Coursework page 42
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Is there anything that you feel compelled to do at this point in your work but ou can't figure out how it will fit in with your overall project?
I would like to figure out how getting into a working prison, which is just about impossible to do openly, will benefit my project when it has been done so many times.
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P. 42
Would you be comfortable using opportunistic encounters to create your art?
YES!
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Has Calle been deceitful or intrusive in creating the works here?
Yes, Calle has been both deceitful and intrusive in her projects and she was trusted, but how else was she going to satisfy her curiosity? She was far from naïve in doing what she did but she did not expose anyone else to danger nor did she hurt anyone, she was doing it for her own benefit.
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How would you defend or criticise her approach?
If she was investigating some subterfuge in an organisation or uncover a drug-smuggling or child prostitution ring, yes it could have been justified.
She had not openly said what she was intending to do - is that not deceitful? What would she have said if she had been discovered?
To her it was not important what people thought of her when they discovered what she had done - she didn't have to live with them. In the case of Edmund Clark, e.g., when he photographed inside the Control Order House, he had specific parameters within which to work. Had he messed it up, he would have ruined the chances for any other photographer after him to work within the law.
You have to have nerves of steel and a poker face to be able to pull off a Calle-like stunt. Although I would love to take opportunistic images, I would not break confidentiality or trust in order to get my images.
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Page 44: Chance photography:
I appreciate both Chris Coekin's and Gillian Wearing's methods of getting / creating their chance photography & perhaps I could create my own 'chance' situations - perhaps random act of kindness to prisoners and prison wardens?
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Page 46: Found photos:
Joachim Schmid and Alec Soth
What are your thoughts about The Frank Album?
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Although I like the inventiveness of the project, I can't help feel that it is someone else's work and property and, unless you have had permission to use it, it should remain private, unless there is the documentation that you have tried to trace the original owners and they cannot or will not respond. IT also depends on the type of image displayed - Are we invading someone's privacy for our own exclusive benefit? I am reminded here of the uncovered work of Vivian Maier and the polemics which have started over who should benefit from shows / sales / copyright of her work? Frank cannot benefit from this work as it has been used - what happens if Frank or someone for him suddenly emerges.
Are there any ethical issues here?
To a large extent, we have to ask who sold Soth the album and from there, take any number of paths. Nobody is being hurt, physically or emotionally in this case; nothing untoward is being revealed except, perhaps the whereabouts of the subject, Frank, albeit nearly 70 years ago.
To what extent is a photograph album like Frank's private?
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My first reaction is 'of course it's private' by very nature of the fact that it is in a privately held book; you may argue that in the 1950s there was no social platform on which to upload the images - so , had this been seen today, the images would have been on FB or Flick'r or any 1 of the other 18 networks and so would have been very private. Frank would have shown his mages to friends of his choosing.
Page 49
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Have you ever made a mistake that has led you in a new direction?
Yes. Also an over exposure:
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In my opinion, this indicates the transience of power and its manifestations; the seemingly obdurate presence of historical buildings which, eventually, show themselves to be as vulnerable as any aspect of nature, & I might use it in my prisons project.
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Has reading this account of Paul Graham's work made you less likely to 'discard' your mistakes or more likely to investigate their potential?
It has made me review my mistakes which, since I attended a beginners' photography class in about 2009, I was advised to keep. I have reviewed some of the mistakes but I can't say it has led me anywhere, so far.
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Some questions to consider in future mistakes:
* Has something gone wrong that you don't know how to recover from?
* How might you re-frame what happened?
* How could it lead to something more exciting?
* What might your mistake be telling you?
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Page 49
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In 2009 Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin travelled to Afghanistan to join British army units on the front line in Helmand Province. They produced the now famous / infamous The day that nobody died. The images they produced reflect conflict and suffering in a way that denies the viewer the cathartic effect offered up by conventional photographic responses to war and its effects. It provides a profound critique of conflict photography and questions the concept of engaged, professional witnesses.
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I feel that this alone justifies my inclusion of the Polaroids in my project - it does not satisfy the voyeurism of normal prison photography and it presents a self-reflecting practice rather than photographing the 'other' all the time.
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Page 49
David Bate's Bungled memories: Are your own photographic 'slip-ups' actually revealing something more interesting or real that you wouldn't have brought to the surface?
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Not that I have noticed.
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Page 51:
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Are the projects you've been reading about a case of 'The Emperor's New Clothes'?
Or are the artists using their creativity to make art out of worst-case scenarios? Are they cheating?
The 'Emperor's New Clothes' is a story about trust and betrayal. Some might say that 'The day that nobody died' is just that: the photographers were entrusted to do a job and, in the eyes of those who were expecting a certain outcome, they betrayed that trust by producing something what has been described as not war photography. I disagree but, simply because I could not have done that, does not mean that what the photographers did was wrong. Their conceptual approach made people talk about the meaning and relevance of war photography rather than seeing the same images of war which have been around for nearly 200 years. B & C saw a loophole in the embedding rules, a creative opportunity and exploited it. Great!
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David Bate has created something out of a blunder which makes us question consumerism, ready-made art and whether or not we impose artificial boundaries on what photography must be and do. I admire the zen qualities of his work.
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Alec Soth's The Frank Album is a fun project in which nobody was compromised or hurt and, had I had the imagination to do so, I would have done the same - perhaps my bridled creativity would not have allowed me to go out to the internet with it but I admire his creativity and self-confidence in doing so.
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Paul Graham's project reflects how an artistic project should evolve rather than the artist/photographer having a set endpoint in mind and not deviating from it when the occasion presents an opportunity to do so.
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The case for the clothes argument:
Sometimes rules are there to be broken if you know the rules and how you can break them without hurting anyone physically, or when betrayal is a slightly strong word.
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The case against:
If you break the law and if people get hurt or exposed to unnecessary danger. What about if you take a recording device in to an institution in which you are forbidden to take such a device, which is what undercover journalists often do? Would it be ok if you were covered by an other institution which would then take the blame / pick up the bill?
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I wouldn't break the law because I don't consider myself smart enough to be able to deal with the fallout of such an event.
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Chapter summary:
Questions to consider:
* Is my work taking me on a direction of its own? Not that I am aware of but certainly not like last year's work which seemed to go on of its own accord & with which I just had to turn up occasionally. Are you ready to go with it? Yes, if I thought it was going.
* Is the strategy you are currently developing the kind which is most suitable for the work? I have so many strategies with none being dominant that I don't know which way I am going.
* Are you resisting a certain direction due to effort, a closed mind or another reason? I can't work up the effort to try to get into a prison because I have had so much resistance in the past. There does not seem to be a legal way of getting in to a prison.
* Are there any lessons in the material from this section that could be useful for where you currently are with your work? Who knows?! getting someone else to take the photos might work but the prisoners are not allowed to take photos in prison either & I would not want to ask anyone to break the law.
* How has chance intervened in your work to date and how might you allow for it a bit more?
It has worked in the video section where, stuck for music, I decided to read the letters from prison which fitted in very well.
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