Photo London

I had a last-minute opportunity to visit Photo London. I had hoped to be taking my images for my final assignment for context and narrative but alas my model (My daughter) decided to work instead! So instead I hopped on the train to visit Photo London. I’m so glad I did, such a variety of work all in one space, so much inspiration. I was particularly drawn to the various styles of presentation and framing as well as a few creative ideas.

I took so many photos for future inspiration but here are a selection from the day:

These images have provided some ‘food for thought’ around my ‘Selfie’ assignment. The first two are the most interesting with the images of narcissus and then the reflected self-image.

These two images have made me reflect back on my ‘photographing the unseen’ Perhaps I could present a montage of hands?

The work I had recently seen at The Photographers Gallery was also at Photo London.

Some Vanitas style photography which relates to some of my research around Vanitas for assignment 5.

Inspired by textures and ideas around found photographs.

Creative framing

The use of lenticular was an interesting choice.

The use of layers within glass create an interesting 3D sculpture and wires painted with the image give an amazing effect in this gas station image.

A Helen Levitt! I do love her images.

Different yet the same… food for thought on a future idea.

Sometimes a bad angle can create a thing of beauty, very Salvador Dali in style. My eyes are drawn up the image from the oversized hand and thigh.

 

So inventive, if you read the book titles from left to write it reads out a short story, the clarity and colours of the digital print image lend it a realistic quality.

 

And finally a little something from the Fox Talbot exhibition.

Another Kind of Life

Prior to Desert Island Pics I was able to visit the ‘Another Kind of Life, Photography on the margins’ exhibition at the Barbican Centre.

The exhibition focuses on photographers who have captured images of people who live on the margins of society, people or groups that are not considered ‘main stream’.

Interestingly there were images which related to cross dressing which tied in with the exhibition I had seen just a short while before at The Photographers Gallery. ‘Casa Susanna’ is a collection of found images, magazines and cards which provide an insight into the cross dressing lifestyle of a resort ion New York between the 1950’s and 60’s.

 

Alec Soth’s work was also present, ‘Broken Manual’ explores those individuals that have sought to hide away from society.  The images also explores the contrasts with what we perceive as the ‘norm’. It leaves questions around whether the work is as it is found or if it has been constructed such as the disco ball in the middle of a forest, Did Soth place it there or did he find it there? Who does it belong to? Do they dance under it or is it to scare animals away to maintain survival

 

There was one piece of work which really moved me and left me feeling tearful, the work of Jim Goldberg ‘ Raised by Wolves’. An extremely emotive piece of work, He had spent six years alongside a group of homeless teenagers on the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles. The work was presented in a mixed media style with film, maps, writing, cutting and artefacts alongside the images. The images themselves were also mixed in style with some cropped tight, some grainy which all together give a strong sense of authenticity as well as a feeling for the people he was documenting. It felt chaotic and ‘jumpy’ looking around at the diverse mix of styles but this helped to bring a ‘feeling’ to the work.

It made you stop and consider that these teenagers had been dealt a bad hand in life. They had reasons to run away, society had failed them in the first instance and then society continued to push them to the side-lines as if their existence was of no consequence. I wonder if society had intervened and supported them at their first ‘bad hand’ in life what would have become of them then? They still had hopes and dreams despite the knock backs in life. The title ‘raised by wolves’ makes me wonder if this refers to their parents? The other children that they live on the streets with like a ‘pack’ or the people would abuse their vulnerability?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photographers Gallery Visit

I’m a little late in making notes on this visit, it was a very quick visit before I attended Desert Island Pics with Alec Soth at the Barbican Centre.

Deutsche Borse:

Four shortlisted photographers works were on display across two floors. They varied greatly and my interest was piqued when I looked at the work of Mathieu Asselin who explored a global biotech company Monsanto. He documented the growth of the company, its power and the devastation it has caused with its genetically engineered seeds.

What interested me most was the lengths he had gone to in researching the topic and presenting it in a mixed media style. Something that I am learning during context & narrative is the importance of research from a variety of sources to help make well-informed work.

The ‘auto portrait’ work by Luke Willis Thompson sounded interesting but it did not captivate me. I do not really respond well to video formats in art, I prefer to let me eyes do the work and rest where they want to rather than look at a moving image.

I also enjoyed the work of Batia Suter, the presentation of the images caught my attention and the title ‘parallel encyclopedia’ made me think of the old encyclopaedia Britannia’s that used to sit on my parents shelves, the pages yellowing yet smooth, the images in black & white.

Under Cover: A Secret History of Cross Dressers:

I found this exhibition fascinating and it tied in well with my earlier work in ‘two sides of the story’.

The exhibition explored cross dressing from the 1880’s to the 1980’s. It shows that cross dressing goes beyond the clothes we wear, it also relates to body language and behaviour. Cross dressing also has an effect in society and culture. Assumptions are made based on appearance, again something I explored with my ‘Shoe Diary’. The work sets out to ask if identity can be freed from the codes that are bestowed by society and culture?

The historical information presented alongside the images was fascinating , the examples from the 1880’s to present day really did make me think more about social ‘norms’, coding and consumerism.

 

 

Print Sales Gallery

I quick drop in to the print sales gallery introduced me to two new artists of interest:

Jessa Fairbrother’s ‘Dragonfly’ images are simply stunning, they are silver gelatin prints which have been intricately pin pricked with a needle to leave an imprint. In ‘Dragonfly’ the imprints are on/ in the skin of the model, it leaves me with a feeling of delicacy and fragility.

Alma Haser’s portrait image made me want to start playing around with images on jigsaws! Her image is designed to question what is real and what is imagined as she has blended two images of identical twins to make one portrait , a manually assembled person that does not exist as one but if you study the image closely you can see the two real individuals that make up this phony.

Alma Haser also had her 3D plant images on show, entitled Pseudo. These were images of plants that were re-photographed and presented in 3D layers with cut away pieces so that you could see through the image. I really like this idea of creativity and perhaps it could be something I could explore with my ‘selfie’ work for part five?

 

Patrick & Eddie

After seeing Alec Soth’s selection on Desert Island Pics and his reference to being inspired / remaking photographs I couldn’t help but see the resemblance of one of his choices to ‘Patrick Palm Sunday’

As soon as the image was shown on the screen I saw it immediately … Eddie by Louis Faurer was the epitome of Patrick.

The simple expression, head tilted.The flowers/ palm frond in the subjects right hand , Eddie holds a paper under his arm whilst Patrick holds what we presume is a bible.

I was so excited by this thought that I tweeted Alec Soth @ littlebrownmushroom  to ask if Patrick was his ‘remake’ of Eddie, stupidly I had thought it was called ‘Elliot’ when I tweeted (I really should check my notes first) but he got the gist. He replied to say that he hadn’t thought of that, but yes… I was left beaming like a Cheshire cat, I had uncovered an inspiration behind Patrick, affectionately known nowadays as ‘My Patrick’ at my house.

Desert Island Pics – Alec Soth

How excited was I to discover that Photoworks Desert Island Pics was going to be at the Barbican and featured Ale Soth! and how much more excited was I to get a ticket!

I spent a little time at the Photographers Gallery before heading to the Barbican , once I arrived I still had some time to take in the ‘Another Kind of Life’ exhibition which also featured some of Alec Soth’s work (More about the exhibition in another post).

Alec Soth seemed relaxed and at ease as he talked through he selections, some of which surprised me:

His opening image was ‘A line made by walking’ and it was the simplicity of the image which has led him to choose this, a reminder to sometimes strip things back and to not always over complicate things. In fact I think many of Alec Soth’s own images are kept simple.

His second image was ‘Summer Nights’ by Robert Adams, is reminded him of when he started out and walked the neighbourhood. There was a touch of voyeurism to this image and it left questions over what could be seen through the window. apparently it also made Soth remember his days as a pizza delivery boy where get would get a glimpse into someones home.

This is when the meticulous planning or should i say ordering of images begins as his third image is by Robert Frank ‘Hotel window’, the window being the denominator that carries us through. This time we are on the inside looking in rather that the voyeur on the outside.

Soth’s fourth image feels out of sync, we are thrown into colour and a very different style, this selection was ‘Gregory watching the snow fall’. A very clever image made from multiple layers images looking out to a glass doorway/ window. It offers an alternative perspective which could be the linking factor to his next selection…

Winograd’s photo of Diane Arbus taking a photo, again a form of voyeurism taken from the other side of the lens. Arbus holds a flower in her mouth whilst the subject of her image is out of view.

The next image made me feel like a penny had dropped! If as photographers we use other works to inspire us then surely i was looking at the screen and seeing the inspiration for ‘Patrick Palm Sunday’! The image was entitled ‘Eddie’ by Louis Faurer, it appears to show a simple man on a street holding flowers (Patrick’s palm frond) in one hand and a newspaper (Patrick’s bible) in the other. I even went so far as to tweet Alec Soth later who replied to say that he hadn’t actually thought of that comparison but yes, it was like Patrick.

Then we moved on to an August Sander image of two girls , Soth felt that it would be too painful to have an image of his own children on a Desert Island so these could be his surrogate children.

Soth’s final selection drew out a collective gasp, it was Migrant Mother. Why? Soth explained that it was perfect example of imperfection, this made sense. He pointed out the badly edited out hand on the left of the image and the baby most people never saw ( personally always thought this baby looked dead which made the image creepy to me!) and the focal point being ‘off’.

I left the barbican with a new understanding of what Soth saw when he took the image of Patrick Palm Sunday and an understanding that simplicity is ok and it doesn’t always need to be perfect to be great.

 

 

Wim Wenders polaroids at The Photographers Gallery

This exhibition displays the Polaroid collections of Wim Wenders a film maker. Wenders used his Polaroid camera as a sort of visual notebook, with images taken of location, sets, cast, friends, ideas etc.

The entire Polaroid process (and procedure) has nothing to do with our contemporary experience, when we look at virtual and vanishing apparitions on a screen that we can delete or swipe to the next one. Then, you produced and owned ‘an original’! This was a true THING, a singular object of its own, not a copy, not a print, not multi-pliable, not repeatable. You couldn’t help feeling that you had stolen this image-object from the world. You had transferred a piece of the past into the present. – Wim Wenders

It is a vast collection of Polaroids which made me feel rather nostalgic, as I looked through the book to the collection you realise that these images are all snippets of memories which builds to tell a story of his career and life.

Food for thought for assignment 3! A Polaroid a day maybe?

Torbjorn Rodland at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery

Another interesting exhibition with a wide variety of images and concepts. Most of the images make me feel uncomfortable yet I can’t quite put my finger on it. They all interest me and I find I am drawn into trying to dissect the image and read into the symbolism that lurks there. Maybe they are too clever for me as I don’t feel I have fully understood their intention other than to create juxtapositions of things that ordinarily would not be in an image together. This I believe is what causes the discomfort, for example an octopus is a normal object, a shirt sleeve is a normal object yet when the octopus tentacle is protruding from the shirt sleeve and entwining the hand it makes the image uncomfortable. Perhaps because the image is cropped so I cannot see the facial reaction to decide is this is a restrictive embrace by the octopus or a tender/ mutual one? An octopus can symbolise complexity, diversity, variability, intelligence, insight, vision, mystery, illusion, not forgetting strength perhaps this is where the answer lies.

A video installation puts a beat to image or is it the other way round? I am mesmerised by a leaf seemingly dancing to the beat, I found I am following the beat and fixating on the image…very clever.

Overall an uncomfortable yet interesting exhibition.

http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/torbj%C3%B8rn-r%C3%B8dland-touch-made-you

 

Thomas Ruff at the White Chapel Gallery

I visited the Thomas Ruff exhibition at the White Chapel Gallery in the hope of finding some inspiration. I was interested, and inspired by some of the experimental ideas he adopted , but not really for my current assignment.

The exhibition features a selection of his works from 1979 – 2017 and interestingly the first images are self portraits in which he used his own body to create odd scenes. Ruff was apparently lost for a subject when he did this however it did inspire me to perhaps look to using myself more in images as opposed to seeking people to pose for me. As unappealing it is to be in front of the camera it might help me to experiment more.

Another interesting series of images were old prints of a museum in Manhattan which Ruff digitized, he then added colour overlays. these overlays have transported the images into the current time however if you look closer you can see the architecture details of the time.

As you continue to walk on you are met by a series of mammoth portraits which appear neutral and plain. This neutrality and plainness is made interesting purely by the scale of the images. Note to self, size matters!

There are then star constellation images as well as an interesting 3D concept image (noted for future experiments), interiors and his Jpeg images all on the ground floor of the show.

‘Nights’ is an interesting concept in that Ruff took images what would otherwise be ordinary suburbia and made them appear more dangerous and menacing. To do this he simply used the night vision green glow of a night vision camera to change the context of these images.

Again ‘Other Portraits’ was another interesting idea in which Ruff used an identikit machine to take portraits which he then superimposed. The images are haunting and due to the superimposition the eyes seem to follow you around the room.

Upstairs is a further array of images from buildings, machinery, abstract images, negatives, newspaper images and nudes. They all have unique ideas which explore the boundaries of photography. An interesting , wide-ranging exhibition which has certainly given me food for thought.

 

Thomas Ruff, L’Empereur 06 (The Emperor 06), 1982.

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/thomas-ruff/ (Accessed 07.11.17)

Julie Cockburn

I had missed seeing Julie Cockburn’s work earlier in the year at The Photographers Gallery so I was pleased to catch her last day showing at The Flowers Gallery in London.
It was a small collection of works which I found intriguing, I believe that when it was shown at the Photographers Gallery her work was paired with items from a Google Image search, this was not the case here. It was a shame as I was quite interested by this google reverse search idea, there was however one item which seemed out of place so I presumed this to be one of the objects.

Julie Cockburn’s work focuses on found photographs and used embroidery, embellishment, cutting and reconfiguring to bring new meaning to them. This changes the mass produced portrait images into something individual and hand crafted yet in truth although images are mass produced they are all unique in that the sitter, the photographer and the image are taken singular, it is the re-printing of images that is mass produced.
I didn’t feel very ‘informed’ by the exhibition but I did however feel very inspired. It has given me some ideas surrounding my ‘deafness’ project and whether I can embroider the ears or mouths to somehow portray the lack of sounds…lots to ponder. I have also consider marking the printed image to also show this and to add texture? I think some experiments are required. I do have some found photographs somewhere that I could begin to experiment with.

http://www.juliecockburn.com/

Julie Cockburn, Babble, 2011

 

Sleeping by the Mississippi

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit the Exhibition of Alec Soth’s Sleeping by the Mississippi at Beetles & Huxley in London.

His large format colour images were taken along the Mississippi described as Americas neglected third coast. Soth grew up near the Mississippi so felt compelled to make this body of work. The exhibition is coincided with the launch of the latest MACK edition of his photo book.

The exhibition and the book consists of a mix of Landscapes, portraits and interiors, some images I found more compelling than others, most focus around the story of dreams or aspirations most appear to not be realised.

 

 

Peters Houseboat , Winona by Alec Soth

Peters Houseboat is an interesting image of a houseboat that sits on the frozen Mississippi. The insipid colours of the landscape are broken by the brightly coloured clothes on the washing line, the clothes suggest that ‘Peter’ wears a suit (There is a tie hanging) and there must be another member to his family at least. I wonder then if the skulls around the frontage of his home are purchased decorations or if he caught them himself?

In the back of the book Peter is quoted as saying ” I dream of running water”, he has lived on the river houseboat for 20 years, I presume therefore that it freezes often. A side thought is that washing those clothes must be a laborious task with frozen water!

There were a number of other images that drew me however I am considering using one of them in a later assignment so will refrain from adding too much here.