of photographs were amazing having a natural approach to his subject, noticing the vivid colours together that work beautifully.

For example the image presented above. The composition of the image is just right managing to capture that particular moment in time. The footwear on the stall allow the four individuals in the centre to be bordered off. All the works present at the exhibition in Birmingham were all powerful colour imagery, that stood out and didn’t remain flat. I found that he did have a few similar images to the photograph ‘Afghan Girl’ (up above). It would be interesting to find out how he’s managed to capture these works, how he’s approached his subject…I could go on about his images for ages yet still the exhibition is on till Sunday 17th October and would recommend anyone whose interested in Documentary photography to visit the exhibition. Here is also a link to a short interview with the photographer Steve McCurry;

http://www.photoradar.com/news/story/steve-mccurry-interview

Fiona Crisp

I recently attended a talk with Fiona Crisp, an artist who has became well-known for creating collaborations of a large scale that question the existence/reality of the photographic image itself. She went on to describe how she managed to create such images as this below. Explaining that she often spent intensive periods of time in particular locations.

Having never seen her work before, the first glance into her work straight away, gave me an eerie feel. The location and darkness in places with the use of damp conditions were quite chilling. I did find them quite intriguing to how she had portrayed this feel to the location, a sense of emptiness yet a man-made architectural state. What includes effect is the perspective of both images, how it carries on in the distance. The lighting from the artificial lights create this emptiness and in my opinion an eerie feel. I did find her works of a similar style to German photographer ‘Candida Hofer’. Candida Hofer captures indoor locations such as libraries and aesthetic, grand architecture. But never seems to capture anyone within these photographs, leaving the room empty, but the image itself portrays as if someone was just there. Again in my opinion leaving an eerie feel.

Looking through a broad range of Crisp’s work, I found it to be quite powerful range of work, using a pinhole camera but having a much more professional feel. She said whilst producing one of her pieces that she had to have a lot of persistence after trying a total of seventeen attempts in order to get the correct exposure. Some of her images even had the use of a three hour exposure. I found her work to be quite inspiring due to the lighting and perspective of her imagery, it has given me inspiration to how a location like this can create such a different feel when looking upon it.

 

Jann Haworth Exhibition

Just before finalizing my proposal I decided to visit the Wolverhampton Art Gallery to get some sort of inspiration. Finding that there was a pop art exhibition on female artist, Jann Haworth being held at the time helped immensely with my flow of ideas. Noticing countless of different medias being used constantly in her work allowed me to grasp the concepts of the art movement. This exhibition is stil presently being shown up till the 10th April.

‘Donuts, Coffee Cups and Comics’

by Jann Haworth

Born in 1942, Hollywood born artist Jann Haworth is just among one of the few women that associated herself with the pop art movement of the 1960′s. Using three dimensional sculptures, she had successfully used a different media which involved sewn cloth figures. This referred to typically American pop art themes such as fast food, film stars, cheerleaders, cowboys and comics, as well as her experiences of living in England during a period of cultural transformation.

The exhibition being held in Wolverhampton at present  is the first UK solo exhibition of Haworth’s work in a public gallery since 1972.

‘Cease Firing on All Fronts’

by Siobhan Hapaska

‘The schoolchildren in this photograph are a strong contrast to the children studied by Anthony Davies a decade earlier, when the peace process was in its infancy. In this image by Siobhan Hapaska the children tend to look passive but the gaze of a child in the foreground suggests independent thought. The mix of races and ethnicities among these children points to a positive future for Northern Ireland. Irish names mingle with names from other cultures, suggesting a new era of cultural integration and tolerance.’

Traditionally most Irish Protestants and Catholics have been educated apart from each other but due to the support integrated education has grown in recent years. Finding this vital peace of information I find the imagery achieves the intended message releasing it’s full potential in such a subtle way.

‘Potato Man’

by John Kindness

‘Here John Kindness portrays an Orange leader as a grotesque caricature surrounded by signs of his political beliefs. He wears the typical dress of an Orangeman on parade, with orange sash, black bowler hat, white gloves and umbrella. In his hand he holds the bible, a symbol of the Protestant faith he defends so passionately.’

Looking in depth into the imagery I noticed the traditional British meal bangers and mash floating upward into the sky where as the caricature is stating ‘No!’ Which is than emphasized by the speech bubble. Finding background information on the piece, it came to light that the potato caricature itself  plays the role of Protestants in the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-51. This being one of the greatest human disasters in Irish history and an event that is still remembered by Catholics that are still bitter about the happenings to this present day.

‘Potato man is in the traditional style of allegorical painting, where signs and symbols are used to make a point.’

Talk with photographer Mike Valente

Today we had the chance to have our first insight to how photographer ‘Mike Valente’ has worked his way into the car photography industry. Himself  being one of the leading car photographers of the day, his works being published in magazines such as ‘Autocar’ and ‘What Car?’.

Working as a freelance photographer for most of his career, Mike Valente goes on to explain that car photography may not be as easy as it may sound. Sometimes Mike would only have the car for up to a limit of ten to fifteen minutes and would still have to achieve a quality series of images – no excuses. How he would initially set off with a shoot, he would usually plan out by doing the close up detail shots, the beauty and static which would of been a start and then progressing onto the action, cornering and panning shots. This was simply because the car would get so dirty on the exterior during the motion in which he had the responsibility to keep the car clean for his photographic standard. Mike always keeps a constant eye out for possible scenes/locations in which he could photograph the vehicle. Even admitting to sometimes going against permission and using locations which were restricted to even him, he took chances in order to get where he is today.

Listening to him go on about this particualr field of photography I found it to be quite unreliable and not always a secure line of work. Mike said that there were sometimes throughout his life in which he would go to the colour labs and wait for the result of his images, but now, he states “Now we sit at home looking at the photographs and hoping that the telephone will ring”. This then allowed the audience to ask direct questions such as the shift from analogue to digital shooting, what he preferred if it was a simpler way of working. He went on and replied that digital shooting has helped him make a greater achievement and not to have the worry of changing films at a fast speed whilst he would of been losing vital shots. Mike went onto say that he did miss using film due to having the time to go to the pub with the boys (who were also photographers) sinking a few sherbets and just waiting a couple of hours for the film to be developed. Obviously due to the magazines and newspapers they moved quite swiftly with the times, getting the impression that this area of photography is all digital based and film is completely out the window. He also never had a say in the final images that would be used in the final edit, therefore the images that he personally found a poorer quality were used at times.

This talk, being one of my first talks I have personally found it quite enjoyable listening too, I found it quite a relaxed environment in which allowed us to have a brief insight into the world of a freelance photographer and how he has managed to receive publicity throughout his career. It ended quite calmly giving people the chance to have a brief chat individually with him. It basically gave me the chance to have a brief description in this field, not really being interested before hand but showed me how difficult it can be to get into this line of work.

Talk with photographer, Peter Dench

Today we had the pleasure of listening to photographer Peter Dench talk about his work and how he has gradually progressed  into his own direction of style. Showing us projects he had been working on recently which were quite interesting. As he went through his work he told us how he managed to capture some of his images which in some cases he did get a reaction off some of his subjects. He basically explained it was more about fitting in with your surroundings, don’t act like an outsider, be brave, for example whilst he was capturing photographs for the project ‘Drink UK’ he was also drinking along with everybody else.

I personally enjoyed his work and found his work quite light hearted, yet all have meaning, showing a different class of people and society. I especially enjoyed the works from his project ‘Drink UK’ everything being viewed as an insider. His style is quite unique, finding that he may have been influenced by photographer Martin Parr at an earlier stage in his works. The similarity between the two is great, both having the same quirky British style.