The meaning of “Discourse” is explained well by Graham Clarke in his book “The Photograph”:
“That reading (any reading) involves a series of problematic, ambiguous, and often contradictory meanings and relationships between the reader and the image. The photograph achieves meaning through what has been called a ‘photographic discourse‘: a language of codes which involves its own grammar and syntax”.
Use keywords to describe the images you make for your assignments: How to critique a photograph and the language of the photograph is something I am still trying to get to grips with. Using the framework given to me by my tutor should help in my next assignment:
Photographic codes is something new to me, I now understand a little more about this concept, an example about how lighting creates codes, an uplight on a portrait creates a spooky feel to the character, backlight gives glamour and diffused light gives a flattering feel to a portrait.
I am still getting to grips with getting an effective workflow routine where cataloging of photographs so retrieval is possible many years down the line is done effectively.
Theory informs and enriches our practice: The two main writers who discuss the definition of context are Terry Barrett and John A Walker and Bate around the history of photography at three key times, the start in the early 1800’s, the 1920.30’s and the 60’s to 80s, these times in history created theory around the subject and some well known essays from these periods are referenced today by students.
Print out photos at the editing stage to select the best set: A step forward for me this time was to print several of my images and lay them out and re arrange them and see what fits together visually and as a narrative. I looked particularly at a common theme of form and colours in my chosen series. This is something I am just going to have to continue practicing. I re read relevant parts of Jorg Colberg’s book, Understanding Photobooks before starting this process to guide my thinking and refresh myself of the principles involved. I am hoping this becomes more natural to me with practice.
Useful website for photography teachers and students:
This work focuses on two main themes, firstly, the unseen, which means simply things the camera cannot photograph, such as the psychological states, emotions, feelings. Secondly, the text that accompanies each image shows that the unseen can be interpreted in many different ways by different people. These images have been photographed within walking distance of my home during a period when the Covid 19 virus reached pandemic levels and everyone in England was advised to stay at home and only travel if absolutely necessary. This was a difficult time for many people, including myself, so I chose grey days to make my work because to me this portrays a sombre mood.
Green, brown and grey colour theme is evident in all images, as well as nature. People are almost absent in the work, another representation of the lockdown enforcement period where isolation and distancing was encouraged. Each image has strong shapes and form such as image 1 where the tunnel leads the eye to the light at the end, a very literal interpretation can be made and then interpreted into feelings of needing to stay positive during the Covid 19 lockdown period.
The images were captured within the “Square Mile” of my home while out on daily exercise walks during the Covid 19 Lockdown period. It was during these walks that I would often reflect on my feelings and thoughts around this unprecedented time we all found ourselves in. I would see these emotions represented in what some would describe as banal natural surroundings. Each image represents a personal reaction to an emotion or psychological state I felt during what was a difficult and uncertain time for me. My work was inspired by the work of Eugene Smith which I researched and this can be found here
The emotions or psychological states which I personally think are revealed (the unseen) in this body of work are : hope, journey, strength, resilience, growth and restriction.
The wording that accompanies the images gives a “third effect” (John A Walker – Context as a determinant of Photographic Meaning), this contextualization of the image now shows that my reaction to what I see in nature is not necessarily the same as someone else, or simply “everyone is different”. For example, image 5 in my work has been interpreted as “social distancing” by someone else, I saw it as “growth”, which shows that people interpret the unseen in images in different ways. This concept is referred to as the “mental context” or what Ernst Gombrich calls “the beholder’s share” which means that people have differnt relations to the same image according to the different places they occupy in society, such as gender, race, nationality, class, age, education ( (John A Walker – Context as a determinant of Photographic Meaning),
Shallow depth of field has been used in images 4 and 5 to isolate the subject, I kept the background simple and chose the grey and brown colours to support the subject rather than compete.
Image 1 composition was important, the entrance to the tunnel needed to be at the edges of the frame so it gives the impression that there is nowhere to go but through the tunnel. I chose a tunnel that is not particularly attractive because this depicts lockdown life. Lockdown life is becoming a metaphor which people now relate to, which we never did, nether had to before 23rd March 2020.
Image 3 shows the rough texture of the tree from a close up, looking upwards perspective, so composition was important here and up close shows the age of the tree in the bark clearly.
Image 6 shows bears in the window, this was used as a universal symbol across the globe during the lockdown restriction period, it was a symbol of hope similar to the rainbow displayed in homes during this period. These bears to me feel like a typical representation of being restricted and locked in the home.
Lastly image 3 was a common sight for me as I walked near my home during covid and it constantly made me think of the unknown times ahead. I chose an image without blue sky for visual reasons but also for what a blue sky represents, which is often happiness. I composed the people in the frame as distant and with no connection to me to represent self isolation and lack of human contact during this time.
Start by doing some reflecting in your learning log. What kinds of subjects might be seen as unphotographable? How might you go about portraying them using Photography?
List a few examples of things you’re experiencing now or have recently been thinking about. This doesn’t have to be too in-depth or revealing, but it can be if you want. Equally, it might be something as apparently trivial as how you’re going to fit everything into your busy day.
At first you may come up with literal examples, but the more you think about them the more those ideas will develop into specific and more original ones. Make a list of at least seven ideas. Try and keep to things you have a personal interest in or curiosity about.
Keep a notebook with you at all times and make notes when ideas strike you as interesting. (This is good practice for all stages of the degree and beyond. Ideas books are something to be revisited time and again for ideas and hints for the photographer you’re becoming.)
Now implement one of your ideas. Aim for a tightly edited and visually consistent series of 7–10 photographs.
Initial Response To The Assignment
Feelings appear to be impossible to photograph, or unphotographable upon first impressions, objects are an obvious subject. The senses other than sight, such as taste, smell and feel appear at first to be unphotographable.
I have done a lot of reading about the language of photography to really understand this concept and in order to make work that communicates what you want it to. You have to think about making your image with the subject, form and content in mind. I have also listened to a lecture by Eileen Rafferty on the Language of Photography on YouTube and this has helped me understand this concept too. The subject needs to be clear and other elements in the frame are used to support it. The visual elements need to help you communicate the concept or idea, the symbols or metaphors need to tell the story.
Think of things that are personal to me and that I currently have a special interest in.
How would I photograph the unseen? The use of symbols and metaphors are useful to portray a feeling or an emotion, for example, light is often seen as a symbol of joy or hope, a single flower could mean isolation, a road the leads to somewhere that is hidden or obscure could mean an uncertain future ahead.
As I go about my daily walks I see these symbols in nature that I could used to communicate my current mood and feelings during this period of lockdown. I have a personal interest in nature and the outdoors and I have taken my inspiration from this and developed it into work that communicates my feelings during this challenging lockdown period.
Research / Inspiration
Bryony Cambell’s work “The Dad Project” inspired me with her photographs of the light and how the sunshine gave her some comfort in difficult times. This is not related at all to the main narrative but is related in an “unspoken” way to her feelings at the time.
The sunshine and blue skies in this image, photographed by Bryony Campbell shows how she found comfort in nature, the “unseen” in this photograph comes through with the use of symbols such as sunlight and blue skies that may signify emotions such as hope or comfort.
In Graham Clarke’s book called “The Photograph” on page 33 in the chapter entitled “How to read a photograph” he speaks of the photograph always having the capacity to probe and suggest larger conditions, which underlies the notion of an image’s potential “universal” appeal and international language. He suggests there are photographic themes which mitigate against the argument for a photographic language rooted in the culture as the ideology within which the photograph established its meaning. We can then speak of a language of photography, in which every aspect of the photographic space has a potential meaning beyond its literal presence in the picture”. The set of images I plan to create for this assignment will be inspired by this thinking, there will be meanings beyond the literal image, these meanings may be slightly different to each different person viewing the image. I decided to test this theory and asked each member of my family to interpret each image. I have attached the collection of hand written interpretations to each corresponding image to create a set of six diptychs for my assignment.
I also researched the work of Kaylyn Deveney, The Day To Day Life of Alfred Hastings and I was inspired by the way Deveney got the subject to interpret his own photographs in his own handwriting and in his own words, so the subject has more control in the work and it is more of a collaboration. This is what I have done with my work for this assignment and has been the main source of inspiration for my work. I have used lined paper out of a small notebook for each person to write their thoughts and feelings on each image I presented to them.
I am inspired by the work of KayLyn Deveney and her body of work called The Day To Day Life Of Alfred Hastings. I have used the idea of hand writing a description of the image for my work on this assignment.
Ideas
Mind map of ideas for this assessment was created over a number of days where I kept revisiting the brief and thinking about it and jotting down more detail, this, combined with researching theory and other photographers.
As i created my mind map I came up with three ideas that kept recurring, these were:
Working from home: something that has hugely changed my day to day routine and my life in general
COVID and the lockdown measures: how these have impacted me personally, and those closest to me.
Heath and fitness targets: being someone who has recovered from a critical illness, health is very often what I focus on and think about
Planning
I decided to choose the Lockdown theme and interpret this through images since it has had the biggest impact on my life and has really affected every pat of my life from mental health and wellbeing to relationships and my life goals. It is like every aspect of my life as I knew it has gone and everything is up in the air with the potential for radical change. As I went on my daily exercise walks I began to see images that took on other meanings, such as a path that takes a turn and the end is not visible, this can be interpreted in a way that we are all on a journey during COVID times and the end is very unclear.
Execution
Editing my work I find is one of the most challenging aspects. I took on board my tutors’ feedback from my first assignment and printed out a selection of images I thought may be strong contenders. I laid these out on a table and created a group I thought would look good together, I then noticed the blue sky was very dominant so I discarded these images and went for more muted tones to tie the series together, browns, greys and greens instead. I tried to choose images that had strong shape and lines. I lived with a group for a while then revisited the group and my mind was constantly changing about what I wanted to include. I also had to think that each image has to be different and tell a different story to the others and be able to stand up in it’s own right.
The annotations on my contact sheets are of emotions that come to mind when I see beyond the literal subject matter, I tried to identify strong form and shape and consistent colouring through the chosen images. I find this really difficult and it did help to print off a number of ones I was potentially interested in submitting and just laid them out on a table to see which ones visually connected as a group
Conclusion and Further Work
Once I had created the work and numbered the photographs in my series, those contributing with written words used the numbering I gave to each image. I then thought that the images I chose could have been sequenced better to tell a story. The number allocation was random, when I rework this and depending on feedback from my tutor I will look to apply a narrative thread to this work.
Jenny Stork: Photography 1: Context & Narrative 