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Exercise 3.1 Self Portrait

The first known Self portrait, taken in 1839 by Robert Cornelius

Not long after the invention of photography, came the inevitable self portrait, taken in 1839 by Robert Cornelius. As much as self-portraiture has been a hallmark of painters throughout art history, photographers have continued this tradition. As humans, our face and body have incredible storytelling capabilities, so it makes sense that many artists take advantage of what’s closest.

Self portraits have, historically, been a personal look at an artist. In a world where the self portrait has become diluted and devoid of meaning. Looking at the work of these artists, they are bringing back a sense of individuality and authenticity to the self portrait.

With Brotherus, the images are tightly composed with good lighting, some indoors and some on location. I admired the technical skills in the outside photos, the feeling of stillness of the body against the enhanced movement of the water made me feel the world moves around you at speed, even when you feel you are standing still.

A lot of the images were reflected in a mirror or reflective surface, not only does this frame the image within the frame, it adds to the sense of personal reflection in the self portraits. The face is often obscured by the artist or the reflection, a kind of showing and hiding at the same time. This extra level of distortion generates a feeling of detachment, of being just out of reach.

Brotherus uses both internal and external reflection

In her book Artist and model, Brotherus goes on to say, “I want to see”, explaining how her work is a kind of game of hide and seek, showing and not showing. She explains how she does not like smiles in photographs, and why she likes the repetition of certain themes, such as reflections and bathing. Brotherus also talks about how she stages herself as a model, creating images that are personal, yet deliberately open for the observer’s projections. How she is revealing and hiding at the same time, how the photos reflect stages in her life, but how at the same time she is “making things into objects”. What we see is, after all, not reality, but “just a photo”.

Although nude art work is nothing new, the nakedness adds to the whole stripped back atmosphere and minimises distractions. The sense of the exploration of self, is enhanced by the minimalism of the rooms. The fact that Brotherus called this set Model 1-2 etc. Leads us further into the performances rather than how the photographer is actually feeling. Brotherus tends to use herself almost as a material to be used in art, as a sculptor would use clay or stone.

In contrast, in Gillian Wearings work “Masks” she has literally cast herself in clay to create the base of the mask’s she is making, using part of herself as a base for the artwork. This series “Masks” should be applauded, from its creativity, to its concept, aesthetic, execution and commitment. Every part of the project is art, from the sculptures of family faces, to the cast of her own face. Even the rebuilding of the environments where the original photos were taken.

Whilst researching female photographers self portraits, one cannot help but be lead to the Godmother of self portraits, Cindy Sherman. As an artist, Sherman fits almost perfectly in-between Wearing and Brotherus. For 30 years Sherman took hundreds of self portraits, yet in every picture she looked like someone else. The similarity between the artists is there for all to see, like the others, she was her own stylist, makeup artist and costume designer, Brotherus may be one step removed from this and Wearing one step further. Sherman was a master of disguise like Wearing, so convincing not only in the ability to disguise herself in plain view, but also to convince you that you have met these characters before.

Her seminal work, “Untitled Film Stills,” is 70 black-and-white photographs that evoke the stereotypical female roles in 1950s and 1960s films. They are fake publicity shots of imaginary films, with familiar images such as the bored housewife and the girl on the run.

Cindy Sherman’s portfolio spans over 30 years

Some might say, self portrait’s come off as narcissistic. I really don’t get the feeling of narcissism from this set of images. There is a greater feeling of introspection from the photographers and could not be further from the vacuous flood of narcissistic “selfies” that we are now bombarded with every day. Gillian Wearing’s work deserves a special mention. This series “Masks” blew me away, from its innovation, concept and beautiful execution. Every part of the project is art, from the sculptures of family faces, to the cast of her own face. Even the rebuilding of the environments the original photos were taken. This set of images has the impressive quality of making you question what is reality, whilst maintaining a distinctive authenticity and at the same time being completely staged.

On the surface, these artists are very introspective. They’re using the medium of photography as a deep personal examination of themselves, one, they may not be able to put into words. This delve into personal problems may seem completely idiosyncratic. I believe, we are all aware, that, a lot of what affects us personally, are wider global issues. I feel that these issues cannot help but be expressed in the images that we create. The disconnection of society, the anxieties of modern living or the taboo of discussing infertility. These are wider issues, but also personal to the individuals and do not think the two can be effectively separated from the art that is produced.

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Dora Maar Study Visit

It is a pretty familiar story, female artist deleted from history, and it’s the one that, broadly speaking, underpins this show at Tate Modern. Dora Maar (1907-1997) was a female artist footnoted by history thanks to her gender and her relationship with Pablo Picasso. But the most interesting thing to emerge from this fascinating retrospective (the first ever held in the UK) isn’t simply that Maar is an artist forgotten, it’s that she is such a ridiculously prolific and varied artist forgotten. This being highlighted by the fact that before this exhibition, I had barely heard of her, but strangely I had seen her face hundreds of times as part of Picasso’s extensive portfolio.

Picasso’s interpretation of Maar, The Weeping Woman

This was one of the OCA London organised visits, the third of such visits I have attended so far. We have a small group of loyal followers who attend most meetings, making the effort I put in to attend, even though I no longer live in London, more than worthwhile.

When viewing Maar’s extensive career, spanning over 60 years, the main thing I observed about her is her connection to surrealism. That link is clear, both in her early photomontages and in the names that continually appear throughout the exhibition. The exhibition seemed to be a who’s who of surrealist superstars of the 20th century. In her earlier commercial and fashion photography, you can see the initial forming of her surrealist roots. The vast majority of works on display here are photographs, an example of which, is an image showing a woman with a huge foam of shampoo bubbles on her head. This reminded me strongly of the picture of PJ Harvey on the album cover of ‘Rid of Me’.

But there are many other aspects to appreciate too. Like how Maar’s nude study conjures memories of Grecian Goddesses or how her images of models exercising pre-empt today’s influencers’ yoga shots selling Superdry and the like.

The real surprise for me, however, is Maar’s extensive body of street photography taken in Barcelona, Paris and London during the Depression of the 1930s. Many of the images are remarkable for their informal candour, a quality also present even in Maar’s most stylised surrealistic images. Maar takes photos that always look the tiniest bit accidental, as though the shutter closed of its own accord. Have I seen better examples of street photography from this period? The answer, would have to be yes, but the fact that this is just one part of her vast canon, makes it even more remarkable.

Press View of Dora Maar Exhibition, Tate Modern, 2019.

I loved the progression of her work, from photography to art to cameraless photography. The cameraless photography intrigues me, I have seen this presented in a gallery before and was amazed at the creativity of it and it has inspired me for a future project.

As much as I enjoyed this study visit, I was actually left slightly despondent with the fact I’d never heard of her before this exhibition, it leads me to think of all the other great female artists that the world has been missing out on all these years.

When we resurrect ‘forgotten’ female artists, the temptation is to slot them into an existing art movement and point out all the ways their art neatly resembles the stuff we already know about. But Maar is interesting both as a surrealist and as a realist: a documenter of poverty, conversations and fly-away hairs. If we’re no longer going to forget her as a surrealist, we should also remember her as more than a surrealist.

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Assignment one Two Sides of the Same Coin

On 23rd June 2016, the Nation finally settled the question that had been rumbling under the surface of British politics for generations. Should we remain in the European Union or leave and end the 40 year relationship to go it alone?

Of the 52% of the public who voted to leave the EU many thought it would be concluded by now. Unfortunately, this was not the case, three years and three Prime Ministers later, deep into the departure process, we’re still here, stuck in the quagmire of bureaucracy, still weighing up the pros and cons of Brexit and what that means for Britain.

There are many pros and cons to both sides, too many to comprehensively cover here. From Sovereignty to trade deals, immigration to investments, the debate rages on. How do you condense such a complex and heterogeneous subject into photographs?

In this set of images, I wanted to portray an embodiment of each side of the debate. On one side, we have Boris Johnson, at the forefront of the Brexit campaign, then Home Secretary and now Prime Minister. His name is synonymous with Brexit and now leads the country towards the latest deadline of the 31st of October. Here is a man who feels he was born to be the Prime Minister, a man that now guides the UK from the EU, he has worked himself to the highest position on the inside of government to see that happen. He is an unmistakable character that fills a room with his presence and charms them with his razor wit and indubitable sense of humour. The lines are blurred between where the persona ends and the person starts with Boris Johnson, he has been building his public image for a long time. Will he come to regret this in the future? How many Prime Ministers have the public called so readily by their first name?

On the other side of the argument, you have Steven Bray, better known as Stop Brexit Man. Since September 2017 Steve Bray has braved all weathers to mount his ‘Stand of Defiance European Movement’ (SODEM) Protest outside parliament and the cabinet office, to keep the remain option top of everyone’s mind. Many MP’s, peers, activists and members of the public have said how vital the SODEM protest is to the Remain cause. He is loud, colourful, with a wry sense of humour. Steve’s alter ego is easier to define, his persona has to be more hard hitting, he is literally on the outside of the debate, reacting in the only way he knows how, loudly. Steve has been a constant thorn in the side of any of the establishment trying to cut remain out of the public arena.

When I originally submitted this set of images, I had inadvertently attached text to the Prime Minster photos. As my tutor pointed out, this had an unexpected impact on the images, it somehow gave that side of the story more credibility. This line of research leads me to Victor Burgins UK 76 (1976). 2016, the year of the Brexit referendum, marked the 40th anniversary of his groundbreaking, UK 76 exhibition. Burgins’ highly theoretical style of writing coupled with his subtle, social documentary style photography has the ability to portray strong messages in his art. One photograph depicts a woman at a bus stop with the same disinterested glance that so interested Walker Evans in his Subway series (1938–41) and Cindy Sherman in her Bus Riders (1976/2000). The text almost watches over the scene, adding drama to what is an image of the daily grind.

Victor Burgin, *UK 76* (detail), 1976
© the artist and courtesy Bridget Donahue, New York

As discussed with my tutor “It reflects the similarly reductive nature of an ‘in/out’ referendum and the continued insistence in sections of the media and public debate to render this complex issue in solely binary terms. This white middle aged bloke or this white middle aged bloke? It points towards the difficulties faced by photography in covering complex issues.” This is the continuing struggle of the photographer, trying to tell complex stories in 1/250th of a second.

Boris Johnson and Steven Bray, polar opposites in background and philosophies, one an Eton educated career politician, the other a small-scale businessman from Wales. Despite their differences there are clear similarities between the two men, they are both white and middle aged, from the ‘Boomer’ generation. Both men striving for something they passionately believe in. Maybe in different circumstances they could even be friends, but for now they will stay two sides of the same coin.

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Research Point Sectarian Murders

This looks into Paul Seawright’s 1988 body of work, which was originally released with no formal name. It has since commonly been referred to as Sectarian Murders. The work blurs the lines between documentary and art, is it still art? The work is ambiguous enough to intrigue the viewer into deeper thought, something that is required of art, not chained by the rules of documentary or having to tell the whole story in one image. The core of Seawright’s argument is trying to find the perfect balance between explicit and ambiguous, Seawright himself says “Too explicit, it becomes journalistic, too ambiguous it becomes meaningless.”

What adds to the artfulness of the set is the lack of bodies or police tape, or, in fact any evidence these tragic crimes were committed. The 15 years between act and art and the banality of the scenes, draws the set away from the documentary and closer to art.

I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Mike St Maur Shiel, 2018 exhibition, Fields of Battle Lands of Peace.The photographs themselves were inspired by the words of a veteran who wrote of all those who had died that:

The country would come back to life, the grass would grow again, the wild flowers return, and trees where now there were only splintered skeleton stumps.
They would lie still and at peace below the singing larks, beside the serenely flowing rivers. They could not feel lonely, they would have one another. And they would have us also, though we were going home and leaving them behind. We belonged to them, and they would be a part of us for ever.

A major allied offensive took place in 1916 at Messines Ridge on the southern end of the Ypres Salient with over 8,000 metres of tunnels dug and 21 mines containing almost 600 tonnes of explosives laid under the German lines

Sectarian Murders reminded me of this collection of images as the meaning of the images would remain lost in their ambiguity if not for the clever use of text. On the other hand, the battlefield images, I believe, fall more into the documentary style.

In Seawright’s work the religion of the victims is purposely removed from the text. As Liam Kelly has written in his online article for British Photography.org “Paul Seawright’s photographic works are another example of the transformative power of text on the image.” The text helps the viewer on their way to an explanation, it also leaves them enough space to form their own opinions as Seawright goes on to say the “holy grail is to make work that visually engages people, that draws them in. And then gives up its meaning slowly”. But essentially, “still gives it up”.

Liam Kelly explains “The cold sparsity of the text, together with the concentrated absences in the photograph, unite to sustain a resounding moral condemnation of political cause and effect on both victim and violator.” If we define a piece of documentary photography as art, does this change its meaning? For me, it enhances all meaning.

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Exercise 3.3 recreating a childhood memory

For this jaunt down memory Lane, we had to take an image, recreating a childhood memory. After some trial and error with self absented portraiture using a child to stand in for me, followed by some images that spark some nostalgia, I decided to include myself in the image. As this section is all about self portraiture, I thought it best to include myself as an adult, standing in for the childhood me. I still wanted to create images that were, at their best, capable of freezing the concept of a specific time.

Young boy reading a comic in Gosh Comic Book Store Soho.
This was taken when I was trying to decide whether to take a self portrait or get someone to represent me as a child.

After creating a mind map of things that reminded me of childhood nostalgia, I chose the subject of Comic books, more specifically comic book shop setting. I used to love comic books as a child, the perfect escapism for a young boy, before the age of computer games. It used to be a rare treat to get the bus into town with my pocket money and peruse the comics at the comic book store. Even when I didn’t have any money, it was still great to look for the next edition, or look at the Star Wars and other figures they had for sale.

Gosh Comic Book Store Soho.
A treasure trove

My older brother had a great impact on what I liked when I was growing up. Him being six years older, his tastes always seemed more grown up than mine, I was forever stealing his stuff or wanting to read the same comics, watch the same movies and listen to the same music. Our local comic book store was called Purple Haze, it boasted a modest collection of comics and memorabilia, but was all we knew. It was nothing like the great comic book store that I took this photo in, for the recreation, which was astounding! It bought back all the memories of searching for the limited editions, back in the day.

Dark Justice
The best comic ever written

As we covered in this module, Gillian Wearings work “Masks” is an extreme way of recreating memories.

Another artist taking nostalgia photography to the next level is Thomas Friedrich Schaefer. His collection Experiential Spaces, is a series of photos that are inspired by fragments of his childhood memories of growing up. At the same time, he wants to stimulate the viewers to bring out their own childhood memories too.

“The family home is often defined by the things we associate with it,” says Schaefer in his artist’s statement. “These entities exist as both objects in their own right and reference points upon which we frame our memories. Recalling these places and the things evoke the experience of nostalgia.” Schaefer uses his background in architecture and fine art to recreate his memories in elaborate sets created in his garage, some taking up to 400 hours to recreate.

This was the final image, I liked the way the comics stretch to the roof and into infinity behind.

I showed the photos of the day to my brother, which included a framed front cover, of our favourite ever edition of 2000AD. This sparked some nostalgic conversation which is exactly the effect I wanted. I wanted the images to still be contemporary and relevant because when you’re recreating a memory you want them to speak to the viewer about a shared condition, a state of mind, an inner feeling. A recognisable feeling. They ignite the human subconscious need for nostalgia. The comfort of nostalgia. The safety of nostalgia.

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Assignment Two Props

The brief for assignment two seems simple at first glance, choose a prop and create a set of images relating to it. Once I’d chosen the “White Shirt” category I originally started to storyboard an idea of “a day in the life of a white shirt”, from washing machine to wash basket and all that happens in between. So I shot the series and was fairly happy with the images, the set were a fairly cohesive set that told a story.

I was fairly happy with the end results, the images worked as a standalone set, but I didn’t feel it matched the narrative of the research I had been doing into “White Collar” workers.

During this project, I was in the USA visiting the United Nations with work, and during the course of the three day visit I captured images of bilateral meetings between world leaders. With the white shirt project on my mind I realised that a high percentage of the leaders were wearing white shirts. I put together a collection of images highlighting the point, this tied in with my research with the white collar representing power and success.

Although this set, is a more interesting set, than the first, it is less cohesive and the narrative is not so apparent. On first look the viewer would be questioning whether it was about world leaders, Europe, Brexit, United Nations, You could probably look at these images all day and not get to the fact they’re all wearing white shirts, it’s just too oblique.

As I delved deeper into this in research, I wanted to develop images whilst reflecting on the term “White Collar” worker and how we categorise society into groups depending on the colour of their collar. During the shooting of these images I researched the term “White Collar” What is now a commonly used phrase. The term “White Collar” can be traced back to the 1930’s by Pulitzer Prize winning author Upton Beall Sinclair Junior to around 1935. It has since become a symbol of education and status over most other workers. There are numerous collar colours, from Blue (Manual Labour) to Gold (Highly specialized knowledge) even Scarlett Collar for Sex Trade workers. It is another pigeonhole for society to be categorised. Even using white as the colour creates thoughts of purity, thoughts of wedding dresses and doctors’ coats add to the stigma attached to simple garments.

So, back to the drawing board for the third iteration of this project, I have been trying to find the balance between these two projects. One that has a coherent narrative like the first, but with a more interesting story, with some of the punch of the second set.

I created a storyboard to help me transfer the narrative that was in my head into a cohesive set of images. The idea was to show the White-collar workers with a link between in each image. I wanted the resultant set to be a mixture of people at work shots and self-portraits, whilst maintaining a cohesive narrative in line with the research I carried out.

Images for White Shirt Project Assignment 2. Self Portiat of me sat in my office at No 10 Downing Street

I came up with this set after chatting with my tutor. I’m still undecided as to which set to go with and this is probably a series I will have to revisit again to be completely happy. This is a more coherent set, all the images are linked in some way and the white shirt theme is more prevalent.

In his series, High Fashion photographer Pawel Jaszczuk, between 2010-2018, took a series of photos documenting Japanese businessmen sleeping where they drop, after working sixty-hour weeks. He delves into some of the same theories of labelling, “is it really his excess or theirs? We should hate those men in their everywhere offices, but that is an effort often beyond us. So, we ask of this man asleep in the street, his real label and it is given unconsciously. And sometimes we also fall, our desires and damaged souls exposed, when we too grow tired of their control.” (Jaszczuk, 2018)

In this collection, salaryman the men, wearing predominantly white shirts, my thoughts went to my job, working for the Prime Minister, I have done my fair share of 60-hour weeks. This working pattern is not sustainable for any serious amount of time. This seems to be the fallout of events in an ultra-capitalistic environment that, in this case, Japan has created.

In a recent article for Vice website, Jaszczuk goes on to say, “I want to shake my viewer. I want to provoke them to think more about what was going on in society.” Something has to give, people’s mental and physical health has to be considered. “Do we really want to end up like this? Are we just being used?” (Woods, 2019) Since this project, Japan has brought in some “Work Style Reform Law.” It may be heading in the right direction, but are we?

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Assignment 3 Diary Entry

“Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me” wrote Anne Frank, this is not the easiest for me either, I am not the most articulate of writers at the best of times. Picasso said “Painting is just another way of keeping a diary”. I feel the same way about photography. I downloaded a Diary app (Day One), and once I was in the rhythm, it was good, I could not have believed what my diary entry would turn out to be.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends the Euro Council to announce BREXIT deal with the EU

A little back story to my diary and my choice of entry. I am currently six months into a nine month secondment as the official photographer to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. If you have read previous posts on this blog or seen any of my work, that is probably already apparent. This posting to No 10 has been all encompassing, as I am aware that this module is on self portraiture, or at least a reflective look at oneself. Over the course of this diary, it has been extremely difficult to separate myself from this job, it has literally taken over my life. The BREXIT negotiations and now the general election, coupled with the fact, I am the only official photographer for the PM, 18 hour days seem to have become the norm. That said, this is one of the most fascinating times in political history to be doing this job and it is, indeed, an honour to do so.

In my professional career, I have covered many high profile events, from Royal visits to the launching of Aircraft carriers. As a Public Relations photographer, I am always looking to show what I’m photographing in the best possible light, deciding what images show that person/organisation in the most favourable light. Even down to getting a lower angle to make people look more powerful or trying to not make them look isolated and flattering lighting. I’m constantly thinking of all of these things as well as the obvious shutter, aperture and ISO. I’m never looking for the gritty underbelly or embarrassing images, that’s a job for the Paparazzi.

This has been ingrained in me since my early photography training with the Royal Navy, It has always stuck with me, it is almost a subconscious process now, looking for the best angles, flattering poses, looking for powerful messages in my photographs. Working for the government has its own set of challenges. I am supposed to be completely neutral, is there such thing as complete neutrality? We all have our own views, opinions and traits, I believe all photographers’ personality come through in their photos, whether they realise it or not.

Journals or diaries are nothing new, there are some obvious choices for research, most notably, Anne Frank’s. Although this is considered one of the hundred documents that changed the world, I believed it to be too heavy for this project.

Following this theme, I studied Frida Kahlo’s diaries. From 1944-54, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo kept an illustrated diary filled with personal musings, poems and conceptual designs for future works of art. More than any other diarist I researched, Kahlo complemented her personal feelings of loneliness or jubilation with dramatically colourful illustrations. I was drawn to this field of research as Kahlo is famous for her self portraits, a subject we have covered in depth through this module and it was through this self initiated research into self portraiture I discovered Kahlo’s diary.

Frida Kahlo used her diary to sketch out ideas, some of which were eventually reworked into larger pieces. (Photo: Banco de México)

The diary is both beautiful and tragic, with many of the pages in the later years of her life depicting tears over relationships and her own deteriorating health. What also drew me, particularly to this diary, is that the entries were taken and transformed into another medium like we have in this project. In Kahlo’s case, in 2005, Carlos Fuentes published a full recreation of her 296 page journal, including 76 watercolour illustrations.

Work at No 10 has been very interesting over this period, there have been many events to photograph and blog about, from the Pride of Britain awards to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. One day I took the passport pictures of 30 different members of staff, which, when all put together made an interesting montage of photos that could have made an interesting diary entry.

The event I chose from my diary, in my opinion, was the highest profile, but also the one that made the most sense chronologically and worked best as a set. This was the Prime Minister, travelling to Brussels, to get the Brexit deal passed through the European Union Parliament.

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends his first PMQ’s

Here is my diary entry for that day:

“Today is the day of EU council, after a few false starts this morning we have finally boarded the RAF plane 146 and set off for Brussels. This EU council is a special one, as it is the one where PM Boris Johnson has finally come to an agreement with the Eu Parliament on BREXIT, I don’t think any of the opposition thought he could do it.

Once we landed, we made our way via police convoy, to the Europa Building in the heart of Brussels, safe in the knowledge that a deal had been accepted between both sides.

The official proceedings started with a press conference between Boris Johnson and Jean Claude Juncker, where, they announced that a deal had been reached and ratified by the 27 members of the EU. It was not like normal press conference, the EU don’t want us to leave, to quote Donald Tusk when asked what his message was to the 48 per cent of British voters who supported remain, European Council president, he said: “I regret that it was only 48 not 52.”

The PM then held bilateral meetings with Chancellor Merkel and President Macron. We then moved to the roundtable for a series of talks, there was much back slapping and congratulations for getting the deal through.

We then held a press conference, where the travelling press pack had their say, I must admit, the press were a lot easier on the PM than I thought. The mood is high as the deal has been reached against the odds, crunch time will be in Parliament on Sat and I’m not holding my breath. The PM is now off to his official dinner and we get to enjoy a meal in Brussels city centre.

We were supposed to leave at 2300 but were delayed until 0230 meaning we didn’t return back to the UK until 0400, these are long days!”

I chose this day as it was the most interesting of all the entries. This is one of the most important days our nation has seen for a long time and I was lucky enough to be there to capture it.

In this project, it is ourselves that translate the diary entry into images, it leads me to consider how challenging it would be to translate somebody else’s work to images much like we have in this module, when translating a poem into images. It is also interesting to see how other photographers see the same situations as you, I was obviously not the only photographer there, seeing how other people view the same situation deserves mentioning.

Although this was seen as a success for our administration, It’s also interesting seeing what other EU leaders said about the deal, as this affects them as much as it affects us.

“It’s a little bit like an old friend that’s going on a journey or adventure without us, and we really hope it works out for them, but I think there will always be a place at the table for them if they ever choose to come back,” Ireland’s Leo Varadkar said.

Chief negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters: “I too very much regret Brexit. I deeply regret it. However, we respect it, it was a sovereign choice of a majority in the UK. I have a sort of Gaullist tendency myself, but I have a great deal of admiration for the UK… We will never forget the solidarity shown by the British in our darkest hour.”

This was a much-needed lift to the administration, however fleeting this victory. What happens next depends on whether parliament agrees the deal, I Don’t believe they will and this will be the catalyst for a much needed general election and an end the stalemate in Parliament.

In retrospect, this was a good project for me, it was a chance for some good self reflection of my style of photography and I’m slowly learning what my style of photography is. Things that have been ingrained or I have taken for granted through my PR background, I now see coming through in my coursework and my professional work.

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Assignment Five

Making it up

This assignment is the accumulation of the Context and Narrative module, we have covered a varied workload in this module, it has been enjoyable and challenging. I have been lucky in the fact that the work on this module has, completely by fate, coincided with a very significant life experience. It only seems right that my final assignment comes full circle to my first assignment. It continues with the running theme of the images I have taken, as well as, incorporating some of the themes covered in this module. In the words of Sontag, “Today everything exists to end in a photograph.” (Sontag, 1977) and so does this module and my time at No 10.

For this assignment, Making it up, we were given free range to construct a stand-alone image of our choice, alternatively, we could have chosen to make a series, elaborating on the same theme. For this I wanted to draw on the skills learnt in parts One to Four. I also wanted to draw on the experiences I have had in my time as the official photographer for the Prime Minister. I started this module with assignment one outside the door of No 10, so it is only fitting I end it in the same place with both the module and my time at No 10 coming to an end.

I chose to create an autobiographical self-portrait, similar to the ones we covered in part three. I wanted it to be a portrait of myself in full ceremonial uniform, in Downing Street. I wanted to portray a narrative of a strong sense of pride and achievement, this also ties in with the photographing the unseen which we also covered.

Once I had the idea, I started some research, like most photographers, I am not used to or comfortable being in front of the camera. I started to wonder why this is, this self-consciousness, especially with self-portraits. This kind of psychoanalysis leads me to the writings of Barthes, which in turn lead me to the work of Lacan. It is no surprise that Barthes familiarity with psychoanalysis, that he would lean towards Lacan, they are both French theorists, heavily involved with semiotics, Lacan is only slightly older than Barthes, they are often mentioned in the same breath.

In Bruce Fink’s, 2007, compilation and re-interpretation of Lacan’s original “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function as Revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience” Ecrits, he translates Lacan to say “ the specular image seems to be the threshold of the visible world, if we take into account the mirrored disposition of the imago of one’s own body in hallucinations and dreams, whether it involves one’s individual features, or even one’s infirmities or object projections; or if we take note of the role of the mirror apparatus in the appearance of doubles, in which psychical realities manifest themselves that are, moreover, heterogeneous.” (Fink, 2007)

Possibly, the self-portraits we take, are a reminder that, the images of ourselves, in our heads, do not match the ones we see reflected in the mirror, or the lens. How many times do we look at images and think “do I really look like that?” or hear a recording of our own voices and think “is this how I sound to other people?” The only one dimensional thing about humanity is the mirror image. Although I wanted the image to show a sense of pride, reading this made me consider how I felt in my time there. In the early days, I couldn’t help feeling a sense of imposter syndrome, over a short period of time I realised, everybody feels that way at some point. It is these unseen feelings that give life its depth, Luckily, these were fleeting feelings, my overall feeling was a sense of achievement and a sense of pride.

Once I had decided the direction to take there were many technical and logistical aspects to consider. I had to gain permissions from the estate managers, the custodians and the police. Once I had the preparations in place, I chose my kit and practiced the lighting setup. I had to practice with the camera setup and lighting system inside before I moved on to the street, there was little time to test and adjust in the small window of opportunity available.

For the composition, I did not want to be right in front of No 10, I thought this would be too direct and literal. I wanted to be in the middle of the street with the Foreign commonwealth office and No 10 on either side, making me the central focus, this being accentuated by the empty street. I composed myself in the centre of the image and shot with a wide angle lens and a looser crop to add more context to the surroundings and to give the image more of a photojournalism feel as we covered in part one.

I chose a slightly lower angle on the tripod to give an increased sense of pride and power to the shot. I placed the speedlight to the right and lower than normal, to illuminate under the peak of the cap. I took the creative choice of underexposing the background, by using shutter speed and a shallower depth of field, to further separate me from the background. This had the desired effect of keeping the main focus of the image on myself, I then edited in photoshop with basic darkroom techniques.

In my day to day work, I take many “official portraits” of senior Naval officers and the process is very rigid. The lights are always at a 1:4 ratio and one of three set poses is chosen. I have actually completed exams in this and there are crib cards with the poses and lighting setup in every military photographic section across the land. We are instructed to use the same background, same poses, same flag placement. The flag in this example is actually wrong, it’s supposed to disappear behind the leg. This is not what I wanted for this project, I wanted to be in ceremonial uniform, but I didn’t want it to be an official portrait, I chose a different more relaxed pose, different light setup and made it an in-situ portrait. I think these subtle changes have a big effect on the final image.

Admiral Sir George Zambellas KCB DSC is to be appointed First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, in succession to Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope GCB OBE ADC in April 2013.

I found myself reading the image using the techniques we have learnt in this module, using the signifier and the signified highlighted in Barthes, Elements of Semiology (Barthes, 1967). The image is a self- portrait of me wearing ceremonial uniform in the street (the signifier) but even with the more obvious signified points like the pride and power I was aiming for. There are other more subtle signified points, like the fallen leaves marking the end of an era and the size of the old buildings adding to the power of the image and the leading lines leading out of Downing Street. The street, which is not instantly recognisable as Downing street, but still has a sense of familiarity, as we have all seen it on television so many times. I like to question whether a photograph can have elements of the familiar and the unfamiliar at the same time.

Overall, I was really pleased with the image and the research, it was good to think about and put into practice some of the skills I have learnt over this module. Most of these things I have been doing in my work for years subconsciously, it is good to be taking a more measured approach to my process. I’m sure future projects will not be able to be wrapped up as neatly as this one, but it has been a great place for two journey’s to end.

Works Cited

Barthes, R. (1967). Elements of Semiology. In R. Barthes, Elements of Semiology (p. 12). new york: hill and wang.

Fink, B. (2007). Ecrits The first complete edition in English. In J. &. Lacan, Ecrits (p. 93). New York: : W.W. Norton & Co.

Sontag, S. (1977). On Photography. New York, New York, usa: farrar, straus and Giroux.

Blog Posts for Assessment

This project begins with Sarah Pickering’s, Public Order, exploring the Metropolitan Police Public Order Training Centre, a simulated urban environment where officers rehearse responses to civic unrest. Is this project an effective use of documentary or is it misleading? Are these images the best way to show what goes on behind these closed training sessions?

Sarah Pickering is a British visual artist who works with photography and whose work deals with themes of falsity and deception. Pickering uses the process of photographic image making as a way of staging, observing, performing, and facilitating in order to examine and explore mediated versions of reality and work beyond its confines. Central to her work is an intense and repeated scrutiny of the issues raised by such subjects as fakes, tests, hierarchy, science-fiction, explosions, photography, and gunfire. Pickering’s photography examines the frequent gulf between documentation and that which is documented.

Some may argue, this set of images are not a successful representation of the public zeitgeist or of the discerning threat and the responses to them. I believe this set is an effective use of documentary and I do not believe they are misleading, in this essay I will support my opinion with some examples.

Firstly, I believe this set of images by Pickering is a plausible use of documentary. For example, there is no real attempt to hide the facts that this is a mock up of a town or city. There are lots of subtle and not so subtle clues to the viewer which provoke a closer examination. On closer inspection, you soon get through the thin veneer of reality. In nearly every image there is some part that slowly reveals its meaning, a missing door showing grass where there should be a room, the misplaced lights on every building, the side view of a building that is just a facade. If This set was misleading, it would not give you the images of behind the scenes, some shots are ambiguous at best, but all of them give up some part of the story being told.

Another reason I disagree that the images are misleading is, they are all taken from the same height, there are no dramatic angle changes, the lighting is very neutral throughout the set. I think this was a deliberate act by the artist, I believe this adds to the documentary feel to the images.

On the other hand, the lack of what first springs to mind when one imagines riot training, police with riot shields, mock protestors and Molotov cocktails. It’s easy to see why some might say the set gives the wrong impression. I have photographed riot training before, the whole point is to put the Public Services under real life stresses of these situations. There are normally, loud noises crowds and flames, the lack of this in the images could be seen as slightly deceiving.

With further research into this artist’s other work, it is hard to come to any other conclusion, that when viewed in the wider context of the whole collection, that these images are the first set of, Explosions, Fire and Public order, it becomes ever more apparent that these are effective documentary images. Pickering herself says in the forward the her book of the same name “My work explores the idea of imagined threat, and response, and looks at fear and planning for the unexpected” The only fantasy involved in this set of images is the imagined scenarios the officers rehearse in the areas.

Personally, I would choose to portray these areas with a more kinetic style, it is, nevertheless, a compelling use of documentary.

Dora Maar at the Tate Study Visit.

It is a pretty familiar story, Female artist deleted from history And it’s the one that, broadly speaking, underpins this show at Tate Modern. Dora Maar (1907-1997) was a female artist footnoted by history thanks to her gender and her relationship with Pablo Picasso. But the most interesting thing to emerge from this fascinating retrospective (the first ever held in the UK) isn’t simply that Maar is an artist forgotten, it’s that she is such a ridiculously prolific and varied artist forgotten. This being highlighted by the fact that before this exhibition, I had barely heard of her, but strangely I had seen her face hundreds of times as part of Picasso’s extensive portfolio.

This was one of the OCA London, organised visits, this is the third of such visits I have attended so far, we have a small group of loyal followers who attend most meetings. This makes the effort I put in to attend, even though I no longer live in London, worthwhile.

When viewing Maar’s extensive career, spanning over 60 years, the main thing I observed about Maar is her connection to Surrealism. That link is clear, both in her early photomontages and in the names that continually appear throughout the exhibition. The exhibition seemed to be a who’s who of surrealist superstars of the 20th century. In her earlier commercial and fashion photography, you can see the initial forming of her surrealist roots. The vast majority of works on display here are photographs, with a few paintings (over 200 works), for example, in an image showing a woman with a huge foam of shampoo bubbles on her head, reminded me of the picture of PJ Harvey on the album cover of ‘Rid of Me’.

The real surprise for me, however, is Maar’s extensive body of street photography taken in Barcelona, Paris and London during the Depression of the 1930s. Many of the images are remarkable for their informal candour, a quality also present even in Maar’s most stylised Surrealistic images. Maar takes photos that always look the tiniest bit accidental, as though the shutter closed of its own accord. Have I seen better examples of street photography from this period? The answer, would have to be yes, but the fact this is just one part of her vast canon makes it even more remarkable.

As much as I enjoyed this study visit, I actually left slightly despondent with the fact i’d never heard of her before this exhibition, it leads me to think of all the other great female artists that the world has been missing out on all these years.

When we resurrect ‘forgotten’ female artists, the temptation is to slot them into an existing art movement and point out all the ways their art neatly resembles the stuff we already know about. But Maar is interesting both as a Surrealist and as a realist: a documenter of poverty, conversations and fly-away hairs. If we’re no longer going to forget her as a Surrealist, we should also remember her as more than a Surrealist.