The Cruel Radiance

The Cruel Radiance, 2012, Susie Linfield, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 978-0-226-48251-4. This is a very interesting book and I found it to be a good read. Linfield writes in defence of photography against what she describes as a popular and institutional attack on the medium by critics and even other photographers. She

The Self-Portrait A Cultural History

The Self-Portrait A Cultural History, 2015, by James Hall, London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN: 978-0-500-29211-2 This book examines the history of the self-portrait, unfortunately I purchased a Kindle edition which unhelpfully doesn’t provide page numbers, this option is greyed out in the menu; so I am only able to quote location numbers (Loc) as provided

Photography A Very Short Introduction

Stephen Edwards, Photography A Very Short Introduction, 2006, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN: 978-0-19-280164-7 (Kindle Edition). In my opinion, this is a very good book and a very important book to read for any photographer. Notes/Quotes: Documentary is said to provide its viewers with direct access to truth. In his pioneering book on the subject,

Assignment 5: Self Directed Project. (Work in Progress)

The Politics of Self & Other My idea for a theme is a critical look at how we regard ourselves and others from a political angle. I want to explore ideas of ‘self and other based upon a form of political ideology and to be more specific consider how portraits are viewed from the angles

Planning and Preparing for Assignment 4

For my essay I chose “Using case studies, discuss whether single images can ever fairly represent others or self? I began by looking through my books for appropriate essays that has explored this subject and I took notes of book titles and page numbers to refer back to in preparation for the essay. From this

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 role

Uses of Photography (1978) by John Berger

Quotations from Uses of Photography by John Berger. “Through photographs, the world becomes a series of unrelated, free-standing particles; and history, past and present, a set of anecdotes and fait divers. The camera makes reality atomic, manageable, and opaque. It is a view of the world which denies interconnectedness, continuity, but which confers on each

Remembrance, The child I never was, by Annette Kuhn

Remembrance, The child I never was, (1991) by Annette Kuhn from The Photography Reader, edited by Liz Wells, (2003) Routledge, Abingdon. Annette Kuhn as a child, by Harry Kuhn, circa, early 1950’s, exact date unknown. Kuhn uses a photograph taken of herself as a child as the theme to her story or as she says

My Other Half – a critical self-review.

My Other Half – A critical self-review by Shaun Mullins. The objective of this project was to create 6-10 environmental portraits and I chose to produce photographs of my wife in different locations in our home, dressed for and performing the typical activities that I often see her doing.  I wanted to convey the idea

Summary for Part 3, “Look at Me!” – The Representation of Self.

In section 3, “Look at Me!”, I studied the subject of ‘self’ and how it has and is used and interpreted in the portrait. I learned that the idea of the ‘selfie’ goes back beyond photography. Originally the early selfies where exclusively for the rich and powerful to express wealth and more importantly, power, examples