Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started

Sexuality, Documents of Contemporary Art.

Amelia Jones, (ed.) (2014) Sexuality, Documents of Contemporary Art, London: Whitechapel Art Gallery. ISBN: 978-0-85488-224-3. This book is a collection of essays and interviews. Many of the artists are involved in performance art in which they will either perform in front of a live audience or video their work. Much of the discussion is inContinue reading “Sexuality, Documents of Contemporary Art.”

Reading Photographs – In Our Own Image, by Fred Ritchin

Peter Kennard and Cat Phillips created the image, titled: Photo Op, in 2005. From Fred Ritchin’s book, In Our Own Image, his essay, Reading Photographs, (Ritchin, 2010) discusses the authenticity of a photograph. He asks, …after all that is happening in computer imaging can one safeguard the integrity of the photograph in its populist roleContinue reading “Reading Photographs – In Our Own Image, by Fred Ritchin”

Exercise 2.6 – Candid Portrait

Working with my friend Graham, I set-up a basic studio with a barstool and a white background, I directed his poses using my camera fixed to a tripod. After 5 minutes I gave the control of the photographic direction to Graham, who firstly wanted me to take the camera off the tripod and then photographContinue reading “Exercise 2.6 – Candid Portrait”

Research Point – Propaganda in an image.

Photo by Eddie Adams/Associated Press ‘Execution of a Viet Cong officer’, Saigon, Vietnam, 1968. South Vietnam National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes suspected Viet Cong member Nguyen Van Lem, on the second day of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War. The act was stunning in its casualness. Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams wasContinue reading “Research Point – Propaganda in an image.”

Reading Task – I.D. Photo.

The singular idea of the meaning of an I.D. photo is the passport head and shoulders, facing the camera composition; but this not the only method to establish a form of identification. When photographing people I will more often include more information this may be a full body shot or half to three quarters ofContinue reading “Reading Task – I.D. Photo.”

The ‘Other’ in the history of photography

Because photography was seen as the ideal tool for providing evidence due to its perceived indexicality, it was used to observe and record the face and head. In the 1850s and 1860s the British eugenicist Francis Galton obtained portrait photographs of criminals from the archive of Millbank Prison. He meticulously re-photographed theses pictures, exposing aContinue reading “The ‘Other’ in the history of photography”

Thomas Ruff

Portrait 1986 (Stoya) Photo by Thomas Ruff, Tate Collection. Reference: P78091 Display Caption – Tate Ruff believes that photography can only capture the surface of things, conveying what he describes as ‘the authenticity of a manipulated and prearranged reality’. In 1981, he began a series of colour portraits of his friends and fellow students atContinue reading “Thomas Ruff”