#advancemethods

Week 8:

Week 7:

Week 6: Daragh Sodexo “Looking for Love” 2018

This was an exhibition at the photographers gallery for the exhibition “Shot in Soho.” This was an exhibit which had a video instillation and light boxes aswell as images pinned to the wall. I viewed this work really closely as I found this connection with the work and the ideas and concept. Daragh used Soho to present the people of the streets and their search for love and lust and he uses imagery and videography to represent how we interact with one another in the pursuit of love. With social media at its highest and dating app being the norm to communicate to eachother I found his work very honest. I was drawn to this in particular as I myself can relate for this search for love. Where the alcohol wears off and you have this rush of emotions constantly on a rollercoaster. I like how he used a video to explain his work and the commentary over it was very moving. The use of light boxes to show dating apps of people found was very clever and he’s actually photographs wasn’t just of couples it gave you insights into the lives of these people. I’m never drawn to colour photography but the concept behind them really gave this raw emotion to how I perceived the images.

“Around the table” was on the lower floor and the main exhibition of the gallery. You was introduced to bright bold coloured walls. I found this very busy it’s not my style of photography. I couldn’t adjust as to where to look or what photography to look at as there was books and recipes and imagery. I think the coloured walls made it feel more was going on that lost my focus. I understood the concept behind the exhibition as to how food plays a big part in our lives and how we react and communicate with eachother and the individual values it has for different people. However I found there was a lot to look at and take in that I began to loose connection. From the work I did engage in was below “Migrants Picnic across the border” the reason I engaged with this was the political influences we have right now with Donald Trump it helped me engage with the photograph. The image is very creative that it explains how even though there is a divide we are all the same we are all humans. The historical method behind the image which helped create the photograph makes it mite powerful and understanding for viewers to connect.

History as a field gives us material we can use to research and investigate. You can search any photographer and image and movement to investigate its history as a field you need to ask yourself

what happened

Why did it happen

How was it possible it happened

These are just a few example to start your research and analysis of an image. To understand history as a method you need to understand what an image is. Every photo you take has a context without you even realising which can help you inevitably understand the image. However is the concept of idea more important than the actual image itself. Does the historical context change what the image is about and how we think about it.

One example giving was the photo taken for Apollo 8. At first glance this is an image of the moon and the Earth not much as else is given imagery wise in the photo. Without the context this is all you see but once you start to find out what the photo was taken for ie Apollo 8 and when this photo was taken ie 1960s you can research its context around this time. By doing this you realise this was the Cold War era and you start to investigate and gather information about the history of this time and the politics you don’t have just a beautiful image of the Earth but an image of war. This symbolising the history of that time and the political systems power and status informing us through imagery becomes so powerful. History therefore influences us without us even realising.

One of my favourite photographs of all time is Dorethy Lange Migrant Mother. At first glance at this photograph my interpretations was how beautiful this black and white photo is. I saw this as a photograph of a not so wealthy mother and her children I didn’t realise until I was given the context behind it how powerful this image is. Once you know the history behind a photograph it can influence your perceptions. This photograph was taken during the Great Depression 1936 and this iconic image had such an impact the government released money to help starvation in migrant camps.

This session was about exploring images and analysing we can do this by looking at the history as an art medium as a lot of methods we use to research a photograph started with art. For example the 19th century the ideas and attitudes of that time influences what we see and portray through paintings at the time. Photography started modelling itself through paintings and with modernism major shift in painting and photography photography was trying to look like a painting with abstraction. Looking at the compositions and formally analysing using history and theory as a method.

This week we went to see the work of Olafur Eliasson “In real life” where he explores how all our senses come alive and how we engage and how we react to these.

“Within the exhibition will be an area which explores Eliasson’s deep engagement with society and the environment. Discover what an artist’s perspective can bring to issues of climate change, energy, migration as well as architecture.” tate.org.uk

The exhibition I found extremely exciting, every room I walked into I felt a body rush of excitement and anticipation as to what I was to experience next.

Your blind passenger:

This was a corridor you walked through filled with fog like a smoke machine you have at a school disco which changed colour. The experience of walking through this corridor with others at the exhibition got my heart rate going. I felt this rush feeling of anxiety and lose of control with all my senses being used. It was the unknown that was thrilling. I was scared at one point I lost my friend as she went ahead and out of sight.

Your uncertain shadow:

This part of the exhibition was my favourite just like the blind passenger it was interactive you felt you was part of the art as your experience is the art. I was fascinated to see how others interacted. I love how he used the colour lights to reflect our shadow and how it mirrored onto the wall it made me stand their for ages moving my body in different shapes!

To conclude there was so many parts of this exhibition where you was in amazement to its beauty of our environment and got you to use all your sense except for taste to see how we interact with each other and how we perceive our senses.

This week we look at photography as different methods with concept of philosophy. I find philosophy really just an option not an actual fact and really difficult to define. Looking at different methods in a photograph helps me understand.

Philosophical method lay out the arguments and understanding with its questions, openness and clarity.

•Ontology: What is photography? What has made this photograph it’s truth, objectivity and realism.

•Ethics: What is the photography telling us? The issues, research methods, meanings and beliefs influence us on the image.

•Aesthetics: Photography as an art? How the colours, image is composed and it’s formal properties. Different from painting? Beauty as an art and nature.

Using these examples I have looked at some images and questioned the way I’ve looked at them and how it’s made me think differently just as different way looking at an image.

One of my first photography influences when I started at college 17 years ago was a photographer Gavin Watson who documented skin head youths in the 70s. His photography was so personal you felt like you were there in the photograph. This influenced me to at the time take photographs of the group friends I hung around with and documenting their lives to portray a different view on the stereo typical view people have on teenagers and anti social behaviour.

However if you overthink to deep into the meaning behind the photograph and why it was photographed it’s influences it has then there is no point in photography.

First week back at uni and to begin another journey into discovering and learning more about my ideas and concepts towards photography. We begin by looking at how we explore the photographic image. There are many topics I could engage with but I need to find a visual subject that interests me. I’ve always been into documentary photography. Therefore I think I would like to explore the current issues around perhaps policitics and brexit with the effects it’s had on society.

Photographer Fabio Luguro:

“In the months (and then years) after the Brexit referendum, I found myself inevitably referencing its disastrous result while photographing on the streets of London.”

All his images are in black and white and he photographed a lot of the marches but focused on the textual material like the commercial advertising of brexit leading us the public to a subconscious opinion. Exploring how much influence the media and photography has on us to form an opinion is remarkable without knowing the true factors.

Laura Pannack also photographed about Brexit but from a different prospective and looked and how it affects us individuals on love. She explores the impact brexit had on couples and their relationships and produces images to show these emotions. I really think this idea is really powerful as when you look at the images without the context behind them you wouldn’t realise the meaning behind it. Very powerful and moving simple images that aren’t as obvious to the viewer of the subject of the photography.

To look further into exploring the image I need to use concept of its methodology to provide the context an explanation of the imagery and I can look at either history and or theory. If I was to explore brexit I think I would perhaps look more into history but I could use both.

Laura Pannack Brexit: