Photography Today

Photography Today, 2014, by Mark Durden, London: Phaidon. ISBN: 978-0-7148-4563-0. This is an illustrated book examining the work of contemporary photographic artists from the 1960s to present day. The book is divided into subjects covering: The Copy: Authorship and Reproduction, The Face: The Pose and the Mask, Colour: Surface and Depth, The Street: Discord and Harmony,

Gillian Wearing

Gillian Wearing is an artist who has used masks in her projects. Gillian Wearing, Confess All On Video. Don’t Worry You Will Be In Disguise. Intrigued? Call Gillian…, 1994. In this project, Wearing advertised in the London magazine, Time Out using the above words from her title as part of her advertisement. She providing masks

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

Self Image, Personal is political (1979) by Angela Kelly

Women’s Identity (1975 – 1979) Angela Kelly This essay, Kelly examines the use and mis-use of self portraiture, to quote Kelly: to determine what relevance a seemingly private practice has to a public audience. (p.410, Wells, 2003). Kelly suggests in her essay, that at the time of writing, self-portraiture had not been properly analysed. As

Planning and Preparation for Assignment 3

Shaun Mullins (Untitled) 2020, Different Selves My brief The readings, research and exercises should have led you to think about self portraiture in a variety of ways. Some practitioners deliberately play with ideas of fluidity and multiple selves, whilst still being anchored to a nominal self. Selfies, often used as self promotion, are intimately linked

Exercise 3.2 – Four Image-Repertoires

Exploring Roland Barthes theory regarding four image-repertoires, (Barthes, 2000, p.13) I have asked my friend (Graham) to pose for me with the intention of presenting himself as, ‘who he thinks he is’, and how he wants to be perceived. Graham asked that I photograph him cleaning his shotgun, as he sees himself as an outdoors

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 photograph

Exercise 1.1a – Planning & Preparation.

The brief for this exercise is to produce five portraits of strangers from a variety of backgrounds. They must be classed as ‘Other’ so that they may differ by a significant respect from myself. This could be by age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic background, social class, etc. I am also to keep notes of contact

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 a

Reading Task – The photographic works of Diane Arbus – My thoughts

Much has been said and written about Arbus and her work, but I wonder if too much has been read into her photographs?  The images used to critique her work style all appear to poses those elements of the sublime, they have that something, that punctum that Barthes coined (1) and which all photographers strive