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The advent of digital photography and the increasing number of people having access to it have, if anything else, given rise to hopes for a new process of democratisation (see for example one of my links to The Democratic Image blog). Although we should be very careful not to associate too easily the issue of greater access to visual representation (itself limited and fragmented in practice) with any greater access to political power and processes of decision-making, one area that seems to get a benefit from all that is the production and distribution of news. People are given new opportunities to visually record events, and as a new kind of independent reporters, or so called citizen journalists, to challenge the mainstream flow of news by corporate media and give voice, or, better to say, view to the own stories.
It is also a rather shared understanding, and certainly one I became convinced of since the public dissemination of Abu Ghraib photos, that photography has a powerful impact on society and the interpretation of reality.
I’m writing about all this, as I was recently informed of an incident in Hyde Park, the student area in Leeds. The police brutally and unnecessarily attacked, as it is claimed, some peaceful house party-goers in order to disperse them. The incident seems to be under investigation by an independent body now. But what grabbed my attention from the start was the relative quality and mainly the importance of photographic documents which were shown to me in order for those in the party to support their claim of officers lashing dogs and baton charging against them with no adequate reason.
Photographs such as those below gave me a graphic feeling and general indication of what was going on (photos by Callum Barker, Jess Woodall, and Nicky Crompton) :
The most striking picture was the following (photo by Callum Barker):
Whereas a more artistic tone is captured here (photo by Evan Harris):
The way that people will interpret the above story, despite these or any other pictures, may not change in the end. Stereotypes of students and vague ideals of law and order may be too dominant for some people when they judge things. However, I think the ability of the people there to capture those photos, just with their mobile phone cameras, enhanced their chance to have their complaint heard, both officially and publicly, as they attracted more attention and credit. I believe this story would have much less chance, if any at all, to find a place in the news or even to have a fair non-biased (but from both sides) representation, without its visual recordings. And if in the end it succeeds to strengthen accountability, it reinforces democratic processes too.
(For more details and photos, there is this facebook link: Survivors of the peaceful party on 19 Hessle Terrace and 20 Hessle Avenue)
Two different places, but the same season.
From north England to Czech Republic in spring.
All rights reserved © 2007 Christos Stavrou
In 1935 Man Ray photographed Coco Chanel, the doyenne of the French fashion world who, by the 1910s, had already adapted sportswear to daily life and capitalised on feminizing masculine fashion. Her pose in the “little black dress” became the hallmark of 1930s fashion.
The image of the New Woman, an ideal of fashion and glamor -following the widespread ‘modern’ textiles and avant-garde new clothing designs, was closely associated with the image of the Modern Woman, a symbolic identity which stressed woman’s sexuality and youth and was reiterated in market publications during the 1920s and 30s.
But the question is how much this image of New Woman had to do with changing the actual conditions of most women? Did it serve anyone else’s ends outside the circle which advanced a fusion of art with commercial enterprise?
In fact, it could be argued, that the act of popularising such images concealed the complexity of women’s real lifes (it also surpressed another emerging identity of the Modern Woman as a lesbian); and the idea that it derived from art circles masked profound economic and cultural changes (see W.Chadwick Women, Art & Society 1990).
The Time website exhibits a series of 15 photographs from the book ‘Hungry Planet. What the world eats’ (Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio, 2005). Watch it by clicking the photograph below.
These are photographs of families, all around the world, posing together with all what they are usually eating in the course of one week. Sometimes an extra-wide lens was required, sometimes the viewer’s imagination is needed.
The work provides few extra details, from the weekly cost to favourite tastes, and invites many personal interpretations and questions about humanity as a whole and the differences within. I’d be careful, though, about making any quick judgements and generalisations.
Actually, what exactly does it mean that a family in Chad spends $1.23 per week for food, another one in Ecuador $31.55 and one in Germany $500.07? Certainly, not all families from the same country share a similar weekly bill, and although some photos appear strikingly more empty compared with others, is it my impression that some smiles are also more captivating? How tasty really are some of those good-looking fruits seen in western tables? And do these consumers ever question why the aroma of fine food masks so well the highly exploited labour of workers and producers in developing countries…
And the ultimate question: how many of us question whether the others’ hunger is the consequence of us continuing to give subsidies to our own home food-producers?
There has been some interesting news for black & white enthusiasts, like me…
A significant problem to face with modern digital cameras is their limited dynamic range compared with what can be achieved by B&W film. Depending of course on what aesthetic result someone aims and is satisfied with, I believe that film is better suited for B&W photography, as it could capture a wider tonal range. Especially in the area of highlights, there is always the additional risk that any over-exposure would result to unrecoverable detail (which unlike with the case of negative film, we could not hope to regain by the process of ‘burning’ in the dark room).
So, it is welcoming news to read in an article by Steven Hynes in ‘Black & White Photography‘ (issue 73, June 2007) that expanding the dynamic range is now the aim of the digital industry, after the ‘megapixel war’ of higher resolution which we have all witnessed lately.
In fact, S. Hynes reports on the new Fujifilm S5 Pro, (a Nikon D200-based model), which is equipped with a new sensor and seems able to record more highlight detail. Fujifilm claims to extend dynamic range by two stops. Although the reviewer found in his tests that detail was held for about an additional 1.3EV, this dynamic range extension and also the overall darkening of the top third of the highlight areas made him conclude positively on this model.
Note, that as he adds, full frame digital SLR sensors might match the S5 in the captured dynamic range; yet, the latter is now more affordable.
On the other side, reading other reviews in the net, such as in Ephotozine, we come across tests which claim less detail for landscapes and some -though controlled- noise throughout all ISO numbers. The review there concludes, that in comparison with the Nikon D200, the S5 has the edge on portraiture and challenging light conditions, emphasising it then more as a tool for marriage photographers (i.e. shoting inside churches with strong window lights, combinations of dark areas and strong sunlight, white bride dresses, etc).
Interesting, you might say, but there isn’t yet one camera for everything.. the ideal camera! Nevertheless, it seems that the myth and search for it continues…
Daido Moriyama’s most famous photograph is of an almost rabid dog. As twinned outcasts, this dog has become the alter-ego of Daido himself. He explains in his memoirs that “I had taken a photograph of a stray dog showing the whites of its eyes and snarling, on the streets outside a US air base in the town of Misawa in Aomori Perfecture in northeast Japan… Thereafter that dog and I came to be seen and talked about as if somehow superimposed on each other. Also the figure I cast during that time, roaming around town and in the backstreets, carrying my camera, appeared in others’ eyes very much as a stray dog”.
Read a special interview of Daido Moriyama here, from a coffee shop in Shinjuku, a place in Tokyo where Daido made his name as a photographer. “My work is endless” he says. “As long as the world exists, I want to take snapshots.”
An introduction to his work can also be found in a well-written blog about Japanese photography, under a post about his exhibition in Foam Museum last year
Finally, not better place to start by flicking over photographs in the artist’s gallery in his website.
Here’s an interesting photo-blog to visit:
http://strangeraday.blogspot.com
He says: ”the idea is simple, take a photograph of a stranger, someone that I don’t know, every day in the year 2007…”
When now I remember my photos, my ’strangers’ are so different
They turn their backs to me. They rarely reveal their faces
They are often lost as little dots in the scene.
All rights reserved © 2007 Christos Stavrou
There was an article published in Guardian few days ago about the demise of professional photographers. According to the writer, Andrew Brown, this happens because of economic and technological changes, and now the rise of such websites as flickr, where amateurs supply millions of photos which can be published.
It’s difficult not to agree that developments during the last decades “have diminished the value of a professional photographer’s skills”. Almost everyone seems to be able to get a ‘good’ picture. Nevertheless, as the author points out, the consistency of high quality that characterises professionals guarantees that their difference from the amateurs will not bridged easily, certainly not quite soon.
On the other side, it seems that the professionals’ photographic market of ‘news’ may suffer from the flood of internet photographers, and even worst for their income, it might be the increasingly smaller piece of cake that they can taste from the desirable for so many pros pie of stock photography. Here I might add that someone should investigate the role of big photographic stock agencies, which would seem the real earners against both pros and amateurs.
In the photo above, two professional photographers and noble individuals, Pedro Meyer and Geert Van Kesteren, [edit: and a third one, Christian Payne, whose hands are only visible here], who after I met them recently can’t imagine them ever demising…
T h i n k I n P i c t u r e s
just another blog about photography.
At the end of one recent trip, I remember someone saying ‘it was all good but not much to take photographs of…’
Well, that reminded me an interesting Henri Cartier-Bresson quote: ‘You don’t take a photograph. You make a photograph”
But, as if this isn’t intriguing enough, dear Henri also said with emphasis that ”Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst” and ”Of course it’s all luck”.
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