Sebastião Salgado (born 1944) was educated as an economist and produced his first book in
1973 about the poor of Latin America. Other Americas was in the true tradition of documentary.
In one interview he commented, “It’s not my intention to give people guilty consciences, just to
make them think.” Subsequent books, including Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age
(1993) and Migrations (2000), have received worldwide recognition. The images are without
doubt factual – they are not enhanced or done in a newsworthy manner. Yet at the same
time they are ‘sensational’ – mud-soaked prospectors in Brazil living and working in hellish
conditions, hoping to find a nugget of gold in the bucket of earth they carry up huge rickety
ladders, or the suffering of ordinary people fleeing war and famine in Exodus.
For a discussion about the photographer as activist, visit:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6fRykp6nRQ
Category: To Do
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Sebastião Salgado
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Karen Knorr
Karen Knorr was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and was raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the 1960s. She finished her education in Paris and London. Karen has taught, exhibited and lectured internationally, including at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, The University of Westminster, Goldsmiths, Harvard and The Art Institute of Chicago. She studied at the University of Westminster in the mid-1970s, exhibiting photography that addressed debates in cultural studies and film theory concerning the ‘politics of representation’ practices which emerged during the late 1970s qnd early 1980s. She is currently Professor of Photography at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, Surrey.
Karen Knorr produced Belgravia (1979-1981) a series of black and white photographs with ironic and humorous texts that highlighted aspirations, lifestyle and the British class system under the neo liberalist Thatcher era in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Her most well known work called Gentlemen (1981-1983) was photographed in Saint James’s clubs in London and investigated the patriarchal conservative values of Britain during the Falklands war. Karen ’s work developed a critical and playful dialogue with documentary photography using different visual and textual strategies to explore her chosen subject matter that ranges from the family and lifestyle to the animal and its representation in the museum context.
In 1986 her work Connoisseurs used colour to explore connoisseurship regarding authenticity, heritage and art in England. Here she introduced elements and staged events in the architectural interiors of Chiswick House, Osterley Park House and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. The use of text and captioning appeared as a device to slow down consumption of the image and to comment on the received ideas of fine art in museum culture. These strategies still appear in her photography today with digital collage of animals, objects and social actors in museums and architecture challenging the authority and power of heritage sites in Europe and more recently in India.Academies (1994- 2001), a series of colour photographs taken in academies and museums across Europe, reflects on the relationship between the production of western fine art, its transmission and consumption. The work continues a critical dialogue with conceptual art, visual culture, feminism and animal studies reflecting an engaged interest in theory and its relation to photographic practice. In 1995 the Academies project included video and installation with wall text transfers in order the explore the relationship between art and science in the staging of transgressive performative events and gestures in museums. Being for Another (1995), an 18 minute video records a young man caressing an 18th century sculpture by Canova in the Victoria and Albert Museum and three lifeclass models enact the lifeclass on the dissecting table of the anatomy theatre of Uppsala University in Lessons (2002). The introduction of a sound glass sculpture with recorded birdsong responded to the furniture and art collection of The Wallace Collection in 2001 synthesizing a 1960’s Pete Seeger song with an actual blackbird’s sound.
In her series Fables (2004-2008) photographs mixes analogue and digital photography playfully reconfiguring tales (Ovid, Aesop La Fontaine) with popular culture (Disney and Attenborough) in museums and heritage sites which include Carnavalet Museum, the Museum of Hunt and Nature in Paris, Chambord Castle and the Conde Museum in Chantilly Castle. The visuality of these photographs is rich with reference to the baroque. In the last section of the work, Knorr interrogated the free flowing space of modern architecture in Corbusier’s Villa Savoye reintroducing life into the modernist aesthetic of a building.
Since her life changing journey to Rajasthan, India in 2008, Karen Knorr’s work is now exploring Rajput and Mughal cultural heritage and its relationship to questions of feminine subjectivity and animality. India Song, a series of carefully crafted photographs explores the past and its relation to India’s contemporary heritage sites across Rajasthan. -
Luc Delahaye
!!To be done
Luc Delahaye (born France 1962) also describes history painting as a point of reference to his practice, although his process is very different to Wall’s. Delahaye, whose earlier career was in photojournalism, continues to make work around current, ‘newsworthy’ stories across the globe. Throughout his ongoing History series, Delahaye has attended political ceremonies and meetings, as well as recent and current war zones. Instead of using high-end digital equipment
and hurrying to transmit his images to agencies before his competitors in the field, Delahaye uses large format analogue cameras to make large-scale gallery prints. His approach goes very much against the grain of modern photojournalism. While his images are not typically as sparse of people as the work of ‘late photographers’ working with similar equipment, they all have the
presence and communicate the gravitas of the scenarios he depicts. Unlike photojournalism, there is no conspicuous attempt to reveal a ‘decisive moment’. Delahaye photographs at a discrete, but not disengaged, distance:
“As Delahaye points out, his pictures highlight ‘the insignificance of my
own position.’ They also entail a reversal of the history paintings they
call upon, where the grandeur, spectacle and glory of war and figures
of power were celebrated. There is little that is glorious here. Instead, his
views show up the scale of things, very often putting them in perspective.”
(Mark Durden ‘Global Documentary’ (2005) in Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2005. London: The Photographers’ Gallery, p.13) -
Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin (born 1953) is another controversial photographer. She spent the early years of her career living with and acting as club photographer for a community of drag queens in New York.
Goldin realised that what she saw on television was not reality but was, in Baudrillard’s terms, the simulacrum – an alternative false reality seen and accepted as reality by those who could not perceive or interpret its position in their lives.Goldin wanted to make images of real life. These images therefore blur the line between portraiture and social documentary. The subjects are posing – they acknowledge the camera and interact with the viewer of the image, as in portraiture. However, Goldin’s overall intent was to throw light on her subjects’ lives; it is this
intent that would classify these portraits as social documentary.Analyse this image in the usual way, then come back to your analysis once you’ve explored the following links to see if your view has changed.
Nan Goldin discusses her work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z3sihEuiEkNan Goldin I’ll Be Your Mirror documentary Part One (follow the links to Parts Two and Three):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUIAsWsqiyk -
Sally Mann
Sally Mann (born 1951) was named America’s best photographer by Time magazine in 2001. Her early work included black and white images of her own children which caused a degree of controversy, especially those images in which they adopted ‘adult’ poses, like the
1989 image below.If you’re interested in finding out more about Sally Mann and some of the technical aspects of her work, the following link is to the first part of a three-part series What Remains: The Life and
Work of Sally Mann. Follow the links on YouTube for Parts 2 and 3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNEd93H4pPYThis link will take you to some photographs that Mann has taken of her husband of 40 years who has muscular dystrophy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACVN0bKze4QExercise: Mixed messages: Candy cigarette
This is a more challenging image than any you’ve been asked to analyse previously because of the interplay between the young subject and the adult pose. As before, go through the various elements of the photograph one by one and note down how they
contribute to the meaning that you take from the image – whatever that is. For example, you might think that Mann is deliberately challenging conventional attitudes to the portrayal of children or that she’s commenting on the child’s transition to adulthood.This image is called Candy Cigarette. Does that influence your interpretation of the image?
This was a highly controversial image in 1989 when it was produced. What do you think the reaction would be to it today?
Make notes in your learning log or blog. It might be interesting to go on the student forum and find out what other students have made of this image.
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Exercise: Jack Nicholson
Analyse Bailey’s portrait of Jack Nicholson. Take a good look at
the portrait first. What mood does it convey? Who is this person?
What was Bailey trying to do? As before, analyse the various
elements independently then think -
Portraits without People
‘Portraits without people’ sounds like a contradiction in terms but it refers to the collection of
important and contextually relevant objects arranged and placed in a relationship to each other
to convey the personality of the individual or a concept or an idea.
You can use any items that mean something to you or that reflect your sitter’s life or personality.
It could be a collection of parental keepsakes or familiar items from a childhood holiday
destination. There may be music involved. It could be a multi-media piece with the portrait
visually displaying the significant items accompanied by an imported smell (synthetic, easily
bought these days).
Take a look at the work of Robert Weingarten (born 1941) who uses photography to build
complex compositions. He tends to illustrate myths and legends interspersed with themes from
the lives of individuals.
Visit: http://robertweingarten.com/home.html
On the website you can listen to Weingarten talking about his work and how he goes about
creating his portraits – unbound as he names them.Annie Leibovitz (born 1949) has investigated people and her own understanding of them
through photographing their spaces and objects, as you can see from this TV interview:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZsDcVJCccE
For more on Annie Leibovitz:
www.npg.org.uk/annieleibovitz/index.htm
www.nytimes.com/library/photos/leibovitz/interview.html -
Basics of portraiture
Portraiture is a conscious act of more than one person. It is consensual.
“It is, however, not so much what is depicted as the relationship between the photographer and subject that is significant. Academic painting sanctioned the image of the body in terms of official classic tradition and so does early academic photography, but it does so in terms of its promise of the actual. An image of a body as distinct from the painting of a body insists on a privileged access normally shared only between the artist and (his) model.” (Clark p.124)Photography in its infancy drew heavily on the painting tradition and a knowledge of portrait painting techniques can support us in mastering portrait photography. That’s why it’s important to look at other photographers’ and artists’ work in some detail.
Listen to Robert Amft on the relationship between painting and photography:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RN-aN4LQgU
http://robertamft.com/art-of-amft/photographyAmft does prism images and portraits, and digital mosaics.
Exercise: Draw a Portrait
The body in the photograph
The relationship between photographer and sitter is a one-to-one relationship that has predetermined external pressures that the photographer needs to manage during the work.
- Do we pay a photographer to produce this portrait that shows us as handsome or beautiful?
- or do we pay a photographer to produce the truth?
A very common issue with photographers is whether or not they should photograph people they know. Working as a photographer with those we live with or work with is often very frustrating; they won’t do as you ask, they expect you to finish in a matter of seconds, and so on.
The sitter who is a stranger is likely to have a number of questions:
• What is the truth? Will I like it?
• If sitting at the photographer’s request, why me?
• What does the photographer see?
• How will I be portrayed – as clever, intellectual, rich, powerful, ordinary, or even sleazy, cheap or hopeless?
Difficult questions and not a frame shot as yet.Read Chapter 6 of Graham Clarke’s The Photograph, especially pp.123–43.
This is a very good piece on the body and its use within a range of genres of photographic imagery.Controlling the elements of portraiture
But despite its consensual nature, portraiture is in the control solely of the photographer???; the sitter can’t see what is happening. This is unlike other areas of work, such as editorial or fashion photography, which often happens in settings that the photographer has no control over.
Painting portraits has provided artists with a way of earning a living since the Renaissance. Aspiring painters with a sufficient level of skill and aptitude would be apprenticed to a great master’s studio (provided they could meet the cost of indenture). Typically, the master painted the faces while the students painted the bodies or perhaps the background detail.
sfumato: a technique to produce the softness and the skin tones necessary for the photorealism their clients demanded.
The photographer for the most part controls the background, pose, clothes, props, lighting and exposure in the consensual act of portrait photography. Of course, these are not really separate
issues – they are inter-related. Change the clothes or the background and you have a very different feel or meaning to the work. People respond to costume and situation and the image
will change accordingly.So, if all these elements are interlinked, where do we start with this multi-functional task which in practice can resemble a circus plate spinning act – get one thing
right and another is wrong?Quality of light
A good starting point is the quality of light that falls on the subject.
chiaroscuro: the nature of the light falling on a subject. In harsh light the tonal range decreases. In soft light the tonal range increases – hence the use of softboxes in commercial studios.Let’s return to painting.
Early photographers’ portrait studios used something they
called ‘north light’ from the direction of the roof windows, using blinds and curtains to control where the light fell.We can use light and dark – contrast and tones – to create shapes and form to portray three-dimensional subjects. A common device in both painting and photographic portraits (eg Rembrandt self-portraits) is to show one side of the face with soft daylight falling on it. On the other side, the shadow of the nose meets the cheek shadow but the eye is still in the light. The face looks rounded or three-dimensional. This can be achieved with a soft light on both sides but exposure becomes critical. You have to ensure that the lighting ratio across the face does not exceed 4:1. That is 8 stops difference for a hand print; if reproduced in a magazine this will have to be considerably reduced.
As a painter Rembrandt has artistic licence – that is, to have shadow areas where he wanted them, vignetting the centre, and small soft pools of light where he saw fit. The genius is that it looks plausible and natural.
David Saffir and Sally Wiener Grotta discuss how their photography has been inspired by Rembrandt’s Night Watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJN0pdSv__U
Bill Truran’s portrait of a little girl (more like Vermeer lighting)
The sun is the natural light source that all artificial lighting tries to reproduce but the sun isn’t always the same – it gives us different results on different days dependent upon the time of year and the weather. On a bright day it throws hard shadows, on a grey day soft shadows. Contrast in tone is the issue here. On a sunny day shadows are deep/dark and highlights are bright so there is high contrast. On a cloudy day shadows are mild and highlights are scarce so there is
low contrast.Outdoor portrait photography
John Freeman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYlpLRA8Mbw
(www.johnfreeman-photographer.com/ is Japanese!!)If you’re making a portrait it is perfectly feasible to use the sun as your light source.
But if the subject is facing the sun you may well end up with squinting or some other facial expression that you’d rather avoid. When shooting a subject against the light never look at the sun through your lens – it can severely damage your eye.
It’s normal practice to pose your subject with their back to the sun and use a reflector. In technical terms, this means that you have a main or key light (the reflector) – the light you want to work with – and a secondary light source (the sun) exposing the background and lighting the edges of your subject (e.g. modelling light on the subject’s shoulder or lighting the hair).
Because the reflector isn’t the brighter of the two lights you need to consider your exposure. Where do you meter from? Meter from the face. You can do this by setting your camera to spot meter or – as many professionals still do – by using a light meter. Expose for the face; if you get this right everything else should fall into place.
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Rembrandt
Rembrandt had a studio with fantastic quality daylight; the window light was soft and he used reflector sheets to bounce light back where he wanted it. In other words he used soft controlled light which is what the studio softboxes of today http://www.rembrandthuis.nl/cms_pages/index_main.html
Rembrandt creative commons website
Exercise: The Night Watch
The painted portrait had to show the viewer what was important either to the sitter or the creator. This was done in some cases by pose, in some by costume or uniform or significant items with inherent meaning, or simply by position – being higher up than others or at the optimum positional point of the image. Look carefully at Rembrandt’s famous painting The Night Watch, commissioned by Frans Banning Cocq, the figure in the centre foreground.Before you follow the link below, make some notes in your learning log about how the artist uses the elements listed above (background, pose, clothes, props, light). What effect does
he create? What does the portrait say about Banning Cocq?
Look particularly at the use of light and dark in this huge portrait. How might you create similar effects photographically?
Now follow the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9jj74aOr_Q -
Exercise: A self-portrait
This exercise aims to develop your analytical skills in defining how to portray someone, but this time the subject is you.
Write 150 words about yourself and select a stance from this to bring to the camera.
In terms of lighting, etc., use a friend or family member to practise and then set the camera up on a tripod and either use a timer or ask someone to press the button when you tell them. It’s still your image – you set it up, did the posing, lighting, costume, hair, etc.
Produce three images that tell the viewer all about you – as you see yourself.
Now ask friends or colleagues what they think your strengths and weakness are. Ask them what defines your character to them, how they see you. Produce three images from your friends’ points of view.
Write the experience up in your learning log. Do the images coincide in terms of your own and your friends’ impressions of you? In other words, were you trying to photograph the ‘same’ person in each case or someone completely different? Then look again at the images and see if they coincide visually. Try and analyse your findings.