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.

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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.