So a couple of posts ago, I went into more detail about my first ideas and looked at a few artists that had caught my attention as well with their interesting pictures. However since then (these events transpired over the past couple of weeks) the path for my final pieces has changed.
This is because after sending an email to the LGBT explaining my idea stating that those in the group would take the pictures, it would not be able to happen due to regulations. Obviously it was quite disheartening being told about this, but actually it caused me to step back and think about things in a different light.
With this idea out-of-the-way, I was left with two choices. I could either focus on both social pressures and Homelessness, or I could put all my attention into one of these ideas. And I put my attention first towards the idea of “Homelessness”, as I began to think that the way I wanted to present these pictures (letting the subject take the pictures) was a bit cliché really. There is nothing in it that makes me stand up and say ‘wow’ or make me think why I have done it like that. A viewer wouldn’t be able to tell the different unless told. And to do it in the typical fashion of people in the street is quite degrading really, but again common. There’s nothing in it that makes me stop and think; similar to how we just walk past without second thought.
However though, when I started thinking about Social Pressures, there was a lot more paths I could take with these pictures and what I could photograph.
Would I focus more on the act of someone doing something in a portrait? Would it be a group photograph where there is an amount of people doing something, yet someone is left out? Maybe the aftermath of what a pressure has caused a person? What about the consequences these pressures can cause someone? Do we have a choice of what we can accept and deny?
Obviously these are just questions, but it raises the idea of what I could present in my photos or what the running theme could be perhaps. As I don’t want to take photo’s that leave confused or mix messages. The message in my pictures has to be clear, and in relation to the title.
So I think it’s only by following with the idea of Social pressures that I’ll be able to produce good photographic pieces. The title states “Are you in harmony or in conflict…” Trying to explain this via homelessness would be definitely harder compared to looking at what makes a person today. And at the same time it remains personal to me, as it is something that affects me and I have had experience with, giving me a greater understanding of it. By never being homeless, I don’t have the knowledge of what it’s like, so my pictures can never portray a truth at all.
So Arbus didn’t start taking pictures of freaks or nudist straight away. Rather, with her husband Allan, she started off in the magazine industry. And her work was that you would normally see in a magazine. Her prints were mainly focused on large events which many a people participating, but having close up portraits of these people. But there was also more simple portraits of celebrities at the time, such as the three pictures tomorrow.
[1]
[2]
[3]
But even with these pictures, Arbus was still quite unknown in the photography community. And even today her magazine work isn’t looked on as much as her main work, which is interesting as I feel her magazine work was the basis for her later work. Why? Even in these large events, Arbus was more focused on those that weren’t part of the norm.
[4]
So she started to produce pieces of work like this. And when this piece was released, the public initially thought it was just a normal picture of a woman. But when they saw the title, it caused a stir because it was so unusual from what everyone was used to seeing. It was so far out it led to one man apparently spitting on this piece of work whilst it was hanging up. Very strange no?
[5]
But the fact is Arbus didn’t just barge in to take these pictures of the ‘freaks.’ Rather, she spent a while getting used to these people to build up a personal friendship with everyone. She wanted to know them for who they were, and not for what the picture was portraying. And in the end, these pictures ended up being a true portrayal of everyone.
[6]
It was the same for the nudist camps as well. Arbus didn’t barge into these places. Rather, she asked permission if she could venture into these hidden places to meet the people. And it was only after talking to everyone and meeting them was that she photographed them.
But what is interesting is families or people would keep this sort of thing to themselves. They would hardly tell anyone at all, and it would have to someone close to them that they could trust before revealing a secret like this. But why the secrecy? It’s probably because the fear of being seen in a place like this would cast them as an “outcast” in society. And this might have been too much of a pressure for them to handle, as it could result of them being hushed away and seen in the shadows.
[7] [8]
But what I think is also interesting is how she takes the pictures. Like I said earlier on, the pictures are a truth for the subject. And those viewing these pictures would probably build up an first image and thoughts of this person, which would be hard to shift.
But it’s interesting to think what would we think if in the two above pictures, then men were dressed in normal clothes. Clothes we see people in society on a day-to-day basis. If that was the case, then we wouldn’t know the truth, but rather just see them as normal people.
So it’s this clever switch of things makes the pictures stand out more. A normal person in a normal pose, but there is something out of the ordinary that we get rid of the idea of “normal.”
[9]
And I think finally what Arbus tries to show is how much we value perfection in the world. In more of her pictures of “freaks” and “nudist” there are so many things happening , it completely different. And those viewing the pictures would be the one that would go to a circus to see these people and enjoy themselves. Yet they would probably think “aren’t I lucky not to be in the same situation as them.” And what I think Arbus might have been trying to do is bring this truth in front of us so that we can’t ignore it: how we all want to be perfect, and are horrified by being classed as different from everyone else.
Arbus’ work was completely different from what was being shown at the time, she was pushing the boundaries with photography. But I think she really did change the way photography is today. To the extent that “exploitation” of subjects is more welcomed in our society today.
[1] Arbus, D, ‘James Brown is out of sight’ Diane Arbus Magazine Work 1984 p.g. 74
[2] Arbus, D, ‘Gerald Malanga’ Diane Arbus Magazine Work 1984 p.g.78
[3] Arbus, D, ‘Eugene McCarthy’ Diane Arbus Magazine Work 1984 p.g. 110
[4] Arbus, D, ‘A young man in curlers at home on West 20th Street, N.Y.C, 1966’, Revelations 2003-06, pg. 47
[5] Arbus, D, ‘Mexican dwarf in his hotel room in N.Y.C, 1970’, Untitled 1995
[6] Arbus, D, ‘A family one evening in a nudist camp, Pa, 1965’, Revelations 2003-06, pg. 295
[7] Arbus, D, ‘Hermaphrodite and a dog in a carnival trailer, Md, 1970’, Untitled 1995
[8] Arbus, D, ‘Seated man in a bra and stockings, N.Y.C, 1985’, Revelations 2003-06, pg. 98
[9] Arbus, D, ‘A naked man being a woman, N.Y.C, 1965’, Revelations 2003-06, pg. 98
You should make an image or set of images which pay homage to an object that is precious to you. There should be no text and so you must communicate the value of this object by your images alone. Think about scale, angle, light, framing, the environment, the context etc.
This, I felt, was quite a hard task. For the simple reason being that as I am not living at home at the current moment, a lot of objects which I would consider precious are not with me at all. So this meant I had to use what I had with me to the best possibility.
But what also made it a more challenging task was that we aren’t allowed to use any text’s or visual aids in order to tell the viewer what exactly they were looking at. This meant the way the photograph is captured has to tell the story by itself. And seeing as I didn’t have too many items, it certainly made it quite interesting for me.
So towards the end of the summer, I received a letter from the uni with a task asking for the students to produce an intimate visual diary, saying to take pictures “from when we first woke up to when you went to sleep.” Obviously if this was to happen, I would of gotten the same old pictures every day on the trot really. So I decided to go on the act of looking at events that were unusual from the all the others days, or anything that I thought would be quite interesting.
Public
Pictures of the public acting together intimately…
Martin Parr “I go straight in very close to people and I do that because it’s the easiest way you can get the picture. You go right up to them. Even now, I don’t find it easy. I don’t announce it. I pretend to be focusing elsewhere. If you take someone’s photograph it is very difficult not to look at them right after. But it’s the only thing that gives the game away. I don’t try to hide what I’m doing.” – Martin Parr – British Journal of Photography Interview, 1989
So my first piece was based on when me and a group of friends went off to Thorpe Park for the day. This was just a couple of days after I had received the letter, so ideas were still fresh in my mind still, thinking what avenues I could go on, something that would be different from the others. So when I went out, my aim was to try and catch people from the public behaving in intimate ways.
However what I didn’t realize was how hard it was to try and be subtle taking the pictures, whilst not trying to draw attention towards myself. It was only when I looking at Martin Parr’s work recently that I stumbled across his quote, and I realized how true it really was. The pictures I chose (the best ones) were mainly close up as you would be able to see the expressions and gestures much more easily.
Memories of the past
Nan’s items still in draw
My next piece was more spontaneous then the others because I wasn’t expecting it at all. I had driven, with my mum, to my Granddads house for a bit of lunch. And it was only from seeing the pictures of my nan (who died ___ years ago) on the table where we were eating. And I began to wonder that, with the theme still in mind, if my granddad still had any of her items in the house.
So I went about searching the house, and quickly I came across a draw with her items. And when I opened it, emotions did begin to run through me as everything seemed to be untouched. To me, it was like everything was frozen in time, and that to touch and move anything would be to almost get rid of her presence in the house. And that was just from my view point, so I wouldn’t be able to imagine at all what it would be like for my granddad to see these items nearly every day.
I like both photographs as they are both able to show the items in their whole, but if I had to choose one it would be the bottom one because the lighting has this eerie atmosphere around it. Firstly the natural light against the wood has somehow given it a tint, making the picture have that olden look on them. Secondly, and what might be the most interesting thing, is how in the top left corner there is this shadow of darkness approaching on towards the items. To me, I could see the darkness as time, and how each year goes by memories begin to fade. But yet with these items are memories are sustained, so its a fight between the two almost as too how long it will be towards one wins.
After looking at the two above photos, I decided that I would begin to focus on any photo’s that were lying around my house, and any other family member houses, as to have a photo in a frame suggests that it holds some value of importance within the family. And it seems like a nice contrast to the pictures that we have in boxes in our house; as there are only so many we can have shown, only the most important ones are shown. But we do like to look from time to time at the old pictures we do have.
Religious items in Granddad’s House
I’m torn in two aspects in these pictures. The first aspect is that the pictures do make you wonder as to who the people are, what is their importance, why are the pictures in a frame, why are they on their own etc. We want to know why the pictures have been presented like this in the first place. But then I think, well is it better to show the whole picture with the frame included, or is it better to just crop it so that just the picture is showing? And I really don’t which way is the best way to present. So if I was to go back with this, I personally feel that I would do it showing all of the frame instead.
The second aspect focus’ on the last two pictures on religion. These are in direct contrast to the others in the series because they are so out of place. Yet when I saw them, I couldn’t help but feel this intimacy being shown. With my granddad being religious, I was somewhat surprised to see little of the objects around the house, but just in two different places there were big objects. So it made me wonder how often are these objects used, and if so why? However looking back at the pictures I feel that they may have no relevance at all, so if the work was to be published, I doubt I would be including the last two.
Scars
My brothers chin Scar After having appendix and female sterilisation operations Brother’s scar on finger after cutting himself with a knife Mum’s Achilles scar from operation
My third series for this project was based off scars. The whole idea for this came off when I was shaving, and I could feel the area on my chin which I cut open when I was quite young (twice) and left a bit of a scar. And I thought to myself that actually scars on the body are extremely personal to the person, because it’s a moment when something important happened to that person, but also having an impact on those surrounding the person as well.
My mum’s scar on the back of her leg was from an Achilles problem that had been bothering her for years, so she had an operation to cure it. Yet by doing this, it caused mayhem not only for her, but for everyone else as well because the daily routine for everyone had changed as my mum couldn’t do anything at all.
I feel that this was the best series by far because if I was to take away the titles, the viewer would have to decide for themselves what exactly happened in the photo, but they leave with this emotional attachment as they can feel that something happened. I personally like the Achilles pictures the best due to how the lighting just focuses purely on the skin itself, and how everything isn’t over complicated at all.
Leaving
Last meeting with friends before we all head off to uni…
This picture is different from the others, but it’s more personal towards me and some other friends. This was taken with my group of friends on what was our last day together before we all went off to uni. Naturally it was quite a sad time, and it was quite intimate for all of us. And the reason we took this photo was to symbolise us heading off, onto a new journey, with the destination being university.
Alex Taylor Photography 