“I’m always interested in how things are constructed. How identities are constructed, how communities are constructed, how history, geography, art is constructed.” – Kutluğ Ataman
Ataman uses documentary tradition to get his point across, but at the same time he is revealing the misconceptions about truth and objectivity in documentary narratives, as well as the layers of meaning and reality in other media. Continue reading “Kutluğ Ataman”
Located this conversation online after my tutor quoted Liz Wells as saying that a criterion for evaluating art is whether it makes you think differently about something of importance. Continue reading “Futureland Now – A Conversation, John Kippin and Chris Wainwright in conversation with Liz Wells”
An article which traces the history of photography’s perceived realism, Howells speaks about photography’s umbilical relationship with reality:
Photography, indeed, had a special relationship with reality, which persuaded people that when they looked at a photograph, they were looking at reality itself. They could say, ‘this is Abraham Lincoln’, when actually they were looking not at the man but at a photograph … an attitude that suggests that a photograph is an unmediated medium with a direct, uncomplicated authenticity and which provides straightforward evidence of the thing photographed. As it is a mechanical recording device, it can only record the truth. (p 190)
Continue reading “Howells, R. (2011) Visual Culture, Cambridge: Polity Press.”
Predominantly a portrait photographer, Sheikh uses his work to highlight humanitarian and other issues (refugees, migrant workers are among his more common subject matter). Rather than simply taking stock images of the other, Sheikh is in no way condescending towards his subjects, and their portraits are all instilled with a dignity and respect despite their plight. Continue reading “Fazal Sheikh, Ramadan Moon”
This photographer is of particular interest to me since she works in the documentary tradition and (on some earlier projects) in the same geographical territory as me – namely the former USSR: “I did not focus on poverty, but the average living conditions are, of course, poorer than in the West. On the other hand I did not try to show happiness and lightheartedness where it does not exist.” Continue reading “Bertien van Manen”
Looking up some quotes from Bacon, I came across the following interesting and inspiring words:
“The feeling of desperation and unhappiness are more useful to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappiness stretch your whole sensibility.” (Francis Bacon) I think this is so true, and have always maintained that to create a piece of art, a piece of the artist must of necessity suffer, perhaps even die. I never photograph on a full stomach – hunger hones the quest for creating images, actually helps me to see better. Continue reading “Francis Giacobetti, Francis Bacon portraits & last interview”
Another photographer who is supposed to continue the Sultan/Goldin legacy is Antoine d’Agata. I found his work on the Magnum website, which really surprised me, since his images don’t appear to adhere to the photo cooperative’s guiding principles. Continue reading “Antoine d’Agata”
Day’s project Diary is available on her website, and promoted as such: “Diary represents 10 years of my life of which I kept an intermittent photographic diary of friends, family, experiences and places I’ve been.” Continue reading “Corinne Day”
Another photographer hailing from a middle-class suburban background who plunged headlong into the abyss of a drug-fuelled life, Nan Goldin also uses documentary technique to narrate a story that is not about the other, but essentially an autobiography: “People commonly think of the photographer as a voyeur, but this is my party, I’m not crashing.” Continue reading “Nan Goldin”
On a different note, the author also mentions Larry Sultan’s work, The Valley,which at first glance is simply a behind the scenes documentary of the porn industry. Both pornography and documentary rely on the viewer suspending disbelief and playing along with the notion that the subjects were unaware they were being filmed or that the whole scenario had not been staged or choreographed for the cameras. Sultan is using the documentary tradition to raise a number of questions, mostly concerning the production and consumption of those very images. Continue reading “Larry Sultan, The Valley”
Carl Whetham photography 