I have provided in my folder a printed 1000 word essay amended-final-draft-its-a-lilly-1 and my Tutor’s report. shaun-mullins-512659-photography-1-context-narrative-assignment-4
For this assessment I chose to print the first page of my essay containing the image on photo quality paper through my Canon printer for better image reproduction as the image was taken from the internet and was only 72pdi in quality.
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When researching for my last assignment I read ‘One Way Street’ a selection of essays by Walter Benjamin and I read an essay about Franz Kafka, an author I had not come across before and I made a mental note to lookout for his work. My Tutor picked-up on my comments in my blog and recommended that I read some of his works a. Therefore I decided to read his works looking for ideas for my next assignment. To get myself started I made notes on the oxford dictionaries meaning for ‘context’ ‘narrative’ and the suggested rules. As I read his works, I took notes in order to help me find some mental visions that might be turned in to physical pictures. admittance-to-the-law
I have read through from cover to cover ‘The Essential Kafa’ and I have been inspired by a parable type story in the novel ‘The Trial’. This short story is about a country gentleman who seeks access to the law, but the man is told by the doorman that he can not grant him access. The country gentleman decides to wait until the doorman is given permission to grant him access, he waits all his life only to learn at the moment of death that the door was exclusively for him. However, this story led me to another similar story that I thought might make a stronger narrative in one picture.
A man and his dog a-man-and-his-dog-were-walking-along-a-road
This story was used in a T.V. episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘The Hunt’, first broadcast: January 26, 1962, Created by Rod Serling. I am unable to find a reliable source that can confirm the original author of this story. Some internet sources suggest that it is an old religious tale by an unknown however, Earl Hamner Jr. an American television writer and producer is credited for the story of ‘The Hunt’ in The Twilight Zone therefore I assume that the story is his. The gist of the story is that a man is on a road to Heaven and he is accompanied by his best friend which is his dog. Along the way he comes to a gate with a man standing by it, the Traveller asks the man where they are and the ‘Gateman’ informs him he is at the gates of Heaven; but when the man tries to enter with his dog he is told that dogs are not allowed and the Traveller is forced to decide between entering the gates or staying with his best friend.
I believe that this story has a stronger narrative to produce as a single photo. My idea is an image of the Traveller looking down at his dog as the Doorman or Gatekeeper tells him no dogs. Also I can use this scene as a metaphor to modern society and how our capitalist life style sometimes tests our moral metal. The Traveller is faced with a dilemma, should he be selfish and enter the gates alone for the imagined paradise beyond or stay outside keeping company with his best friend and putting his friend first. I believe that we are currently living in a very selfish world and that this test is being applied in one way or another every day; so I think this story is very relevant to our current life-styles.
For the location, I think that my local Anglican Church is perfect.
My first thought were the gates to the church but this would present problems of traffic, pedestrians and a difficult background; so a doorway is a better choice and the arched style ideal for the implied idea of a Holly entrance. Choosing a doorway eliminates the problems of traffic, pedestrians background and allows me to move my camera further away if required. I shall mount the camera to a tripod for better composition control and if I need to resort to Photoshop i can easily merge more images together.
My ideal location is the Choir Vestry doorway, my wife sings in the choir and I have spoken to the Vicar who is happy to allow me to use it as my location. I have a Labrador dog and a friend who has modeled for me before who can play the Traveller and a friend of my wife’s is happy to model as ‘Lucifer’. My thoughts for the Devil is a very pretty smartly dressed young lady, to represent the metaphor for temptation. She will be lit by a speedlight with an amber gel in a soft-box to give her warmth and another speedlight located directly behind her with a red gel in a large reflector dish to create a red rim-lighting / halo to suggest the source of the heat and a hint of danger. The traveller and dog will be lit by either natural day light or another speedlite (un-gelled) for daylight white balance. The camera will be set to tungsten or similar to trick the camera to create a cold look to the Traveller and dog. The Traveller and dog are between worlds and this region of space I imagine to be cold. Hell on the other hand is hot and should reflect this by using the corrective gel to alter the white balance for my Devil. By taking advantage of the white balance I can create a division between the worlds outside the door and that of inside and this warm contrast to the overall cold image will act as my punctum to the picture.
As you can see, I made sketches and drew a couple of storyboards to help me with ideas.
I have just finished reading this book which is a critical look at the current challenges facing photojournalism and documentary photography. Ritchin looks at how the rise of the digital media through the internet is threatening and changing photojournalism and traditional documentary photography. He points out that less funding is available to documentary photographers from the traditional sources and that the day of the front page is coming to an end with a predicted total disappearance of the printed newspaper by 2040, beginning with the USA by 2017. Ritchen suggests that the news media is going through a transition and new ways to grab and hold the readers attention has to be found. This he acknowledges will be difficult as news images now have to compete right next to an attention grabbing advertising image, something that just was not done in print. Moreover, with digital webpages images are constantly being replaced or slide-showed in order to maximise display space whilst the viewers attention spans diminish faster than the slide shows. In a shrinking market for newspaper and magazine publishers Ritchin observes that it is tougher for new photographers to get their work published as publishers / editors are more interested in the fame of the photographer than the work he produces, suggesting that modern editors are more influenced and controlled by capitalistic ideas of celebrating the celebrity in order to sell.
An interesting and useful book for anyone looking to work in photojournalism / editorial world.
I purchased it and read it as I thought that it might have relevant information for my course on Context and Narrative; but although it was an interesting read providing background to this industry I am not sure how useful I will find it in the future. I will keep it on my shelf in case I need to refer back at a later date.
I have very recently read a very good book titled On Being a Photographer – A Practical Guide. Published by LensWork Publishing.
The book is mainly a conversation between David Hurn and Bill Jay. Bill Jay sets out the argument as to what are the qualities and characteristics for a professional photographer and producing quality work.
David Hurn is a world class professional photographer who was a member of the elite photographers cooperative, Magnum Photos Inc. and has also lectured at Gwent College amongst his many achievements. Bill Jay a good friend and colleague is an author and editor.
This book is not a technical book on how to compose, expose, light or frame but covers basic fundamental principles of how to get started on deciding what you want to photograph and why. An explanation of what a reportage photographer is and has good tips on selecting subject to photograph and creating photo essays.
This book has helped me to rethink my approach to creating photographs and has helped me with ideas of how to formulate ideas which up to now has been my biggest stumbling block.
The book was first published in 1997 and digital cameras were still very new and photo editing software still in it’s infancy; so much is discussed refereeing to film cameras and there is a section on contact printing which is pretty much no longer relevant. However, Adobe Lightroom uses a type on contact print display when you now down load your photos which offers a similar opportunity to review your photos and select those wanted for further processing and also offers an easier method of filing. with similar ideas of marking pictures as David Hurn uses.
David Hurn’s negative comments regarding the internet potentially offering new photographers opportunities to get noticed was very true, although he could not have foreseen the social-networks and sites like Flickr, etc. He could clearly see that already by 1997 there were so many websites and many thousands more joining all the time that any photographer simply believing that creating a website and adding photos to it would make them famous was at best naïve.
A good read not too intellectual and I would recommend this book to both students and hobbyist alike.
shauncn512659 Context & Narrative 