Friday 26 November 2010
Thursday 25 November 2010
Sofia Ajram
"Women influence my photos. Women are sexy. Women are seductive, powerful from the core in a wild way that’s virtually inexplicable. I like to document that sexuality.”
The gaze in photography is all about exploring power dynamics between people. Sofia Ajram is a believer of everything supernatural, she gives the viewer a key into a different reality, where people and landscape become one. Colour and atmosphere are key in creating a magical scene. Ajram is constructing and playing with female roles within her images, where the women are becoming something much more than just their physical presence, as the quote illustrates “Women are sexy. Women are seductive, powerful”. Ajram wants to capture true value for the women she works with, the unusual poses and compositions mean that the women is not passive, she is by far the opposite and is constructing her own “magical” identity putting the gaze back on the viewer.
In these two images, we seem to be viewing an intimate moment, by projecting images upon the scene Ajram changes the way we perceive them, she may do this by using slide projection or post production. The two people here seem to be in balance, equally in dominance together in the act of sex. They are engaged and looking directly at each other, the intra-diegetic gaze is used (3rd person) and we aren’t actively involved. As Ajram states she wants to document this sexuality. Their bodies are wrapped around each other and are physically connected, they are clothed and they are in the same extent of undress. Ajram is creating a fantasy of female identity and she is attempting to make a comment upon the emotional power which women can achieve through sexuality. Maybe Ajram is contradicting the idea of the women being passive and the man being dominant because, by placing the women in equal control of how she is being viewed and how she is the active participant in her own sexual desire.
In these two images, we seem to be viewing an intimate moment, by projecting images upon the scene Ajram changes the way we perceive them, she may do this by using slide projection or post production. The two people here seem to be in balance, equally in dominance together in the act of sex. They are engaged and looking directly at each other, the intra-diegetic gaze is used (3rd person) and we aren’t actively involved. As Ajram states she wants to document this sexuality. Their bodies are wrapped around each other and are physically connected, they are clothed and they are in the same extent of undress. Ajram is creating a fantasy of female identity and she is attempting to make a comment upon the emotional power which women can achieve through sexuality. Maybe Ajram is contradicting the idea of the women being passive and the man being dominant because, by placing the women in equal control of how she is being viewed and how she is the active participant in her own sexual desire.
The second two images are single portraits of two women. I find these beautiful, the tonal contrast and shape like composition create a graphical feel to the scene and I feel in a sense gratified by them. In the sense that they take me somewhere else, they allow me to escape the everyday. I think this is what Ajram wants to show, that we can achieve something that is above the everyday, or in her eyes supernatural. I think this idea of released desires is one of the main pleasures I gain from these images. The women in the first image is laid delicately and appears to be morphing or in a state of being, the alluring dots and black and white make this image far beyond the everyday. It is dark yet light in a sense it makes me feel as though this women is capable of anything she desires and wishes.
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The final image I think is more direct, the women`s eyes are not visible and I think this is slightly sinister. An extra-diegetic gaze is suggested (not made obvious) so I feel that myself as the viewer is being looked upon. I think for Ajram a lot of her work acts as a self expression, and possible holds an element of the cathartic. She is using imagery to create alter egos or to tell us a story which we can fill with out own dreams and wishes. I think that these images are inspirational, they are contemporary and edgy. They catch my attention and "entertain" me visually yet still manage to make me think about female identity and how it can be shaped by powerful, sexual, and equal women - in control of how they are viewed. |
Family
I wanted to select two images I produced a few years ago. These images were created in response to the genre of documentary. I staged them, and created juxtaposition which were used to heighten the theme of memory and age. I wanted to appreciate this member of my family and record this act.
Truth or Reality?
“You have to disguise things as entertainment, but still leave a message and some poignancy” – Martin Parr
The documentary genre has the status to exert power upon the viewer, this is because each artist uses their approach to attempt to represent the truth, is it up to the viewer to decide on how truthful this is to them. Hegemony is the power exerted by a dominant group over others – achieved through the use of ideology – is it fair to argue that us as photographers exert a certain power over the viewer with the image. And if so Is it possible for an image to shows us a trace of the truth?
The first image was created by Diane Arbus, a visually beautiful and alluring image. She used photography to explore her own obsessions - people. Arbus images are confrontational and often frames her subject close up and forward facing. She uses the cameras "mechanical reproduction" to visualize something which is intangible, and I feel this makes them authentic as each image delves into someone else’s world and makes the intangible tangible. The sensory experience in which the images she produces give us explore the idea of an "Aura", I feel as though the moment below is temporary and by capturing this fleeting moment the decay of time is taken away and captured forever. The preciousness of the moment here like that explored by the branch of Walter Benjamin is brought under the spotlight. Here the subject is looking into the distance, vacant expression and flag in hand, we connotate a sense of patriotism here but the contrast in the eyes of the subject raises the question of what memories, experiences and hardships shape this veterans idea of "War" and what we think it is.
Arbus makes the familiar sense of being patriotic strange. Arbus uses natural light and seems to want to make the people not the image the most important factor for the viewer. She often titles her work for instance the use of the word "freak" in one of her projects underpinned what she wanted to achieve - to uncover the familiar in the exotic. She chose people who are not "normal" who are transsexual, mentally challenged by framed them in order to shape them our of their indifferent. People may argue that she had an easy ride by selecting such subject matter but she paid the price. With her own suicide. I think this act reflects the level in which she wanted to engage with the people she met, the respect and angst she felt.But maybe what troubled her the most was the fact that photography is indexical and her own experiences can never be fully viewed without the shed of doubt being raised.
Veteran with a flag, N.Y.C. 1971
Suzanne Opton is influenced by performance in her photography work. She aims to raise debate about soldering and art. She relies on the idea of the lie to reveal something which helps us to understand the truth of something more clearly. This is a confusing concept but interesting, Opton is using image making to capture a interaction between different types of people concerned in any war effort, the soldier, the family, the citizen. It is interesting to put the two together and offer a story of the citizen with the image. This personalization tshows us that she recognizes that a portrait alone cannot fully show us the hardships faced by her sitter.
The social zeitgeist is explored by Opton as she wants to question the morality of war. By photographing all of those involved or effected by it. She looks at both sides of the effort and I feel this is a more honest and more accurate record of interpretations. Then we form our own considered from this. She attempts to deal with the truth and lie of the image by creating surreal and unusual compositions. She often objectifies her subjects head like above. Often lit using artificial light which reinforces an out of the ordinary feel. The image on the left I find visually intriguing and what Opton does is she creates a false event and uses its falseness to deal with the question whether or not whether her image is representing the truth. I get a real sense of closeness and intimacy, something I have never experienced from photos of soldiers before. And this goes back to the social relevancy because Opton is attempting to make these soldiers more than just numbers in what the mass media often make them out to be. She wants to be a force of change like Arbus, to question our expectations of people and stereotypes. However the line of contrast can be drawn upon how they attempted to achieve this, where as Arbus relied on the 'unaltered' and the detail of the untouched I think Opton represents the modern idea of what documentary has become. She alters everything and by doing this entertains our eyes with something visually stunning and alluring, but still manages to capture something we I and many others can relate to. She doesn't forget her own moral obligations.
The social zeitgeist is explored by Opton as she wants to question the morality of war. By photographing all of those involved or effected by it. She looks at both sides of the effort and I feel this is a more honest and more accurate record of interpretations. Then we form our own considered from this. She attempts to deal with the truth and lie of the image by creating surreal and unusual compositions. She often objectifies her subjects head like above. Often lit using artificial light which reinforces an out of the ordinary feel. The image on the left I find visually intriguing and what Opton does is she creates a false event and uses its falseness to deal with the question whether or not whether her image is representing the truth. I get a real sense of closeness and intimacy, something I have never experienced from photos of soldiers before. And this goes back to the social relevancy because Opton is attempting to make these soldiers more than just numbers in what the mass media often make them out to be. She wants to be a force of change like Arbus, to question our expectations of people and stereotypes. However the line of contrast can be drawn upon how they attempted to achieve this, where as Arbus relied on the 'unaltered' and the detail of the untouched I think Opton represents the modern idea of what documentary has become. She alters everything and by doing this entertains our eyes with something visually stunning and alluring, but still manages to capture something we I and many others can relate to. She doesn't forget her own moral obligations.
Friday 19 November 2010
Visual Response
I created these three images in response to the topic of surveillance & voyeurism in today’s society. I took the images without the knowledge of the subjects and wanted to capture a sense of being a voyeur. Also looking at the sense that we are always being watched whether we are aware of this or not.
Visual Thoughts
Visual Thoughts
Critical Studies. Panopticism & Photography.
Panopticism is the social theory developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault. It is interesting to consider how surveillance and society affect our behaviour, this is because of the effect it has on our human consciousness. A simple example are CCTV cameras, always watching and constantly around us represent a institutional gaze. The panopticon is a symbol of how this power is played on by those in power (the few) over the many.
In photography surveillance and voyeurism are two concepts which explore the idea of an internalisation. The idea that we as photographers can begin to watch ourselves through the eyes of those watching. Where do the boundaries between surveillance and voyeurism begin and end? Surveillance describes an act of detached observation which is both unmotivated and passive, where as voyeurism is a person who gains sexual pleasure from watching others. The contrast between the two show is that one is of a ’deviant’ nature and one is accepted as the 'norm'.
The following images have been selected with the exhibition 'Exposed' in mind (http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/exposure/default.shtm). Each photographer was part of the exhibition but these images have been brought together from work created outside of this.
The following images have been selected with the exhibition 'Exposed' in mind (http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/exposure/default.shtm). Each photographer was part of the exhibition but these images have been brought together from work created outside of this.
Helmut Newton.
This first image by Newton captures a beautiful model posed provokingly in front of a TV. If we read into these connotations I get the sense that this women is escaping the idea of performing for a institutional gaze, by juxtaposing the subject with the TV the women is placed in a status of power. She is all knowing, she is seen watching and seeing what the person in the TV is doing, whereas behind closed doors she is being who she wants to be and baring all. By photographing this image however Newton contradicts this because us as viewers are exposed to her act, I think this contradiction forces us to question our own internalisation and behaviour in society. I think people may raise concern with the objectification of the women; however I get the feeling of sexual freedom and beauty which I think is what Newton wanted to portray here.
Nan Goldin
Self Portrait with Dickie, The York Motel, NJ 1980.
This second piece offers a different unusual reading. Nan Goldin exposes her own body and the photographer is placed directly into the frame. In 1973 she held her first solo exhibition exploring gay and transsexual identity. Her work brings to the forefront people and ideas we may not view to be in the 'norm' of society. Here photography's direct manner is clear, a sexual act seems to be playing out and this puts the viewer into a uncomfortable situation. I think the photographer wants to question the ease in which our activities can now be watched and accessed, but also about the morality around what this image is ultimately achieving. Has she gone too far? Newton used a subject to convey his message where as here Goldin places herself directly under the spotlight. I feel she is connecting with us more provokingly by immersing herself into the issue. This also raises the question about ethics documentary photography.
Robbert Mapplethorpe
Plate 99. Untitled (Eddie) 1973.
Robbert Mapplethropes work is controversial with his subject matter and also how directly he attempts to communicate to the viewers. I think the mirror here is symbolic of a reflection upon oneself, I think this represents the idea of an internalisation. Here the subject is looking upon his self naked, reflecting but we know not what of. I think here Mapplethorpe is allowing the viewer to place himself in the soul of the sitter, by actively introducing the mirror as a visual barrier, we break this down by placing our own identity and emotions into the image. It is similar in framing like that of Goldins yet the mirror offers a different angle upon the topic. Are we meant to feel like a voyeur here?
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