Tag Archives: Forum

M2 Wk1: Introduction – Segues in Time

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Forum: Looking Back

Find an old image that has some meaning for you.  Scan / take a photograph of the image somewhere that either contributes further meaning or contradicts it.  Post a short summary of that experience.

Lawrence Clarke (low res)Original image: Washington Post (2012) – Jason Richardson Hurdles (semi) 2012, London

The original image, taken during Heat 1 (Semi Finals) of the Men’s 110m Hurdles at the London 2012 Olympics, is a masterclass in the flight phase of hurdle technique.  As Head of Athletics, it is something that I show upcoming athletes to stress the importance of maintaining the trail leg at right angles (for both the knee and the ankle), when above the hurdle.  Richardson went on to win that heat and then gain a Silver medal in the Finals.  Interesting and technically brilliant, but for me, little of that has particular meaning.

DCP_0362 fbDominic Price (2012) – Olympic Games, Men’s 110m Hurdles Final, London

I was in the stadium on that day: 08 August 2012, sadly without a pass allowing me to look down the straight.  Nevertheless, I was well positioned, immediately above the television interview booths, just beyond the finish line; able to capture an image that encapsulates the winning moment for Aries Merritt while showing the top five positions in the race.  However, photography was not my main interest… in the lane to the left of Richardson, during the semi finals, was Team GB’s Lawrence Clarke, someone I have known since he was eight years old and to whom I introduced the hurdles in 1999.

At school, Lawrence showed promise (clearly!) and went on to win the event at Sports Day in subsequent years.  We remained in contact as he rose through the ranks of GB athletics and he was always kind enough to send me tickets when competing.  On that day in 2012, against all expectations, Lawrence qualified for the finals with an impressive PB of 13.31s.  In the final he came fourth, 0.27s outside a podium place.

My composition shows Lawrence Clarke competing at the London 2012 Olympics, on the grass track where he learnt the discipline, with the addition of his bib label and running spikes from the 2012 Olympics.

Interestingly, neither my image nor the Washington Post’s are particularly flattering of Lawrence – of course he was coincidental to the latter, with an American newspaper keen to promote their athletes rather than ours.  To neither have I given wall space, but that does not detract from the fact that they mean something to me: content and meaning in this case being more important than composition.

M2 Wk2: Strategies of Meditation

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Forum: ‘Joywar’

Joy Garnett is known for her paintings inspired by accessible digital images. Following an exhibition of her work in 2004, Garnett received a cease and desist letter citing infringement of copyright, from a lawyer representing Susan Meiselas. After a debate, which became known as ‘Joywar’, both put forward their perspectives in an article for Harpers Magazine titled ‘On the Rights of the Molotov Man’.

Think about how you would feel if someone created an artwork that appropriated, referenced or remixed your image. Other than legal action, how could you use your practice to resolve the issue?

Post a concise summary of your thoughts.  Try to think about the debate at different scales as well as in different contexts.

It is often said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, although Oscar Wilde was rather less sympathetic of imitators in his appendage to that adage: “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

How many times in this course have ween been asked to produce an image in the style of, or inspired by a particular artist? While not necessarily the same as mimicking work, there could be a fine line between the two. ‘Research’ is a useful get-out for such works.

Clearly there is always the chance that reworking of an image could be unflattering, inappropriate or damning of the original. However, if the copy is not defamatory to the subject or artist, and its usage or sale is not detrimental to the market value of the original image, then such mimicry may prove beneficial in drawing a wider audience to one’s photographic work. I would always wish to ensure an appropriate credit to my image in any usage of the artwork, but beyond that I would not be overly concerned.  Perhaps such actions could be used to foster a mutually beneficial collaboration with photographer and artist each promoting their own work as well as that of the other’s.

There is a notable caveat to one field of my photography: a significant part of my portfolio is for the school in which I work, depicting the pupils therein. GDPR and a host of other limitations would render the use these images inappropriate and necessitate firm control over any such appropriation, reference or remixing.

The origins of photography were often heavily influenced by classical art. Oscar Rejlander mastered the very complicated process of combination printing to produce an image that harks back to the Renaissance tradition of multi-figural paintings such as Raphael’s School of Athens. Perhaps it is fitting to go full circle with art now imitating photography.

The Two Ways of Life, Rejlander (original)Oscar Rejlander (1857) – Two Ways of Life

M2 Wk4: Strategies of Freedom

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Forum: Human?

Photographic images NOT made by a human… are humans truly not involved? 

In my twilight years, as I lounge on the veranda of a retirement home, I am confident that I will bore the socks of my contemporaries, as I postulate photography’s philosophical frivolities.  While time is significantly more precious, I will move straight past the semantics of whether a camera or an operator takes a photograph.  However, this Forum did inspire me to conduct research in order to reconfirm my belief that no natural entity is capable of recording an image… therefore all photographs are ultimately made by humans as cameras (and all such recording devices) are man-made.

David Slater’s infamous ‘black macaque self-portrait’ has received far too many column inches to be included here, but throughout photographic history far more technically significant photographs have been taken by animals: that is to say, the animal has triggered the shutter.

It was Eadweard Muybridge who pioneered what we now refer to as ‘camera traps’, using wires that when tripped, trigger the shutter of a camera.  While he can be attributed to a host of fascinating motion studies, and his stop-motion technique was an early form of animation that helped pave the way for the motion-picture industry, it was a wager that first brought him to the attention of the public:

The Horse in Motion.gif

Eadweard Muybridge (1878) The Horse in Motion, Palo Alto

When a horse trots or gallops, does it ever become fully airborne?  This was the question photographer Eadweard Muybridge set out to answer in 1878.  Railroad tycoon and former California governor Leland Stanford was convinced the answer was yes and commissioned Muybridge to provide proof.  Muybridge developed a way to take photos with an exposure lasting a fraction of a second and, with reporters as witnesses, arranged 12 cameras along a track on Stanford’s estate.

As a horse sped by, it tripped wires connected to the cameras, which took 12 photos in rapid succession.  Muybridge developed the images on site and, in the frames, revealed that a horse is completely aloft with its hooves tucked underneath it for a brief moment during a stride.  The revelation, imperceptible to the naked eye but apparent through photography, marked a new purpose for the medium: it could capture truth through technology.

130 years later, camera traps were again in the public eye as a result of the Grand Title Winner 2008, Wildlife Photographer of the Year.  This proved a contentious decision, as it was argued that a camera triggered by the animal in photograph should not earn such a prestigious title for the owner of the photographic equipment.  However, the background to Steve Winter’s exceptional image ‘Snowstorm leopard’ makes it abundantly clear that had he not committed more than a year to the pursuit of this image, it would never have happened:

Snowstorm leopard.jpg

Steve Winter (2008) Snowstorm leopard, Ladak’s Hemis High Altitude National Park, India

For more than ten months, Winter had been using remote-controlled cameras placed along the Husing Trail, in Ladak’s Hemis High Altitude National Park, India, hoping to capture a snow leopard in a snowfall with a backdrop that conjured up the atmosphere of its extreme environment, but to no avail.  While he had captured a number of images, they all fell short of his aim.

Warmer weather forced him to relocate the camera traps to higher altitudes along the trail.  Here he found an ideal location where three trails converge.  Sadly the winter of 2007 was bitterly cold with hardly any snow, and it seemed that his hopes would not be fulfilled.  However, on checking the camera one May morning, he found the composition exactly as he had hoped, with a snow leopard gazing back in blustery conditions, composed perfectly.

Photographs taken by camera traps are a significant part off Winter’s work, making up 10-20 % of his images.  Huge patience is required – often many, many months, together with a comprehensive understanding off the behaviour of the animal in order to place the devices appropriately.  These devices are not remotely controlled: you cannot react to a developing situation by changing the angle of view, for example.  The camera traps need to be set perfectly, with the anticipated image being composed with painstaking precision prior to leaving the camera to work its magic…. or more precisely, in the hope that an animal will trigger the trap.

I have used camera traps for assorted purposes… most trivially in order to monitor a mouse that had taken up residence in my home, so that I could target the most opportune location for placement of a humane trap, in order to relocate him.  Here, almost no composition was necessary, I was shooting blind, simply hoping to capture an image of the rodent. For this work, I definitely did not consider myself as the photographer off a mouse – I simply facilitated a mouse selfie.  There was infinitely more human involvement in the development of the equipment being used.  Perhaps had I committed the best part of a year towards capturing the perfectly compose image, then I would hope to claim ownership.

While all of these photographs have been captured thanks to the (inadvertent) intervention of ‘non-humans’, returning to my opening point, I remain convinced that it is not possible to capture a ‘photograph’ devoid of human involvement, since there is no natural process that can do this.