Exhibitions: Deutsche Börse Prize and Studio Works

I went to the Photographer's gallery at the end of May and was pleased that I was there for the Deutsche Borse prize exhibiton as I know Mishka Henner from uni and wanted to see his work in print. There were 4 exhibitions in this part which I will describe individually.

War Primer 2 - Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin - this was from a book originally by Bertold Brecht from 1955, War Primer, which had photos, fragments and newspaper clippings with 4 line poems. The new edition layered google search results for the poems over the originals, modernising the book and giving it a complete new look. I am not particularly interested in War photography, but enjoyed seeing how this project had been 'modernised.'

No Mans Land - Mishka Henner was an extremely though provoking set of images, of women in Southern European streets. He used google street view to take the photos of women as they waited on 'street corners.' He researched sites talking about where prostitutes can be found, then used street view to find them. Looking at the images and knowing how they have been taken leads to a real sense of voyeurism, there is a definitive sense that these images could not have been taken by someone using a camera. This also raises issues of image taking and privacy, and CCTV too. I wonder if these women have any idea about it and think this is a great social experiment with a type of photography that has been made possible with new technology.

What Happened - Great Britain 1970-1990 by Chris Killip was a set of black and white images of working people in the North of England. The photographer immersed himself in the communities and by doing so was able to document the lives of these people in striking images. Nothing is hidden from the camera it seems, the images show how tough life was for these people.

The Afronauts by Christina de Middel was a fun take on documenting the story of Zambia's space programme, which started in 1964. The portraits showed the people involved, often wearing their space helmets in the images, or a version of a space helmet in some cases.

The other exhibition in the gallery was Studio Works by Claire Aho. This was a real selection of her studio shots, some taken for ads and magazines, some showing originals before they were cropped for use, which showed how images are really taken for these situations. This gave us an idea of the process involved. Some images also showed the lighting set ups, and many displayed a great sense of humour. 

Exhibition: Travel with Me

I saw this exhibition and met the photographers at Lancaster Children's Centre in May. First I was shown original books from the 1980's where traveller children had been given disposable cameras to depict their life, to show others how they lived and educate them. Someone at the Children's Centre found albums which had space for recording a voice over for each numbered photo. They gave cameras to children living on traveller sites all over Lancaster. The result was an eclectic mix of ages represented and varying aspects of their lives shown in print. It was interesting to see what they do both on and off site, setting up travelling circuses for example. Hearing them speak about their images was inspiring. They were also given a party to celebrate their work, local librarians and teachers were invited. They decorated covers to keep their work in and it was great to see how proudly they did this. 

Exhibition: portraits

This exhibition was at Bridport medical practice. There were some very striking black and white images of people in various situations, mainly outside. They did not appear to have been taken in the UK, but as there was no information to be found I am still not sure where they were from! Some images were on what appeared to be farms, with animals in the back or foreground (llamas appeared in one!). The photos were very detailed and high contrast. I initially wanted to find out more information about where they were taken but then realised that not having the information was a little more exciting, we can draw our own conclusions. 

Nikon Club - Video Workshop

This workshop was the first I had been to in KL, and I have to say the experience was much better over in Sabah for workshops! The teacher was awesome but the classroom was way too small for everyone and it didn't feel as friendly. I learnt heaps though, and for me the highlight was seeing a video of time lapse made for yahoo and maybank that took 5 months to make! We were shown various tools we can use for taking videos, remote control skateboards for example. We got to try out a few things at the centre, and left with a lot of notes on how to make videos and some basics about editing. I haven't yet done much with video, but now have a lot of ideas......

Exhibition: Nikon Centre, Kuala Lumpur

While I was in KL, I went to the Nikon Centre for the video workshop, and also saw their exhibition which had various themes. Most photos were street photography involving locals, and were taken for nikon competitions. There were some interesting scenes and it was a good introduction to towns I have not yet visited in Malaysia. There was a real mix of colour, black and white and HDR. The HDR images were still a little surreal though, I still am not sure what my thoughts are on that!

Exhibition: Cold Comfort, Kota Kinabalu

I saw this exhibition in January at Suria Mall in KK. The photos were taken by Mathias Heng, and were displayed by Leica. The photos documented 5 visits to Japan, where the author visited to document the lives of local people following the 2011 Tsunami. The photos gave an insight into what the people were going through and showed also how some areas are now being rebuilt as people start to put their lives back together. The suffering was evident as was the resilience of people from the images. 

Exercise: Revisit your first assignment

The first exercise in Unit 3 is to look back at the feedback from the first assignment and consider what changes we might make in light of it. My feedback mentioned a potential missed opportunity for recording a different culture, and this made me think of more ways to shoot. Since I did this project, I have started to go jogging more in the park, and people of all backgrounds use this park for walking, jogging etc. I had started to think about maybe using these people, as I now feel a little more confident in approaching them to shoot portraits. It feels like this may also address the apparent lack of a 'sense of place.' I have also got to know a few people in the street and thought about shooting family portraits outside houses.
I sat down to think about all of this and was quite excited about a potential reshoot and thought about doing these over the weekends and taking my time to do them. I would also re-process the original shots in monochrome as suggested, to remove the tungsten cast and see what they looked like, although the reshoot during daylight was my preferred option.
At this current moment, however, I am unable to return to my neighbourhood for the foreseeable future and so am unsure what to do next. I will re-process the photos as this is possible where I am, and will keep revising my plans for a reshoot.
I got evacuated from Tawau last week as the FCO deemed the area unsafe. I moved from my house a few days before for security reasons as it was felt I was safer staying in town with my work colleagues. This happened just as I was re-reading the comments from my tutor about assignment 1 and submitting assignment 2, and thinking about the re-shoot.
This whole process is something I am still coming to terms with, and the longer we are away, the more unlikely it seems that we will go back, and even if we do, I am not sure how safe it will feel due to the events just before we left and the potential risks. I have heard that there are lots of police and army now, and navy ships out in the bay so it all feels a little surreal how much it changed since we left just 8 days ago and the area got deemed safe for 'essential travel only.' This was a place I enjoyed driving round and felt secure in most of the time, but it seems all had changed.
I will try and figure out a new plan and keep updating my blog as I go, I am starting to slowly work through Part 3 now.