Last week I had my tutor meeting with Jesse Alexander which was very supportive and encouraging. We spoke about the challenges of being a part-time student and balancing studies, work and life. I was able to discuss my ideas for project work and get some advice around finding a focus as I am still struggling to identify my style of photography.
Later in that week, I also had my 1-2-1 session with my tutor for this semester, Paul Clements. Again the feedback on my work was encouraging and some great suggestions were put forward for me to explore by looking at the work of other photographers who have produced work on similar projects to what I am currently focusing on – namely, that of the urban landscape, the constant changes and cycles of urban decay and renewal, as well as issues such as gentrification.
This week we have had the opportunity to present our draft Oral Presentations to our peers and tutor during a webinar. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend due to other commitments and I am feeling somewhat anxious about missing this opportunity as my peers have said it was extremely helpful. It seems that one of my biggest challenges is going to be time constraints.
On a positive note – last week I had spent a day at the St Paul’s Carnival in Bristol with the aim of doing some street and carnival photography. The Martin Parr Foundation, Arnolfini Gallery and St Paul’s Carnival organisers had announced a pop up gallery event that would be hosted after the carnival and invited the public for submissions. I found out this week that some of my images had been selected as part of the pop-up exhibition. Really excited about this!
Chance, coincidence and sometimes faux pas can play a very important role in photography and this is something I am always aware of in my practice, particularly when I am photographing in the streets and urban spaces of the cities that I visit. I always have my camera ready and know that I may need to be very quick in order to capture a fleeting moment in the dynamic of the every changing and moving urban environment.
Yet still there is a moment of choice involved as to whether to capture something in that precise timing and what to include within the frame. This is what Henri Cartier-Bresson refers to in his concept of the ‘decisive moment’, implying a readiness and ability to recognise the elements of a great photographic composition. This is both the creative impulse and the technical knowledge combined to bring forward a compelling photographic image.
As walking and exploring the urban environment is so integral to my photographic practice, I am often spontaneous in my work but have found it tremendously helpful to place a focus in my mind for the particular outcomes I hope to achieve in a given session. Finding a balance between planned focus and creative spontaneity is the way I endeavour to approach my photographic process so as to remain flexible and leave room for new directions.
“Having a clear understanding of concept, the rationale for a piece of work, will inform many decisions you will make as a photographer; prior, during and after the actual picture-making event. The conceptual approach is the essence of the process and the photograph. From informing subtle choices concerning subject, materials, composition and final presentation, the relationship between concept and subject underpins all that the photographer does.” (Short, 2011)
The choice of lens, location, time of day, season and intention can all be factors that will influence my work and all involve making technical and creative decisions beforehand. The processing and editing of images afterwards are also important technical and creative decisions that are part of my photographic practice. These decisions are always shaped by knowing my reasons for a particular project, enabling a focused and meaningful process. Yet it is often through remaining open to chance and spontaneity that some of my best work is achieved.
* Short, M. (2011). Subject. In Basics Creative Photography 02: Context and Narrative (pp. 40–65). Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA. Retrieved November 29, 2019, from http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350088993.ch-002
During coursework this week, we explored issues of power and responsibility as photographers. I am very clear on my own morals, ethics and responsibilities as a photographer, however, I found it difficult to come to terms with power. This is a concept I was initially very uncomfortable with as I had never considered myself as powerful in my role as a photographer or as having power over others in this capacity.
Upon reflection I came to understand through Henri Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the decisive moment, that the moment of decision, choosing when to take a photograph, was actually an act of power. This led me to consider how as photographers we should reflect upon why we choose a particular subject to portray, or a particular moment in time to capture, and what we will include in the frame. Conversely, what we exclude or leave out – the photographs never taken – are equally significant. What is present or absent in an image is a conscious decision made by the photographer that will not only create meaning but will speak of the photographer’s relationship to the subject matter.
Our tutor, Jesse Alexander, emphasised that it is vital for us as photographers to understand the relationship between subject, image, viewer and photographer, and that it is our moral and ethical responsibility to make that relationship as fair as we believe is reasonably possible. In discussions on the forum, we looked at how photographs can be misused, and debated our responsibility as photographers in this context. It made me extremely aware of the need to be careful about who I am willing to work with and just how much ownership of my work I am prepared to give away.
I think its also extremely important to be aware of the kind of contracts involved and define both who the contract serves and protects. We always have a moral and ethical responsibility that is implicit in our work as photographers by virtue of the relationship that exists between the photographer, the subject and the viewer. For me this triangular ‘model’ is a good starting point from which to make ethical judgments about my own photographic practice or that of another, and to enable me to assess the balance of power in each situation. We need to always be aware of the power of an image and therefore be discerning and sensitive in the way we work.
In peer debates privacy and dignity were raised as being important to ethical photography, and this is very pertinent to me as somebody with an interest in both street and social documentary photography. I had in fact been considering working on a project around social issues in the urban environment, in particular homelessness. I am acutely aware of the vulnerabilities in these circumstances and how essential it is to protect what little privacy and dignity such people have.
The conflict for me is between feeling I have a responsibility to tell the story while constantly questioning myself around the moral aspects of photographing such vulnerable subjects. I believe it is essential to be sensitive towards the subject, to be very clear on personal integrity, and to work collaboratively where possible. I particularly feel that collaborative work is not only ethical but also empowering for all involved and is particularly important in portraiture, photojournalism and social documentary photography.
I am currently focusing on urban architecture and some street photography, so in this context it’s very important for me to understand the law, particularly in respect of private buildings and photographing people. My first responsibility is always to make sure I know the law and to work within those boundaries while also maintaining my rights as a photographer. The second very important aspect for me is to consider the subjects that I am photographing and to make sure that I am photographing with sensitivity, respect and compassion.
Just as photography can have a positive social and political impact, so too there is equal potential for it to be used in negative ways. Issues around power, responsibility and ethics are extremely important areas for photographers to consider.
“Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood. To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge — and, therefore, like power.” – Susan Sontag, On Photography, 1977, pg 3-4
Both commercial and documentary photography are fields that are frequently criticised for the objectification of the subject and the misuse of the way in which the subject is portrayed and, indeed, the sense of ownership that is attributed to both the image and the subject by the photographer or by the commercial institutions that gather and commission images. However, these are issues that are not solely confined to these specific fields and need to be considered in all areas of photography.
As photographers we need to consider very carefully why we are choosing to take a photograph of a particular subject and why we choose to take it at a particular moment in time. The moment of decision and the selection of a particular moment in time to capture, is in itself an act of power. The concept of the decisive moment was first proposed by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1952 and has since been largely misunderstood by photographers and photojournalists as being a technique to be employed in the pursuit of the perfect image rather than a reference to the sensitivity that is required by the photographer in deciding when to take an image.
“His work, widely published in magazines and in a series of superb books, only rarely reported newsworthy events. It provided, rather, a broad description of a place, its people and culture, and the texture of its everyday life. And it helped create the image of the photojournalist as an alert and sympathetic, but also knowing and detached, observer — an image that dovetailed neatly with the notion of the “decisive moment” and in the process limited its meaning. Under the rubric of photojournalism, the decisive moment is not only a pictorial climax that yields a satisfying photograph but also a narrative climax that reveals a truth about the subject.” – Peter Galassi, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Early Work, Peter Galassi, pg 9
We also always need to remember that without context an image can be misused or misrepresented, therefore, as photographers we need to consider very carefully how an image can be interpreted, or misrepresented outside of the original context and meaning. We have to take responsibility for how the subject is portrayed and how the image could be used, manipulated or interpreted.
An example of this is photojournalist Jeff Mitchell’s image of refugees crossing from Croatia to Slovenia in October 2015 which was used controversially by the UK Independent Party during the 2016 referendum campaign to leave the European Union. This is discussed in greater detail in an interview published in The Guardian newspaper which can be viewed here.
Refugees cross from Croatia into Slovenia in October 2015 (c) Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images https://goo.gl/gtrmU6
This is not to enter into political discussion or to debate this particular incident, nor is it a criticism of Jeff Mitchell who I do not believe anticipated such a use of his image. Rather, this is to emphasise that as photographers we have to consider very carefully where we sell our work and just how much ownership of it we are prepared to give away. We always have a moral and ethical responsibility that is implicit in our work which means we need to be aware of the nature of any contracts we enter into, whilst also being aware of the power of the image and the way it could be used.
This week our coursework was focused on creative collaboration and learning how this could support and develop our photographic practice. The task was set to work in creative partnership with one or two of our peers to create and deliver a micro-project by the end of the week.
To find our creative partners, we were tasked to post something in our forum discussions, text or image, that we felt a connection to and which represented something about ourselves and our work. We then looked at the contributions shared by our peers to find a post that resonated with our own and from this established our groups.
I chose to post the following quote as it is how I approach much of my urban photography:
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” – Elliot Erwitt
This immediately connected me with my peer, Dean, who posted these song lyrics: ” Life is just a bowl of All-Bran. You wake up every morning and it’s there. So live as only you can. It’s all about enjoy it ’cause ever since you saw it , there ain’t no one can take it away.” – lyrics from Happy Days Toytown by the Small Faces.
We both felt an immediate connection around finding beauty in the ordinary things and this became the foundation from which we structured our project. We had been given complete freedom to choose a theme, the content and creative direction of the project with the only specifications being that we needed to create a small body of work in it’s own right which was formed in collaboration and which could be presented in a digital format.
Dean and I had a conversation on the phone about the project and very quickly came up with a simple project idea and process. We agreed to take a walk in our respective cities with the parameters being the same day of the week, the same time and duration, and it had to be in a local context. The aim would be to look for the beauty in the ordinary along the path of the walk and this would generate a body of images we could then collate.
We both ended up wandering much further than we anticipated and went off the intended routes but the result was rather interesting. When we looked at our images side by side, we began to notice similarities in the forms, the themes, the subject and mood despite being in very different cities.
I had a good eye for pairing up images so that each page of our presentation has a side by side image by each photographer. Dean was brilliant at designing and compiling the presentation. We chose the images together, agreed on the layout and edit of the final compilation and created the text together. The entire process felt incredibly easy and fluid because we made such a great creative match based on the shared vision in our work.
When we presented it at our webinar, we both spoke about our images and why we took them, also looking at why we paired them the way we did. I felt that it was a balanced dialogue between us and the creative vision was easily articulated to our peers and tutor. We got very positive feedback at the webinar and also when we shared it in our discussion forum.
Looking at the work produced by our peers, it was very exciting and inspiring to see how others had approached this micro-project and the way they had chosen to present it. I was also amazed at the way in which certain themes repeatedly came through in each of the projects, for example environmental issues, the celebration of day to day life, finding meaning within the ordinary, and home or sense of place.
This was an incredibly valuable experience as I mostly work on my own and did not realise how working collaboratively can actually take the creative process into new directions and out of the usual comfort zones. It was a great activity and I learned so much from my peers and from working in creative partnership!
Journey Through the Lens 