As discussed in intro to photomeditions, currently photography is popularly considered to exist in three categories: photography as art, photography as social practice and photography as professional practice. alternately it could be formatted more like a venn diagram, with photography as art and social practice on either side, and photography as professional practice falling between the two. Zylinska explores in Photomediations how photography as professional practice doesn’t attain the ‘pure vision’ of art, but at the same time separates the photographer from the hobbyist via the monetary aspect of photography as a professional practice (Zylinska, 2016). In Uses of Photography, John Berger also discusses the role of the professional photographer as a tool for capitalism, through which images are created in order to ‘stimulate buying, and anaesthetise the injuries of class, race and sex,’ (Berger, 1980). Berger categories professional photography as belonging to the ‘public’ use of photography, which he contrasts with the ‘private’ use of the medium. Berger separates the public and the private photograph by what is done with the photograph once its taken and well connected the image remains to its original meaning and context. For example, Berger cites a family photo that is hung within said family’s house. The photo ‘remains surrounded by the meaning from which it was severed’ and becomes ‘a memento from a life being lived’ (Berger, 1980). The private photo remains connected to the context through which it was created, and thus differs to the public photo which ‘presents an event, a seized set of appearances, which has nothing to do with […] the original meaning of the event’ (Berger, 1980). Professional photography severs the image from the context through which it was created, and thus changes the images original meaning. An example Berger uses is war photography, where images of people experiencing war are removed from their context and used as propaganda for or against it, with no recognition of how those in the image actually felt when the image was created. Public photography uses their image to push an agenda which is completely seperate to the ‘meaning from which [the image] was severed’ (Berger, 1980). As Berger discusses, the ‘public’ use of photography is riddled with ethical uncertainties, and the use of photography as a means of communication between viewers and photographers is very complex and interesting. Although it’s a very basic aspect of photography, the ability of a photograph to emotionally effect a viewer who has no personal connection to the photographer or the subject is a testament to the power of the medium. This quote from Photomediations sums up this ability, ‘photographs don’t only show us things, they do things. They engage us optically, neurologically, intellectually, emotionally, viscerally, physically… [A]s photography changes everything, it changes itself as well,’ (Heiferman, 2012, cited in Zylinska, 2016). Because photographs effects us in this way, they can at once be a tool of capitalism, a powerful artistic medium, and a ‘memento’ of one’s life (Berger, 1980). Photography is a unique medium as it’s able to capture snapshots from life, and even more unique because of the plethora of meanings these snapshots can have depending of their use.

Berger, J. (1980). Uses of Photography. In: J. Berger, ed., About Looking, 1st ed. New York: Pantheon, pp.48-63.

Zylinska, J. (2016). Photomediations: An Introduction. In: J. Zylisnka and K. Kuc, ed., Photomediations: A Reader, 1st ed. London: Open Humanities Press, pp.7-14.

A photo book is a collection of images which work together to communicate a message or narrative.   John Gossage provides some parameters for a photobook in Gerry Badger’s paper “Reading” the Photobook. Gossage says that a photobook, ‘should contain great work. Secondly, it should make that work function as a concise world within the book itself. Thirdly, it should have a design that complements what is being dealt with. And finally, it should deal with content that sustains an ongoing interest,’ (Badger, 2011). In this regard, a photobook is a series of photos with a common thematic element, which are displayed in a way which aids the viewers appreciation of this theme. As later expressed by Badger in “Reading” the Photobook, the photos in a photobook work in unison to provide readers with the greatest understanding of the artists intended meaning. However, the photos can also be viewed individually, or in a randomised order and the viewer could still gain some appreciation of the artists intent. This is because a photobook is not like a novel, segments of the book can be removed and the rest of the book would still be coherent, the removed sections would also essentially hold their value. This is a concept that I kept returning to when I was shooting images for my photobook and also arranging the final product. I arranged my photobook in an order that could be randomised and still allow the viewer to come to the same conclusion after viewing the images. My photobook has no linear narrative; the photos are linked by the theme of early womanhood, and ultimately aim to comment on the variety and sense of potential linked to this subject matter. Whilst I didn’t attempt to organise my book in an order that required a beginning, a middle and an end, respectively, to be understood, I still struggled to find an order that would most effectively express my intention, when read from beginning to end. I think this was because some of the photos in the book were highly staged, and others were portraits or more candid images. Obviously all the photos were staged, as they were all shot at photoshoots that I organised for this assessment, however when I say the ‘highly staged’ images, I’m referring to images that I choreographed to create a mood that I wanted to be present throughout the book. Pages like these two are examples of staged images that I largely included to effect the mood of the book:

Because the book was made up of different styles of photography, I spent a long time considering the order of the book, as I wanted to mood of the book to be easily graspable for readers.

I also tried to  minimise the amount of writing in my photobook, however I felt that a few words beneath some photos helped provide an understanding of the image. These two pages, of example, feature my cousin Zetta, who is an enthusiastic dancer:

The makeup she has to wear for her dance performances is so theatrical and heavy, so I wanted to mention that she is wearing it in relation to her dance class, not just because I made her put it on.
I also choose a minimal aesthetic for my photobook, with white pages and a simple layout. I did this because I wanted the focus to be on the images, and also because as there isn’t much writing, I felt the rest of the page had to be simple in order for it to be noticeable.  I chose the quotes featured in the book because I felt they expressed an element of ‘womanhood’ which I wanted to express through this photobook. The quote at the beginning of the book ‘all of the women in me, are tired’, is by poet Nayyirah Waheed. When I first heard it, I felt a connection to it because it comments so succinctly on how multifaceted women are required to be by society, and how difficult this expectation can be. I also felt that it worked with the concept of my book, which looks at early womanhood through the lives of a number of subjects who are experiencing it individually. The quote at the end by Naomi Wolf which says ‘we are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution’, is included because it suggests the power and potential that women hold, as well as the uniquely feminine way in which they hold it. I ended the book with this quote cause I felt it helped sum up what my photobook was attempting to say about young women.

Badger, G. (2011). “Reading” the Photobook. The PhotoBook Review, (1), p.3.

Overall, this studio has affected my media practice by allowing me a greater understanding of the various elements that make up an effective photo. Throughout the term, this studio has covered lots of areas of photography that I hadn’t given a huge amount of consideration beforehand, so I think that has improved my photography by pushing me to consider actively consider the elements that make up a photo. I didn’t know how to successfully operate a camera manually before this studio, and instead always used the camera’s automatic settings. I’ve found its been helpful to be able to manually control the settings on a camera, because whilst I still often shoot in auto, having the choice to do either depending on the situation makes me feel more comfortable when I go into a shoot. Also, by being exposed through this studio to photographing strangers, I found that was something that really became easier, as well as making the model feel more comfortable during the shoot.The ability to approach strangers and put yourself out there by asking them to help you is something that requires practice to feel comfortable doing, and this studio has been beneficial in that sense. Whilst I’m not continuing with this course next semester, the skills of visual communication that I gained through this course will be transferable to future study and potentially future employment. The course that I’ll be transferring to is Communication Design, in which the focal point is visual communication. Our work in this studio had a lot to do with using photography effectively in order to communicate something to the viewer successfully. For instance, the Strangers and Stories assessment required us to push our photography skills in order to communicate the ‘story’ of a person who was previously unbeknown to the viewer. This studio required me to actively consider how I could use varies components of photography in order to create effective communication between myself and the viewer, and that is a skill that will be transferable to many aspects of my scholastic and professional life.

Since Tuesday’s photobook presentation, I have been working mostly on brainstorming and organising shoots that reflect the advice I was given by the panel after the presentation. The most resounding comments I received from the pannel after the presentation were regarding the difficulty of creating a photobook about young girls that wont appear vacuous or glamorised. This was a concern of mine since I first decided on this topic, and the panel’s advice will hopefully help me stear away from the inauthentic, fetishised versions of youth that I often see captured in photography. I chose the subject of early womanhood because I think its a unique age, when young people are first finding their place in the adult world. Because I am of this age, I also feel personally connected to the subject, and chose it because I believed that my personal connection would help me create a representation that held an element of authenticity. Youth, especially youthful beauty, is a familiar subject matter in photography. I really don’t want my photobook to look like a series of aesthetically pleasing photos of attractive  young people. There’s a risk of creating a book that reads like a shallow set of photos showing a polished portrayal of the turmoil of youth. This was something that the panel recognised, and advised me that by focusing the project more on the difficulties of young adulthood, without trying to glamorise them too much, the photobook would appear as a more honest representation of its topic. This advice has compelled me to rethink many of the photos I was thinking of taking for this project, as well as the underlying mood and aesthetic that I originally thought would unite the whole series. At first I’d imagined the photobook would approach the topic from a lighter, more whimsical angle, and would also be lighter aesthetically, featuring pastel colours and lower contrast images, and having a generally ‘feminine’ appearance. Now I feel like that would appear shallow and meaningless, even if that’s not the intent. The question I posed for the panel was weather or not they thought I should photograph lots of models for the photobook, or instead photograph 1-3 models, following there lives through the book. The panel said that following the lives of a limited number of models might give the book more narrative and meaning, whereas using lots of models might not create an easily accessible story arch. After considering their advice, I decided against it, and instead have chosen to feature a variety of different models. I decided to do this because I thought it might provide a more candid snapshot of the highly varied lives of young people. I was worried that by following a few models throughout the whole book, the photos would appear more staged and unauthentic. The models are mostly friends of mine or family members, hopefully because of this I will be able to take photos that hold some of the intimacy that I love in Lauren Greenfields Girl Culture, which I sighted as an inspiration of mine in the presentation. I’m imagining that each model a photograph will be featured in 1-4 photos in the book, and hopefully the photobook will read more like an exploration of early adulthood through portraits of young people and their lives.

The topic I’m currently looking at focusing on for PB4 is about the remnants of girlhood in the lives young women. It’s primarily inspired by my friends and family members, many of whom are women between the ages of 17 and 22. I think it’s such a unique age, because people are experiencing independence for the first time, and trying to find their feet in the adult world, when they were children themselves not too long ago. The photobook is going to focus on female subjects, and explore the relationship between femininity, youth and maturity. Another big inspiration for this project is Lauren Greenfields’ series Girl Culture. Girl Culture  explores the private lives of young women in America, and how their bodies and appearances form their opinions of themselves. It’s always been of my favourite photography books because of how Greenfields manages to expose the insecurities of her subjects in a very gentle and moving way. I also find I connect more easily with photographs by women of other women, because photos often feel more intimate and honest.

Photos from Girl Culture:

Photographer Dafy Hagai is another source of inspiration for this project. Her subdued use of colour is something I want to employ in my photography, as opposed to the high contrast in Greenfields photos. I want my photobook to feature mostly soft, warm colours, particularly pastels, with pink being a unifying factor throughout the book. I definitely want to shoot this project on an analog camera, so I will have to do the photoshoots quite far in advance of the due date, in order to make sure I have time to get the photos processed and edit them.

Dafy Hagai:

  
Various points of inspiration:

(Béatrice Dalle in Betty Blue)

(The Virgin Suicides)

(Instagram, various sources)

(some visualisation and brainstorming for the photobook)

My plan for this week (if my pitch on tuesday is successful, and I don’t need to /decide to change my topic), is to start drawing up more images to photograph, and organise my first shoot.

Studio Compendium week 9

I shot my photos for PB3 today, sunday the 30th of April. The subject of my photo essay had a very busy schedule, and this was the only date she was available to shoot. I’m currently in the process of editing my photos in Lightroom, and I’m generally happy with how they’re looking. The subject, Joanne Ludbrook, was very friendly and comfortable in front of the camera, which was super helpful. Joanne is a seamstress who has a studio in Eltham at Monsalvat. Monsalvat is an artist’s colony which was built in the 1930s, but the architecture is in a french provincial and gothic style. The grounds are also huge and made up of lovely gardens. I’d been to Monsalvat onec before for a family wedding, so I was excited when Idya suggested Joanne, because I knew that Monsalvat would be a really interesting and unique place to shoot this photoessay. Because I’d been there before, I decided to meet Joanne at Monsalvat on my own, instead of going with Idya, because the shoot was the day before the project was due and I knew that Idya would be busy working on her own photos. There was a festival/event happening at Monsalvat while I was shooting the photos, which meant there were a lot of people around, who would come into Joanne’s studio (there’s a sign on the door which says please come in) or come up to us during the shoot. This was fairly time consuming, because I couldn’t really shoot any photos inside the studio whilst there were other people in it, because it was small and I didn’t want any other figures in the shots. At the same time, it was actually really good to have some other people around who could talk to Joanne whilst I was taking the photos. This meant that some of the photos looked less posed because she was mid-conversation. In some of the photos I shot she is talking to someone she knew, and I like how natural her facial expressions are in this photo, and how you can sense the familiarity.

It’s a bit frustrating that the shoot had to been done so close to the projects due date, because it means I have to edit the shots and do the last blog post very late. Because of this I’m going to finish this blog post tomorrow (monday the 1st) after I’ve edited more of the images, because I’m in the early stages of that now.

Monday:

I just finished editing the eleven photos that I’m submitting for my photoessay, and in general I’m happy with how they’re looking. My main issue with the photo essay is that not all photos are equally strong. Whilst I really like some of the photos, others aren’t particularly interesting, but feel like I have to include them in order to have enough photos, and to set up the context of the images. In hindsight, I should’ve approached the shoot with a clearer idea of certain images I definitely wanted to capture. For example, I knew that I wanted a photo of the subject leaning against the doorframe of her studio, so I took a lot of images like that, and ended up with a few I was happy with. However, I didn’t think to take a wide shot of the studio, which would’ve been a good image to start the photoessay with. Because of this, I didn’t take many wide images of the studio, and had to use one that was sufficient but not quite right. This image is the first one in the essay, which I don’t mind visually, but it doesn’t actually have the subject’s name on the sign (even though it’s also her studio), which is a shame.

My DSLR camera is a pretty standard model, and the lens is very unexceptional. I had planned on borrowing a lens from RMIT to shoot this project, however when I tried to borrow one for the weekend, all the Cannon lenses were already booked out. Next time I won’t wait til 4pm on a Friday afternoon to borrow equipment. I was really fortunate, however, because my step-mum is a photographer and when she heard that I hadn’t been able to borrow a better lens for the shoot she let me use her camera. It’s a Nikon D800 which had a really good zoom lens on it. It was pretty easy to use and so superior to my DSLR in terms of image quality. Because of this the images required less editing than I used in PB2,when I used my regular camera. I edited all the photos in Lightroom, and found that the most important and difficult part of editing was making sure that all the photos matched in regards to colour, exposure, contrast etc.

I didn’t edit my photos much, i mostly just adjusted the contrast, exposure and vibrancy.

Here are a couple examples of images before and after editing:

before:

after:

before:

after:

The difference isn’t huge, but I used Lightroom to make the pictures warmer and more vibrant, which I think makes the photoessay more unified.

I think I was really fortunate to have Joanne Ludbrook as the subject for this photoessay, because she was very comfortable in front of the camera, and the photoshoot was not particularly awkward at all, which I was quite surprised about. I don’t think that I’m terrible at communicating with strangers, however it’s not my greatest skill or something I particularly enjoy, so it was great to have a model who made the shoot and the interaction easy.
This project has taught me that I shouldn’t leave the largest portion of a project til right before it’s due, and instead should’ve organised the shoot earlier. As I work three days a week and have uni four days a week, it was difficult for me to allocate time during the day to do this shoot, particularly since it had to work for the model as well. However, since I’m aware of my busy daytime schedule, I potentially should’ve chosen a subject who I could shoot at night, like a musician or someone who works at nighttimes.
Unfortunately, I didn’t realise until Monday the 1st at 4pm that the photos were due at 12pm. I had thought that they were due at 12am. This is the second time this semester that I’ve handed in a project late because I got the time that the project was due wrong. It’s defiantely something I have to pay more attention to and hopefully not do again, because it’s incredibly frustrating and a pointless way to loose marks. Ideally I would’ve had my project finished before the due date, and wouldn’t have to pay such close attention to the actually time that its due.

Broadly speaking, I think this project was interesting and challenging in regards to pushing students out of their comfort zones and making them produce a larger body of work than we did for PB2. This project had made me feel more comfortable in doing a photoshoot with someone that I don’t know, and more aware that a really need to work on my time management skills.

This week I arranged my photoshoot for project brief 3, which is happening sunday April 30th. The subject’s name is Joanne Ludbrook, and she is a seamstress that Idya knows, who works in Eltham. I orginally planned on shooting this project on my analog camera, because the quality of my digital camera’s lens is pretty poor, and from what I’ve heard about the location, I thought that the ‘old fashioned’ aesthetic of film would’ve suited the look of the setting. Joanne’s studio is in Monsalvat, which is a really interesting setting, full of interesting, medeval-style architecture and lovely gardens. My dad got married there, and I remember loving the location, so I was very keen for Joanne to be the subject of my photoessay when I heard that she worked there. However, the only date that Joanne can do he shoot is the day before the project is due, which made means I have to rethink my original plan to shoot this photo on an analog camera, cause I wouldn’t have tie to get the photos processed. I think I’ll just borrow a lens from uni instead, because the lens on my DSLR is so unexeptional. I remember being really disappointed with how the photos for my last project looked because of the low quality of the lens, so this time I want to use a lens/camera which will produe photos of a higher standard.

Idya did her photoshoot with Daming Tan last week at Star Music Academy. I didn’t go with Idya to the shoot because I was working, but it seemed to go well and she’s apparently in the process of editing her shots now.

this week I have been brainstorming subjects for Idya to shoot for project brief 3. Whilst I can think of lots of individuals who would make interesting subjects for a photoessay, i think the logistics of this project greatly limit the number of subjects who could actually partake in the project. I feel fairly uncomfortable asking potential subjects to go out of their way to help me / Idya with this university assessment, especially because most of the people I am considering for this project have very busy schedules or would be being photographed in their professional environment. A friend of mine works as a receptionist for a music teacher, who said she would be happy to help with this project, which could be a good option as she’s sounds like a very skilled musician who could help Idya produce some interesting shots. My friend has also said that the space would look good in photographs, but I’m stilling waiting for her to send me some images of it so I can get an idea if it will be bright enough etc. Otherwise potentially Idya could bring some extra lighting for the shoot. I don’t think Idya has decided who she will introduce me to for her shoot, and as I’m going interstate in a couple of days until the end of easter break, I might end up being in a bit of a rush to complete the shoot when classes start again.

Generally speaking, I found this project helped to increase my proficiency in regards to post-processing, as well as operating a camera manually and thinking critically about the lighting and location of my photography. When I began this project, I was fairly rusty at operating my DSLR camera, because, aside from a couple of in-class activities, I hadn’t used it for a three or four years. This meant that I wasn’t happy with the large majority of images from my first few shoots for this project. Because most of these images didn’t work out, I was forced to consider more thoroughly the technical process while I was shooting, and ended up shooting most of my images manually, which I hadn’t done before.

The images of the parked car as well as the close up of the tree were both shot at the same location, which was the Tower of Remembrance in Kangaroo Grounds. I chose this location because it has a brilliant panoramic view of surrounding countryside, and also provides a fairly undisrupted view of the sunset. The evening that I took these photos was very misty and had a very nice sunset, the conditions for the shoot were so atmospheric and interesting I felt very fortunate. However, when I began looking through the photos on my computer I was fairly disappointed with how they had turned out. Lots of the images were blurred because I didn’t use a tripod, grainy because they were very zoomed in, underexposed or overexposed. Because the location for this shoot was far away from where I live, and I didn’t have enough free time to take more photos at the same location, I had to work with what I had, and adjust the photos on Lightroom until I was happy with the outcome. Originally I was planning on editing my photos very minimally, if at all, because Wolfgang Tillmans doesn’t do much post-processing of his images. Because of this I hadn’t put much time or effort into mastering Lightroom, which was a disadvantage when I realised that my images would need some serious adjustments. Here are some examples of my images before and after post-processing:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

the images on the left are the originals and the images on the right are the finals.

The colours of each image have been tweaked, often to reduce overexposure, and to give it more depth and detail. The spot-removal tool was also a feature that I used a lot, which is especially evident in the third image, where much of the white paint on the asphalt has been adjusted to make it more even. Also in the third image I removed the security camera in the background as it was distracting from the model unnecessarily.

Although I was originally planning on shooting on analogue, I ran out of time and had to use my digital camera. I was pleasantly surprised by the results of this though, because it allowed me to take more photos while I was shooting, therefore have more to choose from later. I also think it made the images more similar to Wolfgang Tillman’s Neue Welt shoot which was my inspiration. These are some images by Tillmans that I used as references for this project:

I didn’t actively try to replicate any of Tillmans’ images, instead I was more inspired by the mood of his shots, along with the simplicity and subtlety, and this is how I attempted to imitate him. It was interesting for me to study his photography, as he often makes incredible photographs out of the everyday (especially his still life photography), and this pushed me to approach potential subject matter for this project with a much broader mind. Tillmans photos, particularly those in Neue Welt, often focus on subject matter that is unexpected and often mundane. Through his photography, Tillmans turns  this commonplace subject matter into fine art, and, for me at least, provides the viewer with a greater appreciation for the mundane and unassuming.

Some images showing subjectively ‘everyday’ subject matter from Neue Welt:

Through this project I have learnt that taking a photo that you’re satisfied with often requires an understanding of the technical procedures of capturing an images, and simply putting your camera on manual and pointing it in the right direction won’t produce your best shots. I’ve also learnt how helpful a high quality lens can be, which unfortunately I don’t own and didn’t use for this project, but am now strongly considering investing in. Whilst I used to question the necessity of seriously post-processing photos, most likely because I was used to shooting analogue, I now understand how much of a help editing can be when the camera or the photographer fall short. If I were to reshoot these photos or produce more images for this project I would most likely hire a lens from RMIT and use a tripod to produce the lower-light images.
Generally speaking I’m fairly happy with my images for this project. Whilst they don’t hold a candle to Tillmans photography, his work definitely gave my a new perspective through which to view photography and the beauty in simplicity.