Picbod Week 4.

This week we looked at the body: the form, functions and interactions. 

Consider how are you corporeally connected an/or discoed with the spaces you conduct in your life. The structure of the body and how its distorted. 

We begin to look at the body like a piece of still life. 

The word naked is descried by Jonathan Jones as “some one with no clothes on” however naked can be linked to venerability as well. 

Whereas the word Nude is quite a flattering word and doesn’t have to be vulgar.  Thomas Ruff used stills from porn films and blurred them to question whether these naked portraits can be artistic as well. However some still just see them as pornographic photos. 

For me I cannot get past the aspect they are essentially just pornographic photographs and I can’t really see the artistic side of the series. 

Nadar did a similarly uncomfortable series about hermaphrodites. 

Similarly to shows such as Embarrassing Bodies, we see male and female parts on this particular show we do not find it pornographic we use it as a confirmation that we are what we consider as ‘normal’

However some people watch the show as some sort of fascination from a scientific point of view.

Sally Mann – Proud Flesh. Larry Mann her husband suffered from muscle dystrophy and Sally photographed him through a series of intimate portraits however they are not all clear. Some are layered and some include textures and layers. 

Hannah Wilke’s mother got diagnosed with breast cancer and so she created a series based around this. 

I think the images are really intriguing and truthful. For some reason their is a big taboo agains’t photographing people when they are severally ill. Its almost as if people are scared to insult people with the sight of people with a serious illness and I think this is wrong as photographs are supposed to be forms of truth why shouldn’t we show how we truly look all the time? 

Piere & Gilles. 

This was the first male nude gallery exhibition and it caused quite a controversy and posters on the street had to be covered. 

People are less okay with the male nude in general to the fame nude. It seems that in society the female body is deemed ‘appropriate’ to be seen nude however it becomes awkward when it is the male form. 

John Coplans- asked his young photography intern to take photographs of his nude self. He sates that he becomes a different person and it’s liberating. 

In the video he created he states that people don’t want to see Old people being photographed. He states that naked old people are a taboo and that people aren’t interested in old people because they are ‘going to die soon’. 

He had an exhibition at the MOMA in New York and he would go down the exhibition and listen to people talk about his work. He states in the video that woman would love his work and say he’s exposing himself like woman do in nudes and thats great however men did not approve of the work. 

The photographs are taken on polaroid by his intern and he used one light in the studio.  Coplann’s states that his photographs are nothing to do with language and communicating they are physical states of being. 

Carolee Schneemann.

Schneemann’s “Action for Camera” in which she merged her own body with the environment of her painting/constructions… “I wanted my actual body to be combined with the work as an integral material– a further dimension of the construction… I am both image maker and image. The body may remain erotic, sexual, desired, desiring, but it is as well votive: marked, written over in a text of stroke and gesture discovered by my creative female will.”

This weeks task : you are asked to photographically consider how you are corporeally connected and/or disconnected with the spaces you conduct your life in. You may wish to examine the structure of the body and how it is distorted to serve certain roles or you may think about the time and locations in which the body shapes the environments it has found itself occupying.

For this task I decided to look into the way our bodies move when we sleep and in particular how I sleep differently with my partner to when I’m alone. 

With more time and better equipment I would like to create a series of images through one night about the way our bodies move when we sleep next to each other and alone. 

Picbod Week 3.

Relationships are titled (mother, father, niece, friend, lover, hometown and prey) but these categories tell us so little about the intricacies and nuances of relationships we have an hold that are constantly flux. 

Relationships are important in our life and they are every where. Whether it be family, partners, friends, animals or strangers we all have some sort of relationship. 

We began the talk by looking at Jamie Diamon- Constructed family portraits: The photographer places random strangers that he meets in hotels in a photo together to create the illusion of a family portrait although they are not related at all. 

This can link to Richard Renaldi’s project touching strangers series that we looked at in week 1. 

Laia Abril- The Epilogue. 

"This is the story of the Robinson family – and the aftermath suffered in losing their 26 year old daughter to bulimia. Working closely with the family Laia Abril reconstructs Cammy’s life telling her story through flashbacks – memories, testimonies, objects, letters, places and images. The Epilogue gives voice to the suffering of the family, the indirect victims of ‘eating disorders’, the unwilling eyewitnesses of a very painful degeneration. Laia Abril shows us the dilemmas and struggles confronted by many young girls; the problems families face in dealing with guilt and the grieving process; the frustration of close friends and the dark ghosts of this deadliest of illnesses; all blended together in the bittersweet act of remembering a loved one" 

Matt spoke with Laia in regards to the project and the family that she was photographing. 

Laia recorded everything in the house and she found that even though they weren’t the main focus of the project they were very welcoming and were very open with her. 

Laia didn’t know them very well before the project began and this is vastly different to the project by Krewinkle last week whom spent 10 years with his subject. Laia lived with the family and she found it very intense and was particularly following the mother around more so than anyone.

For this weeks task we we’re asked to show a relationship. More importantly the space between two people in a relationship. For this task i knew a lot of people would pick their own relationships with parters or parents however I decided to do the relationship between my Mum and Dad.

My mum met my dad at 19 and they continued a long distance relationship for 4/5 years and in this period of time my Dad would send my mum short notes and letters from various places where ever he was working. When i was taking images of the letters I wanted to share the bond between the pair however I also wanted to keep that part of their lives private as i know they are both very private people. 

This weeks task has given me inspiration to look into love letters and how the act of writing letters is somewhat lost now  a days thanks to the advance in email and texts.

I’ve decided to look into the lost art of letter writing and how it can be so much more personal to receive a letter than a text or an email. 

 

Picbod Week 2.

This Week in Picbod we looked at:

Identity + privilege. 

Choice + Representation. 

We change our identity based on the needs that we have. We change ourselves around certain people, and act differently to fit in. e.g. society 

Representation. 

Conversations; record and Stimuli** 

Conversations can address the imbalance of power in a photographic encounter and can also empower the audience as meaning-maker. 

The viewer of our work is a spectator. Similar to watching a tv show or a football game, we have no control over the outcome.

possible life. Conversations with Gualbert. 

 

The book documents the story of Gaulbert’s illegal life in the Netherlands. Along with Krewinkel’s images of Gualbert however his faced is scratched out or not focused completely. Even though we see documentation of Gualbert, we never see his face in Krewinkel’s images and this adds to the risk of releasing the book.

 

” The book that has resulted from the collaboration between Krewinkel and a man identified as Gualbert (not the real name). Illegal immigration of course is a hot topic all over the world. It constitutes a real issue – as much as a rather crude political tool used by the political right to whip up ugly sentiments” 

http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/2012/09/review_a_possible_life_conversations_with_gualbert_by_ben_krewinkel/

The layout of the book starts with personal documentation of Gualbert and his family photographs. In the interview Krewinkle states that even though Gualbert was an immigrant, that the police would not search for Gualbert unless he had was a criminal or broke the law.

The book ends with a documentation of Aids in the country where the subject is from. This for Krewinkle was a link back to Gaulbert’s roots and original history. The book starts with the documentation of his birth and ends with the problems in his country of birth. Which for me, strikes that Krewinkle is trying to say that even though Gaulbert broke the law, his life if he had not moved to the Netherlands would be completely different and he may not have had a life at all. 

We were also set the task of having a conversation with a stranger with no specific subject other than the fact they had to be a stranger. 

For this task I used a patient that attended my mum’s clinic.

My Interview.
Today I met Sue. Sue has secondary progressive MS. Which is essentially the 2nd stage of Multiple Sclerosis. I met Sue when visiting my mum in hospital and she agreed to be interviewed for the task.
I explained the concept of the conversation to Sue and what I was studying. At first i was so nervous about asking her about her condition but she was so relaxed about the whole situation.
I discovered that Sue was diagnosed in 1995 and has been part of a drug trial for the last two years where every 100 days they swap Sue’s pill for either an actual form of medication or a placebo. Its her decision or not whether she thinks she’s on the medication each time.
I went on to ask her what the hardest part of her illness was and she sadly replied that within recent years it has been more and more difficult to use her right hand as she has developed a tremor.
Another task that she struggles with is reaching the shower which is sadly on the 3rd floor of her house.
I finally asked Sue how she’s come to terms with her conditions and she felt very sad about the fact that its her children that don’t understand that mummy’s legs aren’t “going to get better”. The whole conversation was particularly difficult when Sue told me that her husband whom is a Surgeon has not yet accepted her condition either and he constantly tells her that he wants to fix her as well as all his other patients.

Meeting Sue really opened my eyes to the fact that despite her condition she still works a normal job, raises 3 young children and despite the fact of not being able to walk, lives in a house with 3 floors. She really is an inspiration.

The photos i decided to accompany the conversation was one of Sue’s hardest battles in her life. The Stairs and the fear of loosing the use of her hands. 

 

Picbod Week 1.

Each week of Picbod we will study a different topic:

Week 1- Identity (constructed and complex)

 Week 2 -Conversations: Record and stimuli

 Week 3- Relationships; fixed and fluid

Week 4- The Body: forms, functions and interactions speaking.

 

Week One is representation:

 

What makes up identity? 

1. What we look like? 

2. Where we are born ?

3. Our upbringing?

4. What we buy/the things we like?

5. What we do for a living? 

6. What we do for fun? 

7. Our morals? 

8. What we do when no one is looking? 

9. How we act when sober in comparison to how we act when drunk? 

 

 

The photograph is a neatly packaged, bite size piece of information that carries codes and descriptors. 

 

http://www.touchingstrangers.or

Richard Renaldi’s project “touching strangers” is the body of work in which two strangers meet for the first time and have to pose for a photograph together. The photograph appears to be an intimate moment between two people however they are complete strangers. The photograph tricks the viewer and we begin to question what a photograph can tell us.

 

Noah Kalina- Everyday. Took a photograph of his face every single day for a year and merged them all together.

His face stayed the same in every picture, mainly his eyes however his environment changes around him and we begin to see him in different places and get more of a story about where he goes day to day.

 

Should we accept and embrace limitations?

Are there any barriers of photography?

 

Grayson Perry-Who are you.

Grayson Perry turns his attention to identity as he creates portraits – from tapestries to sculptures and pots – of diverse individuals who are all trying to define who they are.

Becoming Simone? 

A photo book based around a man that decided to become a woman and documented so in photographs. The book contains a series of photographs and at the end a medical report stating how he legally became a woman. 

http://www.alessiabernardini.com/becoming-simone#/id/ev18046

 

Do you we change our identity’s based around what others think of us? Should we change how we are because of what others think of us? 

Thinking about the concept of profile pictures, why do we change them so frequently and care so much how people see us. As humans we crave other human interactions and maybe we change our appearances and personalities in order to receive that certain level of approval that we so badly crave however in relationships we receive the most affection and attention with those that see us as we truly are. This begs the question as why we try so hard? 

This week we we’re set with the task of creating mechanical montages based around ourselves and one other person we knew well. For this I choose to focus on myself and my mother.

I found old family photographs, scanned them in and wrote over the top of them with what comes to mind with each image.