Assignment one: Research

I came across the work of these two photographers whilst editing my portraits and still searching for something that was missing.

Peter Zelewski

I admire the work of Zelewski a now London based portrait and documentary photographer, though formerly a graphic designer, which is evident in his work.

His work on London streets has led to his projects “The people of Soho” and “Beautiful strangers”  (shot between 2014 and 2016) below and his book “People of London” (2017).

     

   

(Peter Zelewski Photography, 2017)

Zelewski talks about the importance of good lighting, interesting composition, and showing respect to those you’re photographing (Worldphoto.org, 2017), which echoes my previous research and comments on Walker Evans and some other photgraphers. These projects came from his love of the London streets and its inhabitants, and this passion shows in his work.

These works are characterised by minimalist composition, with his subject in the centre, use tight alleys, and converging lines to focus the eye n directly to their faces (LFI – Leica Fotografie International, 2017), and hence gives a consistency to his work. Interestingly he mentions how much he learnt from photographing on the streets in unfavourable conditions, “The priceless experience of meeting communication and making portraits of complete strangers often in a very short time frame” (Worldphoto.org, 2017). I find the head and shoulders hsots more powerful than the full length shots.

He values the generosity of others, which includes them agreeing to walk to preselected locations which could be 10-15 minutes away. “The people I photograph must have something interesting about them which makes them stand out from the crowd” he says (LFI – Leica Fotografie International, 2017) and spends hours searching for just one subject. When I’m shooting I often walk the streets for 6-7 hours a day searching for the right person. The 50mm lens he has used allows him to get close and talk with his subjects, enables a sharp focus on the eyes and compensates for the low light situation that he often shoots in on the streets.

Paul Matzner

Previously working in Graphics but now a photographer based in Winsconsin, he has since 2008 photographed on the streets of New York City, Chicago, and Milwaukee and has gained much recognition online. I am interested in his recent project is “Facing You/Facing Me”, a series of close ups of those he’s shot on the streets.

(Smithson, 2017)

His project statement Project Statement shows his awareness and respect for others:   “We pass people on the street every day without making eye contact or even acknowledging their presence. We are connected to our music, our phones, our technology, but not necessarily to the people around us. I have chosen to share a momentary, public intimacy with those passers by so that I can gaze longer at their faces and value their humanity. We need each other in this world. Awareness of the people around me is the first step toward appreciation of who I am and who they are, whether those relationships remain anonymous, or become more revealing over time.” (Paul Matzner Photography, 2017).

Matzner likes to photograph others just being themselves and admires the street photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson and the description that has been ascribed to it “the poetry of human encounters on the street” (Paul Matzner Photography, 2017).

The portraits are arranged by the various locations and streets and each series retains the same background. What interests me is the compositions that he has chosen. They are all head shots from close up, sometimes with the top of their heads chopped off. The backgrounds are extremely blurred, and therefore contextual clues are limited. The subjects all stare right into the lens unflinchingly, with neutral expressions; I wonder how he achieved such intimacy and confidence in his subjects. The lighting conditions are similar across each series. So once again we have a consistency of approach.

My Learning points                                                                                                                           

I am looking at these projects from the standpoint of someone making portraits on the street: 

• The importance of consistency in : location, background, pose/expression, crop/framing,
• The value of engagement with subjects
• The value of waiting for the right subject
• The effectiveness of a fixed lens and a very wide aperture
• The importance of respecting your subjects
• The value of learning from shooting in challenging conditions

 References

LFI – Leica Fotografie International, G. (2017). Peter Zelewski – Beautiful Strangers | LFI Blog. [online] LFI. Available at: https://lfi-online.de/ceemes/en/blog/interview-peter-zelewski-784.html [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

Paul Matzner Photography. (2017). About. [online] Available at: http://www.paulmatzner.com/about.html [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

Paul Matzner Photography. (2017). FACING YOU/FACING ME. [online] Available at: http://www.paulmatzner.com/f282907006 [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

Peter Zelewski Photography. (2017). Beautiful Strangers. [online] Available at: http://peterzelewskiphotography.com/beautiful-strangers/8349kwbvavpbnctej1j6nn6nyjbmvu [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

Smithson, A. (2017). Paul Matzner: Facing You/Facing Me. [online] LENSCRATCH. Available at: http://lenscratch.com/2015/06/paul-matzner-facing-youfacing-me/ [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

Worldphoto.org. (2017). Interview – Peter Zelewski, theprintspace | World Photography Organisation. [online] Available at: https://www.worldphoto.org/blogs/06-07-16/interview-peter-zelewski-theprintspace [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].

ASSIGNMENT ONE: Research

FACE ON (Durden and Richardson, 2000)

Partial book review in preparation for Identity and place assignment one.  The essays in this book examine the relationships between artists and their subjects.

In chapter 4: Contractualities of the eye , Ian hunt examines the kind of bond that a subject can have with a photographer in a “fleeting” moment.  Hunt discusses Boris Mikhailov’s “Case Histories” (1997-8) taken in Ukraine of those in severe poverty. The definition of a person by Roman law was someone who is capable of owning things. This work which explores the difficult circumstances of people who have been left homeless by the collapse of the Soviet Union, shows “engaging and personal narratives of humor, lust, vulnerability, aging, and death” (Hunt, 2000).

(The Museum of Modern Art, 2017).

Though his images were  often viewed as shocking he gained remarkable trust as someone once living locally, showing empathy across a social divide. This is different to many “poverty” photographers who represent the subjects as dispossessed and deprived. Hunt describes the subjects as “person’s who look back as much as they are looked at” (Hunt, 2000, p53). Mikhailov does pay his subjects and also refuses some who offer hoping for payment. The critic Gilda Williams adds  context to the story explaining that the Soviet Union for years banned home photography and that Mikhailov caught his subjects as they were fresh to being photographed rather than hardened and was “thus able to capture them as a documentarist who was embedded in the family itself” (Williams, 1999). Hunt points out that what Mikhailov captures is “the early progress of an idea of the self as merchantable” before the new classes have set up codes of behaviour (Hunt, 2000, p57).

Interestingly Hunt then compares this to work where subjects that don’t get paid, such as Jennifer Bornstein’s basketball kids in LA, where though they may not completely understand the contract , though informal, they are entering into they do understand that they’re not losing out.

(Greengrassi.com, 2017)

Sharon Lockhart made a series of three works in Brazil whilst shadowing anthropologist’s studying people near the mouth of the amazon. Here the subjects composed themselves and were given the polaroid afterwards. Hunt believes there is visible dignity in her photographs.

(Mutualart.com, 2017)

Hunt also describes the unwritten feeling of collective safety and an unwritten contract about avoidance of eye contact in public places. A person with a camera, especially where it is pointed, can change this situation, causing suspicion but potentially respect; Hunt refers to these as “blips of the social process” (Hunt, 2000, p60) and describes them as exchanges of social interest. I agree with his statement that “the respect we owe to strangers is a measurable part of the strength of a society’s culture and self-understanding” (Hunt, p60).

In Chapter 2, Empathy and Engagement: The subjective documentary Durden describes how Walker Evans (1903-1975) “allowed his subjects the dignity of determining how they wanted to be photographed” (Durden, 2000, p 27); this collaboration was unusually ethical at the time. His subjects face the camera, looked composed and demand respect unlike many other great American depression photographers, who tended to exploit their subjects vulnerability.

photography by mma, Digital File DP237354.tif retouched by film and media (jn) 8_15_16

 Floyd Burroughs, Alabama. 1936.          Allie Mae Burroughs, Alabama     (Metmuseum.org, 2017)      (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum, 2017)

Durden, suggests that Walker Evans treatment of his subjects is also very different to the realism of some contemporary documentary photography. He gives as an example Richard Billingham’s photographs of his own family’s poverty; they are pictorially rich but “a spectacle of Kitsch ornamentation-legible middle class viewers as working class “bad taste”…gives these pictures aesthetic distinction” (Durden, 2000, p30).

(Adams, 2017)

Durden also refers to Tom Hunter’s Vermeer style portraits of squatters as an aesthetic “refashioning” of the people against a documentary view, so that the real poverty is in danger of becoming a mere background to glamorised alternative lifestyles (Durden, 2000).

(Tomhunter.org, 2017)

At the end of his chapter Hunt concludes that it is difficult to show a curiosity about others without coercion, or staged reconstructions. He questions the fleeting contractualities used by artists and whether they are intrusive into groups that they don’t belong to, and if photographing the unfamiliar can be collaborative today; which is similar to the mostly missing empathy in early social documentary photography.

My learning points:

• To consider the informal contract that may exist between a photographer and his subject.
• To treat subjects with dignity and give them choices.
• To not exploit subjects vulnerabilities.

References

Adams, T. (2017). Mr and Mrs Billingham and Frosty Jack’s | Tim Adams. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/13/richard-billingham-tower-block-white-dee-rays-a-laugh-liz [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

Durdan, M (2000) Empathy and Engagement: The subjective documentary in :Durdan M. and Richardson, C. (2000). Face on. London: Black Dog.

Durdan M. and Richardson, C. (2000). Face on. London: Black Dog.

Greengrassi.com. (2017). greengrassi: Jennifer Bornstein. [online] Available at: http://www.greengrassi.com/Artists?aid=3&eid=115 [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

Hunt, I (2000) Contractualities of the eye in: Durdan M. and Richardson, C. (2000). Face on. London: Black Dog.

Metmuseum.org. (2017). Cite a Website – Cite This For Me. [online] Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_2000.329.jpg [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

Mutualart.com. (2017). Sharon Lockhart – 3 works: The Soares Family, 1999…. [online] Available at: https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/3-works–The-Soares-Family/B2DB0A2643D9DE18 [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. (2017). Walker Evans | [Allie Mae Burroughs, Hale County, Alabama] | The Met. [online] Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/275876 [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

The Museum of Modern Art. (2017). Boris Mikhailov: Case History | MoMA. [online] Available at: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1125?locale=en [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

Tomhunter.org. (2017). Persons Unknown | Tom Hunter. [online] Available at: http://www.tomhunter.org/persons-unknown/ [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

Williams, G (1999) Boris Mikhavilov, Art Monthly 237, June 2000, Reviewing the exhibition of case histories at the photographers gallery, London. Cited in: Durden, M. and Richardson, C. (2000). Face on. London: Black Dog.

  

 

 

 

 

 

ASSIGNMENT ONE: Research

PHOTOGRAPHY – THE KEY CONCEPTS (David Bate 2016)

 Chapter four Looking at portraits. A Chapter review in preparation for Identity and place assignment one. 

“Portraits fix our identity in what is essentially an art of description” (Bate, 2016, p67). Bate describes the development of portrait photography in the nineteenth century from its use as an aid to painters, to idealized traditional portraits first with the daguerreotype often with the convention of the hand holding the head due to long exposures.

(UnfilteredUnfiltered and UnfilteredUnfiltered, 2017)

Then to Disderi’s invention of the Carte-de-visite which enabled more to have portraits taken. These Carte-de-visites flattered the aspiring classes with images that used props and outfits that mimicked the trappings of higher classes, whilst those of the upper classes attempted to depict their sitter’s character.

Photographymuseum.com. (2017).

He moves on to detail how photography was used to create archives of various bureaucracies, but that ultimately all sections of the population were able to have a portrait taken as nineteenth century commercial studio portraiture for “likenesses” became no longer a privileged but a “democracy of the image”. Bates quotes Tagg saying that the portrait is a “sign whose purpose is both the description of an individual and the inscription of social identity” (Tagg, 1993, p37).

He then lists the key elements of a portrait as the face, pose, clothing, location, along with the photographic codes of framing, focal length, depth of focus, lighting (strength, direction and size) and use of props are listed as ways of controlling the key elements. He explains that different types of portraiture vary their emphasis on each of these to create the desired meaning.

The Face: The mouth, the eyes, the hair are read for mood, temperament, character and attitude towards the viewer. Bates suggests that the traditional studio photographer may counteract the outward appearance of a subject, so it is important to read beneath surface characteristics in them to “try to fathom the person beyond what we see “(Bate, 2016, p 75).

The Pose: He describes the pose as the visual argument to be read and understood by the photographer; does it signify social position, character, mood, attitude, self-consciousness, habit? But in reality the portrait usually combines the social, anthropological, and individual elements of the sitter.

The Clothes: Clothes and accessories tell us much about social identity. The body also is telling, which parts are covered or revealed? Is this fashion or a deliberate message? Whilst clothes tell us about social identity, their context/location needs to be considered as well.

Location: The setting gives a context and often a meaning, although of course a studio can offer many simulated locations. It may be set by whoever commissions the portrait, by the photographer or by the subject.

Portrait photography combines all these elements giving meaning together when read.

On reading portraits: Plato suggested in ancient discussions that a depicted image can be only surface deep, though unfortunately a viewer only has appearance to go by.

On recognition: Recognising something is a return to something. Bates suggests that in portraiture there are three general categories of people, the familiar (family, friends), the unfamiliar (strangers) and known representations (those we are familiar with but don’t personally know such as celebrities, officials).

On identification:  Bates discusses how the visual processes of identification are central to viewing portraits, and how projection can be used to relocate uncomfortable feelings in another subject.

On the blank expression: Bates refers to the Mona Lisa as an example of a slightly “smudged” facial expression, a technique called sfumato where key facial features are left indistinct. This technique may draw a viewer into an intimacy with a portrait, where they may see what they want to see; soft focus blur has the same effect adding ambiguity to a picture.

Bates sees the portrait as a “sign whose purpose is both the description of an individual and the inscription of social identity” (Tagg, 1993, p37) as well as being useful to identify sectors of population (typology).

My learning points:

• Portraiture was central to the development of photography as a commercial industry.
• Consider the portrait as a reflection an individual and their social or group identity.
• When reading a portrait consider how key semiotic features of portraiture (face, pose, clothing, location) and the photographic codes of framing, focal length, depth of focus, lighting (strength, direction and size) are used and emphasised as ways of controlling the key elements to create the desired meaning.
• Remember to read beneath the surface of a portrait.
• Recognition is a key component in taking please from looking at portraits.
• Projection may mean that a viewer transfer their own feelings though the meanings in the portrait.

References

Bate, D. (2016). Photography. London, UK: Bloomsbury Academic. 

Photographymuseum.com. (2017). A Brief History of the Carte de Visite from The American Museum of Photography™. [online] Available at: https://www.photographymuseum.com/histsw.htm [Accessed 18 Nov. 2017].

Tagg, J. (1993). The burden of representation. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press.

UnfilteredUnfiltered, N. and UnfilteredUnfiltered, N. (2017). 175 Years Since The Details Of The Daguerreotype Process Were Made Public By The French Government. [online] Getty Images. Available at: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/event/years-since-the-details-of-the-daguerreotype-process-were-made-public-by-the-french-government-185035864 [Accessed 18 Nov. 2017].