I am unsure of whether or not my proposal has to be visible on my blog.. so just to cover myself - here it is….
I am going on a 10 day trip to The Gambia, Africa and so I will be undertaking the photographic work for this project whilst I am out there. I am unsure yet of what my project will look like at the end of this journey however, my plan is to just keep photographing. Therefore, I hope to have lots of images that I will then be able to fit into a few different series’. Themes for these could be documenting the local area, life in The Gambia or portraits of children for example.
I know that I do not want to have a sense of ‘the other’ through my work, so I am going to try only to photograph the Gambian people and area, I don’t want myself or any of the other people I am traveling with to be in the images. I feel that if this happens it will change the whole meaning of the image. I want my images to be as close to a true representation as possible.
In preparation for this trip, I have been looking at the work of Laura Pannack and have spoken to her about her experiences when working in a foreign country. I have also looked at the work of Meiselas, McCullin, Brown, Burnett and Vitale to name a few. All of these photographers have worked in Africa at some point during their careers, and so it is those works that I have focused on through my research.
I am unsure of my end product for the work as of now, but I feel that I will either produce a book of the images or I will make large prints for exhibition. As I am unsure, I will be conscious of composition whilst I am shooting. I need to stay consistent so that whichever images and outcome I decide on, the photographs will work well together.
I will be shooting mainly on a Canon 40D with a 17-85mm lens, however I am also taking an iPhone and an iPad with me for personal use, so some images will be captured on these as well. I will Adobe Bridge and Photoshop to organize and edit my images when I return as I find these the easiest to use.
Something that I am conscious of working in The Gambia, is their ‘Media Commission Act amended in 2003 by the Gambian Parliament.’ This act stops all media; journalists, television companies, radio stations and photographers from publishing anything publicly without the state approving it first. I am not publishing inside of The Gambia, so I won’t have a problem but it something that is in the back of my mind, and will be whilst I am photographing the local people and areas.
Research:
Badger, G (2010) ‘Without Author or Art: The “Quiet” Photograph’, In: Ciccotti, S The Pleasures of Good Photographs, New York: Aperture Foundation, pp 210-220.
Ingledew, J (2005) Photography, London: Laurence King Publishing.
McCullin,D (1971), The Destruction Business, Leicester and London: Ebenezer Baylis & Son Ltd.
Langford, Fox and Sawdon Smith (2010), Langford’s Basic Photography, Oxford: Elsevier Ltd, pp 171-178.
Light, K (2000) ‘Central America and Human Rights: An Interview with Susan Meiselas’, In: Traub, Heller, Bell (2006) The Education of a Photographer, New York: Allworth Press, pp 42-47.
Lubben,K (eds.) (2008), Susan Meiselas: In History, New York: International Center of Photography
Sontag, S (1979) On Photography, London: Penguin
Steel,A (2006) The World’s Top Photographers and the stories behind their greatest images Photojournalism, Switzerland: Rotovision SA
War Photographer, () Directed by Christian Frei [DVD], Artefact Films
Pannack,L (2012) Laura Pannack Photography, Available at: http://laurapannack.com (Accessed: 6th November 2013)
Goodman Gallery (2012) David Goldblatt, Available at: http://www.goodman-gallery.com/artists/davidgoldblatt (Accessed: 14th November 2013)
Grosvenor,I and Hall, A (2012) ‘Back to school from a holiday in the slums!: Images, words and inequalities’ Critical Social Policy , vol 32, no 1, p11-30 [online]. Available at: http://csp.sagepub.com/content/32/1/11
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)
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)
Unknown, (2013) “Antonio Perez Rio”, in British Journal of Photography, Nov 13, p20-21
Unknown (2013) “Hereros” in British Journal of Photography, vol 160, No. 7809
Resources:
40D Canon Camera
2x 32GB CF Memory Cards
1x Card Reader
1x 500GB Hard Drive
Canon 17-85mm Lens
Sony HDR CX220E Video Camera
iPhone 4s
iPad Mini
Abode Bridge
Adobe Photoshop
10 days in The Gambia
Output/Presentation:
I am unsure of what my final presentation of the project will be. The options I am looking into are a book, or a set number of prints.
If I decide to create a book of images it will be a documentary compilation of my photographs taken during my visit to The Gambia. It will all depend on the aesthetics and power of the images on their own and as a set. If the photographs are better as an overall group or collection then a book may suit that best, however if the images are more powerful as singular or as a small series, then printing and exhibiting them could be a wiser decision. I will not know this properly until I have downloaded the images to a computer and am able to really scrutinize and analyze them.
