Week 7 Reflection

I’m not likely to become a commercial photographer, but thinking through issues relating to commercial practice and the broader photographic landscape has been really useful. Considering what happens to the images I make is important, and I need to think through what value they have to whom (and what value my expertise has as a member of a team). Commercial questions are not irrelevant, as time and materials need to be paid for, and I have to be able to cost and price my work, for instance for grant applications.

The principal focus for this week has been the Creating Connections meeting on Thursday and the MA face to face meeting at Paris Photo on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Reflections on the gallery visits, Photo Paris and the portfolio review are in the Contextual Research section of the CRJ.

Paris Photo – Day Three

 Sunday 11.11.18

Portfolio review was really useful, not just for comments by tutors and peers, but also to see and talk about other people’s work. A lot to follow up in forthcoming posts and making images. Message for me is to draw together the work I have been doing into a coherent portfolio (that can include different forms/genres of work, but with an overarching rationale). Jesse suggests submitting a PDF to allow more control over the presentation, as I have demonstrated that I can use an online portfolio in the first module. Can also include an introduction (around 200 words). Must show development of photographic work, and relate to the focus of the module (for instance, audiences). Lots of references in relation to other people’s work to follow-up.

Paris Photo – Day Two

 Saturday 10.11.18

 

Most of the day spent at the Grand Palais. Hundreds of gallery stands showing every kind of work, plus some selections from collections (such as the JP Morgan collection, with, for instance, a number of Eggleston prints). Good to see the scale of some of the work seen previously only on screen and in print, and to pick up ideas for presentation of work. Likewise, the publisher and book distributor stands, for ideas about publication.

Highlights for me were the talks (Tod Papageorge, Joel Meyerowitz, Chistopher Williams), visiting Akio Nagasawa gallery/publishers and looking at the low volume Japanese handbound books, Evangelia Kramioti’s ‘Beirut Fictions’, Denis Dailleux’s ‘Meres et Fils”’ (Egyptian wrestlers and their mothers), and more (will add when I can go through notes, fliers, books and images).

More photo books at Polycopies, and conversation with Guy Martin about his new book, The Parallel State, with Gost Books. Then late night visit to On Air exhibition at Palais de Tokyo.

Stunning and inspiring (particularly for the inter-disciplinarity, and creative and inter-connected ways of addressing both with a ‘grand challenge’ and engaging audiences).

Paris Photo – Day One

 Friday 9.11.18

A quick reflection on the days activities, principally to list the galleries visited whilst fresh. One immediate impression is the quality of gallery space around the Marais district, and the diversity of work exhibited. In the order visited.

Gallerie Les Filles du Calvaire to see Laura Henno’s M’Tsamboro, photographs and films made in Comoros.

In the lower gallery was a dual screen film exploring the role of children in illegal migration. In the upper gallery, photographs and films (one three channel in the gallery, the other single channel in a side room, but open so that the shouts from the film permiate the gallery space) focussing on the use of dogs as protection. The still images were lit from above with spots, giving them the appearance of light boxes in the darkened space (necessary for the video projections). The video and still images worked well together with clear thought given to the sonic landscape (see early posts about paying attention to sound in exhibition). In particular, the handling of illumination of still images alongside projection worked very well (all natural light was excluded, so light was entirely designed).

&CO119. Ango by Sakiko Nomura. A small gallery off a courtyard. Not immediately obvious from the street (sign outside, but we had to tailgate someone to get in).

Specialising in Japanese photographers, with a good selection of books. Brilliant exhibition by a student of Araki. Text from 1942 with contemporary staged grainy black and white photographs (with different women representing the same women in the text, thus despecifying the experiences described). Beautiful book (limited edition in French, standard edition in English, German and Japanese). Very striking offset binding.

Not sure how that was achieved so will investigate with Simon at London Book Arts (its the cutting of the pages and the covers, not the binding, which is standard).

La Galerie Particulaire. Claudine Doury, Le long du fleuve Amour.

Some great contextualised portraits here from along the Amur River. Interesting zig-zag double sided mounting of prints in perspex, held together by metal clips.

Could be a good way of exhibiting material that is also presented in zig-zag book form.

Eric Hussenot. Sur Face by Martin d’Orgeval.

Huge white walled space, with natural light from above. Upper and lower galleries. Large prints. Monochrome and two tone.

Polkagalerie. Small gallery on the street leads to larger two floor gallery off the courtyard at the back. Large exhibition by Joel Meyerowitz. Pretty much what you would expect. The large size of some of the Empire State shots was a surprise (with clear long exposure blur on the one with the woman on the corner by the convenience store). More interesting exhibition in the front gallery of contemporary work by Toshio Shibata on the dwindling stocks of Cibachrome. Mix of small, tightly framed and mounted contact prints (I assume) and larger prints without mounts (drawing attention to the nature of the print).

Galerie Templon. Large exhibition on two floors by David Lachappelle, Letter to the World. Large exhibition of work, including Kardashian installation.

écal MA in Photography pop-up exhibition. Encountered by chance.

Interesting exhibition of augmented photography by masters students. Some CGI and lot of post-processing. Two floors, with projection spaces downstairs. Will write something further about

Jeu de Paume. Dorothea Lange and Ana Mendieta. The Lange exhibition is the one that was shown at the Barbican (though difference configuration – the Barbican had a clearer spatial structure), so good to revisit and spend time looking at things missed first time around. The volume, scope and humanity of the work is striking. Ana Mendieta’s work is more conceptual and personal, though through this some big issues are addressed.

As with a number of other exhibitions recently, the use of long, holding shots on film/video was notable. These demand the attention of a still, but determine duration, and in some cases where there is some movement, pace. I wonder, in a space that contains large scale projected video, and photographic prints, how much attention is paid to the latter? The Laura Henno exhibition appears to address this effectively through the dramatic lighting of the still images (brighter and more vibrant than the projected video) and spatial arrangement (between one video and another). The video also provides the soundscape for the exhibition.

Week 7: Innovative Distribution

To mark my shift from sociologist to photographer (or maybe sociologist/photographer to photographer/sociologist) I have repurposed some of my academic business cards by printing images on the ‘back’. Maybe not particularly innovative, but it has worked for me. My three outings in my photographer identity in the past week have been really productive:

  • A successful workshop with urban development planning students on Friday – half the group have just said that they are using photographic image making as their primary research tool in their forthcoming project;
  • Fieldwork on Wednesday with ‘Rooms of our Own’ at the Feminist Library (which I found has some of my own teaching materials and course readers) leading to a follow-up session to make images of the library before it moves to its new premises;
  • Leading a discussion on Thursday with community groups on Heritage and Well-being in East London at the Creating Connections session in Stratford, which has given enough photographic project opportunities to last a lifetime.
A simple way of signifying a change in direction/identity.

Artists’ websites for DPU workshop (and FMP development)

 Accessed 02.11.18

Bill Stephenson, 1988, Streets in the Sky, Park Hill and Hyde Park Flats, Sheffield. https://billstephenson.co.uk/social-documentary/streets-in-the-sky-hyde-park-flats-1988/

Roger Mayne, Urban Landscape. http://www.rogermayne.com/urbanlandscape/urban.html

Dana Lixenberg, 1993-2015, Imperial Courts. http://www.imperialcourtsproject.com/

Nicola Muirhead, In Brutal Presence. https://www.nicolamuirhead.com/inbrutalpresence

Richard Ansett, 2017, Children of Grenfell. http://richardansett.blogspot.com/2017/12/children-of-grenfell.html

Endia Beal, 2016, Am I What You Are Looking For? http://endiabeal.com/#!/upcoming-projects

Charlie Clift, 2018, Portrait of Brixton. https://www.charliecliftphotography.com/work/portrait-of-brixton/

Wendy Ewald, 2003-6, Towards a Promised Land, Margate. http://wendyewald.com/portfolio/margate-towards-a-promised-land/

Toward a Concrete Utopia, 2018, MOMA, New York. https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3931

Valentin Jeck. http://www.jeck.ch/

Graham Smith. http://theymadethislondon.com/photography/graham-smith

Kaylynn Deveney, 2007, The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings. https://kaylynndeveney.com/the-day-to-day-life-of-albert-hastings/

Julian Germain. http://www.juliangermain.com/projects/foreveryminute.php http://www.juliangermain.com/projects/no-olho.php

Edmund Clark, 2015-17, In Place of Hate. https://www.edmundclark.com/works/in-place-of-hate/#1

Photovoice. https://photovoice.org/

 

Photography Workshop, MSc in Urban Development Planning, 2nd November 2018

My workshop formed part of the preparation for fieldwork with community groups starting next week, which provides the basis for the coursework for this practice-based module on the MSc in Urban Development Planning. The orientation of the module is indicated by this statement from the programme notes:

The impact of this [Opportunity Area based, profit-driven] development approach on communities across London has been overwhelmingly negative, leading to a significant loss of social housing, green space and community facilities. Throughout the planning system, little weight has been given to the impact of such development models on the existing and historical socio-economic fabric of London. In fact, such negative effects on local communities have worsened despite on-going rhetorical commitment to address deprivation, exclusion, discrimination and social inequality, creating a paradox at the heart of London planning. This project asks: What is the role of planning in reinforcing this reality and how might planning in London better respond to the diverse needs and aspirations of all Londoners?

My workshop session followed a session on research design, interviews and focus groups by Ignacia Osul, a recent PhD graduate from DPU. She introduced the session by talking about her own study. Most striking, for me, about this work is the use she made of participant photography, using images produced by local people to explore the nature, and politics, of home-making in the community. These images were placed along timelines to get a sense of day to day activities, and priorities were explored with participants. She also explored activities that participants felt could not be photographed (for reasons of safety and privacy, for instance), asking them to draw or otherwise represent these activities. Lots to learn for my own project. The session also reinforced the resonance of the participatory approach taken by the DPU and my own (academic and photographic) work. There is a short film and description of the early stages of Ignacia’s work is here.

My workshop ran for 3 hours, and comprised of an introduction to my photographic work, discussion of the uses of photography in research and practice, and critical engagement with the work of a number of contemporary photographic artists (see list here), interspersed by group activities and feedback. Description of the session as follows:

In this session we will explore the use of photography (and other media) as both an element in the social research process and in the mediation of the outcomes of research. By engaging with examples of the work of photographers engaged with understanding the lives of communities and individuals we will consider how photography might play a part in our own work as practitioners and researchers, and in your forthcoming fieldwork. We will also consider how still images can be used in conjunction with other media (text, maps, data visualisation, video, audio) and how we engage with readers and audiences (through print, exhibitions, online, social media).

I set a preparatory activity, which everyone did.

Take a number of images of the area in which you live (either digital camera or phone images are fine – make sure you have a way of showing and sharing the images with others). Select four that you think give a sense of the place and/or say something about your relationship to, experience of and feelings about the area. Be prepared to discuss the four images with other members of the group at the workshop. Do the task quickly – don’t overthink it.

These images were used in the following activity:

Take turns to present your images to the group. Talk about each image, and consider what you hoped the image would represent and communicate. How do the images work together? Do they need captions or a commentary, can they be combined in different ways to carry a different message, is there anything missing, or misleading, are there any technical issues that you would want to address? Select one image that best expresses what you want to communicate about the place. What makes it the best image? Summarise the discussion and note down issues to raise in a whole group plenary.

The session went very well, and was enthusiastically received (pretty good for a Friday afternoon). The group appeared to be inspired to actively consider how image making can be incorporated into their work. We generated a number of ideas about work that could be done with each of the community partners. I will join one of the groups (Rooms of our Own, a social enterprise advocating for funding of women’s spaces) next week, and will meet with all the groups, and accompany them on fieldwork, over the next month. In addition to the opportunities generated with the community partners, other possible sites for my project work were identified, and I’ll follow these up next week.