Semester B: Discourse Work
Duane Michals is a self-taught American photographer. I came across some of his work last semester and instantly became a fan of his unique and completely originial approach to photography. The way he never limits himself to just photography means he can create pieces of work that are full of emotion. In one of his books, "House I Once Called Home", he goes back to the house he grew up in which is now empty and falling apart. Yet this photo essay is not just about documenting this house, Michals photographs places that match his old family photos and the book is full of handwritten poetry and memories.
What I like about his work is his subject matter and ideas. Through his photographs he questions life and death creating these fascinating images. One in particular I remember is a series of his grandmother called "Death Comes to the Old Lady", in which a dark blurry figure can be seen getting nearer to her within each frame. It maybe a subject most photographers would avoid but Michals confronts it directly. It found it even more remarkable that he had infact used his father as "death". The idea that the younger generation is playing death and closing in on the old makes you think and question it.
Below is an image that reminds of it, although this one shows a young child and his called "The Bogeyman". To me it represents just what Michals is about. It portrays his love of photographing the unusual yet also shows he doesn't take himself too seriously as alot of his images are meant to be seen as comical.
Here are another two of my favourite Duane Michals images. On the left, the use of a double exposure has meant the subject matter has appeared twice in the frame. It also gives it that ghostly feel to it, especially with him being seen in the mirror, like he is looking onto the scene. The silhouette on the right is interesting, and I like the contrast of the black and white and how he appears to be disappearing.
I would suggest looking more at Michals work, and if you can you should watch the section on the "Contacts 2" DVD where he talks about his work.
Image Credits:
1. Livingstone, M. (1997). The Essential Duane Michals. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd
2. Livingstone, M. (1997). The Essential Duane Michals. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd
3. Michals, D. (Unknown). Joseph Cornell. [Online image]. Available at: http://www.pdngallery.com/legends3/michals/art/photos_large/joseph_cornell.jpg (Accessed: 10 May 2008).
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I think for me as someone who has a fear of the sea, I find his images particularly intriguing. They’re beautiful, full of life and colour, yet I also get a sense of danger from them. This image below for example I find absolutely amazing to look at, the whole situation and composition is fascinating. Yet the image of the shark and the young boy together worries you.
What I also like about Doubilet’s work is his use of split level photography. How the image is divided in two is interesting in itself, yet what Doubilet does is makes sure they is something on each side of the split. It gives the photo depth and shows the contrast between the sea life and the world above it.
I consider these two images some of my favourites. The striking white against the dark water in the left image and the boldness of the blues in the one on the right are typical of a Doubilet photograph.
I found this quote by Doubilet speaking about underwater photography in general.
“Diver-photographers look like strange, horrible, alien beasts. And they have this immense death-ray contraption in front of them that makes flashes, and the creature’s main desire is to flee, to run away from this enormous thing that’s chasing it.” 1
1. Doubilet, D. (2006). Water Light Time. London: Phaidon.
3. Doubilet, D. (1996). Baby Green Turtle, Marutea Atoll, French Polynesia. [Online]. Available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/louchart/Photographie/photo#5073301265244731330 (Accessed: 10 May 2008).
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Leading up to her suicide in 1971, Diane Arbus was a key figure in photography. Her portraits of the unconventional made her work controversial not only then but even still today.
Arbus is mainly known for her very straight and direct style of photography. Her images showed the reality of society in a very blunt and honest way. She dedicated her work on documenting those on the edge of society, either it is transvestites or dwarfs, it would seem they were all willing to step in front of the camera for her, ready to show the world their face.
(Left:) King and Queen of a Senior Citizens Dance (Right:) Two ladies at the automat, N.Y.C.
While I was researching for this blog, I came across these two images that I hadn't seen before. I liked how they were similar, yet were completely different. The similarity was in the subject matter and composition, but what differs the two images from each other is their social class. Although they are separate images, I think as a pair they are interesting and reflect the time in which they were shot.
However, I am personally not a fan of Diane Arbus. Although I do appreciate her work and understand how important she is within the photographic world, I find her images within this series rather similar. To me, I find what makes her images so iconic is her subject matter which from what I understand she was not totally in control of. Although you could say she was, in a way of she chose them but not in how they were or their situation. I think she could be seen as exploiting those with abnormalities. It also means the main reason for the pictures success is down to the fact that the people within them were “controversial”. Yet this idea of photographing those considered not normal was not something new and neither was it the last time someone has done it. Yet I admire her for how she was able to photograph these people up close, I think for this reason only could I consider her work as something of importance to me personally, especially as it was not something usually done at the time.
Image Credits:
1. Arbus, D. (1970). King and Queen of a Senior Citizens Dance N.Y.C. [Online image]. Available at: http://www.culturevulture.net/ArtandArch/Arbus.htm (Accessed: 07 May 2008).
2. Arbus, D. (1966). Two ladies at the automat, N.Y.C. [Online image]. Available at: http://www.culturevulture.net/ArtandArch/Arbus.htm (Accessed: 07 May 2008).
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Post modernism is based upon modernism, in the sense that it challenges its concepts and is critical of its ideas. It can also be seen as using humour within its images. The uses of parodies and irony within the movement are persistent, as well as the use of appropriation and borrowing of ideas from others.
Just like with modernism, post modernism also has its key photographers. Cindy Sherman first comes to mind, especially with her work on film stills. In the 1970’s, Sherman took well known and very stereotypical shots from films and re-shot them. This can not only be seen as ‘borrowing’ from earlier films but it also considered post modern because of how see turned the camera on herself and became the model as well as the photographer. At the time, it was almost unique, especially with the amount of stills she did and how long each shot must have took to get ready for.
Left: Gursky is an example of how repetition is used within post modern photographyRight: Prince’s work is an example of how post modern photographers ‘borrow’ things, and in this case a scene, and re-use it in their own work
3. Prince, R. (1989). Untitled (Cowboy). [Online image]. Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pcgn/ho_2000.272.htm (Accessed: 24 April 2008)
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Modernism is based on social change and looks at technology and the industrial revolution. It looks to something new and focuses on the world of tomorrow. In photography, it brought about the style of straight photography and movements such as surrealism. All of a sudden, different angles were being used, as well as the idea of repetition.
A well known modernist photographer is Edward Weston. His famous pepper photographs were very different to how a pepper would have been photographed then. Yet turning something that’s familiar into something that looks out of the ordinary was also part of the whole modernism movement.
Another photography who was part of this was Paul Strand. As an American photographer whose works span across many decades and continents, he is known as one of the greatest of the movement. His style of straight photography focused on things that would not usually be photographed, yet he made them the key element of the photograph. His image of the White Picket Fence displays how he decided to compose the image, when instead most photographers would have used the house as the main subject matter.
Image Credits:
1. Weston, E. (Unknown). Pepper #30. [Online image]. Available at: http://caraphillips.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/weston_pepper_number30.jpg (Accessed: 24 April 2008)
2. Strand, P. (1916). White Fence. [Online image]. Available at: http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=26094&rendTypeId=4 (Accessed: 24 April 2008).
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Semiotics is the study of signs which is a fascinating subject, especially when living in a world full of signs as we do today. After reading the book, “The Basics: Semiotics”, I felt that this quote best described what it is in it’s simplest form:
“Semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as ‘signs’ in everyday speech, but of anything which ‘stands for’ something else. In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and objects.” 1
The whole idea and study of semiotics is based upon the works of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Peirce, who are seen as the co-founders of semiotics. Although their theories on the subject differ slightly, their work has been grouped together to form a more overall study of semiotics. It’s something of which I think is useful, especially within photography. After looking at semiotics, you do become more aware of what you see and also how it can influence you into what you include within your own photographs.
Lastly, I found this another interesting point from the book:
“To decline the study of signs is to leave to others the control of the world of meanings which we inhabit” 2
Even if we choose not to see these meanings and signs, they will still be there and we will still take them in, just subconsciously rather than being fully aware of what we see and hear.
Here is a video I found on YouTube quite useful as an introduction to semiotics. It looks at both Saussure and Peirce and gives an overview as what semiotics actually is.
1. Chandler, D. (2007). The Basics: Semiotics. 2nd ed. London: Routledge , pp. 2.
2. Chandler, D. (2007). The Basics: Semiotics. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, pp 10.
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Yet the name Fellig means nothing to most people, as he was known then and even now as Weegee, a nicknamed he acquired through his ability to arrive at scenes within minutes of the crime and usually before the authorities arrived. This and the fact that he was the only reporter with a permit to have a portable police radio1; he became one of the best photojournalists of his time. He even drove around with a fully functional darkroom in the back of his car as to get his work into the press faster.
As primarily a night time photographer, this is a somewhat rare daytime photograph. It features a recent car accident victim but Weegee himself actually set up the shot by adding the steering wheel in the victim’s hand. I think his use of irony in the photo is clever, especially with how he has frozen the two speeding cars in the background. (1939)
Weegee eventually moved on from crime scenes and went onto experimenting with films, panoramic and manipulations. Just like I mentioned in my last blog, Weegee also did all his editing in the darkroom, making these images really quite impressive. I think this is true even more so when you realise that he actually had no formal training in the subject and he was just in fact a self taught photographer.
An example of some of Weegee's later work on the people of New York City (1947)
1. Unknown. (2008). Weegee. [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weegee (Accessed: 17 April 2008).
Image Credits:
Purcell, KW. (2004). Weegee. London: Phaidon.
Stettner, L. (ed.) (1977). Weegee. New York: Knopf.
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