James Bugg spoke to our PJ class this week, and gave some valuable feedback on folios. Above are some of his images from the body of work titled, The Pines. I really liked what he was talking about when showing these images, which was regarding the act of making a photograph, versus taking a photograph. He said that he liked to take a collaborative approach where possible, and asking his subjects to draw a pine tree (pictured above) helped to break down barriers as well as get them involved in the creation of the work. The image with the bird painting was used as an example of seeing metaphor and repeated imagery, as well as how if we keep looking hard enough and keep shooting, the shots appear themselves.
I got some feedback on my layouts and have tried to take that into account and make the following adjustments. I made the iPad screen-grabs of Shinya almost full bleed, to better replicate the size of an iPad, I also tried it with the Google Earth images and like the result.
I was also given the advice of breaking up the book half way with a full bleed shot of Shinya, to give a kind of harsh ‘break up’ that mimics when we loose connection digitally. I thought it might be good to follow that with a page that is almost entirely white, to contrast and give a sense of the sudden silence and emptiness as a call drops out.
Finally, I tried placing the bowls on their own page, rather than just having all of them on the single page. I am not sure which way I will go yet, but I kind of like the idea of splitting them all up to add to that sense of passing time and diaristic logging.
Notes from ‘Photographers Photographing Themselves,’ in the book Auto Focus : The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography by Susan Bright.
When taking self portraiture, ‘the self’ is also ‘an other.’
‘Historically the self-portrait has been understood as a representation of emotions, an outward expression of inner feelings, penetrating self-analysis and self-contemplation that might bestow an immortality of sorts upon the artist. p.8.
‘Self portrait’ vs ‘picture of self’ - dictated by production quality? p.9.
Photo booth- aids in detachment and passivity. p.9.
Self portraiture often used to discuss wider social issues including cultural diversity, sexuality, racism, gender stereotypes etc.
Use of mirrors is a recurring theme, can be ‘read as an attempt to see all sides of the self and a desire to capture something more personal than mere likeness.’ p.17.
Self portraiture can be used to represent a ‘nation in transition.’ Esp in non-Western artists, the nations identity is changing and so is the individual’s.
Diaristic photography= catharsis?
(1) Bright, S 2011, Auto Focus : The Self-Portrait in Contemporary Photography, 1st edn., Thames & Hudson, London.
Notes from a quick skim of Pandora’s Camera by Joan Fontcuberta.
Memory gives them identity and identity makes them real. p.25.
Until just a few years ago taking a photograph was still a solemn event reserved for special occasions; nowadays using a camera is a gesture as banal as scratching your ear. Photography has become ubiquitous and there are cameras everywhere capturing everything. p.36.
There are no longer facts devoid of an image. p.27.
This technological evolution and the consequences it is having on the habits of society today have fostered the notion of photography as capturing a moment. It is accentuating the need to capture everything. Everything can be photographed - and what is more, everything is showable. p.27.
The more pictures you have, the more life you have and the more fun you are. p.27.
Attempt number 2 of taking ‘looser’ shots. This time I used an old point and shoot that embedded the date onto the image. Unfortunately, the camera wasn’t old enough to give the look I was after, but I might be able to use one image from the set. I also experimented with adding more text, to keep with the diaristic style. This time I added handwritten passages about dreams that I have had lately. I never usually have such vivid, detailed dreams, and I have been remembering them perfectly (apparently this is common in the current COVID situation.) I think they work kind of well, but I wonder if the addition of this will make the work too text heavy? In any case, I don’t think the accompanying snapshots are working well, and need to be reconsidered.
I also took this shot on my iPhone on the way back from a walk. I don’t know if it will fit with the folio because it seems a bit too uplifting compared to the rest of the work.
Yesterday I watched 砂の女 (Suna no Onna), which is a film adaptation of Kobo Abe’s book by the same name. In English this translates to Woman of the Dunes. I found this on YouTube, and no subtitles (either in Japanese or English) were available, so I ended up watching the entire 2.5 hours in Japanese. The basic plot line is that a teacher who is out in the dunes hunting for bugs misses the last bus home, and is “kindly” offered a place to stay in a tiny hut int he middle of a hole carved out of sand. However he is actually trapped, and forced to live with the woman of the house, who has to shovel sand for a living. I remember the part when this is discussed for the first time, and in Japanese the man says something that translates roughly to “you live to shovel sand and you shove sand to live.” The women makes a comment about it being comparable to living a salaryman life in Tokyo, and that really struck me as I could easily see the connection. Basically, the woman has to shovel the sand every night to stop if engulfing the house, and also so that she receives rations from the men at the top of the hole. The plot continues with the man trying to escape a few times, and eventually choosing to stay in the sand dune house.
The way this film was shot is really beautiful, with careful consideration to framing and lighting. My only criticism is that the dialogue between the characters and the screeching music (Hitchcock-esque in that kind of hair-raising horror style) are of completely different volumes. So I had to keep turning the volume up to hear the dialogue, and turn it down when the music played so my eardrums didn’t burst.
What I took from this film is sense of perpetualization, and I realised that I am facing a similar issue in my own life at this current time. Due to the global pandemic, I am ‘trapped’ in Australia, unable to choose what I do with complete freedom. I am stuck in this inescapable sense of repetition with no sense of an out or an end point. Sams as the main character trapped in the sand. The sense of helplessness and struggle that the main character feels when he comes to the realisation of being trapped resonated strongly with me.
I am not perfect with Japanese, but I could catch the gist of the movie and the conversations within it. After viewing the film, I looked up the plot on the internet just to double check my understanding, and it was in line with what was written. To deepen my understanding though, I have decided to read the English translation of the original book. It is only 166 pages long, so it won’t take too long to read. From what I have read so far, the film follows the book quite closely, down to the dialogue (I recognised exact phrases from the film.)
In terms of applying this to my own project, I think I would like tot ouch on that sense of repetition and helplessness somehow. I would like to make my viewers feel that through the work, in the same way that I felt the hopelessness of the main character when I was watching this film.
(1) Suna No Onna 1964, uploaded DVD, Toho Film (Eiga) Co. Ltd., Japan.
(2) Abe, K 2013, The Woman in the Dunes, translated from Japanese by ED Saunders, Vintage Books, New York.
I am currently reading the english version of 箱男 (Box Man) by Kobo Abe. It’s a very strange sort of narrative that seems very loose in structure. It’s not like it’s hard to follow, but it does seem like a free-flow of speech rather than a constructed narrative. I’m not sure how to explain this style of writing in words. In any case, the protagonist is a man that lives inside a box. Below is one of the passages that I particularly liked, as it talks about ‘the gaze’ - which is so important within a photographic context (for the record: the protagonist is also a photographer, as was the author.)
“The act of spying on someone else is generally looked upon with scorn is because, I suppose, one does not want to be on the side of being seen. When one cannot avoid being seen it is common sense to demand compensation. As a matter of fact, in the theater or in the cinema usually those who look pay money and those who are looked at receive it. Anybody would rather look than be looked at. The fact that they keep on and on selling endless instruments for “looking”-radios and televisions-is excellent proof that ninety nine percent of men are aware of their own unsightliness. ”
What I didn’t realise whilst reading, up until today, is that the actual book also includes a series of photographs. The reason I didn’t realise this is that because all libraries are closed at the moment, I had to find this book on the internet, and only found a PDF version that includes raw text but no imagery. Whilst I was looking for an image of the cover for this post specifically, I came across a very helpful website that details the images in the book, with an analysis of each and a brief description of its relation (or lack of) to the text. The anonymous author of this website states that “Aside from this opening photograph, images in The Box Man are of interest for two reasons. First, the eight photographs and accompanying brief texts distributed through the text do not coordinate easily or clearly with the narrative. They aren’t incompatible, but they don’t illustrate the text. Their slant relation to the narrative is one unusual thing about the book. The other reason is the intensely visual nature of the narrative, which proposes many kinds of visible objects—especially including box men—none of which are illustrated.”
The images above are taken from Writing With Images, the website I mentioned before. What I found particularly interesting was that the website’s author had access to the images in the Wildenstein catalogue, and these included the photographer’s notes in Japanese.
So how does this relate to my own folio? I’m not quite sure yet. Perhaps it is the combination of image and text, or the raw nature of the photos, or the way that they compel the viewer to try and draw meaning from them. I’m still working this out myself, but as I read more of the book (I am about 60% of the way through) I think I will come to a better understanding.
(1) Abe, K 2001, The Box Man, 2nd edn, Random House USA, New York.
Another photobook that is kind of related to what I’m doing…kind of. This is Middle by Gábor Arion Kudász. It documents a period of time when he and his wife were pregnant with their child. The photographs are juxtaposed with excerpts from a diary that his wife (Bogi) kept. What I initially liked about the book was the cover. The brown cover and rounded edges give it the feel of a notebook, and that adds a layer of intimacy to the work. It is wrapped with a poster, which can be removed.
I like how the words are used too. This resonates with me because I am using personal sms exchanges in my photobook as well. I also like how this is adapted to the format. In the book, the lines of text (with dates attach) span across the pages, and sometimes go over to the next page. They are placed at different heights. This is emulated on the website, as the lines of text run along the bottom of the images, layering on top of each other and stretching across as the viewer continues to look. Both function like a timeline, in function and in form.
Here is an except from a PDF on the artists work, in which he comments on the lines of text.
“Bogi records notes of every smallest event that often seem to exclude what I
consider important. Of course, I do not write a diary and consequently only have
my blurred memory of how our everyday life proceeds. During the years of work
on Middle it quickly became almost impossible to place any photograph on a
timeline. When Bogi offered her diary to match the dates with the photographs,
I was expecting to discover embarrassing or deeply personal details but, to my
greatest surprise, her notes follow the flow of daily routines with an almost
unbearable considered objectivity that very rarely dares to express emotion.
Looking at our life together in retrospect, given the telegram-style texts, it is as
if we could have experienced any number of parallel lives that had no regard for
the actual chronological order of events. So here we are.” - Gábor Arion Kudász
I just watched a video of Gábor Arion Kudász presenting his photobook, Memorabilia. The book has a unique layout, in that it appears to be a sort of notebook, and the actual photos are enclosed within the full pages of text. Even though this is an 8 minute video, I was glued to the screen the whole time. The layout is simple; mostly full page bleeds with one image per side. But the mix of different objects, sketches, and found elements, and their combinations on the page, kept it interesting. I thought that the black and white would cause this to become too repetitive, but it didn’t. Instead, it tied everything together well.
Above, I took some screenshots of my favourite pages. I found that I gravitated towards themes or elements that I am also exploring in my work. For example, the passport photo style images, and the plates. I like the way that although there are a few different ways of laying the images out, and creating ‘collages’ of images, there is definitely a sense of cohesion. I also paid particular attention to the pages that included multiple frames of similar subjects. This reminded me of the pages in my book about ‘the passing of time,’ which I am not 100% happy with the layout of just yet. I think I will try to re-shuffle these pages, maybe including some white space / gaps as Kudász does in his book.
I have been thinking about trying to capture more ‘snapshot’ style images to add some variety to my folio, so that is the kind of work I have been trying to keep an eye out for in my research. I feel that using a harsh, on-camera flash is one such style that screams ‘snapshot,’ but I don’t particularly like this style. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Terry Richardson frontal flash, preferring more sculpted, gentle light in my work. In any case, I was looking at Sebastian Bruno’s folio online, and there were some images in his series Duelos Y Quebrantos that I quite liked the feel of. What I like about these black and white images is the humble sort of feel to them. They feel raw and honest, and not like they are overly considered or showy. They seem like anyone could take them (no offence intended), and I feel as if that really helps to place the viewer in the scene.
This style is also visible in Bruno’s series All Inclusive - A Guide To Surviving A Cruiseship, but this series combines black and white with colour. I was particularly drawn to the out of focus, over-exposed photos of the meals on the ship. Perhaps is it because of the familiarity that I like them- we all have this type of awful of a meal photo taken on a holiday somewhere, with a camera that can’t focus on anything closer than 1.5 meters. I think this is the kind of thing that I need to try and capture for my folio. Maybe my ‘snapshot’ images are still too considered and refined, and I need to revisit the photography skillset I had when I was 7.
