Richard Wentworth

'View of streets we never see'....

Richard Wentworth creates a series of photographs, based on the litter he finds placed down Caledonian Road in London. When researching this series I was completely inspired by the way a random object placed in an interesting way can change completely what the environment. Usually, litters seen as something disgusting and accidentle. Wentworth photographs the objects in a way that they are

interesting for the viewer and are the main focus rather than the environment.

'Here is a London you have never seen before, an aerial panorama that moves from the graceful arches of King's Cross Station (that elegant, under-appreciated classical gem) to the wasteland north of the terminal, where thundering cranes, derricks and earth-movers are carving out the new channel tunnel link - revealing, as they do so, a row of splendidly Dickensian warehouses, blackened hulks left over from the age of the railways that I, for one, never realised were there.' Richard Dorment - The Telegraph

Environment Idea.

I came up with my idea for The Environment project, simply by walking round the Chatham and Rochester area, trying to see if anything interested/inspired/annoyed me. Especially in the Chatham area, I noticed a lot of littering, especially the dumping of random items such as trolleys, sofa's and all sorts. I decided it would be interesting to maybe photograph objects in the environment, positioned in interesting ways.

I thought the concept of 'human intervention on the landscape' could be something to work on. To look at, and experiment how humans can change the way the environment is perceived without really noticing. I plan on photographing dumped items exactly how they were left, that way the idea of human intervention is evident.

I plan on doing some research on photographers that have taken photographs of litter or something similar to my idea, to maybe be further inspired and to gain more knowledge on how to plan my shoot.

Hans Bellmer

Hans Bellmer is a well known german artist who made life-size pubescent female dolls, he was considered a surrealist photographer. Bellmer's doll project is also said to have been catalysed by a series of events in his personal life, including meeting a beautiful teenage cousin in 1932 (and perhaps other unattainable beauties), attending a performance of Jacques Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann (in which a man falls tragically in love with an automaton), and receiving a box of his old toys. After these events, he began to actually construct his first dolls. In his works, Bellmer explicitly sexualized the doll as a young girl. The dolls incorporated the principle of "ball joint" , which was inspired by a pair of sixteenth-century articulated wooden dolls in the Kaiser Friedrich museum.

I found Bellmer's work extremely interesting and very relevant to my project. He experiments in ways to manipulate how a doll can be representing, by changing the composition and theme of the image the doll is seen as something more eerie and sexualised, something that cause alot of controversy in the time of his work. Bellmer created dolls with fragmented bodies that could be dismantled in different ways. His images usually portrayed death and decay, and more interestingly, abuse and longing. 


"The fetishising of body parts and fragmentation of the sexual form ignored the constraints of physical actuality. ...Bellmer's sense of taboo lay not in what convention condemned but what was hidden in the darkness of the psyche (where it is far from safe). Bellmer's psychological confrontation and violence may constitute a spiritual jolt that liberates from habit and known codings. He dragged terrible desires out of the darkness and into cognition so that we could assimilate the full reality of our passions and the content of evil in them. How else were we to transcend them (in whatever way we ought) if not by first knowing them?"

Shooting

Final Idea

After researching different artist, toys and stories. My final idea is using the objects: China doll, Bottle of Red wine and a glass. The three objects are to represent the child and the reason behind the abuse. I want to image to have an eerie haunting feel about it yet also for the viewer to feel sympathetic towards the doll. In order to create the theme of child abuse, I want the image to include the glass broken and the doll cracked and dirty, as if portraying the child. I want the background to be matte black, to create a dark effect and also so that the only focus is on the objects. During the shoot I will experiment with composition to try and find the best way for the doll to look child like and dependant on the bottle of wine, maybe leaning or laying on it. I want the broken glass to represent 'a broken home' and the china doll to represent 'the china doll of the family.'

China Dolls

Photography by Louise Daddona

I found this image of a china doll immediately very disturbing. The dead-pan expression on the dolls face is particularly moving as the massive crack down her face is clearly obvious. The clear pale texture of the doll in comparison to the matte black background is very effective as the doll is in complete focus and
the only thing the viewer is made to look at, making the image quite uncomfortable and full-on.

I think using a china doll is perfect sybolism of child abuse. The doll represents something very innocent and calming and when broken and taken out of context theres something very eerie and sad about the whole image.

Deeper research into the story behind my idea.

I decided to talk to my friend more about her personal experience, the more I knew about her childhood, the more I could put myself in her position and hopefully have a more believabe outcome. She spoke about how her mother used to abuse her due to alcohol and she'd had this sort of childhood every since she was born so never knew any different, it wasn't until she grew up she realised out wrong it was. Something intresting which she said was 'I was the china doll in my family....'
     This was the exact inspiration I needed without even asking her about my idea about toys, the term china doll, to her, meant that she was treated like a doll and not like a child. The china doll idea immediately inspired me with lots of ideas in which I could do further research into.

Brian McCarty - toy photographer.

Brian McCarty is a Memphis-born toy photographer and director/producer. Working with toys for over 15 years, McCarty’s unique and innovative vision has attracted a huge international following. His postmodern integration of concept and character has earned McCarty’s photography a prominent position in the growing Urban Vinyl / Art-Toy movement, popularized by fellow artists such as Takashi Murakami and Brian "KAWS" Donnelly. McCarty is featured in several books chronicling the artistic movement such as Vinyl Will Kill, Dot Dot Dash, and Toys: New Designs from the Art-Toy Revolution.

In Brian McCarty's toy photographs, he aims to give each toy a personality, create an image around that toys story and make the story obvious within how his composes his image. As part of my research I think it would help alot in the process of my own project to analyse some of his images and try to understand how he created each story, in able for me to create my own beleivable child abuse story using a toy.



In this image it's clear the photographer used the weather to create a story around the toy. There is life created for the toy with how the scarf is moving in the wind, giving a sense of movement in the photograph creating a life for the toy. The dark grey colours in the sky relates to the grey tones of shadow on the toy, giving the toy a personality which links with the weather. The angle of the camera creates a sense that the toy is more superior than the viewer by using visual hierarchy, also making the toy look taller than the mountains creating a powerful image, however the grass around the toy shows reality and that the toy is actually very small.



This photograph is slightly different to the first one as there are also humans in this photograph. Again, the low angle of the photograph creates the impression the toy is the same height as the humans, creating a more realistic feel. The positioning of the toy and the expression on her face creates sympathy towards her from the viewer. The dark clothing of the humans aroung her and the bright white sky creates and overall sadness about the image, mirroring the emotions of the toy.

Abandoned Toys Research

I've decided to do some more research into how toys can be represented in photographs. In particular, I want to look at abandoned toys and how photographers create an image with the toy creating a feeling of being lost and abandoned, a feeling I want my viewer to feel when looking at my own final image...


In this photograph it shows an abandoned teddy bear sitting alone on a step. The simplicity within the composition and positioning of the bear instantly creates the feeling of being lost and alone, the bear in my opinion is instantly given a personality and to me looks sad, making the image quite powerful yet in a simple way. The burnt orange colour of the bear in contrast to the dirty white step is very effective and the composition using the rule of thirds is simple and effective also.

 

In the first image, the hard grainy surface of the pavement in contrast to the fluffy toy creates an intresting juxtoposition of both textures in the image. The black and white effect immediately makes the image more dull, the grey relates to the dirt on the animal and makes it more visable. The placing of the animal in contrast to the open space around it makes it have a more abandoned feel about it and again creates a sad image.

The second image is different in comparison to the first two as there are other objects in the image. The toy seems to blend in with the leaves in contrast to the dark ground, given the sense that the toy no longer has a personality yet is just decoration on a pavement.

Notes from The Object review tutorial.

• Need to make a decision whether I want the teddy bear to be symbolism of the child, therefore the teddy itself is abused like a child would be, Or is the teddy representing the comfort a child needs?
• Maybe try focussing on the story more and maybe include some sort of alcohol in the photograph, experiment with how it can relate to the teddy in terms of composition.
• Research more into child abuse stories for inspiration.
• Experiment with types of lighting.
• Maybe experiment with more toys other than a teddy bear. Research into how different toys are represented in the media.
• Be more specific to the personal story I'm basing the image on, speak to her about her childhood toys and see if any ideas come from that.
• Decide what effect I want on the viewer from the image. Do I want it to be Disturbing? Uncomfortable? or Sad?

The Environment: Brief

 1. Submit a photograph that pastiches one of below images. You must imitate the photographic language of the image by researching and reproducing compositional form, camera setting, lighting conditions, depth-of-field, scale. Your work should recreate the aesthetic and feeling/mood of your chosen image. Your image is a reconstruction of the visual style of the chosen reference image.

2. You are also required to submit a set of images (minimum of three) based upon your personal conceptual approach to representing the landscape. Drawing upon the knowledge of your references, you must formulate your own visual choices to best reflect how you wish to represent the landscape. There may be political aspects you may wish to consider, or investigate the relationship between human intervention upon nature, or there may be ideas of the 'cultured' landscape that interest you. Whatever are you wish to work, it is paramount to consider the relationship between your visual strategy and how that affects the representation of the landscape.

Environment: Deconstructing Photographers.

We were set a task to select one contemporary environmental photography and closely analyse and compare 3 of thier images. When researching each photographer given, I came to the final decision of looking at Elina Brotherus to do my research on, simply because I personally found her images the most interesting and were drawn to them, therefore eager to do further research into her concepts.



Model Study 9, 2004

To start with, I looked at a self-portrait Elina did of herself. It appears she is sitting on wooden decking looking over a lake as the sun is setting. Theres something about the bright white sky reflecting off the lake which makes this photograph very pure, which I believe is how she's trying to represent herself. Elina is naked in the photograph, again creating a naturalistic pure portrayal of herself as the detail in her spine and her posture creates a sense of fragility. The trees in the background are out of focus, putting even more attention on Elina herself in the centre of the image.



Green Lake, 2007

Its the colours in this image that strike me at first in comparison to the first image. The green in the photo creates a completely different tone to the bright white in the first one. It seems the boy in the foreground of the image is much younger than the man in the background, showing that Elina here had focussed on a visual hierarchy as the young boy looks larger than the older man. The reflections in the water create a sort of 'dream-like' setting, making the environment un-clear at first glance.



Der Wanderer III, 2004

Last but not least, I researched another self-portrait by Elina. Similar to the first image, she has put herself in the centre, putting all the viewers attention on her figure straight away. However, I believe Elina has tryed to portray herself in a different way here, here the visual hierarchy is evident and her strong figure and dark clothing makes her look more of a strong woman rather than pure and fragile. The coat in contrast to the white back ground adds even more attention to her figure, and the height of where she is standing gives her a heroic sense.

Further Research - Objects for still-life.

The next step I decided to take was to look into what objects I want to use for the still life photograph. As I'm doing the theme of Child abuse, I don't want the photograph to be obvious and cliche, I want the viewer to be engaged by the photograph yet the message not be clear at first.

When thinking about my personal childhood and memories, I became attatched to certain things such as personal toys and teddys. The beauty of children is the way there imagination can turn any object into something so different and how a simple toy can become something so real and with it's own story. A teddy bear is an obvious representation of children so i decided to experiment with that idea:

I did a simple experiment with my camera and a teddy bear, I've tried to show how a simple object can be manipulated by the surroundings, lighting and angle. The first photo is a simple shot, brightly lit with vibrant surroundings. The teddy is therefore veiwed as it was intended to be, a fun cuddly toy used by children in a bedroom. However, when the settings taken away, the lightings more harsh and a visual hierarchy is obvious like in the second photograph, the teddy bear takes on a different persona and the perspective is completely different.

Obviously this was only a quick experiment but it's basically some simple trial and error to try and work out how my still-life's eventually going to look. My idea is basically to create a still life of childrens toys yet to manipulate that with the lighting and angle to create a deeper more frightening veiw on the objects.

Further Research (Child Abuse)

• It's estimated that at least one child dies every week in England and Wales as a result of physical abuse. Babies are particularly vulnerable and are five times more likely to be killed than all other ages.
• Approximately 30,000 children are currently on child protection registers. A child's name is placed on the register when health or social services staff are concerned that the child's at risk of abuse.
• Eight out of ten young people who've experienced physical abuse have also seen violence between their parents and carers.

Taken from the BBC news.

Thoughts...

When first given The Object brief, I was worried about the fact the actual idea of presenting a political message through an image was such a wide prospect that it would be difficult for me to simply pick one topic that interests me. I decided to start by reading newspapers and watching the news, simply so I could take note about what most engaged me and hopefully flicker some sort of inspiration. Of course, hard-hitting stories in the paper immediately caught my attention yet none of the topics felt right for me. I decided to do something more personal, the only way I'd be able to deliver a succesful political message through an image is if that I was able to relate to it in some how. I decided to stop looking at such wide media and focus more on my own personal ideas, a story thats personal to me would hopefully create a more succesful outcome...

The story I decided to look into and do more research on was based on a friend of mine who had a tough childhood. The story basically involves a single mum turning to alcohol and drugs and mistreating her child. Although I can't relate to my friends story, I've seen the damage its done to her which makes me feel so strongly about the subject that it feels right to base my project on the issue of abused children..

The Object: Research 2

William Eggleston, Tricycle, Memphis 1969-71

In comparison to the photography by Laura Letinsky, this still-life photograph has a clear visual hierarchy creating the impression that the viewer is looking uo and the tricycle, giving it a more herioc symbol. Also the setting gives the scene a more urban vibe rather than Laura's photographs which are more studio based with a white background. William Eggleston choice this still-life as part of a them of putting something uncommon in a common place - something intresting to think about when doing my own still-life. The photography particularly caught my eye as it's in colour, which is what my still-life also needs to be on so with further research into the photograph hopefully can build up more ideas of my final image.

The Object: Research

Laura Letinsky, from Hardly More Than Ever, 2002

This photographer was an example given when we first recieved our project, I was immediately drawn the unknown message in this photograph so thought I'd do some research on the whole series. Laura Letinsky's intrested in the subject of 'home', and how the particular space in constructed. She focusses on how 'the home' is supposed to represent who you are, yet also shows decisions you unconsciously make.

“The camera contextualizes visual information through a monocular lens; we ourselves do not really see photographically. Photographic space is a creation, a transcription. When you exclude information, reframing what you’re seeing through the camera, you see it in ways you couldn’t see without the camera.”

“Home seems a normal place, but look at all the work that goes into it. It’s not a natural space. I’m interested in that paradox about this home that’s supposedly organic and natural, that ‘just happens’ to be there, as opposed to all the work that goes into sustaining that idea in reality. It’s an uneasy space. If it’s true that the personal is political, rather than dealing with overtly political concerns, I’m seeing the home as a very politicized space.”

The Object: Brief

"Taking inspiration from the history of art and using a visual approach, employed in traditional still-life painting, construct a photograph based upon a current social issue. It is your chance to produce an individual comment or opinion through the objects in your still life. Construct a meaningful phototgraph through research and careful use of objects."

- Format must be 5x4 Large-Format.
- Final Colour - 'C-Type' analogue print.
- Contact sheets from the shoot.