Tag: research

The Miniclick Photo Talks – Laia Abril

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This was a fascinating talk that I attended with a fellow student on the MA Course. It was a Miniclick Photo Talk with Laia Abril, a photographer and multi-disciplinary artist who works across a number of different mediums and platforms. Her work relates to femininity but addresses the uneasy stories and realities around subjects such as gender equality. She has produced a number of books around these subjects, including A History of Misogyny: Chapter One: On Abortion (2018), which looks at abortion controls and how this appears across many different cultures, as well as showing the repercussions of these controls. Abril is currently working on A History Of Misogyny, Chapter 2: On Rape Culture.

This is not my usual choice of photography or artist, however I was quickly captivated by Abril’s own review of her work, which showed her to be a deeply insightful, sensitive and courageous human being. She spoke of how she considered her subjects and the potential danger they could be placed in through working with her. She was always aware of this every step of the way and was very protective of the woman who agreed to be her subjects. She also admitted that the danger and threat was also a potential for her as the photographer who could easily become a target around such emotional issues and readily acknowledged that she sometimes feels scared. I was very impressed with her strong sense of ethics and courage.

Abril approached these books by visualising complex situations and emotions, things that cannot be photographed. She then attempts to articulate and represent these visually. She supports her work by doing an immense amount of research and this stems from her journalism background. She said that reading and text research was central to her projects and that this is valuable when as a photographer you are located geographically far away from your subjects. Abril said that her process was one of accumulating information and then finding her position in it.

Her goal, she says, is usually a book and her aim is to make sure the viewer enjoys it from start to finish, so this can be difficult when presenting uncomfortable issues such as abortion. This has meant she has had to become very creative in how she designs a book or presents an exhibition. Abril focuses on how she groups images together, integrates text into the artwork, uses clever inserts and includes interesting representational images. She makes use of small, simple images because she believes it is more powerful for people to make the connections themselves.

Abril is always incredibly sensitive towards the women who are her subjects and says that it is through building a connection that they will talk to her, when they feel comfortable and safe. She cautions that it is important to be aware of how a subject experiences working with a photographer as we do not know the impact we have on them emotionally and psychologically. As photographers we must always consider how we portray our subjects, but also how we interact with them and what the impact on them will be.

Although, this is not my particular style of photography, I learned a tremendous amount from this discussion and would be apply to apply this in the future if I begin to work with subjects as part of social documentary projects.

On Abortion, 2018 ©Laia Abril

Contextual Research – Viviane Sassen

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In the previous webinars discussing photography markets, I came across the work of Viviane Sassen. She is a Dutch photographer who is extremely successful in both fine art and fashion photography. Although her genre of photography seems completely unrelated to my own practice in urban photography, there was something about her work that really stood out to me and made an impact.

I was particularly drawn to her 2014 series, Umbra, in which she makes strong use of shadow, contrasts, colour, shadow and lines. When I came across the video below and heard Viviane Sassen describe how and where she discovered her photographic voice, I began to understand that I had been unconsciously drawn to the light and colours familiar to a landscape I had known most of my live, the African landscape, having grown up in South Africa. Viviane Sassen describes that it was only upon spending time in Africa that she connected to her creative voice and it is there that she learned about working with light and shadow, bright colours and sharp contrasts.

Her sensitivity to her subjects while in Africa is so clearly expressed and she acknowledges an awareness of the imbalance in power between her as the photographer and her subjects. Sassen approaches her subjects by gaining their understanding of her intention and that the photography is about concepts that are far larger and more abstract than themselves. She approached these images from a symbolic perspective and this resulted in a powerful series of portraits that made a tremendous impact on me because she has succeeded in capturing the essence of her subjects, somehow merging the present moment, with the cultural and historic inheritance of people and place.

“One of the best ways to appreciate Sassen’s work is through her photobooks. Flamboya merges documentary and fine art to find a new way of looking at Africa, one that is neither exoticising nor straightforward reportage. Parasomnia is a more dreamlike exploration of Africa that draws on those childhood memories and vivid dreams.” (O’Hagan, 2013) Sassen herself encourages photographers and artists to experiment and push the boundaries on creativity, working intuitively to create the magic . I feel truly inspired by her approach to photography and will refer to her work often as I experiment with the use of light, shadow, colour, contrast and line in my own work.

Viviane Sassen talks about her photographic process and how she discovered her creative voice.

Reference: O’Hagan, S. (2013). Fashion photographer Viviane Sassen: a different take. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/oct/12/fashion-photographer-viviane-sassen [Accessed 8 Dec. 2019].

Journal Reflection -Sustainable Prospects Week 1

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The first week of this module has been incredibly exciting with the introduction of the live briefs and the opportunity to participate in these.  We have been allocated our groups for the live brief project and I am pleased to have been allocated to my first choice, even though this is likely to take me out of my comfort zones as a photographer. Read more about the live brief here.

Already the importance of research in this context has been emphasised as it is essential to understand the client and the brief in order to create an effective project pitch.  Preliminary research for the live brief projects has involved looking at the client, the visual language they are using, where their campaigns are appearing and how they are being presented.

I have undertaken a lot of online research this week around the live brief, focusing on how the client is utilising social media channels, where they are focusing their campaigns and how they are presenting themselves visually.  This has led me to consider my own visual language and how I am portraying myself and my work online.  I anticipate that I will be making some changes in the near future as I consider the importance of personal branding.

I have looked into various definitions of research methodologies and initially struggled to apply this to my artistic and photographic practices as it seemed rather theoretical. It was immensely helpful to look at how other photographers approach their research and to discover a number of varied yet equally relevant ways to approach this. 

In the past I have used research methods in my formal studies, however, as these were not art studies, it was predominantly through books, periodicals, text books and online sources.  These are equally relevant to my current photography project, along with practice-based research and constructivist methodologies. 

This includes physical exploration of the urban landscape, engaging with people in these landscapes and communities, placing myself within the context of the project, and exploring relevant techniques.  I was pleased to gain a real sense of context for my research and feel this will help to focus my work and photographic practice.

Inspiration © Juanita McKenzie

Research Methods

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The project I have proposed to work on is centred around the idea of impermanence and how this is expressed in the context of the urban environment.  I intend to explore the relationships between people, place and psyche through the concept of nonplace, impermanence and the architectural language of change.  I will mostly be exploring this within my local environment but also within any other cities or suburban landscapes that I may have the opportunity to explore.  The project will progress in stages across the different course modules and I am open to the idea that it could even change as I progress.

As part of my project I will be referring to a number of different sources to provide the contextual research that will underpin my work.  Some of this will be achieved through reading a variety of different books, articles and periodicals, as well as doing online research around the genre of urban photography, the techniques used, projects around similar themes,  and the work of photographers that inspire me or from whom I can learn. 

Robert Frank is one of a number of photographers whose work inspires me and is relevant to my current project.  He was an immigrant to America and set out on a two-year road trip to photograph the real America from the viewpoint of an outsider.  This resulted in his 1958 book called The Americans.  For Robert Frank, his work itself was the research, depicting a raw and honest documentary of America at that time. 


Robert Frank, U.S. 285, New Mexico, 1955. Photograph © Robert Frank, from The Americans

Lewis Bush is another photographer whose work is of great interest to me as he explores issues of gentrification, capitalism, urban change and the political context of urban landscapes.  His book, Metropole, is about the changing face of London in the context of global capitalism and how this drives modern property developments, gentrification and displacement of people.  Lewis Bush does a vast amount of research during his various projects and brings together knowledge and research in the fields of economics, politics, journalism, technology, art and history. 

Lewis Bush, Untitled, 2015 © Lewis Bush, from Metropole

I will be referring to the work of French anthropologist, Marc Augé, around the concept of non-place and will do further research on any other artists working with this concept, as well as any relevant sources within the fields of sociology and anthropology. The concept of psychogeography is another area for potential research that may bring a different aspect to my project.

Lastly, I plan to incorporate literature into my background research, and hope to find time to read some of the works by authors or poets, such as William Blake, who write about city life and the contrasts, paradoxes and changes inherent to it, as well as referring to other written or visual works that explore our relationship with the landscapes we explore, inhabit or interact with in some way.   

Another important aspect to my research will be the practical context of physically exploring the urban landscape to gain knowledge of it, as well as attempting to engage with people in these landscapes and communities.  This supports a practice-based approach to my research, as well as supporting a constructivist research methodology. 

These are perhaps ambitious plans for my research as time is always a constraint, however, I don’t see the research as being limited to only this semester of the course, but rather an ongoing process that will continue to inform, develop and evolve my project.