Part 1: Analyse an Essay

For this exercise, we looked at the essay “Understanding a Photograph,” written by John Berger in 1972.

 

First, a sentence to summarise each paragraph:

Para 1: Is photography considered a fine art?

Para 2 : Not many museums hold photographs, making photography more accessible to the public.

Para 3: Works of art are valuable property.

Para 4: Images are infinitely reproducible, and therefore have no property value.

Para 5: A photo shows a message about the event it records.

Para 6: Why did the photographer choose THAT moment to record?

Para 7: Differences between photography and painting – painting involves arranging things.

Para 8: What gives the photo meaning may depend on the observer’s understanding of the background.

Para 9: The moment the shutter is pressed is what is recorded.

Para 10: Painting interprets the world in a different way, photography has no language of its own.

Para 11: Choosing the moment to preserve within a continuum.

Para 12: What is present and what is absent are both important in a photo.

Para 13: The message may be very simple.

Para 14: Photos are a view of reality that may be used against us.

 

Summarising his paper into one sentence: Photography is unique, and shouldn’t be judged in the same way as painting, sculpture and other fine arts.

 

John Berger is known for his socio-political stance. How is that reflected in his argument?

He makes reference to social class, and ‘nobility’ owning works of art, and of this being out of reach to the general public. At the end, he also talks about using photography as a weapon, which could be seen as political.

 

Are you convinced by Berger’s argument? If not, why not?

Not really, but the main reasons are to do with the fact that the article is 40 years old and the digital age has changed things considerably. Museums and galleries also seem to have more photography now, and it seems to be taken as a form of art. There is also a lot more digital manipulation, and this can be seen as unreal, in the same way potentially as painting might be seen. I also disagree that photography has no value as it is easily reproducible, again this is not always true, many images can be sold at auction for a high value.

 

What is your opinion of Berger’s writing style?

At first, I found the essay quite hard to read as it was a bit old fashioned. Some concepts have changed so much today that from that aspect it was also quite hard to read. It also requires a fair amount of concentration and reading through in order to get the overall message.

Part 1: Research and Analyse

For this exercise we were given 4 photographs to choose from in order to research the photo and then make an analysis of it, in a similar way to how we looked at our own photograph.
 

I chose the image of the ‘Afghan Girl’ by Steve McCurry, as this is an image I have seen as part of an exhibition of his work from Muslim countries at the Islamic Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a few years ago. The image was printed in a large format as you walked into the exhibition, and made you stop and look more closely. I also bought a set of Steve McCurry postcards many years ago, and put this one on my wall at boarding school. I also remember seeing the National Geographic documentary about them trying to find her again.

The first impressions of this photo are that I am drawn to her piercing green eyes, and the rich colours of her clothing and the background. The non-descript look on her face both hides and shows emotion. The colours under her ripped scarf are the same as the background, making her fit well into the environment.

Steve McCurry was on a photo shoot for National Geographic, documenting the lives of orphaned refugees from Afghanistan who had crossed in to Pakistan. It was during the Soviet War in Afghanistan, and her parents were killed in the fighting, prompting her grandparents to take her and her brother to Pakistan. He was telling the story of their plight, and went to a tent village where they lived to do this. This photo was taken in the school. When he saw the girl, she was extremely shy and so he photographed her classmates first and then approached her. He knew once he started he had a limited time as people in this situation get bored easily.

The shoot was planned in that he was on assignment, but on this kind of assignment I am not sure how much you can predict the images you will capture. To take the shot, he used a Nikon FM2 with a 105mm f2.5 lens. He used Kodachrome colour slide film. It was taken in December 1984, at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp in Pakistan.

The photo is well and evenly lit, there seem to be no shadows on the face. The colours are rich and clear. The photographers intent was to capture the lives of refugees from Afghanistan. This lady has only been photographed twice in her life, at this time and then when the National Geographic team returned in 2002 to try and find her. Steve McCurry has a lot of images in his collection in the same style, cropped portrait focusing mainly on the eyes.

There is a lot of information about this image and the story of the girl’s plight. There is also a lot of information about how the image was taken, and there was a documentary about how National Geographic found her in 2002.

The image was successful, one report says that the editor developed the film and then contacted Steve McCurry to report that they had a good photo. The image then made the cover in June 1985, then later the cover of National Geographic’s 100 Best Pictures. The image has also been used by Amnesty International to symbolise the refugee problem. When the team returned to find the girl in 2002, she was given funding so that her children could go to school, which is something she desperately wanted for them.

Links:

http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/events/2011/september/07/revealed-the-true-story-behind-the-afghan-mona-lisa/

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0311_020312_sharbat.html

http://www.changesinlongitude.com/steve-mccurry-afghan-girl-cover-photo/

http://www.lomography.com/magazine/lifestyle/2011/03/01/influential-photographs-afghan-girl-1984-by-steve-mccurry

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/steve-mccurry-photographing-the-essential-soul-2013387.html

Speedlight Workshop

At the beginning of September, I went to a Nikon Club workshop about using a speedlight. I have had mine for years, and have used it very occassionally for events, but have never really realised the full potential and decided a workshop was the best way to learn. I also enjoy the time spent with other local photographers anyway.

We learnt about all the settings I have been too scared to try, and about how to use the flash remotely triggered by the on-camera flash. We were able to use 5 flashguns to light photos as we each had one, which was tricky but lots of fun. It was so hard as we didn't have anything except our hands to hold the flashguns, and trying to hold them evenly when different people were in control was almost impossible! We had the chance to be models and pose, then direct shots and show everyone else where to hold their flashes!

Nikon Club Walkabout - Tanjung Aru Beach

I joined the Nikon Club walkabout in Kota Kinabalu on the 1st September, where club members get together and have models available to shoot. It is a great way to get to know people, especially as you usually meet people going to the workshop the next day if there is one. The models they had were a bit more experienced than the ones in Tawau, and a few portrait photographers were asking them to pose in certain ways. The main challenge is to get your shot whilst in amongst a large group of people all trying to do the same thing! The session was cut short as the storm clouds rolled in, although as we soon found out the beach didn't get rain but the town certainly did!

 This shot is ok but I needed the speedlight to add a little more light to her face as the scene was backlit.

 Here I did use the speedlight, but it needs less power. :)

 This father and son walked along as I was trying to inch my way in among the other photographers......

 It was hard to get the front spot, but I liked the unevenness of this image.

 This would be better if the horizon was straight, and the sea lower than the head line.

 This is what a typical shoot looks like!

 Just as we thought it was going to rain, this lady was persuaded to pose for us!

The storm!

Part 1: Analyse a photograph

For this we were asked to analyse one of our own photographs, following a 10 part structure. It has to be an image we were happy with and we then wrote around 500 words about it.

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My first impressions when I look at this photo is of an English summer, and I am drawn to the golden colour of the cliff on th right hand side. The contrast between that and the blue of the sea and sky reminds me of home and the changes between seasons that I miss in Borneo. I am also drawn to the lines just off the centre of the picture.

The genre of the photo is landscape, a British beach scene. It fits the genre without question, although there are people in the distance they are most definitely not the subject of the photo.

The photo was taken as part of a project for the OCA landscape course, looking at different levels of the horizon. Whilst doing the shoot, I was also taking photos in order to have shots of the area to look at as I live abroad. I wanted shots that showed the contrast between the sky and sand.

As I was walking along  the beach taking shots of varying horizon lines, I saw the log in the distance and decided that I wanted to use it in some shots. I liked the shape of the log and the way the colour almost blended with the colour of the sand. There are people in the shot but they are far in the distance and only just visible.

The photograph was semi-planned – I had the shoot planned for the landscape module, but along the way I was looking for different viewpoints and shots in order to show people the beach when I went back overseas. I was conscious that I wanted something to show the colours, although I was not out shooting at golden hour due to availability of transport. The horizon line is placed using the rule of thirds, in the lower third of the image.

The shot was taken on a Nikon d90, at 18mm as I wanted as wide an angle as possible. I used an aperture of  f11 to show a little more detail in the shot, and a shutter speed of 1/640s as the sun was quite bright in the scene. The ISO was 200, the lowest I could set on the camera as it was a brightly lit scene. I knelt down to get a slightly different perspective and to help get the log where I wanted it.

I took it in a style to show the strong colours, although a deeper blue in the sky would have better shown this.

The intent of the photographer in this case was to take an image to use to show others and for her to remember the place. During the shoot I was using and challenging the rule of thirds, and in this case think it works. Post processing involved a slight change in levels and sharpening.

I believe the image works for the purposes I took it for. Of course, images are subjective and others may not think that it is successful!

Analysing the image helped me look at it in depth and think a lot about it. I had to look closely and think about the decisions I took at the time. Using the structure helped me to organise my thoughts more clearly and gave me a chance to critique my work in detail.