Having explored the concept this week of photography as an interdisciplinary field, I’ve spent some time reflecting on whether my current photographic practice is interdisciplinary and how I could expand further on this.
I am already focusing on aspects of documentary photography which may have its roots in early interests in journalism and film. Social and cultural commentary are present in my work already and this draws upon earlier studies in psychology. Within my current practice I explore urban art as an integral part of the urban landscape and the social commentary it provides.
I would like to expand my practice by learning more about Fine Art photography and how this can be combined with street and documentary photography to create something more contemporary. I would like to explore surrealism, Bauhaus and expressionism as art movements that could inform, develop and deepen my photographic practice.
My interest in the urban landscape is closely linked to the architecture of places as well as the historical, cultural and geographical elements within these landscapes. Studies and research across all these areas would be extremely useful for contextual research and project development.
Photography as a discipline has changed rather rapidly throughout it’s history and even more so since the advent of digital technology. It has been influenced by a number of different disciplines, such as art, film, and literature. It has also had a strong relationship with technology and, since the early inception of the Camera Obscura to the DSLR and smart phone technologies of today, it has been influenced by the available technologies. As there are so many different photographic tools available, there is a tremendous variance in method, technique, processing and product within the discipline of photography.
Photography has also been used in a number of different ways, making it difficult to define it as a discipline. It has been used by the arts, news, military, science, forensics, research and documentary fields, all with very different purposes and processes. Photography has also been used to create technologies like x-rays and infra-red, that have been used in the fields of medicine or military technology. More recently infra-red has been used artistically by photographers to create stunning, almost otherworldly images that are the result of a the crossover between science and art.
Photography also cannot be separated from the arts, such as fine art, stills, cinema and architecture. Not only has it drawn inspiration from these arts, but it has also influenced them, illustrating the interrelationship between these fields. Anthropology, archaeology and the social sciences have also worked with photography resulting in a relationship between photography and cultural, historical and geographical influences.
As a field photography is an unruly discipline as it refuses to be limited or confined by the boundaries and prescriptions of a single discipline. It is by its very nature an interdisciplinary field that is constantly evolving and dynamically responding to the changing world we live in.
The coursework this week set a task of finding a piece of work that was not a photograph but which linked in some way to our own practice or research interests. I actually found this to be quite a difficult task, not because of thinking away from photography, but rather because of the amount it revealed. I realised that there are a number of influences in my photography and in my life, some of which go quite far back. These influences range across music, films, art, documentaries and many different genres but through exploring these in the context of this discussion, I realised there is a common thread.
From Blake to Banksy….poetry to graffiti….what is the connection? For me it began a long time ago with William Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’, a collection of poems that show two very different states of the human experience and reflect upon the inequality inherent in the industrial society of that time. Banksy on the other hand, is one of the most controversial and well known street artists of our times. His work is often political and satirical, critical of authority, inequality and the human suffering that results. This is the theme that I have found in common across the many different artists or genres that influence my own practice or research interests.
Looking at my current work, street art is one of my research projects and one of my favourite street artists is British street artist, Stik. His work has definitely inspired me to photograph the streets, the street art that appears there, the people that live in these areas, the urban environment and the relationship people have with it, as well as to capture the character of places before they are gone. In a way I feel that photography is a means of documenting the rapid changes happening in our cities and communities, but also preserving something of them before they are gone.
Stik uses simple stick figures to convey meaning through simplicity – the subtle bend in an arm, or position of the dot for an eye, can convey so much expression and emotion. He makes use of colour, line and environment to create artworks that represent the community and reflect the vulnerability of the human being while also giving hope. His artwork has not only inspired me but has also been a source of tremendous comfort and joy to me at various times in the past few years. (This is discussed in my oral presentation which can be found here).
I feel a connection to Stik’s artwork because in my own practice, I also try to capture similar themes in my photography – the vulnerability of people in the harsh environment of the city, the inequality and contrasts that are so much a part of urban life (really a microcosm of the global inequality), but also the tremendous courage, community and spirit that arises from this.
I hope to capture the vulnerability but also the fragile beauty in the cities, the dialogue between the opposites, the dance between old and new, the tension and friction, and the constant process of metamorphosis.
The clip below is by Stik and discusses some aspects of his work and community:
Visit Stik’s website for further information about his work: http://stik.org/
Journey Through the Lens 