A City in the Mind - Peter Fraser

Portraits come in many forms, however what would we expect a portriat of a city to look like? 
Peter Fraser - A city in the Mind, has addressed this idea with inspiration from the Vintage Classic, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. 

Peter Fraser - A city in the Mind Exhabition at the 

Brancolini Grimaldi Gallery 

Invisible cities, being a collection of short chapters where by Marco Polo shares his travels and stories with the Emperor Kublai Khan, however the langue barrier between the two men means that Polo uses objects to help tell his stories. 
It is not only that this book was an inspiration to Fraser's work that makes it important it is that idea that, images are language - A picture paints a thousand words. 

With this in mind Fraser has asked us to look at this work and allow us as the viewer to make up our own mind about what city or place he is trying to describe to us, although we know that this is a portrayal of London we still might find that some of the works, might evoke a memory of another city that we might have been to before. Such an image to do this would be the conch shell. 

In some ways this body of work could be seen as the blue print for a city, a city that is in the process of being built. Each image could be seen at the building blocks for a functioning city, for example the first image we see is of a song thrush, this being the adding of nature to the city. Moving on form this image we come across the image of the model city, a representation of people with in a functioning city, again the image Who's Who is again could be read as the adding of people to a city being built. 
As we move through the images we can start to see more objects that we would associate with civilized live such as chairs and chandeliers, however back track a tiny way and we can see representation's of a city thought the stacked playing cards making a tower, much like that of a skyscraper of a city such as London.

Peter Fraser - A city in the Mind Exhibition 

at the Brancolini Grimaldi Gallery 

Over all this body of work is thought provoking, allowing the viewer to understand the different ways in which a city can be seen though different eyes, other than our own. Allowing our judgements of a city to be brushed aside and see a city in a new light.      

Edward Burtynsky - Oil

Oil, one of the most essential raw materials known to man, one that we use in everyday life and don't even realise. In our modern day and age we are using more and more oil to keep up to speed with the growing economy of our planet. 
Edward Burtynsky's Oil exhibition at the London Photographers Gallery addresses these issues through his images of the life cycle of oil. 

Oil Fields #19a - 

Belridge, California, USA, 2003 

This vast body of work has been in the making for nearly twenty years allowing Burtynsky to travel the world finding areas rich in oil that are being pushed to the very limit. 
The show its self was split up into three of the four sections, these were Extraction and Refinement, Transportation and Motor Culture and The End of Oil. 

As we move through this large body of work we are taken through the stages of oil and its life cycle. However in what way are we viewing this? Most would see this as a life to death progression, but in some ways it could be seen as a death to life story as well. 
In the words of Barthes "The Greeks entered into death backward: what they had before them was their past" 
The relevance that this has to this body of work is the idea is the idea that the use of oil is a circle, what is before the oil is its past as well as its future, as eventually it circles back around. 
Although with this in mind we might need to, once again look at Barthes Camera Lucida, and again at the idea of death and photography. "Whether or not the subject is already dead, every photograph is a catastrophe"   

Shipbreaking #13 -Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2000

Photography as Animated Art

Over the past 100 years the camera and the image have undergone huge changes, the biggest being the change over from film to digital. However bigger changes have begun to happen due to new technologies and the introduction of social networking sites and blog site such as Tumblr. The image can now be viewed by more people then ever before in one space, and now the image is becoming more clever. 

The image its self has never been a stand alone medium, but more a combination of many other arts. The Camera Obscura was originally a tool used to paint real time settings however this (on top of the chemical discovery) was the start of capturing the image. Although this might be the case we have to then look at the arts such a performance, when making an image we are conducting or capturing a performance of nature or setting one up with in a controlled space, which ever way we look at it there is a show happening in front of our lens each time. 

"Yet it is not by painting that photography touches art, but by theater"  - Barthes,R., 1982, Part One, Camera Lucida, London, Jonathan Cape, p. 31. 

The gif is a popular and now thanks to social networking sites such as Tumblr a very well known file format for images, the image simple hold data making a image act in a way a video would, the difference is that it is played over and over again in a loop. Once more this touches on the side of performance photography. 

The gif has now been used and abused, making it some what tacky and over used. In some ways the gif is past redeeming its self as as part of photography, its use for comedic and mick taking is now its soul purpose, but there is hope for image and performance to co-exist as one. 

The gif, however is now being challenged by a much more subtle performing image, with the new use of the iphone application. 

Now I hear you all scream out in despair, the iphone making images that are worth paying attention to, and I would have to agree, taking pictures on a phone is simple. 

The app its self is basic and the whole idea is as easy as taking a picture on your phone, however it bring together the subtlety of movement and image. The app allows you to take a short video but cut it down so only one part of the image moves. Thus creating a setting, a feeling of being a part of the setting, a different kind of atmosphere to that of the still image. 

So I will leave you with a few examples and let you make up your own minds, do you think there is hope for the Cinemagraph. 

Photography Meets Design

Commando Group (A group of people who specialize in visual identity, art direction, illustration and photography).

The objective of this project is to investigate the boundaries between photography and graphic design/illustration and hopefully produce something remarkable in the process. The original photographs were provided by photographer Damian Heinisch. - Tumblr 

The work produced by Heinish and the Commando Group has a strong fantasy feel linking it back to the idea if Kittelsen's work, however not only that the work has something else hidden away, something that is perhaps more apparent in Kittelsen's work. The strong element of darkness. On first inspection these creatures of the mountains are sweet, perhaps a child's illustration much like the Gruffalo. However when looking back at these images there is a fear of these creates some where in my mind,  the shear scale of them makes them feel powerful and domineering over the viewer. Image too is also an image that unnerves, the fact that the creature is crying. This emotion on a creature so big scares and questions, when that emotional what could something of that size do? 

Theodor Severin Kittelsen

However this work makes you feel you can see then creatures as defenders of the landscape. 

Eszter Burghardt

After being uninspired for a while I began looking for new and exciting art, insulation or photography, this is when I discovered the work of Eszter Burghardt, her work is different to anything else that I have seen through the use of macro. The way that she makes you believe that these spaces and landscapes are real, with the use of tilt shifts and high use of macro lens and filters. 

The images have both come from different bodies of work, the first comes from the series Wooly Sagas, while the second comes from the series Edible Vistas. All her work can be found here.

A WOOLY SAGA OF CREEK 

WOOLY MAGMA

VIRTUALLY FLAVORED

NO CAKEWALK

Mehmet Ozgur Smoke Art

While looking for inspiration for some of my own work I came across the work of Mehmet Ozgur and his work. As you might know his work is some what like the smoke art that I created in Photoshop some time ago. 
His work is magic, creating a serial and dream like state with in his images. What drew me to the work was the second image, this was the first that I ever saw. From here I looked into more of his work only to find that each image become more and more complex with new and exciting ways of capturing smoke in different forms. 
You can find more of his work here

Ikea's Digital Camera

Ikea have just realised their own Digital Camera. The Kanappa as it has been called is almost entirely made form cardboard and has no digital back, thus bring back this idea of not knowing what you have taken till you upload the images onto your computer. The camera is powered by two standard batteries, has a memory of up to 40 images and a USB port for easy upload to your computer. 
The idea behind this whole project is the climet that we live in, Ikea are really looking into ways of sustainability as well as reusing all the card packing that they use for all their flat packed goods.  

The camera its self is really a point and shoot, but has brought back the days when film was widely used, however this does not mean that the waiting is long once the 40 shots are taken you just go to your own computer and see them straight away, so it could be argued that this camera brings back nothing that film once gave to us. 

Here is a video of the camera in action.

I would love to know what others think of this idea? Is photography becoming less and less of an art? Or do you feel that the idea of photogrpahy be accessible to every one is a good thing, alowing people to express them selves easier them before?

Viewer or Voyeur? The morality of reportage photography

Third post on My Course, looking at the moral ethics of Photography. 

Don McCullin 

Farah Abdi Warsameh's Stoned to Death, Somalia, 13 December

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/mar/08/world-press-photo-sean-ohagan
http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/shaped-by-war-photographs-by-don-mccullin

My Response 
Photography can be any where at any time, allowing us to see the world for many different things from beauty to blood shed, but when do you stop and decide what should or should not be photographed or seen. 
Personal the Guardian article did not shock me as much as I thought it would, having watched the news form an early age and being exposed to such images and truths of humanity I became some what desensitised to the idea of the death and killing. However this does not mean that I did not find such an image up setting. 
The work of Don McCullin is not as shocking, the images might show war but they do not show too much of the harshness of war. Such as blood and direct death. 
Over all I feel that over the past few years the world has become harder, the images that McCullin produced, the the time would have shocked and upset. Where as now we need to see the worst of the war to be shocked, However even now this is hard with the amount of death that we are exposed to. Not just through the News but in film, Tv and Video Games.  

This image was found on Tumblr of an ex-soldier who lost both his legs, this image is as far as I understand it is an re-enactment of when he lost his legs. However when I first saw this image I have to say that I was more shocked then seeing Warsameh's image. 
The reason for this is that, in Warsameh's image we know that the man is dead from the body langue of the others and the man that is deceased. What makes this image shocking this that the soldier seams un-fazed  that he has lost both his legs, he is calm smoking his cigarette and looking directly at us. In some ways it make this image very intense to look at, we almost feel that we should not be looking at him.  

Layered Drawings - Nobuhiro Nakanishi

Nobuhiro Nakanishi works with photography and sculpture, creating large works that 'float' off the wall. The images a compressed much like the idea of a giant flip book. 

As the audience looks the the work, it begins to blend together creating silhouettes of the landscapes that are printed onto the  Plexiglass acrylic. 

"In a foggy landscape, we no longer see what we are usually able to see - the distance to the traffic light, the silhouette of the trees, the slope of the ground. Silhouettes, distance and horizontal sense all become vague. When we perceive this vagueness, the water inside the retina and skin dissolve outwardly toward the infinite space of the body surface. The landscape continues to flow, withholding us from grasping anything solid. By capturing spatial change and the infinite flow of time, I strive to produce art that create movement between the artwork itself and the viewer's experience of the artwork." -  Nobuhiro Nakanishi  

The Language of Water and Adrift With Flowers - John Grant

The Language of water 
The body of work 'Language of water' by John Grant looks that that way in which water moves, the way in this is explored is by using die to see the different currants that have been made by the water as it moves around the canister. 
This work again requires the attention of the viewer, by looking at the work you can begin to see the different shapes and patterns that are made by the dye in the water.   

'My interest is to create imagery that holds attention. Speaking out from a source of 

wisdom, connection to self, or from some seemingly important question or even simple

wonderment.

I express myself using contemporary photographic tools, but stretching them as

imagination allows.' - John Grant, Artist Statement. 

Adrift with Flowers 

The second body of work that looks at creating abstract images that look more like detailed illustration. 

The flowers are submerged in tanks of water where they are suspended in ghostly formations. 

The use of water in Grants work could be seen and represented as many different things. Water is a powerful force, but it has calming qualities that relate to nature and life.  

'In my photographic work I seek to distil and dramatize natural elements, transforming them into symbolic metaphor. I embraced the often clichéd or sentimental botanical portrayal, presenting objects in ways that infuse them with an enigmatic quality that expands expectations and tweaks the imagination.'  John Grant - Statement.         

The Never Ending Wall - Noemie Goudal

Noemie Goudal's work looks at the landscape and how we consume the land with out thinking and the invasion of our man made substances into our landscapes. 
The images really raise awareness of the environment and how we interact with it.
'They loved it so much that they consumed it all at once. Then left.' (Sustain Exhibition & Award 2010 Themes: Noemie Goudal (MA Photography, 2010)

The work is set up of instillation that are large scale printed images that hang at the end of empty buildings, giving the illusion of the room continuing on out side. 
This yet another very interesting and helpful view on the idea of landscape photography, taking out the idea of the Picturesque and turning it into something that we can all relate to, environment, beauty and change.   

The Shooting Gallery

The Shooting Gallery is a new show on Channel Four, on Friday nights. The show runs for an hour and looks at various different photographers and short film makers from across the world. 
On the 23th March is first episode was aired, it looked at seven different photographs that all looked at very different subjects. 
The first photographer was Irina Werning and her work 'Back to the future'. In this project Werning takes old photos and recreates them in the exact same way, the old difference is that the people in the images are older, much older - http://irinawerning.com/

The second photographer was David Gillanders, the images were complied into a short film, Called Neglected. Gillanders went underground for three years in Odessa, Ukraine, where he photographed the young children that have been orphaned and left to live off drugs as a pack. The film was heavy and highly emotional to see, children as young as eight shooting up - http://www.davidgillanders.com/

Irina Werning - Back to the Future

David Gillanders - Neglected

The third photographers that were looked at were two Japanese wedding photographers, that have changed the way that a traditional wedding photographs is made and creating  a more stylized, almost fashion wedding style.

In Focus is the next work that was focused on by Pete Eckert, a blind photographer that creates incrdibale images of light trails and the use of long exposures. The work that Eckert creates is inspiring and comfoting, that he can still create the art work that he loves - http://www.peteeckert.com/photos.php

Dark Clouds was the second short still film piece that looks the price that China is paying for it booming industry that, as Western consumers contribute to. Images were taken by Ian Teh - http://www.ianteh.com/

A life Alone is a touching film that looks at one mans tough struggle after the death of his wife. Maisie Crow photographs Tom Rose in his house alone, struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife. This was a tough watch Rose just seamed to desperate, so alone in such a big house - http://www.maisiecrow.com/content.html?page=1

Finaly the last photographer that was looked at was Noam Galai and his photo the scream. Galai posted his image of his face onto his Flicker page and with in a short amount of time his face was used on T-shirts, as graffiti art, graphic desing, magazines and book covers. While Galai knew nothing of this. The short film called 'The Stolen Scream' looks into his feelings about how his image has been used with out him ever knowing. 

Sven Fennema - Urban Decay

Sven Fennema a German photographer looks at decay in places, mostly architectural spaces. much of his work looks at buildings and spaces that had history such as old theatres,hospitals, castles and churches form all over the world. 
Fennema's work is captivating, there is almost a feeling of fantasy to the images, the lighting gives a warm feel to some of the images, as well as cold in others. 
What is so special about decay and photography is that there is a dialogue between photographer and the subject weather that is a car tangled by nature or a building whithering away. The idea of this dialogue is that you can feel the past echoing all around you when you are in the spaces, if the image is good that the view should have the very same feelings of past echoing of the people that inhabited these spaces. 

The Art of Arrangement - The Holburne Museum

Still Life with Shellfish - 1650 - 1699 

Art of Arrangement: Photography and the Still Life Tradition

The tradition of still life is extensive, from painting to photography. This exhibition at The Holburne Museum in Bath aims to explore this transition from then until now. 
The show opens with one of the permanent collections still life painted pieces, Still Life with Shellfish. 
If we look at this image and study it we can begin to pick out areas of information that help to identify still life though photography. 
Still life will more often then not include fruit, this being a sign of wealth and power, however the pocket watch on the table show us that time is always at work and that all will die and rot away much like the wealth and power that is gained over time. It is a reminder to us all that life in any case, it not eternal. 

The Show
In this exhibition we are taken thought the ages of still life and are shown changes and the similarities that occur, The show includes many original prints by William Henry Fox Talbot, Harold Edgerton and Rodger Fenton.     

The images selected for this review best show the tradition, changes and similarities of the idea of still life. 

William Henry Fox Talbot, uses the tradition of fruit taken and inspired by the use of painting.  

William Henry Fox Talbot - Still Life

Rodger Fenton's Still Life with Ivory Tankard and Fruit again looks that the tradition of fruit and silver wear gathered elaborately on a table. This image once more speaks out about decay and the passing time that we all experience.

Roger Fenton - Still Life with Ivory Tankard and Fruit

Ian Beesley - Disused Block

The final image that I have included is Ian Beesley's images of the broken clocks, this image was taken in a Mill in Bradford, the image is showing the death of Textile industry, again the use of clocks showing the changes over time and how even industry comes to an end much like natural and organic objects do. 

This show was well put together, the transition between the past style of creating a still life image, composed of fruit clustered on a table to the idea of a more contemporary way of looking at how an image can be seen as a still life. 
A well worth show to have visited.