Cumbria - November 2014

A five night stay in Cumbria during November was a pleasant break from the normal routine and while no photography was planned there was the inevitable bag of cameras making the trip.
It is easy to fall into the Lake District trap and get carried away with the magnificence of the place (remember I live in Norfolk) but that is now behind me and while I am happy to watch light chase across the fells I don't feel the need to try and capture the grand vista with a 5x4 as I did in the past, but did find time for one at dusk. When walking I tend to look for some detail or think of Fay Godwin and her fascination with the enclosure and access. However the following images are not forming part of the module but I include them purely as a note. All here are with the Leica MM and 35mm or 75mm lens.

Nigel Shafran

Nigel Shafran (1964 -  )

During Assignment 3 I photographed some washing up on the draining board in the kitchen. The image was never used in that assignment as it didn’t  fit in with the style I needed although on its own it is a  strong photograph and was later used as one of my entries in the 45^th Eastern Open, where it was selected and won an award.  Another reason for not selecting it into the assignment was it didn’t say much about being a Carer, we all have washing up and it could have been the washing up from any home. What washing does show is a punctuation mark in the day. It comes after eating, which it turn comes after cooking a meal and so is part of a simple narrative of the day. What I didn’t know about this image was that it looks very similar to the work of Nigel Shafran. Such coincidences are rare and it is embarrassing to have to explain that I am not plagiarising Shafran’s work as I found him after making my image. This confirms that there is nothing new in image making and gives me confidence to continue in this genre.

Shafran began his photographic career as a fashion photographer in the 1980’s and worked on a number of prestigious magazines, only to become disillusioned with that world and has since turned his camera inward, onto his family and his own close environment, employing techniques in still life usually associated with painting than photography.

Having found Shafran and viewed his work online I obtained a book of his work, Edited Photographs 1992 - 2004, Photoworks, 2004

Shafran’s work is inspirational and he is now on a small list of photographers who are having an influence on how I think and work in photography. The shared interest is in how we can trace human activity through the statements that are left behind when the humans have gone, the placing of objects, the constructions and ephemera, as seen in washing up.

The images are simple, almost to the extent that they are banal, but there is language in them through semiotics and interpretation, often something left for the viewer to complete and an element of ambiguity.

Shafran’s images are not studio constructions, they are found objects of every day life. Similar in some respects to the work of Edward Weston who had a similar affinity with the found objects such as his toilet, peppers and a cabbage. There is however careful placing of the camera and an acute awareness of the natural light falling onto the scene. In recent years there is wide discourse on the “real” and the realist. Straight or pure photography is a strong voice with many in contemporary practice and I am one who feels at ease with this genre, in preference to work that is being described as “post photography” with its reliance on overt manipulation and the inclusion of the bizarre. Some confuse straight photography with simple photography and that is in fact far from its intention. The connotations, the signified and the semiotics within an image do not require the work to be overtly complicated.

Shafran works mainly with a large format camera (often using a Polaroid frame before the main image), making his work as life unfolds and this requires a dedicated approach with strict criteria and an artists eye for what is right and wrong to include when surrounded by endless potential. His high production values are a feature of his work I am interested in and seek  to include in my own work. I no longer have a 5x4 camera but will continues this type of work using 6x6 format film.

Shafran has attracted much critical discourse and during an interview in 2000 with Paul Elliman Shafran explains “why washing up ?”

“I wanted to start the New Year with something optimistic. And Personal. Something with lots of shapes, where shapes would change, keep changing. Also something in which the light was important, the kitchen window or the overhead kitchen light, I mean, I really wanted to have one lit by lightning, havent got that yet. There are signs of ageing in it, like signs of time, of course”

Charlotte Cotton talks of his work and its intuitive nature.

“With an understated photographic style, use of ambient light and relatively long exposures, he transforms these scenes into poetic observations about the ways we conduct our lives through our unconscious acts of ordering, stacking and displaying objects. There is something highly intuitive in Shafran’s way of working”   (Cotton, 2009, p.121)

Shafran’s work is widely published. He has six books, numerous awards, five solo exhibitions, many group exhibitions and has lectured and a number of  universities and art colleges.

References:

Cotton, C., 2009. The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Thames and Hudson

Photographs to be added when permissions received.

 

Edwin Smith (1912-1971)

Edwin Smith (1912 - 1971)

A recent posting on www.weareoca.com  by Andrea Norrington has brought to the fore the work of Edwin Smith and an exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

For some Smith is almost unknown but I have been familiar with his work for over 30 years and  one of the first monographs I ever acquired was Photographs - 1935-1971  1984  Thames and Hudson a large hardback with 254 duotone plates and an introduction by Olive Cook.

His work attracted for a number of reasons back in the 1980s and that same attraction continues today, although my understanding of why has probably matured and elements of his style are to be hopefully found in my own work.

Born in London in 1912 he was educated in building trades and later as an architectural draughtsman, becoming a freelance photographer in 1935 in the same year he married Rosemary Ansell. This marriage lasted 2 years and he later married Olive Smith, a successful writer and photographic book producer. Smith was also a prolific artist working in water, oil and linocut/woodcuts.

Smith’s life, his love of painting, his ambivalence towards his own work is in many ways similar to that of Eugene Atget, a French photographer with who he felt a profound sympathy. Smith only conceded to describe himself as a professional photographer late in life preferring to speak of himself as an architect by training, a painter by inclination and a photographer by necessity. Endorsed by (the church loving) Sir John Betjeman as “a genius at photography”.

His main body of work was made in the 1950s and 1960s, photographing barns, churches, houses, streets, shop fronts, gardens and statues. This urban documentary style is without doubt after Atget, both in its style and technical excellence.

I don’t want to make this posting into a long biographical piece on Smith so while accepting there is much more that could be written on the circus photography, his meeting with the artist Paul Nash, World War 2 and his experimentation with colour photography. These and other personal issues can be developed in the future.

Where Smith (and to some extent Atget) influence my photography is the silence and stillness. Two concepts that on the surface are always inherent in a photograph as apposed to a video of movie film, so why do I see this as necessary. I adore peace and quite, love silence, stillness, I even dislike wind which has a noise. Olive Cook (Smith’s wife) describes in the introduction to Photographs - 1935-1971  how Smith would “Calmly, deliberately, discreetly  he would walk round  a church, a garden or a great house relating to the needs of the camera to his own visual responses and only starting work when he was certain of the possibilities of the material and the natural lighting” This description of him working  is exactly how I feel when looking at image making today. In the past I would rush around too much, grab a shot and move on too quickly often in the style of a press photographer (where I have had some experience) who has to grab whatever you can because the opportunity way vanish and nothing in the can. My return to working with film and a medium format camera and a hybrid film/digital workflow also slows down the making process and I find this preferable in so many instances to digital work.

Silence and stillness in imagery comes from two sources. The content and the photographer. Clearly a long exposure shot of a fairground ride whizzing around, bright lights, people clearly screaming, HDR technique and overt saturation is not going to convey silence and stillness at one extreme. I prefer no people or machines in my photography and that is my starting point for silence, preferring instead for lonely places where nothing moves. This does not have to be some wilderness location; in fact a lonely place can be in your own home.

The photographer must also be “silent”. I am not referring to how much noise they make although I don’t condone loud music at these times but that the presence of style should be silent.  A photographer has at his disposal a large set of techniques and tricks to enhance and process the image. I refer here to graduated filters, 10 stop filters, lensbaby etc. These should all be left alone. What I need is the very basic elements of straight photography, including perfect exposure, maximum tonal range, good viewpoint, corrected verticals and work that requires minimal post processing. The photograph should be a demonstration of good basic technique without the viewer thinking, wow this guy is good, I bet he has a good camera.

The viewer should not notice the photographer. Too much time can be spent asking questions on technique, wondering how he did that, does he use Lightroom or Photoshop, is this such and such paper etc etc.

I want my images to say something other than this is a photograph, am I any good? I want the viewer to be interested in what is signified, asking questions on its connotations, be concerned whether there is ambiguity rather than simple reason.

Smith made seemingly simple images and for me many of these resonate with these type of questions.

Exercise Part 4 - Words and Pictures - Essay Review

Part Four of the module and this part is designed to hone our skills towards Assignment Four - The Critical Review.

Within the course reader the essay Words and Pictures: On reviewing photographs by Liz Wells is to be read and a number of questions answered.

1. What is the basic argument of Wells' essay

Her argument is that although the pictures are the essence of any exhibition it is not possible when preparing a review to include all the images. There may be a space for one or two and that would be all. There is therefore a requirement from experienced writers, reviewers and critics to use words to describe what was there and how the experience of being at the exhibition can be transmitted to an audience. It is possible that the words will outlive the images and in the long term act as a testament to the broad cultural discourse appropriated by the images.

2. Is the essay's title a fair indication of the essay itself

The title is in two parts, almost a title with a sub title.

WORDS AND PICTURES
On reviewing photography

I feel that it should be written the other way around.

ON REVIEWING PHOTOGRAPHY
Words and Pictures

The essay is essentially about her work as a reviewer and its contemporary practice, with reference to her early work and that of others, so the "reviewing" element is the dominant word. Beneath the title she quotes Edward Weston from 1930.

"Art is an interpreter of the inexpressible, and therefore it seems a folly to convey its meaning afresh by means of words."

By using this quotation from Weston she is saying that her work is (maybe others too) is a poor equivalent to seeing the work for yourself.

3. To what extent does the writer rely on Post-modernist doctrine

Post Modernism is a way of thinking, a movement incorporating the theory and practice of art from around the end of the second world war that treated all art with the same value. It removed the hierarchy and work was taken at its face value. Wells does talk of the changes in photography due to PM influences hijacking modernist ideals and how that PM freedom of debate included the work of writers. Her essay was written in and around 1992 and as such is contemporary with PM thinking and methods. Her work shows no signs of pandering the Modernist way of thinking, nor is it overtly PM. So, to the extent that she relies upon PM doctrines I wouldn't say it is no more or less PM any other contemporary essay.

4.The essay raises the issue of the qualifications and duties of a critic. How important do you believe it is for a critic of photography to have a deep knowledge of the practice of photography.

I don't believe a critic needs any "deep knowledge" of the practice of photography. The reason I say this and highlight deep knowledge is another question. What is deep knowledge. Photographers (including myself) have only a basic grasp of the technical aspects of how a digital camera works, or how film emulsion is applied to film. If the critic knows too much it distracts them from their real work. This is to see the finished art and interpret it, describe it, become emotionally aware of it and write about those aspects. I wouldn't think it necessary for them to comment on the process or technique, other than to say it has worked for the image or not. The detail of what paper, ink, camera format, developer etc. is for the judges of camera club competitions (where the author is waiting for praise of technique) but not in the world of fine art photography.

Assignment 3 - Tutor Report - Reflection

Tutor Report
As previously told I was apprehensive about this assignment. That statement in its self needs to be analysed a bit because really and truly there shouldn't be anything photographic that worries me too much although when having to combine the photography with copy and make an editorial I became concerned over the balance between words and pictures. If the words are too descriptive it would reduce the impact of the photography and visa versa. Add to that I was writing about myself and that was complex and outside my comfort zone.
The outcome however couldn't really be any better. My tutor was complimentary about the words and the pictures and didn't really see any areas that needed improvement. This assignment included page layouts, font selection etc. and that was all satisfactory and in harmony with the work. I had made a six page article and the tutor would have liked more images. I have more images but I don't really have any more words without changing the style of the whole piece and I am not sure how I will overcome this. The simple solution would be to add two pages of a similar style and pad it out or I would have to start again with a different approach, perhaps offering something more in the style of a learning feature rather than a newspaper supplement style.
Generally very pleased especially with one line where after describing how the photography will be styled, the response was "music to my ears"


Reflection
I am now pleased this is over and done as it did become something of a millstone around my neck. However, during the process it has led me along a path of images and imaging that I am becoming increasingly interested in. The Banal, seemingly banal. These images are often seen upon first glance as boring and with little or no substance, no content because they are not pretty or overtly interesting. Closer inspection finds that people leave statements about themselves in almost every trace of life, often through random unplaced objects. I intend to continue with this genre and develop a body of work around a number of everyday scenarios, as well as some constructions in the studio, where I will take the banal into the surreal.