Exploration of project theme and technique

Project theme:
The overall theme for this project is: Photography NOW, aka Contemporary Photography. 


For my project I have chosen the contemporary theme/issue: The Importance of Appearances.
I want to explore how important appearances are to young adults in today's society. I want to show that appearances shouldn't matter, because after all, we are all equal.

Investigation of Web Output

A blog is an effective way of digitally maintaining thoughts and ideas, as well as getting feedback on them. However, to drive people to a blog, the site needs to have both content and context, and must be visually appealing.

For a blog to be appealing for viewers, they first must be drawn in by a catchy/interesting title or colourful pictures. A blog that contains purely text, will not be as effective as one with pictures.
According to many blog-help sites, if you wish to get viewers commenting on your page or taking interest in your blog, you must write interesting posts on a regular basis. You are more likely to receive comments if your posts are controversial, or about a contemporary issue. Controversy compels viewers to comment and give their opinion, therefore driving traffic to your blog.

Artist Research - Simon Norfolk

Simon Norfolk

Simon Norfolk was born in 1963 in Nigeria. He attended Oxford and Bristol universities and left with a degree of sociology and philosophy. 

Simon Norfolk " ...is studying war, and its effects on many things: the physical shape of our cities and natural environments, social memory, the psychology of societies, and more."

"He is examining genocide; imperialism; the interconnectedness of war, land and military space; and how wars are being fought at the same time with supercomputers, satellites, outdated weapons and equipment, people on the ground, intercepted communications, and manipulated and manipulating media."

Simon Norfolk: "What these "landscapes" have in common – their fundamental basis in war – is always downplayed in our society."

 

"All of the work that I’ve been doing over the last five years is about warfare and the way war makes the world we live in. War shapes and designs our society. The landscapes that I look at are created by warfare and conflict."

 

[above]. "Storage depot for the oil-fired power station at Jiyé/Jiyeh bombed in the first few days of the [Israel-Hezbollah] war and still on fire and still dumping oil into the sea 20 days later. Seen from the Sands Rock Resort, 1 Aug 2006."

 

[above] "Wrecked Ariana Afghan Airlines jets at Kabul Airport pushed into a mined area at the edge of the apron," from Afghanistan: Chronotopia

  

[above] From: Afganistan: Chronotopia

 [above] From: Shifting Landscapes

Simon Norfolk's photographs have immense clarity and detail, without the typical shock or trauma that you would expect from photographs of war.

MoCP

NOTE: while I was searching for information on Ashley Gilbertson, I came across MoCP, or the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Must look further into this as it may be helpful for my project.

Artist Research - Ashley Gilbertson

Ashley Gilbertson

Australian based photographer, Ashley Gilbertson, is best known for his photography work in the Iraq war. His education in photojournalism was shaped by Emmanuel Santos in Melbourne and Masao Endo in Japan. Gilbertson worked on socially driven photo essays ranging from drug addiction in Melbourne to war zones in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.

 I take inspiration from Gilbertson's work because of how dedicated he is to his work. This commitment is shown through his photographs. He gets so close to the action and was often right in the middle of it. He risks life and limb to get the perfecte shot.  His photos show the raw conflict of war and the evil nature some humans posses.

Artist Research - Roger Ballen

 Roger Ballen 

Roger Ballen was born in New York, USA in 1950. Roger Ballen gained a degree in psychology, and then he completed a PhD in Mineral Economics and established himself as a geologist and mining consultant in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1982; this work steered him toward the fringe communities of South Africa and it was here, in the poorest rural villages, he began taking traditional documentary photographs.

I like his photographs because of the roughness of them. Each photograph tells a story which is at first not entirely apparent. These black and white photographs document the human faces of this vanishing world; their strangeness, marginalisation and underlying violence.

Artist Research - David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle

 Bio: Born 1963, March 11 in Connecticut, USA. He works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique and often humorous style. LaChapelle attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and School of Visual Arts in New York City. He was offered work by Andy Warhol, and has also worked for Rolling Stone, Vogue, GQ, Photo and Vanity Fair. 

The last two photographs are portraits of Cameron Diaz, and Lady Gaga. 
I find David LaChapelle's photographs so appealing because of their amazing colour, detail and quirky nature. 

Task: 14/09/2010

Our task for 14/09:
Choose a minimum of four contemporary photographers to research for your workbook and as a lead-in to your practical assignment.

Some you may wish to explore are:

- Roger Ballen
- William Yang
- David Lapachelle
- Simon Norfolk
- John Claridge
- Montalbetti & Campbell
- Ashley Gilbertson
- Raphael Mazzucco

- Any of the photographers listed on www.lensculture.com

- Any of the photographers listed on www.bandwmag.com/

Complete a separate blog post for each photographer and include either images as examples or provide a link to a website containing images.  You should include a brief biography as well as an analysis of the photographer's work.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From these artists I have chosen to look at:

--> David Lapachelle

--> Roger Ballen

--> Ashley Gilbertson

--> Simon Norfolk

--> Montalbetti & Campbell

MCA - Museum of Contemporary Art

"The Museum of Contemporary Art is Australia’s only museum dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting and collecting contemporary art from across Australia and around the world. With a continually changing program of exhibitions there’s always something new, exciting and inspiring to see at the MCA"

As I am researching contemporary photography, I thought the MCA was a good place to start.
They have many exhibitions of contemporary photographers, the first one I came across was that of Richard Maynard.

The exhibition is called Richard Maynard: Portrait of a Distant Land

Richard Maynard is the leading Indigenous photographer based on Flinders Island, situated in Bass Strait, between Tasmania and mainland Australia.

I admire this particular piece of work because the way it shows the compassion of the aboriginal people and the beautiful landcsape of Tasmania and Australia.
Portrait of a Distant Land is "a visual record of histories conveyed through stories and song ". Ricky Maynard has documented his own and other aboriginal communities. The series is about Tasmania's "physical and social landscapes", leading it to be a form of significant cultural research for the future.
Ricky Maynard has used simple black and white photographs to draw attention to the subject of the photographs, rather than the colours themselves.

Defining Contemporary Photography and Issues

To fully understand this topic I need to define contemporary photography and contemporary issues.

Contemporary Photography
The word itself comes from the Latin "con" (=with) and "temporarius " (=of the time, from "tempus", time) and has the same meaning as modern.

So contemporary photography is modern photography.

But as is the case with modern paintings, contemporary usually refers to absract or unusual work.
Just as a painter living today and painting classical landscapes is not considered contemporary in some circles, so does photography;
"contemporary photography" tends to mean the abstract or unusual and not all of today's photographic work.

In that sense, a photographer doing work similar to Ansel Adams will in most cases not be called contemporary.

(sourced from http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081123040209AA82YgP) 

Contemporary Issues
These are issues that have some relevance to the present.
Issues such as:

- International Conflict
- Terrorism
- Pollution & Waste Management
- Natural Resources & Energy Conservation
- Urban Development
- Bioethics
- Market & Workforce Globalization
- Mobile Technology & Communications
- Information Management and Security
as well as many more.

Focus for this project
This project is based around everything contemporary. Contemporary photography, contemporary issues, contemporary ways of taking photographs, contemporary ways of communicating and sharing photographs.

School task

 

We are to:   

-produce a series of images that interpret contemporary issues

- investigate print and web output

- document and perform advanced print and image management

- use RAW capture and camera raw software

- experiment with advanced editing using browsers and white balance, exposure and contrast adjustments

- make photorealistic composite images

- automate photoshop functions

- choose appropriate media presentation for the style of work 

- follow O H and S  standards

I have started thinking about ideas for my photography project for school, havn't gotten a clear idea yet but im working on it.