PHO701 Oral Presentation as part of module Positions and Practice.

Bibliography

In Praise of Shadow 980726, 1998 Hiroshi Sugimoto https://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/new-page-44
Houses of Parliament Claude Monet Claude Monet, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet,_Houses_of_Parliament,_London,_1900-1903,_1933.1164,_Art_Institute_of_Chicago.jpg
Bathers 9 Paul Cezane https://www.paul-cezanne.org/Bathers-9.html
Reclining Nude Gerhard Ricter 1967
https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/paintings/photo-paintings/nudes-16/reclining-nude-15560/?&referer=search&title=reclining+nude&keyword=reclining+nude

Fate of the animals, Franz Marc, 1939, https://www.franzmarc.org/Fate-of-the-Animals.jsp
Shell-shocked Marine 1968 Don McCullin https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mccullin-shell-shocked-us-marine-the-battle-of-hue-ar01201
Erhai Lake, Study 7, Yunnan, China. 2013, Micheal Keena, https://www.michaelkenna.com/gallery2.php?id=11
diego_torres https://pixabay.com/p-2004440/?no_redirect=

Uncredited images – Roydon Woodford

PHO701 Oral Presentation as part of an accredited masters course with Falmouth University. https://www.maphotographicjourney.co.uk/uncategorized/oral-presentation-copy/

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Welcome to my oral presentation for the positions and practises module of the MA photography course, My name is Roydon Woodford and I will introduce my current practices and my plans for a research project. That’s me aged about 7 on the roof of my Grandads boat.

This is me more recently hanging off the side of a lifeboat, this allows me to capture shots like this.

There are strict rules within the RNLI about the use of cameras during shouts as some of the situations can be macabre and warlike or when at the time for action is required there is no spare seat for a photographer. However, there are many aspects of the lifeboat crew that can be captured. My access to these situations creates more decisive images with the crew member having fun training or the harrowed look after the experience of a shout. The type of image often seen in the war reporters work such as Don McCullin. A future project is to capture the life of crew members at work, at home with families, training The what’s behind the RNLI however, even with individuals agreement this work requires the agreement of the RNLI.

A larger area of my practice is landscape and seascape photography, with the Jurassic coast as inspiration. Frequently it is about sunrise or sunset in dramatic Dorset locations. However, my work is not just at the behest of the sun.
Roland Barthes deconstruction of images leads to an aspect he calls studium. The pretty, the usual, the known and I feel that my landscape work to date however pretty or colourfull falls directly into this group, it has become nothing more than collecting pictures of what was, with a simple press of a button. Always avoiding people to distract from the beauty of nature. Each day a replication of the same image with a different sky or wave splash.

Photographers descending to Dorset to collect the same set of images with no visual interpretation of their own. Collecting next sunrise just to gain a brief exposure to the social media junkies with another pretty picture

My longer exposure work is used in a myriad of ways to extend the visual experience to produce stronger images. The simplistic isolation of the groyne. Leading the viewer into the image of nothing. I believe that this work has more behind it with the intention of raising questions like where is it going? What’s out there? So maybe engaging with the viewer more. Michael Kenna extends this canvas with the reflection that becomes part of the isolated branch.

Adding depth and further dimensions to the stretched wide-angle shot of the pier. Is the dimension time?

The longer exposure is capturing time as it passes the lens. Is this what we see when we look at the streaking clouds, the static image having life breathed into it?
I feel that this aspect of my practices captures the life, with streaking clouds, being part of time.

The waterfall, seeminly paused in an instant, collecting time with the assimilation of water drops creating an image that was never there creating what some would concider an abstract image. Which I feel is supported by Barthes statement,
“the important thing is that the photograph possesses an evidential force, and that its testimony bears not on the object but on time.”

Hiroshi Sugimoto work with the candle, where he photographs the life of a burning candle. Is this photograph valid? Is my work vaild if it can not be seen? As Hiroshi Sugimoto states “However fake the subject, Once photographed, it’s as good as real.” and I have to agree, with the application of time, the validity is confirmed showing that long exposure can create an image never possible in an instant.
Storm chasing is dramatic when successful still requires long exposure. The human eye cannot see a bolt of lightning it merely thinks it has been seen however when captured in a photograph the whole bolt is revealed. Clearly you can see the the image so for my work the bolt of lightning is real as is my image.

With only a few weeks exposure to the MA course my perception of my own practice has been dramaticlly altered away from the repeative landscape to produce very different images. Taking images, looking for the reason the image exists beyond the pretty that I have done so well in the past. Finding a direction.

For the research project I have a working title of “a pipe no longer a pipe” rejecting Barthes view that the referent of an image will always remain within the image and that a pipe is a pipe.

During history there are distinct periods of painting such as the detailed work of Caravaggio in the 17th century through to impressionists such as Claude Monet. Monet’s Houses of parliament I feel moved him away from pure impressionism to approach a more abstract image. Paul Cezanne another painter from the same period whose work I feel started the building blocks for the transition from the more accepted painting of the 19th-century and the bright new world of the 20th-century. I find the bathers 9, more abstract than many of his other works possibly allowing the abstract work that followed during the 20th- century with artists such as Gerhard Richter who’s reclining nude shows the now more common abstract art which artists such as Jackson Pollock and Paul Klee, embraced taking abstract to completion. The fate of the animals in 1939 by Franz Marc, showing the use of bold and strong colours creates a painting that allows the person viewing to take away their own meaning from the image. This transition from fine art landscape to abstract is the progression of my practice and where I see my work heading producing images in the more abstract nature.

Further inspired by the song “windmills of the mind” with “Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel” with the line “Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind!”. This song invokes strong imagery for each person that participates in the song, in their own way how does one see the windmill in the mind? Is it clear or is it distorted like in a dream state? how does one see the wheel within the wheel moving forwards? The song reflects time or the passage of time which is where I feel there is a strong link to the long exposure photography that I undertake.

Utilising long exposure to engage the viewer to be participatory in the meaning the image. The images are not clear photographs and nor fine art they are images that create a mental picture for the viewer, but until the viewer has participated in the picture, the picture has no meaning for them.

From the work of Sugimoto and my work, it is clear that photography and visual perception can be manipulated by the application of time I see a very viable project. The extra punctum as described by Barthes.

The project is not confined to 35mm, it allows for other mediums such as camera-less use of photographic papers and pinhole photography. The images produced can be abstract by nature or with manipulation become abstract.

I see further research into how people percieve images and the effect of colours or images with moods and feelings .

I intend to undertake this in my local area of Dorset to minimise my impact on the environment
Thank you for listening to my presentation

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Looking at my own practice in reference to the ethical position I felt that there was limited ethics involved. Based heavily on landscape and seascape unless you look at the image production aspect. This raised comments from others fronting that there could be a lot more to consider. I can agree that there are areas where landscape images can be used for interpretation by third parties, the example presented to me “the ramblers association vs the NFU, something that one shot could provoke a reaction from a contentious issue over access.”, However, my practice has not been placed in the position of an image being requested for reproduction so personally, it is not relevant as a consideration. In the event of such a request then clearly the ethical considerations would have to be evaluated based on the request.

One aspect that I had not perceived to think about that was raised was the impact that photographers can have on the environment. Not being one to damage the environment I have often been dismayed by the damage visiting photographers make in our area. Poppy season the farmer’s fields trampled, Bluebell season woodland area destroyed. This opens a whole new way of experiencing the ethical debate, it’s not about the image and what happens to it. A good example is Fay Goodwin’s approach to landscape photography looking at human interaction and not chasing the picturesque image.

Our first forum discussion regarding the image produced by Jeff Mitchell, depicting refugees, secured for adverting by UKIP in the Brexit referendum. This strong image and discussion based on the Guardians article created very similar avenues of discussion. The photographers’ ambivalence to finding out how his image had been used, or how he was wrong to have passed it up for publication so that UKIP could acquire the rights.

My position stood with the others and could see that he had made the choice to pass it to a large agency for sale so had responsibility. The point that he was a staff photographer and had been sent by the agency was missed by many. I feel that in light of this the position changes dramatically.

Maybe it’s more black and white than many believe, Staff for a large agency – paid, sent places, win awards, make a name or, Worry about ethics and don’t take the shot or publish. If you have the ethics that you need to talk to people, be involved with the people, have a concern for their needs or desires then maybe you would never put yourself in the position to take the picture.  To move forward, as a practitioner, you work with people and get involved and create documentary images,  they are great and then Getty sees your work, offer you a position would you sell your soul and throw out your responsibility? or does your ethical responsibility dictate what or how you can photograph?

Image production comes with great power as we have seen in examples such as Alan Kurdi, the small child drowned on a beach in Greece. This image used to manipulate the public view of the refugee situation. This power brings responsibility. In considering the responsibility, ethical practices have to be reviewed. Any ethical position needs to be based on all the information available and could have an impact, what is happening, what’s going to happen, What could happen. The ethics of any situation are subjective if no law has been violated.

The peer review of the oral presentation created what I felt was a low point. All the people that had seen the various revision had all been too supportive so criticism was hard however I knew that it needed work. The webinar, the brutality that I had been looking for. Within a short space of time, the low was reversed to a positive. A comment made about the sequence of the presentation I had already been thinking so was not a problem. Needing further criticality was a suggestion by both Paul, the tutor and others. Now a reworked presentation that I am very much happier with.

I have seen the development of myself far greater through the process of each version, than any other part of written work so far and I now feel I could do with another week or two to create the best version. Version? I do not know how many different versions I have made but each one better than the last. Peer review is such a powerful tool. This highlighted in the people I shared with early were not empowered to advise.

Submission in a few days, Fingers crossed.

Set reading resource always brings something new. This week no different. Practices of Looking; an application of visual culture (Spectatorship Power & Knowledge) by Sturken, Marita and Cartwright, Lisa is an introduction to further reading. The first impression of spectatorship would have to be looking. The analysis involved with the looking is compelling to dig further into the psychoanalysis touched upon within the chapter. Utilising the Hitchcock film the rear window, already mentioned in Week Three: Rethinking Photographers, the authors can introduce a new aspect of the meaning of the presentation of the film. The voyeuristic nature of the film highlights the controlling male’s gaze, which I feel Tania Modleski argues successfully is emasculated by his confined state.

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