Carmela Faith

Shirin Neshat: Born in 1957, Neshat is a Iranian visual artist living in New York. Known for her primarily focus on film, video and photography, Neshat visual language concerns the contrast between Islam and the West. Further areas she considers are femininity, masculinity, public life and private life, antiquity and modernity, and bridging the spaces between these subjects.

What does her work say? Dark, selective studio lighting, shadows, depth, emotion, holistic

Above presents the editing process for my pilot project: Baggage*. 

The idea and techniques of this type of retouching has been extracted from a former project during 2015. This sort of editing uses a handful of Photoshop tools: layers, dodging, adjustment tools, clearing, etc. 

‘Hi, I am Shahla Esmaili and this is my story’. 

Shahla Esmaili sits in the studio where she discusses her story concerning her experience of war and the effects it had on her family and her current mental state. 

Persian writing is later layered which covers her frame.

Thomas Ruff is a native German photographer, his work has been recognised as ‘’a master of edited and reimagined images’’. 

I began the pilot project with the intention of remaining my focus concerning the traumatic stories of victimised individuals. 

There had been a significant amount of towing and throwing between stories of war and the continuity of my Grenfell project. To make a decision, I went with the intention to elan away from Grenfell and aim with my new focus concerning war. 

I began reaching out to potential subjects with stories through spontaneous approaches. After meeting with Shahla several times to discuss her journey I booked the studio just before Christmas. During the shoot in the studio, I was not 100% comfortable understanding whether the route I was/am taking is the best way for my third year submission, especially because I prefer longitudinal documentaries. The studio felt that it was too much ‘point and shoot’ rather than a genuine documentary. The environment and result felt too constructed for my visual approach. 

Nevertheless, I kept the studio prints and remained with both of my intentions, including Grenfell updates and research.

Recognising that war photography is the future I wish to pursue, I went ahead and pulled some ideas up for how I would illustrate and depict Baggage*.

READING NOTES:

> Staged war photographs are trophies for those who take them

- Photographs simultaneously illustrating a celebration and brutality - Captured to create enduring trophies - Provide a systematic assessment of the sociocultural practices of the camera and photography during times of conflict

David Campany helped to narrow down my theories and evaluations set in place for my dissertation: The Eroding Affair of Ethics Regarding War Photography. 

My initial objective was to focus upon the ethics set in place for visual journalists by the National Photographers Press Association. Campany questioned whether these code of ethics are followed purely for and by all photojournalists. As they are underlined by the National Press Photography Association, they are in fact set for the Associated Photographer of its community. In order to ease my research and theories whilst maintaining the structure of the dissertation coherent, focused and sharp, Campany opened the idea of focusing upon the photographs of war and post-war which were hidden from the wider public.

This proposal began by discussing Ernst Friedrich’s photographic publication War Against War (Krieg dem Kriege! Guerre a la Guerre! Oorlog Aan Den Oorlog!). Which then later developed into the discussion of Susan Sontag: Regarding the Pain of Others. 

Below are several books suggested by Campany during our tutorial.

Just like Ariella Azoulay’s book on The Civil Contract of Photography, Susie Linfield begins her voice towards photographs of suffering from her personal experience towards spectating war – but rather through spectating the effects of war through imagery, not through her actual eye, like Azoulay. Claiming she did not comprehend what the text around the images declared, she later expresses that in fact, the imagery of pain described what happened to the subjects in The Black Book of Polish Jewry during the Holocaust. Linfield passionately declares that spectating such imagery is an ethical requirement to the human as it permits individuals of society in understanding the capacity for cruelty. Her work will support the ethic: ‘do not intentionally sabotage efforts of other journalists’, in relation to editors filtering, trimming or even subtracting particular photographs for the press, when in fact those particular photographs could prevent an echo of history. 

Dispatch will aid The Eroding Affair of the Code of Ethics Regarding War Photography in relation to an examination of the production in war imagery, the roles of photojournalists and their professional collaboration with editors of the press. As a short book, flowing with prestigious and not so focused photographs of the Crimean and Afghanistan Wars, Dispatch considers the representation of war whilst profoundly interrogating how the field has developed over 150 years. The thesis will consider the roles and verdicts shaped through editorial authority and therefore altering the photojournalists initial objective which will welcome ethical considerations. This theoretical assessment of Dispatch compares the original prints to what has been reproduced in magazines such as Life. Furthermore, the book expresses the authority decided by editors in order to suit their [news corporations] needs which will maintain my argument concerning how there’s more to war photography than just capturing the scene.

Carved by a witness of war, Ariella Azoulay evaluates the ethical and political status in photography. Azoulay reflects on what the camera is, how it has developed into something mechanical and how contemporary acts as a ‘transit visa’. Contemplating on the ego of mankind, The Eroding Affair of the Code of Ethics Regarding War Photography will reflect on how the camera gives power to those who hold the shutter. Considering what it means to be a photojournalist due to: the development of photography, tolerable public access to mechanical cameras, Azoulays opinions on photographs of Abu Ghraib prison give an insight.

Understanding Photojournalism defines the different sectors of photojournalism and what implications are set in place for beginners and experimenters. The book is not a practical manual for photojournalists to understand ‘how to be a photojournalist’. Rather, Understanding Photojournalism quite clearly divides sections which will mold the base of The Eroding Affair of the Code of Ethics Regarding War Photography. The thesis considers what it means to be a photojournalist whilst looking at the historical account of the professional. The volume donates a sampler description of conflict and disaster during the 19th century when photojournalists such as Matthew Brady emerged. As well as providing imagery of conflict, both drawn and photographically taken, they have been carefully selected for consideration.

My dissertation considers the ego of the publisher and ethics placed for both the photojournalist and editor. Understanding Photojournalism studies the power, representation’ and ethics of photography, permitting a fresher perception due to its inclusion of contemporary photographic imagery.

The Eroding Affair of the Code of Ethics Regarding War Photography will begin questioning what it means to be a photojournalist whilst testifying the historical lateral of war photography since the 19th century – considering how photographers such as Matthew Brady earned his prestige.