COP

KATIE BEALEY OUPH501 COP2

Use writings on subculture to analyse the work of photographers (or film makers).

This essay will be about researching into different subcultures and recognising how they have been presented in photography and film.  I will be using many different mediums to inform my writing on this including books, the internet, music and documentaries.  I think I will mainly focus on the different subculture genres to begin with and then look into how they have affected photography and how subculture in general has been displayed, and then also evaluate the positives and negatives in some of the social groups and how the media has had a big effect on this. In answer to the title the essay will be about investigating into the history of social groups and how subcultures were born from their parent cultures, discover where they all began, looking at different photographers and how they have portrayed certain or many subcultures.  The intention of this essay is to discover the reason why and where from subcultures originated and how old subcultures have had an impact globally on the present day.

According to Google the definition of subculture is: a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture. Hebdige states that a subculture arises out of a collective resistance, which is seen as rebellious. Subcultures are often identified with specific fashions, ideologies and behaviours and are often characterized as having opposing ideals to those of mainstream society. Subcultures are a result of the working class when people can’t find a class that they officially slot into they look for others that have the same interests or styles as them, which then is a catalyst for a new subculture. They come from a large or ‘parent’ culture that contains a mass of population which include a collection of people with the same ideologies, grouping together they create their own look and opinions which in turn makes them an official subculture. “Individual subcultures can be more or less ‘conservative; or ’progressive’, integrated into the community, continuous with the values of that community, or extrapolated from it, defining themselves against the parent culture.” Hebdige, D. (1979) Subculture: The Meaning Of Style. London: Routledge pg127.

A lot of the time subcultures don’t like to be associated with other cultures and subcultures mainly because the majority of the time they were created because that group wanted to be different to everyone else as Borden states: “Skateboarding, like other subcultures, attempts to separate itself from groups such as the family, to be oppositional, appropriative of the city, irrational in organization, ambiguous in constitution, independently creative, and exploitive of its marginal.” Borden, I. (2001) Skateboarding, Space And The City. New York:Berg pg137. We know about subcultures from films, photography, music and books. For example many movies targeted at the younger generation include several subcultural groups within them, this is so that teenagers can relate to them as the world of school has numerous different mini cultural groups, ie: the classic American movies always have ‘the nerd’, ‘the populars’, ‘the jocks’ etc.  “Studies of urban youth in Britain that drew on history, sociology and anthropology had emphasized the strategies subordinate groups used to make their own meanings in resistance to those of the dominant culture.” Turner, G. (2002) British Cultural Studies: An Introduction. 3rd edn. London: Routledge pg 90. A lot of people don’t notice the different cultural groups even though you will probably pass various people allotted to different subcultures everyday.  In Subculture: The Meaning Of Style Hebdige studies and recognises the signs of different subcultures with the way they dress, the music they listen to and their behavioural styles, these three aspects define a subculture and help outsiders to recognise the group.

James Mollison is a photographer that has captured different subcultures by selecting fans of different bands and grouping them together to show their recognisable subculture characteristics. By looking at his collection, The Desciples, you can clearly see that specific cultural groups and how they listen to particular music effects their image.  This demonstrates the theories of Hebdige and how each subculture has individual features, according to music, fashion and behaviour style. His photographs show the different categories of social groups clearly and gives a good understanding of subcultures.

 Many texts that are written in studying subcultures mention that, for the United Kingdom anyway, Birmingham was a key place where most subcultures were born and orientated around, this could have been for the high percentage of working class citizens around that area. The main groups originated in Birmingham however subcultures would quickly spread round the country as music, films and photography would help distribute the groups out to different areas. “The Birmingham tradition tended to study previously labelled social types-‘Mods’, ‘Rockers’, ‘Skinheads’, ‘Punks’- but gave no systematic attention to the effects of various media’s labelling processes.” Thornton, S. (1995) Club Cultures: Music,Media Subculture Capital. Oxford, England: Polity Press.

Teddy Boys were of the first famous subculture groups around the 1950s, they were recognized as the working class dressing themselves in a wannabe middle class look, with the long drape blazers, shirt, business trousers, combed greased hair and completed with brogues or creepers.  Even though trying to appear as middle class Teddy Boy’s would hang out in gangs in the streets and cause havoc. Eventually the Teddy Boy transformed into the Mod subculture in the 1960s. There were similar aspects about the Mod and Teddy Boy but some characteristics were distorted as fashion is always changing. The Mod went for the general look of the infamous block coloured jackets with tartan lining, tailored suits, combed hair and were well known for going round on Vespers.  Mods had the same mentality, as Teddy Boys however the music they listened too differed slightly but hey were still pretty rowdy like their ‘big brother subculture’ before them. The Skinheads were born out of the Mod group, they had violent ideologies and were generally known for racism, although contradicting themselves they listened to black music, ie:reggae, and indulged in marijuana.  Their appearance was iconic with shaved heads, braces, Ben Sherman shirt, cropped Levi jeans, Dr Marten boots and tattoos.  The English drama This Is England (2006) displays an accurate representation of the social group and the behaviour they exhibited and how they influence a young boy to become a part of horrible events and promote violence. Gavin Watson was a famous Skinhead photographer from that time, he immersed himself into the social group and photographed the subculture from inside so you see the honest nature of Skinheads. The positive about his observing this subculture from the inside is that it showed the friendly and positive sides in opposition to how society saw them as violent and in a negative light. He called his collection Skins (1987).  His photos were contrasted and show the details of the day-to-day lives of skinheads and how they lived up to and achieved their look. Punks and grunge were also included in the 1970s subcultures and were one of the first to have females included in the social group, it was when musicians like Joan Jett became a massive part of the rock music world.  Its one of the biggest genres of music in the world and probably one of the most recognizable subcultures in the world, it is so successful that it even had its own art movement.  Because punk and grunge is so big other subcultures, like skinheads, look like they have taken part of punk style into creating their own persona.

Contrasting to the standard subcultures that exist in English history, over in America there was a massive cultural movement as a result of weather and working class teenagers in the 1970s. “…the attempt to wrest something positive from American popular culture is not to be dismissed as a slavish and misguided imitation of American life, but welcomed as the assertion of pleasure and creativity in a culture which allows popular participation and celebration for ordinary people.” Strinati, D. (2004) An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. New York: Routledge. In the early 1970s a drought hit California, which lead to a hose-pipe ban on the state.  This meant inevitably many swimming pools were left empty and vacant, surfers started to group together and take advantage of this, which was the catalyst for the skating culture. “The totality with which skateboarders, conceive of their opposition to work and career patterns is crucial, for skateboarders do not so much temporarily escape for the routinized world of school, family and social conventions as replace it with a whole new way of life.” Borden, I. (2001) Skateboarding, Space And The City. New York: Berg pg234. The public back in the 70s saw skaters as convicts and rebellious, because to skate in pools they had to trespass on private property, which clearly is against the law, also where skating was apparent, a lot of the time graffiti was involved too. After about have a decade of the skating scene having a dark light in society it crashed in the mid 70s, but then made a come back as slightly more civilized and was not just acknowledged by the public as a sport but an art form.  At this point the middle class teens were getting involved which helped change the perception of the subculture group drastically.  This then encouraged the commercialization of the subculture; soon many skaters were sponsored and advertised in the sport.  The commercialization helped globally distribute skating and created brands that are still successful to this day. “When Tony Alva came out with his first ad for his first company, it was a complete revolution to the skateboarding industry people were just up in arms,... it was all of a sudden the advertising was no longer about skateboarding it had nothing to do with the product anymore, it was about attitude.” Peralta, S. (2001) Dogtown and Z-Boys.  Alva skates was one of the first companies that revolutionized the skateboarding community and began the change that has stuck until the present day scene of skating.  Since then current fashion trends have derived from the skating culture and it is now a general ‘style’ to wear the typical skater attire; hoodies, logoed t-shirts, caps, jeans, Vans trainers.

A photographer that is massively apparent in the skating world both historically and presently is Craig Stecyk, who followed the main skating group that helped begin and spread the subculture, the Zephyr Boys; with the founders being Jeff Ho, Craig Stecyk and Skip Engblom.  The photos he created at the time skating was beginning were raw and ground-breaking in terms of angles and timing with the limited technology and the fast moving subjects he worked with. He produced photographs in the non-stereotypical way society saw skaters, ie: as criminals, in fact the opposite, he showed them in a light that made them look like sport stars and always showed their personality and attitude. “Two hundred years of American technology has unwittingly created a massive cement playground of unlimited potential.  But it was the minds of 11 year olds that could see that potential” Stecyk, C. (1975) Craig is stating here how the imaginative minds of the teenagers that helped start the skating culture literally saw the built up areas architecture as a skating playground for them to transform and learn new stricks.

Glen E Friedman also was apparent when the Zephyr Boys were around and was a part of the Dogtown and Z-Boys film however he also worked with famous idols from loads of different types of subculture ie: Jay Adams, RUN DMC, Ice Cube (NWA).

Moving forward to the 1980s rap music was pretty quiet and wasn’t a big deal because of racial issues that were current at the time. However a group named N.W.A., made up of Dr Dre, Ice Cube, Easy E, MC Ren and DJ Yella, revolutionized the rap culture in the mid 80s and gave the black community a voice.  This was a massive positive for the black community as it made people aware of police brutality and really conflicted with the racist issues in the States at the time, which in turn has made an effect on racism up to the present day.  However at the time it created uproar and caused riots all across the United States, because of the problem with police brutality and the music from N.W.A. encouraged the black communities to fight back against the government sectors. With the beginning of rap culture picking up from then on, it influenced fashion and created a basis to the ‘naughty ninties’ style. The mediums that come with any subculture influence society, the subcultures throughout the last half of the 20th century transformed the fashion and music trends and made an impact on the general public without anyone realising.

Media plays a big part in the growth of subculture groups.  Without the media subcultures wouldn’t have thrived as well as they have and do.  The media made them more popular through spreading the word, however with the media comes negativity as they show the brutal sides to the subcultures exposing the crime, racism and violence that underlies in certain corners of the groups. Those that join these groups have to deal with the positives and the negatives, they have to accept it if they want to be a part of that category of society.   Not only have subculture gone from one extreme to the other through the effect of the media, but nowadays you see them celebrated on television channel, for example MTV and sports channels, to arrive at this from the point where they were complained and looked down on in the news is a drastic improvement into our societies growth.

Subcultures are needed to help people who don’t feel like they fit into the large typical cultures and help them find the groups of people that make them feel accepted and express themselves freely. Without subculture, expression wouldn’t have been as easy which would have stopped many daring and out there art and fashion styles. Back in the 50s through 70s being a part of a subculture was original and different however nowadays because there are so many stereotypes and subcultures next to everyone is in one, it’s almost like a competition to find something new that no one else has done before. This is mainly because fashion and music has expanded so much in the last 50 years that its hard to find something original and out of the box as most of it has been done before.  With making everything digital we’ve stumped the authenticity of creativeness, we’ve lost the rawness of subcultures.

In conclusion, if subcultures didn’t exist we would have lost a big portion of art movements and photography wouldn’t have come as far as it has. In a way subculture is everything, its fashion, music, films, art.  The photography that has captured the subculture through the decades has helped outshine positivity over any dark connotations subcultures have had by showing the beauty in them. However subcultures have expiry dates as they are most of the time trying to be unique yet through distribution of music and fashion they become mainstream and mundane to the originators so eventually get dropped. However in the 21st century it seems we are repeating the past subculture fashions from the last half of the 20th century, this may carry on and yet possibly cut out the whole possibility of generating new subcultures. It’s a vicious carousel.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

Turner, G. (2002) British Cultural Studies: An Introduction. 3rd edn. London: Routledge

Hebdige, D. (1979) Subculture: The Meaning Of Style. London,:Routledge

Borden, I. (2001) Skateboarding, Space And The City. New York: Berg

Thornton, S. (1995) Club Cultures: Music,Media Subculture Capital. Oxford, England: Polity Press

Watson, G. (1987) Skins

Issitt, M.L. (2011) Goths: A Guide to an American Subculture. United States: Greenwood Pub Group.

WEBSITES

19, lki (2014) Whats you Subculture? Available at: https://fordhamcyberculture.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/whats-your-subculture/ (Accessed: 9 Febuary 2016).

Popova, m.(2011) The Desciples: James Mollison’s portraits of music Subcultures. Available at: https://www.brainpickings.org/2011/10/07/the-disciples-james-mollison/ (Accessed: 20 Febuary 2016).

 DOCUMENTARIES/ FILMS

Dogtown and Z-Boys (2002) Stacey Peralta.

PRACTICAL PRESENTATION PRODUCTION

MAKING THE BOOK

PRACTICAL

THE CHOSEN ONES

PRACTICAL SHOOT

SKATEBOARDING

STUDY TASK 6- SUBCULTURE

SKATEBOARDING

For this study task I chose Skating, I’ve always found the history of this subculture interesting. In the past I’ve had people around me that have been heavily influenced by the subculture and so have been researching the background for a few years now. I chose these photographs of the Z-Boys who were a key catalyst in the making of skateboarding.  This group were probably the most famous out of any and were the key in the start of skating merchandise and advertising. I feel these images represent the skating scene as it was then and now.  The group photo of the skaters shows the attitude and unapproachable arrogance that skaters have always had. The whole subculture of skating derived from the sport of surfing back in the 1970s when a drought hit California, which lead to a pipe ban on the state.  This meant many swimming pools were left empty and vacant, more and more skaters started to take advantage of this, which revolutionised the skating scene. Skaters back then were perceived by the public as criminals and rebellious, clearly because trespassing on peoples property is illegal, also where skating was involved a lot of the time graffiti followed too.

STUDY TASK 5- CONSUMERISM

KEITH YAHRLING AMERICAN CONSUMERISM

STUDY TASK 4- ALTER-EGO

Who is my alter-ego? Audrey 

What’s my alter-ego gender? Female

Where are I from? Devonshire

Am I a part of a group or subculture? No, I am from the olden days. So I guess Edwardian.

What do I look like? I have Gibson girl hair, wear an old fashioned floor length dress by Laura Ashley and wear natural make-up.

STUDY TASK 3- GENDER ADS

THE MALE GAZE “The male gaze is a concept coined by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey. It refers to the way visual arts are structured around a masculine viewer. It describes the tendency in visual culture to depict the world and women from a masculine point of view and in terms of men's attitudes.”

STUDY TASK 2- CITIZEN JOURNALISM

STUDY TASK 1- PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTE