A summer video of my brother.
Song – Justin Vernon – The Gatsby’s slew of choices
I spent five weeks in this beautiful country. I met some beautiful people along the way and saw some incredible sights whilst travelling the country from north to south.
But most of all, I did it all with my beautiful girlfriend.
Thank you, Eva.
1. How many photographs are taken in a year?
80 Billion! Give or take
2. What is Gregory Crewdsons modus operandi?
Latin for method of operation Crewdsons sets up his photographs like it is a Hollywood film. All is staged, lit right, professional actors and actresses modelling, fog machines and he would be no where without his team of operators who even take the pictures for him… “I don’t even like to hold a camera”. He also gets someone to get the series of different exposures and photographs and then digitally manipulate them into one photograph…
so his method of working is to work with a team that help it look like the set of a movie thus creating these cinematic images.
3. Which prints command the highest price and what are they called?
The prints that are the most expensive are THE prints that are printed by THE photographers themselves and they are know as ‘Vintage’…
Like Georgia’s O’Keeffe’s hands by Alfred Stieglitz (1919)
Sold for $1,470,000
or
The famous tin-type of ‘Billy the kid’ by an unknown(1880)
Sold for $2,300,000
4. What is a fake photograph? Give an example and explain how & why it is fake.
A fake photograph in auction house terms is a duplicate of the original which is from the same negative but on new photographic paper, so you can tell it is fake by the newer chemistry than that of an original on old school paper.
An example of Forgery in photography is Man Ray’s prints. A hoaxer named Benjamin “Jimmy” Walter had somehow had the original negatives and produced as many as he could. He forged one of his most famous photographs,
An imitation
Larmes
1930-33
We have all seen it but the people who have seen the real version know there is a smudge on her nose where as the forged photographed has none and also the grain has been reduced. But was caught out because the fakes would fluoresce under black light, due to the bleach used to whiten all kinds of paper since 1955 but the original was made in the 30’s…
5. Who is Li Zhensheng and what is he famous for?
He was a red army youth soldier and also being a photojournalist he documented the cultural revolution in China in the 60’s and 70’s…
Handsome devil…I meant the Leica…
Try and photograph the communist regime nowadays, good luck…
6. What is the photographers “Holy of holies”?
Magnum is cited as the photojournalists holy of holies. Created by some of the world’s most known photographers such as Capa and Bresson it is THE place to go to be a photojournalist, in the words of Bresson “Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.”
7. How does Ben Lewis see Jeff Walls photography?
Ben Lewis an art critic views Jeff Walls photography as going back in time where painting was king and everything was set up such as light, props, models and everything is constructed for a meaning very much like Crewdsons work…
Influenced by Katsushika Hokusa
All painstakingly constructed as if were a painting
8. Which famous photograph was taken by “Frank Mustard”?
The photograph called ‘The river France’ apparently taken by the great 19th century photographer Camille Silvy shows the beauty of southern france…
But the photograph was not even taken by him it was take by our dear friend Frank Mustard. Also the photograph has had some work to it, the cloud has been darkened and the tree tops have been drawn to look fuller and livelier. Dastardly man.
1. Who said ” The camera gave me the license to strip away what you want people to know about you, to reveal you can’t help people knowing about you” , and when was it said?
Diane Arbus. She was active around the 60’s and early 70’s photographing the misfits of american society in her definitive style…
2. Do photographers tend to prey on vulnerable people?
Well, all photography is exploitive and if they looked troubled it makes a good picture but then if you make it artistically great then you move away from the exploitive feelings. I guess it depends on how the photographer acts and thinks whilst searching and taking the photographs. They could exploit them and get money or be like Arbus and actually are amazed of the people she met.
3. Who is Colin Wood?
This is Colin Wood, he was the skinny child in central park holding the toy grenade in 1962 photographed by Arbus.
As you can see form the contact sheet this is the most profound image out of them all with the help of distortion from a wide angled lens.
4. Why do you think Diane Arbus committed suicide?
Nan Goldin described her work as “It was the work of anybody but her self, she desperately did not want to be herself”
From this statement you can tell she was not happy with her life and I also think the people she photographed and the culture she photographed probably disjointed her vision of life. It fits in with the 60’s template of the romantic, tragic, brilliant, unconventional, tortured artist such as Jimi Hendrix or Joplin of america going through changes and wars that disjointed the times she lived in.
5. Why and how did Larry Clark shoot “Tulsa”?
He was an insider of a group of friends that were in Tulsa, Oklahoma and they were about drugs, sex and guns. He was able to photograph and publish his book in 1971 due to being round his friends house with a camera, right place right time…
6. Try to explain the concept of “confessional photography” , and what is the “impolite genre”?
Stemming off from question 5 Clark really introduced a new genre of photography which is the impolite genre, a genre in which you photograph things society hides away from or do not want to know like; crack heads, drugs, violence and what not.
Confessional photography is the truth and the lives of the photographers. There is no hiding, it is all there. They are the photographs people, maybe, do not want to know about and Nan Goldin is a prime example of this…
Photographing transvestites and her struggle between relationships and these are private feelings and subjects but she ‘confesses’ and lays bare her photography life.
7. What will Araki not photograph and why?
Crazy guy, he shoots what he wants to remember which is everyday. It is like he has camera tourettes and leaves the camera by his side when he doesn’t want to remember a part in his life.
such a beautiful photo.
8. What is the premise of post-modernism?
It’s a vague one, it is the opinion that we live in a culture where advertising rules and I live in a capitalist life style which is overrun by fake promises that are shown by the media such as beauty products, gadgets that will help you live better and people think by seeing these studio shots of glamour models you can do the same. You can show what you want to be but post-modernism rids the idea of this. It believes that we are not real, we are people other people want us to be…
1. Why did Garry Winogrand take photographs?
“To see what the world looked liked, photographed”
Which is a great statement because all of us photographers use this to explain why and you are only here once, might as well record some of it.
2. Why did “citizens evolve from blurs to solid fresh”?
Technology. With anything technology evolves all the time and gets bigger and better and photography is a prime example of this evolution because what we hold in our hands is a tool. Such as Atget’s street scenes of Paris…
Because the film speeds were so slow back in the day he had to use long exposures and thus creating the clothes and the trees blurred. Also his tool (camera) was very cumbersome, tripod and big view cameras. But now we are able to get pin sharp images and create citizens into solid flesh due to the advancement of the camera…
(just a shot to show the digital age)
3. What was/is the “much misunderstood theory”?
The decisive moment. This is the code of all documentary photographers in which they take Cartier Bresson’s theory and imitate and make it there own but of course not every photographer was in Paris and with an easy going public back in the olden days. Where ever a photographer is they have to understand the times they live in and the people they live with.
I am from Coventry and the stigma that surrounds Cov is that it is rough. I go out and try to photograph the people around me. But to get that decisive moment and if I am nervous to blatantly show I am photographing them, I will hip – shoot.
I saw this man in the bus station, he had such a stare that if I stopped him or if he noticed me take a picture I would loose that look, that stare and loose the decisive moment.
The photo of the girl with a shiner, she is a local and I saw her arguing with the man holding the bag, I think I would get battered if they saw me take that decisive moment so I hoped for the best and hip shot. So, photographer’s adapt this theory into their own and so do I.
4. Who was the godfather of street photography in the USA?
It was Gary Winogrand. He was pretty much the originator and fire starter of American photography in the streets. He documented life and was energetic and confident. He taught students and one student remembers asking him when he was reloading in his Leica, “Do you feel bad about missing pictures when you reload. “No,” he replied, “there are no pictures when I reload.”
This confidence and energy is why he is hailed as the Godfather and to show how much he photographed here is his Leica…
Look at the pressure plate, you can see the sprocket holes of the 35mm film!
5. Who was Paul Martin and what did he do?
He was an English photographer and in 1896 he photographed the British seaside, such as great Yarmouth. He photographed the candid English eccentricity on the beaches using a camera disguised as a parcel so he could photograph the up tight & straight backed Victorians relaxing and having fun…
6. Who said “When I was growing up photographers were either nerds or pornographers”?
Ed Ruscha, a pop artist who has experimented with photography among other mediums. He produced some really fascinating books of deadpan america, such as gas stations and car parking lots…
7. Why does William Eggleston photograph in colour?
Ah Eggleston, what a man, he said “If I just make the colour hierarchy the structure of the picture, can that work and still do realistic subject matter, still do the real world?” Meaning the colour is paramount to his images, not so much about structure or subject matter because colour is a dominant factor to what we see. Colour definitely adds to the story or photograph, it can change to what we read about the photograph dramatically.
8. What is William Eggleston about?
A man of very few words and those words were he is about “photographing life today”
Yeah he’s pretty rad…
1. What is described as “One of the most familiar concepts in photography”?
“A decisive moment”
Bresson captured this man jumping off into the unknown and since then it has been the thrill for photographers to capture something that may or will not ever happen again. It is the beauty of capturing history in a moment.
2.Should you trust a photograph? (1.38m G3)
A lot people think seeing a photograph is seeing the facts and hard truth but that is not always the case. Photography can be bias and objective in the view of the photographer which could be used as propaganda if used in war, just like Rodchenko’s white sea canal photograph…
3.What was revolutionary about the Leica in 1925?
It was brilliant!
Bresson and his Leica
such a beauty
An awesome feat of German engineering. A revolutionary design which needed no tripods, quiet, no big film and was small to carry around and glide through the action effortlessly and allowed instant photography!
4.What did Bernard Shaw say about all the paintings of Christ?
“I would exchange every painting of Christ for one snapshot” A very big statement, photography, is so raw and detailed than paintings will ever be. Paintings are beautiful but photography is real.
5.Why were Tony Vaccaro’s negatives destroyed by the army censors?
Vaccaro’s negs were destroyed because he had documented everything, including dead G.I’s. Of course, the U.S.A wanted the public shielded from such atrociousness of war showing their own boys lying in the ground with their lives shot short… The public was not ready for these images…
6.Who was Henryk Ross and what was his job?
Henryk Ross was a polish Jew incarcerated in the lodz ghetto and he was the ghetto’s official photographer documenting what happened in the day to day life of the ghetto, of course, it had to look good for the Nazi censors. His job was to photograph goods that the inhabitants made and exported…
But he was also a photojournalist and documented the decaying lifestyle for the Jews at the Ghetto. He would risk his own life to photograph the atrocities of the Nazi regime…
7.Which show was a “Sticking plaster for the wounds of war”, how many people saw it and what “cliche” did it end on?
The ‘Family of Man’ was an exhibition held in New York in 1955; it was a public statement on behalf of humanity and was photography’s big response to a world rapidly moving from hot to cold war. The show was comprised of over 500 images that were selected from millions of images, from 273 photographers both amateur and professional. The show had over 9 million visitors by 1964; it was a sticking plaster for the wounds of war and it had concluded with Eugene Smith’s ‘The Walk to Paradise Garden’.
8.Why did Joel Meyerowitz photograph ground zero in colour?
“To photograph it in black and white would to keep it as a tragedy, it would give a tragic element to a photograph, in this case, of what it is was a collapse and destruction” – Joel Meyerowitz
Which it would, black and white does give a sense of gloom to some images, just like war photography, B & W definitely gives it a kick of grimness and doom. But these colour photographs of rubble seem to ease off and show the determined spirit of the U.S.A
What a nutter
1. What are Typologies?
Typologies are photographic collections of what the photographer records visually in their work. Whether it be a re-occurring theme, subject, people, what ever it is, it keeps popping up in their work… very much like a comparison of the subjects.
Just like Bernd and Hilla Becher’s typologies of European heavy machinery…
![berndandhillabecher01[1]](https://billymoorephotography.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/berndandhillabecher011.jpg)
![bechers_gravelplants[1]](https://billymoorephotography.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bechers_gravelplants1.jpg)
![los_becher[1]](https://billymoorephotography.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/los_becher1.jpg)
They would scour the lands looking for repetitive architecture of these monsters of industry and create their typologies of blast furnaces, mills, water tanks and so on.
2. What was “The face of our time”?
August Sander and his book of portraits, titled, “The face of our time” Is an impressive documentation of the German people throughout the Weimar republic. He had a great work ethic of photographing his subjects, he would get a profession and then single out the layers or, say, authority in the profession and photograph each rank individually. What made these photo’s different from his other work is that you are in the subjects environment reading more information about the subject…
3. Which magazine did Rodchenko design?
USSR IN CONSTRUCTION! A Russian magazine journal about, you guessed it, propaganda. It was one of the leading propaganda publications about the wonderful motherland which lasted for eleven years…
(Hmm… needs more Stalin)
Rodchenko created a magazine with a solid fusion of photography and photo constructivism/ montage throughout…
4. What is photo-montage?
Stemming off from question 3, Photo montage is basically the first Photoshop, first popularised by Rodchenko, he cut, paste, retouched and created new energetic images out of single photos.
This effect can be harnessed for good or for worst, such as the white sea canal edition of USSR in construction.
The below image is the original and the top is the photo montaged image. The story goes they are criminals, being rehabilitated by hard labour digging a 140 mile canal but in reality they were political prisoners who died digging it out. The most saddening part I think is Rodchenko changed the skeleton like faces of the prisoners to healthy smiling faces…
5. Why did Eugene Atget use albumen prints in the 1920’s?
He knew no other way of processing films. Why stop and change to something else when you know it so well? Plus it’s easy you can develop prints in light.
6. What is Solarisation & how was it discovered?
Solarisation is the dark room process of exposing an already developed print to light for a second or two and then processing it again in developer. Solarisation creates a metallic effect resulting some areas to look like the negative and some areas positive. It was discovered by accident by one of Man Ray’s assistants in the dark room and realising the effect it caused he then use it extensively throughout his surreal works…
7. What was the relationship between Berenice Abbott and Eugene Atget?
Berenice Abbott, at the time, was in France assisting Man – Ray in many of his projects and through Man – Ray meeting Atget, Abbott finally met Atget took the last pictures of him before he died in 1927…
![eugene_atget_1927-(c)-bernedice-abbott_george-eastman-house_[enface]](https://billymoorephotography.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/eugene_atget_1927-c-bernedice-abbott_george-eastman-house_enface.jpg)
8. Why was Walker Evans fired from the FSA?
The FSA or farms security administration was a documentation of the dust bowl refugees in america. The government sent photographers to propagandise the dust bowl and document support of government relief effort’s. With propaganda, you kind of have to lie such as Dorothea lange’s Migrant mother. The mother looks to be middle class with three children but in fact she has seven children and with this documentation, Walker Evans photography did not fit the criteria.
(He would re-arrange people’s ornaments and objects to what suited him)
He had artistic vision and personal photos that he made into photographic art and with his very different approach compared to the other photographers, he was fired, due to his work not being up to standards with the FSA.
1. How did Bjork and Chris collaborate on the All is full of love video?
Like any artist they collaborated together to create a music video. They both had something they both needed and brought it together. Bjork wrote the song and Chris directed the video. They have known each other before hand and Bjork had liked his previous work on Aphex twin videos.
2. What techniques were used on the portishead video to create the
unusual slow motion effects.? Research this.
The surreal slow motion effects were made by placing the actors in a tank of water, big enough to do what they needed to do and then they were super imposed into the alley of the video. Different frame rates were used to create the slow motion effect and also the video is reversed to create that unique effect.
3. What other music video directors have gone on to direct feature
films? Name two and the feature films they have made.
David Fincher has directed various stylistic music videos such as Sting’s – An English man in new york (1987) and has gone on to produce films that are high up on my list…
Zodiac (2007)
Such a detailed and beautifully shot film. A film about the Californian serial killer who riddled in secret messages in late 1960s and early 1970s and called himself the Zodiac. David Fincher put so much detail into the film…
I mean look at that, it is spot on, Mark Ruffalo as detective David Toschi. This really shows how much detail was put in.
(The Zodiac was Arthur Leigh Allen! I know it!)
Jonathan Glazer has also made a film that I enjoy. He is known for his pretty smooth Jamiroquai – Virtual insanity music video (1997) and he directed Sexy beast (2000)…
A story of a retired safecracker being asked to do one more job but it goes wrong…
4. Which famous sci – fi film did Chris Cunningham’s work on before he
became a director?
Chris has an uncanny ability to make some weird and very believable props such as the Bjork video, All is full of love but before this he was a prop designer before his directorial debut, Aphex twin – come to daddy video in 1997. He had worked on…
(dat chin)
Judge Dredd (1995) Stallone as the infamous judge and his battle to against his corrupt and crazy brother. He gets caught by a group of wrong- uns and one of them is a half bionic half psycho called Mean “Mean Machine” Angel…
I guess he has such good details in the props due to being into industrial mechanics when he was younger.
There he is!
Actor Christopher Adamson relaxing back stage
5. What makes his work different or original compared to other similar
directors?
Like I said before Chris has an excellent ability to create the most beautiful and clinical scenes, such as the “All is full of love” music video
or he can go completely dark, surreal and damn right scary in his music videos such as Window licker or Aphex twins video, come to daddy…
Creepy stuff.
But what makes him different is his communication between him and his clients to really get what they are looking for and he pushes and pushes for perfection in his direction to get his own unique style and he is truly one of a kind.
1.What is the role of the Cinematographer in film making?
The Cinematographer is, in other words, a photographer for the film but instead of a still image it is a series of images that move in quick succession. They are the controllers of what the film looks like, under exposed, B+W, colour, cross processed, etc. Without a cinematographer movie’s will not happen.
2 .Why did director Roman Polanski insist on using hand held camera in the film Chinatown?
There is a specific scene in which Polanski directed the camera to be handheld…
In the bathroom scene after Nicholson has his nose slit by thugs, Polanski, wanted the scene to be intimate between him and dunaway. They were able to achieve this by having new equipment, lighter cameras, so they could handhold the camera in a small space, e.g a bathroom, and not a set. This in turn led to a more intimate scene almost claustrophobic. Like you are in the same room. And with the actors in a real environment and not a set they had a more real and spontaneous reaction to the scene.
3 .Name two films which use colour in a very symbolic way, and
describe what they suggest.
The Godfather 2: the story about a young Vito Corleone played by Robert Deniro shows how he came to power and Michael’s struggle to expand the family business . The cinematographer, Gordon Willis, chose to shoot the flashbacks of Vito’s life in an amber hue. This distinctively makes you aware of the different time periods of the film, 1950’s – 1910’s, where it show’s the young Vito story…
Which immediately makes me feel that it is an old sepia photograph…
It is a great way to show age and timelessness through changing the colour hue.
Se7en: An excellent thriller about the seven deadly sins with actors, Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. The film’s overall feel is a very dark and depressing urban environment with non-stop raining. The director David Fincher and cinematographer, Darius Khondji, wanted to give the film a brooding, dark feel to it and processed Seven with a bleach bypass effect. The effect is the result of the silver in the film stock not being removed which in turn makes the film darker and improves tonality…
Excellent film.
4. In the film Raging Bull why was the fight scene filmed at
different speeds?
The great fight scene between Lamotta and sugar ray, Michael Chapman changed the frame rates to portray the action and violence of the fight to an almost operatic quality. The punch up scenes would be normal rate, 24fps and then it will speed up when sugar goes down then slow right down when Lamotta is catching his breath. It is all over the place. It keeps your eye’s peeled because you are able to keep up with the fights and then see the individual blood and sweat drops.
A great film with LIFE magazine inspired imagery.
5. Who is the cinematographer for the film Apocalypse Now,
and what is his philosophy?
Vittorio Storaro is claimed as one of the master’s of Cinematography, sharp suited and Italian. He has worked for various directors, most notable is Apocalypse now and The last emperor. His working methods or philosophy is very deep and complex when it comes to the colour and light in his films. He uses colour to represent different meanings throughout his films. Almost writing poetry with light.
1 .List two specific key relationships between Sam
Taylor Wood’s photography and film work?
I guess her inspiration and drive to make her work is emotion; mainly her own thought’s and feeling’s and what she had been through at the time directs her work..
(Self portrait as a tree)
Such as this photograph. At the time of taking she was going through chemotherapy. It was only after everything c licked for her and it represented her emotions, at the time, properly.
and people are paramount to making her work, lovers, friends and strangers. These are the key relationship’s in her work.
2. How does the use of multi-screen installation in
her work reflect narrative?
The clever use of multi screen projections to show a piece of work and narration work’s tremendously well, so well, that when you enter the room of the installation…
(Travesty of a mockery, 1995)
You are suddenly engulfed in a domestic dispute about love and relationships that you are in the room witnessing their live’s falling apart and it is almost claustrophobic. The story is not directed at you but constructed so you can make your own narrative in the space you are given. Which make’s video’s like this a lot more interesting.
3. What other photographers use film as an
integral part of their work.List two with examples?
A photographer that stands out to me is William Eggleston and his experimental film, stranded in canton 1974. A bizzare film showing the inside of heated Memphis and New Orleans through his eyes.
All shot on a Sony portapak which was then, a state of the art piece of kit, but by today’s standards lo quality but that makes the feel better.
Another Photographer that uses film in their work was Man Ray being a surrealist photographer and founder of a lot of dark room techniques he incorporated them in his films. With strange results.
(Emak bakia – Leave me alone 1926)
Is a story of… well, I don’t know. It is one of those strange art films that are very dada-ish and don’t really have a story.
4. Research three other Video artists and explain
their working philosophy
Matthew Barney one of the masters of avant-garde cinema. Projecting his work through moving image, photography, sculptures, heck anything he can get his hands on. His working philosophy is expensive to create absolutely unique movies through sound, colours and special visuals to create his works.
His work is definitely one of a kind I’ll give him that.
Pipilotti Rist a Swedish videographer and artist. Her working methods are shooting in a small groups to keep it controlled, control the editing and sounds of the final piece and it is why she likes doing what she does because there are so many different professions in her work to keep her inspired and keep the mojo flowing.
Her work consists of vibrant colours and lo-fi imagery and quality.
Tony Oursler is an american multimedia and installation artist with a work philosophy of working with big open spaces and projecting many of his pieces on live static inanimate objects such as glass and cotton dolls. He experiments with the feelings of moving image and objects in an open environment which create, almost, pieces of moving sculptures.
Their pretty damn funny haha
5. Show an example of a specific gallery space or a site specific location where a video artist or film maker has created work specifically for that space and been influenced by it.
Bill Viola is a video artist similar to Sam Taylor Wood in the way he uses space to reflect his thoughts and feelings in a designated space to project his movie.
(The stopping mind 1991)
In this piece Viola used four walled installation projections that stop and start without warning; when still they are accompanied by a soundtrack of a rapidly whispering voice, and when moving the room fills with a flutter of white noise.
The installation explores the difference between the human perception of the world and its representation either as still or moving documentation: it works as a visual metaphor for the stop-and-start movement of human thought processes.
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