Jeff Wall

Whilst looking for some inspiration for my Major Practical project, I came across the work of Jeff Wall. I found it really interesting to look at and then I was even more inspired when I learned that his work is shown on light boxes.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/jeff-wall

The light boxes are mounted onto the wall so that viewers can view the work as they would with any other type of photograph.

My work isn't going to be as big as Wall's is in the image above, and it will differ because my work will be 1 piece of work layered together so it would not fit so sleekly into the mounting light box as his imagery does. My work will be more obviously an artifact attached to a light box.

Jackie Nickerson

This is Jackie Nickerson's body of work titled 'Terrain'

"TERRAIN is Jackie Nickerson’s new work in progress. It is about us in the landscape, how we change the world we inhabit at every moment of our being human, and how, for better and for worse, the habitus that we make, in turn, changes who we are.
People and landscapes in TERRAIN intertwine and co-exist at that moment which is central to the moil of the human race – the cultivation of crops and the turning of raw materials into something made.
Gazing steadily at the point at which one element meets another, TERRAIN asks us to think about these imprints left by the material processes of work as the evidence of our presence on the earth, and to think about how contemporary human beings, living in a western urban environment, can relate to the metaphysics of the labor which enables our lives.
In a time when environmental politics thinks too simplistically about the effect that humans have on nature, TERRAIN nudges us towards a deeper understanding of the lived spaces of human activity. Here hands and plants, limbs and fabric, bodies and soil hold close to one another. Visually, the easy sense that there is nature and that there is humanity, and that the two are separate, ceases to exist. In TERRAIN people are, in the fullest sense of that archaic adjective, ‘terrene’, of the earth."

Words and photos: Courtesy of Jackie Nickerson

 

(http://thisispaper.com/Jackie-Nickerson-TERRAIN)

 

 

In each of the images the person is hidden, we are not shown their face. Which makes it really impersonal. That person is unrecognizable and we know nothing about them. It tells us possibly of that person's job, working in the environment however... these images could be staged. Nickerson may have selected the person, placed them in that landscape and covered them with the plants and trees. We are not told any of that information. On first glance I would say that she has stopped these people during their work day and captured them, but easily it could be completely and highly staged.

The images are making a statement, and so to not see the individuals face works but personally and in relation to my project, I want to give each person a voice and a name.
In Africa, the people and the land intertwine more than those in the West. This is well known, I doubt that anybody would dispute that fact. Because it is known to people, I don't think that we need to see more images like this. They are not dehumanizing and they are not offensive to anybody or anything,  I just really feel passionate about giving the African people a name and being able to connect to the person we are being shown in the photographs.

These images however do take us back to the fairtrade campaigns. We know that a lot of the things, clothes, food we have in the West come from poorer countries and often people make, pick and sort with their bare hands. We do not know those people, we are not told their names and we know nothing of their lives.. yet we happily use, eat and wear the things that they spend their days producing for us. I think that these images really do show this and make it so obvious to us.

It sort of produces a sense of guilt to me.. You never stop to question the person who allowed you to have a lot of the things in your life that you have. We take it for granted.
Although these images are subtle and I feel quite flat... they have such a deepness to them, such a great thought process for the viewer when they begin to break the images down and question the subject and the theme.


I visited London to see this exhibition, but sadly I had missed it by just 1 day.  The website I got the details from had not been updated and so all of the work was gone and the exhibition space was empty. It was a shame, because I wanted to see the impact that these images had in person, were they big prints or small prints were they overwhelming or just rather flat against the wall.

Mariele Nuedecker

Mariele Nuedecker's work 'Unrecallable now' is a little deceiving to me. I thought it was done using a lightbox and a 3D sculpture, but it's not. It is done using computer graphics and photographs. It's pretty clever really.

It looks really effective. Kind of mystical and fairy tale - esque.

Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2013 @ National Portrait Gallery

This week I visited the Taylor Wessing portrait exhibition and these are a few selected images that I felt particularly fed into my current projects.

©Carmen Ballve

Girls in Barracon - Carmen Ballve

This image caught my attention because I feel that it is full of emotion. The young girl on the left of the main subject is just resting her chin on her arm as if she is waiting for something. The main subject is looking into the distance, is she daydreaming? Is so looking at somebody or something?
The main thing that struck me is that the main female doesn't look sad.. her mouth is slightly upturned. Yes they are just standing there, and there is washing hanging down over her and the background looks like poor and basic but she does not look malnourished, she does not look like she is sick starving.
To me she looks quite content.

I like the black and white simplicity of the image. I feel so much emotion from this photograph, I feel like I could sit for hours looking. Neither of the females are looking into camera, so there is no uncomfortable-ness when looking at them. It almost feels as if they are wanting you to look.

©Rosie Hallam

Choir Master - rosie Hallam

I just love the smile on this man's face in this image. He looks like he is so totally enjoying life, and enjoying his job. I think the colour really enhances this as well. The colours are not bright and overpowering, just quite subtle and warm and inviting.
The text on the blackboard is clearly visible for the viewer to read. It feels as though I am in his class, and he is teaching me the words that are on the board.

©Jonathon Torgovnik

Grannie May Mokhethoa…. - Jonathon Torgovnik

 I feel a little more uncomfortable looking at this image. Each subject is looking into camera, which makes me feel uncomfortable as a viewer spending time looking. 

It is interesting to see all the generations of this family in one image, and to see the clothes they are wearing compared to the basics of the house. 

The expressions on the subjects' faces are not happy, warm or inviting which adds to the uncomfortableness of looking into the images and looking at them. I feel a slight awkwardness and that does not make me want to study to photograph further.

©Kate Eshelby

Returning Home - Kate Eshelby

This image really struck me at first for the basicness of the home, yet there is still a TV in the corner. It is fascinating, the walls look as if they have no insulating, the thin curtain at the very right side and the lack of light in the room, yet the TV is so prominant in the image.

Also, the only thing on the wall, and the thing that really stands out due to the colour in this photograph is the image on their wall, of 2 white babies. The anthropology bells ring in my head, 'the other' is SO evident in this photograph. It looks as though it is made from a material that we would perhaps use as a table cloth at a party, not paper or card or anything like a formal photograph. Where did they get it from? Why do they have it on their wall? Why is it so in sight within this photograph?

©Dirk Rees

Women of Khowarib - Dirk Rees

This stands out to me as a 'typical' tribal photograph. All the women are wearing the same outfit/uniform so we presume that they are a part of a tribe and this is their custom dress.
I would say that this image is posed because they are all standing straight on to camera and quite formal looking.
It was not until I began to really study this image that I noticed the small child in the bottom left of this photograph. He blended in with all of the womens' legs.
I feel slightly uncomfortable looking at this photograph but I am unsure why. I have seen lots of photographs of tribal women and so it is not the lack of clothes, perhaps it is because there are 8 people looking 'at me' and only me looking at them. It is slightly overpowering because I do feel very outumbered.
I think it is more powerful being black and white as well instead of colours, I think if there were lots of colour within this image it would be too busy and too chaotic.

Minna Kantonen

I am including Minna Kantonen in my research because she is a photographer who photographs trees. However, there is a difference between the images that she creates and the image that I am using in my project.

When I photographed the trees on James Island, I wasn't just documenting the trees, and I wasn't particularly interested in the trees themselves, more what they store and what they have 'seen'. I was intrigued and amazed by the things that they have lived through, and how I really place a human emotion into them.. imagining that they have eyes and a memory, and feelings.

Whereas, with Kantonen I think personally that she is documenting the trees. She does not imagine them as having 'seen' things or thought things. It is more about what she has seen and thought of the trees.. as trees.

Christian Boltanski

'In 1986 Boltanski began making installations from a variety of materials and media, with light effects as integral components.' Franzke, 2009.

Christian Boltanski uses light in much of his work, and it really adds to his installations.

In this image (above), the light source comes from above. This gives the work a warm feel. It is brighter at the top and gently fades into shadow towards the bottom, the orange tinge to the light also aids the warm, inviting aesthetic. It draws you in and makes you want to get close and look at the images that are on the wall. 

In this work, the light also comes from the top of the image. Each photograph has it's own light source and the wires hang down the front of the installation rather than being hidden away. I think the way that the light sits in front of the image is rather clever, because it means that the viewer has to get close to the work in order to see each image properly. 

However, the light is quite bright and the way that it hits the faces in the images is a little scary. Its sort of haunting. Especially if the room is dark with just these faces lit up.

I personally really like this piece of work. It is clever, yet very childlike. I remember as a child making puppets in front of a light so that the picture was projected bigger onto a blank wall. Perhaps, thats why i like it, it's rather nostalgic. And the warm orange lights help to aid this emotion. 

This installation is quite neat, the wires from the lights are hidden, each light is the same as the others, they are lined up so all the attention is to the reflection/projections on the wall.

Annette Messenger

Blackwell was influenced by the work of Annette Messenger.

'Messager stood out because of the refined cruelty with which she dealt with memories (including those drawn from childhood), obsessions and even minor incursions into the domain of the occult'. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/annette-messager-2670

Mes Voeux (1988-91)

In this body of work Messenger compiles hundreds of small close-up black-and-white photographs, all of different parts of the human body (ears, mouths, noses, breasts, genitals, feet, limbs and hands). These then form another shape, above is a heart, below is an oval. The photographs are framed separately and hang overlapping one another and obscuring different parts of each image.

Both are covered also by a black cloth which makes them even more difficult to see. 

Mes Voeux (1988-91)

They link loosely to my work because the black veil acts as a layer to stop the viewer seeing clearly what is being showed underneath. 

The light comes from above in both instances, which is diffused by the veil again making it difficult due to shadows to see underneath.

Su Blackwell

Su Blackwell does not use light, photography or layering in her installation work. I include her in my research though because her work adds another element of life to the paper. The story is brought to life by literally lifting it off the page.

                                                  

Each piece of work is totally different from another because it depends on the story in the book. I feel though that each viewer who looks at this work could impart a totally different story, element, life into it. It is down to the viewers imagination and feelings as to what the work represents, shows or tells us. 

There is a light shining onto it to give it the sense of light and shade, shadows and brightness but it is quite subtle and not at all overpowering.

Installation Artists

So now that my project is turning into more of an installation piece, I am going to look into some artists who create installations, and also looking to those who use light and layering techniques to create their art.

I hope that some of their methods and techniques will inform the way that I create my work and hopefully will give me inspiration on how to show my finished piece. 

Tearfund- 'Onani'

I visited the exhibtion by Tearfund named 'Onani' help at the Salvation Army HQ, London this week.

It was all about capturing the heart of Africa in a range of different mediums.

Miriam-Rose Platts used mosquito nets in her piece. Photographing them up close gives a great texture and interesting mix of light and shade when the light comes through the net.
From my trip to The Gambia, I have lots of malaria tablets left over. This work made me think perhaps it could give an interesting texture to my work if I crushed a couple and scanned them or photographed them and layered the texture with my work.

Chosen image..

I have chosen to use this is my main image in this project.

To me it reminds me of what the tree in the garden of Eden may have looked like.

I think the scene looks really idyllic, such majesty from a big tree, in the middle of the image so it is the main attention. I like the orange dust path on the right hand side, and what looks like a shelter of some sort. The sea looks calm and inviting in the background, nicely soaking into the sky along the horizon. 

I think this image is so peaceful, it calms the viewer I feel and just gives the impression of tranquility, peace and happiness.

With other imagery and text layered underneath it I think it just works really well for what I am trying to say with my finished piece.

Images

Here are some of the photographs that I took on James Island in The Gambia.

  

    

'Roots'

One of the excisions I took part in whilst in The Gambia was the 'roots' trip. This trip takes you on a journey of Gambian slave Kunta Kinte, starting at the village he lived in 'Juffure' and then travelling by small canoe boat to James Island, now re-named Kunta Kinte island.
Since returning from The Gambia, I have begun reading the book 'Roots' by Alex Haley. Haley is a descendant of Kunta Kinte and after learning of the family history from his great grandmother decided to write it into a novel.


Whilst at James Island, our tour guide began telling us of the Baobab tress on the island and that they are many hundreds of years old. When we reached the slave yard he said, "If trees could talk, the stories that they would tell..."
This stuck with me for the whole trip and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It is so true! If they have been there all of this time, how much have those trees witnessed. What would they say if you could speak?

After that, I began photographing the island in a different mind set. When looking at the island from the main land, whilst travelling over on the boat and even being on the island itself - it is SO idyllic! Huge green and brown trees, sand, bright blue sea as far as you can see out, sunshine and happy smiley faces all around ... people journey there and think 'wow' its beautiful - I know I did when I first arrived there.
But, look deeper into the history and the truth and it is no idyllic, it is not beautiful, it is so far the opposite. It is shocking.. and to be honest it brought me to tears when the realisation sank in.


On my blog that I kept whilst in The Gambia I wrote this about the day - 'James Island is a bit of an interesting place - it's beautiful views, idyllic are juxtaposed with the horrors of what happened there ! 'If trees could talk' was a phrase our tour guide repeated. The baobab trees there are the same ones that were there at the time kunta kinte would has been a slave on the island ! Insane ! '

Carrie Mae Weem

I just came across - by chance really - the work of Carrie Mae Weem. And wow I am a little speechless.

The series 'From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried' (1995-1996)
http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries/from-here.html

I think this is really relevant to where I am in terms of research at the moment. I have been looking into slaves alot as a follow on from reading the 'Roots' book.

Weem joins imagery and text in a way that is really moving I feel. The red tone over the images, makes it more difficult to see the person in the photograph. The thing i have noticed about slaves from my research is that they are not respected, they are not seen as important and so not being able to see the faces clearly in the images really pulls this out and makes it obvious.
Also, the text over the top is readable but it is not bold. It doesn't stand out as much as it could do, again i think that this works really well. You have to look closely and kind of concentrate to read what it says. Placement of the text is important too, and in none of the images the text is over the face. I feel that this gives an air of respect back to the people in the photographs. It is also a little .. haunting? You can see these people, you can read a statement about them, and all the time they are looking directly out of the image and almost make you fell guilty for looking. Well.. they make me feel guilty !
I feel a real sense of 'the other' through doing this work. I am beginning to be overly aware of the fact that my skin is white and in some cases.. when looking at gripping imagery such as this.. I feel a sort of guilt fall on me as if I should be sorry for what has happened to these people.
I wasn't even alive at the times of some of these things, yet because of the colour of my skin I feel ashamed.

The thing that really is sinking in though... is that in some places the colour of skin really is still determining how you are treated. How awful ! To in some cases fear your own life.... because of the colour of skin you have been born with !

Choosing a theme

Since organizing all of my images into albums and then processing and spending time with each album individually, I have decided that I will be using the portrait photographs of the children and creating a book.
Drawing upon research from my dissertation topic about the representation of African children in the media, I want to show that the images we see of African children don't always have to be of them looking sad, sick and malnourished. Many people don't know any different and are okay with the way that they live. Just because a lot of them don't fit the Western standards of living, doesn't mean they are not happy.
It is good to be aware of poverty and to want to help those children who need help, but for all the other Afrian children who are being tared with the same brush, it is not fair!

Link back to previous work..

Thinking about using transparent materials to print onto led me back to thinking about my final college project in 2011.

I printed on tracing paper, acetate and fabric. They were each framed individually and hung from the ceiling in front of a bright window. This project was to document my family history and each image was spaced away from the others and so you could see through each one individually but when stood in front of it you could not see the back image.

I feel like this project is sort of an add on to this project.. it builds on it. 

I love the idea of images being able to been seen through, it makes the viewer connect with it easier. If you held it in your hand it would look like every other image, but once you physically lift it up and put light behind it, it gives it a new life, a new dynamic and you can interact so differently with it.

Bibliography

Books

Haley, A (2007) Roots London: Vintage

Klanten, R., Hellige, H., & Gallagher, J. (2011) Cutting Edges: Contemporary collage, Berlin: Gestalten

Lubben, K (eds.) (2008), Susan Meiselas: In History, New York: International Center of Photography

Sidibe, M., Incardona, L., Serani, L., & Zannier, S (2011), Malick sidibe: Mali., Milan: Skira 

Sontag, S (1991) Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors, London: Penguin

Journals

Mavor C, Phelan P and Buchanan A (2013) 'Encircling Black and Blue' in Photography & Culture, Vol 6, Issue 3, pp. 325-336.

Web

Annabell, (2011) A New Feminism: Annette Messager, Artist/Messenger, Available at: http://caniborrowyourfire.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/new-feminism-annette-messager.html [Accessed: 25th January 2014]

Blackwell, S (2014) Portfolio Book - Cut Sculpture, Available at: http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/portfolio-book-cut-sculpture/ [Accessed: 23rd January 2014]

Dyal, C (2008) Rio Collage Diary, Available at: http://www.carolinedyal.com/Rio-Collage-Diary (Accessed: 11th December 2013) 

Eldon, D (2013) Dan Eldon , Available at: http://www.daneldon.org/ (Accessed: 11th December 2013)

Franzke, A (2009), Christian Boltanski, Available at: http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=649 [Accessed: 25th January 2014]

Goodman Gallery (2012) David Goldblatt, Available at: http://www.goodman-gallery.com/artists/davidgoldblatt (Accessed: 14th November 2013)

Henley, J (2010) Malick Sidibe photographs: One nation under a groove, Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/27/malick-sidibe-mali-photographs-interview (Accessed: 23rd October 2013)

Henley, J (2011) Photographer Samuel Fosso’s best shot, Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jun/19/photographer-samuel-fosso-best-shot (Accessed: 23rd October 2013)

Kantonen, M (no date) Minna Kantonen - Home, Available at: http://www.minnakantonen.co.uk [Accessed: 26th January 2014]

Nina, (1999) Mariele Nuedecker, Available at: http://www.safebet.org.uk/intervws/mariele.htm [Accessed: 27th January 2014]

Pannack,L (2012) Laura Pannack Photography, Available at: http://laurapannack.com (Accessed: 6th November 2013)

Shearer, E (no date) The Art of Christian Boltanski, Available at: http://www.napavalley.edu/people/eshearer/Pages/Boltanski.aspx [Accessed: 25th January 2014]

Weems, C (no date), Carrie Mae Weems: From Here I Saw what Happened And I Cried, 1995 - 1996, Available at: http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries/from-here.html (Accessed: 14th January 2014)

Walker, J (2009), Context as a determinant of photographic meaning, Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/19997617/Context-as-a-determinanrt-of-Photographic-Meaningwps [Accessed: 18th February 2014]

Film/Video

Days like this - Washing of Hands (2008) Dir. Joel Simon [Short Film] Northern Ireland: Future Shorts

Roots (1977) Producer: David L Wolper, [TV Mini series] USA: Warner Brothers Television

Roots: The Next Generation (1979) Producer: David L Wolper, [TV Mini series] USA: Waner Brothers Television