Research – OCA LEARNING BLOG

Feb 06

by andyof in Identity&Place, street&studio 0 comments

Street & Studio and some stuff inbetween

Eric Kim Eric Kim is an international street photographer currently based in Los Angeles. Through his blog and workshops, he teaches others the beauty of street photography, how to find their own style and vision, as well as how to overcome their fear of shooting strangers. In the past he has done collaborations with Leica, Magnum, as well as Invisible Photographer Asia. He is currently an instructor at UC Riverside Extension, teaching a university-level street photography course. Last year he was also one of the judges for the London Street Photography Festival. He has exhibited his work at the Leica stores in Singapore, Seoul, and Melbourne. He has taught workshops in Beirut, Seoul, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Sydney, Melbourne, Zurich, London, Toronto, Mumbai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Kota Kinabalu. Source: Expert Photography WhatI kike about Eric Kim is his experimental approach to photography Harry Morey Callahan Harry Morey Callahan was an American photographer and educator. He taught at both the Institute of Design in Chicago and the Rhode Island School of Design. Callahan’s first solo exhibition was at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1951. He had a retrospective at the Museum of Modern […]

Dec 28

by andyof in Identity&Place 0 comments

TYPOLOGIES RESEARCH & NOTES

Typologies are a useful tool for photographers to use for visual classification in both a stoic and detached manner (Hilla and Bernd Becher-industrial architecture) or creatively (Steve Tyler-Typologies of Mass Consumption) Key elements of typologies include: Uniformity of presentation Ability to see similarities as well as differences Provide historical record (August Sander / Bechers) Exercise of attribution within a category re-present archives (Arwed Messmer und Annett Gröschner) plural noun: typologies 1.a classification according to general type, especially in archaeology, psychology, or the social sciences. “a typology of Saxon cremation vessels” study or analysis using a classification according to a general type. 2.the study and interpretation of types and symbols, originally especially in the Bible. https://www.google.com/search?q=typologies+definition&oq=typologies+definition&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l2j0i15i22i30l2j0i22i30l5.5964j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Britannica Dictionary definition of TYPOLOGY. [count, noncount] formal. : a system used for putting things into groups according to how they are similar : the study of how things can be divided into different types. (https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/typology) ‘Photography has been employed as tool for visual classification. The camera’s ability to make an accurate record of particular visual phenomena has meant that artists and photographers, seeking to make a systematic document of aspects of the world, have been repeatedly drawn to photography. In their hands, the camera […]

Dec 24

by andyof in Identity&Place, Portraits 0 comments

Portrait Photogrpahy Research

‘at every level,and within every context the portrait photgraphy is fraught with ambiguity’-Graham clarke The Portrait in Photgraphy The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.-Henri Cartier-Bresson “A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he is being photographed.” – Richard Avedon “A portrait isn’t a fact but an opinion – an occasion rather than a truth.”-Richard Avedon A good portrait ought to tell something of the subject’s past and suggest something of his future.-Bill Brandt To see people as they are, as they imagine themselves, as they wish to be. To be witness, the friend, the judge, the accomplice. To record their moment. -Annie Leibovitz When I have had such men before my camera my whole soul has endeavoured to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man. The photograph thus taken has been almost the embodiment of a prayer.-Julia Margaret Cameron Portraiture has always had a degree of propaganda about it. From the pre-photography days when portraits were the domain of the wealthy, they […]

Oct 09

by andyof in Uncategorized 0 comments

Reading an image

I’ve used this image to practice reading and deconstructing an image. I was at a wedding during the summer and although I was taking a lot of photographs, this one appeared in front of me as I took a break. I was looking at the group for a couple of minutes when I realised it was an almost perfect unintentional tableau-I couldn’t have arranged it better if I was trying. Somehow its almost like a movie still. Taking what I learned from the course I played with its potential meanings and specifically the interplay between caption, image and viewer. If I caption it ‘Wedding group in garden’, it pretty much describes what it is and anchors its meaning. If, however I give it an ambiguous caption, say ‘Argument’, then it adds a degree of uncertainty and forces the viewer to search for the source of the argument-is it the chap second from the right standing? Is the chap sitting in the middle uncomfortable with whats being said? The lady standing second from left doesn’t seem too pleased. Or are they discussing something and don’t want any one top hear and the chap standing on the right has spotted the photographer? […]

Jun 26

by andyof in Uncategorized 0 comments

Research: Diane Arbus in Singular Images: Essays on Remarkable Photographs

Read and reflect upon the chapter on Diane Arbus in Singular Images: Essays on Remarkable Photographs by Sophie Howarth (2005). This is out of print but you may be able to find it in your local university library: some of the chapters are available as pdfs online. You’ll find the Arbus chapter on the student website. If you haven’t yet read any of Judith Williamson’s (2014) ‘Advertising’ articles (see Introduction to Context and Narrative), now would be a good time to do so. The first sentence of the article- ‘The fictions we make about photographs are as unreliable as they are unavoidable’ is key to understanding many of the points that follow and helps set the scene, although when I read some of the descriptions of the couple in the image I would argue that the fictions Jobey creates could well be avoided. The article starts off by making sweeping generalisations about the couple, subjective and almost gossip in tone. It is all ‘connotation’ and reveals as much about the viewer, Liz Jobey, her background, culture and even sociological positioning-middle class, educated and prejudiced- than the family in the photograph of whom we get some facts; married at sixteen, two […]

May 08

by andyof in Uncategorized 0 comments

Photographs that are not used as a means of expression or communication

Before you read any further, can you think of any photographs that are not used as a means of expression or communication? Blog about them. Been thinking about this for a few days now and can’t think of any. At first, I thought about passport or ID photos but they are used to communicate identification and even surveillance footage from which stills can be extracted, serve to observe and be referenced if we need to track someone or some instant / event that happened. Much of this type of image capture (surveillance, officialdom) is not a means of expression but it does have a communication aspect.

Dec 28

by andyof in Relay, Research, Uncategorized 0 comments

Research Task: Relay

Examples of relay in contemporary photographic practice include Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself and Sophy Rickett’s Objects in the Field (see interview in the Appendix to this course guide) where clashes of understanding or interpretation work together to create a perhaps incomplete but nonetheless enriching dialogue between artist and viewer. Look these pieces up online. Investigate the rationale behind the pieces and see if you can find any critical responses to them. Write down your own responses in your learning log. How do these two pieces of work reflect postmodern approaches to narrative? Some definitions: Anchorage: words that help limit the meaning of an image or ‘anchor’ its meaning. Relay: alters or advances the. meaning. – Text that advances the image by supplying meanings not found in the image itself. example: film dialogue, ‘zine captions, visual pun. Image and text brings their own new bit of information to the overall message. Postmodernism: Postmodernism is a broad term used to describe movements in a wide range of disciplines, including art, philosophy, critical theory, and music. Many view it as a response to the preceding modernist movement, but where modernism simply reacts against classical concepts, particularly in the arts and […]

Dec 18

by andyof in Context & Narrative, Post Modernism, Relay 0 comments

Research Task: Relay

Examples of relay in contemporary photographic practice include Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself and Sophy Rickett’s Objects in the Field (see interview in the Appendix to this course guide) where clashes of understanding or interpretation work together to create a perhaps incomplete but nonetheless enriching dialogue between artist and viewer. Look these pieces up online. Investigate the rationale behind the pieces and see if you can find any critical responses to them. Write down your own responses in your learning log. ● How do these two pieces of work reflect postmodern approaches to narrative? According to Barthes the two most easily identified linguistic messages with regard to images are ‘anchoring’ and ‘relaying. Images can have multiple related meanings and are thus said to be ‘polysemous, and in terms of linguistic messaging “ “its main signifier (sound image), or the name we have given it, a ‘floating chain’ of signifieds or ideas about what it really is, exists in our minds. When readers see an image they can select some ‘signifieds’ (words/phrases used to describe it) and ignore the rest depending on cultural norms or context. Being polysemic, however, is not necessarily advantageous because it allows us to question the […]

Apr 03

by andyof in Assignment 5, Research 0 comments

Photographs and Context

The meanings of photographs rely on and are influenced by context. The meanings are not contained solely within the photographs themselves and a combination of factors including the viewer’s world view, knowledge and understanding, and the context in which the image is seen. context noun the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood. the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning. meaning noun what is meant by a word, text, concept, or action In his article ‘Photographs and Context’ Terry Barret explores the impact context has on how we read, see or interpret a photograph. He discusses the example Robert Doseneau’s photograph of a man and women in a Paris bar to demonstrate how a photograph is highly dependent on the context in which it appears. The same photograph appeared in 3 publications- as part of a photo essay on Paris cafes in a popular magazine, Le Point, in a brochure by a temperance league, and (without Doisneau’s consent), a French scandal paper with the caption “Prostitution in the ChampsElysees.” All three presentations […]

Feb 21

by andyof in Blog 0 comments

Photographs make their own way in the world

‘Human subjects, occupying different roles in the event of photography, do play one or another part in it, but the encounter between them is never entirely in the sole control of any one of them: no one is the sole signatory to the event of photography.’ When I first read the above quote I almost dismissed it thinking the photographer is in charge, in full control-he, she, control the intent ergo the event. Then I came across a book ‘To make their own way in the world The Enduring Legacy of the Zealy Daguerreotypes’ the book is about 15 daguerreotypes taken in 1850 of Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jem and Renty, men and women of descent enslaved in South Carolina. The images were taken by Joseph T Zealy for Harvard professor Louis Agassiz to support his warped theories about race and the superiority of white over black. The photographs were discovered in 1976 in Harvard’s Peabody Museum and since then have caused considerable debate. The pictures themselves are taken in a detached style, the subjects had no choice, and their intent was to support theories that were scientifically bankrupt and morally repulsive. Looking at the images 170 years […]

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