space framed

Monday, February 8, 2010

As a start to this week's research, here Robert Adams discusses photograph selection and presentation.

Space Framed Week 4

Next Week, we will discuss the journey in the work of 3 photographers: Robert Frank, Walker Evans & Robert Adams.
Sarah & Orla will be takingWalker Evans' book 'American Photographs', plus essays on it.
Brian, Su & John will be looking at Robert Frank's 'The Americans', plus 'Looking in: Robert Frank's the Americans', ed by Sarah Greenough (esp first essay by Sarah Greenough: Zurich to NY)
Stefan, Caroline & Luke have opted for Robert Adams 'New Topographics' (esp main essay by Britt Salvesen)
All of the books are on temporary reserve in the library until next week.

When looking at the books, try to address two issues:
-How are the photographers observing and recording the relationships between people and their surroundings; how are they framing inhabited space and what reading does this give us?
- How are these photographs presented to us, how are they selected, edited, ordered and printed, and what do these further processes tell us?

During the week, try to post any extra information you find on the blog, to aid the discussion next Monday @ 11.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Stefan Storz

Henri Carier-Bresson

Children playing in Ruins

Seville, Spain, 1933

The reason i chose this picture is because it affected my emotion in a different way.

When i started to consider the picture i got the feeling that the time stands still, nothing happens. The ruins are lying around, there is no evidence of rebuilding them. The children are standing around, waiting or playing with the ruins but there is no evidence of an atmosphere of departure.

Afterwards i started to consider the expression of the children faces. In some faces you can see a sadness and a desperation that appears to reflect the devastation of past happenings. I myself can could feel the hopelessness and sadness.

When i considered the expression of the children in the forground. i get the impression that these children are curious, looking into the camera without fear of what is to come. Because of that i started to think about the future of these children and this situation. I realized that only young boys are shown in the photograpy, no adults and no girls. These children are young, they are able to start a fresh and to rebuild their lives. Because of this i feel hopeful for these children and i also begin to think i would like to help them and further understand their situation.

Something stopped me going futher in. I realized that i have had this impression the whole time, but i couldn’t find out what caused this. The wall is a barrier stopping me from entering into the story captured by the photographer. The hole in the wall has created a distance between the contemplator and the picture. It is also responsible for the deepness in the picture and it gives the picture a better and stronger focus of the story.

And i also think that the children are devided in three different groups of character by the wall.

The children in the foreground seem curious and more open, the children in the middle ground appear afraid, hanging around and don’t no what to do and the children in the backround - they are playing with stones against each other and two of them are standing there with a stone in their hand and looking directly in the camera as if they want to warn the photographer.

Even though i knew that the picture was taken in the 1933s, I get the feeling that this picture is timeless, it could also has been taken yesterday.

Joel Sternfeld

McLean, Virginia, December 1978

At first glance I found this photograph beguiling. A fireman buying a pumpkin while a house blazes in the backround - in December. This image appears in Sternfeld's most known book, American Prospects (1978). The book explores the irony of human-altered landscapes in the United States.

It was later revealed that the fire in this image was no accident but part of a practical training exercise carried out by the local MVFD. What is important is that there was no prior arrangement between the MVFD and Sternfeld to have this photograph taken. Sternfeld came upon the scene mid-afternoon, set up the 8x10 he had stored in his car and captured the image. Chance favours the prepared mind and Sternfeld in this case happened to be in the right place at the right time. The setting, season and time of day are all important aspects of this images's formation.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Garry Winogrand

Texas state fair, Dallas, 1964.

A photographers eye captures something that no one else sees, composed or a split second, a message is translated and highlighted on film. Significance is unfortunately commonly related to the scale of events, however capturing it in the reality of everyday is something far more profound. Being able to identify those fleeting moments but more importantly capturing and being able to share them requires a eye that is rooted in the celebration of the habitual.

With the eyes of the fair focused on the main event Garry Winogrand notices the significance of a man holding his steer. The steer swinging his head and tongue at the handler statson, a split second of symmetry is created and captured on a static piece of film. As quickly as the moment arose it dissolves back into the chaos of the fair. The steer gazes at the camera, like a model posing, capturing the limelight. Its youth and energy frustrating it’s exhausted but experienced handler, but like a father and child the issue of control is firm established.

"I like to think of photographing as a two-way act of respect. Respect for the medium, by letting it do what it does best, describe. And respect for the subject, by describing as it is. A photograph must be responsible to both."

Garry Winogrand

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Broadway Convertible, New York, by Louis Faurer c.1949

Out of all of the photographs in the "Picturing New York"exhibition portraying the city in so many different ways, this photograph stood out to me because it portrays the city in a way that I have personally experienced it. Like the many people who go to New York for the first time, the feeling of excitement and awe is captured in this image. It, for me has a nostalgic dimension, very similar to a song you hear which reminds you of an event, a person or an experience in your past. In that way, a photograph, any photograph for that matter, can have so many unforeseeable and unimaginable effects on the viewer in addition to anything the photographer is trying to portray.

Louis Fraurer moved from Philadelphia to New York in 1947 where he met Robert Frank, a Swiss photographer. They quickly discovered a shared alienation from postwar America, along with a disdain for the cutthroat monde de mode. Frauer worked at a fashion photographer for more then twenty years but its his personal work from the '40s, '50s, and '60s for which he is best remembered. He photographed the streets of New York and Philadelphia, capturing the restless energy of urban life. Faurer experimented with blur, grain, double exposures, sandwiched negatives, reflections, slow film speeds, and low lighting to achieve the effects he was seeking. As exacting in the darkroom as he was in the field, he was notorious for being a tireless perfectionist when it came to cropping and printing his work.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Just to add to Alice's note, I think of the six episodes of Genius, the two most useful to watch would be Paper Movies and Documents for Artists, although it is all very good. Someone might check if there is already a dvd copy on reserve in the library as I remember putting it on reserve at some point..

Hugh

Space Framed Week 3

To aid and abet our proposed group discussion on the history of Photography on 8 Feb @ 11, the assignment this week is to watch 'The Genius of Photography', a BBC documentary. Most of this can be found online, and we will post some links to particularly relevant parts on the blog. It is a good idea to watch as much of this as possible, as it gives a good, broad introduction to the subject.

Also, following on from the posts last week, post your chosen image from 'Picturing New York' to the blog, plus a brief verbal description in time for the discussion next week.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Idaho 1972, Lee Friedlander

Together with figures such as Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander transformed American documentary photography in the 1960's. By the late 1970's he was widely seen as one of the most penetrating photographers of American cities. In Friedlander’s images, surfaces are frequently broken, disrupted, or complicated; objects jut forward, obscuring others. Mirrors and windows reflect and refract events already in flux. Through his oblique take on the social and visual fabric of townscapes, unexpected patterns and social processes emerge.
I choose this image because I liked the interruption of the wing mirror in the picture. I gives another dimension to the picture, placing the photographer and therefore, the viewer in relation to the landscape. The picture is divided in three parts, showing three different images of the same landscape. The view to the left and right of the wing mirror could be conceived as two completely different photographs but the cloud in the sky connects the two together, almost assuring the viewer that it is only one image.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Space Framed Week 2

We'll meet at reception to the 'Picturing New York' exhibition at IMMA at 4pm on Tuesday 02 Feb.
Have a photograph from the exhibition selected for the group discussion.
Some books to look at:
'Picturing New York' - Catalogue of the exhibition on Temporary Reserve in the Library
'Bystander - A History of Street Photography' - Colin Westerbeck & Joel Meyerowitz
'Life is good and good for you in New York' - William Klein

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Hartford, 1979

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

I think this is one of the most powerful images I've seen. It seems almost solidly still - calmly banal but filled with emotion. This picture doesn't attack or offend or shock, but it screams a silence at me. We see a man, staring out a window. He seems entirely detached from his surroundings, searching, beyond our view. We see a man that seems an icon of american society, a pioneer of that american dream. Dressed in suit and tie, early or late, with coffee and cigarette he is here, at this moment, searching for something else. Here, we see a man that is sad.

I find myself following his gaze. I notice a tree creeping into the frame. Looking closely, I see there are little buds - it must be spring. It looks black against the fading sun. Then I notice a potted plant in the man's house, an all year green lit yellow in an artificial light.

The man lives higher than his neighbours. The staging of the photograph places us at an imaginary point, floating outside his apartment, looking at him, who in turn is looking for something else. The brick facade of his apartment takes over half of our framed view - takes priority over the natural world in the background.

Otto Steinert

I chose the photograph “A Pedestrian Walking” by Otto Steinert, taken in 1951 in Paris. Steinert was a founding member of Fotoform and throughout his life espoused the idea of “subjective photography”, which values the photographer's personal interpretation and vision, often in abstract forms, over documentary realism. While personally I believe that both forms of photography is important I do think that the photograph highlights the fact that the medium can go beyond simply framing a snapshot of a moment in time, to creating images that one simply cannot otherwise see.

The photograph is impressive on a technical level for the difficulty involved with getting the right shutter speed to blur just the body of the pedestrian while leaving his leg sharp, and I believe is excellently composed with the solidity of the tree contrasting the pedestrian. Though the image is composed of mundane everyday objects - footpath, road, tree and pedestrian, it is framed in such as way as to create abstract shapes with them, and ironically, while the photograph captures movement, the overall image feels static.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Peter Buckley

This is a photo by Peter Buckley from 1957. It is part of a series taken in Bilbao to capture the drama of a Bullfight.

I chose this picture for a few reasons. Firstly, i really like the strong stylized composition of the photo, the steep triangular form created by the two figures and the contrasts between the two.

I also like the drama of the narrative and the action in the picture. The arrogant pose of the fighter as he leads the bull behind his back and the look of surprise on the bulls face as he realizes that he has been tricked. There is also the realization that this is near the end of the fight, with the Bullfighter in control, and Buckley captures an almost 'human-like' expression on the bulls face, as if the bull himself realizes that the fight is lost.

Thomas Struth
“Paradise 9”

I chose a photograph by Thomas Struth from the book “The Nature of Photographs”. It is part of his “Paradise 9” series. I chose this photograph because it revealed to me how photographs do not have to portray a specific image of an object but can infact let your mind reflect on the image and come to its own conclusions. Thomas Struth took this photo and others of the jungles of Australia, Japan and China. However he took it with the notion in mind that he was not portraying a specific place or country, rather just a scene that could be located in numerous places. The photo presents a kind of empty space, allowing the observer more room for inward contemplation. There is no context, social or cultural, to be discovered. He has changed the use of the photograph. It is called an “opaque” photo.

Space Framed Week 1

We touched on some interesting subjects in our first discussion.
Prior to our visit next week to IMMA to see & discuss 'Picturing New York', it would be good to post our initial photographic selection with a brief description on why we chose it.

Parade - Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955. Gelatin silver print; 8 3/8 x 12 3/4 cm. Robert Frank - From The Americans

I chose the above photograph.

The building offers the women a safe vantage point to view the parade, removing them from the action. They are passive observers but their faces and expressions are obscured from the observer and each other– by their building and their flag. There is a sense of dis-connection.

The photograph is, I feel, a combination of a snatched moment of time (perhaps it was momentary that the flag blew in such a way while they were standing in adjoining windows) and carefully considered framing. The selection of this frame exposed a spatial relationship but also clearly communicates something of Frank's observations on American life.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

SPACE FRAMED 2010: PHOTOGRAPHY & THE HUMAN HABITAT

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Julius Schulman - Visual Acoustics

This documentary on Julius Schulman is showing in the IFI on Wednesday 4 Nov @ 6.30pm....
Well worth a look...!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Photochrom

The Library of Congress has an outstanding collection of Photochroms dating from 1890s-early 1900s.
These are not colour photographs, but ink-based photolithographs.
They were primarily used as travel-postcards, but still serve as an example of beautifully composed landscape and city photography.

Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin.

Klampenborg Hermitage with view of the park, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Loen, Kjendalskroenebrae, Nordfjord, Norway.

Gols Church with Hovenstuen and Staburet, Christiania, Norway.

Fingal's Cave, Scotland

The road from Eide to Voss, Hardanger Fjord, Norway

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Encounters

'What is a camera? "why do people take photographs?" I am always brought back to this very basic question when I take photographs or think about photography.'
- Daido Moriyama

As part of 'A Day in the Light' workshop for now what?, we were talking about how to photograph a place that has been photographed and re-photographed countless times by tourists...Mohammedreza Mirzaei's 'The Encounters 2007-08' came to mind.
Here, he addresses this by photographing the tourists who are in turn photographing the place...

"What emerges is the idea that people seem locked into their insatiable craving to take pictures while on holiday more so than the actual experience of the spectacle itself."
-Tim Clark, Editor and director of 1000 words

"Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs. The very activity of taking pictures is soothing, and assuages feelings of disorientation that are likely to be exacerbated by travel."
- Susan Sontag - On Photography (1977):