Photography the global medium and its problems
Niepce, Daguerre and Talbot were all developing their own photographic techniques towards the end of the industrial revolution when transport was becoming faster and more accesible thanks to steam engines, and the world had begun to become a smaller place. The daguerreotype travelled fast, partly due to the process being made essentially free to the world. Meanwhile in the UK Talbot worked on his own process, which would eventually lead to the negative system, with through the world of Eastman, would bring photography into the home. Shift forward to 21st century. Almost everyone in the western world owns or can easily access a camera of some sort. Many of us carry them in our pockets every day. Phone cameras allow us to snap a picture and share it with the world within a matter of seconds. Social media has developed around the sharing of images, and these universal communications can become viral, and reach massive audiences within seconds travelling the world through phone lines and signals and becoming physically global.
"why would my sister tell me my nephew has started walking when she could send me the photo?"
It could be argued that a painter must have at least some basic skill with a paint brush to allow them to record an image accurately enough that another person would understand and comprehend what the artist wants to show. With photography this is not so, you need simply to be able to tap a button and you will have created a clear image, even if it is not particularly pleasing to look at, that will communicate at least the surface aesthetics of what you want to communicate to another. It makes sense then, in a world where the camera as a tool is more immediately available than a hammer to the average person that we find our self’s suffocating under a sea of imagery pushed upon us every minute of every day. Advertising in our magazines, on our TV’s and on our phone screen, information on the posters and warning signs, and even our communications with friends and family have turned from the posted essays of the past to a quick and simple photograph of variable quality. Language has become second rate communication, why would my sister tell me my nephew has started walking when she could send me the photo of him standing on his own two feet for the first time. With the image, it would be as if I am there experiencing the moment alongside my loved ones, and I could be a part of the moment. With similarity to painting, photography has the power to transcend language into a universal system of commination. When you have a beautiful picture of a sunset, you don’t need to speak another language to communicate your appreciation of the natural world to another. In this way the photograph is global at its very core.
Does this mean as we make more and more advances in photography, that the written word will fall by the waist side? Perhaps, but then do we not paint and draw just as we did before the invention of the camera? It seems to me that those who chose to write and paint do so with purpose rather than from nessacity, and they have become free from the social constraints of what was expected of a writer or an artist. This may have made way for movements such as cubeism and surealism, where artists could draw thoughts and ideas rather than acurate depictions of the scenes before them. Photography even allowed for these concepts to b explored ithin its own medium, for exmaple the surealist Rayographs of manray. Of course I can not prove that these movements came about as a direct result of the invention of photography, but it could be a possibility. If it were to be the case, I would say the written word could only improve as photography strengthens.
Perhaps eventualy photography will suffer the same fate, something else will supercede it and make it a second rate form of cummication, releasing photographers from the expectations of the world. The the endless cascade of images might stop and leave us with a small stream of concise beautiful photographic communication.
How does my work relate to the global nature of photography?
My imagery is not just for aesthetics, I seek to communicate beyond words just as artists do. I have ideas and feelings in my head that I find difficult to communicate using language and so I turn to photography to show this. I could show my work to someone who has never met me, nor speaks my language, but I can show them my photography, and I’m sure they would learn something about me. I create work that has a nature of duality to it, dark and light. Beautiful and menacing. Peaceful but also tense. The world is at a strange and worrying point in many ways, even just in the UK we are becoming more and more divided as a nation. Recent developments have emphasized the “Them and Us” in the politics of people at home and in our local community. We are unsure where we are going next and what is going to happen. My work illustrates tension and potential, and the need to move forward. I often use paths, windows and doorways, though it’s not clear where they lead. The darkness is deep, and the lights are harsh. It’s not good to stay put, but a worry to move forward. In this way my work is not just a projection of my own thoughts, but a reflection of the world around me.
My intentions are to make my work global. I want to hold exhibitions, earn from my work, and have people see what I have created, relate to it and so to me. I share my work, I have exhibited in local galleries and posted it online. It is available to be seen by a global audience even if they don’t know it's there.
The Mirror and the Window
I began working at night after first coming into contact with the work of Gregory Crewdson. What struck me was the richness of the colour in his work, even in scenes that on first glance might only present the bland tonnes of suburbia or a humdrum american town, and the slow unearthing of the bizare stories buried in these sets, manifesting an unexpected sense of voyerism in me. I bought Crewdsons "Twightlight" (my first photobook) stared deeply into the work, finding a deeper connection with the images taken during the night time. In the opening of "Twighlight" Crewdson recounts his time living at home, and listning in on the conversation his father, a psycologist, had with his patients. I was reminded of the strange mix of excitement and fear as child when I used to sneak to the top of the stairs after I had been sent to bed, in order to listen in on late night tv, never really understanding what was happening, and coming up with strange images in my mind of what I thought might be happening. I get this same feeling now while I make my photographs in the dead of night of being in found out that I'm listning in on the world while it sleeps. I consider Crewdsons images to be very much windows into his mind and memories as he seeks to recreate the semblance of those moments from his past, though perhaps to him they are mirrors, just as I feel my images are mirrors of myself.
Re-making the global image
Remake of an image by Chuck Rapoport taken in the wake of the Aberfan disaster in 1966, a land slide that claimed the lifes of 116 Children and 28 Adults when it hit a primary school in this small mining village. The original image can be seen below, in which a mother tends to the flowers of her child's grave; "It's as though I'm brushing her hair".
I wasn't aware of the Aberfan Disaster growing up. When I moved to the South Wales Valleys I quickly learned about it. It's never far from anyone's thoughts it seems, even 50 years after the event. The death of a child is universal in its devastation, and enduring. The news spread around the world fast, in a talk recorded by Ffoton, Rapoport remembers how he heard the knew's with his young son sat on his lap, and he knew he had to do something about it. The image of the mother at the grave comes from his series "A town without children" wich was his response to the disaster within the months immediately after, taken on location in Aberfan amongst the people.
My remake ended up being a more difficult task than I imagined (not least of all becuase I ran out of chemicals to print, please excuse the terrible negative scan above). My initial idea was simply to go to Aberfan witch is very local to me, and stand in the same place Chuck Rapoport did. One of the first difficulties was realising how much the place had changed, when I went to Moy Road where the disaster happened, it was almost impossible to find the spot he had stood, and when I did it looked nothing the same. I did however find myself walking around the Memorial garden, and taking in what had happened. I didn't expect it to feel so raw. I was glad to be shooting with my little Trip 35, it didn't feel so obnoxious as my big DSLR, as I was scared people might think I was taking advantage of the disaster.
Having little luck with Moy Road we went to the cemetery where the photo below was originaly captured. Again, I tried to get my self to the same spot as Rapoport but this was difficult as even the shape of the mountains around me had changed since his time. In his photo he appears to be somewhere near the end of the second row up so that's where I stood. The graves are now beautifully adorned with white arches and still decorated with flowers, it was clear the townsfolk are keeping these graves clean and tidy. 50 years on, the village of Aberfan is still lovingly brushing the hair of the children they have lost.
Evaluation of remaking the global image
When evaluating my responce with my tutor, we discussed the isues I faced during the processing of my images witch lead to the final overall aesthtic of my responce. The first issue, was that I unkowingly used bad chamical to process my film, resulting in a severly underexposed roll of film.
Secondly, having run out of usable chemical, I was unable to print in the dark room, meaning I had to scan my negatives on my only negative scanner, wich is of very poor quality, that gives low res, unsharp and unevenly exposed images. I did some basic fixing in photoshop, but the point of shooting on film was to limit the editing of the work, so I left them as much as possible as they were.
However, it would turn out that this was a "Happy" accident. The underexposure has resulted in very rough and heavy grain in the images, and a lot of contrast due to loss of detail, and in combination with the uneven exposure, the images have agained a very "gritty" quality. Given the very dificult subject the photograpghs document, this "gritt" lends to the element of honesty and truth within the images. In my final image (Top image on the left) the added contrast helps to the seperate the white arch as I had originaly intended when making the photograph, to make the grave stand out against the mountains, as it looks over the village below. It was important in the end not to try to show all of the graves, as the loss of life is simply to great to comprehend. Instead, I decided focusing on one would put the viewer in the mind of the mother in Rapoports photographs, while sad for the other children and their families, we know that her greif is for her lost daughter.
Reflection and Re-cap
This task ended up being more dificult than i first imagied. The first challenge was simply finding a photograph that I felt I was able to re-make at all, and part of getting through this was understanding that it wasnt a matter of literaly remaking the image physcialy, with models and backdrops. Actally, it was more about capturing the spirit of the image, and understanding the reasoning behind its original creation. While searching for an image I was listning to a podcat by Ffoton of a talk by Chuck Rapoport on his time recording the Aberfan distater, and realised that this was a global story that had devasted people around the world. Being so close, it seemed like the best bet for me to go and make some photos just like Rapoports.
The next challenge was unexpected. The actual taking of the images was very dificult for me, infact as we drove towards aberfan I became increasingly nervous as it began to dawn on me that I was about to photograph the location where so many children had died, many who would be alive now. There families still live here, brothers sisters and friends. If someone saw me, would they think me ignorant, or insensitive? I resolved to move forward, but I did do so purely using anologue, I always feel that this is more subtle and honest a way to shoot. I didnt entirely shake the feeling however, and I feel some of my images could have been sronger, had I not rushed to get away from he sight of such a disaster, and to get away from my own feeling of guilt. If I am going to tackle subjects of this matter, then I need to learn to trust in what I am doing, that it is right, and I do so with the best intentions.
Post Script
After having compleated this task I spok to some friends about my experiance, one of whome owns a local gallery and spoke to me of how they had refrined from showing any work that aproached the subject of aberfan, mostly for the same reasons I found ciompleating this task dificult. Another friend who was with us, who was not from the area did not know of the disaster, I mentioned that if it had not been for me talking about my work and showing these images, she would not have known about it at all.
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