W5 - Readings and Proposal plan

Below are some notes and quotes from some readings that relate to my project. these can be used in my proposal. 


Katharina Niemeyer, Media and Nostalgia 

Describes and discusses nostalgia in different forms of media. Relevant to my project as it discusses the longing for the pasts even in society through different forms of media. 
Although it's more specific to media, I can use it as a reference of nostalgia. 

Danielle Bruggeman, Fashion Theory, Fashioning Memory: Vintage style and culture

Talks about the vintage culture which is relevant to my project. 

‘an expanding memory culture propelled through the accumulation and circulation of the past in material and visual culture.’ P317

‘the past is increasingly present in contemporary society’ p318

‘a paradoxical present structures contemporary times could add an interesting perspective to the ways in which the old and the new co-existent, co-dependent.’  P319

Jens refers to Carol Tulloch ‘wearing garments as a form of story-telling about oneself.’ (p.81) p320

‘the vintage trend, the wish to play out the old “against the fast changing new, the ‘ephimerality’ of fashion” and the desire for authenticity and uniqueness in todays commodified culture.’ p321

David Bate, ch4,  Portraits reading

Portraiture is more than ‘just a picture’, it is a place of work: a semiotic event for social identity’

‘purpose is both the description of an individual and the inscription of social identity’

‘focus is used in photography and film to indicate relevance and importance.’ (p.34)


‘a sign whose purpose is both the description of an individual and the inscription of social identity.’ (p.69)

More on portraiture on the W3 blog post. 

Gaze - Lutz and Collins, 1991
represented by the camera's eye and leaves its clear mark on the structure and content of the photograph.’ (p.137)



Proposal plan and outline 

W5 - Idea Inspiration

youth culture of society adopting vintage styles nostalgic for past decades.
society reworking the past - fashion of the 90's/80's and technology such as film camera/poloroids/ record players resurfacing
vs modern technology, architecture and vehicles
Using a mixture of portraiture and documentary photography styles.

Articles with similar themes or photos that inspire my project -
 https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/7xvq4b/adolescence-never-changes

https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/xwdnbk/underground-delve-into-london-subcultures-in-new-photo-series

http://www.youthclubarchive.com/insight-/

 https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-these-8-photographers-captured-the-youth-culture-of-the-90s

Black Mirror episode, Sun Janipero

Elements of nostalgia.

Episode follows someone longing for the past, choosing which decade to live on in after death.

Vicky Grout

http://www.vickygrout.com

Monika Mogi

http://www.monikamogi.com

Captures the youth of tokyo

Links to other articles that have photos inspiring my photography.

http://spindlemagazine.com/2015/01/council-estate-mind/

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-photographers-captured-tokyos-vibrant-powerful-youth-culture

https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/adrienne-salinger-teenage-bedrooms-90s-120416

W4 - Landscape + The City

Images of my street

       

Landscape Photography

Photographs which show spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes.


Used for -

• Tourism, Urban Planning, Military Reconnaissance, Google maps, architectural planning, war reportage, gardening books, heritage sites etc.

Purpose of opening the visual knowledge of landscape -

• Geological, political, scientific.

Ansel Adams

• American landscape photographer & environmentalist
• Known for his images of the American West and Yosemite National Park, as well as his conservation efforts
• Used mainly Large Format cameras which would allow for optimum detail in his photos

Thomas Heaton

• Helped develop the Zone System (a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print)

• A travel and landscape photographer. Creator of popular Youtube videos.

• First introduced to the dark room at college when he was 16 years old and has been photographing ever since.

• Has a commercial photography studio - ProCap.

• His popularity comes from his extremely honest and unpolished approach to vlogging and photography.

The City - R: Graham Clarke, ch5
Landscape photography developed from early landscape painting. Photography of the city has foundations from how urban spaces were being viewed in the kate 18th and early 19th century.



Robert Barker's Novel View of the city and castle of Edinburgh (1788) - inventor of the 360 views of a cityscape.

1970s - there were panoramic exhibitions in London, Paris and new york.
The three cities that were the basis of 'the city' photography.

The city is always marked for a central icon - skyscraper/church etc
The camera follows this and these have remained the basis of tourist attractions to a certain city or place.

Walking in the city - forms a relationship with the urban scene.
The best urban photographers spend hours just walking around capturing.


The 19th century, the city was a central image for the camera.

W3 - Portraiture

Portraiture Task

Below are some photos I took of my friend. I wanted to use natural light and shadows to compliment her face.







Reading: Bate 2009, photography, the key concepts, berg

Portraiture is central to the historical development of photography as a commercial industry.
They are used to identify different sections of the population. A viewer can implant their own feelings in a portrait.

August Sander, 1876 - 1964
People of the Twentieth Century
Began in the early 1920's, a series of portraits that aimed to document contemporary German society.
600 photographs, 7 categories.



Bricklayer, 1928              Young farmers, 1914

'to see things as they are and not as they should be.'


Diane Arbus, 1923 - 1971
Originally worked as a fashion photographer
Late 1950s started making more personal work.


'things which nobody would see unless I photographed them'

Portraits of transvestites, dwarves and other people whose appearance and/or lifestyle placed them at outside the conventional society. Presenting them with dignity while seemingly 'normal' people appear in a strange way. Often using a flash even in the day, to make these portraits seem theatrical.

W2 - Documentary Photography

Documentary Photography

Decisive Moment exercise
This week our exercise was to take photos of a decisive moment.
In order to recreate techniques used with film photography or cameras that didn't have a view finder, the screen was tapped up so that I would look through the lens and take the photo and not immediately look back at the photos I took.


At first I found it quite difficult to 
take quite close and personal pictures of people as they walked b. In the pictures above I was more comfortable as I was sheltered by the busy market or I was taking pictures from above.

After taking a few pictures, I felt more comfortable and decided to stand in an area people wold walk directly passed me. This gave me some of the reactions seen below.