Tag: photography

Visual Storytelling Workshop

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As part of my ongoing personal development as a photographer, I attended an online workshop, the Social Documentary Photography Visual Storytelling Workshop. This was hosted by the Royal Photographic Society and presented by professional photographer and teacher, Stewart Wall. More information about his social documentary photography course can be found here.

The course was structured around three components:

  • Part one, imagining the photographic project – conceiving of an idea, making decisions on what the story is you would like to tell, planning out the project
  • Part two, creating the project – taking the images that you have envisioned and included in your plan.
  • Part three, completing the project – post production, sequencing and formats for presenting the finished work

Right from the start I found the course to be engaging and informative and I learned a tremendous amount from it that I will definitely be applying to my studies and FMP, as well as all future personal projects. We explored the work of other artists and how they have approached social documentary photography, how they have created compelling visual narratives and the various formats in which they have shared their final projects.

I was particularly interested in photobooks and zines as this is something I am considering for my Final Major Project. What stood out for me though, was the variety of different ways that a photographic project can be disseminated and shared with an audience – this can range from very simple artifacts such as postcards, to more complex projects such as books or documentary films.

Stewart encouraged us to think creatively about what we would like to document and tell a story about, as well as being creative and unique in the way we choose to present the project. He encouraged experimentation with methods, techniques and ideas that invite creativity and bring the individuality of the photographer to the fore.

We discussed a format and process for planning out a photographic project and deciding on what images to capture and include in a body of work in order to capture the narrative and visual story telling aspect. This process that we were shown really helped me to get an understanding of how to sequence my own photography to create a story or narrative.

As a group, we were given a brief and a task to work on using the techniques and methods we had learned. It was fascinating to see how everyone approached the task and how it was interpreted and expressed in very unique and individual ways.  The feedback session that followed was insightful and allowed us to share ideas and expand on them through group discussion. Below is the short project I created for the workshop:

Working from Home 2020
©Juanita McKenzie

I chose to create a simple narrative depicting the reality of working from home as a part of life during the Covid-19 Pandemic. I chose to keep the images dark and shadowy to reflect the sombre mood and a sense of confinement.

I was definitely challenged to think outside the box and produce something different to what I usually do and I had a lot of fun working on the task.  I am reminded that it is always good to have personal projects to work on to allow creativity to flow without any pressure to produce something other than for the love of it.

This was an excellent workshop and it has definitely taught me the value of planning out my projects according to the narrative I wish to express and in line with the way I want to produce and share the project.

Completion

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As I completed the assignments for this module after a difficult term and amidst the changes happening in the world around me, it heightened my awareness of the amount of change that has happened and the enormity of it’s impact. My project began as an exploration of change and impermanence and this has indeed been the outcome. Sadly, I feel it is time to pause this particular project and consider whether I am able to progress it into the Final Major Project or whether I will need to rethink this.

My work in progress portfolio is a continuation of the portfolio’s submitted across the past terms and reflects the change across a period of time. The work in progress can be viewed here.

Work in Progress © Juanita McKenzie, 2020
Work in Progress © Juanita McKenzie, 2020

My oral presentation as part of my assignments for this module is an informal discussion about the project so far.

Strategies of Freedom

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As part of our coursework we are being encouraged to explore Strategies of Freedom – the photographer’s relationship to the apparatus. This was a very interesting exploration as it challenged me to think beyond the camera and it’s prescribed way of working, to think of creative strategies to expand beyond its boundaries.

I regularly challenge myself in my own practice by making myself to work with a different lens to my usual preferred ones as it means I have to think and consider the way I am approaching my photography. I like to work with prime lenses so that I have to move around to find my composition and frame it the way I envisage it creatively.

I would like to explore different formats and have considered polaroid as an option, along with experimenting with 35 mm expired film to achieve interesting and unexpected effects. I have not considered any of these for my current project as they didn’t seem like suitable choices for what I was hoping to achieve, however, these could be an excellent fit for other landscape photography projects that I have in mind.

I feel that I have lost my creativity with my project and perhaps this has been due to feeling uneasy with the project itself and questioning whether this is the correct one for me to pursue. I also feel that I have limited myself in terms of technique and approach to my subject matter. This is something I will need to consider prior to my Final Major Project as I will need to find ways to stimulate ideas and create art.

In the meantime, I have found it helpful to work on other projects purely for the fun of it and to create a visual journal for myself as a way to experiment with my photography and approach it in a less serious way.

Cloudscapes © Juanita McKenzie, 2020.

Strategies of Sharing

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In this module, the focus was on strategies of sharing – the challenges of working with others and the different ways of working collaboratively. This is an important topic for me as I consider the way in which my project is progressing and whether it will become the social documentary I had always intended or whether I shall approach this from the perspective of conceptual and landscape documentary approaches.

I have looked to the work of a number of artists that have worked with various communities and individuals in different ways that have involved participation, collaboration or co-operation. I was particularly interested in Zed Nelson’s documentary film, The Street, depicting life in Hoxton Street in East London over a period of 4 years. Nelson is primarily a photographer but decided to create this documentary film and the result was a powerful, authentic and deeply moving record of a community impacted by change.

Nelson interviews members of the community and builds up rapport in ways that shows a deepening of the relationship through the course of the film and the greater sense of trust and sharing that it conveys. The interviews are revealing and at times surprising, getting to the heart of issues within the community and the impact on individual lives. The interviews are powerful and give voice to the community.

The Street, Zed Nelson – Trailer

The work Nelson has done in creating The Street, is deeply inspiring to me as it touches so closely on key themes I am working with in my own project. The idea of creating a documentary film is something I feel is a creative direction that could transform the project I am working on and take it to a different level. It will require a tremendous amount of collaboration with the communities involved and of course, it means learning new techniques in order to create a film. I am contemplating this as a creative possibility but realise that this would mean a far longer term project than the scope of the MA Photography.

Whether I choose to produce a documentary film or a photobook, as was my early intention, I know that collaborative work and participation from the community will be essential in order to represent a community that has been underrepresented and distinctly lacks a voice. Their views would be far more personal and accurate than my own view as the observer and photographer, and it is also essential to incorporate many different views, opinions and perspectives within a documentary work.

My intention in the previous term had been to begin meeting up with people from the community and exploring the possibilities of collaborative work. I had identified key community organisations that would have been a logical and natural starting point for this collaboration in order to facilitate building relationships within the community itself. The sudden and expected Covid-19 Pandemic and the resulting lockdowns prevented me from pursuing this at the time and even now I am feeling limited by the rules and regulations around social interactions.

From my perspective there is a tremendous sense of confusion around rules and social distancing, as well as a measure of anxiety, fear and mistrust that I perceive in society at the moment and this does not seem like an appropriate or suitable time to try to begin building relationships in a community I am not part of. It is a dilemma for me as I am unsure how to move this project forwards now and what direction to take.

References:

Strategies of mediation

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This week we explored what was described as strategies of mediation – using and re-using existing images. This process refers to appropriation, referencing or remixing an image. In an earlier module we had explored the well documented copyright case of Cariou vs. Prince. French photographer Patrick Cariou opened a case against Richard Prince and his gallery, Gagosian, for copyright infringement. Prince, a well known appropriation artist had incorporated some of Cariou’s images from his book, Yes, Rasta, published in 2000, into his series of paintings and collages called Canal Zone, exhibited in 2008 at New York’s Gagosian Gallery. See post here.

Another well known case is that of artist Joy Garnet and photographer Susan Meiselas in the case that came to be known as ‘Joywar’. Garnet, a New York artist, creates paintings based on found photographs gathered from the mass media. In this particular case, she based her work on an uncredited image found on the web that was in fact a piece of a 1979 photograph by Susan Meiselas. This became a copyright case which raises important questions around issues of appropriation and context.

Molotov Man © Susan Meiselas 1979
Molotov, from the series Riots, © Joy Garnett 2004
Banksy’s graffiti mural ‘The Flower Thrower’, which was painted on a Jerusalem wall in 2005 (Alamy Stock Photo) Source: The Independent

Looking at the three images above, the question arises as to when an image is replicated even when using a different medium, how closely it resembles the original work could potentially infringe upon copyright. The final image by Banksy bears some resemblance to the original Molotov Man but does it in fact derive from this original image. Interestingly, Banksy recently lost a trademark case against a greeting card company that used his iconic image without consent.

From my own perspective as a photographer, I would not like my artwork to be appropriated, referenced or remixed my images as this could change the context of the image and thus dramatically change the meaning and intent of my original artwork. Furthermore, there is the ethical consideration of profiting from another artist’s work without consent. I have already experienced this on social media where one of my images was used to create a composite image that I did not agree to. It was resolved by engaging with the individual concerned and asking for my work to be credited.

I have subsequently attended a number of very good online workshops presented by Creative Wick Hackney during the Covid-19 lockdowns, one of which addressesd issues of copyright and how to protect our work as artists.

References: