Eleanor Stevenson

The Camera as an Afterthought: Redefining Post Photography

 

 In recent years many scholars have said that photography is in crisis as a medium, some claiming it as dead, in the advent of camera phones empowering citizen journalists and 8K RED film cameras being used for fashion photography, it is clear to see why many have criticised photography.  In order to combat this, many photographers have adapted their practices in order to incorporate photography as an altered state.   Robert Shore ammasses 300 diffrent artists in his book that have adopted this method of working.

 

 It is no surprise that photographers have began to incorporate found images within their work, there is an abundance of pre-existing material in our hyper-documented world.  As there is so much information that is free for use many artists use this information in projects.  Examples of post photographs that are only possible due to this mass of public information include ‘documenting’ the 1960’s Zambian plan to go to the moon and postcards taken from Google Earth of highways at unusual angles.  

 This shift in the practise is not happening without criticism, in 2011 the World Press Photo awards gave Michael Wolf an honourable mention for his Google Street View images in his project Unfortunate Events, they received a heavy amount of backlash for this decision.  

 

 In support of post photography Martha Rosler has pointed out that ‘manipulation is integral to photography’.  Images have always been manipulated, through framing, lighting and printing so why is post photography so different, Geoff Batchen said “The absence of truth is an inescapable face of photographic life”.  Post photography isn’t a dramatic change, just a part of the digitalisation of photography.  

 

This article examines activism photography and how it is interlinked with documentary photography.   “[A]s every man has the power to punish the crime, to prevent it being committed again, by the right he has of preserving all mankind and doing all reasonable thing he can in order to that end” Locke’s definition of a citizen truster is very similar to a citizen truster.  Locke also defines a ‘crime’ as any violation of the law.  An activist photographer captures the crime, freezes it and immortalises it so it becomes evidence that needs to be corrected, and this is their way of ‘punishing’ the perpetrator.

 

 Larry Towell is an activist photographer, he documented the lives of women in Rwanda that had been raped by the Hutus and had AIDS as a result.  Towell feels that “It is our responsibility to do something because we live here.  It is an ethical issue of conscience”.  His business cards state that he is a ‘human being’, as he cares deeply about humanity.  An activist differs from everyone else as they are deeply moved by what they see, they become extremely empathetic to a situation and find it harder to look away.  As a journalist, ‘the ground rule is that you don’t get involved’, unlike an activist and journalist Kirsten Ashbourne has struggled with that.  

 

 Borgre demonstrates that photographic activism is not a new idea, John Thompson’s images reported he street life in London that was accompanied by writing from activist Adolphe Smith Headingly to raise awareness of the lives of the urban poor.  Smith Headingly’s photos had the purpose of showing the reality of the deprived to the rich.  

 

 Hine documented the working conditions of children from 1907 – 1918, his photography influenced congress to pass the Child Labour Law.  Hine wanted his photographs to be accurate and truthful as ‘the average person believes implicitly that photographs can not falsify’ Hine did not want to deceive people.  In order to make his images as truthful as possible in his work on child workers, he documents their names, the place and the time, this was done to humanise the child and create empathy towards them.  

 

 Fine art photography can also be activism, Ansel Adam’s photographs were used as evidence to secure National Park protection for Sequoia and Kings Canyon.  Now Adam’s prints sell for six figures.  

 

 Some theorists suggest that documentary has been under attack for that last decade, such as Martha Rosler who suggest that images are not simple records, they are not evidence and they can not be objective.  Even though documentary has been under attack, it is thriving and photographs are still faithful to the notion of truth, it is still also believed within documentary that images should not be staged or directed.  Rosler also believes that photographic activism never promotes change but just transfers information of a “group of powerless people”.

 

 It has been questioned if outsiders should be allowed to document a community as they may lack a deeper understanding of the situation and therefore not accurately represent the truth within their work.  Others have argued that fresh eyes can only be a beneficial trait within documentary photography as they only have an interest of showing the truth within their work and they have nothing to gain from playing down the reality of a situation in order to make the community look better.  An outsider may be better to report the situation as they will most likely have more funding and a means of distributing the work.  

 

 Photography has been influential upon war.  Nick Ut’s photograph of Kim Puch helped to end the Vietnam war, at first his photograph was rejected by the publisher of Associated Press, however after he argued his case and his image featured on practically every front page in the world.  W. Eugene Smith was a photographer who documented World War 2, “I wanted to use my photographs to make an indictment against war.  I hoped that I could do it so well it might influence people in the future and deter other worlds”.  Eugene Smith’s quote is very similar to Ut’s motives.  It was important for Eugene Smith to acurity show the realities of war as prior to World War 1, artist had represented war as heroic, and due to slow shutter speeds there were not many photographs that documented the true horrors of war.  

 

 Roy Styker headed the Farm Security Administration (FSA) who produced over 270,000 images in just six years, these photographs were created as propaganda, to evidence of the good work that the FSA did.  Styker wanted to “introduce Americans to Americans,” and not demonise the poor.  The FSA photographs were all shot at eye level to create equality between the viewer and the subject. Dorothea Lange produced the most famous FSA photograph, Migrant Mother.  Arthur Rothstein produced the second most famous, Farmer and Sons Walking in the Face of a Dust Storm.  Rothstein also photographed the controversial image of a skull when documenting the drought, it was controversial as he moved the skull therefore manipulating what the viewer saw.  Some photographers refuse to manipulate anything in the image, famously Eugene Richard’s said that “If I miss a moment, I miss it.”

 

 

Notes to self: the visual culture of selfies in the age of social media
Derek Conrad Murray

This article discusses the selfie and the impact that social media has had on the way that images are shared. The discussion of the selfie is an important one, now that the consumer camera is very accessible. Specifically, Murray debates the impact that the selfie has had on younger women. The media has built up the idea that taking an image of one’s self is narcissistic. In 2013, there was controversy about a selfie that featured Barack Obama, David Cameron and the Danish Prime Minister, it was taken at Nelson Mandela’s memorial; the media portrayed the image as an expression of narcissism. The media did scrutinise the President’s actions “It looks like Barack Obama has taken a few pointers from Sasha and Malia”, Christine Erickson, journalist. This quote portrays selfies as a child like action, most of the selfie-related articles that are posted on major news websites don’t focus on political or influential figures that take these self portraits, but teenagers and celebrities, by doing this they are focusing on the superficial.

Many young women run their own blogs, a lot of these blogs can be debated with regards to feminism. Some of the images that are being uploaded are selfies of those women naked or in various states of undress or engaging in sexual activity. Lots of the women in the images will have tattoos which is ironic as it is completely the opposite of the hyper-feminism images that were circulating in the 1940’s-1950’s, especially considering that the women in the images are often posing in the same way that women did back then in the ‘pin up’ style. Schuster doesn’t believe that these images are a tilting of the male gaze but are supposed to promote a body positive attitude as sexual activism is a political concern of the socially engaged post-feminist blogger.

Artists are also experimenting with these gritty self portraits, by documenting their everyday lives, they photograph things such as menstrual blood and armpit hair. An example of a young photographer who is doing just that is Petra Collins, she has worked with brands such as American Apparel to promote body positivity. Photographers that have had a massive impact on self-portrait photography include Cindy Sherman. Sherman posed in her own images that had an underlying feminist message, Other female artists that used self-representation in their works include: Germaine Krull, Marianne Breslauer, Ilse Bing, Vivian Maier, and Sally Mann.

Vivian Fu is a photographer who is known for her self portraits that often show her relationship with her boyfriend. Fu’s work has a clear resemblance to Nan Goldin’s, she shoots only 35mm as she likes the aesthetic. “I have always been aware of racialized stereotypes. Self-portraiture became a way for me to own my identity as an Asian-American woman. I wasn’t really any of the

representations of Asian women that were being shown to me, which were either highly submissive and infantilized or very aggressive femme fatale types, and really, those ideas of Asian women probably only really exist because they are archetypes made up by white dudes.”, Fu 2013. Fu’s project Asian Girls was inspired by the artist’s discomfort around other Asian women, as she had grown up in a white neighbourhood, so she perceived them as a threat. Asian Girls is very different to Fu’s photograph ‘bruise’ which is an image of the photographer lying on her front with her skirt up to reveal a heart shaped bruise.

Like Fu, Noorann Matties also shot on 35mm film, and documented her everyday life. Matties’ work speaks to individuals of colour whose experiences have not been acknowledged by anti-racist movements or mainstream feminism, such as herself, being half Pakistani. In her work she documents eating disorders and beauty regimes. She examines her own body in a way that is usually avoided. Matties has used a ‘photo booth’ style in her work before, one is a series of her pinching the fat on her body, with the words “I love you”.

The photographers that were discussed in Murray’s essay were all taking images to attempt to define themselves. They did so by documenting their everyday lives and by posting the images online for all to view. Fourth wave feminism is reliant on social media and artists such as Fu, Mattie’s and Collins questioning ideas such as objectivity.

Loot discusses how fourth wave feminism, social media and photography are intertwined.  Fourth wave feminism uses social media to connect and reach populations across the globe.  De Cadenet launched the #girlgaze project in spring 2016 in an effort to seek ‘other girls’ perspective on the world, including girls of different ethnic backgrounds and race, this project tries to empower women.

The #girlgaze project isn’t the first movement of this type, in 2014 TIME ran the project ‘#feminism’, they focused on political hashtags such as #yesallwomen.  By having an online campaign like this, TIME engaged people that had been previously overlooked by ‘mainstream feminism’.  By using a hashtag, it starts a conversation in countries that may have not questioned the status quo if it wasn’t trending on social media.

The #girlgaze project focuses on: sexuality, beauty, body positivity and mental health – all of which are topics that are prevalent in fourth wave feminism.  De Cadenet’s views are in line with fourth wave feminism, she is known for bringing her political viewpoint on the project, such as backing Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

De Cadenet’s project still needs some work in order to empower even more women, due to socio-economic factors, the project influences the greatest amount of people in more affluent areas that have greater internet access.  Not everyone can afford internet, not everyone has a smartphone or computer, some countries have censored twitter and instagram.  There are many women in the world that have no access to #girl gaze, they can not view other women’s perspectives of the world, so they have to trust the male dominated industry.

Another issue with the venture is that there are only a few judges, which have been accused of using images which match their aesthetic on the featured posts.  This means that the project has become rigged, people will alter their work in order to fit that aesthetic and get noticed, leaving the question whose gaze does #girlgaze represent?  Is that online gallery really how girls view the world?

 

In this text, Fontcuberta explores the use of photo manipulation within current media. He primarily investigates advertisements and campaigns that Keira Knightly has been a part of.  Fontcuberta looks at the King Authur promotional shots, where Knightly was starring as Queen Guinevere, the original prints look ‘sexy’ in her strips of leather that covered part of her torso; however, in the final images Knightly’s breasts were considerably enlarged thanks to ‘didgital technology’ in order to further sexualise the actress.

Fontcuberta then scrutinizes the actress’ Chanel campaign.  The first images were fairly tame, as Kneigtly covered her breasts with a bowler hat.  The following images were more revealing and Fontcuberta notes that yet again, her breasts were retouched. Other retouching controversies were also mentioned in this text such as the French Presidents love handle removal, this demonstrates that the retouching culture is not exclusive to females.  Fontcuberta believes that “corrective’ digital retouching or ‘adjustment’ has become standard practice, a kind of default post-production process that is taken for granted.  So, corrective digital retouching is not exclusive to sexy models and actresses but is standard practice for celebrity images.

The artist, Alison Jackson has taken a comedic approach to this new norm, in which celebrity images are impossibly beautiful.  She simulates scenes of celebrities in scatological situations, such as Madonna ironing her underwear and George W. Bush appearing baffled by a Rubik’s cube. Unlike many other fake celebrity images, they are not ‘crude cut-and-paste’ jobs, Jackson takes authentic images with doubles.

Fontcuberta also notes that because of the advancement in image manipulation, ‘it is no longer necessary to resort to special diets, the gym, prosthetics or plastic surgery to achieve the obligatory perfect body.’  This is especially relevant in a case such as Knightly’s as the vast majority of images of her being manipulated and it has therefore altered the opinion on her appearance.  It is interesting to look at French artist Orlan’s work as she subjected her self-portraits to ‘surgical operations’ in photoshop, in order to comply with what was seen as beautiful.  Eventually, she layered all of the features together to create what Fontcuberta describes as ‘supreme beauty’ but this of course failed, and he described the result as a ‘shocking monstrosity’.

Manipulation had become accepted to an extent in celebrity photographs, as the public know that ‘photos are ‘treated with great care’ (manipulated) in one way or another.’  Yet on July 30th, 2006 a photo of Kiera Knightly shocked readers as there was a clear element missing from the image – her nipple.  This sparked complaint letters from readers with one stating, ‘imagine photographs of soldiers – it doesn’t matter which war – was retouched and instead of guns, they held a bunch of roses or lilies.  That would be falsified information, wouldn’t it? Well, it’s the same thing.’  Fontcuberta argues to this statement that ‘celebrity photos constitute a separate genre; they are not documentary or news… They are portraits often with artistic aspirations of public figures.’  It is defiantly more acceptable for portraits to be edited and it is seen as unethical to manipulate documentary images, but society is starting to question this.  After complaints companies such as Asos have stopped using Photoshop to edit out features such as stretch marks on their models.  If society keeps questioning the medias’ use of editing software then we may see more changes within the advertising industry.