Sunday 29 December 2013

A decisive moment?

Exercise 7 - a decisive moment

We are required to read the commentary from Simon Bainbridge for the Hereford Photography Festival (HPF), the focus of this article is 5 very diverse examples of contemporary documentary photography. We are asked to select one of the photographers and write a 200-word reflective commentary.

So in brief about each of the works discussed here:

1. Donald Weber - Interrogations

If I'm honest, I really struggled with these images, to me they looked contrived. I accept that this my well be because of my pre-conditioned idea of what an interrogation looks and feels like - perhaps too many American police dramas. To me these images were of sad and lonely people, taken in shabby rooms. A definition of 'interrogate' is to "ask questions of (someone) closely, aggressively, or formally" and (again to me) the focus is on the word aggressively; I did not feel any aggression in the images - even the ones where the gun was being brandished at the individuals head.

2. Robbie Cooper - Immersion

I think this is a fantastic concept for a photography project. Interestingly, these are not photographs as such but stills created/taken from video clips, nonetheless, I think the images are wonderful - the obvious and total focus of the children in the game (digital environment). I find these photographs very engaging and have revisited them on a number of occasions.

3. Manuel Vasquez - Traces

The second photographer that has chosen to create images from a video-type source - surveillance tapes. The difference with these images being they are a composite of a number of stills blended together (whereas the RC work is a single frame). There is obvious skill, vision and image manipulation, required to the develop the final image. The images are very dark (black background) thus focusing the viewers gaze onto the 'action' - I feel this gives the photographs an overly stage-managed feel and detracts somewhat.

4. George Georgiou - The Shadow of The Great Bear

Selected for my review.

5. Vanessa Winship - Georgia

Subject matter, unsurprisingly, is very similar to that of Georgiou. However, Winship actively engages with her subject and places them front and centre of the images. In terms of presentation, again this similar to Georgiou in the mixing of portraits and abstract landscapes, but very different in formality of image - similar in size, single image and with the exception of her photographs of other peoples work (paintings and photographs) all shot in B&W. I find her portraits of the land most intriguing, in her text Winship states "the lush beauty of the land" but her images portray the opposite.


George Georgiou - The Shadow of The Great Bear

Georgiou work stands out for a number of reasons, primarily, the colour of his images. Their overall feel is beige/grey, because of the location and the concrete background, yet on closer inspection they are full of subtle and varied colours.

He also presents his images in a very dynamic way: first, the images are in mini-sequences and as such your eye automatically moves back and forth taking in and reviewing the information. Second, he varies the number of images per page and changes the layout from one page to the next; in addition the images from a sequence carry over pages again requiring more engagement from the viewer to fully understand and appreciate the work.

Georgiou takes his images from a distance, or at least without the knowledge or direct engagement of his subjects. I would suggest that this is the 'purest' form of documentary photography - a record of the scene with contribution from only the individuals directly involved.

Regarding the other photographers selected for HPF, each of those artists had the major influence in how the information was documented. Bearing in mind objectivity, I don't doubt that Georgiou has selected the best of his images to create the portfolio, but I believe these images captured life as it actually happened.

No comments:

Post a Comment