Evidence
Evidence in my opinion is the the proof of somethings existence as well as the the documentation of a process in a way. The synonyms of evidence are such as "verification" and "authentication" which are words that I personally would associate with the word evidence. In my opinion photographs are a way of documenting evidence as it isolates a singular moment of a way of doing something.
"Evidence" the book
The book "Evidence" was created by Mandel and Sultan and the I personally believe that the book was named "Evidence" due to the work being evidence from certain stages of things that large companies are using in modern day. I believe that the choice of using no captions means that there is a sense of mystery to the piece of work
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The photographs above are pieces of work from the book "evidence" which did not have any captions which creates a sense of mystery but the work above have come from large companies archive so it is a mystery as none of the images are linked to any company.
From 10:40 the video talks about the book "evidence" which is interesting to listen to as it brings up many points that I didn't initially think of and that constantly intrigued me to do more
From 10:40 the video talks about the book "evidence" which is interesting to listen to as it brings up many points that I didn't initially think of and that constantly intrigued me to do more
"Evidence" and its importance
The book Evidence is something that I have recently been introduced and I can see the effects that it has had on the photographing world beginning with how the work can be manipulated in a way even if it is not originally yours you can recreate it in a way and it will become yours. Evidence has made a large impact on the world of photography and the quote below shows proof of that.
“All images are excessive and enigmatic. That is their essential condition. For reasons both technical and social, photography was responsible for a quantum intensification of this essence. The camera always captured more than anyone wanted, more than anyone could be held responsible for. Of course, it rarely seemed that way. As soon as photography had been invented steps were taken to contain its wildness: the explanatory and reassuring caption, the instructive sequence, the album, the forced laws of genre. But none of these containments hold fast forever. Eventually a photograph works itself loose and even the simplest, most functional document will burst wide open.”
-- David Campany, discussing Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa’s ‘All My Gone Life’, 2016
If difficult to see it says:
INTRODUCTIONS for photographing a photograph a. Photograph the photograph so that light is reflected on its surface, partially obscuring the subject b. Photograph the photograph with someone else's hand (holding, pointing, obscuring etc) c. Photograph the photograph in an unusual place. d. Photograph the photograph inside a book. Consider the relationship between the photograph and the adjacent text/image(s) e. Photocopy the photograph you may do this in any way you like. Photograph the photocopy. f. Disrupt the photograph in some way. You may use simple tools to help you. Photograph the damaged/disrupted photograph. |
Evidence 2.0
Above are two attempts on the instructions provided as well as manipulations on it which was really simple but fun to enjoy.
What I have learnt so far
Within the last few lessons I have learnt a few things beginning with how important the book "evidence" and in my opinion it is one of the most important books in photography history due to how it has been constructed which is quite smart in a way due to it being quite mysterious which always creates a sense on inquisitiveness for me. Also I have been learning about how important it is to successfully calibrate my camera and the affect that it will have on my work.
Intresting features about "Beyond Evidence"
- The main focus of Evidence was to find single usage or context photos and then forming an entire book whilst keeping the reviewer of the book interested by finding new ways of creating visual stories.
- I found it interesting that there's the constant thought that the creators of "Evidence" was testing the ability for the photograph to tell a story.
- The book is constantly called a seminal book within the history. Which I found interesting as the definition of seminal is that it "strongly influencing later developments."
- The book "evidence" apparently created a whole new culture in photography which shows the impact that one piece of work can have.
- The way that the work is described to have created a new narratives by choosing a new order for the work to be displayed in especially since the work came from numerous archives from hundreds of companies and governments.
- What I find incredibly interesting is how the creators of "evidence" gained access to the government archives as well as the businesses archives and if they choses the images or were they given a selected lot of images.
- The the way that the work has been described to of been "recontextualized" fascinates me as there are numerous ways for it to be dictated but still there is a clear outcome from each perspective.
- The so called "hyper-links" intrigue me to do deeper research into the work as the links are not so obvious to me.
- The ways that the book is linking in numerous methods showing new ways of presenting images has intrigued me as watch the video.
- In the video the book is described to have its own different strategies of questioning how you look at things which has made my way of looking at photographs a bit more intriguing.
The Exploration To Find Joy
All the photos above are by me but the dates of each of them are different as I decided to use some from the distant past and then some that I created recently but none of them are from the same day which allows a way of seeing how time goes on but somethings are constantly the same thing which can be determined by many things but also the story can be reorganised to create a completely new story.
The Grey Area
In this day and age there is a lot of manipulation with photographs with features such as photoshop which allows people to completely change what you are able to see within an images so at this point in history people are going to be the least trustful with the news even if it contains images as many people will either stage the image or use photoshop to completely create a new image. In the 21st century there is often doctoring for the images as there will be things removed causing for there to be something completely different. At this moment in time it is quite difficult for documentary photography due to the constant manipulation of images making it hard for people to believe that the image is un-edited as well as people will be payed to go and take images about a certain things so many things will not be undocumented. The grey area (between fact and fiction) is something that many photographers should explore as it allows for people to freely use things that are real as well as things that do not exist with the grey area people should just mess around and change things within the image. The phrase "documentary uncertainty" means that the images that have been taken may or may not be true as people are unable to fully trusting of what happened especially since the addition the manipulation of images.
WWW:
for the images above I chose places that either are the middle ground of something or have the work being barren of human life due to the places photographed is usually quite busy so I am happy that I found the opportunity for the work as well as having the work.
EBI:
the work could definitely be better as the toning of the work does include too many small pieces of life such as in the stairs photo there is a small glimpse of someone in the corner but otherwise I believe that I had done quite well with the work.
for the images above I chose places that either are the middle ground of something or have the work being barren of human life due to the places photographed is usually quite busy so I am happy that I found the opportunity for the work as well as having the work.
EBI:
the work could definitely be better as the toning of the work does include too many small pieces of life such as in the stairs photo there is a small glimpse of someone in the corner but otherwise I believe that I had done quite well with the work.
The empty world
The images that have been created for this work are in places where there should be a lot of people especially on a hot weekend, like the weekend that I took the photos for so this is "the empty world" the days that these photos were taken were rumoured to be the last high temperature weekend for the rest of 2023 although this was in October so I expected to find that many people are outside which is unlike the actual outcome. I had used just a phone for these images due to the image opportunities as well as seeing such places barren of any person.
How I have interpreted the "grey area"
For me, the grey area is some sort of anomaly where there are certain things that should be there whilst there are many things that are not there, for example in my images there is no human life where there should be someone there on normal occasions meaning that it is a grey space in my opinion especially as factually the areas photographed are usually packed by human life which contrasts what is captured within the images. The reasoning that I have interpreted that the "grey area" in such a way is due to the phrase "documentary uncertainty" which allows me to dictate what I do in numerous ways as the people viewing the work gets to decide whether the work is real or fake.
Jack Latham
The sugar paper theories
The sugar paper theories a film with a method that the sugar paper dictates what role that the people have as well as what the images mean for example for the "police archives (on black paper), related newspaper articles (on pink paper), diary entries from one of the suspects (on thin white paper), and detailed explanatory texts (on yellow paper)" are a few others as well coloured pieces of sugar paper. The method of this work interests me due to the work being focused on documenting which I find quite interesting since the work is based about how the documentation of the murder case as well as using documentary photography to display what places are key to the work, this is shown through pieces such as those below which shows how the places are key to the documentation of the murder case.
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Parliament Of Owls
The parliament of owls is another piece of work done by Jack Latham, this time he has entered a secluded community which is shrouded in secrecy. The work shown in the book such as those above this writing shows parts of the book "Parliament Of Owls" which intrigues me as the community captured is said to include 'powerful' members of society in America which means that those photographed within the images may have been quite important people in the American society which creates an importance to the work done by Jack Latham. Those in the images try to expose those who attempt to "expose the new world order" which I find quite confusing as the work is about something that I have no prior knowledge of as the work whilst simplistic it also shows a large sense oh depth on the topic which I am tempted to discover more about.
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Analysis of a photo from "parliament of owls"
Jack Latham exploration with grey areas
Jack Latham explores the grey areas within images by finding peculiar places to take photos making it so the image contains something that should or shouldn't be there and an example of this is the image that I analysed where there is an unknown person that is in a overgrown garden it appears but at the same time it could be that they are in part of a forest which means that in both instances the person is the anomaly whilst in one instance the overgrowth is the anomaly whilst if its in a forest the workbench and the pottery is the anomaly. By doing this Latham is using the grey area in numerous different ways which is intriguing.
Jacob a Riis
Jacob Riis was a documentary photographer who focused on how the community in New York was not funded well and were often in poverty. the photos were mainly of how many people would have to fit into a single room so that they would be able to afford rent. The photos above show how the community was treated by the government and from this work it resulted in there being a law created so that the public was treated better.
Roy Decarava - light break
Within Light break Roy focuses on how the community within America functions as well as how the community is overlooked in some categories as well as not seeing crucial parts of the community such as how the community interacts with each other as well as how the stores bring in their products or the people playing music in public
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus is an American photographer which documents the parts of the community that many people will try to avoided in my opinion but within that work there is a sense of hope in a way as it sort of forces the public to come to terms with what is going on in the community and the fact that they should not be avoiding it but instead keeping them as part of the community
A photo shoot of something I enjoy
For this photoshoot I intended to just have fun and see what I am able to do and originally it was meant to be something that I was just going to photograph and for the planning it was a spur of the moment thing so there was not really although that went into the planning of this which makes the production of this work much better in my opinion the only sort of planning is the day before was the agreement to play volleyball and some of the people within the images was unaware of the plan to play volleyball until it occoured
Environmental portraits
An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject's usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject's life and surroundings.
~ Wikipedia
Niall McDiarmid does environmental photography by grabbing people off the street and taking photographs of the person in a natural situation as in many scenarios the person is photographed in is made through finding people passing by natural situation and taking images of it
My attempt on Niall Diarmid's work
The images above are based upon Niall Diarmid's work which is is Environmental portraits which is taking images in a natural scenario which means that the work is simplistic in a way but the images were difficult to create due to everyone wanting to be moving around due to the temperature.
Scans of work done by the group
The images that I took on film
These images are made by shooting on a Fuji GS645S medium format camera with Ilford HP5 400 ISO using black and white film. I enjoy both of these images but I prefer the images on the left due to the formatting of the images as within the images there is leaves filling in the top two corners within the images which gives a hint about what the season is as well as the people being there being placed into groups gives the sense that the images are in an enclosed area.
Second photoshoot
For this photoshoot it was more difficult than previous ones as many people do not want to be outside during the winter so when taking these images it roughly three degrees Celsius so that there was only two people to photograph so the amount of images were low but at a better standard as it means that the images are all quite similar in a manner. The framing of the images was quite important due to the images being action shots from my friends playing volleyball so to get the ball and the person within the image was quite important
36 photos inspired by Sugimoto
Sugimoto's work is architecture based but also division of things in my opinion and due to that I based my work of the division of his work and used it to create landscape photos that I took from a height as well as a few other images which resulted in the work being slightly difficult to create but at the same time the images were also fun to create as it resulted in some really good results especially with the divisions in the work
Clocks for seeing magazine first attempt
Process
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