#blogtask

Blog task: what does historical research mean and how can it change our understanding of an image? 

To understand and enjoy one image to it’s fullest one must analyse the personal views which are portrayed whilst also analysing the photographers outlook on the image, what are they trying to portray, what techniques have they used to do so and to what extent do we agree.

During the lecture we were given many images to analyse and discuss as a group on the idea of history having an impact in telling a story through a captured image. One in particular was the ‘falling man’ captured by photographer Richard Drew. This image was taken during the 2001 terrorist attack on the twin towers.

This dreadful time caused a large amount of deaths the minimum being 200 people believed to have fallen or jumped to their deaths which is a very disturbing and emotional act to try and understand. It is known to this day that the subject captured in the image of the man has never officially been identified, however, on one occasion ‘The falling man’ an article about the image by American journalist Tom Junod was published in 2003. It was then turned into a documentary film which brought assumptions of the falling man to have been Jonathon Briley, 43- year old technician for windows.

Blog task: Discuss how you might use areas of the history and/or theory of art in analysing some appropriate images

John Roberts Parsons was an Irish photographer best known for his series which included Jane Morris who began a romantic liaison with Rossetti that lasted until 1876. Rossetti’s obsession with Jane Morris explores the role of Jane as Dantes Gabriel Rossetti’s chief muse and pre- raphaelite beauty. The affair between the two was a source of many of the deep meaningful paintings.

Parsons still to this day is known for the series of pictures he made for Rossetti in the summer of 1865 where Jane was directed into a number of poses for future works. Everything about these images focus on her distinctive dark hair, her smooth outlines and silk gowns. In many examples her positioning was central to the composition bringing the viewers to admire her importance, her flawless persona. 

The second image which grabbed my attention is one created by Cameron where the photographic model Alice Liddell posed many times during Aug-Sept 1872. This particular image is captured against a dense background of enhanced flowers. She was captured by the photographer as the embodiment of fruitful abundance. The Roman goddess of gardens and fruit trees. 

Blog task: Discuss what you learnt in class today: how can philosophy assist in analysing photographs .

During the lecture of our second week we analysed three debates of the philosophy of photography: Ontology, ethics and aesthetics. Breaking this down ontology allows us to question the purpose behind one photograph. Examples of these are, ‘What is photography?’ ‘What defines photography as a medium?’

Contextualising a specific matter in a photograph tends to be difficult which then brings in all concerns revolving around ethical issues. Many question what makes a photographer want to capture an image exploring the feelings behind the less fortunate. ‘What allows you to do this?’, ‘Have u gained permission?’, ‘Was there any kind of verbal exchange and how did they feel towards your documenting purposes?’. In its simplest form there is no right answer to this, we as photographers speaking from my own experience begin to use photography as ways of showing those around what problems people of this world are facing. I believe awareness is a crucial aspect of photography bringing us to question whether our photographs are in fact having that positive eye opening impact, having a voice whilst also portraying the techniques of photography.

The two main categories of ethics are: consequentialism and gerontology. This brings one to understand that moral values of an act towards an image are based on the consequences: if the consequences mean no harm and are coming from a pure heart then the act followed also will explore these thoughts and feelings.

Why do we need a methodology to analyse visual images?  How does such a method help us understand visual work better? 

During the first lecture of the ‘Advanced Research methods’ module read by Neil Matheson, i was able to expand my knowledge on what is meant by the terms method and methodology. It was understood that a method mainly focuses on the tools that are needed during a research, these tend to include online resources, libraries, exhibitions, photo books, gallery websites and so on. It is debated whether history is used as a method. From this note i believe it is indeed a method as the subject we tend to analyse is somewhat related to documentary (telling a specific story of what once was). 

Methodology which is a study of how the research has been done shapes methods. It allows us to understand why we analyse and discuss the work in the manner  we do. it is always key as it allows us to have a clear understanding of any kind.

From the second chapter of the book ‘Photography; the key concepts’ David Bate explains it is almost impossible and unrealistic to try and gasp some sort of understanding towards a photograph without a certain type of study conducted before

The first thing that I realised when we started our group presentation was that one of our peers was absent. I did not know where he was neither had I been been told anything. The presentation required a team work, which never existed. The atmosphere was quite embarrassing. 

So, what went well?

The presentation was made in Powerpoint, so at least we could all have our slides. I can literally talk just for myself, as it was obvious that everything was done at the last minute. I think that having some points in mind before giving an oral presentation is one of the key things to do. I had them, and it went well. I could speak without reading anything a part from the quotations. My tone voice was clear and everyone could hear what I was saying.  The topic itself was of my personal interest, in that I had already dealt with John Heartfield. 

If it was possible, I’d improve the spirit behind the whole presentation. 

First thing, I find incredibly pointless looking at someone reading aloud through the whole presentation. I could do it myself. This is not engaging at all, and I was not surprised when I noticed people’s looks, evidently starting to fall asleep. 

I realised that my presentation lacked of a better historical contextualisation, which would have helped people understand what was the political climate of the time. This is very important, as, although this topic has not the relevance in my essay this is a general rule that I tend to forget. 

I elected fashion theory as my first choice for the group presentation project. In my group I am with Aminat, Jessica W and Klaudia. I am pleased to be doing group work for a long term project because it’s nice working with different people and I think it will be interesting to hear what findings they come up with for our proposal.  

'Imaging At A Trillion Frames Per Second' (TEDglobal, 2012)

I'm not very educated in the science department, and when I was scanning TED Talks for art-related lectures I really struggled to find one to refer to in my essay. However when I put 'movement' into the TED Talks search engine and this came up I was intrigued. I watched it through curiosity alone and was surprised at fascinated I found it, considering it was based mostly around theory and science. However the lecturer, Ramesh Raskar, discussed what had inspired him to build a femto-camera and it was a photographer known as Doc Edgarton who captured an image of a bullet piercing through an apple. This piqued my attention immediately considering the theme to my essay, and although I'm not very knowledgable when it comes to photography either I thought it interesting to consider the themes of motion and travel from a photography point of view. One example Raskar used when demonstrating femto-photography was when he filmed a laser pointer light travelling from the base of the pointer to a screen and bounce back again; this explains the flickering of laser pointers and why they're not a solid light as I thought they were, they are in face a small beam moving very fast. Although not strictly an illustration approach to the project I found the photography aspect very interesting and changed my way of thinking about the subject matter, which led on to researching exhibitions in motion photography and film. I will need to be careful when using this video a a reference in the essay because it's based around art and movement as opposed to science or technology, but I do feel educated anyhow. The demonstrations with household objects were fascinating to watch also.

 [TED global. (2012). Ramesh Raskar: Imaging At Trillion Frames Per Second. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/ramesh_raskar_a_camera_that_takes_one_trillion_frames_per_second.]

   'OnLINE: Drawing Through The Twentieth Century' (MOMA, 2010)

First introduced to this exhibition in one of the Thursday lectures I thought it rather interesting how these artworks linked to the idea of motion and travel in a more contemporary manner. It was unfortunate that I couldn't experience this exhibition first hand, but I do appreciate the digital aspect of the works. The exhibition is split into three sections: surface tension, line tension and confluence of line and plane. It is a very abstract idea which confused me a little when I first saw it but once I had researched the context of the works I could appreciate what had gone into them. This exhibition considers the documentation of travel rather than the physical image of movement, focusing how the pen, paint brush or other material literally travels across the page, sometimes out of the wall or in the form of a sculpture. This was an interesting and more relevant way to think about themes of movement. Another thing the exhibition describes is that “This first section explores artists’ drive to construct and represent movement through line within the flat picture plane, including examples of the Futurist exploration of speed and movement in form around 1910, and the advent of Cubist collage”, which in turn relates to my mention of futurism and cubism in my essay, especially when comparing the two in both themes and technique as I struggle to see them as two separate movements, however I do see the inspiration in some of the pieces of the exhibition. There is an interesting range of work as far as I can see, not only in medium but ideas also. One piece that stood out to me was Robert Rauschenberg's Automobile Tire Print. I like how minimalist this piece is, yet still so powerful to look at and looks at line extension literally, extending it in a way that is carefully presented and hints that it could continue with the scroll-like appearance. This piece alongside the exhibition is something that's heavily influenced my views in the essay and I think would be a good thing to end it on.

 [MOMA. (2010). onLINE: Drawing Through The Twentieth Century. Retrieved from http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/online/]

   '1878 – Sallie Gardner At A Gallop' (Black and White, 2011)

This short clip is something I've witnessed as a black spinning disk at the Bradford Media Museum but I didn't really think anything of it at the time besides the fact that it looked old and a bit plain. After researching Muybridge's animations and looking into how this animation of a running horse was created I came to appreciate exactly how much work went into it and how ahead of its time this animation was. It took twenty-four cameras with wires attached, a very powerful running horse and much patience to get this moving image, which was made because the horse's owner had placed a bet that when it galloped it flew and all four hooves left the ground, but no one believed him. When this animation was made no one would believe it, so to prove a point Muybridge went on to recreate more slides for horses, horse and carts, deer and even people. He made the animations with different forms such as slide shows and spinning disks. This video, in short, is the first recorded picture in history. I researched further into this as before this video we were so focused on capturing a still image that we didn't think about moving pictures, even in art the images were still; made to document a person or place in as much detail as possible to be in the best quality, as cameras back then weren't developed to produce detailed imagery, but it seems that when the fascination for moving imagery started to awaken in society that this affected the artwork around it, such as futurism, which focuses more on the capturing of movement on a canvas. For a short clip, being only a few seconds long, this video has inspired me a great deal in this essay.