Jan Banning and Joseph P. Smith two photographers with two interesting and different projects but for this study both have something in common which is the fact that their style is about environmental photography which can be described as contextualized, where the person is not just being photographed but also not taken out of their comfort zone and kept in their surroundings. By looking for the definition contextualized means “to put an action in a context” (Random house dictionary, N.D). Which if seen in photography one can say that a portrait taken in an environmental can say more about the person for the fact that the person is in their zone at what they do. The image below reflects what this type of photography means, here we see a person in his office which means that he is an office person and that is the place where he spends his working ours. (M.Strauss,2013) Banning did a project called ‘Bureaucratics’ in which he had visited eight countries on five continentals (Bolivia, China, France, India, Liberia, Russia, The United States and Yemen). (J.Banning, U.D) ‘I visited up to hundreds of offices of members of the executive in different services and at different levels. The visits were unannounced and the accompanying writer, Will Tinnemans, by interviewing kept the employees from tiding up or clearing the office. That way, the photos show what a local citizen would be confronted with when entering.’ (J. Banning, U.N). Although this project has nothing to do with trades Banning still captured a person in a portrait manner and showed who the person is and what they do. Whereas the Maltese photographer P. Smith did the project called ‘Survivors The ageing population of Birgu’. Again this project has nothing to do with workers but the concept is the same. Due to the research done this project would not be possible without certain people’s help. ‘John Boxall immediately warmed up to the idea and his help in the project was invaluable. He made the necessary preliminary contacts and used to e-mail me a list of people to interview and photograph the following weekend.’ (P. Smith, 2009) P. Smith was interviewing the elderly people to know more about them and also photograph them in their environment for example Dr. Joseph Saliba who is a Doctor but has a passion in arts so his portrait was taken him painting and sculpting. (Figure 3) Figure 3 - (P. Smith, 2009) ‘Joseph other great passion is for the arts. He is a self- taught painter, sculptor, guilder and restorer and a good number of his works adorn churches, band clubs and private residences.’ (P. Smith, 2009). References
"Bureaucratics". Janbanning.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 24 Dec. 2016. "Don Smith, CEO Of SCF Arizona". Matthew-strauss.blogspot.com.mt. N.p., 2017. Web. 24 Dec. 2016.. "The Definition Of Contextualize". Dictionary.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 24 Dec. 2016. Smith, Joseph P. Survivors The Ageing Population Of Birgu. 1st ed. Malta: Velprint LTD, 2009. Print.
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The American photographer Irving Penn did a project called “Small trades, Big Pride”, This is a series of photographs in a portrait style of workers. All his images are studio which can be also seen as a decontextualized photography. By looking for the definition decontextualized means “To remove an action from a context” (Collins English Dictionary, 1998). Which if seen in photography one can say that a portrait taken in a studio does not say anything about the person. By looking at an image from the photographer Richard Avedon (Figure 1) although he is almost covered in bees nobody can say where he works and what he does. Figure 1: (Richard Avedon - M.Johnson,2010) The photographs were taken in front of a plain backdrop but people are in their working attire and also holding their working tools. This project started in the 1950 in Paris while Penn was ‘working on assignment for Vogue magazine, he began photographing different people working on the Parisian streets.’ (The Reel Foto, 2011). Although this is a collection of 252 images full length portraits and done in a simple studio lighting, some of them according to the research done light was natural coming from a skylight above and from a side window (Figure 2). Figure 2: (The Reel Foto, 2011 ) ‘You would thing that taken out of their comfort zone (their work place) and placed in a photographer’s studio that these people would look rather uncomfortable. On the contrary, armed with their working tools or simply dressed in their uniform, they look confidently into the camera. It becomes quite clear that these men and women are proud not only to be respective vocations but also to be photographed as a representative of their livelihood as well.’ (The Reel Foto, 2011). Figure 3: (The Reel Foto, 2011) Regarding to the research done what is being said that although these people were taken out of from their working place by giving them their working props they still felt comfortable in front of the camera and gave their utmost. Moving on to the Australian photographer Fred Kroh which Kroh himself stated that his work was inspired from Irving Penn’s however what Kroh wanted to do is to photograph these people and their lost trades. ‘This made them exciting to meet and photograph. The fact that across the 2 days there were 14,000 visitors to the fair and the makers barely had time to take a breath let alone have a picture taken, along with constant protestations of “I’ll break your camera” made them quite a challenging subject matter!!’ (F, Kroh, 2015). Although from the research there isn’t anything about how people felt in front of the camera one can still notice that Kroh had a good response to his project for the fact that people didn’t hesitate to go out of their workplace and get photographed to have another memory of their passion and what they do for living (Figure 4 is some of his work). Figure 4: (F,Kroh,2015) References
"A Trug Load Of Portraits! Lost Trades Fair 2015. - Blog". Fredkroh.net. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 Dec. 2016. profile, View. "Irving Penn: Small Trades, Big Pride". Reelfoto.blogspot.com.mt. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 Dec. 2016. "The Definition Of Decontextualize". Dictionary.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 Dec. 2016. "Trees And Bees And Mysteries". The Online Photographer. N.p., 2017. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.. The purpose of this article is to evaluate and show the viewers that there are different methods to go on when shooting a street photograph and to show the evidence, the idea of how to think when shooting. This is a is very evident article for the fact that Graham Bell used references within the article and also a lot of technical words such as lightbox and transparences. He also mentioned different artists to compare and contrast their work with Jeff wall’s. When reading this article some questions have to be asked, and also answered. The author stated “The photographer began to reconstruct scenes he had witnessed on the street and to capture them behind the lens of a large-format camera.” (Bell, 2016). This answers to the question, where do they came from? Basically what was his idea for the fact that unlike the artists Garry Winogrand and Robert Frank that shoot with a 35mm film which are usually small cameras and they can move around but Wall shoots with a large-format camera. This will lead to the second question; why did they happen? The author explains Wall’s idea that although he could not move with that big camera and also for the fact that back than cameras where slow and used on a tripod, he still capture moments in his mind and then reconstructed the scene. By reconstruct the scene could be a little bit controversial the author wrote this small sentence, “use of non-actors in their fictional portrayals of real life.” (Bell, 2016). Since street photography is all about non-fiction (not made up) so the fact that he stages the images one might not agree because like that he is not showing the true about street photography. (Mimic, 1982 - G. W. Bell,2009) (Overpass, 2001 -G.W. Bell,2009) The third question will be, what do they mean to Jeff Wall and to photography itself? The author concluded with some important facts. “A snapshot of people on the street is not typically associated with posed or controlled actors. Posing the participants would not constitute true street photography.” (Bell, 2016). Here a comparison can be made between what the pictures mean to Jeff Wall and to photography because the way this could be seen although he did not have a camera to shoot real street photographs he still wanted to do so by “mimicking” and making the photographs in a cinematographic approach to create series of photos. But also in the article there is a quote say “the artist brings into question modes of representation in daily and human perception instead of trying to be paintings.” (Bell, 2016) which one can notice that although Jeff Wall “setup” the images the way he printed them in a life size he still showed an element of real life. (Milk, 1984 - G. W. Bell,2009) The author has written about Jeff Wall that his work is so engaging and entirely new. In this article Bell wanted to kind of change the vision of street photography and to look at the same way as Wall. Since technology has really developed and cameras are small and fast one don’t imagine himself doing this approach, since nowadays one can create very clear images while people are on the streets going by their everyday life. References"Evocations Of The Everyday: The Street Picture Of Jeff Wall (2009)". americansuburbx. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
"Graham W. Bell". Gwbell.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 22 Nov. 2016. Facing Mogadishu: Jason Florio who is an NYC based photographer and also a writer from London in this article “Facing Mogadishu Portraits of life in the capital of violence” he wanted to share his experience thought his journey. At the end of this article there is a quote by Florio himself which is very powerful “For the people in these portraits, life goes on with little hope of an end to the violence, still life goes on”. I think that this statement I a true one for the fact that he was there and saw what these people were going through, still not the same because these people were losing family members so he cannot feel the same, but from his point of view he can say that he saw many things. And he was write life still has to keep on going no matter what happens in life you just have to be strong. In this article he was talking about the attacks on Mogadishu, to show the misery of this place he stated “Where I sat with my face pressed against a Perspex window”, “You couldn’t see the holes from that height, the gaping craters that had collected limbs like rainwater. You couldn’t see the rows of pre-dug graves patiently awaiting the bodies that would fill them” with this saying I felt like that he was in a small place underground near the graves with a little hole from somewhere trying to portrait people from outside. Florio also said that in May he spent forty-eight hours in a clinic where he described that the tin roof of his bedroom was better than a barrier, which I felt how bad the hospital was for the reason that only few meters away from the clinic the Al shabaab where firing small arms and mortars. While reading this article another part that hit me was when Florio mentioned a mother carrying her ten-year-old daughter into the clinic, which he said “no trace of emotion on her face. The woman must have known her daughter was already dead” for me saying that the mother did not show any emotions makes the woman really strong in character and defined the first quote that life still keeps on going. Another part that keeps on reflecting that quote is that there were some people that posed for him to take a portrait of them and Florio described them as “their weary faces, their thin smiles” so although what they were going through these people still smiled even just for a little bit for his pictures. At last when he visited a maize all the women were shy of him but he mentioned Fatima Mohamud Mohammad, a mother of nine children, she went forward for him to take her portrait but he said that she was still nervous and happy for the attention, which he was grateful for the opportunity this woman gave him. Fatima Mohamud Mohammad – 40. I work as a maize husker in a milling factory. I make $80 a month, and since my husband is unemployed I have to support my nine children on my salary alone. My dream right now is simply to hold onto my job, even though the dust causes me allergy problems. References:
Florio, J 2012, 'Facing Mogadishu: Portraits of Life in the Capital of Violence', Virginia Quarterly Review, 88, 1, pp. 4-19, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 November 2016. |
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