Book Review: Magri, Women of the UAE, Cova Group, 2012

This folio-size photobook of 100 female portraits looks like it might have been conceived and sponsored by the Dubai or Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce.  It has about it that air of self-congratulation, presenting resident females as entrepreneurs, academics, ranking government office holders, artists, designers, radio and television personalities, film directors, and business owners.  But the project was in fact produced by an Australian “fashion, beauty, advertising and luxurious lifestyle” photographer who came to the UAE in 2002 little expecting to find so many females active in capitalistic pursuits.  This collection is a document of these women. It is the photographer's first book project and partial profits are being donated to breast cancer research.  

A newspaper without photos

Photo:  BJP

Further to a post some months back regarding an American newspaper's decision to release its photography staff, the French newspaper Libération yesterday printed an issue sans photos to demonstrate the importance of photography.

More at the British Photography Journal here.

On the one hand certain stories seem to require professionals (although the story of Fujimoto-san suggests there may be amateurs out there willing to have a go even at the dangerous stories).  On the other, cameras have become so common it is difficult to convince the public that professionals may be required.  Perhaps once they are all gone, we can appreciate their contribution.

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22 Nov:  I see this news item has now been added to the OCA blog.

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DPP: Exercise 5: Linear Capture

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the interpretive ability of the camera’s software by looking at what the sensor captures and comparing it to what software renders.

To do this we are asked to take any JPEG or TIFF and first convert it to 16 bits per channel using Photoshop.  I did a bit of googling to find out how to do this in Lightroom before posting to the OCA Photography forum for clarification.  It turns out LR processes in 16 bit and exports JPEG at 8-bit.  JPEG bit depth cannot be adjusted (so far as I can tell), but TIFF can be set at 8 or 16.  So for the purpose of this exercise I exported a 16-bit TIFF.  This is the image, a souvenir collection from a student who went to Mecca for Hajj.

UAE photography has become more precarious

The UAE government this week announced that it is now illegal to publicly display images of anyone - still or video - without the subject's permission. Presumably, prosecutions will occur only after complaints are lodged by the offended and aggrieved.  Those found guilty face up to six months in jail and fines of up half a million dirham (US$140,000).

This is the apparent result of a case this summer in which  film taken on the side of the road showing an Emirati citizen beating a South Asian expat was uploaded to Youtube. The Emirati claimed defamation, the case was dropped, and no one was prosecuted.

To read more about this new law, have a look at some of the press links.  And happy shooting.  Just don't share your photos while visiting the UAE, eh?

Arabian Business
International Business Times

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Book Review: Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, MoMA, 2010

With a generous 462 images across 375 pages, this hefty, 2.5 kilo, 2010 exhibit catalog seems like a fine introduction to the photographic career of Henri Cartier-Bresson.  Many of the images are familiar, others not, but what really impresses in this volume are the small details: a chronology of the photographer’s travels, complete with maps; a bibliography of periodicals;  a chronology of exhibits and books; a filmography; and a bibliography of selected critical and academic writings.  Also worthy of note is the informative and engaging 65-page essay by Peter Galassi, chief photography curator for the Museum of Modern Art (who retired about the time this book was published).  Readers without the historical or critical background will appreciate Galassi's unaffected style and the near absence of academic art-speak.  Those interested in more detail will enjoy combing through Galassi's 217 footnotes (across ten 31x25cm pages).

Like Galassi, I found my expectations of Cartier-Bresson confounded.  My encounters with the photographer have been through photography histories highlighting “the decisive moment” in his pre-war work.  What I don’t much recall is discussion of his career as a photojournalist or his name linked to magazines such as Life, Time or Fortune. But the latter makes up the bulk of his work and in fact many of his most famous photos from the 30s  - the man leaping across the puddle, the fat man strolling through a crowd of children, the families enjoying lunch on the river bank - made their first public appearance at the 1947 MoMA exhibit.

Waking Up at WalMart: Nolan Conway

I had no idea WalMart has a policy regarding customers sleeping in their parking lots.  I may have to do this on my next visit to the US and see what I can see.  Maybe even replicate Conway's project for evidence of regional variations.  As my relatives might say, What a hoot!

The central arc in the photo above appears to pinch the image and is interesting not only for its geometry, but also for its strong interior light.  My guess is the  image out-of-the-camera didn't reveal nearly as much.  

The NYTimes magazine ran a feature a month ago, and one of the paper's blog writers followed with an interview.  Conway's website has a few additional photos not included in the feature.

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DPP: Assignment One: Workflow: Tutor Report & Reflection

Financial Centre Station (corrected)

The tutor’s report is in and contains a good bit of useful advice.

Overall a solid first assignment with no major issues and some promising visual approaches to creativity.

At first I thought there wouldn't be much in the way of specific guidance, but the tutor didn't let me down.  To view the original assignment, follow the [link].

Travel photography's greatest cliches

Travel writer Ben Groundwater at Australia's The Age came up with a list of cliche travel photos.  Here are a couple he missed (examples pilfered from the web).  Have any to add?

Planning an exhibit

I never thought I would write the words in the title of this blog post about myself.  From time to time I come back to the idea of my plans for summer 2014.  I typically have eight weeks holiday, a fairly good stretch of time for which plans are required. Without them you end up idling and not doing very much of anything,  Sometimes its good to do just that - for perhaps a week.  Eight weeks is far too long to be web surfing and watching movies.

Review: Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction: Ch 1: Thinking About Photography, 4th ed, 2009 CONTINUED

Newhall's 1937 (amazon.com)

Histories of Photography

Until post-WWII, the history of photography, according to Price & Wells, was largely the history of photographic technique, though they note Gasser’s history of histories, in which three types are identified:  the priority debate (who invented photography),  manuals and handbooks of techniques, and histories of the photograph as image. Gasser feels the preponderance of the second has led to the mistaken assumption that nothing else was ever published before WWII.  

Regarding the debate on priority, the antecedents to the camera are noted, included Aristotle's notes on fixing a reflection on a wall by concentrating light through a small hole, the first notes on the camera obscura from the 16th century, and the large number of people working in optics and chemistry in the 18th century whose discoveries contributed to the publications in science journals in 1839 of details on the creation of instruments and processes for capturing light and fixing images.  The authors refer to Mary Warner Marien on the need to examine historical claims carefully, on the need for further research, particularly political, scientific, and cultural contexts. 

Two early 20th century histories are introduced as seminal in redirecting academic discussions toward more art-historical concerns, and of putting photography at the center of it’s own theory (rather than as a branch art theory).

DPP: Assignment One: Workflow

The Metro, mirror glass, and me

The Brief

The brief for Assignment One is to construct an effective workflow on a theme of choice leading to the selection of 6-12 images to be presented as an online gallery or as prints. All the steps in the workflow are to be listed and a short comment to be written against each describing what was done. An explanation of how this workflow differs from others' and personal adaptations are to be included. Finally, we are to reflect on how well this assignment meets OCA assessment criteria (essentially, grading our own assignment).

Book Review: Eggleston, William. Ancient and Modern, Random House, 1992

The UAE university library system has two Eggleston photobooks:  The Hasselbald Award and this volume, Ancient and Modern.  Both are similar in presenting career overviews, this one featuring about 150 images.  As such the book doesn't really hold up thematically, though it does showcase some of the more famous images, such as the red roof, the yellow sink, the Elvis portrait, peaches.  What I discovered here is that Eggleston has traveled a bit outside the US.  I was surprised to find images of Egypt and Kenya and I would like to see more.  Perhaps the most startling piece in the collection is from South Africa, a basket of oranges bottom left and the remainder featuring a wall bathed in soft yellow-orange light.  I haven’t been able to google a copy, so maybe I’ll have to scan one. The introductory essay by Mark Holborn is the kind of biographical review you might expect to find in a book pitched to a general audience.  Still, there were things to discover, such as the photographer's reaction to Walker Evan’s frontal field of view, with Eggleston appreciating more the varied angles of Cartier-Bresson.  I was also surprised to note Eggleston’s interest  in using color for creative effect, not just capturing it as presented.  My perception of him thus far has been something of a documentarian.  This may require revision.  Thus far most of the photobooks I've checked out from the university library system seem to have been largely unopened.  This one appears to have been reviewed, as the evidence here clearly shows.

Film review: Photographers of Australia: Dupain, Sievers, Moore (1992)

Dupain, Sievers, and Moore

Previous to viewing this 45-minute film I had no knowledge of Australian photography, nor the names of any of the country’s photographers. It may serve you as it served me, as a general introduction to the country’s photographic history through the lives and careers of three of its well known practitioners.  The most compelling character was Sievers, who told his commanding officer in the Luftwaffe, to which he had been drafted as a cameraman, that he would do his legal service but afterwards would use everything he learned during his time in the military to work against the Nazis. He was given 24 hours to leave and took the opportunity to emigrate as far from Europe was possible.  Having worked in 1930’s Berlin, one of the world’s leading centers of design, he was shocked to find Australian photographers still practicing 19th century pictorialism!  After his bravado with the German air force, it seems he lost his nerve to speak to power and ended up making a career out of industrial photography, selling his conscience for access to factories and mines where he could work on large scale compositions.  He recognizes that his job was to make industry look good, to present a nonreality to shareholders and the general public.   The other two photographers seem less interesting next to Sievers, but the filmmakers manage to accentuate a major difference in their view to subject matter, with the older Dupain declaiming any need to look abroad for subject matter, and the younger Moore driven by a need to explore the world.

Review: Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction: Ch 1: Thinking About Photography, 4th ed, 2009

Photo found at http://yimvmd.blogspot.ae/2010/09/bodyworld.html

Aesthetics and Technology

This chapter places photography within the context of wider intellectual movements, beginning with the 19th century debate about the camera as an instrument of science or of art.  The photograph came to supplant the painting in producing facsimiles of reality and from a very early date there was mass acceptance of the idea that photographs are reproductions of reality, small snippets of truth.  Individual photographers, in their style and subject, became inheritors of the attributes of Great Masters.  With the arrival of late 20th century post-modernism, all defining narratives were said to have been lost in a world grown increasingly interwoven.  Authenticity, the unique vision of the master, was no longer possible nor sought after, as was the idea that reality was somehow reproducible.  But even in an age of widespread production and consumption of digital images, the idea that photos are somehow real remains common currency.

Price & Wells note the camera’s appearance in an age of criticism where discussion often centered on how to define photography and distinguish it from other forms and practices.  They note the lack of consensus, the absence of any definable uniform practice or product, and the character of discussion:  a tendency toward reductionism - attempting to define an essence - or detailed description - avoiding any type of theory.  Perhaps one of the  more interesting ideas raised in this chapter is the camera as the product of need, rather than agent of change.  They note that technical elements were already in place in the early 19th century, and that as early as the late 18th century there are notes in the literature of ideas for capturing and processing light.  What socio-economic forces led to the invention of the camera?  One driving force was the demand for portraits, which was soon met by the new technology, putting painters - like film processors at the dawn of digital - out of work.

Review: Caruana & Fox, Behind the Image: Research in Photography, Chapter 6: The Impact of Research, 2012

The book concludes with a rather thin chapter (half of its 15 pages are images) rehashing much of what has already been said. Research is valuable in developing a photographic practice by creating a feedback loop of reflection-practice-reflection.  The idea of journal keeping is brought up again, this time with the suggestion of maintaining a private journal in which one can record freely without the pressure of having to think about an audience.  Archives are revisited, especially personal archives, which the authors see as especially useful in providing material for future reflection (either for oneself or for an audience).  Perhaps the most valuable advice is something most of us probably already know - time creates distance and fresh perspective. As we change during the interval between seeing a set of images, so too does our perspective and our evaluative abilities.  (Apparently Ralph Eugene Meatyard used to develop his photos only once a year.  At the other extreme, Winogrand seems to have been rather uninterested in developing and printing, leaving behind 2500 undeveloped rolls, plus 4100 rolls developed but never reviewed.)

The lurid colors

Further to a post I made a couple weeks back in regards to a local photographer's use of color, I ran into much the same yesterday while pursuing an article about camera trends and the possible demise of the DSLR.  The blogger is a well-known travel photographer who makes the kind of photos equivalent to black-light posters, full of bright, saturated, almost neon-like color.  The popularity of his blog and his ability to sell images suggest many people like this kind of imagery.  To me it seems insistent, pushing the limits of visual intensity.  There's nothing subtle or understated, nothing to draw you in, just a club to clobber you over the head. 

Review: Caruana & Fox, Behind the Image: Research in Photography, Chapter 5: Research and Practice, 2012

After you have been working for a while, research becomes connected to practice in a way that makes the two things hard to separate — the working process becomes second nature. A reflctive practitioner automatically engages with research methods and a continuous process of critical analysis right from the start of a body of work. 

From testing the relevance of your work, determining your audience and taking time to view your work from new angles, to the final production decisions on how to present your work, your research will continue to inform your practice. p121

This chapter is another grab-bag of issues, from ethics to exhibition.  The authors begin with the idea that photography involves testing ideas.  In order to find out how things look, photographers devise ways to view their work in different ways, such as test prints hung on a studio wall to determine how images work in space - size, color, lighting and relationship to other images.  They suggest that besides testing out technical methods, photographers may also test out audience reaction.  Ethics in practice, such as full disclosure to interviewees and model release forms, is briefly mentioned.

Notable: Rob Walters' Omaha

The comments to Walters' photos are revealing. One notes that the photos are self-selecting, that is, the photographer deliberately ignored scenes that did not fit his ideas about a people-less city.  An Omahaan chimes in to say, yes, visit this part of town and you'll find lots of people.  Another commenter believes the photographer should be more in touch with his subjects, approaching people on the street to find out why they are on the street.  Someone finds the images bleak.  One man wonders why readers would be interested in "amateur random pictures" of "mundane scenes."

What we prefer is to feel safe, with other people around; to feel charmed by stories that reaffirm our own stories about ourselves; and reassured that our existence isn't really this bleak. What most people seem to prefer when looking at images can be found in popular styles of photography relying on creating super-saturated hyper-realities.  

Rob Walters website.  

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Review: Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction: Introduction, 4th ed, 2009

This book is included in the Essential Reading List for the Digital Photographic Practice course. I'm looking forward to exploring it.

The introductory paragraph is so tight that the best way to summarize is simply to quote.

This book introduces and offers an overview of conceptual issues relating to photography and to ways of thinking about photographs,  It considers the photograph as an artefact used in a range of different way and circumstances, and photography as a set of practices which take place in particular contexts.  Thus it is essentially about reading  photographic images rather than about their makings.  The principal purpose is to introduce key debates, and to indicate sources and resources so students (and other readers) can further develop lines of enquiry relevant to them.  The book primarily examines debates and developments in Britain, other parts of Europe and in North America.  The perspective is informed by the British base of the team of writers, particularly showing their influence of cultural studies within British academia in the 1990s when the book was first planned.  Our writing thus reflects a specific point of departure and context for debates.  There is no chronological history.  Rather we discuss past attitudes and understanding, technological limitations, and socio-political contexts through focus on issues pertinent to contemporary practices.  In other words, we consider how ideas about photography have developed in relation to the specific focus, or field of practice, which forms the theme of each chapter.  We cannot render theory easy, but we can contribute to clarifying key issues by pointing to ways in which debates have been framed.  (p.3)

DPP: Exercise 3: Histogram

The brief here is to shoot and present a series of photos in which we display and comment on histograms.  The exercise is intended not "as an in-depth analysis" but to familiarize oneself with "the most basic characteristics of an image."  In preparation I did a bit of research and reading on histograms, which I report on in a separate post here.

The exercise calls specifically for low, average, and high contrast images, each shot at normal exposure, plus one stop up and down for each, for a total of nine exposures.  I decided to shoot these while also shooting for Exercise 2, about which you can read more here.

We are asked to comment on the relationship between the exposure and the data in the histogram, noting especially highlight and shadow clipping.  I used exposure compensation to meet the requirement for multiple exposures (the RX100 does not feature auto-bracketing) which, as you can see, resulted in differing shutter speeds. I may wish to experiment with actual f-stops and see if it produces different results.  My guess is that it will not.

What is a histogram?

I reproduce here the opening paragraphs of Yannis Ioannidis's 2003 The History of Histograms (abridged) for useful information on etymology, early usage, and definition.  The full article is available as a PDF download, but outside the paragraphs here may be of little interest to photographers or a nonspecialist audience.

The word `histogram' is of Greek origin, as it is a composite of the words `isto-s'  (= `mast', also means `web' but this is not relevant to this discussion) and `gram-ma'  (= `something written'). Hence, it should be interpreted as a form of writing consisting of `masts', i.e., long shapes vertically standing, or something similar. It is not, however, a word that was originally used in the Greek language.  The term `histogram' was coined by the famous statistician Karl Pearson to refer to a "common form of graphical representation". In the Oxford English Dictionary quotes from "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London" Series A, Vol. CLXXXVI, (1895) p. 399, it is mentioned that "[The word `histogram' was] introduced by the writer in his lectures on statistics as a term for a common form of graphical representation, i.e., by columns marking as areas the frequency corresponding to the range of their base."  Stigler identifies the lectures as the 1892 lectures on the geometry of statistics [69].

Review: Caruana & Fox, Behind the Image: Research in Photography, Chapter 4: Compiling Your Research, 2012

Research materials need to be compiled in such a way that they are user friendly, so that you, as well as other interested researchers, can make the best use of them. 

Each photographer will have a different method or system for compiling their research. There is no right or wrong way – you need to find the approach that works best for you. The way you choose to store or catalogue your research does not have to look pretty, but it does need to be accessible enough to inform your work; it will require some additional effort to organize and structure your research materials. If your research is in a manageable order it will be easier to create a clear and organized project. p 109

This is a rather thin chapter in which the authors suggest using physical or digital notebooks in which to record research, everything from the odd musing to actual data collection.  For those keeping physical notebooks and other material records, the idea of preservation through long-term storage is to be considered, and for keepers of digital data suitable backups.  (The authors fail to mention digital redundancy.)

Another case study from Caruana’s career is showcased, though no specific information is presented on how the research for her clown project was recorded and collated in journals or blogs.  The chapter concludes with a blogging exercise in which the reader is asked to create a blog and do a one-week research project in order to become familiar with blogging and “how much research you can gather in one week.”  This looks like another exercise created specifically for the book, and not something that a classroom teacher would suggest, nor particularly suited to practicing the chapter contents.  How do you practice compilation and archiving except on an ongoing or completed project?

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DPP: Exercise 2: Your Own Workflow (time unlimited)

Exercise 2 requires developing a workflow for a project unlimited in time. Exercise 3 requires nine specific images intended for examining histograms.  I plan to complete these two exercises in one shoot.

I have since May been photographing within a 2-block / 3-station radius of my home on Sheikh Zayed Road.  The intention has been to capture everyday objects in an everyday documentary / vernacular style. This ongoing project includes over 375 flagged images among a total collection of over 700.  Most have been collected in the area immediately around my residence.  Areas farther away are less well represented.  It is in one of these I shot for my last exercise, and it is to this area I will return for this. The subject will be the Dubai Trade Centre Hotel Apartments.  I have bicycled around the apartments and seen what might make some interesting images.

Review: Caruana & Fox, Behind the Image: Research in Photography, Chapter 3: Practice as Research, 2012

Practising photography – taking photographs – is a primary part of the research process. It is easy to just shoot photographs and not record what you do, yet if you stop for a moment and consider the significance of how you are photographing – when, where, why, with which tools and what assistance – it all starts to become part of an interesting research story.  p61

The main idea here is that image making is not the final act in the process of photography, but an ongoing practice informed by other types of activity, what the authors refer to as research - reading, viewing images, listening to and participating in discussions.  Photographers are encouraged to go out early in the planning stages and start capturing preliminary images.  These become objects on which to reflect and develop.

I was interested to see how they would flesh this out, but the chapter turns into a collection of lists that don’t seem to have much to do with the process of research.

First up is a discussion on the differences in studio and the street shooting, followed by brief descriptions of photographic types (landscape, documentary, fashion, art), as well as paragraphs on editing, post production, and reflection.  An evaluation form covering many of the steps in the Proposal outlined in chapter 1 is included as handy reference and is perhaps the chapter’s best feature, which concludes with another interesting activity only loosely related to the theme or content of the chapter, that of recreating a classic photo.

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Review: Janah, Sunil, Photographing India, Oxford University Press, 2013

One thing that comes through clearly while reading Indian photographer Sunil Janah's autobiography is that he had a great life. He recorded India’s independence and its growth as a new nation state. His circle of friends and acquaintances included some of the country's brightest minds. He traveled widely (especially among many of the non-aligned and socialist nations), and he did all this while supporting himself as a photographer (a job well below the standards of India's aspiring bourgeoisie).

He was by training, and perhaps temperament, an academic, working towards a Master’s degree in English literature at the Presidency College of Calcutta when he was recruited to the Communist Party and became, for lack of any competition, the Party's official photographer. A boyhood pastime turned into several years of passionate practice dedicated to social justice and Indian independence, leading over the course of 40 years to a career and recognition as one of India’s most noted image makers.

Review: Caruana & Fox, Behind the Image: Research in Photography, Chapter 2: Developing Ideas through Research, 2012

The chapter opens with the suggestion that Google and the internet are not the only means of conducting research.  “Libraries are extraordinary places,” the authors enthuse, perhaps for those who have never been to one.  Other suggested real life sources are specialist libraries, archives, museums, galleries, lectures, and meetings of photography clubs/circles/societies.  For those that have never encountered the internet, advice is provided on managing bookmarks and using such tools as blogs and social media.

Two case studies are presented.  Sally Verrall makes art installations which result in photographs of the work.  Her process requires research of the space in which her work will be installed, including measurements of the available space and line drawings to calculate from where to photograph to produce desired effects.

Neeta Madahar made a series of photos exploring female youth and glamour based on a 1935 series.  The newer series required her to work in collaboration with her models, set designers and make-up artists.  All the images were collaborative and negotiated.

The chapter concludes with the kind of exercise I see often in English language textbooks, an activity that in itself looks interesting but is not really tied to the pedagogical aims of the course.  The authors suggest visiting a garage sale or flea market to purchase some old snapshots, then sequence them to tell a story, AFTER WHICH you can do some research on the photos to check the truth against your own story.

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On the way to shoot an exercise...

I found the moon.

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DPP: Exercise 1: Your Own Workflow (time-limited)

Detail from the exercise shoot

The brief for the exercise suggests a portrait session. I've been thinking of whom I might ask to be my subject and feeling uncomfortable about having to do this. I posted to this blog just last week about my lack of interest in shooting people.  

But it's time to get moving on the course, so I decided to go ahead and do what I'm interested in. The course notes seem flexible in terms of being able to build exercises around work in which you're already engaged. I don't think the tutors or assessors are going to care that I've decided to do something other than portraits, as long as I meet the aim of the exercise, which is to create a workflow for a time-limited shoot. (And if I follow the lead of Clarke, I can make an argument for a liberal reading of portrait, “one of the most problematic areas of photographic practice, … fraught with ambiguity.”)

Review: Caruana & Fox, Behind the Image: Research in Photography, Chapter 1: Planning, 2012

Research in Photography is included in the Essential Reading list of OCA’s Digital Photographic Practice course.  I thought I would read it a chapter at a time over several weeks or months, but on actually beginning reading I found the 176 page book is perhaps half images, the text written at a rather elementary level, and the ideas dished out in tiny dollops.  In other words, you can get through it pretty quickly.  I expect I’ll finish it by the end of the weekend.

From the Introduction
Photographic work is developed through knowledge gained in exploring the medium: investigating histories and theories of photography, observing the world, reading and listening, taking part in debate, critical reflection and numerous other activities.  p6

Review: Reem Saeed

I found Reem's work thorough the GPP newsletter, which features her as an upcoming Emirati photographer (who happened to take courses at GPP).  I like her choice of subjects and her compositional style, but the oversaturated colors are too garish, too demanding.  The b&w white images work much better, but in many of these there is too much contrast.  I find I prefer images that look more like what I see with my eye, rather than colorful, high contrast interpretations.  Perhaps that is because after years of exhausting myself fighting to make the world what I wanted it to be, I have been working hard to accept the world as it is.

Reem's Flickr stream can be viewed here.

DPP Outline and Calendar

The box

My approach in my first OCA course was simply to go to Part One and start working on exercises. There were more than a few times along the way I wish I had previewed content, exercises and assignments. I might have saved myself some work if I had.

So this time around I sat down with the folder and the materials and gave them a thorough once over before beginning any photography or processing. And what I have found is that much of the course is similar to what came before in The Art of Photography.

Part One deals with workflow and is perhaps the one area that isn't covered at all in TOAP. Ironically, it is the one assignment that is not counted toward assessment.

Part Two covers white balance, noise, dynamic range – all covered to some degree in TAOP. The assignment for this part looks most challenging and possibly the most rewarding in terms of learning and outcomes, requiring shooting specific types of scenes in jpg with no post processing. The idea here is to think carefully about lighting and how the camera interprets light to maximize in-camera capture. There is a follow-up task requiring a reflection and reshoot.

My current workflow

Part of the new course, Digital Photographic Practice, will be about developing a reliable work flow, a means of efficiently getting the image from the camera into the computer, processing it, outputting it to paper or the web, and finally archiving the files.  I thought it might be best to start out describing what I do now in anticipation of looking at ways I can make this better.

Who would you pay to shoot?

 

This "poster" for a Dubai photography event appeared in my FB newsfeed. I never imaged the existence of an amateur model circuit, in which people hire out their bodies to photographers.  The text accompanying the ad includes a link to the model's FB page, which features many images from model shoots.

I don't plan on attending.  I don't really see the point in making such photos, but I wonder who could take advantage of such an idea.  What kind of people would you be willing to pay to shoot?  Could you organize a gathering of body types?  For myself, I don't have any idols left.  There is no one I can think of I would pay to take photos of.  In fact there is not one person in the world that I desire to photograph.

Vintage Snapshots: Interview w/ collector Robert E. Jackson

I found this at NPR's The Picture Show.  The discussion there led to Project B.  Good stuff - except for the prices - ouch.  

Reflection on "The Art of Photography"

The following was written as an enclosure with my assessment package.

I've just reread My History of Photography, one of my early blog posts outlining my photography experience as well as my interests in joining the OCA.  What strikes me is the naivete.   By taking this course it seems I thought I could produce a portfolio suitable for a graduate program in photography.   While I've produced work on this course that isn't embarrassing, I don’t know if I’m ready yet for a Masters in Fine Art. 

The past year has taught me a number of things.  I've learned to see the whole frame, and not just my subject.  I've learned to think about (thought I can’t say I always know) what I want to capture.   I've learned how to conceptualize and execute a project.  I've developed more respect for light and color.  I've learned Lightroom and some post-processing skills.  I now have a monitor profiling routine and have started wrestling with printing.   Through the process of having to produce assignments, and not through any deliberate planning, I have developed a workflow.  I have engaged with the local photographic community.  I have developed the habit of shooting regularly and as a result have grown more confident in my vision and ability.   And I have begun reading, thinking, and writing about photography. 

Altogether it has been a marvelous experience and I look forward to growing and developing in my skills in my next course, Digital Photographic Practice. 

But before I get started there, I need to clarify something here.

Damn: Photos of monks meditating

Yesterday I had this very idea.  A few hours later - bam! - there it was in my FB news feed.

The Still Point

Capturing the movement of the mind

In his latest work, Junsik Shin, a recent photography graduate of New York City’s Parsons School of Design, takes his camera into the Zen temples of America and his native Korea. In his most recent project, entitled “Ee Mut Ko?” (“What Is This?”), his eye follows not the ornate interior artwork or the sweeping curves of the temple architecture, but the monks themselves, absorbed in meditation. It is both an utterly familiar subject and an unexpectedly fascinating one, for who would have thought that the thing itself, sitting meditation, could be so visually arresting?

Borrowing Ideas

Back from summer holidays and it's time now to get everything into shape for assessment submission. In the meantime, I thought I'd note a couple of ideas worth borrowing.

The first is from Michael Rubin, who used a wall as his subject, shooting everything that passed in front of it in the course of some hours.  I could easily do the same in my neighborhood with a wall, a corner, a train station, or some other suitable landmark.  I'll be keeping an eye out for location on my future forays.

The second is from Jacob Aue Sobol, a Magnum photographer whose latest project is built around the idea of taking massive number of thematically related images within a short time.  Sobol did a 30-day ride on the Trans Siberian railway, shooting 1000 images a day.  His girlfriend filmmaker did the initial selection of 100 images per day while riding the train. Together they winnowed this selection to 20, leaving them 1200 images on arrival in Beijing, from which they made a final cut of 60.

I'm thinking I could do something similar here, driving across the UAE, say all seven Emirates in 10 days. What I would need is a driver, as doing both might be a bit too much.  I could edit in the car or at camp sites, and have a presentation ready on arrival on Day 10.  

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Photography Prohibited

Manjushri (Enryakuji)

Yesterday I visited Kyoto’s Toji, The East Temple.  It’s been on my to-visit list since completing my pilgrimage of Shikoku several years ago.  With a couple of exceptions, the 88 temples along the 1200km route belong to Japan’s Shingon school of Buddhism, a Tantric school established in the 9th century by Kukai.  Toji was the master's base in Kyoto and the first Tantric temple in the capital.  Toji is also unique for housing a large collection of rare sculpture and paintings, much of it brought by Kukai from China.  

A different way of seeing photographs

Yesterday my wife and I were sitting in department store waiting for my in-laws.  My wife pulled out a yoga guide she had just purchased and started flipping through it.  Each two page spread features step-by-step directions for one yoga pose, illustrated with a series of a dozen images.  As I looked over her shoulder while she flipped through the book, what I began to see was what a huge (and probably tiresome) photography job this book represented.  Altogether the book must feature hundreds of such photos.  This has nothing at all to do with the layout and design of the book, simply the work that went into capturing and editing all the images.

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How Do You Photograph A City's Bankruptcy?

I like the empty spaces and the emphasis on form and color in this collection.  

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Assignment Five: Narrative

Introduction

I don’t know if I could have found a more interesting subject for this assignment.

When I started thinking some months ago about how to spend my 8-week my summer holiday, I knew I wanted to do something to extend my photographic practice.  I began looking around the internet for classes, most of which seemed to be rather expensive and not in the direction I would be travelling, toward my in-laws in Japan.  I found a few organizations offering internships with newspapers and magazines in several developing Asian nations, but it seemed fees were too high for unpaid work experience.  I then came upon Unite For Sight, a US-based NGO supporting eye clinics in several developing countries and offering volunteer opportunities to photography students.  Three of their network hospitals are in India, east of and very close to Dubai.

With a reference from my OCA tutor and other supporting documents, my application to the program was accepted and my plan set in motion:  to do this narrative assignment on some aspect of life at Kalinga Eye Hospital.   Besides meeting my own needs, I wanted to do work that would be useful to the hospital, but communication from India was sparse.  The NGO claimed the hospital staff was busy and would be able to discuss things with me once I arrived. 

Review: War Photographer (2001): James Nachtwey

I had heard the name before but knew little about Natchtwey.  What comes to mind is Farah Nosh mentioning him at our Photojournalist workshop as one of the greatest modern documentary photographers.  I found the film online and had downloaded it some months ago before firing it up last night.  I find myself hanging out with the in-laws during the summer holiday and with some hours to spare, a great opportunity for catching up on reading, blogging, and films.

What struck me most about the film was Natchtwey himself.  He reminds me a bit of me, of someone who has spent a good deal of his life living outside his own culture and in doing so learned to modify his behavior in ways that insure his continued acceptance and survival.  He speaks slowly and articulates clearly. There is only a trace of an accent.  His words are careful and deliberate. As someone regularly in high stress situations, he has learned to manage his emotions and doesn't seem like the kind of person quick to anger, nor quick to excite.  His story of waking up one morning and deciding to be a war photographer seems mostly believable. He seems like the kind of person I would like to know.

Photographically, it was interesting to see someone working at the end of the analog age.  Most of the film seems to have been shot in the late 1990s and there are several scenes showing the photogrpaher changing film or labeling canisters.  I was surprised at how closely he gets to grieving subjects.  Just watching him made me feel uncomfortable.

I don't plan on  being a war photographer, but it was inspiring to witness someone giving his life to documenting suffering.  I'm afraid not many of us could do even half as much.

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Looking at paintings: French impressionists from the Clark

Théodore Rousseau, Farm in Les Landes, 1844–67

Perhaps the last time I went to an art museum was in 2007 during a visit to Atlanta.  An old friend took my wife and I, as well as some Thai friends then studying in Savannah, to the Atlanta High for the Annie Leibovitz exhibit, A Photographer's Life.  It wasn't long after that I began studying in Nepal, and thereafter moved to the UAE.

But here I am in Japan.  My wife is on a two-day whirlwind visit to Kyushu, and the in-laws felt obliged to show me a good time.  There isn't a whole lot to see or do in Kobe, but fortunately a special collection was on at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum.

Emirates Photography Club: Supermoon Meetup

ISO100, f11, 1sec; Lightroom: reduced exposure 2 stops, applied graduated filter with
increased exposure to bottom half to bring out beach and water.

Yesterday evening I took the long drive out to the Palm Jumeirah to take part in an event organized by the Emirates Photography Club.  About one hundred shooters showed up to capture the full moon, including a few guys with mammoth lenses.  I was able to borrow an 80-300mm lens from a colleague. While it wasn't of much use shooting the moon, it did help in capturing the Burj Al Arab.  Unfortunately, the spot chosen for this even produced a rather undramatic background.  Still, it was good to meet new enthusiasts and to take the challenge of shooting the moon.

Exercise 42: Rain

It seems rather unfair to have two exercises about rain and none about other types of weather or climatic conditions, especially when living in a place like Dubai.  I considered myself fortunate to run into the first rain exercise at a time of year when Dubai actually sees dark clouds and wet streets, but now it's midsummer and it's nothing but heat and haze likely lasting until about October.

Exercise 41: Juxtaposition

The brief for this exercise is to create a book cover using opposition to suggest conflict.  I really had no idea what to do so started browsing through fiction at Amazon.  I came across an interesting looking book that I haven't read, about a Japanese priest morally compromised by an affair with his mother-in-law. The blurb at Amazon didn't provide enough detail, so I went in search of a fuller summary, which you can read here.

Review: Clarke, The Photograph, Chapter 11: The Cabinet of Infinite Curiosities, 1997

Winograd, Woman with Ice Cream Cone, 1968

Clarke's conclusion is really no conclusion at all.

“...the photograph is, in the end, open to endless meanings.”   

If you've been following along it’s really not so surprising.  He finds portraiture ambiguous, the nude contentious, documentary misleading, urban photography unclassifiable.  How could he possibly hope to finish except by asking the reader, perhaps with a wink, isn't photography mysterious, “a cabinet of infinite curiosities”?

Clarke is obviously well-read with an extensive grasp of photographic history.  He relates some interesting ideas and through his examples shows how photographs can be read.  Unfortunately he seems incapable of moderating his communication style in order to convey his ideas simply and clearly.  I can understand what he writes.  That is not my issue.  The problem is is that his writing style seems to push the reader away, rather than invite him in.  The reader is asked to deal with Clarke on his own academic terms.  How much better this book could have been if Clarke had shown some concern for his audience.

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What were you thinking while the monk was on fire?

This month marks the 50th anniversary of a demonstration in Vietnam which resulted in one of the 20th century's most enduring images, a monk seated in meditation in the middle of the street engulfed in flame, a protest again the war raging in that country.  

Time Lightbox has published a short interview with the photographer, Malcom Browne, who in his response to the question of what he was thinking was refreshingly candid and honest.

Review: The Hasselblad Award 1998: William Eggleston

Inspired by In The Real World, I went looking for a book of Eggleston photos and found that all of the UAE’s university and college libraries together carry only one volume, a book published in conjunction with a major photography award presented to Eggleston in 1998.  The book features 61 images, two essays (by Walter Hopps, Curator of the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas; and Thomas Weski, Curator of Photography and Media, Sprengel Museum, Hanover), and a transcribed interview (by Ute Eskildsen, Director of the Department of Photography, Museum Folkwang, Essen).  Also included is what appears to be a useful Bibliography of portfolios, monographs, catalogs, articles and essays.

Barrett, Criticizing Photographs, Ch 8: Writing and Talking About Photographs, 3rd ed, 2000

Chinese version of the text

The book ends with a chapter of practical advice for the author’s students, the kind of guidelines you’d read in any introductory academic writing text:  read widely, take extensive notes, consider your audience, use a style guide, find a hook, provide examples to back up your assertions, be succinct.  Included are sample essays from some of Barrett’s previous students, as well as a list of suggestions for conducting a discussion of photographs:

• Describe what you see
• Consider subject matter
• Relate form to subject
• Create group interpretations
• Ask questions of the photograph
• Consider presentational environment
• Consider assumptions
• Be slow to judge
• Be honest

This wasn't the most inspirational text, but it did a good job delivering on its intention to introduce some of the basic concepts and approaches to critiquing photographic images. The writing style is simple yet not condescending and Barrett provides plenty of useful examples.  The books is suitable for a general audience with little background in photography or art criticism and is a good place for a beginner to start.

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