Evaluation

Evaluation – Areas of Photographic Practice B

Laura Parkinson

This brief shocked me in terms of content and work flow, I have never looked into photojournalism before so having to attend exhibitions based on war and journalism was different and took some getting used to. I am predominately based as a fashion photographer, so to me, journalism is on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Thinking of ideas was no issue to me at all. I firstly contacted the Salford Choir who have travelled all over the country, but received no reply. It was only until the 5^th of January the chairman got back to me to say she was okay to let me cover the story. I will probably undertake this as a personal side project, but obviously it was too late for this module. I then moved on to looking at Islington Mill when a friend mentioned she had recently attended a concert there. I contacted the press and marketing manager and had a meeting, and the gig was mine!

I met up with 3 artists during my time at Islington Mill; Andrew Brooks of Andrew Brooks Photography, Paul Hallows of himHallows and the guys from One69A Screen-printing. Meeting new people was something that I was not used to and having to call and email to arrange times to attend was all new to me. I managed to get all the photographs I thought I needed for the assignment in time for the deadline for Quays News.

I do not think I quite got the hang of photojournalism from the off, as an arts and fashion based photographer at heart, I went out with the intention of taking interesting and lovely looking photographs that I thought people would like. I never really thought about the content and if the viewer would be able to understand. After a meeting with Les, the module leader, he told me that my photographs would be more suitable for a gallery wall rather than a newspaper. I then researched into photojournalism for papers rather than solely looking at the work of artists like Sean Smith and Steve McCurry. I wish I had conducted this research earlier, as I would have taken the right photographs from the offset. However, everyone learns from their mistakes, I certainly have from mine.

Overall, I found this a challenging but rewarding module. I feel like I have grown as both a photographer as well as a person, as I now know that I can speak to people I have never met before and direct them as to what photographs that I want. I have learnt that less is more when it comes to photojournalism, images need to be as simple as possible without confusing the viewer into believing something else.

Gallery

For the layout of my exhibition I plan to have my two final images placed side by side in thin black­ frames or mounted onto foam board. I wanted a simplistic layout, as I want the main attention to be focused upon the content of the images, rather than the way they are shown. I chose these two images as they represented the independent artists work that went on at Islington Mill. The first image on the left is of Paul Hallows finishing one of his illustrations from his new colouring book he is releasing this year. I used a 50mm lens set on f/1.8 to gain a shallow depth of field so I could focus exclusively on the drawing with a blurred setting. This made the focus fall solely on the drawing and Paul Hallows drawing this rather than the whole shot. The other photographs on the right, was of Andrew Brooks finishing off one of his pieces in his studio. I thought this represented his line of work well, and looked good with the image of Paul Hallows image. It represents the hardworking background of Islington Mill and the artists that live and work there.

One69A Screenprinting (Images)

I went an re-shot some images with advice from Les in mind with the guys from One69A Screen printing at Islington Mill. I decided to get more action shots of what they did that were self explanatory and told a clear story to the viewer.

In the above three photographs, you can clearly see the process that is being carried out in order to screen print the t shirt, I would place these all together in a cinema strip roll kind of composition so you can see what is happening like a film.

This one is not so self explanatory as I was using a 50mm lens in a small room. I won't be using this one but you can see that the person is using a heater to seal the print in. You would probably only know this is happening if you were fluent in screen printing or had been told, so is not a suitable image for photojournalism.

Gallery Exhibition Ideas

We had a talk just before we broke up for Christmas from the curator of Salford Museum and Art Gallery about work she wanted to be submitted for a joint gallery exhibition in April/May. As my original images were more artistic than journalistic, I decided upon two photographs which would work within a gallery environment.

These two photographs more more artistic through their depth of field and soft focus, which I have learned doesn't work with photojournalism. The subject doesn't explain itself, but as pieces of art they are thought-provoking and visually aesthetic. The first image is my favourite from the entire project I have undertaken so far. The depth of field solely rests upon the image that Paul Hallows is drawing as part of his practice, and the composition is central, with the soft focus extending outwards. I chose the shot of a customer looking at Andrew Brook's work as well, because of the colours that the piece exudes. It's eye catching to an audience and people would stop and look at the piece. 

Captions for Quays News Images

Christmas Fair at Islington Mill

Visitors at Islington Mill eat festive mince pies

Paul Hallows speaks with a passerby

Andrew Brooks discuss his work with a visitor

Andrew Brooks in front of one of his well-known images

Andrew Brooks working on his latest piece

Paul Hallows working on his latest illustration

Paul Hallows in his personal studio

One69A work with their screenprinting designs

One69A finalise their design on one of their clothing pieces

Photojournalism as Art?

"There has been a number of different takes on this: 1) the two are separate things, an example of which is when Capa counselled Bresson to leave his didding with surrealism behind and take up photojournalism; 2) the two are intertwined, as instanced by Dorothea Lange's statement: 'There is no real warfare between the artists and the documentry photographer. He has to be both." 3) or the rather more subtle if not coy position taken by Salgado, which is simultaneously separates and unifies the two: 'I can be an artist a posteriori, not a priori" (Unknown, 2006, Light Stalkers)

After having a discussion with Les about how my work is not perceived as photojournalism, as they are classed as good looking photographs and do not have enough information in them, I thought back to when I was taking the photographs with the journalist who is writing the feature. I thought that because of the feature, that my photographs would be self explanatory. I never thought that a passerby might just look at the photographs and not think twice about what they represent.

The two photographs that I captured before were the only two that Les commented saying they were typical photojournalism. In the top image, we can clearly see that the person who is drawing must be an illustrator, and we can see that his work is representing someone in space. We can then read on in the article and find out that Paul Hallows studied physics at University before becoming an artist and his passion falls within his art. In the second image, we can see that Andrew Brooks is working on his iMac on a photograph of his. We can see that the iMac represent an artists, as artists typically use Apple products, and the photographs and canvases in the background represent his artist background.

I then looked into this photograph that was taken by Eddie Adams in 1968 in Saigon during the war. In this photograph, we can clearly see that a person is being shot by someone who looks to be of the same ethnicity. At a first glance, it looks like this person is being executed for no other reason than that he has done something wrong, however, when you look deeper into the image and see the person with the gun is of the same ethnicity, we start to ask is this a fair trial? Is this person being shot for no reason, or just because he has been accused of something? I like to think that although my photographs do not follow the typical line of photojournalism, they all contain a hidden meaning like this one, and if you read the feature alongside the images, then you gain a clearer understanding of what is within the image.

"Photojournalism doesn't appreciate questions... Photojournalism suffers from the narrows, and denying the art of photojournalism helps narrow it. Photojournalism will get stronger through expansion of concepts, not contraction. Photojournalism has gotten so narrow that anyone with a digital camera can do it... photojournalists haven't concentrated on creating an art that goes beyond what the digital camera can do" (Tom Hubbard, 2005, Digital Journalist)

In the article I read about, Tom Hubbard challenged the views of Peter Howe in whether photojournalism could be classed as art. I found the article interesting, as he said that what was once considered as being war photography is not being shown on gallery walls, but back when they were being produced, they were used as news images and not classed as artistic in any way, shape or form. After looking at references, I have decided that after Christmas I am going to re-shoot my journalism so it is suitable for an art gallery, I plan to collaborate with 3 more artists so I have a total of 5 artists and take more photographs of artists within their work spaces inside Islington Mill. I have emailed Jamie who is the press and marketing manager, and she is hopefully going to put me in contact with some more artists so I can put together a well informed, interesting and engaging series of images suitable for both gallery space and newspaper print. 

References: Unknown. (2006). Photojournalism as Art?. Available: http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/photojournalism-as-art. Last accessed 12/12/2013.
Hubbard, T. (2005). Is it Art? A Response to Peter Howe by Tom Hubbard. Available: http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0506/hubbard.html. Last accessed 12/12/2013.

Paul Hallows (Images)

I went to photograph Paul Hallows today of himHallows as part of the Hidden Salford brief and captured these images.

I decided to capture a close up shot of Paul working on an unfinished piece, as you can see him in the right hand side of the photograph, as well as the drawing he is finishing in focus with the tip of the pen. Again, referring to the feedback I go, I wish I had of taken a more typical approach to my photographs as part of my photojournalism. However, trying to take boring photographs is something I struggle to do and always revert back to my old ways of taking "pretty pictures".

I took this close up of Paul's work that was hanging from a canvas. Again, no stereotypical photojournalism but I like to feel I have challenged the "stereotypical" view of photojournalism with these photographs and can produce an exciting and readable feature when my journalist has finished the article.

I then took a photograph similar to the portrait of Andrew Brooks, with Paul Hallows in front of his work. Again, referring to what Les said, I should have got Paul to hold up a canvas of photograph, but I felt like these portraits of the artists introduced them to the article. The only thing I would change about this photograph would have been the lighting, as the lighting is all one directional so it is casting a harsh shadow on his face. However, I fixed this using the fill light tool in Camera RAW and some recovery.