Genius of Photography- part 6

 

1.How many photographs are taken in a year?

80 billion

2.What is Gregory Crewdsons modus operandi?

Crewdsons mode of operation is to create a film set, but instead of filming, he creates one photograph. in order to create a film still, so to speak, he and a team layer the same image, over and over and over again, changing the subjects within, by removing them or changing the lighting, increase or decrease. he never actually takes the image, he just sees the camera as a necessary instrument.

3.Which prints command the highest price & what are they called?

prints that are taken by the actual photographer and closest to the time the picture was actually taken, they are known as vintage. Ansel Adams, 1940 print, 1927 was when the image was taken.

4.What is a Fake photograph?

Give an example and explain how & why it is fake.
example- randolf hienz image was produced more than twice, their are chemicals called OBA that were put into photographic paper in the 1955, and the original print was from before 1940. turns out it was the assistant that reproduced the print for market reasons.

5.Who is Li Zhensheng and what is he famous for?

a red solider and photo-journalist who found himself covering the revolution in the 1960 and 70’s. he had to hide the negatives, if they were found, the would have been destroyed. his images are only allowed to been seen out of China.

6.What is the photographers “holy of holies”?

Magnum.

7.How does Ben Lewis see Jeff Walls photography?

Walls did not reinvent photography, he took photography back to the 19th Cen where everything is created and constructed for a meaning, and he takes in contemporary and theoretic concerns about gender, racial stereotyping

8.Which famous photograph was taken by “Frank Mustard”?

river scene France

Genius of Photography- part 4

Why did Garry Winogrand take photographs?

“to see what the world looked like photographed.”

Why did “citizens evolve from blurs to solid flesh”?

because gradually the technology caught up, cameras still struggled, but it’s unquie to photography, and Klein made it eloquent.

Who was the godfather of street photography in the USA?

Garry Winogrand 

Who was Paul Martin and what did he do?

made snapshot like images at Great Yarmouth and other Seasides in England, creating photographs of social life.

Who said “When I was growing up photographers were either nerds or pornographers”?

Edward Ruscha

Why does William Eggleston photograph in colour?

…colour is more dominant…

What is William Eggleston about?

he photographs mundane objects in an artist or ausethically pleasing way, this book WE guide is considered baffling pleasing… democratic..war with the obvious. he photographs life to date.

Genius of Photography- part 3

1.What is described as “One of the most familiar concepts in photography”?  

2.Should you trust a photograph? (1.38m G3)

3.What was revolutionary about the Leica in 1925?

compact, quite, it gave birth to a whole new style of instant photography.enables you to glide throught the moment. you can also see the world through in eye, and and the world through the camera with the other eye.

4.What did George Bernard Shaw say about all the paintings of Christ?

“i want to change every painting of Christ for one snap shot.” this is the power of photography

5.Why were Tony Vaccaros’ negatives destroyed by the army censors?

the negatives contained images of dead GI’s, decisive moments the world wasn’t yet ready to except.

6.Who was Henryk Ross and what was his job? a photographer?

official photographer of the Nazi ghetto, documented the productions of goods, which sold for money for the caperers ….propaganda photographer, ID card pictures. photo-journalist before the war.  

7.Which show was a “sticking plaster for the wounds of the war”, how many people saw it and what “cliché” did it end on?

8.Why did Joel Meyerowitz photograph ground zero in colour?

“if it had been shot in monochrome would be to keep it as a tragedy, this was not war, but destruction, two similar, but different events.

Genius of Moving Image- part 1

THE WORK OF SAM TAYLOR WOOD
QUESTIONS:

1 List two specific key relationships between Sam
Taylor Wood's photography and film work?
a) coming close to death        b) both mediums portray on how Wood sees the world.

2 How does the use of multi-screen installation in
her work reflect narrative?
example:killing time - combining opera with high fluting emotions, creates a juxtaposition of the music and visuals, giving individual importance.

3 What other photographers use film as an
integral part of their work. List two with
examples?

a) Nick knight -Fashion film - Get back, Stay back   b)  Tim Walker highlight 1

4 Research three other Video artists and explain
their working philosophy

Sally Golding – jaaga   Combining performance with Film projection with installation, Golding creates live sculptures and interactions by developing works that involve projecting film onto her actual body. “Golding creates compositions from printed optical sound and vinyl library music resulting in strained sonorousness.”    


5 Show an example of a specific gallery space or a
site specific location where
a video artist or film maker has created work
specifically for that
space and been influenced by it.

Rosa Barba had an exhibition in Tate Modern 15 September 2010  –  8 January 2011. this exhibtion was choregraphed installation, created to divide the viewers focus, from projected images and a projector, raising the question - “which is the narrative and which is the narrator?” by playing with light and sound, the experience is composed to give a range of forms and images.

Genius of Photography- part 2

What are Typologies?

A study of types, with photography, this is done in continuous way. you can only get to know something if you compare it with something else.       ……human typologies is an example, August Sanders.

Which magazine did Rodchenko design?

USSR in construction

What is photo-montage?

a graphic technique, took it’s cue from cinema montage, cutting, pasting, re-photographing, dizzy invisions. shows what photographs are, mute documents that are fluid.

Why did Eugene Atget use albumen prints in the 1920’s?

a technique from the 1850’s, Atget knew how to use this technique, as it was simple, the sunlight create the image onto paper. Atget used this techniques as he did not know darkroom technique.

What is solarisation and how was it discovered?

Man Ray discovered Solarisation. Solarisation is a technique that makes the image look like it’s almost inverted, in the sense that the light sections of the photograph are distinct and dark, whereas the dark areas are light and the image as a whole look metallic.

What was the relationship between Bernice Abbott and
Eugene Atget?

Bbernice Abbott was his assistence, she took his portrait.

Why was Walker Evans fired from the FSA? 

1935 commissioned to produce propaganda photographs for the FSA, to set up the ease to the effects of the great depression in America (portary goverment in a positive light. however, Evans come to a complex understanding of what documentary is, ( sharecroppers wife is an example ), therefore his work did not match up to the propaganda photos the FSA wanted it happened in 1937

Genius of Photography- part 1

What is a photography’s “true genius”?

”capturing the evanescence moment”

Name a proto-photographer?

Henry Fox Talbot ?

In the 19th century, what term was associated with the daguerreotype?

mirror with a memory, light reflect back through an image, people look like they are on the edge of being present. instead of paper based process, Daguerreotypes are mirrored metal plate, and unlike Talbot negative positive process, he made one off images like a Polaroid,

how do you “fix the shadow”?

(it was discovered that certain chemicals were light sensitive; sliver salts, silver nitrate, sliver chloride reacted to light, the image would go black however, because they didn’t fix the image for more than a few moments. it was Talbot who started experimenting with paper and silver salts,shoe boxed sized cameras “mousetraps”. this produced images of the “ghosted mirrored world”. by achieving this, it is lateral reversed as are  tones, which means when another photographic sheet of paper sandwiched it, a print is produced.)

what is the “carte de visite”?

a type of photography patterned by a French man called Desiree 1854 as you stood for your portraiture, your image was captured 8 times, as the camera had 8 lenses. (in the space of a few minutes) this turned photography into a new industry.

who was Nadar and why was he so successful?

(understood “natural expressions” in front of the camera) he uses the name “nadar” as a copyright name, an expression, to stand out, ‘like his hair’. Red is a bold colour. he was successful because – he photographed up and coming stars in a way that “re-wrote the rules”. he photographed them as equals, as real people, didn't;t dress them up, or use particular backgrounds, just captures their image in a daylight studio, looking authentic. isolates his subject.  the character of the person conveys in the image alone, no props are used to enhance a writer or artist. gives these “famous” people a chance to reflect themselves, as people through the medium of photography.

What is pictoralism ?

An era , mean, moody,,,, photography at it’s most po-faced, a branch of fine arts. an artisitic dead end. imitating drawings and paintings.

CONNECTIVITY

“CONNECTIVITY or where do we draw the line when stealing someone ideas”

I believe  the difference between connecting with an artist and being influenced can be a very fine line.  if i want to connect my work with an artist, or create work that is influenced heavily by a particular body of work, then i tend take an element of the work piece i have chosen, and work off of it, instead of mimicking it.

the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking about where  to draw the line between inspiration and stealing ideas, is Rankin.

I watched an iPlayer Documentary , about Rankin taking on a very glossy high profile project in LA. He’s taken iconic images of Hollywood legends and mimicked them as best he could with modern stars. i wasn’t impressed, he’s just stolen  photographs…entire photographs, the composition, the lighting, the textures within the image. and imitated them poorly i found it hard to believe that a project that came down to image theft even got on to TV 

what pissed me off the most is that he didn’t even change a single element…he just turned up, pressed the shutter and walked off… to me, that's not connecting with anything.  He had the chance to do something good. He could have portrayed the images differently, for example, breaking down what the photograph meant. and remaking images from the themes.

It just made me angry that he had all this funding and kit and people running around for him and didn't seem to give a toss about the image he was STEALING or the ones he was making. One of the most obvious values in old school Hollywood was beauty, I’d have looked at what beauty meant back then, and compare it to the present, compare Marilyn Monroe to Kate moss and see what that says about values. LA in the pictures then was all bright smiles, and real thighs.  but in LA now, like Britain many women believe getting cut up for plastic surgery enhances beauty.  Millions of people look at the fashion industry for body image, not understanding you CANT be curvy to fit the clothes, you cant even be normal. because it’s not about the model, it’s about the clothes, the models are just walking mannequins. that's our version of beauty. 

 

Notions of Originality…
From the Lecture, Rob showed an explain of not knowing an artists work and re-creating it; “Johannes Vermeer - Young woman standing at a virginal - circa 1650’s” and “Hiroshi Sugimoto - After the music lesson”…this is possible, i’ve experienced it before, in previous documentary project…I used a 18-200mm zoom lens, and had taken head shots of people…it wasn’t until i showed my work to some one, and they then pointed out it reminded them of Philip Lorca Dicorcia’s heads series…my images weren’t exactly the same, pretty obviously because I didn’t have a massive light in a particular spot and waited for people to stand/walk underneath it…i just looked people dead in the eye through my camera and pressed the shutter quickly. :) (link head series)