John Berger, About Looking (1980) London: Bloomsbury. ISBN: 978-0-7475-9957-9
Among my pile of books yet to read as part of my studies I had ‘About Looking’ by John Berger. I have only recently been introduced to this author through my Context and Narrative Course, I read his book ‘Ways of Seeing’ and watched the accompanying BBC TV program on YouTube which I found very interesting. I then went onto read ‘Understanding a Photograph’, in preparation for my fourth assignment. The recent sad news of John Berger’s death prompted me to read this book, ‘About Looking’.
This book is made up of a selection of essays, Berger wrote from the mid 1960’s up to the late 1970’s.
His first essay examines how man looks and sees himself; how he regards animals and his world around him and compares this to how other animals regards themselves, man and the world through their eyes.
His next essay looks at pictures by August Sander the famous farm hands going to a dance photo, Young Farmers (1914) and another image of a local musical band posing for their photograph and he discusses how their suits give away their status in society despite their smart attire.
Also included is an essay on the works of Paul Strand. The rest of the book moves away from photography and looks at works by other artists from the 17th century such as Hals through to Artist’s such as Francis Bacon and Giacometti of the 20th century.
An interesting read, Berger had his own style of writing and if you have heard him speak you can almost hear his voice coming through the pages of the book.
He was clearly very passionate about art and I am sure a nice guy to have met. I am sure all who were fortunate enough to have met him will miss him.
A Traveller and his best friend were walking along a road they were both dead; and looking for somewhere to rest.
Eventually, they came to a high stone wall along one side of the road. Set in to the wall was a tall arched open door. Standing in the doorway was a smartly dressed, attractive, young lady. The Traveller greeted her and asked her where they were.
“Why, this is Heaven!” She replied.
“Wow!” the man replied and they both proceeded to enter.
But the young lady stopped them and said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t accept pets. There is a place for your dog just up the road, leave him with me and I will take care of him.”
The Traveller thought for a moment and unable to leave his friend outside he decided to continue his journey along the road. Further along they came to a gate that stood alone, with neither a wall nor fence attached; and it looked as if it had never been closed, he saw a man behind the gate, leaning against a tree, reading a book.
“Excuse me!” called the Traveller. “Do you have any water?”
“Yes, there’s a pump over there, come on in.”
“How about my friend here?” (Gesturing to his dog).
“You should find a bowl by the pump.”
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was a hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveller filled the water bowl for his friend before taking a long drink for himself.
When they were finished, the Traveller asked the ‘Gateman’,
“What do you call this place?”
“This is Heaven,” he answered.
“I’m confused,” Protested the Traveller. “The young lady down the road said that that was Heaven, too.”
Shaking his head sadly the ‘Gateman’ replied, “Oh no! That’s certainly not Heaven! That’s the gate to hell!”
“But can you not do something to stop her tricking people in to entering hell?” Demanded the Traveller.
“No! We’re just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.” He replied with a wry smile.
So much for the contextual narrative! What do we see?
A man stands in the foreground holding a dog on a lead, whilst gripping a walking stick with the other hand. He’s looking at the dog that’s looking back, he’s dressed in a suit with a Yorkshire cap; both he and his dog are drained of any warm colours with a distinct cold blue hue tone as is most of the image. In the background we see a sign indicating no dogs on a wall by an open door, inside the doorway we see a smartly dressed young woman, she appears to be pointing or wagging her finger, her mannerism implies a negative signal and her legs crossed emphasizes this negative message. She appears to be illuminated by very warm amber light and a red halo rims around her head.
My intention for this image is to create a division between the outside world of the Traveller and his dog with the world beyond the door in which the women stands. To achieve this I used the white balance settings of my camera, gelled speedlights and made additional enhancements in Lightroom. The Traveller is between worlds, it is cold. He and his dog are both dead and I wanted their shades to reflect this. The young lady on the other hand is standing somewhere that is very warm and I wanted to convey this; I also wanted to hint at danger using rim lighting.
There is another message in this picture, one of temptation. The young lady represents the fetish pleasures of capitalism; her sexuality is to tempt the man away from his moral values. The price for this implied promise of luxury and pleasure is that he must be selfish and turn away from anything that could hold him back. His dog represents his values and socialistic principles of loyalty, trust, responsibility and selflessness.
I didn’t want to create an obvious ‘Lucifer’ therefore I thought that a sharp dressed business woman would act as a suitably modern metaphor for him/her.
When creating this image, I tried to keep in mind Barthes idea of studium and punctum. The Traveller and dog is part of the studium of the picture punctuated by the warm coloured image of the attractive women (the punctum). I wanted to carefully construct a single image to project my intended narrative.
This was a particularly tricky picture to make when depending on the unreliability of a dog and using non-professional models. Further complication was that my chosen doorway was unavailable to me due to a lost key. The location I chose happened to be my local church which had the ideal doors. I obtained permission from the Vicar however, on the appointed day the Vicar had taken his wife away for her Birthday and not informed anyone of our arrangement. No one had the key to my chosen Choir Vestry door; so I had to use a fire escape door instead. This side door was exposed to the wind and also needed to be wedged open and in the process of the shoot I dropped an expensive speedlight that bounced and although remained serviceable may now need to be serviced by Nikon. I was unable to get the perfect shot as either the speedlights failed to fire at the perfect time or the dog kept moving around and directing my models is still a new experience. I ended the afternoon feeling low as I thought that I had failed to get a suitable image. I gave myself a couple of days space and looked again and I was pleased to find some images that I could collage together to make one suitable picture in Photoshop.
I enjoyed making this image and although it may not have a great wow factor, I am pleased that I was able to achieve my vision. I would like to make more images based on a narrative theme in the future, perhaps using novels biblical stories, sagas, legends and songs.
Photography a Critical Introduction, edited by Liz Wells, published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
The image on the front cover of this book was very appropriate for my experience when first reading this book: ‘Babel’ from Cockaign, by Gayle Chong Kwan.
The last listed book in my recommended reading list for the ‘Context and Narrative’ course to be read which completes my reading for both essential and recommended for the course. Phew!
I originally purchased and began reading this book for my ‘Art of Photography’ (AOP) course but I didn’t understand the relevance to my course and I also found it to be too heavy reading for me at that time and I only got half way through chapter one before putting it down. I was keen to read books themed closer to the topics covered in the syllabus and additional technical books on composition, lighting, exposure, etc to bring me up to speed with my basic photography skills. I felt that this book should have been listed in the essential reading list for my AOP course as none of the syllabus touched on critical theory and therefore wasn’t even appropriate for recommended reading. However, this book was listed as recommended reading for this current coarse of Context and Narrative and in my opinion this should in fact be listed as essential reading.
This book is definitely worth reading once the critical theory of art in photography needs to be explored and understood. There was much that linked to my current studying and I could see likely future links to my next courses, particularly chapter 4, ‘The subject as object: photography and the human body’ which discussed various forms of fetishism in art and explained what this word means in the art world. Not just sex and deviant behavior but also desire and even a form of addiction which can be exploited by advertising, etc.
I still found it a heavy book and it took almost three weeks for me to read, but thanks to all the other reading that I have now done and the clear link it had to my current studying I was able to relate to the subject matter. I am pleased that I have finally read this book and I realize that I made the right decision two years ago to put the book down as I would not have understood a word and the messages that are now useful would have been missed. I probably would not have thought to read it again; so missing a second chance to learn something from this book.
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.
I have been reading this book whilst on holiday, in preparation for my next assignment, Reading Photographs, An Introduction to the Theory and Meaning of Images, by Richard Salkeld, published by Bloomsbury. This is part of a set of about x10 text-books that are very good and this appears to be last last one of the series for photography that I hadn’t read.
This book is divided in to 6 chapters covering the following topics:
What is a Photograph – Briefly covers the history from invention and marriage of chemistry and optics, through to the evolution of photography and its practice. Case-study.
Reading the signs – Briefly covers the theory of meaning, language, semiotics, ideology in an easy to understand way. Case-study.
Truth and Lies – Considers images reflecting truth in what is real, representation and reality, facts and fiction. Case-study.
Identity – Covers people and portraits, signifying identity, looking,the body. Case-study.
Big-Brother – The modern world, the bad, the mad and the other, surveillance society: and Panopticon (originally a 19th century idea to watch prisoners in a specially designed prison). Who is looking at whom? Public spaces – private lives. Case-study.
Aesthetics – Is it Art? What is art? Photography as art the history of an idea, into postmodernism. Case-study.
This is a very good and useful book to read, in fact I read it twice. An easy read and very well illustrated with profiles on key authors for further reading such as Roland Barthes and John Berger to name just a couple. I would strongly recommend this book and I am surprised that it is not listed as either recommended or essential reading for my OCA course covering Context and Narrative.
A self-portrait of Shaun Mullins as regarded by others
Friend – Carol: “Oxford concise dictionary definition – Personality – the characteristic way in which a particular individual think’s, feels and behaves. It embraces a person’s moods, attitudes and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interaction with other people.
My father – Barrie: “He is a man of high ability when he wishes to exercise it.”
Friend – Graham: “When you take on a task, you determine to complete it.”
My wife – Sarah: “Is self-reflective and keen to learn.”
My father – Barrie: “Despite success in life and work his confidence has a hard job to keep pace and instead of celebrating (boasting even) he appears to denigrate any achievements. Always under selling himself it appears.”
My wife – Sarah: “Can suffer from low morale at times which has a tendency to make him morose and negative however, is easily coaxed out of himself.”
My wife – Sarah: “A true animal lover who responds well to animals as they do to him.”
Friend – Graham: “Your primary weakness is communication – Think about what you want to say, before you open your mouth. Keep your anecdotes SHORT. – People like to be entertained…but they don’t need and cannot absorb unnecessary detail. – You haven’t yet learned the value of silence.”
Friend – Carol: “Interested”
Friend – Graham: “Don’t stand too close to people, when you speak to them. Women, in particular, find this threatening and unpleasant.”
My wife – Sarah: “Is generally of a cheerful disposition and is for the most part positive.”
My wife – Sarah: “Is friendly and enjoys company but can also be quite a private person who doesn’t like to share his inner thoughts and feelings.”
My father – Barrie: “A man that one would rely on and trust protecting one’s back in this dangerous world.”
Friend – Graham: “You are loyal and reliable.”
My wife – Sarah: “Gentle natured, sensitive to the needs of others. – Passionate about justice, has a strong moral code – Is fiercely loyal. – A generous disposition and shares with others.”
My wife – Sarah: “Is patient but doesn’t suffer fools.”
My father – Barrie: “Socially he is very discerning of people in general, which in one sense is good, but he does not suffer fools gladly and appears to have little compassion for the frailties in many, if not most of mankind.”
Friend – Graham: “You have high moral principles and you stick to them…sometimes too stubbornly…the world is not black and white. But you are extremely trustworthy.”
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.
In the following examples, the artists have taken on the personality of another individual by dressing as the subject and acting as the subject and standing in for the subject.
Nikki S Lee has taken this idea and used both a mixture of observation and performance to replace an individual from a group shot and replace that person with herself. To obtain these images she has assimilated herself in to a range of social groups from Punks, Hispanics, Strippers and Yuppies. The photos were either taken by a friend or a member of the infiltrated group. Lee researched her subjects scrutinizing the social conventions, dress and body-language. She has even photoshopped to change her weight, age, size and even skin colour to blend in to the group.
In Lee’s work I do see a little voyeuristic style as we appear to be looking at other peoples private snap shots of friends in a social world outside of our own. Although Lee had infiltrated these groups in order to get her images I would say that using the word exploitation is too strong as I don’t think her intention is to exploit her subjects. I believe that she is attempting to break the myths that surround these social-groups.
Trish Morrissey has used self-portraiture in a novel way by approaching groups and families (strangers to her) and asking if she could change cloths with them and be photographed posing as the member of the group or family that she represented by wearing that persons cloths, for her project ‘Front’. In another project, ‘seven Years’ she has taken the idea of family snaps and with the help of her sister, props and costume she has re-staged old photos to link her family memories with her own experiences and reappraise her family relationships.
I would have to admit that I would find it bizarre if someone came up to me and asked to swap cloths for a photo. However, dependant on the mood I was in at the time and that I they has sufficiently convinced me of their sincerity I may well co-operate as I am not shy at taking-part in the unusual.
Susan Sontag, On Photography, (1979) London, Penguin, ISBN: 978-0-14-005397-5.
This book by Susan Sontag is a collection of essays discussing how photography has influenced the world since its invention and how it has played a part in the surrealist art movement in the 20th Century.
The book was first published in 1977 and although photography has moved on she spends a lot of time discussing how photography was first introduced accepted or not and how it came to be the most enduring and influential part of the surrealist movement. She also looks at how photographs are used and how they can be re-used.
Topics and points to note:
In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge out notion of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe.
Photos are a grammar and even more importantly, an ethics of seeing.
Photos give us the sense that we can hold the world in our hands.
In photographs the image is also an object.
As object they can be collected, bought & sold, cherished, thrown away, lost & found, etc, etc.
Photographs furnish evidence, they appear to provide proof when something is in doubt.
A photograph justifies, for example through use of surveillance and is a presumption of proof that something exists.
Photography has become almost as widely practiced an amusement as sex and dancing – which means that like all mass art form, photography is not practiced by people as an art. It is mainly a social rite, a defence against anxiety and a tool of power.
Photographs can abet desire and emotions of morality.
The industrialisation of photography permitted its rapid absorption into bureaucratic ways of running society…photographs became part of the general furniture of the environment – touchstones and confirmations of that reductive approach to reality which is considered realistic. Photographs were enrolled in the service of important institutions of control, notably the family and the police, as symbolic object and as pieces of information….many important documents are not valid unless they have affixed to them, a photographic-token of the citizen’s face.
shauncn512659 Context & Narrative 
