Project Four: The Artist and the World Wide Web

“When computers look at photographs they do not see aunt Helena, a sunset or a birthday cake with candles. Here a photograph is calculable information, not different from other bits of calculable information that we quaintly refer to as songs, films and books.” [1]

Both Eijkelboom and Morrissey use performative strategies ( inserting themselves into the picture as actors within a scene ) to expose the fragility of the illusion of unity presented in the family album. Their work also reminds us of a photographic convention – the family album – that has been transformed by digital culture. In the digital era, photographs are more likely to circulate online on photo-sharing sites than to be printed out on paper, so how will the family album of the future be constituted? Nowadays, we are more likely to carry a portable image on a smartphone screen than a paper one in our wallet. In future, it seems likely that we’ll go to the screen rather than to the pages of an album to remember the past. And, more often than not, we’ll go to photo-sharing sites to deposit our archives. 

Photo-sharing sites provide a rich resource for artists such as Penelope Umbrico. In her influential work Suns from Flickr. 2006 onwards, she prints out multiple images of sunsets, all found of this one photo-sharing site, similarly to Erik Kessels with 24 HRS in Photos. Umbrico often uses simple modes of presentation to display her ideas ( small machine prints, mounted directly onto the wall, etc ). From these elements, she creates installations, which vary in size from the modest to the monumental. 

Suns from Sunsets from Flickr (Partial) 1/23/06, 2006. Penelope Umbrico.

“This is a project I started when I found 541,795 pictures of sunsets searching the word ‘sunset’ on the Flickr site. I took just the suns from these pictures and made snapshot prints of them. I find it particularly absurd that the sun, the quintessential life giver, constant in our lives, symbol of enlightenment, spirituality, eternity, all things unreachable and ephemeral, omnipotent provider of optimism and Vitamin D… and so ubiquitously photographed, is subsumed to the internet, the most virtual of spaces, equally infinite but within a close electrical circuit. Looking into this cool electronic spaces one finds a virtual window into the natural world.” [2]

As Umbrico’s work makes clear, we as artists can now easily access any publically available archive and, like Umbrico, there are many artist-photographers who are choosing to do so.

British artist Mishka Henner’s Dutch Landscapes series, 2011, manipulates Google Earth images to make visible locations censored by the Dutch authorities. The military authorities use crude imaging techniques to blur or heavily disguise sections of online maps containing military sensitive installations. Henner takes screen grabs of these visually redacted sites and uses captions alongside the image to reveal what have been concealed.

Ammunition Depot, Staphorst, Overijssel. Dutch Landscapes, 2011. Mishka Henner.

“When Google introduced its free satellite imagery service to the world in 2005, views of our planet only previously accessible to astronauts and surveyors were suddenly available to anyone with an internet connection. Yet the vistas revealed by this technology were not universally embraced. Governments concerned about the sudden visibility of political, economic and military locations exerted considerable influence on suppliers of this imagery to censor sites deemed vital to national security. This form of censorship continues today and techniques vary from country to county with preferred methods generally including use of cloning, blurring, pixelization, and whitening out sites of interest. 

Surprisingly, one of the most vociferous of all governments to enforce this form of censorship were the Dutch, hiding hundreds of significant sites including royal palaces, fuel depots and army barracks throughout their relatively small country. The Dutch method of censorship is notable for its stylistic intervention compared to other countries; imposing bold, multi-coloured polygons over sites rather than the subtler and more standard techniques employed in other countries. The result is a landscape occasionally punctuated by sharp aesthetic contrasts between secret sites and the rural and urban environments surrounding them.” [3] 

Henner uses the found image to expose the control and censorship exerted by the Dutch authorities. By using the data analysis made possible by search engines, he gives us a hitherto unavailable picture of ourselves. 

Similarly, American artist Evan Roth exploits the technology of the internet search engine to produce self-portraits that explore the relationship between identity and technology. In his series Cache Self Portraits, Roth brings together al of the images he looks at online over a given period of days or weeks. 

“His recent Cache Self Portraits series deals with the hidden data that passes through our browsers every day. While most of us never see our cache, Roth has altered his computer’s local drive to save ever image that is downloaded, without overwriting. He assembles the thousands of images – everything from website logos to Google map directions and banking information – into a ‘sort of portrait, in this case of me’.” [4] 

In displaying every cached image held in his computer during any given period, Roth makes visible the scale of our engagement with online imagery. His sprawling installations, murals and online artwork reflect on the ways in which we continue to process large volumes of data and images in the digital era. Like a cubist collage, hey present a vision of the self as fragmented, complex and constantly in flux. 

Research Point: 

• Read ‘New Media and Vernacular Photography: Revisiting Flickr’ By Susan Murray in Lister, M. (ed.) ( 2013) The Photographic Image in Digital Culture, Abingdon: Routledge (pp.165-82).
• Read David Chandler’s essay on Mishka Henner’s Dutch Landscapes at 

http://www.carrollfletcher.com/usr/library/documents/mishka-henner-press/david-chandler-mishka-henner-dutch-landscapes-photoworkd-issue-17-2011.pdf

• ‘When is Cliché not a Cliché? Reconsidering Mass-Produced Sunsets’ by Annebella Pollen at 

http://eitherand.org/reconsidering-amateur-photography/when-cliche-not-cliche-reconsidering-mass-produced/

 

References: 

[1] Quote taken from Daniel Rubinstein ‘Digitally Yours: The Body in Contemporary Photography’ 2013. 

http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/6239/1/digitally_yours.pdf ( Accessed 08/03/2018 ) 

Umbrico, Penelope. 

Photograph Suns from Sunsets from Flickr (Partial) 1/23/06, 2006. Penelope Umbrico.

http://www.penelopeumbrico.net/index.php/project/suns/   ( Accessed 08/03/2018 ) 

[2] http://www.flickr.com/people/sunsfromflickr-umbrico/  ( Accessed 08/03/2018 ) 

Henner, Mishka. 

Photograph Ammunition Depot, Staphorst, Overijssel. Dutch Landscapes, 2011. Mishka Henner.

[3] Quote taken directly from mishkahenner.com

https://mishkahenner.com/Dutch-Landscapes  ( Accessed 08/03/2018 )

Roth, Evan. 

[4]  Quote taken from TheGuardian.com

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/aug/20/evan-roth-badass-hacktivist-artist  ( Accessed 08/03/2018 ) 

 

Exercise 2.3

For this exercise, you’ll produce a piece of work that either explores the family album and its iconography or reflects on representations of the self in digital culture.

Do ONE of the following:

• Produce a series of 6 photographs (these can be photomontage, staged photography, wok using found images, work including images of your own family albums ) which reference the family album in some way.

 

• Produce a series of 6 photo based self-portraits that use digital montage techniques to explore different aspects of your identity.

Produce a 500 word post, outlining your working methods and the research behind your final submission, for example, ( whose work did you study in preparation for this exercise? Why did you choose the techniques that you did and how effective do you think your choices have been).

 

For this exercise, I was influenced by Erik Kessels exhibition Album Beauty and the exhibition Einwanderer and Nicky Bird’s project Question for Seller. Album Beauty is a collection of intimate and ambiguous, found family photographs that Kessel’s has collected from various places. They have been enlarged and printed to an exaggerated scale, enabling the viewers at the gallery to interact with this visual anthropology up close, where they could see all of the small imperfections, mistakes, breaks, creases and scars. The exhibition was a celebration of the family photograph album, a now rapidly vanishing object that once had a place in every home. This exhibition asks the viewer to reflect on a time when a photograph was comparatively rare and precious.

The exhibition Einwanderer is part of a collective exhibition “Mit Anderen Augen – Das Porträt in der Zeitgenössischen Fotografie” (With Different Eyes – The portrait in Contemporary Photography). The gallery walls were filled like a human mosaic with old passport photographs of German immigrants. When looking closely at some of the photographs, you can handwriting on the bottom of them.  Unfortunately, I am unable to see what it says, however, I am interested to know, as pieces like this enable the viewer, like myself, to know more about the photograph and who it is of and gives us a small insight into the person and the hidden story behind the photograph. 

At the beginning of this course, I purchased several single portraits and job lots of unwanted, old photographs from eBay. I knew nothing about them, who they were of or where they were taken, however, quite a few of them had hand written notes on the back of them, with dates and names. For this exercise, I decided to focus on the family photo album and how people used to take pride in displaying their photographs and writing little notes either on the back of the photograph, explaining where it was taken, the date it was taken and who was in it, or sometimes, it was underneath the photograph in the book itself. It was something both myself and family used to do and still do with out photograph albums, as it helps to keep memories of where the photographs were taken and who they were of. In reference to old family photograph albums, Erik Kessels quoted “We used to be the designers of our photo memories”.

I purchased 7 portraits of the same woman, throughout her life. Several of them had handwriting on the back of them with names and dates, and some appeared to be torn out of a photograph album or scrap book, as there was paper with writing stuck to the back of them. I was really interested in what the writing said, so I typed some of the words into Google translate, and I believe them to be German, as one said, ‘Mouttertag 1938’, (Mothers day 1938). Hand written notes like these, help to give the viewer a small insight into the person in the photograph, however, it is not enough to understand the full story of the person and their life, so for me, these portraits have even more of a mystery to them and a hidden story, which I am interested to learn more about. 

Earlier on in the course, I also purchased old German envelopes with handwritten names and addresses on them which obviously used to contain old German letters, to and from a family. Below are some examples.

I decided that I wanted to combine both the ‘believed’ German portraits of the lady, with the handwriting on the back of them and the German envelopes, thus creating a portrait surrounded by handwritten text and marks, giving the appearance of it being an old photograph taken from a loved ones photograph album, scrap book or memory box with the stored letters and envelopes kept alongside it. Something you would save in a family photo album or scrap book.

I photographed the front and back of each portrait, making sure the writing on the back was clear, and the envelopes. I then opened these on Photoshop and layered up each portrait. I began by layering the portrait with the handwriting on the back side of the photograph itself, then layered on an envelope. I played around with the positioning of each layer and the opacity. For several of the others, I decided that I wanted to include some handwritten letters, to make the portraits appear like they were sent in the envelopes with the letters, perhaps to a family member or a sweetheart somewhere. I myself didn’t own any old, handwritten letters, and I wanted them to be in German if possible, in order for it to tie in well with the other layers. I typed in on Google, old vintage handwritten German letters, and found several examples including English ones, which I then layered on top of some of the portraits. I also wanted to try and keep the dates on the photographs, envelopes and letters, roughly around the same time. 

I am happy with the final images for this exercise, although I am still getting used to the layering techniques, and different opacities in Photoshop, so I am sure, if I am to play around with the positioning of the layers and opacities even more, then I could enhance them even more. 

Photograph One:

Photograph One

Photograph Two: 

Photograph Three: 

Photograph Three

Photograph Four: 

Photograph Four

Photograph Five: 

Photograph Five

Photograph Six: 

Photograph Six

Photograph Seven: 

Photograph Seven

 

 

References: 

Kessels, Erik. 

Album Beauty. FOAM, Amsterdam, Holland. June-September 2012.

http://www.kesselskramer.com/exhibitions/album-beauty    ( Accessed 05/03/2018 )

Einwanderer. Mit Anderen Augen, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany. February 25-May 8 2016.

http://www.kesselskramer.com/exhibitions/einwanderer  ( Accessed 05/03/2018 )

 

Trish Morrissey and Hans Eijkelboom

The self portrait has been a favourite subject of the artist-photographer since photography’s beginnings and photographers have used both traditional and experimental modes of representation to document the self.

Irish artist Trish Morrissey and Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom, both include themselves in their work. Rather than creating straightforward self-portraiture, however, they choose to insert themselves into the picture in unusual ways, using what could be described as performative strategies.

Erik Kessels describes Eijkelboom’s With My Family series, 1973:

“Eijkelboom rang the doorbell in the afternoon, while the husband and father of the house was away at work. If the wife and children were in, Eijkelboom photographed himself between them as the father of the house. He did this in several families and there’s no occasion where he looks out of place. Eijkelboom is a master when it comes to identity and questioning identity. A similar project in this period is called In De Krant, which translates to ‘Being in the Newspaper’. For ten consecutive days, Hans Eijkelboom set himself the task of being a by-stander in images appearing in the same newspaper. So for this period, Eijkelboom snuck behind the local press photographer and stepped in the frame wherever the guy took a picture. We see photographs of demonstrations, accidents, shop openings and other local interest events. For this period, in the newspaper, you could find the artist always standing somewhere in the background of the image. A performance recorded by accident daily. Small Universe will feature Eijkelboom’s identity project and a series called 10 Euro Outfits. For this, Eijkelboom photographs himself wherever he travels in outfits her bought for 10 Euros.” [1]

With My Family, Hans Eijkelboom. 1973

Trish Morrissey believes that the family album presents and idealised version of family life, which often belies the truth. In her project Seven Years, Morrissey sought to deconstruct the trope of family photography by meticulously mimicking it. The project’s title refers to the age gap between the artist and her elder sister.

http://www.trishmorrissey.com/works_pages/work-sy/workpg-01.html

In this series, Morrissey:

“…functioned as director, author and actor, staging herself and her sibling in tightly controlled, fictional mis en scene based on the conventions of family snapshots. In order to construct images that appear to be authentic family photographs from the 1970s and 1980s, Morrissey uses period clothing and props, bother her own and others, and the setting of her family’s house in Dublin. They assume different characters and roles in each image, utilizing body language to reveal the subtext of psychological tensions inherent in all family relations. The resulting photographs isolate telling moments in which the unconscious leaks out form behind the façade of the face and into the minute gestures of the body.” [2]

Both Eijkelboom and Morrissey plunder the aesthetics of family portraiture to produce work that playfully explodes the perfect narratives and perfect families often presented in the family album.

Research Point: 

• Read the essay ‘Fugitive Identities’ in Fontcuberta, J. 2012, Pandora’s Camera.
• Watch Norwegian artist Vibeke Tandberg’s experimental self portraiture employing photomontage techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=2z-TcVnnAxl

 

References: 

Eijkelboom, Hans. 

[1] http://www.rencontres-arles.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=ARLAR1_52_VForm&FRM=Frame%3AARLAR1_108&LANG=English

With My Family, Hans Eijkelboom. 1973

Morrissey, Trish. 

http://www.trishmorrissey.com/works_pages/work-sy/workpg-01.html  ( Accessed 05/03/2018 )

[2] http://www.trishmorrisey.com/works_pages/works-sy/statement.html  ( Accessed 05/03/2018 )

 

 

 

The Emergence of the ‘Selfie’

At first glance, the thousands of photographs pilled up in Kessel’ 2011 installation, looks as if they might have been ripped from the family album. It is only on a closer inspection, that you realise that these photographs are not examples of the more formal portraits of traditional analogue photography but much more candid images ( usually portraits ) taken on a camera phone – a sprawling collection of selfies, group portraits, pictures of cats, holiday shots, lovers and family members, nudes and food – and cataloguing life in almost microscopic detail.

The camera phone is now used to take the vast majority of photographs of friends and family and this method of production affects how, why, where and what is photographed for consumption, usually online.

One of the most significant trends in camera phone photography, is the rise in popularity of the self-portrait. The oxford dictionary describes the word selfie as, ‘A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media’. Typing the word ‘selfie’  into a search engine reveals the extent to which young adults in particular, use this form of photography as a common language. This is a world where young adults habitually use the ( often hyper-sexualised ) self-portrait to introduce themselves to others. 

“Nowadays, some couples establish romantic relationships via the internet and we should not forget that from the Renaissance on many portraits have been used ambassadorially, as a form of introduction with a view to arranging marriage between members of different dynasties or noble lineages.” [1]

I researched a lot into the ‘selfie’ as a self portrait,  for my previous OCA course, Context and Narrative, and I stand by everything I wrote. Below is part of my previous research work in regards to the ‘selfie’. 

Before the invention of the camera, paintings, drawings and even sculptures, were popular choices for people who wanted a piece of art which would represent themselves, which could then be shown or given to others for them to admire. Take for example the portrait of King Henry Viii, painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1536–1537.

King Henry Viii, 1536–1537, Hans Holbein the Younger. London, England.

Holbein painted the King without his typical regalia, instead he focused on making the King appear majestic, simply from his stance. Compared to other portraits of Henry painted around the same time, differences are noticeable. Henry was in his forties when this portrait was painted, yet Holbein has showed him as being young and healthy, yet Henry was in fact suffering from many health problems and was suffering from an injury from earlier in the year. Holbein deliberately extended the length of his legs in this portrait, making Henry appear more taller and imposing.

The portrait was to be hung in the King’s privy chamber, where only a select few would be able to see it, however, Henry was impressed by the work produced by Holbein, so much so that the King encouraged other artists at the time, to copy this original portrait, in order to distribute copies as gifts to friends and ambassadors. Major nobles would also commission their own copies of this portrait, in order to show their loyalty to the King.

Obviously, the portrait of King Henry Viii wasn’t a ‘self portrait’ as it was painted by Holbein, however, self representation plays a major role in regards to this portrait. Holbein has represented the King as being majestic, powerful and strong, by ‘manipulating’ the portrait, something which King Henry took a liking to, hence why he wanted to distribute copies of it to others. A hint of narcissism is shown here by the Kings actions, and you could say there are similarities with the distribution of the copies of this portrait to others, and the upload of a selfie to a social media page for others to see. If you like the image of yourself, you want as many people to see it as possible.

Many argue that selfies contain a hint of narcissism, and the more selfies you take, the more narcissistic you become. Take Kim Kardashian for example. Kardashian released her own ‘photobook’ in May 5, 2015.  The idea for this photobook came into play when she couldn’t think of a gift to give to her husband for Valentine’s day. She decided that all guys like it when their partner sends them provocative, sexy photographs, therefore, Kim would assemble as many photographs of herself as possible, for her husband to look at. However, she wasn’t happy with just her husband seeing the photographs, she wanted everyone to see them. A compilation of 352 selfies were published in the photobook ‘Selfish’, and were available for sale worldwide.

But why? Why would we want to purchase a book containing 352 selfies of one person, just because she is famous… I read an interesting article online regarding this, called Kim Kardashian, The Queen of Narcissism. The link to the article is located at the bottom of this page.

Comparing the portrait of King Henry Viii and the Selfish book by Kim Kardashian, you can clearly see that both of them have characteristics of narcissism, however, technically we all do, as we all like to take care of our own appearance and we care about how we are represented to others. However, these two care(d) so much for their appearance, that they have imposed it onto the masses, making us look at them, whether we want to or not. The argument therefore, is whether or not the selfie is more narcissistic, than the old painted portrait, or do they have the same amount of narcissism, just using a different medium.

 

It is hard to determine whether or not a selfie can be officially considered to be a self portrait, despite the fact that taking a photograph of yourself directly can be argued as being a self portrait, just using a different ‘modern’ medium. My own personal opinion is that a selfie has very similar traits and characteristics of the old self portrait which were either painted or drawn and took time to produce. They involved hours of sitting in front of a mirror or an artist and most recently, looking directly from a photograph taken of the subject. Consideration was taken into the way you sat or stood, the clothing you wore, the expressions you made, the location, colouring, lighting and even composition. In modern society, with the availability of camera’s and mobile phones, we are now able to produce selfies with the same considerations and techniques used for the old self portraits which had been painted or drawn. When taking a selfie, people are taking into consideration, lighting, location, clothing and expressions, as they want to look their best in front of the camera, and they want the final image to show them in a certain way when others view them. 

It is difficult to decide if selfies are self portraits or not, however, looking at the whole argument, I believe that nowadays, people are more likely to argue that selfies are the new, modern self portrait; they are just taken with a modern medium like a camera.

 

 

References: 

[1] Fontcuberta, 2015. P.17

Are Selfies, Self Portraits? By Myself for OCA Context and Narrative course. 10/10/2016.

https://chantellegracephotography3.wordpress.com/page/5/

King Henry Viii, 1536–1537, Hans Holbein the Younger. London, England.

Selfish, Universe Publishing, 5th May 2015. Kim Kardashian.

ISBN: 9780789329202

Kim Kardashian, The Queen of Narcissism. It’s all about her, by Lisa E Scott.

http://www.femalenarcissist.com/kim-kardashian-queen-narcissism (Accessed 11/11/2016)

Nicky Bird – Question for Seller, 2002

Nicky Bird is an artist whose work investigates the contemporary relevance of found photographs. She investigates their archives and specific sites they were found on, in order to produce collaborative art pieces, with the people who have significant connections to a hidden history. She is interested in how such artefacts, archives and sites, carry both social and personal histories.

Her series Question for Seller, 2002 ( 2004 – 2006 ), originated from her interest in unwanted family photographs that appear on eBay, to be sold. She purchased several lots of photographs which no one bid for, with the connotation that they were unwanted by others, and therefore, with no significant value at all. Bird then sent a message to the sellers of these photographs: ‘How did you come across the photographs and what, if anything, do you know about them?’ 

“…Their replies, however brief, are as important as the photographs they are selling – sometimes alluding to a part of a discarded family history, or the everyday, where personal photographs have long since lost their original meaning.”  [1]

Once she had her replies, they were then added underneath the photographs that were purchased from that seller. The photographs were then presented in ‘lots’, similar to how they were purchased on eBay, and were displayed on gallery walls, tables and in both physical and book form.

Question for Seller, The First Purchase. Copyrighted to Nicky Bird, 2002-2007.

“I buy photographs every week. Bought these in a huge lot of thousands of photos at an auction. Mostly come from flea markets and estate sales originally. There might be some info on the front or back of some of the pictures. I’m not sure since I pulled out of the box a random group of 100+ photos. By the way, what do you do with them?” Question for seller, 2002-2007. Copyrighted to Nicky Bird.

On the 1st February 2007 at Belfast Exposed, Question for Seller was auctioned off both as an exhibition and as an artists book work. At 7pm, the exhibition sold the photographs as lots, starting at 99p, and were sold to the highest bidder, similarly to how they were purchased on eBay. At 8pm, online bidding closed on eBay for the unique ‘family album’ which had been show in the gallery since December 2006 and on eBay from January 2007. The closing eBay auction was broadcast live on the night. This event enabled everyone who attended, the chance to take a piece of artwork home with them. However, the series Question for Seller, enabled the audience to purchase, participate and engage with two questions regarding the photographs, What is our relationship to the past, and what is the value we ascribe to it?

Question for Seller, is an interesting take on providing new meanings for old found photographs, without cutting or manipulating the photographs like Stezaker or Stenram. This wasn’t an archive already in existence, rather, Bird bought unwanted family photographs from eBay to create her own archive of unwanted portraits. Giving others the chance to purchase them, once they had a new narrative and context behind them, meant that others could now appreciate them, when others previously, overlooked them.

Her series inspired me for assignment one, where I purchased unwanted, old, portraits, from eBay, to cut up and manipulate. Looking back, I realistically should have asked the sellers where they got their photographs from. I may try my luck and send them a question, as I would love to know where my portraits originated from.

 

References: 

Bird, Nicky.

Question for Seller photographs taken directly from nickybird.com. Photographs are copyrighted to Nicky Bird. ( I have only included them for research purposes, which the OCA advised was ok )

[1] Quote taken directly from website NickyBird.com

https://nickybird.com/projects/question-for-seller/   ( Accessed 05/03/2018 )

http://artdaily.com/news/18960/Question-for-Seller—Nicky-Bird#.Wp3Ct0x2vIV    ( Accessed 05/03/2018 ) 

 

Project Three: The Digital Family Album

    “There is more truth in the image of reality, which is perennially enduring, than the vision of the real, which is fleeting.”  [1] 

If photographs are used as objects with which to remember the significant events and people in our lives, the it is to the photograph album that we look to archive these events and to create the ‘larger picture’. The photo album has long been of special interest to artists, bound up as it is in the construction of family narratives and collective identity.

    “When you hold onto a photo album, you sense that you are in possession of something unique, intimate and meant to be saved for a long time. As you turn the pages and look at the images, you imbibe the maker’s experience, invoking your imagination and prompting personal memories.” [2] 

In the last decade, however, the family album has migrated from the physical album to the digital archive. It is much more likely now that we will view our family photographs on the screen of our smartphones rather than the pages of an album. Artist Erik Kessels quotes “We don’t even have them in albums anymore. The function of a photograph has shifted completely…It’s extraordinary to think that photo albums have only been in existence for roughly one hundred, and now they’re virtually dead.” [3] 

In this day and age, the amount of photographs we are taking on a daily basis has increased, however, less can be shown, as we don’t have hard copies of every photograph we have taken, to show people. We often only have time to view these digital images on screen fleetingly, using our fingers to swipe quickly through only a handful of images which have been taken, with each set being replaced by another at regular intervals. This state of being is perhaps perfectly encapsulated in the popular app Snapchat, where an image only appears for 10 seconds, enabling the viewer to look, consume, then move onto the net image, as the previous image disappears into the digital ether. 

Installation shot, Erik Kessels, 24 Hrs in Photos, 2011, FOAM, Amsterdam.

In 2011, working with the gallery staff at FOAM, Amsterdam, artist Erik Kessels produced an installation intended to explore the situation of discarded digital images which vanish into the digital ether every single day. He and the gallery staff printed out every single image that was uploaded onto the photo sharing website Flickr within a 24 hour period. The resulting print-outs, which would have normally been destined for the screen only, were pilled up together and placed in the corner of a room. Gallery goers were then invited to walk around the vast mountain of discarded images. 

I read an interesting online article, written by Sean O’Hagan for the Guardian online, Album of the Years: Can Photo Albums Survive the Digital Age?, 2011. He quoted that when he sees a photographic album, the first thing he thinks of is order: a disciplined mind, and systematic approach, something he does not have. He has more of a scattergun approach to images and memories, thus leading to him feeling that carefully composed photograph albums are lifeless, due to their elimination of the random, accidental, blurred and botched images.

  ” …If truth be told, my imagination and personal memories are more likely to be evoked if I trawl through an old box of anonymous family photographs, those piles of fading, crumpled, almost discarded things that end up in car boot sales and flea markets and remind us that most lives go unmarked and unremembered save for these unmoored images that have floated free for their context and this are imbued with a quite but resonant sense of memory. ” [4]

If this is the case, does this mean that these feelings are felt by lots of people world wide. Are we slowly giving up on the ‘old’ photograph albums because we don’t have the time to make them anymore, or because we don’t look at photographs the same way we used to. Is our exposure to thousands of photographs everyday, making us cherish the photographs we have taken, less then we should do. As mentioned above, we only have several minutes or even seconds, to swipe trough our digital photographs on our phones, thus meaning that we are less likely to ‘bond’ with the images we have taken. We start to forget photographs we have taken, the more we take.

It is hard for me to distinguish whether or not we had these feelings towards photographs and the archival of them before digital photography came about, as I was only a child when I remember using my first ever 35mm film camera. My family used to photograph everything on their film cameras, from balloons that would fly over the house, flowers growing in the garden, day trips out, old cars, and family and friends. My family as a whole have numerous photograph albums, and I can honestly say that we don’t know what is in half of them. Of course we have the ones we cherish with the friends and family members in, pets and holidays, but the random ones with balloons or flowers, old cars or caravans, these types of photographs don’t mean as ‘much’ to us as the photographs of loved ones. In a way, this is the same as what is happening with the digital archival system, as half of us don’t remember digital images we have taken until we scroll back through our phones or cameras. My own personal opinion, however, is a feeling of sadness, that the old style photograph albums are now ‘going out of date’ and are pretty much dead. As mentioned in a previous post, I will always continue fill photograph albums with photos of holidays, events or family/friend photographs that I cherish, as I would hate for my digital files to be deleted forever. I want to be able to look back on them myself when I get older, to help me remember my life and I also want to  hand something over to my children or grand children when the time comes, so like I do with my families albums, they can look back through photographs I have taken, and can learn things about me as a person, from looking at what I have experienced in my life, through my own eyes, rather than just scrolling or flicking through a digital device to stare at a flat image on a screen. 

 

 

References: 

[1] Fontcuberta, 2014, p.180.

[2] Quote taken from Photographic Memory: The Album in the Age of Photography, Verna Posever Curtis. Written on The Guardian Album of the Years: Can Photo Albums Survive the Digital Age, article, 2011.

[3] Quote taken directly from The Vanishing Art of the Family Photo Album article.

http://time.com/3801986/the-vanishing-art-of-the-family-photo-album/  ( Accessed 28/02/2018 )

When Found Photographs tell New Stories, By Amelia Rina, 12/05/2015.

https://hyperallergic.com/206001/when-found-photographs-tell-new-stories/   ( Accessed 05/03/2018 )

Album of the Years: Can Photo Albums Survive the Digital Age?, By Sean O’Hagan, The Guardian Online, 14/06/2011.

[4] Quote taken from The Guardian online article, written by Sean O’Hagan.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jun/14/photo-albums-digital-collection   ( Accessed 05/03/2018 )

Exercise 2.2 – Jane Long.

Jane Long is self taught Australian photographer and digital artist who was born in Melbourne in 1970, and is now based in Brisbane. Working with Photoshop since 1994, for both personal and commercial work, she then began working as a graphic designer over 20 years ago, and established her own studio in 1996. 

Her series Dancing with Costica initially began when she wanted to brush up on her retouching skills with digital processing software. She stumbled upon old glass plate photographs on the photograph sharing site called Flickr, which had been taken over half a century ago, by Romanian WW1 photographer Costica Acsinte. These portraits showed stiff, straight face subjects, with not a single smile between them. I generally find this type of portrait photography cold and ‘spooky’, in a way, as their eyes seem vacant and the stiff poses make them appear strange. 

   “Photographic practices at the time meant people rarely smiled in photos but that doesn’t mean they didn’t laugh and love. I wanted to introduce that to the images.” [1]

INNOCENCE. Jane Long. Dancing With Costica. Copyrighted to Jane Long.

ALL HANDS ON DECK. Jane Long. Dancing With Costica. Copyrighted to Jane Long.

TALL POPPIES. Jane Long. Dancing With Costica. Copyrighted to Jane Long.

FLOCK. Jane Long. Dancing With Costica. Copyrighted to Jane Long.

 

When finding the online archive for the first time, Long quoted, 

“…After finding the Costica Acsinte Archive on Flickr I became fascinated with the images and their subjects. I wanted to bring them to life. But more than that I wanted to give them a story….…I will probably never know the real stories of these people but in my mind they became characters in tales of my own invention…star crossed lovers, a girl waiting for her lover to come home, boys sharing a fantasy, innocent children with a little hint of something dark.” [2]

Combining the found photographs, with her expertise in digital manipulation, Long has completely changed the context of these portraits, and has produced beautiful, surreal, fantasy style final pieces. She has given the subjects a new life, character and story of their own. Her use of muted, pastel colours remind me of the surrealist paintings by Dali, Rene Magritte, Rafal Oblinski and Vladimir Kush. This can be seen in the pieces Flock, The Whimsy Brothers, Singalong, Gun Shy , The Juggling Act and Corvo. 

“…I wanted there to be some ambiguity about the images….I wanted to change the context of the images…Things that are almost real or not quite right. That’s why I like to place them in a slightly surreal context. But I think it should be up to the viewer to determine if the characters in my images are good or bad, light or dark.” [3] 

She describes Dancing with Costica, as a collaboration with another photographer ( Acsinte ), despite the fact that she has never met him, nor ever will. Her work however, has meant that his photographs are now being seen world wide, by audiences and people like myself, would have never seen them otherwise.

I really love her pieces, especially Innocence, All Hands on Deck and Tall Poppies.  

 

 

References: 

Long, Jane. 

Tall Poppies, Innocence, All Hands on Deck, Flock, Photographs by Jane Long. Photographs are copyrighted to Jane Long. ( I have only included them for research purposes, which the OCA advised was ok ) 

[1-3] Quotes taken directly from the websites below.

http://janelong.fotomerchant.com/   ( Accessed 02/03/2018 ) 

http://janelong.fotomerchant.com/dancing-with-costica    ( Accessed 02/03/2018 ) 

http://janelong.fotomerchant.com/tutorials   ( Accessed 02/03/2018 ) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/costicaacsinte/      ( Accessed 02/03/2018 )

Artist Jane Long Digitally Manipulates Black and White WWI-Era photos Into Colourful Works of Fantasy, online article. By Kate Sierzputowski. 14/08/2015.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/08/black-and-white-photographs-into-colorful-works-of-fantasy/   ( Accessed 02/03/2018 ) 

https://retrospectgalleries.com/news/artist-blogs/jane-long/   ( Accessed 02/03/2018 ) 

 

 

Exercise 2.2 – Stacey Page.

Write 500 words on a piece of work by one contemporary artist – photographer, who uses the archive as a source material.

Stacey Page is a mixed media artist from Georgia, USA. She’s previously worked with paint, clay and wood, however, in her most recent pieces, similarly to artist Julie Cockburn, she has settled on using found photographs with the addition of different coloured thread.

‘HENRY’ Copyrighted. Stacey Page

‘LEONARD’ Copyrighted. Stacey Page.

‘PAULA’ Copyrighted. Stacey Page.

‘TODD’ Copyrighted. Stacey Page.

‘BETH’ Copyrighted. Stacey Page.

‘JESS’ Copyrighted. Stacey Page.

 

Like Cockburn, Page takes old, found photographs she finds in auctions, and adorns the people in them with unique and elaborate headdresses and masks, hand stitched directly onto the photograph with thread. When asked about how she chooses the photographs she works with, and why she has settled with using thread as her medium, in an online interview, Page quoted,

“The photographs start as a lost, discarded or mortal identity…. (They) are extinctions or discarded, and I don’t begin by having any relation to them….They choose me as I find them attractive in some way or another. It is the beginning of a relationship, so naturally I want someone usually quite healthy and engaging….The photographs mostly come from obscure auctions in the backwoods of Georgia which in themselves can be more bizarre than the art itself. [1] 

    “Thread is such an accessible medium. It isn’t too dangerous and I enjoy the portability with such little prep and clean time.” [2]

Once she has chosen her desired photograph, deciding where to start and what design to hand stitch, can be a tough decision. Page often spends a lot of time staring at the photograph throughout the whole process, enabling a relationship and a bond to develop between them. She uses paper to sketch different designs, playing around with different colours and types of stitches that may work. Taking inspiration from the ‘obscure and bizarre backwoods of Georgia’, where many of these photographs were found, her final pieces tend to focus around an obscure fantasy theme with mythical creatures. These creatures are then hand stitched onto or around the subject, like a mask, headdress or an aura, flowing from inside and around their being.

When asked about her inspiration for her pieces, Page quoted,

    “It can come from naturally occurring conflicts. One example would be the inner versus outer being. This conflict entails simple observations one might have about themselves regarding fashion, status, ego, and avatar.” [3]

Coming up with unique, and different designs for each photograph can be challenging, and depending on the size and type of photograph, her relationship with it can become strained and frustrated, causing her to sometimes loose her momentum with her inspiration and the photograph all together, thus meaning that she prefers to work on smaller scale photographs, as they are more convenient and rewarding in the end, whereas larger photographs are more time consuming. However, she does continue to experiment with the larger sizes now and then.

   “…It is difficult for me to know when to stop with a work…. The sketch sometimes changes with the embroidery, and there is a nice history of my friend’s transformation.” [4]

I really admire Julie Cockburn’s hand embroidered work, however they seem to be all the same, for example all circles or geometric designs. In a way, I prefer Page’s work more than Cockburn’s as each one is unique and intriguing to look at. Page creates beautiful, textured and colourful pieces of art, and you can see from how detailed and precise her pieces are, just how much time and work she puts into each piece.  I can see and feel more character and ‘life’ in Page’s pieces when I look at them, more so than those by Cockburn. Despite these photographs being old, discarded, inanimate objects, which had no future, I believe Page somehow manages to breath a new life into each one, giving them each their own individual character and story. Although she mentions that she does fall out with some of these pieces when she is creating them, I can’t help but think that she does really care about them and slowly becomes attached to them, which is why her relationship with them can become frustrating. After all, she does name them.

 

   “The photographs at the time we are done, I know them by name, which is given.” [5]

I really admire her work, and find the use of thread as a medium very interesting. I had not seen this type of work done before, until I researched Julie Cockburn, so finding Page’s work for me was a new experience. I would love to try and make a piece similar to these pieces of art, however, I honestly wouldn’t know where to begin. I have no experience using fine needles and thread on old photographs, however, it is something I am willing to try.

 

 

 

 

References: 

Page, Stacey. 

HENRY, LEONARD, TODD, BETH, JESS, PAULA. Stacey Page. Photographs are copyrighted to Stacey Page. ( I have only included them for research purposes, which the OCA advised was ok ) 

[1 – 5] Quotes taken directly from interviews with Stacey Page, from the websites below.

http://www.staceypage.com/   ( Accessed 02/03/2018 )

The Cutting ( & Stitching ) Edge – Stacey Page. 08/09/2011, By Mr X

https://www.mrxstitch.com/stacey-page/   ( Accessed 02/03/2018 )

Stacey Page artist interview: Using thread to explore ego & avatar. 24/05/2012, by Tessa Hulls.

http://www.redefinemag.com/2012/stacey-page-interview-embroidered-photographs/   ( Accessed 02/03/2018 )

 

The Album as Archive – Erik Kessels

Like Schmid, Dutch designer, curator and artist Erik Kessels has worked with the found vernacular image for many years. Similarly to Schmid, Kessels began to collect amateur photographs – mainly discarded photograph albums – from second hand markers across Europe. In his highly influential series of projects, he presents various series of found images in book form. Most remarkable from this series is book #7, which shows a series of photographs taken of a young girl from age 16 through to old age, as she made annual visits to a fairground shooting range in the Netherlands.

‘ In almost every picture #7 tells the story of a Dutch woman whose life is seen from the point of view of a fairground shooting gallery. The chronological series begins in 1936, when a 16 year old girl from Tilburg in Holland picks up a gun and shoots at the target in a shooting gallery. Every time she hits the target, it triggers the shutter of a camera and a portrait of the girl in firing pose is taken and given as a prize. 

And so a lifelong love affair with the shooting gallery begins. This series documents almost very year of the woman’s life ( there is a conspicuous pause from 1939 to 1945 ) up until present times. At the age of 88, Ria Van Dijk still makes her pilgrimage to the shooting gallery. In almost every picture #7, is a biography of one woman’s life from an unusual perspective, one which allows us to witness the times she lived in, as well as acting as a revealing look at the changing face of photography through the decades.’ [1]

The other books in Kessel’s In Almost Every Picture series focus on different themes: a family’s pictures of its Dalmatian dog #5, a woman’s record of 60 years of passport pictures #6, a collection of shots of a woman taken by her husband on holiday in Barcelona #1. In #13, in every shot, a thumb occludes the frame. It seems that even our mistakes are predictably similar.

Kessels believes that ‘mistakes’ are important in photography.

• Read Tim Clark’s interview with Erik Kessels on the vanishing photo album 

http://time.com/3801986/the-vanishing-art-of-the-family-photo-album/

“Family or personal photographs are now taken to be shared with everybody whereas in the era of photo albums they used to be much more private….We used to be the designers of  our photo memories, not just someone who makes a slideshow on a computer. We don’t even have them in albums anymore. The function of a photograph has shifted completely…It’s extraordinary to think that photo albums have only been in existence for roughly one hundred, and now they’re virtually dead.” [2]

I couldn’t agree more with what Kessels talks about in this interview. Nowadays, our ‘photograph album’ are folders on our mobile phones. Sometimes we transfer them onto the computer, or other devices, but we rarely print them into hard copies. Perhaps this is because we take so many on our phones, if we were to print them all, we wouldn’t have the space to put the large photograph albums. For me, I relate more to how Kessels views things. Although I myself don’t print every photograph I have taken digitally, I do have hard copies in photograph albums. My own personal opinion regarding owning hard copies of photographs, is I dread the thought of loosing the photograph forever. I have digital copies of old family photographs, of friends and family members who have passed away, just in case anything happens to the original hard copies. I also think that with experiencing Dementia first hand, the thought of loosing memories forever frightens me somewhat, as I couldn’t imagine if I couldn’t remember the memories I have or people in the photographs. Keeping photograph albums for me, gives me a sort of security, knowing that if anything happens in the future, I will always have a book, to hold on to, to look through my memories, to help me remember.

Schmid also said that he noticed we spend more time viewing books, than we do slide shows of photographs. If this is the case, then why don’t we keep photograph albums any more? Anything can happen to technology, memory cards can delete themselves, computers can die, thus meaning our digital photograph albums may be wiped completely. I understand that people don’t want to store photograph albums in their houses anymore, due to sizes and space, but surely, if you wanted to keep your memories safe, this shouldn’t be an issue?

He also talks about how family photograph albums used to be more private, and were only shown if you went around someone’s house, whereas nowadays, family albums are uploaded onto social media, and are shared. I however, tend to not do this, as I keep my social media quite simple and quite in regards to my personal life and photographs, other than ones I took when I was at school etc, with friends. I don’t really want the world seeing my family albums online.

Kessels also goes on to talk about how we only tend to keep 8 photograph albums within our lifetime, and explains how peoples life journeys can be seen moving through each. We can see how towards the end of the 7th and 8th, we tended to stop taking photographs as in other words ‘ peoples lives got boring’. We experienced the highs but once they had been and gone, the types of photographs changed and the amount of photographs taken also slowly declined, until none were taken. I wonder if this will be the same with photographs we take on our mobile phones. I think age may have something to do with it. I used to take loads of photographs on my mobile phone when I was at school with friends, whereas now, I have slowly stopped taking so many, and the ones I do aren’t shared on social media as much, if at all. Whereas my Mum and Aunty take even less photographs on their phones than I do, as they tend to live in the moment, rather than worrying about taking a photograph of it, but I like to photograph something, so we can all remember it.

References: 

Kessels, Erik. 

[1] https://www.lensculture.com/articles/erik-kesselskramer-a-lifetime-of-self-portraits-at-a-shooting-gallery   ( Accessed 28/02/2018 )

[2] Quotes taken directly from The Vanishing Art of the Family Photo Album article.

http://time.com/3801986/the-vanishing-art-of-the-family-photo-album/  ( Accessed 28/02/2018 )

http://artsites.ucsc.edu/sdaniel/public_record/OkwuiEnzewor_archiveFever_photographyBetweenHistoryAndTheMonument.pdf   ( Accessed 28/02/2018 )

Project Two: The Artist as Archivist

” I don’t see any necessity in producing images myself – everything that I would need exists, its just about finding it. ” [1] Oliver Laric

Since 2000, the arrival of the digital camera has meant that we’re more likely to store images online than to print them out to paper. The supply of vernacular photography has shifted from the street to the World Wide Web.

We use photography to document our daily lives more now than at any point in the history of the medium. Today, however, we’re more likely to put our hand into our pocket and take out a camera phone than we are a digital camera.

How does this change in the way we take images, affect their content?

What is the difference between a photograph taken on a camera phone and one taken on a camera (digital or otherwise)? After all, both can now produce images of a good quality.

I believe that we don’t ‘really’ look at what we photograph on a daily basis. We take a lot of snap shot type photographs on our phones, of our pets, family, friends, food we eat, things we see when out and about, but we don’t really stop and look at what we photograph. Does this add any less of a meaning to our photograph… I’m not sure. I cherish the digital snap shot photographs of my pets, friends and family, but I also cherished them in hard copies when they were taken on a film camera. I don’t know if going from digital camera to mobile phone, has changed the way we take images, as depending on what we photograph, it should be the same on both. Of course there are things like apps, and filters, which can be applied to mobile phones now, making image processing quicker, easier and accessible to everyone, whereas, with digital images, you had to wait until they were on the screen, before you could process them, if you had the software. So, in a way, mobile phones have enabled everyone to take ‘unique and individual’ photographs with image processing apps, which they may not have done if they owned a digital camera. 

 

 

One of the main differences in the way we document each other on a day-to-day basis lies in the speed with which we do so. This shift in the method of production mirrors earlier developments. Each successive technological advance in photography’s relatively short history has been related to duration (quicker shutter speeds and shorter exposure times, etc), with every aspect of the operation of producing an image becoming faster and faster.

This momentum continues with the evolution of the camera phone where the image can be taken, transmitted and shared in almost the same moment. These easily shared images are rarely translated into photographic prints, however. Rather they are designed as ephemeral markers of mood or place, destined primarily for social medial or online photo-sharing sites. These images circulate on the internet where, just like those Schmid found at the flea markers, they can be picked up and re-circulated by others.

Are people photographing the same thing as those pictured in the photographs collected by Schmid in the 1980’s?

Yes, I believe people are photographing the same things. People do continue to point their camera at their friends, families, pets and at those around them, typically at key events in their lives. We also tend to photograph obscure things like the food we eat, things we have purchased like new houses, phones or cars. We photograph places we go on day trips or holidays, birthdays, christenings, weddings. Like Schmid said, we take similar photographs but we never learned how to. I have also seen an increase in old style photographs coming back in fashion, such as old Polaroids, Fujifilm instant cameras and the increase in people using old cameras to take ‘modern’ photographs.

 

 

References:

[1] Oliver Laric. ‘The Real Thing / Interview with Oliver Laric’   Art Pulse Magazine.

http://artpulsemagazine.com/the-real-thing-interview-with-oliver-laric