Photographic Essay Research - Mathew Merrett

Mathew Merrett is an urban decay photographer. His work includes images of abandoned buildings, factories, mines and institutions in states of decay and rot which demonstrate the de-industrialisation, declining economies and change in lifestyles of our time. Merrett aims to capture buildings/objects that were once vital and abundant before the 'redevelopment cycle erases them'.

"To me, urban decay represents how a progressing society sometimes forgets its roots". - Matthew Merrett.

Source: www.thephotomat.ca

Source: www.thephotomat.ca

Source: www.thephotomat.ca

In his work, he brings attention to abandoned sites that are normally not given a second glance at. He believes that people get used to a certain view and do not consider the roots - such as what is inside the boarded up building that you may pass everyday. A view inside, he says, may take you back to the roots of a city.
He does not claim to be an environmental photography but he describes raising awareness and potentially encouraging people to save abandoned buildings as "an interesting aspect of my works effect".

For one of his projects, he travelled to Ukraine to photograph the aftermath of Chernobyl in the abandoned city of Pripyat. In an interview about his experience, he explained "It's the ultimate symbol of how human error can have a long term devastating effect on the earth".

Source: www.photographytuts.com

Source: www.thephotomat.ca

Source: www.thephotomat.ca

"By carefully visualising my surroundings as they once were and are today, the past and the present are captured as one". - Mathew Merrett.

Merrett is a big inspiration for my project because his work demonstrates how we need to pay attention to our surroundings and take care of our environment. Although his photography involves structures on a larger scale, a lot of it includes rusting metal, overgrown plants and weathered textures which I aim to capture in my project to portray nature overcoming industrialisation.

Re-appropriation of Image

Re-appropriation is a cultural process by which a group reclaims/re-appropriates terms or artefacts.
For example, the use of polaroid cameras. As technology advanced, digital photography became more popular and the use of polaroid cameras died out. However in recent years, polaroid cameras have become fashionable to use.

The 'Analog to Digital: The Indexical Function of Photographic Images' reading highlighted the argument of whether there can be a physical connection between a person and a digital image. This is because a digital image, unlike an analog image, is made up of data and can be edited easily - therefore it may not always represent reality as photographs historically do.
Using this technology, photographers are able to re-appropriate an image, such as its context or subject.



KERRY SKARBAKKA

Skarbakka is a photographer from Arizona. He uses digital technologies in his work in order to give the effect of an analog image. It appears that his images represent reality - however they do not. Due to this, his work has received both acclaim and controversy given the nature of the images he produces.

Skarbakka aims to represent the uncertainty of our world through his work.
"We live in a completely uncertain world, from austerity measures and corporate greed to clean food and water surpluses and climate change of an increasingly over-populated planet."
The images of him falling represent the uncertainty of what you are standing on/relying on to support you, as well as the uncertainty of where you will end up.
In addition to this, these images also bring uncertainty to the viewer because it is difficult to imagine how he would have captured these photographs.

Flickr and the Culture of Connectivity: Sharing views, experiences, memories - by Jose van Dijck

Van Dijck uses one of the biggest photo sharing websites Flickr as an example to demonstrate the 'Culture of Connectivity' in todays society.
Flickr allows constant interaction between users, dynamic exchange of images and has a constant stream of added pictures. Users are able to upload images through multiple means such as by email, mobile phone or straight from a digital camera connected to the internet. Users can then comment on each other's photos, join groups of the same interests, search for certain photos using tags, and vote their favourite photos.
The site aims to create 'collective perspectives', but what is collectivity and how has the mediated world affected this?

"Individuals articulate their identities as social beings by uploading photographs to document their lives; they appear to become part of a social community through photographic exchanges and this, in turn, shapes how they watch the world" (Van Dijck, 2011).
In this reading, Van Dijck looks at digital platforms such as Flickr and questions how appropriate the term 'collective' is in relation to perspectives, experiences and memory.

Social media platforms such as Flickr are promoted as a 'collective effort' where users form relationships and establish communal experiences - thereby leading to collective memories. However the term 'collective memory' assumes that the individual and the collective are separate entities that are associated through mechanisms such as the media.

Hoskins, however, proposes 'networked memory' or 'contemporary memory' to label the concept of memory given technological advances. He suggests that there is a technological unconscious that leads to a co-evolution of memory and technology. This technological unconscious involves powerful, digital environments that operate unbeknownst to those using these environments and those affected by them.
Van Djick also outlines Hoskin's argument of connectivity vs collectivity. Generally speaking, collective memory means that people experience a connection between what happens in general and how they are involved as individuals. Whereas networked memory requires a new understanding where minds are intertwined. Therefore Hoskins announces the end of collective memory because the basis of future memory has been transformed. Instead, he proposes the term 'connectivity' as the meaning of memory has been reinvented by connectivity and intertwining shared memories.
Another aspect that makes up Hoskins argument of a contemporary memory is the concept of 'mediated memory'. Notions of place and time are usually related to the definition of a memory. However, as memories are becoming increasingly mediated due to the growing use of photo sharing platforms, the boundaries of present and past are no longer given.

Van Dijck's 'Culture of Connectivity' is defined as a networked culture where social interactions and cultural products are inseparably entangled in technological systems. As outlined by Hoskins, connections are made and social media sites such as Flickr are an example of platforms that allow these to be constructed. Such platforms are embedded in a culture of connectivity where social networking sites are involved in our daily lives, where we may share photos or exchange memories of the past.

Experimenting with Data Bending and Glitches

All digital photographs are made up of digital data. If this data is altered, this change comes across in the image - this is known as data bending.

For this image, I used Audacity to 'bend' the data. This involved putting the data from the photograph into an audio format. I then added effects onto the audio clip such as delay, reverse, echo etc and exported it as an image.
I really like the effect it had on the leaves of the tree giving them an almost blurred or smudged effect.

This is another example of my attempt at data bending. For this image, I used 'text edit' programme to display the data of the original image in code. I then moved around, and delete small parts of the code in order to disrupt the data and create this reverse and colourful effect.

Analog to Digital: The Indexical Function of Photographic Images

Due to today's technology, it is much easier to edit digital photographs compared to in analog  photography. This raises the question as to whether this disrupts the connection between photographic images and reality.
Historically, there is a belief that photography is representative of reality. It is argued that viewers continue to read digital photographs as representative of reality - a function that images have maintained despite the transition from analog to digital.

"Digital photography, and especially its apparently invisible manipulability, destroyed the photographs privileged connection to the object" Damian Sutton, 'Real photography'.

Dzenko argues that the process of reading photographs is affected by the context of the image, and that whether or not a photograph is created or distributed with digital technology its indexical function is not contradicted as many theorists have suggested. He argues that if you only focus on the supposed lack of indexicality in digital images, you ignore the social uses of analog photography that are now performed by digital images.

These ideas are relevant for my photography project because I will not be digitally creating or producing my images. They will, in fact, represent reality because I aim to portray what humanity is doing to our planet and how nature is fighting back against it.

The Work of Representation - Stuart Hall

In this chapter, Hall looks at a key process in the 'cultural circuit' of today's society - representation. He looks at what representation has to do with culture and meaning, as well as how meaning is formed.

Representation is producing a meaning of concepts in our minds through the use of language.
Hall explains that each individual has a 'conceptual map' that differs from one another. We use these to organise, arrange, and classify concepts. However, we are able to communicate with one another because we share broadly the same conceptual map, therefore we make sense of things in a vaguely similar way. This is all within a culture, and in that culture we share meanings and thereby contruct a social world.

Hall defines 'signs' as words, sounds, or images which carry meaning. These represent concepts and links we have in our heads which combine to make up the meaning systems of our culture. Within cultures, we share the same ways of interpreting these signs.
In photographs, there are visual signs - also known as iconic signs. These have a certain resemblance to the object, person or event to which they refer. The meaning that a person takes from these signs (and therefore from the image) is constructed by the system of representation.

This raises the question of where these meanings come from. In order to answer this, Hall touches upon three different approaches:

Reflective approach - meaning lies in the object, idea or event in the real world. The true meaning already exists in the world and is reflected in language which acts as a mirror.

Intentional approach - the speaker or author places their unique meaning on the world by using language. The words mean what the author intends they should mean.

Constructionist approach - neither objects, ideas, events etc nor the individual users of language can fix meanings.
If meaning is constantly changing and is never finally fixed, then taking the meaning from something must therefore involve an active, conscious process of interpretation.


Semiotics - the study of signs in culture, and of culture as a sort of 'language'.
Hall explains that all cultural objects convey meaning, therefore we use signs to make sense of cultural practices that depend on that meaning. The semiotic approach looks at underlying rules and codes through which objects produce meaning.
E.g. Clothes. Clothes have the simple function of covering your body, keeping it warm. However, they are also signs that construct a meaning and carry a message. For example, an evening dress may signify elegance. These signs allow clothing to convey meaning and to function as a language - the 'language of fashion'. The items of clothing are the signifiers to which cultures correlate particular types of clothing with certain concepts - these are the signifieds.

Denotation - the simple, basic descriptive level where understanding is wide - most people would agree on a meaning.
Connotation - wider, secondary kind of code which connects them to broader themes and meanings.

Representation is working at a second, broader cultural level.
In photography, the viewer looks for signs and uses their meanings to interpret them and thereby figure out what certain subjects represent to them.

Producing meaning depends on interpretation, and interpretation involves encoding and decoding (Hall, 1980). Encoding is putting things into the code and decoding is the person at the other end interpreting the meaning. As meanings are always changing, the codes of a culture also change.

Flash Photography

The Inverse Square Law

www.digitalcameraworld.com

The inverse square law measures the intensity of the flash in relation to the subject.
It states that for every unit of distance an object is away from the flashgun, the intensity of light it receives is 1/distance2.

www.photography.tutsplus.com

DIRECT FLASH

Essentially, if the model is in very close proximity to the light source and they move a slight step in either direction, they'll be either massively under or overexposed as the light is of a higher intensity and more concentrated.
However if the model is further away from the light then they can move several steps in either direction and still be clearly visible as the light is more spread out because it is of a further distance from the subject.

 These photos show my attempts at using a direct flash. They were taken outside during the daytime, and I used the brick wall as the backdrop to experiment making the background underexposed and overexposed.

I experimented by being close to the model and using a bright flash of 1/4, this made her very exposed.

As shown in the image above, the model and the background are very exposed. You can begin to see around the edges where the light from the flash does not quite fill the whole frame. The flash is very bright and concentrated as it does not have a large amount of distance to allow for the light to spread out.

For this photograph, I kept the camera on the same setting but stood further away from the model. After looking at the Inverse Square Law, I expected the model to be less exposed than she turned out to be. I thought that because the light from the flash spreads out more, it would not be so concentrated on her - however her upper body and a section of the backdrop behind her are still quite exposed. This leads me to believe that perhaps the other camera settings weren't what they should have been.

I think that using a direct flash in photography can be very effective. Being able to change the exposure in such a dramatic way could contribute to the connotations of the photograph and I would like to experiment further with this in my final project.

BOUNCE FLASH
This is used in order to avoid overexposure when using a direct flash. The flash head can be angled in order to reflect the light off of a wall, ceiling, or reflector connected to the flash unit. It gives a softer, diffused light that is flattering for portraits (particularly because it prevents red-eye). 

I experimented this by angling the flashgun so that the light reflected off of the wall, I also used the diffuser attached to the flashgun to soften the light. 
I don't think these pictures turned out particularly well because the wall on the right hand side is just overexposed and therefore only half of my models face is lit up nicely.

Cultural Imaginaries and Landscape photography

Landscape photography captures spaces within the world; some vast and unending, and some microscopic.
These types of photographs typically capture nature, however it can also be used to draw attention to man-made features and the disturbance of natural landscapes.


Esteban Pastorino Diaz

After exploring many different techniques and styles of photography, Diaz found he had a heavy interest in aerial photography.
He used KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) to capture his aerial images early in his career.
As well as aerial, his work also includes landscape, nightscape, and panoramic photography.

'Toy Like World'

At first glance, some of his aerial shots appear toy-like because of the size of the buildings/objects and the high saturation. In addition to this, Diaz uses a shifted blur to create an illusion that from the viewers perspective makes it appear fake.

I feel that his work represents the unimaginable scale of our planet, and that structures such as buildings, aircrafts etc. that seem large to us are relatively microscopic. For me, this reality brings you to realise how small we are as humans, yet we have the power to change the world and disrupt our landscapes with urbanisation.


"My work is most about depicting an open space that we cannot see naturally with our own eyes"

Elevator Pitch - photographic essay

This is the pitch I gave to the class about the topic for my photographic essay.
I feel that it would be an exciting challenge to represent nature in a powerful way, taking over objects and structures constructed and left by mankind - a force that is most often represented as being the most powerful. I think that it would portray the message that as humans we are destroying our planet by not keeping it clean or regenerating abandoned buildings - and nature is fighting back against this.

I received very positive feedback on this idea as the class found it to be an interesting approach - particularly to street photography. It was also suggested that I could capture how graffiti is a kind of decay performed by humans and not nature as there is a large amount of it in our surroundings.

Mind map of ideas/thoughts when exploring the theme.

EXAMPLES OF URBAN DECAY PHOTOGRAPHY

By Julie Shiel, Source: www.darkroastedblend.com

Source: www.obviousmag.org

Source: www.wallcoo.net

By Joe Collver, Source: www.hongkiat.com

Source: www.kateyestudio.com

As shown in these images, as well as those on my mood board in my pitch, it is evident that urban decay photography is of a very wide spectrum. It can range from large buildings in decay, to smaller objects or textures.
To me, these images show objects and buildings that were once of vital everyday use and are now forgotten about and abandoned. They demonstrate the history of these subjects and how it contrasts to the present. This says a lot about our society today. It demonstrates how we do not take care of our environment as how we are always focusing on new, better things. We live in a developing world therefore we leave things behind - regardless of its history or its effect on the environment.
Certain urban decay photographers are extremists - they can also be known as 'urban explorers'. They venture into derelict buildings and abandoned sites that are usually overseen seeking 'beauty in decay'.

TEST SHOOT

I am happy with the first image shown here, as I feel that it is of good quality and demonstrates the type of decay that I was aiming to find. However the second image is slightly off focus and I feel does not portray the theme of my project.

The Spectacle of the 'Other' - Stuart Hall

In this chapter, Hall highlights racial and ethical difference and how they are represented in the media today - however his ideas can be equally applied to other dimensions of difference such as gender, sexuality, class, disability etc. He presents theories about stereotyping and the practice of representing difference in the media - whether it can be transformed to contest negative images and transform them into a more positive representation. Hall additionally analyses how representation of difference can engage feelings, attitudes and emotions, and can also create fear and anxiety in the viewer.

As images are often ambiguous in their meaning, there is no right or wrong in what the viewer takes away from it, and how they feel about the subjects in it. However Hall emphasises that you question - what is the preferred meaning? What is the meaning that the photographer aims to give?
Hall demonstrates that those different from the majority ('them' instead of 'us') are often exposed to representations in binary form through opposed, polarised extremes - one of the other. E.g. good/bad, ugly/attractive, repelling/compelling.
This raises the question as to why, as a society, we do this and why we jump to these extremes. Why is 'otherness' so compelling an object of representation?
When reading this, I began to think that establishing people as 'different' is a selfish act to make oneself feel as if you are more included and have a place in society in comparison to those who do not because they are unique. This begs the question that Hall presents; how is the representation of 'difference' linked with questions of 'power'?

Bakhtin argues that we, as a society, need 'difference' in order to construct meaning. However meaning cannot be fixed and one group cannot be entirely in charge of meaning - it is always changing.
I agree with this when taking into account the change in 'trends' that is constantly happening. Things become fashionable very quickly and everyone follows suit, such as punk rock. However the meaning changes with time as in this example, people who associate themselves with this group by dressing in punk clothes, listening to certain music, having a particular outlook on the world are now seen as outdated. This change cannot be controlled.

Hall explains that the question of 'otherness' and 'difference' has come to play an increasingly significant role as difference is ambivalent - it can be positive or negative. Therefore it could cause danger, hostility and aggression towards the 'other'.

Richard Dyer (1977) raises an important distinction between typing and stereotyping.
He presents that we use types to make sense of the world as we place things in terms of categories. We come to 'know' someone by thinking of the roles they perform, assigning them to a group according to class, gender, age etc and we place them in a personality type. This builds a picture of them by what we gather from 'typing' him/her.
"A type is any simple, vivid, memorable, easily grasped and widely recognised characterisation in which a few traits are foregrounded and change or development is kept to a minimum." - Dyer.

Therefore, stereotyping is getting hold of the 'simple, vivid, memorable, easily grasped and widely recognised' characteristics about someone, reducing everything about them to those traits and exaggerating and simplifying them.
Hall comes to the conclusion that stereotyping is part of the maintenance of social and symbolic order. He also concludes that stereotyping usually occurs where there are large inequalities of power, of which is usually directed against the subordinate or excluded group. It creates boundaries and excludes everything that does not belong - this is the 'other'.

Shop Task

We were given the task to go into a shop and take photographs of the owner at work, interacting with customers and images to contextualise the shop.

Portraits

Keeping with the theme of gaze,  we took portrait photographs of each other and photographs of us interacting.

With portraits and images of them interacting, you can capture the personality of a person. This is found through gaze - as you look deeper into an image.

For example this photograph shows a humanitarian gaze - my subject looks directly into the camera and her slight smile demonstrates her friendly but shy personality. 

Gender, Gaze and Otherness

Otherness is the quality or fact or being different. As a society, we assign people to a particular group according to gender, class, age, nationality, race, sexual orientation etc in order to 'understand' them.
We often put people into stereotypes, and these automatically categorise what 'belongs' and anything that doesn't is categorised as being 'other'.
As a result of being 'other', a person is excluded from the norm and therefore is given less power. For example females possess less power than males. This gender stereotype is often challenged by photographers - this will be demonstrated in the examples in this post.


Nan Goldin

Nancy 'Nan' Golding is an American photographer, born in 1953.
The key themes of her work are gender, love, domesticity, and sexuality. Her main subjects include women looking in mirrors, drag queens, sexual acts and the culture of obsession and dependency.

Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a Taxi, NYC, 1991

This image shows two transvestites in a taxi. This is what we see at first; their exaggerated make up, large earrings, provocative outfits and their wigs.
However, the longer the look at it the more you get a feeling of them staring back at you. This creates a sense of gaze where you find the meaning of an image by focusing on it for longer.
I think that Goldin uses this gaze to connote that these people are aware that they are classed as 'other' but they own it - the attitude in their faces shows that they are proud of this fact and do not care if they are accepted or not because they are just being themselves.
In this piece, as well as her other work, Goldin empowers people that are considered as 'other'

Nan One Month After Being Battered

This image also reflects Goldin's theme of empowerment, particularly for women, 

A woman that has been abused is shown as a sign of 'weakness' however the woman in this image is presented as brave and strong. This is because despite her bruises and bloodshot eye, she still puts on lipstick, nice jewellery and does her hair demonstrating that she is still powerful, and will not be held back by her gender stereotype.

Vernacular Photography - My Group Presentation

Everyday, Everywhere...

Vernacular photography refers to photographs taken by amateur or unknown photographers who take everyday life and common things as subjects.

This can include:

Travel or vacation photographs

Family portraits

General everyday life

With improvements in technology, camera equipment is more accessible to everyone with regards to reduction in size, affordability, and ease of use. Particularly now that a very large majority of people own smartphones that allow you to take good quality photos, and share them on social media websites using just one device. 

This classifies us all as amateur photographers as we capture vernacular photographs of our everyday lives on our phones.

With vernacular photography, I feel that there is an element of simplicity and reality. 

For example, the photograph above shows a man looking at a woman that he is supposedly in a relationship with, or that he has just slept with. As she has her back to him, he gives her this longing stare which connotes feelings of love or lust for her. An emotion like this could not be captured in more 'staged' or 'posed' photographs because they aren't real and do not show true, everyday life in the way that vernacular photography does. 

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a British photographer, aged 63. 

At first glance his photographs seem exaggerated or even grotesque because of the strange motifs, garish colours and unusual perspectives.

However he enables us to see things that seem familiar to us in a completely new way by presenting a unique perspective through affectionately satirical photographs of English society. 

He creates his own image of society - individual characteristics are accepted and eccentricities are treasured.

“With photography, I like to create fiction out of reality. I try and do this by taking society’s natural prejudice and giving this a twist” – Martin Parr

S    Small World - 1990

The Leaning Tower of Pisa from 'Small World' 1990.

This image comes from 'Small World', a book of tourism photographs by Martin Parr. It shows visitors to The Leaning Tower of Pisa facing away from the famous landmark, posing for a photo, and smiling 'falsely'.

This photo looks at consumerism in our society. There is the contradiction of tourist 'hotspots' attracting such a large number of visitors, however ultimately the quality of their experience is diminished due to the loss of cultural identity to tourism.

“We are surrounded by propaganda, whether it be in travel supplements, holiday brochures or advertising. I just show things how I see them” – Martin Parr 

This quotation from Martin Parr demonstrates the key theme in vernacular photography - reality. It takes away the idealistic views we have of travelling and famous places as shown to us consumers in advertisements, films, television and brochures. 

The Last Resort - 1986

New Brighton, Merseyside 1984

Parr regularly visited the coastline in England to photograph people on the beach spending their free time by the sea. 

'The Last Resort' was one of his first works that earned him wide recognition in the photography world. All of the photographs are taken in New Brighton, Merseyside between 1983 and 1985. This is when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and there was a very high rate of unemployment in the north, and an economic decline. The photographs capture the working class - those most affected by Thatcher's leadership.

This image shows the overcrowding of the seaside resorts at this time. Margaret Thatcher wanted to reduce the power of trade unions, and to me this image reflects the working class and everyone facing the same struggles of unemployment, lack of money and hardships of life coming together in one place - like a trade union. 

Getting to Know the Camera

Manual Exposure

Changing the ISO on the camera adjusts the cameras sensor to light and how much it allows in the image - this is done using the 'M' function on the camera dial. The higher the exposure, the brighter the image.
If the exposure is too high the image becomes 'overexposed', it is too bright and can become unclear and grainy - particularly if it was originally quite dark.
A low exposure setting will make dark sections of an image even darker.

High exposure

Low exposure

Shutter Speed

The shutter speed is a measurement of how long the shutter stays open for. This is controlled by putting the camera in 'S' mode (shutter priority).
Increasing the shutter speed by one step reduces the amount of time the shutter is open by one half.
Decreasing the shutter speed by one step increases the amount of time the shutter is open by one half.
The longer the shutter is open for, the more light enters. Therefore, if you take a photo of a moving object with a slow shutter speed you will get a blurry image that shows the movement of the object. However if you take a photo of a moving object with a fast shutter speed, you will get a clear image as there was less time to allow for light to enter the camera.

Slow shutter speed

Fast shutter speed

Aperture

Aperture controls the depth of field of the camera. It is controlled by putting the camera in 'A' mode (aperture priority).
Depth of field is the amount of distance between the nearest and farthest objects that appear in sharp focus in a photograph. A higher aperture results in a longer depth of field and vice versa.

I found it difficult to select the right aperture setting in order to show this, however this image that I took  is an example of a photograph with a decreased depth of field.