154MC Movie Review: Cult.

The television show style film Cult directed by Kôji Shiraishi is the story of three young Japanese girls that reluctantly agree to film a television show in which they investigate dark and malevolent forces that are haunting the Kaneda family. The sinister forces slowly reveal themselves as the documentary team record a series of terrifying events in the house however a very strange “demon hunter” is their only hope in solving the haunting events. The main character within the story is a small girl named 

Cult is Directed and written by well known Japanese director Koii Shiraishi, whose last film to reach the shores of the UK – ‘Grotesque’ (aka Gurotesuku) which hit the headlines after the BBFC banned the film outright due to horrific and savage imagery. However this film was far from the cries of Grotesque and I feel that the Shiraishi may have been trying to re-create horrific scenes within Cult but failed miserably. The film reminded me a lot of the 2009 horror Paranormal Activity but the special effects through out the film show the signs of low budget editing and awful filming. Although the film was supposed to be in a Tv style effect I cannot help but wonder (as I laughed through most of the film) if it was meant to be scary at all.The creatures in the film look more like earthworms rather than demons and the dog head with legs was just beyond hideous and unrealistic, they seemed to possess the characters so easily and almost pain free but was easily removed as they were possessed. The story line of the film was clever in a sense, with its twists and turns and a last minute realisation that not everything is as safe as they think it might be, however I felt that the film was “silly” and that towards the end of the film the director and writer must have ran out of ways in which to finish the film. 

The producer of Cult is also well known for “The Ring” and “Grudge” so i was expecting a lot more from the film than what I actually saw and I found through some research that Tofugu.com listed the film as one of the Top 10 Strange Japanese Films You Need to Watch (http://www.tofugu.com/2011/07/15/top-10-strange-japanese-films-you-need-to-watch/)  The characters throughout the film were not well played and the acting was  more than questionable however i cannot help but feel that the awkward stance of the actors and actresses was the style in which the director was hoping for in which case he succeeded. 

Overall I cant be completely negative about the film as it did provide me with a good laugh for an hour and half but I think that the film could be dramatically improved and i feel that it won’t be a great success in England or America as it is too similar to the Paranormal Activity Film which is already realised and a huge hit. 

 

Exhibition Review: William Eggleston.

William Eggleston is an American photographer and his early work was inspired by Robert Frank’s work and Henri Cartier Bresson’s book “The Decisive Moment”.  Eggleston started experimenting with colour printing in the 1960’s  but at that time, colour photography was principally associated with commercial industries such as advertising. 

The exhibition we visited was a series of work named Untitled 1970-1973 and it contains a group of photographs taken in Memphis. The series shows many images varying from toilets to empty petrol stations.  What captured my eye most about the pictures was the colours of them. They are so full of colour and eye catching that you can’t help but stare. Many of the photographs are also very empty and lack people which for me represents the whole town and the lifestyle of those that live within it. Although Eggleston may be a popular photographer his untitled exhibition didn’t get many good reviews at all. “The most hated show of the year,” one critic wrote and some sniffed about a show whose photographic subjects also included a tiled bathroom wall, the interior of a kitchen stove and the contents of a freezer. Hilton Kramer called Eggleston’s images “perfectly banal” and “perfectly boring” whilstKramer, the New York Times’ chief art critic, was playing off of John Szarkowski, (MoMA’s director of photography), who had described Eggleston’s photographs as “perfect.” Instead of perfection, Kramer stated he saw “dismal figures inhabiting a commonplace world of little visual interest.” 

For the exhibition was different to anything that i’ve seen before but the photographs just didn’t seem to flow into one another and they all seemed somewhat random with no true meaning behind them at all.  Most of Eggleston’s work is similar to his Untitled project and he seems to leave most of his work without titles at all.  

I think that if I was to be asked about the exhibition I would not recommend it to just anybody but somebody that can understand the context behind the images themselves.  I think the images work well together however as stand alone images they would be even more confusing than they are as a series. I really like the way that photographs were framed and laid out though. Having them at eye height around the room made it almost feel like we were walking through the town in which he grew up in ourselves.  The most iconic photograph within the exhibition is that of the tricycle in the empty street, is currently under offer online  on a website named Christies for $578,500. (http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/photographs/william-eggleston-untitled-1970-5536850-details.aspx)

 

Amongst the emptiness of the photographs we discover  significant political events within the series as well. Eggleston seems to have highlighted the era from the growing prominence of white Southern culture in the ’70s and Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy to the popularity of rock bands like the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd to the election of Jimmy Carter. 
 Overall the exhibition can only be described as anticlimactic and boring for me as the images held no consistent theme or meaning However I can appreciate the amazing colours and creativity behind the printing process and style in which he has taken his images. 

154MC- Exhibition Review Richard Mosse.

 It was recently announced that Richard Mosse’s Infra Photography has won the 2014 Deutshce Borse’s photography prize.

The Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014 is presented by The Photographers’ Gallery, London. The annual award of £30,000 rewards a living photographer, of any nationality, for a specific body of work in an exhibition or publication format, which has significantly contributed to photography in Europe between 1 October 2012 and 30 September 2013.

The photographs depict traces of conflicting interests in the National Democratic Republic of Congo where there was many acts of fighting, rebel groups constantly switching allegiances, frequent ambushes and sexual violence against an incredibly beautiful pink, lavender and crimson jungle backdrop.

The vivid colours throughout the images are the use Kodak Aerochrome film which was originally designed to detect targets for ariel bombings in the 1940’s. The aerochrome film is incredibly clever in the way that it registers a spectrum of light that cannot be seen by the human eye, therefor creating the vivid colours in the photographs.

I think Mosse’s work is beautiful, by using the aerochrome film has really made the horrible darkness of war appear to be beautiful and as human’s we tend to shy away from gore and things that make us uncomfortable but Richard Mosse’s work makes us look and keep on staring at these images until we realise that what we are seeing isn’t as happy as we may think.

The images are not gory which is what we expect from normal conflict/war photography and the pictures don’t truly give us a proper insight into what actually happened in the Congo however the colours of the hills to appear to be some what blood splattered.I had seen Richard Mosse’s photographs in a book before however seeing them at the Photographers gallery in a full size print was incredible. The colours of the photographs draw you in and they almost make the land look like a child drawing.

The images appear very un-realistic and almost childlike at first and the landscapes in particularly look like something out of a child’s story book. Infra is unlike any other project of Richard Mosse’s, in a sense of style more so than theme as conflict and war seem to be a re-accruing theme within his photographs. Many of his other photographs don’t depict as much idilic scenery as the Infra series however I feel it is the aerochrome film that makes the images so powerful and I would love to see the images without the pink and rad hues just to compare the two.

The Double Negative website describes Richard Mosse “as getting right to the heart of each conflict” and I couldn’t agree more that the photographs truly show the conflict in a beautiful yet haunting way.  I would highly recommend this exhibition to anyone despite of whether or not they are photography bilingual as even an amateur can appreciate the beauty of the photographs.

 

Exhibition Review: David Bailey.

Currently showing at The National Portrait Gallery is an amazing and iconic series called Stardust by the iconic David Bailey: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/bailey/exhibition.php

The exhibition is full of Bailey’s most iconic work from the 60’s to recent times spanning from iconic photographs of celebrities and artists to photographs of the struggles in East Africa.

The most iconic images were that of Michael Kane, Jean Shrimpton and the Kray Brothers. The most well known images that are being exhibited are Bailey’s series titles ” a box of pin ups” which include several small black and white photographs of famous people. The images are so simple but each is different from the other. The iconic white background of Bailey’s photographs is so well known that even though he’s never titled himself a fashion photographer many believe he is one of the best and I personally agree with that statement.

I found whilst walking around the many rooms that Bailey’s project has expanded over that the photographs can truly be appreciated by any age, small children and even adults were there enjoying the iconic photographs. Throughout the gallery there is a huge variety of Bailey’s work and that didn’t always necessarily work with the flow of the photographs. His series of nudes positioned next to his “box of pin ups” seemed to somewhat lessen the authenticity of the images for me as seeing Jean Shrimpton next to a rather large naked woman just didn’t seem right.

I also felt the rooms displaying Bailey’s work in Africa, Australia were almost out of place next to the iconic portraits he is most well known for, although the images were somewhat out of place I could still appreciate the significance of these images and the importance behind them. I think that if I were to change the exhibition in anyway I would have the environmental images in a separate part of the gallery to separate two completely different types of work.

Alongside the images i’ve already mentioned there was a series in which Bailey can be seen alongside his close friends Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol which I thought was fantastic as we almost see Bailey in his natural environment. They are so different to the images in the box of pin ups series that I feel it shows a somewhat jokey side to the photographer.

 

The Guardian described the exhibition as  “ecstatically brainless glamorama is glib entertainment for those who can’t be bothered with real art” I couldn’t agree more with the Guardian as Bailey almost makes it look easy to take these black and white portraits but I know from personal experience they are the work of a true master in photography.

Bailey’s work appear to be simple but he manages to capture his subjects perfectly, whether it be their quirkiness ( Andy Warhol) or their beauty (Jean Shrimpton). The use of the simple white backdrop lets the person shine forward and we really focus on the subject themselves.  Overall the whole exhibition is truly a great homage to Bailey and his work for over nearly half a century.

154MC. Unrepresented People In The Media

As part of 154mc were given the task of  creating an artefact that explores the subject of under-represented groups within the media.

I started of this task by thinking off a several area’s in which I feel that people were un-represented in the public such as those who suffer from, Dyslexia, Down syndrome, Diabetes, and Mental Illness.  I realised whilst thinking through these varying aspects of peoples life that the word “disabled” is mentioned around quite a lot within the media however  I think that there are other people who may legally be classed as disabled who are also un-represented within the media, such as Deaf, Mute or Blind people which personally for me is a big problem as its stated on sightsavers. net that It has been estimated that there are 1.4 million blind children in the world, 1 million of which live in Asia and 300,000 in Africa and that Around 37 million people are currently infected with river blindness, and roughly 300,000 of them are already irreversibly blind.

The action for blind people state that “There are almost two million people in the UK living with sight loss. This figure includes around 360,000 people registered as blind or partially sighted in the UK, who have severe and irreversible sight loss.” (Access Economics, 2009) 

However once beginning to think about how I would create this artefact I decided to look a little closer to home and look into my mum’s illness. Diabetes.

My mother has suffered with type 1 diabetes ( also known as insulin dependent diabetes) since the age of 7 and throughout all of my life I have watched her suffer the highs and lows of this illness. Diabetes can affect many parts of your life such as: Eyesight, blood pressure, blood sugar, diet, weight, kidneys, circulation and can even cause heart failure. Part of type 1 diabetes means that you are 100% reliable on insulin, 5 times a day, 7 days a week for the rest of your life. I’ve noticed multiple times throughout the time of helping Mum that she’s not always comfortable discussing her illness, and she’s even less uncomfortable with doing her insulin in front of people that she does not know for example in a restaurant she will use the toilet instead of using her insulin in the restaurant itself. For me there is no question when mum does her insulin or tests her blood sugar but talking with her recently I’ve began to realise that she’s very conscious of those around here when performing these tasks on a day to day basis. I’ve decided to take a series of images of mum and part of her day to day routine of being diabetic and just how much it has affected her and still does to this day.

I began to research into the illness and just how much information there is about the illness in the news:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2620987/One-seven-hospital-patients-diabetic-NHS-pays-record-10billion-year-treat-condition.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/juvenile-diabetes-hundreds-children-becoming-3500202- The Mirror.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/06/scientists-closer-stem-cell-cure-type-1-diabetes.

Here are my final images that I’ve chosen for the series, depicting what my mum has to do for her illness every day. I’ve done them in order of what she does throughout the day, beginning with her testing her blood sugar, her insulin is 5 times a day however i chose to only use 2 photographs instead of 5 as i felt the subject would be to repetitive within the series. The next photograph depicts her recording what she eats/drinks and finally her blood pressure tablets and other forms of medication which she takes for the illness.

 

I made the conscious decision to include the photograph of my Mum injecting herself with incline even though for some the image may be un-comfortable this is a part of her everyday life. I feel that the images only show part of her life and I would love to carry on the images and show some more of my Mothers condition.

Critical Reflection on Summer Task.

As part of 154 MC we have to review our Summer Task that was set for us before we even started at University and that included a letter to self and a summer task in which we had to study Eleanor Carruci’s project closer and create some photographs based around this idea of closeness. 

 

I decided to to photograph what i did throughout my summer however I feel like that i could have done so much better and if i had a chance to re-create the photographs I would do it so much better and take photographs of completely different things. 

I think the images that I took were completely the wrong concept and if i were to re-cerate this project I would probably photograph the family moments I have within my household or a  sweet moment with my partner similar to Carruci’s photographs. I think taking the images helped me get back into the feeling of taking photographs since leaving college and I think that helped but I think I took away the wrong concept and I needed to think about my photographs slightly more. 

I also think that I would possibly use black and white 35mm film if i were to re-create the project and get that grainy feeling with the images. 

I think the project was a great idea and since getting to know Elanor Carruci’s work a lot better and looking at her new work and similar photographer such as Sally Mann has helped me realise how I should have done the project. I think that I might try to re-create the photographs over the summer and see what results I get. 

 

I also had to write a letter to myself and what really helped was reading that letter almost a year on. I found writing the letter to myself a bit weird at first but I soon got into the feel of writing to myself. I wanted to support myself and i almost wanted to cheer myself up with it many months in the future. When I started university I was so nervous and scared that I wouldn’t feel good enough to be here and I was scared that I wouldn’t meet anyone new but reading the note to myself really helped because I soon realised all my worries were unnecessary. 

 

I think the letter also helped me in a way that I could put all my stress and worries into it and I had a chance to get all my worries and thoughts out on paper before starting university. I also think that It was great to read it nearly one year later and realise just how much my opinions of certain things have changed so much. When i first started university i was so dedicated to the idea of working at a magazine when i finish but trying so many new things since I wrote the letter has made me change my mind and I’m no longer 100% sure of what I want for my career anymore. 

 

Overall the Summer Assignment probably wasn’t the best work I’ve done but I feel since nearly a whole year of studying I could tackle to tasks with a lot more knowledge and many more ideas. 

 

 

 

Another Letter To Self- One Year Later…

To Meg.

 It’s now nearly the end of your first year at university and wow what a year. I’ve learnt so much since starting here and I’ve met so many amazing people and had the honour of experiencing some amazing things.

You’ve learnt some amazing things like salt printing, cyanotypes and some amazing new studio skills. I know some days it can feel like there is so much work to do, and that there is many things you feel might be pointless but you’ve done so well to get this far. 

Your grades might not be fantastic but don’t worry about this you will get more confident and better at the skills you have just learnt. The year has been fantastic and you’ve been to some amazing exhibitions such as Richard Mosse’s Infra project and William Eggilston’s pictures at the TATE. 

 

  I know i told you in our last note to each other to keep believing in yourself and that still counts. Never doubt yourself even when it feels like the work load is too much it’ll be okay if you just knuckle down and get on with it. I think you need to control your work load more and just remember that time keeping is so important otherwise you will get too much for you and you stress yourself out. Although your opinion might be changing on what you want to do in life regarding photography but just keep taking photographs all the time.

 

Don’t forget to try everything, competitions, exhibitions, anything… even if you are scared just do it because you never know what could come from it. I know the whole alternate process thing is stressing you out at the moment for this Human presence project but it will all work out if you just remember to have patience. 

 

Learn from others, never be afraid to ask for help and teach them in return. Even though a few people can annoy you at times about how selfish they can be just keep to yourself and remember those who are always willing to help you.

Congratulations on all the hard work you’ve done this year so far, you haven’t done many of things that were given to you for assignments such as the Video that you made and the photo book.

Talking of the video I think that you could have done a lot better on that and like i said we need to control our work time better and try not to make things too difficult for yourself because even though you wanna do your best sometimes your most simplest work is the best.

The photo book was also not the best you could have done because i think that you needed to look at more examples of photo books to get a real feel of how your images should have been laid out. I also think that the whole idea behind the project wasn’t the best because I was forcing myself to some how get fashion into the project instead of trying something new, which looking back now would have been the better idea. 

 

Take care and work hard and don’t forget your dream. 

From Yourself, Written on 15/05/2014

 

 

Letter to Self…

Written on 11/09/2013.

Dear Meg,

 

That feeling of nervousness and uncertainty of starting University will have hopefully passed when you read this again. I know you’re scared of all the new surroundings and new people but I’m sure you’ll be fine after those awkward few weeks of getting to know everyone in your class. Just remember that you’ve wanted this since you were a kid, developing photographs with Granddad and stealing his Polaroid camera at every opportunity to take those awful blurry pictures of Mum and Dad.

You worked hard through college to get here and don’t forget what you’ve learnt and be open with learning new things and even though it may be boring to have to go over things you have already learnt remember there may be people there that don’t have the knowledge you do and visa versa. Don’t be nervous about not being as good as a photographer as everyone else as they might also feel the same and you may be presently surprised with what university has to offer.

It’s going to be difficult at first, University is very different from college, but if you work hard and enjoy yourself (remember a hangover isn’t good for your concentration) then I’m sure you’ll be fine. Have a great time and meet new people, you can learn so much from new people. Enjoy every moment and experience everything you want to do, regardless of if someone else isn’t doing it. Don’t follow the crowd and just be yourself, take the photographs you want too and if it doesn’t work don’t get yourself down, just re-think and start again. Another thing that you do a lot is panic, believe in your work like you did at college and it’ll all fit into place.

If you don’t have the emotion that you put into your work at college then you’re just going to be disappointed but don’t doubt yourself. You did that all through your first year of college and your work reflected that.

Remember whenever you’re having a bad day look through those exhibition photos, the reviews you got and how proud you felt that day and just keep on going. That girl in New York or some other amazing city working for the magazine or fashion house is going to be you one day and never lose sight of that.

I hope that when you read this that you’re doing well and are still happy like you are when I’m writing this and don’t breeze through it. Work hard!!

From Yourself 11/9/2013

Extracurricular Artefact. Homage to an iconic album.

As part of 154 MC we received a small task in which we have to create:

“An artefact informed by extra curricular activity. For example: poem, photograph, song, video etc (dependent on activity)”

For a long time I wasn’t 100% sure on what i wanted to create so I first thought about creating a series of images based around Alice in Wonderland however the more I thought about it i realised I wanted to pay homage to one my favourite music albums buy re-creating the album cover.

The Album i decided to re-create was that of Adele’s most famous album 21. I decided to shoot the photograph in the studio using a beauty dish and white backdrop.

This is my final re-creation of the Album cover. During post production I had to change the lighting in the photograph slightly to make my models right eye lid slightly lighter and changed the contrast slightly to gain a harsher shadow.

154MC Movie Review: Pawn Shop

Independent filmmaker Pharm Rangsi is the creative mind behind the ghost flick Pawn Shop. The film stars famous Noi Pru as it’s leading man but despite winning best actor awards, at the Thailand National Film Association Awards, the Starpics Awards and from the Bangkok Critics Assembly for his role in 13 beloved, his part in Pawnshop left me questioning why he would accept the part at all.

The film begins with the owner of a small pawnshop Long Zhu (Charlee Muangthai), whom has been worshipping the ghost that haunts his pawnshop. Struggling finically and pushed by his wife to the edge of desperation the man prays to the ghost to acquire wealth. His prayers are answered, and the ghost agrees to give him he seeks wealth, only if he kills his wife. As you can imagine it doesn’t take him long to beat his wife to death and become a greedy, horrible man who never seems to sell anything or give a customer a fair deal. As the story continues we learn more about Noi Pru’s character (Neung) in the film, discovering that whilst driving home one night he hit a small local girl. Wrecked by guilt he sets about to find a way to pay for the small girls hospital treatment.

Throughout the film we also see several other characters wanting for money so they also take themselves to the Pawn shop however the customers have no redeeming qualities, each being motivated by their own bad situations or greed. The somewhat dodgy pawnshop owner agrees that the customers must sell him their souls, which are then fed to the vengeful ghost whom he has pledged his life to. The one condition of this agreement is that all the customers must spend one night in the pawnshop and if something were to ” happen ” to them then they would not receive the money. This was the point where we realise that Pawn Shop owner is essentially locking people in a room, selling their souls and then they are unfortunately dropping dead so he doesn’t have to part with any money.

The film can only be described as anti climatic. It has all that a horror film should, gore, and seat jumping scenes however consequentially what stood out most for me from Pawn Shop was the second meaning to the movie. I don’t know whether this is my simple overactive imagination but I feel the film, through the individual characters showed the turmoil that people go when in a crisis. Whether it is debt, a death or just life in general and the process in which we saw Neung go through was the physiological journey we go through when in terror for our own well-being.