Home Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identity The Photographer's Gallery

I'm sitting down to put my thoughts together on yesterday's OCA study visit to the Home Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identity exhibitions in the Photographer's Gallery and The Foundling Museum.  These exhibitions feature the work of 12 artists who have questioned the sentimental and stereotyped views of motherhood.

The exhibition begins with a piece about the home truth and what it is.  "A home truth can be simply understood as a fact that is somehow discomforting to acknowledge or may cause embarrassment."  It continues: "The work in this show may do all of those things."  And that is does for a number of reasons.  

As you enter the rooms in the Photographer's Gallery there are signs stating that under 12s will not be admitted and those under 16 will if accompanied by parents.  This is due to the sexual nature of the exhibits.  I wouldn't call myself a prude but I did find some of the images uncomfortable viewing like Leigh Ledare for example.  Ledare's work, Pretend You're Actually Alive, explores the relationship between himself and his mother and destroys beyond doubt the sentimental view of motherhood.  It is posited as a collaboration between mother and son with the mother presented in a number of pornographic poses.  In the BJP article XXX the writer compares it to Richard Billingham's Ray's a Laugh where an 'ordinarily innocuous, familiar sounding subject [the snapshot] is turned into intimate, frank, uncomfortable content."  However, for me, I was able to associate with Billingham's family.  You couldn't help but feel some emotion for them or the photographer.  I didn't feel that with Ledare's work here.  

Perhaps this may be because I am female and I didn't have to make that awkward transition most males do in puberty when they realise their mother, the woman that has loved nurtured them was also the object of men's sexual attention.  The very fact that pornographic material is of interest to many young males and teenagers for very obvious reasons makes it difficult to reconcile these pictures of women and their image of mother as woman.  

The exhibition sets out to question the stereotypes of motherhood and the sentimental ways in which it has been treated to date.  It looks at being a mother in the work of Putz, Carucci, Antoni and Murray.  It looks at the child's relationship with the mother in the work of Ledare, Casas Broda and Fred Hunig.  It also looks at the loss of a mother in the work of Fessler and Ishiuchi.  

I would agree that it is enlightening to see the reality of having twins for Elinor Carucci. I felt the pain looking at the image My belly after birth to twins and C-section.  The scar looked dry and far from healing.  Her images also cover the moments we don't normally see like giving her naked child a cuddle while she herself is sitting naked on the toilet seat with the exception of her knickers which are around her knees.  As a mother I can safely say that I have had numerous moments with my son when he was a child which challenge the sentimental view of motherhood which I feel would convey more meaning that this. 

As a single mother, I remember very clearly the day I went home to tell my mother that I was pregnant and I did this quite effectively without having to take all my clothes off bar my knickers in the process.  I just don't know exactly what the artist is trying to do here.  The photograph is uncomfortable for her parents in the image as they look on and see their little girl has grown up into a woman.  It is equally uncomfortable for the viewer.  

I found Elina Brotherus' series illustrating the difficulties in conceiving using IVF very interesting not because of her difficulties conceiving but because of the ways she chose to tell her story.  The images consist of images of her injecting herself with hormones and the tears and disappointment when the latest IVF cycle fails in a way that is hard hitting but unsentimental.  It is very factual. Brotherus to me seems rather androgynous which also challenges the maternal desires of women and the way they have been portrayed historically. 

I particularly liked the work of Ana Casas Broda Kinderwunsch.   I could really identify with the unlocking of suppressed memories of her own childhood and difficult relationship with her mother.  I can't say that I have had a difficult relationship with my mother when I was a child but I did find that once I became a mother myself I found myself faced with a lot of memories from my childhood that had long been forgotten or buried.  

I really liked the images in her work, the dark backgrounds, the lighting and the richness of her subjects and matter.  The work was displayed in a way which I felt was to be seen as a whole with each picture in the series depicting a special memory.  

Hannah Putz photographed young mothers as they become mothers for the first time focusing on her friends. I felt that this was a little light on meaning for me.  I did think it was interesting though that the mother's faces were obscured by the baby in the shots.  The baby does become the most important thing once it comes along.  It tends to take over.  However, I feel that there was something missing from the images.  I felt that there was another way to get this message across. 

By far the most complex work was that of Janine Antoni.  She suspended herself for hours in a spider like position while a spider spun a web around her.  Her legs were in a dolls house and her web/legs gave the impression of her being pulled in all directions.  The accompanying shots were close ups from the doll's house or the real spider's webs and some of the scenes from childhood.  

Gazelle, a film by Katie Murray focused on her mission to lose 'baby-weight' after the birth of her second child.  In the film we see her on a cross trainer at home doing a video workout.  She is interrupted by her children which also want to workout.  She has one in a sling and one on her back when she finally gets to finish her workout.  The viewer is relieved from this sight by images of a gazelle with its young in the wild which cuts in every now and then.  This work is a spectacle and borders on the ridiculous as she strives to regain her former pre baby self.  

The Foundling Museum

The theme of loss is central to the work displayed in The Foundling Museum.  I felt that identified more with the work exhibited here than perhaps I did at the Photographer's Gallery.  That may be because I can identify with parental loss and the quest to find out more about a parent you know very little about or have very few memories of.  

I think the most interesting piece of work across bother exhibitions for me was Ann Fessler's film Along the Pale Blue River.  The film uses collage, video and archival footage of farms and rivers in the Midwest America to tell her story.  The story is told by voiceover - Fessler's own voice and her hypnotic tones recount the story of a young woman - her biological mother - who runs away from her small rural town when she discovers she's pregnant.  Forty years later the artist goes on a journey to find her mother's photograph in a high school yearbook.  It is on this journey that she discovers the river that was where she grew up had its source where her mother was from.  This river provided a link to them that she never knew about.  

I liked the way in which Fessler tackled a story that is traditionally made into a sentimental drama in a more informative way that is still intimate but not sentimental.  

Miyako Ishicuhi's Mother's series focuses on the loss of her own mother.  The images were taken after her unexpected death in 2000 from a blood transfusion.  Ishicuhi's relationship with her mother was conflicted and was just on the mend when she died.  This is her attempt to come to terms with her loss.  A loss most of us will have to face - the death of our mother.  

She photographs her mother's possessions - her lipstick, hair brush and clothes.  These are the only things she has to remind her of her mother.  A woman that has had such an impact of her life - and all that remains is a series of worthless items.  However, they have sentimental value for the artist.  So here, unlike in the other work in this exhibition, we have a deliberate move towards the sentimental.  These everyday items mean a great deal to the artist.  They have very special significance.  

This reminds me very much of a doll my dad bought me when I was in hospital with appendicitis.  He got it from the hospital shop so it was nothing special.  However, when he died shortly after that the doll meant a lot more to me.  It was the only thing I had he had actually bought for me himself.  My mother would always do the shopping in our house.  

My thoughts

I wanted to go on this study visit to see if Motherhood and Identity was something I would identify with.  When I did my English degree I never really enjoyed feminism.  I believe in equality, but I feel that men and women are different and can never be equal.  I accept the fact that there are things men can do better than women and vice versa.  I suppose fairness would be a better way of describing my version of equality.  

I feel that I have never identified with writers who seem to believe that being a woman and motherhood are what defines us.  I agree that our experience of the world is different to a man's.  I also agree that motherhood is a life changing event.  But is it what defines us?  When all is said and done and on judgement day is that what will be said about your life.  You were a mother!

I couldn't help but feel that there was something missing from this exhibition.  Where were all the real women? With the exception of Casas Broda and Murray where were all the women with stretch marks and sagging breasts.  Instead we were treated to lovely slim women who's bodies returned to normal after giving birth.  Where were the men?  Without them there would be no motherhood?  And isn't motherhood part of parenthood?  

I believe that motherhood should be explored but I couldn't help coming away from this exhibition feeling like some of the work was an extension of the modern world mother.  The woman who reads every book available to become the best mother, the woman who goes to sling club, breast feeds their child till they are 20 and looks down their nose on any other woman who has opted for pain relief during labour.  The type of woman who believes having a c-section means you are a failure.  

There is more to motherhood that naked intimacy.  There's unconditional love, responsibility, parenthood, education, security, fun, fights, anger, frustration, depression, suppression, isolation, sickness, disappointment and betrayal.  I just feel that in order to challenge the sentimental stereotypes some of these themes need to be addressed.  

The exhibition introduced me to some themes in motherhood but not ones which are totally familiar to me. I don't feel that they truly challenge the stereotype of motherhood either.  So perhaps for that reason I find it difficult to truly identify with although I do appreciate the work.  

Visit to the V&A print room

Some weeks ago now I attended the OCA visit to the print room.  Due to circumstances I am only getting round to writing about this visit now.  Better late than never though as they say!

The day was very different to any other OCA photography study visit I have been on.  The group was small - approximately 10 people - which made for more interesting discussion at lunch.  I have found before that on these visits when there's too many people the group gets split up and kind of filters out along with many of the ideas and personal experiences shared.  This wasn't the case with this visit and I feel this greatly contributed to its success.

A note about visits
I know that the OCA do as much as they can to include people in these visits.  I have been on a number now over the last couple of years and I have found that it is the same people that attend these visits.  This has led to these people forming what seems to be a bit of an in-group and I have witnessed what appears to be an unwillingness to include others in their group.

This doesn't really bother me too much but it can be very off putting for people who are on a first study visit.  Maybe this is something that should be looked.

Back to the day
The print room in the V&A is a wonderful hidden gem - well it was hidden from me.  We had booked our visit in advance and they had about 10 boxes of images laid out for us when we arrived.  The boxes charted the history of photography from its very beginnings to work by modern photographers.  It set out to introduce you to some of the technical issues photography has overcome over the years to the more creative questioning images can produce.

They included:

Photographic process and technique
which looked at the daguerrreotype and the direct positive process and also included an early colour photograph by Arthur E Cope which was a portrait of his children.  I really enjoyed seeing my first daguerreotype.  From reading about these I always wondered what they would be like.  I did find the daguerreotype to be quite sharp but I think I expected it to be bigger for some reason.  When I think about it though why would it be?

This section also included a second box which focused on the different processes including photogravure, carbon prints, cyanotype and calotype.  This was particularly interesting to me as I have heard a lot during my studies about printing processes but never truly understood or could see the differences between them until seeing prints in the flesh.

History of photography
This collection included Fenton's Hardships in the Camps and John Thompson's street life in London.  It looks at examining the way in which photography has been used and its role over the years.

Contemporary photography
This box focused on the work of Nicholas Nixon which I found to be the most interesting and thought provoking.  Nixon took a portrait of the Brownlee sisters over a number of years one of which was his wife. It is very interesting how over the years the women age and how we can see that ageing process documented by the camera.  However it is more interesting to see how the roles within the group change over the years.  We can see the sisters being protective over one or another depending on what that particular sister is experiencing in her life.

Cultural identity and photography
This box included the work of David Goldblatt and Marketa Luskarova.  This collection looked at people's cultural identity capturing and documenting the role in plays in society.  This is especially true of Goldblatt's work.
A second box on the history of the photographic medium is more questioning and interrogative using the work of Lewis Hine to question society's acceptance of child labour and Man Ray's manipulation of the image.

All in all the visit was a successful one for me.  I found that it was interesting to be opening boxes and looking at images rather than seeing them on gallery walls.  It reminded me of looking at old photographs at home as a child.  It also made for a more intimate, personal experience as there wasn't the distance that you sometimes find between viewer and gallery wall.

Most of all however, it made the pictures, many of which I have been looking at over the last few months - real!

Light from the Middle East

After missing out on the OCA study visit earlier this year, I was glad to have a free day to catch this exhibition before it closed.  This was my first visit to the V&A and it was busy, perhaps because of the Easter holidays.

This exhibition looks at photography as a powerful and persuasive means of expression.  The introduction to the work says that the 'immediacy and accessibility' of photography make it an 'ideal choice for artists confronting the social challenges and political upheavals of the Middle East today'.

The work presented is by artists from across the Middle East who live in the region and the diaspora.  From my reading I have learnt a great deal recently about the language of photography and this exhibition explores this language and the various photographic techniques. The camera can be used to record or bear witness.  But how reliable is photography in relation to truth?  Some of the photographers work refutes this process revealing the unreliability of the photographic image.

The work includes documentary photography and images that are staged.  It also examines the role of heavily manipulated images in relation to truth and meaning.

Light from the Middle East is divided into three sections: Recording, Reframing and Resisting.

Recording
Photography is usually thought of in terms of a tool for recording people, places and events.  I think it is taken for granted by many that what the camera produces is real or the truth.  But how reliable is this truth and what role does the photographer play in this?

Despite the fact that photography appears to have authority when it comes to showing reality it and the photographer can trick or deceive the viewer.  Images are not always as simple to interpret as we are led to believe.  Meanings and interpretation of an image is affected by context, cropping and captioning.  We are very much in the hands of the photographer as he/she decides what we do or don't see and how we see it.

This section of the exhibition shows how photographers use a variety of approaches to exploit and explore the camera's ability as a recording tool.  The first images in the series are from Abbas whose work shows how photographs can have various uses.  In one image a photograph is being burnt - what is this a symbol of?  In another, victims photographs are displayed outside the US embassy in Iran.  Is this photography as a means of identification?  Abbas' images explore the role of photography in evidence, propaganda, memento and as objects that can be destroyed.

Newsha Tavakolian's portraits from Mothers of Martyrs is an interesting take on the genre as a whole.  In her series mothers hold the pictures of their dead children in front of them making a double portrait.  In these images we can see what their children meant to them.  It is an interesting use of the photograph within the photograph - the children are immortalised in the image.

A strong example of how the photograph is unreliable can be seen in Ahmed Mater's Magnetism I and II.  In these images he has used a magnet and iron filings to construct a well known image - pilgrimage to Mecca.  Here, viewing from a distance the iron filings look like people and it is only on closer inspection we see what they truly are.  This is one of the ultimate deceptions but it challenges the way we perceive and anticipate things.

The images in this section ask difficult questions of the viewer.  Can you rely on what you see?  How do you know what you are looking at is real or the truth?  How do you feel when the truth isn't what you expected?  How do you deal with viewing things that set out to deceive?

Reframing
This section focuses on artists who imitate images from the past in order to make statements about the present.  The focus is primarily on studio style portraits or fashion photography.  By using a number of techniques these artists question what we know about the past and present, East and West and fact and fiction thus reframing existing images in new ways.

One of the most interesting of these artists is Shadi Ghadrian.  These images depict the results of East meets West in an unusual way.  Focusing on the old Qajar fashion these portraits look like old images.  However, this is revoked when the viewer notices the Western props in the images like Pepsi cans and stereos.  These images portray the uneasy tensions of East and West.

Also interesting is the portrait work of Youssef Nabil.  His series focuses on the last of the Yemeni men to settle as shipworkers in the north east of England.  The portraits were shot in black and white and then Nabil  hand colours them in the style of 20th century Egyptian studio portraiture.  The results are very interesting and look unreal.  I find the fact that what looks unreal is real in this series of work.  This I feel this really throws the reliability of photographs debate wide open.

Resisting
The artists in this section of the exhibition question the idea that a photograph can actually tell the truth by altering images.  Their aim is to produce work where effort is required to interpret or draw meaning from .  This demonstrates the fragile nature of the photograph and the actual power the medium has to influence and control propaganda.  These artists resist the claim photography has to authority and accuracy.

I found this section really interesting and it has opened my mind to new ways of manipulating images and the various meanings that can be derived from manipulated work.  Sukran Moral uses what he referred to as 'digital nightingales' in his portrait or a group of migrant workers.  The nightingales are a symbol of hope, love and separation.  Unlike the migrants they are free to fly away.  I feel that this adds a new layer or meaning to the image.

In Nemine Hammam's work based on events in Tahir Square we see 'bored' soldiers transported to fantasy settings far from the reality they find themselves in.  They end product looks similar to a postcard making Tahir Square a tourist attraction that draws the eyes of the world.

Taraneh Hemami's Most Wanted made a point - a rather blunt point.  Her image consists of a series of mugshots from US government website of the most wanted post 9/11.  She has blurred the identifying features of the subjects and has also scratched the surface of the prints.  The visual information that remains is sparse.  But what is left represents westerners views of Muslims, for example, headscarves.   I like the way in which the person is stripped down to leave only the stereotypical symbols we have come to think of in relation to these people.  This serves a reminder of the dangers of prejudice.

This exhibition was very interesting and it explored many themes in relation to photography as a medium and explored them well.  It opened up the debate of truth and reliability in photography  and backed it up with good examples of the various ways this can be questioned and subverted.

I particularly liked the layout of the displays into three distinct sections.  The information about the pictures which was displayed by their sides was very informative and guided you to look for certain elements in the frame.

I was quite surprised by the number of female photographers who were included in the exhibition.  I think the stereotypical view of the Middle East is that women are downtrodden and their place is in the home so it is enlightening to see this is not the case when it comes to photography.  I wonder if this would be the case if the focus was on the western world and western artists.

Visit to The Public

I ended up in the West Midlands for Easter this year and was very disappointed that nearly every art gallery or place of interest was closed on Good Friday.  In London, Bank Holidays are one of the busiest times of the year for museums and galleries.

However, I did find a hidden gem in West Brom called The Public.  This place is relatively new and the building costs have soared and caused controversy in the area.  The Public is modern and bright and houses plenty of interactive tools for kids to get involved and enjoy the learning process.  It focuses on various aspects of learning so there is a wide range to see.

The Lower Level of The Public.  It is rather pink!

Once I got over the initial bright pink area on the ground level, I discovered there were a couple of photographic exhibitions on.  The most interesting for me was Richard Billingham's Ray's a Laugh which I will write about first.  

I have already become a fan of Billingham and it was interesting to view his work in a gallery in the heart of the Black Country.  I felt it breathed more life into the display.  The exhibition itself consisted of two enlarged prints which were displayed on the wall and the series of 6x4 prints that were displayed in glass cases.  I found this a little disappointing as I was expecting to see them larger and on a wall.   However, looking back on it now I think seeing as they were snapshots the decision was made to display as such.  I feel that it made you, the viewer, feel that you were looking at a friend's photo collection.  Billingham developed many of his films in local places or by using Truprint.  Truprint was a mail order type film processing service that was cheap and cheerful if you didn't mind waiting a while to get your prints back.

Billingham's film Fishtank was also being shown which worked well with the exhibition.  This provided more insight into the family.  I did find that the screen was rather large and due to the close proximity of the seating area it made it difficult to view.  

I have already covered the series of images in an earlier post but I would like to add the following thoughts about the work having seen it exhibited.  I feel that the series is more of a personal work having viewed the images.  Or should I say it feels more personal.  I feel that I have more empathy for the characters or perhaps more of a longing to know more about them.  I think the way the images were shot and presented reflects the desperation it sets out to depict.  I also feel that I saw more love in the characters than I had done previously.  Perhaps the photographer's decision to distance himself from the subjects and not be sentimental shows more respect for his family and allows their voice to be heard without any interference from the photographer.

Another exhibition at The Public was the A41 project by Colin McPherson.  This project is a photographic exploration of the A41 road which runs from Merseyside to London and passes through West Brom.  McPherson collaborated with The Equality Trust for this project.  This organisation looks at how we express the issues behind inequality in our society and its consequences from a visual perspective. The themes that that are explored in this series of work include the impact of inequality, the widening gap between rich and poor, life expectancy, social inclusion and social mobility.

McPherson's images are displayed on the left hand side of this walkway

The images were taken from various places on the road focusing on the West Brom area.  I found this project interesting because of the themes it explored and the way it did so.  Captions played an important role in each image exhibited.  I feel that without these the narrative wouldn't hold together.  I also found it interesting to see how another photographer created a sense of place for a diverse area.  However, one draw back from me was the way in which the images were displayed - on one of the walkways to the upper floors.  This made it difficult to view the work or to reflect on it.  I can imagine that if the place is busy it would make it even harder to view.

Last but not least was the permanent, albeit small, collection of Martin Parr's work from Black Country Stories.  There is about five images in this collection and they are spread out across the building.  They focus on the local people at work, at play or at leisure.  I feel that although the images are strong which is what you would expect from Parr's work, they fall a little flat somehow.  I think this may be to do with the way they are and the location of where they are exhibited.

At play in the Black Country

Overall, this was an interesting visit to an interesting place.  I was really glad to be able to see Billingham's exhibition.  I think I will take a lot from how work is exhibited from this venue.  I feel that the underlying theme of fun can be seen everywhere but is this at the expense of being able to see the messages coming from the more 'serious' work on display.  For me the jury is out on that one.

Cartier-Bresson at Somerset House

On Friday I eventually got round to going to Cartier-Bresson: A Question of Colour at Somerset House.  The exhibition opened in November and I managed to catch it before it closed on 27 January.

Cartier-Bresson's work was primarily in black and white which allowed him to photograph in a more artistic way.  Colour it was believed was restricted for business.  Improvements in colour reproduction however led to an increased in demand for colour photography in the post-war period.

Cartier-Bresson was sceptical about the artistic potential for colour photography and he had misgivings about colour as an expressive form.  Despite this he acquiesced that colour was in its infancy and had room to grow and become something perhaps greater.

This exhibition looks at a number of photographers whose devotion to expression in colour measures up to Cartier-Bresson's requirement that content and form are in perfect balance.  These include his contemporaries like Ernt Haas and Fred Herzog.  Few however could live up to his demands to for 'the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organisation of forms which give that event its proper expression'.

I thought this exhibition would give me some more insight into the use of colour over black and white photography as this is something that I struggle with at times.  It did but I felt that it fell short somehow perhaps because of the number of photographers included in the exhibition.  I think the layout of the exhibition was a little busy and as some images were displayed in corridors.  The rooms were small and pokey and with more than a handful of people present it became difficult to move around.

I choose not to work exclusively in one medium of the other but admit that I may have had a leaning towards black and white when I first started out.  However after learning more about colour and its effects on an image I feel that I might be leaning more towards it as a preferred option.  I feel that colour can give a different kind of emotion to a picture.  We can be overwhelmed before even looking too deeply at an image solely by the photographer's use of colour.

When I shoot I tend to shoot with colour in mind.  This is probably as a result of shooting digitally.  However, I occasionally set out to shoot in black and white and makes me view my subject differently.  I think having always worked in colour opting to convert to black and white places modern photographers at a disadvantage when it comes to black and white images.  We don't tend to instinctively know the graphical elements that make a good subject for a black and white rendering.

The exhibition included some of the usual suspects like Joel Meyerowitz and Trent Parke.  Some of the photographers that particularly appealed to me in this exhibition whose work I hadn't see before was Andy Freeberg, Karl Baden and Boris Savelev.  I will write about them separately on my blog.

Overall the exhibition provided a link for me with Cartier-Bresson and colour which is something I didn't have before.  It has given me some food for thought about the uses of colour over black and white and it has introduced me to some interesting photographers who have worked in unusual projects.

Klein/Moriyama study visit

On 12 January I attended the OCA study visit to the Klein/Moriyama exhibition at the Tate. 

In preparation for the visit I watched the BBC’s Imagine programme – The Many of Lives of William Klein which I recorded before Christmas.  I also watched the Tate video on Daido Moriyama.  I relied on the internet for further research and viewing of images.

From my first impressions of their work I feel I had a tendency towards Klein finding his work personally more interesting and possibly familiar.  Moriyama’s work seemed to present some kind of barrier or distance and I found it hard to digest his images finding them dark and often impenetrable. One of the first questions I asked myself was why a joint exhibition? 

Moriyama was influenced by the work of Klein would be the most obvious answer to that question but was that it?  Their work on first glance may seem similar – black and white images of life on city streets – but on closer inspection they are very different. 

The fact that both worked in each others’ cities would perhaps be a stronger parallel. Although Moriyama’s New York is a very different city to the one we see in Life is good and good for you in New York.  Likewise can be said for Klein’s Tokyo. 

The exhibition begins with Klein’s work, more specifically his film Broadway by Light, where we are introduced to the city’s gaudy neon signs – a forerunner of pop art.  We see Klein the artist as he was more than simply one of the greatest photographers to come out of the US as this exhibition shows us. 

Rooms 2 and 3 display the images that were to make up Klein’s first book – a photo diary of New York – an idea which would lead to further diaries of Rome, Tokyo and Moscow.  After living in Paris he returned to New York to work as a fashion photographer.  During this time he began work on his photo diary where he saw the city – his home town – from the eyes of an outsider.  The result is a collection of candid shots of life in New York in the 50s. 

I found Klein’s use of a wide angle lens very interesting.  In all his images the viewer feels part of what is happening as the photographer is part of the action.  It is very different from Henri Cartier-Bresson the man who inspired Klein.  My own personal experiments with street photography have usually involved the use of a medium to telephoto lens which introduces a distance in the image.  I feel that moving forward I would like to experiment more with a wide angle lens in the hope of injecting some energy into my street work. 

I also find the interaction with the subjects in his images.  It is clear that he is not being conspicuous.  They are very much aware of his presence.  However, true street photographers would argue that the essence of this genre is to capture life on the street without interacting with the subjects.  This interaction can lead to a more posed shot and a subject who is aware of the camera behaving differently.  However, I feel the interaction and awareness of the photographer in Klein’s work displays an intimate moment that might have been lost otherwise. 

Rooms 4 and 5 look at Klein’s earlier work as an abstract painter and provide a necessary background if you are attempting to discover where he is coming from.  I feel that this background as a painter and an abstract painter led to Klein’s experiments with his images in Contacts. In this series he experimented with blowing up his contact sheets and using a red pencil/enamel paint he shows the chosen image.  Again we see his work moving into the pop art world. 

If Klein’s exhibition is wide and varied in size and subject matter with large prints and film, Moriyama’s introduction is almost understated.  I feel that is it a disservice to the artist that his work is presented after Klein’s in the exhibition.  Klein’s work has stimulated all the senses and finishes with the bright colourful Contact images.  When entering Moriyama’s exhibition the images are small and black and white and I couldn’t help feel it was a bit of an anti-climax. 

I feel that also due to the sheer volume of work displayed in Klein’s rooms the exhibition goer is probably suffering from fatigue and information overload by the time they come to view Moriyama’s work.  I know I was and from talking to other people on the study visit many of them had already been before or were planning to go again. 

As Moriyama works with the intentions of publishing his images in books I feel that this has an impact on the images exhibited.  They are small (possibly to replicate the experience of viewing a book) and difficult to adapt to after Klein’s work.

Moriyama’s work in contrast to Klein’s is very dark and sinister.  The high contrast black and white and graininess of his images makes for hard viewing and demands a lot of the viewer.  They are not pretty but then they don’t have to be, but they do portray Tokyo as a very dark, unwelcoming place. 

Where Klein’s New York is vibrant and full of energy Moriyama’s New York is seen from the view of a cultural outsider.  His streets are bare and his people do not have the energy and intimacy we see in Klein’s work.  I feel that they are images resulting from an outsider looking in who has not connected with his subjects or the place.  There is a sense of loneliness and not belonging.  This sense of loneliness and not belonging is how I feel about Moriyama’s work myself.  It is a world that is culturally very different to ours.  It is unfamiliar.  It makes me feel uneasy.   

I feel the reasons why I prefer the work of Klein can be summarised as follows:

• The order in which they are presented tends to favour Klein as does the variety of work presented.
• The cultural language of Moriyama’s work is a challenge.  It is unfamiliar territory.  It presents a barrier that I found hard to get over.
• There is humour in Klein’s work that I don’t feel there is in Moriyama’s
• In the film on Klein you can associate more with him
• More subjects in Klein’s work – a more diverse range.

Some of the parallels in their work

• Both worked in the city, but the city meant different things to them.  Moriyama in his film says that he can’t make photographs without a city.
•   Post production work and the re-working of old images can be seen in Moriyama’s dog image and Klein’s Contacts
• Both willing to push the limits of photography and introduce other ways of making the final image.

For me, Klein will have more of an impact on my work.  I will as I have mentioned earlier experiment with a wide angle lens.  However, I will also look at shooting on the streets with a compact camera as Moriyama does.

The exhibition has given me plenty of food for thought in relation to black and white versus colour, post production, street photography versus posed shots and presenting your work at an exhibition. 

Taylor Wessing exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

I recently went to see the Taylor Wessing exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.  Spencer Murphy, whose work I wrote about earlier on this blog, got third place this year and I was keen to see the other work that had been shortlisted or selected for display.

This year first prize went to Jordi Ruiz Cirera for his portrait of Margarita Teichroeb from the series Menonos.  The images was shot while the photographer was documenting members of the Mennonite community in Bolivia.  The Mennonites have an uneasy relationship with the camera preferring not to be photographed and this can be seen in this portrait.  The subject found it difficult to look into the camera and we can see her awkwardness in the way her hand is covering her mouth.  She looks on edge and uncomfortable.

Second prize was awarded to British photographer Jennifer Pattison for her portrait - Lynne, Brighton.  The portrait comes from an ongoing project of Pattison's which consists of a combination of naked portraits and landscapes.  Her focus is in depicting the shift in consciousness that occurs when someone poses without clothes.  Pattison speaks of creating honest and frank portraits which seem all the more honest when the subject in naked.

Spencer Murphy took third prize for his portrait of Mark Rylance which I have written about in a previous post.  I feel I can connect more with his work as I feel looking at naked portraits makes me feel uncomfortable for some reason.  The meaning of the image seems to get lost or perhaps overtaken by the fact that the subject is naked.

Alma Haser received fourth prize for her portrait titled The Ventriloquist.  The subjects are best friends Luke and James and with their identical haircuts they look like twins.  Haser peaks of wanting to connect with the viewer by 'telling stories and working with narratives'.  Sometimes the subjects just tend to speak for themselves.

One of my favourite images from the exhibition was the winner of the John Kobal New Work award, Matthew Niederhauser.  His Nine Lives of Ai Weiwei is a beautiful piece of work.  I love the rich colours and lighting.  But the most striking element is the photographers use of the ginger cat as a prop.  The concept is one I feel works really well.

Other works at the exhibition that I found inspiring include:

Pastry Chef by Jason Pierce-Williams.  I love the shapes in this black and white image and the use of lighting.   The frame is filled with the subject which enhances his size.  He looks aggressive with the rolling pin in his hand.

Mo Farah by Kate Peters.  I like the use of colour here and the fact that Mo is actually serious.  We've seen far too many humorous images of him since the Olympics so this one is a welcome change.  I feel that the photographers decision to focus more on the upper half of the body basically a head and shoulders shot shows that sport is not just physical it is mental as well.  Taken before the Olympics, Farah looks focused on the task ahead.

Four Hats by David Stewart.  The four teenagers in this image are trying hard to stamp their own individuality on the world but in doing so they look more similar than anything else.  This brings back memories from my own teenage years where being different was so important.


This exhibition has given me plenty of ideas for shooting my own portraits in the future.  I have seen first hand now what a simple prop like a cat can make to an image.  I have discovered interesting use of lighting and colour to introduce mood to a picture.  These are things I am going to work on moving forward.

Klein/Moriyama study visit

I have managed to get a place on this study visit organised by the OCA in January.  I had planned to go but I am glad I will now get the opportunity to attend with some fellow students.

It's been awhile now since I was able to go to an OCA study visit so I am looking forward to it.  I find that I get more out of these organised visits than when I attend exhibitions on my own.

I have also recorded the BBC 1 programme Imagine which focuses on Klein and I will watch that before I go.

I will be posting my thoughts on my blog after the event.

Neil Libbert

I visited the National Portrait Gallery recently to see the Taylor Wessing exhibition and I discovered that there was a Neil Libbert exhibition on too.  I hadn't come across Libbert before but I am really glad I saw his work.

This solo display of photographs by Neil Libbert celebrates his 55 years as a photojournalist and focuses on key works from 1958-1984.

Libbert was born in Salford and studied art before opening his on studio.  He started his working life at the Manchester Guardian moving onto the London version in 1961.

His reputation has been built on his reportage and street photography.  He is probably best known for his coverage of the Brixton Riots in 1981 and more recently (for me) the bombing of the Admiral Nelson pub in Soho which won him a World Press Photography award.

He still works on assignments for the Guardian but his work mainly focuses on the performing arts now.

The exhibition consists of a series of black and white images which were in the main taken for the Guardian.  The subjects are the rich and famous.  The opening image is of Jayne Mansfield and TUC leaders (1959) which appeared on the front of the Guardian newspaper.  It was taken at the opening of the TUC congress in Blackpool.  The image is almost surreal - we see this beautiful woman surrounded by three unattractive old men.  The contrast is stark and kind of makes for uncomfortable viewing.

I particularly like his portraits of George Best, Francis Bacon, Edward Burra and Patrick Lichfield.  They are very honest and almost blunt showing the characters as they really are.

He also shot a very glamorous and youthful Helen Mirren.

I like his use of light which can be seen especially in his image of Harold Pinter.  I also like the way he captures the person in their environment whatever that may be.

I think looking at Libbert's images have given me some food for thought in relation to how I ask my subjects to pose or not to pose.  It is clearly evident in his work how important the environment and surroundings are - it tells a story all by itself.  I would like to work this more into my images.  I feel at the moment my work is not clear or frank.  It lacks a true sense of purpose and I feel working on meaning and narrative more will help me find and show meaning in my work.

A collection of Libbert's images from the exhibition can be viewed on the Guardian website.

Mario Testino: British Royal Portraits

At a recent visit to the National Portrait Gallery I came across this exhibition.  Although I am not really a fan of the Royal Family I decided to have a look as I have heard so much about the photographer Mario Testino.

The display consisted of images of Charles and Camilla, William and Kate and Harry.  What struck me first about the images was Testino's use of colour and black and white.

The first images are of William and Kate's engagement - one formal and one informal.  The colours and crops are interesting in both.  In the informal shot the colours are weaker, faded and the focus is soft, and the crop tight.  This introduces a level of intimacy to the image and its subjects - an intimacy that you would expect in an engagement shot.

In contrast the more formal shot has strong colours, the crop is not so tight and shows some of the background which appears to be a room in the palace.  They look less like young lovers ans more like the married couple they are due to become.  It has a stately and official feel to it.

I found the black and white image of Charles and his sons very refreshing, casual and intimate.  The image is high key so therefore bright and the pose suggests a close bond - a natural one between a father and his sons.  The black and white conversion is also interesting as it suggests timelessness - similar to the bond between father and son.

The official portrait of Charles shows a different side to the future king.  The colours and setting are very regal,l he is in military uniform and very serious, contemplative and focused.  The image says - I am important, I am a leader.

There are two images of Charles and Camilla one more formal than the other.  Again strong colours are used for the formal shot with Testino opting for a soft focus for the informal one.


Testino shot both William and Harry on their 21st birthdays.  William's portrait shows him in a tuxedo a young man coming of age.  Testino opted for black and white here which I feel adds to the tone and focuses the viewer on the prince and his expression.

In contrast, Harry is shown working on a motorbike on his 21st birthday.  We can easily see who is destined to be king and who has the freer life, less weight on his shoulders and the pressures of life as a leader ahead of him.  We are given an insight into the playful and daredevil nature of Harry but we are not allowed to see beyond the layer of sophistication for the future king.


Through looking at Mario Testino's work I can see the effect colour, focus and pose has in portraits.  I particularly found this display interesting as he worked with four subjects and showed the viewers the different sides to these characters and their relationships to each other. This was something similar to the first assignment on my course - shooting one subject in a number of ways - which is something I found challenging.  Moving forward I would like to introduce more of my subject's character into my work and also the relationships which exists between people.

I will also think more about colour and how I can use it to improve my portrait work.

The portraits of Thomas Struth

I first came across Thomas Struth last year when I attended his exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

I don't automatically associate portraits with Struth thinking more of his industrialised shots of factories or his Paradise series, but on a recent visit to the National Portrait Gallery some of his portraits were on display.  I believe at least one of these portraits were also on display at the Whitechapel Gallery.

His family portraits consist of The Bernstein Family who were friends of Struth and this portrait was taken in 1990 on the occasion of Mrs Bernstein's birthday.  Struth's rule when shooting portraits is that each person should look into the camera and often they should arrange and position themselves for the portrait.

Included in this display too is a portrait of The Smith Family from Fife.  In the late 80s Struth was working in Edinburgh when he started to take portraits.  This shot is a typical family portrait of the photographer spanning three generations with age as the significant aspect of the relationship between the individuals.

As always his colours are strong and rich, his subjects don't give too much away.  Is this because they concentrate too much on looking into the camera?  We learn more about his subjects from the way the position themselves in a group to be photographed and the environment they are shot in.

The black and white portrait of The Hirose Family is also included in this display and we can tell a little about this family from the setting - Mr Hirose's study with his collection of African sculpture in the background.

Most recently he shot the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh for a collection for the National Portrait Gallery for her Diamond Jubilee. However this was no longer on display when I visited but the New Yorker has an interesting article on it.

In conversation with David Goldblatt at the Barbican

As part of the Barbican's new exhibition Everything was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s, I attended In Conversation with David Goldblatt...

This exhibition surveys photography from an international perspective and includes the work of photographers from around the globe who worked during those decades.  

It features 12 key figures including Bruce Davidson, William Eggleston, David Goldblatt, Graciela Iturbide, Boris Mikhailov,Sigmar Polke, Malick Sidibé, Shomei Tomatsu, and Li Zhensheng as well as important innovators whose lives were cut tragically short such as Ernest Cole, Raghubir Singh andLarry Burrows.

I plan to visit the exhibition before it closes at the end of the year. 

David Goldblatt's work has a sharp and subtle take on on life in South Africa under apartheid and in this session he discussed his work with the London based duo - Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

It was the first time these three South Africans were brought together to discuss their work and influences.

Goldblatt spoke of his latest project - portraits of offenders at the scene of the crime.  He was inspired by the violence and very high levels of crime in South Africa.  It is something that everyone experiences directly and it is a very big problem.

Although many photographers have chosen to work on this subject, Goldblatt wanted to come at it from a different angle.  He is interested in their story, not in a way where he is a therapist or social worker or even trying to make sense of their actions.  He is interested in simply documenting it.

He interviews his subjects, they are  told what he wants to do, where the images will be shown and the consequences for their futures is they 'sign up'.  Their pictures will be out in the open and if their misdemeanours are made public it could upset their job prospects or other future plans.  He pays 800 rand to any subject who signs up.

He shoots them at the scene of their crimes.  This, he explains, is often a very painful journey for them to make.  What strikes me most about Goldblatt is how much detail he knows about each subject.  You can't help but feel emotional about some of the stories - an emotion that he doesn't seem to share at times as he sticks to the role of documenter.

The images he showed were in black and white despite having used colour for his personal work after apartheid.   Goldblatt feels there is something deeply wrong in South Africa and that is a dangerous and troublesome place to live.  He has returned to the black and white medium because of this and also because it is a medium he is very comfortable using.

Goldblatt sees all photographs as documents whether they are passport photos, his work, CCTV stills etc.  They all document something.  The camera and the photograph can be seen as something quite aggressive as Susan Sontag has written.  However he argues that is is also capable of showing and making love.

He spoke of why he has only ever carried out his personal work in South Africa with the exception of asbestos mines in Western Australia and a project he is about to embark on in West Brom.  He feels like a stranger in other countries.  An outsider and therefore at a loss to create or document something about the area.

That's something I feel I can relate to - his sense of people and space.

He was questioned by Broomberg about how he got the balance right to live his own life and raise a family whilst travelling to document his country.  Goldblatt said that it was difficult to balance and that he often didn't get it right but was ultimately happy with the choices he made.

He spoke about the importance of text for him in relation to displaying his work.  It is extremely important for him to set out the context for each of his images.  I felt that with each anecdote he provided to the images he showed up new life was breathed into the pictures.  Their meaning had a greater significance.  He insists that text is always laid out beside his images and not in a standalone brochure when his work is exhibited.

I found Goldblatt to be very down to earth with a no nonsense attitude but not to the point of being arrogant.  He has a passion for photography, for documenting his people and his country.  But what strikes me most is his passion to always be true to himself and the honesty in and about his achievements.

He seemed to be uncomfortable with the praise being heaped on him by the audience and Broomberg and Chanaris.

Most interestingly, the title of the exhibition Everything was moving he said was incorrect for his photography as in South Africa everything was standing still.  No progress, no advancements.

http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=13613