I have received my marks and confirmation that I have passed! Which is great!
I am however, a little disappointed at the marks I got as I did my very best and read as many books as I could lay my hands on to fully understand the theory and concepts behind this course and put them in to practical practice.
I found my photographic assignments very challenging, and I spent a great deal of time reading for research and brainstorming for ideas which my blogs illustrate with my handwritten notes, sketched ideas. I was disappointed that as a result of all that my images are criticized as being ‘stock-photography’. It is also very ironic because at one point when I really couldn’t come up with any ideas I tried looking for stock-photos for inspiration but found nothing of any use. So clearly their is a great stock-photography web-site I don’t know about, or maybe I’m just not good at asking the right questions to find them. Anyway, these images came out of my head not anyone else’s but as I keep reading in every book OCA lists, “There is no such thing as a new idea” (unless you are an Assessor of cause) Maybe, my ideas were cliche; I don’t know, I haven’t seen enough photos like mine to know, but I guess the assessors have. I bow to their experience. My images were considered too obvious, hopefully in time my experience will teach my imagination to be more sophisticated and in turn more subtle. My new course is also helping with ideas of motifs and the rule-of-three which I can use in photo essays to be able to put over an idea in subtler ways as they do in Hollywood. Art like science works best with cross-fertilization of ideas, theories and practices. For example, Geologist and Paleontologists have a better understanding of their work by being aware of the others sciences.
With regards to my essay, I was congratulated on producing a good essay. I was criticized for reading too diverse range of books and authors; but at this stage of my course I am still trying to learn as much as I can whilst looking for something that can inspire me enough to confidently specialize in. I prefer portraiture work and the Film-Noir images I did with Nikon really gave me a buzz; so I think that style of work is my forte. I love using all kinds of lighting to create interesting / stunning images and just using natural-light I find boring. This is where I think I will start drilling.
Anyway, I passed and I now need 40 points to reach my 120 which I hope I can achieve for my next course which was a new challenge, film-making.
If anyone other than myself bothers to read this, please wish me luck!
As part of my preparation for my final assignment, I decided to read the works of Franz Kafka in order to try and find some visual ideas for an image that was rich in metaphor.
Much of Kafka’s work was never published in his lifetime and thanks to his friend who saved his work from destruction against Kafka’s dying wishes we are able to read these stories today.
The Trial
Joseph K is a Senior Bank-Clark who one day awakens to find two men in his room to arrest him. He does not discover for what crime he is accused of; but that his crime is serious and his guilt is assumed. However, he is freed and informed that his case is under investigation and that he can continue to go about his normal business but he must present himself when required and he must build a defense. Throughout the book we never discover what the crime he is accused of is, nor who accuses him or why. He discovers that the Courts are all hidden in attics and all the Court personnel are only identified by a gold button sown to their jackets.
The whole story implies a form of neurosis of the mind. Is K really a victim of a secret Justice system or is he having some-kind of nervous-breakdown? This story is full of metaphors. I believe Leni to represent K’s idea of Justice, she is flirtatious, she is attracted to all of the Advocates clients; but she wants to help and she wants to be wanted. The Advocate is K’s idea of a typical lawyer who does his best to string out the work as far as he can for profit. I suspect that K meets the Judge in the Cathedral, he is the Priest and he gives K advise in the form of a story of a man who waits in vein to be admitted to the law only to discover on his death that the door he had waited at for so long was exclusively his.
I have been reading this novel as a result of my research for this course. I learned of this novel through a essay written by Walter Benjamin and I am considering a couple of passages from this story to use as an idea to inspire an image for my last assignment.
The ideas are:
From the book The Essential Kafka, published by Wordsworth Classics.
The Trial:
First idea: A portrait of a man sitting in a chair looking important, distinguished, implying authority, implying a Judge. He is posed to suggest that at any-moment he is about to leap from his chair. One hand grips the arm-rest the other holds a paper marker ‘Petition’ . Behind his a blind-folded, pretty woman stands holding scales in her left hand and a sword in her right. The idea is that she represents Justice; but her pose must also suggest the Greek female Goddess of hunting. She should be dressed classically one breast exposed like that from the famous French revolutionary picture of Liberty charging forward. (Chapter 6, The Uncle – Leni, page 81, lines 23-35 and page 109, Chapter 7, The Advocate – the Manufacturer – the Painter, line 32 to page 110 to line 11).
Second idea: An open door, above the door is a sign that reads ‘THE LAW’ on the door a smaller sign reads ‘Restricted’. A Doorman stands guard by the door and a Country Gentleman sits on stool looking dejected. Behind the Doorman light appears to be streaming out from the doorway. The Doorman must appear to look like he is on guard but is not appearing to be attempting to bar access. (Chapter 9, In The Cathedral, page 161 – 162).
The Castle,
The hero of this story is just known as ‘K’ and is a Surveyor who arrives at the village below the castle looking for lodgings before reporting to the castle to begin work. He discovers that he is not expected and is treated as an undesirable outsider by the villagers. The Castle then confirms that he has been appointed and advises that he must wait for further instructions. The castle appears to be inaccessible without permission and he is unable to find anyone who can grant him an audience with anyone in the castle. This story is a nightmare vision of bureaucracy gone mad with tear upon tear of management that makes anything practically impossible to get done and all the servants that are the management of the castle are aloof from the villagers can only be communicated through unreliable messengers. I believe that Kafka is describing metaphorically difficulties he had with his father and perhaps difficulties that he may have experienced as a Jew in post Austrian Hungarian Europe. The story ends in mid-sentence as Kafka never finished the novel.
Metamorphosis – The Transformation of Gregor Samsa
Was this the dark foresight of a German speaking Czech Jew of the 1920’s? Gregor Samsa awakens one morning to find that he has become an giant beetle, he can no longer be understood by his family and his new physique repulses them and he is forced to live imprisoned in his bedroom with only his younger sister brave enough to show enough compassion to feed him and clean his room. Kafka uses a dark sense of humor in his writing and provides no happy ending but suggests that as one thing comes to an end there is always the beauty of a brighter tomorrow.
The judgement
We are first told that the hero of this story is a successful business man living and working in partnership with his father and is writing to his friend in St. Peters-burg about his impending marriage. These facts are all thrown in to doubt when he discusses his letter and engagement with his ailing father.
Letter To My Father
This is a letter that Kafka wrote to his father but never gave to him. Addressing his feeling towards his father and venting his frustrations and anger to a man he has grown up to fear and resent. In this letter we learn a little of what has influenced Kafka’s writings and imagination. There is a very useful visual metaphor in this text. Page 590, line 26.
The idea
To the left a man stands facing a sheer cliff-face that he is trying to climb; to his right a flight of stairs is being climbed by another. there is a barrier between the two men; so preventing the man on the left from using the same path to ascend.
This image is fabricated, created from scratch in a Hollywood film studio. The sky is hand painted using a technique called movie-matte-painting. The tree and fence are just props.
The first impression I have, looking at this picture, is a sense of foreboding and a feeling of uneasiness.
What we see: a sunset, a triangular shaped cirrus cloud, a very low horizon, a picket fence and a small female figure. We appear to be looking at her from in front and to her right, so as to see the silhouette of her chest. Her left arm is just out of view, but her posture suggests that it must be mimicking the right. To the far right of the picture stands a tree. Its branches are naked. One branch leans over towards the female figure and ends in a shape reminiscent of a hand-held scythe, with the tip of its blade pointing down on the figure below.
My interpretation
This is the final image from the last scene in Act 1 of the motion-picture ‘Gone with the Wind’. The audience has just witnessed this lady turn from desperation to determination; and the final image is made to look satanical with its fiery sky a witch like figure and a scary looking tree. We are encouraged to draw parallels from our imagination. I see Dante’s imaginable idea of ‘The Inferno’ and to quote from Canto III, lines 1 -3, ‘Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye.’ I am also reminded of the lines from psalm 23:4, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me…..’
I see a lot of symbolism in this image:
From the point-of-view of the movie, The American Civil War was still within living memory of an elderly American generation; and perhaps because it was made with access to living witnesses some of the scenes are so remarkable (the siege of Atlanta for example). Therefore, the movie makers intended that this image translates that fences still need mending between the North and South.
However, I see the picket fence on several levels:
1, As representing home, family and her life; it is rickety and in need of repair.
2, Seen with a stripped tree, the broken picket fence also appears to suggest destruction and hardship.
3, The fences denote a road; and the setting sun behind her, with the fence leading to the foreground, connotes a journey.
The horizon has been set very low to give emphasis to the sky above Scarlet’s head, she stands as a small figure, as if under heaven or a damned soul at the bottom of the pit. The sky is like her name Scarlet; and it is also acts as a signifier for many ideas: the unholy oath she just made in this scene, loss of innocence, war, and a sun setting over a disappearing civilization and way of life.
I see 1939 in this picture, war had been declared in Europe. For many people watching this film, their own civilization was in danger of going the way of the South and the sun was setting over their world and their way of life.
The space for the sky on the left is filled with a triangular cirrus cloud with a faint suggestion of a crucifix in its pattern, strengthening this idea of heaven and earth. This iconic symbol can be identified for denoting, love and peace; but it also connotes hope, forgiveness and unity under one faith.
The lone female stands like the tree leaning back angled in symmetry with its trunk. Her arms hang down by her sides and her visible hand appears clenched. Her posture suggests that she is standing to attention, just as a tired and battle weary soldier might stand. For the American audience of 1939, the woman could be regarded on different levels, depending on who you were:
1 For middle-class white Southern and Northern citizens she is the fair and defiant but beaten and battered South.
2, She could also be symbolic for many working class Americans who suffered during the 1930s economic recession; and could be regarded as a figure denoting a nation that is getting back on to her feet and standing defiantly against her adversaries; thus connoting National strength and endurance.
3, In 1939 many people were still denied equal rights. For the audience, this figure in silhouette could therefore be black, white, yellow or any cast the viewer chooses. She is a woman, considered the weaker sex, but seen here to be strong and encouraging hope. “I know I have the body butt of a weake and feble woman, butt I have the harte and stomack of a king, and of a king of England too”Elizabeth I, 1588, Tilbury.
The tree is stripped and broken, yet it still stands, heroically defying the ill winds that have stripped it. In his book, ‘Camera Lucida’, Roland Barthes described a feature in a picture that is a focal-point that he calls a ‘Punctum’ something that makes a nice picture an interesting picture. I see the tree as the Punctum in this picture. The silhouetted woman against the sunset and cloud makes a nice picture which Barthes calls the ‘Studium’ but the sinister tree with the branch hanging over her head turns this in to a more engaging photo (in my opinion). The branch immediately above Scarlet’s head looks like a bony finger; it appears to point down on Scarlet like a condemning finger that is passing judgment. In the context of the movie the tree could also represent the Union with its terrible judicial judgement on the South.
So why the title?
As the Technicolormovie camera began to photograph this scene a technician would have held a card with different colours printed on it in front of the camera to assist for colour calibration later on in development. The Technicolor team referred to it as a ‘Lilly‘ card if the filming was successful at the end of the scene the technician would call “It’s a Lilly!”
psalm 23:4 – Translation from the original tongues being the version set forth A.D. 1611 Revised A.D. 1881 – 1885 and A.D. 1901 compared with the most ancient authorities and revised A.D. 1952 (The Bible Revised Standard Version Published by WM Collins Sons & CO Ltd. For The British & Foreign Bible Society)
Nicky Bird purchased old unwanted photographs on Ebay, first waiting to see if anyone bid for them and if no-one did he purchased them himself and asked the seller, how they came to own the pictures and what they knew about them?
This is an interesting subject as I had never imagined that family photographs would ever become unwanted / redundant. Their meaning lost, their memories forgotten. That is until a recent event in my own life touched on this very subject. My wife’s Aunt died without issue in 2011, her husband had died the year before and she left her whole estate to her four nieces. When we were going through her things (which was a big task as she left a six bedroom house to be liquidated) I came across two old leather suitcases full of old family photos mainly of my wife’s Aunts family taken in the 30’s and 40’s. No one was interested as Sarah’s Uncle was the family link and if I hadn’t have taken these cases myself they would have been lost for ever. At the time I took them I had no thoughts of photography; but I felt a certain sense of responsibility that these lives should be remembered and these images should be kept. I can’t explain why, I just thought it was the right thing to do. Perhaps it is simply was that we all feel important and deep down wish to be remembered. Photography gives us this chance, even if the name and the memory is lost the image can still tell future generations that we existed, what we looked like, how we dressed, and how we posed, even what the world around us looked like. Photos are more important in this respect than say a painted portraits of a Victorian, for example. The photograph gives a better likeness, it captures the confidence or awkwardness of the subject; thus hinting at his or her character. The camera captures background that can tell a little about that moment in time and perhaps history that the artist may leave out or re-interpret. Sadly many family pictures will disappear over time and the surviving images will become more and more important. Imagine if photography had been around at the time of the first Roman Republic, even if only all that survived was a few family photos of only ordinary citizens our historians would have a field day!
In this exercise I am asked if Bird’s second-hand pictures displayed on a gallery wall elevate their status?
I guess the answer has to be yes, for now they are now the focus of attention and anyone or anything that becomes the focus of attention must by default become elevated in status.
Where does their meaning derive from?
Their meaning derives only from the context of their use if they have lost their original identity. An unwanted family photo of an unknown person, taken under unknown circumstances, perhaps even the location is unknown, then only the meaning that is attached to the picture from the exhibition exists.
When they are re-sold is their increased value because they are now art?
This is a commercial question and one that can not be simply answered with a yes or no. If the exhibition is successful, if the pictures can attract a contemporary historians eye, if the pictures can capture the imagination of art collectors, there is a lot of ifs, if the seller can market these images correctly / cleverly to the right market. Art is very subjective.
Fascinating documentary following the work of Gregory Crewdsen as he prepares and takes the photos of his cinematic scale images using cinematic-lights a film-crew of up to 60, professional actors, cranes, assistance from police and fire departments, closure of streets exactly as a scene from a movie would be organized, staged and shot only instead of a cinematic movie camera Crewdson uses a large-format still camera. He will then take the best examples and merge them together in Photoshop collage them in to one final perfect image.
Do I think there is more to this work than aesthetic beauty?
yes, I find his images both beautiful and disturbing, as I believe, is his intention in order to create an interesting and engaging narrative.
Do I think Crewdson succeeds in making his work ‘psychological’? What does this mean?
Yes, I do. His pictures are almost dream like, the scenes are very surreal. They encourage the audience to wonder what is happening? what has just happened? what is about to happen? They are like that moment in a dream that is taking that turn in to the nightmare. This touches on our own imagination, our own fears, our own anxieties.
What is your main goal when making pictures? Do you think there’s anything wrong with making beauty your main goal? Why or why not?
My main goal is to make interesting pictures, if the subject matter is beauty then that is what I want to create, if the subject matter is not then I want to make the image suitable for the subject with a choice of composition that holds the audience at least for a little while. I do not think that there is anything wrong in making beautiful pictures; but it can become a little dull and boring if we can not vary the subject matter and produce images that offer some kind of narrative or symbiotic meaning that can engage, challenge and even entertain the audience in some way.
I like Crewdson’s pictures they may not be as subtle as Wall or DiCorcia but they are very well made and they can appeal to a public that doesn’t have to first have an acquired taste or understanding of art to appreciate the picture that they are viewing.
This linked photo is by Cas Oorthuys, titled ‘Black Oxford Students, Oxford, 1962’. From the Strange and Familiar website exhibition at the Barbican.
Yesterday I visited two exhibitions currently being held in London curated by Martin Parr. The first exhibition that I visited was displayed in The Barbican and was called Strange and Familiar. This was on two floors and exhibited the work of over twenty photographers who had visited the UK and photographed the British people as they saw them. These images covered a period from the 1930’s up to present day and looked at British life different angles of social and political points of view.
The Artist’s work on display:
Edith Tudor-Hart, coming to England in the 1930’s a devote Communist she took an interest in the social and political life of the English contrasting the haves and have-nots in her photographs.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cartier-Bresson first came to England to photograph for the Coronation of George VI and later for the Queen’s Silver-Jubilee and captured images of the British and their relationships with the monarchy.
Robert Frank, visited England in the early 1950’s before his famous ‘The Americans’ project and spent some time in London observing the life of the City and the world of the Bankers and then travelled to Wales and stayed amongst the Welsh mining community of Caerau where he felt more at home at photographed their daily-lives, visiting the coal-face as well as seeing their social-life. Frank was made to feel more at home in the Welsh community than he did in the City and his photographs reflect this in his views on London as seen as an outsider and his views of his Welsh hosts that have invited him in to their homes and their community and his images reflect that of a view from an insider.
Paul Strand visited the UK in the 1950’s and spent sometime living with crofters in the Outer-Hebrides of Scotland and like Frank was able to take photos from the privileged viewpoint of an insider. Strand’s particular interest and theme to many of his photographs during this project is texture, shapes and patterns.
Cas Oorthuys visited the UK in the 1950’s and photographed the daily-life of austerity for the English and including photos of the first Caribbean immigrants to England and his photographs of Black Afro-Caribbean students at Oxford reflecting the cultural diversity that was developing in the UK during the 1950’s and 60’s.
Sergio Larrain Visited England in the 1950’s in these images I notice his use of design, lines, angels, patterns frames within frames and reflections.
Gilles Peress, visited the UK in the 1970’s and photographed the troubles in Northern-Ireland. Working in black-and-white he records the Orange marches, street scenes aftermath of riots and murders with a compositional consideration to design, and texture. His images contrasted from the violence and misery of the working-class Northern Irish to the ordered and gentile life the privileged playing cricket or fox-hunting. My favorite image amongst Peress’ work was a picture of a child being slapped by her mother with the TV in the background with a shocked looking child staring open-mouthed from the screen. Peress used a slow enough shutter speed to provide motion–blur for the mother and child whilst fast enough to have a sharp background.
Akihiko Okamura is a Japanese artist who visited the UK in the late 1960’s early 70’s and recorded his time in Northern-Ireland in colour photographs surreal images of ladies preparing tea and biscuits in the middle of a street with burned-out houses in the background and shrines made to victims of the riots.
Garry Winogrand came to the UK in the 1960’s and recorded the London street scene of the ‘swinging 60s’
Candida Hofer like Winogrand Hofer came to England in the 1960’s and spent time in Liverpool recording the street scenes of Liverpool’s 60s era.
Evelyn Hofer used a large format camera to slow the process down and take photos of people and place in 1960’s London.
Bruce Davidson An American photographer who visited England in the 1960’s taking street photography in London and Wales with an interest in the poor and destitute.
Gian Butturini Butturini is also know as a film director but in the 1960’s Butturini photographed the London scene from street to Rock concert and contrasted with the political troubles in Northern-Ireland.
Frank Habicht Habicht’s images are of the young ‘hip’ London scene of the late 60’s.
Hans Eijkelboom visited the Bullring in Birmingham and with a concealed camera photographed people as the passed by him at the centres main entrance. He has studied how people dress alike and how he has been able to catagorize people by their clothes. For example he grouped images of people wearing the same or similar garments such as striped or spotted dresses, flowery beach style shirts, Adidas advertising T-shirts, boob tube tops, etc. He cleverly transitioned one category to another by selecting couples that were dressed in the two categories he was switching from and to this must have been produced over a long period of time. This project questioned peoples sense of individualism as clearly a large percentage of people dress alike; so perhaps as not to stand out and lacking of imagination. Many looked like they were mimicking the manikins in shops or copying the models in the lower end clothes catalogues.
Bruce Gilden using a wide angled lens and cropping tightly Gilden has produced some strong unflattering portraits of people living on the streets or down on their luck that he has come across on the streets of Glasgow. The wide angle lenses have almost caricatured them by lengthening their faces and ugly-fying them.
Hans Van-Der-Meer is a Dutch photographer who came to England and was influenced by the old Dutch landscape masters and used their style in his choice of viewpoints when photographing British amateur football matches by making use of the large space with the players small in the frame.
Raymond Depardon worked in Glasgow around the early 1980s photographing a declining city as the factories closed. These pictures in colour capture this depressing period in Britain’s history.
Tina Barney again using a large format camera she has taken portraits in the style of the old master painters.
Axell Hutte visited London and took an interest in the architecture of the post war social housing developments, many of which have declined and since been re-developed.
Jim Dow an American photographer who spent some time in England in the early 1990s Dow took an interest in British small shops as seen from both inside and out. Many of these shops were already in decline when he was photographing them and as this decline continues these images are fast becoming things of nostalgia.
Shinro Ohtake captured images of Britain in the year of the queens Silver-Jubilee of 1977 with some interesting views of the British as seen from an outsider.
This linked image is by Martin Parr from his collection of photographs of the unseen city.
The second exhibition was displayed at the Guildhall Art Gallery and was called The Unseen City, photos taken my Martin Parr of events involving the Guildhall such as The Lord Mayor’s Show. These colour images offered an exclusive behind the scenes view of the prestigious events that annually take place at the Guildhall. Parr captured candid shots of the organizers, patrons and staff as they went about their preparation and participation of events such as the swan upping and Lord Major’s show, the unseen side of these public and exclusive events. I thought that these images were a good representation of a viewpoint seen from an outsider, an invited guest, whom, finding the whole scenario strange sees much more than his hosts and captures it in his camera.
I found the two exhibitions complemented each-other as their underlining theme was what is British-ness? This second exhibition contrasted to the first as this showed a hidden side to the British that is usually closed to both photographers and most of the British. A Britain representing the world of the elite and privileged ruling-class, this is an unelected class, Bankers and Lords that quietly work behind the scenes of British Politics and who ultimately pull the strings.
The Photographers Eye by John Szarkowski is an illustrated book compiled from photographs collected for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1964 and the theme of this book is based upon the theme of the exhibition.
Szarkowski introduces his book by explaining that it’s theme, ‘is an investigation of what photographs look like and why they look that way. It is concerned with photographic style and with photographic tradition: with the sense of possibilities that a photographer today takes to his work.’ Szarkowski looks at how the art of photography has evolved through the period of 125 years from the earliest surviving pictures to the 1960’s. Szarkowski looks at how photography has created and taught us new ways of seeing; how photography could make it’s own rules independent of the established art world partly through ignorance and from the practicality dictated by the camera and its view and enthusiastic experimentation. Szarkowshi has selected a range of photographs to illustrate how photographers from different backgrounds all came to share the same photographic vision that was not taught but learned through years of practice and considers the history of this medium, ‘in terms of photographers progressive awareness of characteristics and problems that have seemed inherent in the medium.’
He has divided his book into five sections examining five issues that he believes are characteristics inherent and problematic in photographs and understanding these five sections will help in the understand of the language for the ‘reading’ of a photograph.
The thing itself.
Outside of the studio the photograph, unlike a painting, is captured not created therefor the photographer has fewer choices in composition, he can only choose what to and what not to include in the frame. However, instead of limiting what photographers would choose to make pictures of the camera’s ability to capture anything in an instant making a permanent record of it opened up opportunities to create images of the ordinary and bland subjects that artist would not have drawn or painted and make them interesting . However, black and white images would leave out certain details and exaggerate others and yet the final image would still be accepted as a true representative of the subject. Holgrove wrote, “The nineteenth century began by believing that what was reasonable was true and it would end up by believing that what it saw a photograph of was true.” The almost lifelike reproduction of the black and white image helped raise the naïve notion that the camera doesn’t lie for which many photographers were happy not to discourage. George Bernard Shaw wrote that this was a double edged sword, “There is a terrible truthfulness about photography. The ordinary academician gets hold of a pretty model, paints her as well as he can, calls her Juliet, and puts a nice verse from Shakespeare underneath, and the picture is admired beyond measure. The photographer finds the same pretty girl, he dresses her up and photographs her, and calls her Juliet, but somehow it is no good – it will still be Miss Wilkins, the model. It is too true to be Juliet.”
The detail
“If your pictures aren’t good, you’re not close enough.” Robert Capa. Outside of the studio, unlike drawings and paintings, photographs can only record what is actually in from of them and in the real world of photography it is usually impossible to alter the position and distance of various subjects to simply improve the composition of the picture. Therefore often a photographer can only position himself in a place that will only capture a part of the image. Unlike drawings and paintings photography is unable to produce a story type narrative, as successful painting will often combine several events that have occurred over a period of time and the artist has combined them into one scene that can tell the whole story. Photography can only capture one scene at a time and when a selection of images are put together to tell the story these images still require text in order to explain the connection to each picture and the event itself. However, it was soon realised that the photograph could use symbols instead to represent the intended narrative, therefore photographers focused on detail some that may have seemed to ordinary and trivial or dull to the painter but when photographed could symbolise the scene / event / for the narrative that the photographer could not otherwise be so easily produce. An example of this is a photograph of cannon balls scattered across a road symbolising the recent ferocious battle and bombardment. The chosen detail is the spent and discarded ammunition on a deserted road symbolic of the recent action. In this style of imagery few words are needed, the photographer is taking advantage of the viewers own imagination to complete the story for the picture.
The Frame
Where as in drawing and painting the frame is conceived, in photography it can only be selected forcing the photographer to choose what to include or not to include. In this way what ever the photographer includes in to the frame will now have a relationship with one another that they may not of done in real life for example, two strangers photographed standing together on a platform waiting for a train can now appear to be companions simply because both were selected to be in the frame. The painter begins with a blank canvas, the draftsman from the centre of his sheet the photographer from the frame. The photographer must learn how to edit the real world, to isolate and juxtapose when unexpected elements come together within his frame. The frame contains, what is inside the frame is subjected to close scrutiny but a photograph can also imply beyond the frame.
Time
A photograph is a moment of time captured by the camera this moment can be 1/1000’s of a second in length or up to several minutes or more. A photograph captures this moment and freezes it in to an image describing a parcel of time which may allude to the past or future can only ever be viewed in the present. This can mean that an image’s meaning can change or be re-interpreted by future generations of viewers. Early photography required longer lengths of exposure time for the slower chemicals, often resulting in images never before seen, dogs with two heads babies with two faces transparent or elongated people as they moved during the exposure period. Often theses early images have been regarded as photographic failures which ironically as film and cameras have improved and become faster modern photographers are now being deliberately replicating the affects for modern artistic styled pictures. As the exposure time became faster images could be captured never before seen by the human eye, how the horse gallops, a bullet in flight, droplets of water thrown out from a splash as a stone hits the water, and many more sights invisible to the human eye due to the speed of the moment. Cartier-Bresson defined the expression “The decisive moment” a visual climax a moment when the camera has captured a moment when all the elements came together to capture that image at the right moment. Thanks to modern cameras with fast shutter speeds and fast continues shooting these decisive moments can be more easily captured providing of course you are prepared for them. For example, sports photographers positioned to see and focused on the spot he or she will predict the moment will occur.
Vantage point
Unlike a drawing or a painting the photographer has limited choices when choosing a vantage point and so the photographer has sometimes been forced to use unusual view points such as very low level worm eye views, views from backstage seeing only the backs of the actors, birds eye views looking down, distorted and strange views created by lens distortion or patterns of light. Through the necessity of moving his camera to see his subject clearly or to see it at all the photographer learned that the appearance of the world was a lot richer and less simple than he would have first guessed. He also discovered, ‘that his pictures could not only reveal the clarity buy also the obscurity of things, and these mysterious and evasive images could also, in their own terms, seem ordered and meaningful.’
shauncn512659 Context & Narrative 
