Author: carlwhetham

Postmodernism, postdocumentary, postmemory

Looking up some information on documentary traditions, I came across a wealth of material on the OCA website that I had not seen before – is this because I am on level 3 and now the documentary part is a level 2 course? Whatever. Anyway, some of the materials are worth looking at in depth.

Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York (HONY)

When I explained what I do with photography and first-person narratives, one of my students told me about this project. Brandon Stanton outlines the project on the website as such:

“Humans of New York began as a photography project in 2010. The initial goal was to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street, and create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants.”
 Continue reading “Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York (HONY)”

Martha Rosler, The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems

Gevers paraphrases Martha Rosler, explaining how the latter pointed out in her theoretical writings that documentary photography continues the hegemonic world view since it helps to maintain the social systems it purports to expose or criticize (Afterthoughts). Rosler’s own work employs documentary tradition to expose the inadequacies of descriptions, both photographic and textual. Continue reading “Martha Rosler, The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems”

Images that demand consummation Postdocumentary photography, Art and Ethics: Ine Gevers

This essay looks at the position of documentary-style photography within postdocumentary discipline. Her choice of title is interesting – images that demand consummation, and I understand this to mean images which are not self contained narratives (in the documentary tradition) since it has been shown that such images are motivationally misplaced and do not inspire critical action (Sekula, Rosler, Solomon-Godeau). Continue reading “Images that demand consummation Postdocumentary photography, Art and Ethics: Ine Gevers”

Pete Mansell

Les had recommended that I look at the work of former OCA student Pete Mansell on a number of occasions. Unfortunately I had been unable to access his website and blog until quite recently.

His is an insider view of disability, and as such it would have been great to get some feedback from him about my project and how he felt my work was progressing (as a disabled person in the UK, he could have told me about how my representations were coming across to a different disabled audience, which would have been very interesting). Continue reading “Pete Mansell”

Coda: Preparing for Assessment

Since we had used up all the assignment slots, and I hadn’t been sure that I would get the fourth film produced at all, this part exceeded the structure that Les and I had agreed upon. Nevertheless, he was willing to give me feedback on it and tell me what he thought in a personal email, and I really appreciate his input beyond what was in fact his duty. He also cleared up some doubts I had been having about the content of my written work and the limitations of printing and presentation materials in Georgia (where I have relocated from Kazakhstan). Continue reading “Coda: Preparing for Assessment”

Assignment 3, project 2: Adilzhan Baratov, Yernar Sarseyev, Amanat Musin

We had previously arranged that I would continue working on the photofilm and send in the completed version for us to discuss, but unfortunately I suffered a particularly acute bout of uveitis (used to be called iritis, basically an inflamed iris, which causes photophobia) and was unable to look at a computer screen for over a month until I had completely recovered. The treatment for this condition in UK is steroid eyedrops, which are not sold at all in Kazakhstan. Continue reading “Assignment 3, project 2: Adilzhan Baratov, Yernar Sarseyev, Amanat Musin”

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started