Between The Eyes, Essays on Photography and politics.

Between The Eyes, Essays on Photography and Politics, (2005) by David Levi Strauss, New York: Aperture. ISBN: 978-1-59711-214-7. Strauss looks at how politics has influenced art taking examples of the Vietnam war, San Salvador, The Gulf war, Rwanda, 911, etc. Notes. Journalists working for the largest news media outlets in America operate under the institutional

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 2, Other

Part 2, Other, began by looking at how photography has played its part in violence against the other, siting Victorian photography as one example of asserting colonial power over weaker subjected peoples of other ethnic and cultural societies. Artists such as Mark Sealy have been addressing these troubling histories with work and exhibitions such as

Summary for Part 1, Looking at Them – The Representation of the Other.

I began this section with a preliminary exercise as a kind ice breaker in which I took photographs of people incognito and this really reaffirmed my discomfort of street photography which I think has become much harder to practise in our modern society that is now always under the gaze of CCTV and the world

Reading Task – White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack​ by Peggy McIntosh.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack​ by Peggy McIntosh. (1988) Notes and Quotes McIntosh starts her essay discussing how men have more power and privilege over women and that although men may accept that women are not treated equally to men, few men would agree that they are over privileged and should give some of it

Reading Task – The Impossibilities to shoot as a white photographer on the African Continent by Jan Hoek

https://americansuburbx.com/2015/11/the-impossibilities-to-shoot-as-a-white-p hotographer-on-the-african-continent.html Jan Hoek wrote a reply to Wolukau-Wanambwa’s critique of Sassen’s, de Midel’s and his work defending his non-racist intentions. Perhaps, we must all ask ourselves can we truly ever be totally unprejudiced as a human race? Notes and Quotes In an article on Aperture.org (http://aperture.org/blog/lives-others/), Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwawiped the floor with the work of artists Vivanne

Reading Task – ‘The Lives of Others’ by Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa

The Lives of Others The above link is for the essay’ The Lives of Others, (2015) by Stanley Wolukay-Wanambewa. (2015), first appeared in issue 17 of the Aperture Photography App. He starts his essay critiquing a photo book of the Dutch photographer Jan Hoek’s New Ways of Photographing the New Masai (Art Paper Editions, 2014). Notes and

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 of

Reading Task – ‘The Body and the Archive’ by Alan Sekula

Alan Sekula, The Body and the Archive (1986) Notes and Quotes Sekula argues that early photography was seen as a threat to art, siting a musical song: August 1839, a song circulated in London which began with the following verse: O Mister Daguerre! Sure you’re not aware, Of half the impressions you’re making, By the sun’s potent rays you’l set Thames in

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