Assignment #5: Photography and the Environment

After reading the short article When a Picture Takes a Punch by Tim Bonyhady, he makes some very strong points of how photography can strongly support environmental activism and how it also be failures.

One of his main examples of photographers that he talked about was Peter Dombrovskis and his iconic image, Rock Island Bend, on the Franklin River. This image spoke for the campaign to stop Tasmania's Hydro-Electric Commission Damming on the Franklin River.

Bonyhady mentioned that it is images like Dombrovskis' is what shows Australians that are unknown of the existence of these kind of areas realise what they were about to lose, and that they could stop this. However, since the passing of the amazing Dombrovskis, no other photographer has made such an impact with their environmentalist photographs. It is times like this, trying to prevent woodchipping in Tasmania's Styx Valley forest, is when we need someone who knows the land and how to capture its beauty. Many armature/bush walker photographers have been hired by activists to try and capture the destruction that has occurred in these forests. But most photographs do not contain the detail and individuality to what Dombrovskis had included in his photographs; mainly due to lack of experience and knowledge of the areas.

However, if Dombrovskis was still alive, and photographed the Styx Valley, the photographs still may not be as appealing as the Franklin River image, due to the destruction already beginning. However, taking a not so appealing photograph could also come off as 'shocking', and you could always include a blurb such as 'Look what we are letting happen to one of our National forests...' to have an impact on viewers.

If the the press won't come to Tasmania, then Tasmania will come to the press. Bonyhady's last point on failure becoming success was when four activists changed the name of the Spirit of Tasmania to Woodchipping the Spirit of Tasmania. This had been done on the boat's launching day, where it was surrounded by media in Sydney's Harbour. One photographer named Dean Sewell who worked for the Herald managed to get the perfect shot of the boat, the sign and the opera house in the background. This made some people think that it was the State Government's idea, in order to bring the message to the mainland. Even though the image may not have so much appeal, it was successful in the way of the message it was giving out to the public.

After much Googling, I came across an environmental photographer named Robert Glenn Ketchum. He had published some images of Bristol Bay in Alaska for the Alaska Convention Foundation to make people more aware of the million-dollar-a-year-fishery, the wildlife habitat and the amount of tourism available due to wildlife refuges and national parks. The following images are some of the images for this folio. You can definitely see that he has spent a few years on this project in order to get to know this land. His images are very effective as he has captured its natural beauty successfully. He is the next Dombrovskis!

Images sourced from: http://www.robertglennketchum.com

Assignment 4: Tableau Photography

This week, we read a chapter out of "The Photograph as Contemporary Art" by Charlotte Cotton. This chapter explored the use of storytelling in contemporary art photography. Many of the photographs discussed in this reading either represented mythical events/characters, fables, or tragedy and horror. This genre of photography is known at tableau photography where a photograph contains one or more subjects to tell some sort of narrative.

Today, tableau photography has morphed into cinematic photography, which is such a common art form used in the commercial and advertising business.

After reading this chapter, the two tableau photographers that caught my interest were Deborah Mesa-Pelly and Izima Kaoru. They both used techniques in their lighting and choice of narrative to dramatise their photographs.

Deborah Mesa-Pelly is a Cuban artist (b. 1968) who re-creates childhood fairytales, or well known stories, by using young women as the subjects and turning the children's narratives into the complete reverse of what we initially knew. You could also look at them as the uncensored side of the story.

"In my work I create narratives that are woven together through the use of photography by examining fluctuations in identity and complex psychological states of being. Individually one body of work depicts protagonists situated in constructed locations such as shifting and collapsing living rooms, a chimney, a well, a cave, a pond, a tree stump and a forest." - Deborah Mesa-pelly

(The art of Debora Mesa-Pelly, 2011)

Debora Mesa-Pelly

Black Hole, 1999

Debora Mesa-Pelly

Cave 1999

After looking at what i could find on the inertnet, which was very little, the only effective images of hers i came across of hers was Cave 1999, and Blacke Hole 1999. You can see that she likes to take her photographs from an above angle which i think shows the vulnerability of the subjects within the images and makes the situation more threatening. You can also notice that she hasn't revealed the entire subject in any of her images. This could be a technique used to bring mystery to the narratives to make you wonder what they are hiding, or she could have purposely cropped in on the subject so we can focus on their hand gestures and facial expressions. Almost like we can read the story through their appearance and posture.

I think that Debora Mesa-Pelly has a very interesting an unique approach to tableau photography as she does not specifically show you what kind of story she is telling. Her use of lighting and subject appearance lets the viewers decide what they think is happening, which can become fairly broad but then again, it almost pleases everyone in the end.

Japanese artist Izima Kaoru (b.1954) is similar to Debora Mesa-Pelly in the way of dramatising his photographs by dressing up his models in high-end fashion clothing, but making them appear like they have dies in some sort of freak accident. I guess you could look at this as fashion suicide or serial killings of women in high society.

After looking at a variety of his photographs, it has become evident that he stages in many environments that women seem to find themselves in everyday and are comfortable in. For example, Figure 2 shows his subject died in what it appears to be a kitchen as you can evidentially see the splattered cake and icing all over her and her surroundings, and she also wears a maid/cooking outfit of some sort.

If it is not some sort of familiar environment, he makes his photographs seem more feminine and glamourous by placing them in a flowery/grassy field, or more literally on a bed of flowers, which is shown in the first two images below.

Figure 1

Figure 2

This style of photography has now become some sort of trend in the fashion industry. For example, in 2007 America's top model show did a fashion shoot called 'Dead Girls', where the models posed as gruesome murder victims in high-end clothing. Figures 3 and 4 are some example images from this shoot:

Figure 3

Figure 4

Something else that you may find interesting:

When i was researching Deborah Mesa-Pelly, i came across another tableau photographer, named Dinal Goldstein, that did a series on Disney princesses in the un-cut version. Her images represents the harsh reality of growing up and ageing and what happens after Happily Ever after.

Below are some example images from this series but you can follow this link if you want to view all of them:

http://www.fallenprincesses.com/

Figure 5

Bibliography:

The art of Debora Mesa-Pelly, 2011,(online) Available: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=2481

Accessed: 12/04/11

Image Source:

Figure 1: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://data.touchpuppet.com/wp-content/uploads/IzimaKaoru1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.touchpuppet.com/2010/06/29/izima-kaoru/&usg=__4rAlAwB6NqC_VYawX2loVQiSxcY=&h=429&w=600&sz=137&hl=en&start=4&zoom=1&itbs=1&tbnid=zQzaHrqzO1KX8M:&tbnh=97&tbnw=135&prev=/search%3Fq%3DIzima%2BKaoru%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26tbm%3Disch%26prmd%3Divnso&ei=iK6jTc-JOo6IuAPrkPnxCA

Figure 2: http://chngyaohong.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/izima-kaoru-reika-444.jpg

Figures 3 and 4: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://majikthise.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/03/24/pushed_downstairs_model.jpg&imgrefurl=http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2007/03/americas_next_t.html&usg=__SxWCgkhaOckt3Kj_CrCX5i8OiC8=&h=350&w=500&sz=22&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=94X2IYf6235cIM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Damerica%2527s%2Bnext%2Btop%2Bmodel%2Bdeath%2Bwatch%2Bshoot%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbm%3Disch&ei=oLKjTbG6HZGSuwO5uvCACQ

Figure 5: http://www.fallenprincesses.com/

Assignment 3: The issue of girl models: Bill Henson & Vogue

After reading more on ethics of photography, it has made me start to think about boundaries.

As move forward into the future, we photographers are slowly getting restricted to what is considered to be ethical to photograph. This is due to certain people who refuse to open their minds to something that could be seen as something artistically creative and beautiful.

Unfortunately, Bill Henson has copped most of this heat from civilians that have viewed his recent series of young, nude adolescent girls. He had complaints about his work coming very close to child pornography and that he was tearing away the innocence of those little girls within the photographs. After looking at those photographs myself, I did not see any relation to pornography, apart from the girls being naked. However, he did not expose any of their genitals, he positioned them in a way they could cover themselves, and any full frontal photographs were taken from the tops of their chests and up. Nothing seems to be revealed so why is Bill Henson's being demonised?

Bill Henson

Untitled #16

http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/18/Bill_Henson/1222/43332/

After listening to David Marr's speech about ethics of photography and Bill Henson, I found that he raised some very strong points that really gets your mind ticking about the ethics of children and photography. He wondered how photography got that stage of constantly demonising and having the fear that photographs steal our souls. How and when did it become so dangerous to take a photograph?

We have to be so careful to what we photograph these days because what we may see as being artistic and creative, others may see it as being degrading and offensive. If we keep getting hammered down every-time we do the slightest thing out of the ordinary, what is the point in being an artist? Because, the point of being an artist is to be unique and continuously come up with and idea that is completely out of the ordinary , is it not? So why do we keep getting punished for expressing ourselves?

French Vogue published an article along with a series of images of little-girls-as-grown-up-women. These images included pubescent young girls dressed up in fur with red pouty lips, hair done and full make up. This photo spread seemed to have caused a huge up roar about tearing away their innocence by sexualising these girls at a very young age and influencing them to grow up too fast. After examining these images, i thought that at first glance, they were grown up women but i presume that this was the illusion that Vogue was trying to pull off. However, they do not seem sexualising at all. These little girls are playing dress ups from their mother's wardrobe, wearing her make-up and sniffing her perfume. This is merely little girls acting out their own little fantasies, which is extremely common for the majority of the female population. As you can see that in one of the images below, one of them is sucking on a chocolate coin and one is playing in a toy car. These images clearly show that they are symbolising that they are living in a child's fantasy and have no intention of showing any sex appeal.

Our creative boundaries are getting more restricted every year due to misinterpretation and communication. Every misunderstood image deserves some sort of explanation before it can be shunned from the public. If we do not communicate or back ourselves up, further restrictions will be predicted.

http://cdn.thegloss.com/files/2010/12/more-489x317.jpg

http://live.drjays.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/500x_cadeaux7.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6giU1CMBE7x0unh6SVUvMcftNoJmd9Do-b2Y9nJD39hjwzKAcxj76Ppr-iXgzlu1OP_uLimMpj94UgKG2tYU8Jv3CI8m9V9mtL0ToW3EwexJ17l35yiJaL7MP9xJ5O3lpa-Abu4kSm5z/s640/cadeaux-french-vogue-december-2010-1.jpg

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/french-vogue-s-racy-child-models-sick-or-slick-2437496

Week 3: Assignment #2 - Ethical Photojournalism

After reading the article "Ethical Photojournalism" by John Kaplan, it really made me stop and think about what a documentary photograph should contain, and whether it is ethical to stage a ghastly scene to make it seem worse than it really is in order to receive some sort of award to boost your career.

It is extremely interesting to see photographs of devistations occurring around the world however, like John Kaplan mentioned in his article, why does everything have to be so depressing? Sure, they may attract more attention to an audience but in the end, it is all the same, sad work going from victims in wars suffering, all the way to world hunger.

I think people really need to see the side of citizens living in poverty in not a sympathetic way, but in more of a, "Wow, these people have lived this long, with only so little..They are fighters." This is probably what John Kaplan was aiming for when he ventured to Western Africa to do a portrait series on torture survivors in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

In every single one of the Tortured Survivor portraits, the subject(s) had some sort of burn, injury or amputation. However, their facial expression do not show despair, but strength and hope. They may be posed images, but I had found them extremely effective of how it arose awareness of the events that occurred over there and that the focus was not on what the death poll was, but who had survived. These are the types of photographs that deserve the awards. They seem to contain more truth than a photograph set up to be devastating.

The portrait below is one of my favourite photographs from John Kaplan's Surviving Torture series. From what i can see from this portrait is that this is a strong, proud woman that is pleased to be alive, hand or no hand.

John Kaplan, Hawah Fallah, 33

Fuya, Liberia,

Surviving Torture Series

Image sourced from:

http://www.johnkaplan.com/pages/torture13.html

Week 1: 18/02/11 - Inspiring Photographer

Recently, during this summer holidays, I and a couple of friends ventured up the Sydney to visit the Annie Leibovitz 'A Photographer's Life' Exhibition. This exhibition consisted of about 102 photographs, reflecting her professional and personal life between the years of 1990 - 2005.

I went into this exhibition thinking that I would only find all of her well known, published work of famous actors/actresses, politicians and musicians.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love the glamourous side of all of the Hollywood starlets however, what really pulled my attention was all of her un-published, personal photographic work that depicted love, life, family and loss.

I found that these photographs had a true, genuine meaning to them. When you compare her blurbs to specific photographs, for example when she photographed her 'long time friend' Susan Sontag, she said that it was a really painful time for her but she forced herself to take these photographs of Susan's last days. When you read that and compare it to the photographs, you can feel the emotions that Annie was feeling when she took these, which I had found very moving.

So, the point I am trying to get across is that I always found her an inspiring photographer, and i think many other photographers as well, but before it was for her published work. She has now brought a new level of inspiration to me with her personal work. They bring more of a meaning of what photography is. Natural and real. It made me see that her life is not all glamour and fame. She had a pretty adventurous, and at some points sad, life. But she pulled through everything and is still going strong. That is why she is my inspiration.

If I had to narrow it down, the photograph below of Susan Sontag, recently deceased, would be my most inspired photograph by Annie Leibovitz. This gloomy, panoramic piece of work would have been the most hardest, painful thing for Annie to photograph. You can sense the sadness and despair from the dark tones, and how roughly it was pieced together. Almost like it was the hardest puzzle that she had ever had to fit together in her life.

Annie Leibovitz

Nov. 2004,

untitled

Gelatin silver print

35.9 x 52.2 x 3.2cm

Image Source:

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.shiftjournal.org/images/2010/mckinney_fig1.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.shiftjournal.org/articles/2010/mckinney.htm&usg=__hJm1IApkO3sZr0559m1rwZXxG7U=&h=296&w=696&sz=27&hl=en&start=30&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=0Cl3xtoP5gya7M:&tbnh=59&tbnw=139&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dannie%2Bleibovitz%2Bsusan%2Bsontag%2Bcancer%26start%3D21%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D21%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=ZuxdTdrNHo7cvQO8n7i0DQ