Examples of imagery

These are the examples of imagery that I included alongside my dissertation writing. These are images of sad, sick and malnourished African children and an example of the types of imagery that I do not want to create in my work.
The feelings and thoughts that these images evoke are not what I want my photographs to create.

Personally, when I look at these images I instantly feel sorry for the children, I feel a great sense of shame as if it is my fault that they are in the state that they are in.

It is wrong that children and babies have to be in this state at all but I feel that after 30+ years of being subjected to this imagery we as a nation should be able to also celebrate the change that has been made and we should be shown images of happy children as well.

http://www.imaging-famine.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Daily-Mirror-2008_small.jpg

 When Band Aid happened, showing these images was a great success and caused hundreds of people to act on it and donate money to help some of these children. However, now I personally think that people are bored of seeing the same imagery, people become immune to it and are not longer moved enough to act on what they see.

http://www.imaging-famine.org/blog/index.php/tag/the-guardian/

 Of course, children are still like this in some areas of Africa and that is so totally not fair to them. But in the west something has to change in order for people to become caring again. If we were shown more happy and uplifting imagery, with this visual information slotted in then it would shock people all over again, it would make people notice and help.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253655/Band-Aid-image-starving-children-Africa-warns-Oxfam-charity-says-people-longer-moved-continents-problems.html

I also just feel that it is only fair to the African children themselves to show another side of them. They are represented as sick and malnourished and sad .. but that is not their entire being. Some of them do go to school, they are loved, they have friends, they appreciate what they do have in life and they celebrate that.


A recent advertisement that has been shown is by Oxfam. It is titled 'Lift lives for good' and can be found at the following address - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2zymuD83aM
The music in this advert is uplifting, children are smiling and it is showing us how we can make a change without the need for showing children crying and in hospital. It shows them in school, at home doing chores for the family, etc.
After watching this video I personally feel much more inclined to donate and help then I do from looking at such depressing and sickening imagery.

Response to Dissertation..

Within my dissertation I argued that we have been shown the same images of African children since the 1980's. The imagery that we see is mostly of sick, malnourished and sad children. I feel that this is wrong.

 

Fienberg, G (2012), “Viewpoint: A time to stop giving?” BBC, 19^th December 2012 [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20762278 (Accessed: 18th February 2014) 

 I want my images to respond to this visually. I want to be a part of making a change to the imagery that is shown in the western world of African children. 

I feel that by printing my images and framing then in exhibition will do this much more successfully than hiding them away in a book.

When I was in The Gambia photographing children, I found that quite often the children would be running around and enjoying time playing with their friends and siblings, and including myself in their games. However, as soon as the camera was pointed towards them the facial expressions changed almost instantly. This did not happen with all of the children,  but it was very obvious with a few, especially the boys. They would do peace signs with their hands and pull stern sharp face expressions. Many didn't understand the 'smile at the camera' directions. 

I think perhaps it is a mixture of things. One thing that I thought could sway this occurrence is that they know where the imagery might end up, and that if they do not smile then people will feel sorry for them and send them presents/sponsor them/give them money.

Another is that they didn't understand. They don't have mirrors in their houses, as it is not an essential.. therefore a lot of them don't know what they look like. Therefore somebody taking a photograph of them and showing them is the same as us looking in the mirror, it is just not instant for them. They then don't see the change in smile to frown or stern face, and most probably then don't know how it changes their personal appearance.

This could be the reason for there being so much imagery of African children looking so unhappy and upset. However, I still don't agree with the way that those images are being used in the West.

Book research

Edwards, E (2001) Raw Histories, Oxford: Berg

P16 says "...the material forms in which photographs are arranged, how they are printed and viewed, as albums, lantern slides, or mounted prints, is integral to their phenomenological engagement, structuring visual knowledge as well as those related human actions in modes of viewing."

This is saying that the way an image is presented ultimately structures the way that a viewer will see it, how they will understand it and the information that they will take away from the photograph that they are viewing. Human nature, is to impart our own understanding onto that image as well so it is really important that this is considered when the arrangement and presentation of work is being decided.
It is something that I will be massively considering when printing, framing and showing my photographs of the African children. I don't want to do it without any thought, because these are human beings, they are children - they deserve some respect and I really feel that by using their photographs in a resepctful way I will also be respecting and loving them at the same time.

This project holds a real emotional connection for me and I just want to get it right ! I want to do them the justice that they so very much deserve!!

P17 says, "Performances, like photographs, embody meaning through signifying properties, and are deliberate, conscious efforts to represent, to say something about something."

This also directly links to my project because for me it really is a conscious effort to represent and say something about the African children.

How do I present my work ?

I am in a debate with myself over whether to present my images as a book or as prints.

I want to include the child's name as caption to the photograph, which is easier in a book.
However, my project is about giving the children a voice, making them a person.

In a book, the images would be hidden away behind the front cover. Somebody has to physically pick up the book, choose to look through it and even then the photographs are limited in size and so I question whether the viewer will be able to connect with the child that they are looking at.

If I print the photographs largely, they are there visible to anybody who is walking by. In this world, we are bombared with imagery and campaign media of starving sick children, why?! My images show that they are happy, smiling, getting on with life as they know how to. Why can't I bombard viewers in a gallery space with my images?

When the photographs are hung in the gallery, the caption with it will be the child's name.


A book, however is a physically thing. You can handle it, touch it, smell it, hold it as close to your face as you want to... so maybe that is more of a connection?

I don't know !!!

Book/ Prints/ Book/ Prints/ Book ?!?!?!!

Research

I found this statement which I feel fits my work so well. Walker (2009) says.. 'When a photograph - enters into a montage relationship with either a caption, text, another picture, or a particularly potent display context, then a 'third-effect' meaning can be generated from that juxtaposition which was not inherent in either of the terms seen in isolation.'


Each image and the text that is included in my piece of work has its own meaning but when it is combined together it gains a new meaning and effect that isn't present in the single image.

Extra layer

I still feel like the work needs another layer in it to smooth it all out a little bit. I think that a photo of the sea would help to smooth the sky and the sea and kind of merge it all into one. I don't want all of the layers to stand out as being layers so they need to merge together a little more.

I have this image:

Which I Photoshopped the boat and birds out of to make this:

Which sits perfectly as a merging layer to smooth things out and make it look a lot neater. It makes the colours more milky which stop one standing out more than another.

Extra layers

Looking back through my images of the roots trip and gambia, 2 things stood out as being important. Most of the images I took were of the trees and relics of the island as that is what interested me and engaged me at the time. However I also took these 2 images:

 I can't remember what this flag stood for and I can't find it online - I'm an idiot and my brain is like a sieve at the moment. But it was joined with a statue which represented the end of slavery, so it is something to do with the abolition of slavery and a symbol that The Gambian people would not be slaves again. This is a really important thing to The Gambians, as well as important to the roots tour and the history of the town and island. Therefore, it links in really well to this piece of work.

The island still has these cannons around the edge of the island, which are obviously not needed but are an integral piece of history linked to the island. I pressume that they are the same ones that were there when the slaves were there, but nobody told us that and we weren't told any different. They are eroding, but I thought they were quite beautiful pieces of work and created a juxtaposition against the idyllic seascape.



When I placed both of these images into the work, it created a distinct line down the middle of the tree. I didn't want to stretch either image to full size, so i placed them both on one sheet. I really didn't like that the join was so visible through the tree, so I edited them in Photoshop so that it was just the cannon and the flag.

This works much better like this because there are no protruding lines down the middle of the page looking ugly. It is more smooth and when layered it looks a lot neater and more considered.