Jakarta Inside Out by Daniel Ziv

As I intend to emulate this book on a small scale for Assignment 5, I need to identify the characteristics of the publication before setting down in writing the proposed brief for the assignment:
- what is the subject of the book and how is it structured?
- how are the photographs and text laid out?
- what are the visual characteristics of the images?
 As Guildford is a town with a very different character to Jakarta, I expect to have to adapt the idea of the Jakarta book to suit my local visual environment.  
Subject and structure of the book
As written on the dust jacket, Jakarta Inside Out is "a no-nonsense, humorous, contemporary snapshot of a 21st century Southeast Asian city bursting at the seams.....of ordinary people in their urban landscape, of culture and pop-culture."
The book has just over sixty topics, arranged in alphabetic order. Like Couplands book on Vancouver, the  topics are the idiosyncrasies of the city and its inhabitants. In the case of Jakarta, most of the topics concern its street life and its night life, whereas in the Vancouver book, there is more about the neighborhoods and the impact of it's surroundings.

Lay out of the photographs and text

In the Jakarta book, each topic is set out on a double page, most of which is used for a single square photograph illustrating the topic. The rest of the space contains a column of text about the topic. Mostly the text is black text on a white background, but on some pages where the photograph is dark toned (e.g. night scenes), a black background is used with white text. 

There are double page spreads every 4 or 5 topics with full bleed photo with landscape framing.
The size of the book is 22 cm high by about 17 cm wide, which is an aspect ratio of about 1.3 for a single page. The shape is similar to the Vancouver book 20.3 cm high by 16.7 cm wide. The pages are therefore significantly less oblong than the more familiar A4 which has an aspect ratio of 1.41. However, this format creates a double page spread with an aspect ratio of 0.67, which is similar to the aspect ratio of 35mm film (0.68) 

Visual characteristics of the images

People feature in almost every photograph: the powerful, the poor, the happy and the sad. 

All the photographs are colour and the subjects are often colourful. There are no monochrome images.
The photographs in the Jakarta book are mostly high impact street photography in contrast to the rather more understated photos in the Vancouver book. The Jakarta photos are more in the style of William Klein, photos taken close up, snatched amongst a crowd, with out of focus figures, sloping horizons and movement blur. The Vancouver book photos are more in the style of Martin Parr - they look as if they have been taken with deliberation and awareness. The framing and composition is less spontaneous, but use is made of colours and detail to intrigue and draw the viewer's attention.
Some example layouts from Jakarta Inside Out by Daniel Ziv

  

City of Glass - Douglas Coupland's Vancouver

I was quite surprised when this book arrived last Spring, because, compared to "Jakarta: Inside Out" the photographs have a more muted style and they are rather less prominent in the layout. Nevertheless, I decided that it was worth looking at in some detail, and, in fact, I found that the book was entertaining, as well as providing some interesting background to the Jakarta book.
The author, Douglas Coupland, explains on the cover that his purpose is to explain to visitors what Vancouver feels like to someone who lives there. The 50 or so topics are arranged alphabetically, each one a humorous article on the idiosyncrasies of the city or its people, for example, the social effect of being so close to the US border, the stockpiles of sulphur stacked in yellow mounds in the harbor. There are photographs linked to every topic, mainly photographed specially by Una Knox, an artist and photographer who divides her time between Vancouver and London.
Douglas Coupland is a Vancouver resident author known for his pithy and prescient commentary on modern life (according to the brief description of the book on Amazon UK website). He is best known for his novels, but he has published writing of all sorts. This particular book seems to have been very succesful, so much so that a new edition was published at the end of 2010.
In an interview with Linda Richards of January magazine in 2001, Coupland explained how the book layout originated. "He was working with a designer Judith Steepman on a show catalogue for an exhibition and he thought that the "visual type vernacular" style used in the catalogue wold be just right for the Vancouver book". Interestingly, Richards also commented that "whilst none of the photographs are by fellow-Vancouverite, Jeff Wall, whose flatly lit and unlovely outdoor scenes have defined an international photographic movement, but Wall's influence can be felt, nonetheless".
I noted two particular characteristics of the photographs. Firstly, the photographer uses the framing to make the people anonymous in quite a number of photos. Second, she uses primary colours in some of the compositions e.g. food and shops. The book uses a layout of two colour pages followed by two black and white pictures, and the saturated colours on the colour pages seem that much more intense as a result. In the article by Linda Richards, she comments that "Knox's work, like Coupland's own is understated and darkly humorous. That is to say in both cases, the humour is deep and very much there, but you might have to work a bit to find it". I think this is correct, there is some complexity underlying the apparent simplicity. I found various links to Knox's other artistic work, but no other photography.

Context and Narrative by Maria Short

Signs and symbols
For me the most significant thing that I discovered on reading this book related to the chapter on Signs and Symbols. On reflecting on the author's summary of the basic theories of semiotics, I realised that the people that I photograph when travelling overseas are symbols for me of an aspect of that country. For example, when I was in Japan, I wanted to convey the order and conformity of Japanese society through a photo of school children wearing smart uniforms.

Uniformed school boys

Expressed in another way, the photographs that I look for are generally photographic cliches or stereotypes. I admit that these terms carry an adverse connotation. Nevertheless, I consider that this is a valid and reasonably approach to take to travel photography:

• This is possibly inevitable if the symbolism is to be understood by a viewer.
• I also look out for anti-stereotypes. I was surprised, for example, that Japanese young people, who I expected to be addicted to their mobile phones and other electronic gadgets, were still to be found sitting comfortably in cafes deeply engrossed reading a book. I took several shots of book readers as a result.

This chain of thought also led me to realize that in taking candid photographs of strangers, it is the symbolism of the figure that is important not their identity (unlike a portrait of someone you know or a celebrity where identity would normally be paramount). The Migrant Mother photographed by Dorothea Lange was a potent symbol of the plight of migrant workers and their families. Her identity is far less significant.
This possibly explains why I felt that something was lacking in the photographs that I took at Guildford Farmers Market in April. The photographs of stallholders would be reasonable as portraits, but to me, these individuals had no symbolic significance. The photo of the gipsy lady taken at the market on the same day, on the other hand, seemed stronger. Possibly her avid gaze for a someone to buy her flowers epitomized the harshness of life as a traveller.
Narrative
In a similar way, reading the chapter on Narrative prompted my thoughts on how I have started to use narrative in my travel photography. Instead of taking photos of subjects that I come across during the day, I have consciously been formulating a narrative or themes (in this context a theme is an idea that forms part of the overall narrative) that I can use to bring some structure to the photographs that I take.
As we are generally going to places that I am unfamiliar with, I usually only find an idea for a narrative at some time after the trip has started. I will often look at pictures beforehand in guide books and on the web (e.g. on Flickr to see what local photographers think is interesting). This helps to start my mind thinking about themes but such third party sources are generally disappointing in terms of suggesting ideas. It is only when I am in a place that the idiosynchrasies become apparent. For example, two of the most distinctive features of the city of Santiago de Chile were first, the well fed dogs who seem to be populate the streets and squares in the city centre and second, the courting couples using the small grass areas on roundabouts and traffic islands for their trysts. These peculiarities do not appear in the guide books or Flickr groups as I guess they are not considered important by the people who contribute to those sources. For me however, these were the reasons that Santiago de Chile was far more interesting than Buenos Aires where the central area was indistinguishable from a city in Europe.
Having such a theme has many benefits:-

• I have some specific subjects already in mind when I am out and about, which makes it more likely that I will be ready with my camera if a suitable situation arises.
• It is otherwise easy to miss themes whose activity is in the background, e.g. photos of the crew on a boat trip.
• It is easy to create a photojournal on the journey home or within a couple of days. Starting from scratch can take days or weeks.
• It also helps me to identify unexpected subjects that present themselves.

The theme prompts me to work out some potential subjects that could illustrate points in the narrative.
The chapter on Context and Narrative in the book was one of the most interesting, in particular the variety shown in the examples.
I thought that the recent exhibition at the Photographers Gallery in London of photographs by Edward Burtynsky on Oil was especially impressive as a narrative.

• The photographs are beautifully presented, the quality of the photographs, the light and composition are fantastic.
• The images have a uniformity of style in terms of size and his use of high viewpoint. The large size prompts the viewer to linger at each picture taking in the details.
• The movement from subject to subject as the narrative progresses compels the viewer to wonder what will come next.
• The narrative shows aspects of the industry and the side-effects in a way that is thought provoking and original.

Other notes 
Some of other points that I noted in reading the other chapters were:

• On subjects: If it is clear WHY the photograph is to be taken, you can then decide HOW to take the photograph.
• This leads on to the practical questions - Is it essential to photograph the subject or can it be implied? How important is the context? What do you need to show or want to show?
• Once the subject is decided, draw up a shooting list of the various specific views of that subject.
• Don't forget to think about "missing information" - the aspects of a scene that are not visible: sound, smell, fear. Can these be made visible in some way?

All in all, a useful book to read and think about.

Nadav Kander - Obama's People

I have just read an interview with Nadav Kander published 3 years ago just after his set of portaits "Obama's People" appeared in the New York Times. I found this article in an old RPS Journal (June 2009) that someone had left at my photography club. I had looked at this set of portraits on the photographers website early last year just before finishing TAOP in 2011. One of my 2010 Xmas presents was a copy of his book "Yangtse - The Long River" and I recorded my comments on the Yangtse photographs in my blog in January 2011.

I remember feeling puzzled by the style of his portraits. In my mind I was comparing these to the Annie Leibovitz portraits of US politicians that I had seen in the 2009 retrospective of her work "A Photographers Life 1990 - 2005" at the National Portait Gallery, London. Nadav Kander's portraits appeared to resemble snapshots, lacking the natural-looking light and stylish postures of Leibovitz portraits.

The article was interesting as Kander explained his intentions for this sequence of portraits that was commissioned by the New York Times.

The interview with Journal editor David Bland was entitled "The Question Mark" and the title was explained in the opening paragraphs with Kander was talking about his style of photography:-

"What I look for in a portrait and what I look for in a landscape are the same. It is always slightly uncomfortable, with the question mark rather than the exclamation mark. I love Bill Brandt's work: it's a similar effect. There's a disquiet there, and a questioning."

He also commented that "My work has very little to do with the decisive moment. It doesn't really come into my way of thinking. I don't need to see the moment. I take it. I'm not a documentarian, I am not a hunter."

His precise meaning here is unclear. What I take from his comments are

• Not all photography involves finding a decisive moment.
• I think his comment "I am not a hunter" refers to an analogy that photographers can be categorized as "hunters" or "fishermen". Hunter photographers use movement and speedy reactions to capture the elusive "prey" . For fishermen photographers, on the other hand, it is patience and guile that gets them the shot.

I have summarized some of the interesting points he made regarding his intentions for this commission:-

• They were intended to be viewed as a set, not as individual portraits. Indeed the New York Times devoted an entire issue to these portraits of the Obama Administration.
• He wanted the portraits to still be interesting in 20 years time. So that the portraits would not become too dated, he wanted the simplest possible format.
• He wanted to produce "accurate" portraits. His idea was to mimic a "photocopy" using a totally plain background and no context of the location i.e. no desk, room etc.
• He wanted the subjects to participate in the portrait making process. They could bring along something that belonged to them. He asked them to stand in a precise position and then he watched them to see how they would "handle their surroundings". If they got stuck, he suggested they remove their jacket or put their hands in their pockets.

His aim was to produce a set of similar subjects against an absolutely plain background. This has the effect that small details become important e.g. a particular hand posture. Such details would not be noticed in a portrait of someone seated at a desk or in a room. He acknowledges that this idea follows the thinking of Bernd and Hilla Becher in their series of photographs of water towers, blast furnaces etc.

The "oddity" with this sequence is that he added the shadows behind the figures at the printing stage. As a result, the subjects look as if they are standing immediately in front of a backdrop. In fact, the subjects were standing a long way away from the backdrop. He decided to add the shadow "to make things more interesting, more thought provoking: something odd that strikes you as not quite right". I am not sure that this subtlety would be detectible by the audience to produce the discordant note that he intends. As a student of photography, I will sometimes study the shadows in photographs to try and work out the direction and nature of the light source. These particular shadows, however, did not strike me as unnatural, even though I now know that they were artificially added.

Conclusions

Nadav Kander explains in the interview how he became a professional photographer. I was interested that his early career was based on commercial advertising work e.g. Benson and Hedges was one of his clients. My impression of this type of photography is that it involves close attention to detail, requiring total control over camera, lighting, setting etc. to achieve as near perfection technically and aesthetically as possible. This may account for the style of photography that he explains at the beginning of the article. With this commercial background, he is unlikely to become a street photographer in the style of Cartier Bresson or Doisneau.

Adding artificial shadows etc is probably fairly common practice in the field of commercial advertising.

His explanation of his intention in these photographs was fascinating and the I viewed the New York Times web page displaying the set of photographs with renewed interest and respect.

Train your gaze - portrait photography

I bought this book shortly after starting the course, and had read a few sections which I thought might be relevant to project topics e.g. Moment and eventfulness. I decided to read this more methodically in recent months expecting that it might provide some inspiration for the Subject Unaware section of the course.
I found the book to be interesting in regard to the historical and creative aspects. In particular, I enjoyed studying the photographs. The practical guidance for taking candid photographs was however sparse. The exercises appeared interesting challenges, but I have not found time to experiment with these.

I have noted a few observations and points to remember from this book.
Concept of portraiture
I have the impression that the author is concerned only with photography whose intent is "fine art". He does not mention any such restriction, but there is virtually no reference to photographs of people whose purpose is other than purely aesthetic. For example, the book does not touch upon fashion photography, nude photography, wedding photography and so on. He includes some comments on photojournalism/reportage but I feel that there is more to be said regarding style and subjects.

On the other hand, he writes about artists who use cameras to produce art works, e.g the artificially structured tableaux by Jeff Wall. The fact that a photograph includes people does not to my mind mean that the result is necessarily a "portrait". Some of Cindy Sherman's for example are interesting artistic works, but I am not sure whether they should be considered as portraits.
Role of photographer (and viewer)
He makes the wholly valid point that a portrait is an amalgam of the subjects appearance and the thoughtful regard of the photographer. To me, the role of the viewer is equally important in interpreting a portrait (more so than other pictures).

The reason for this, I feel is that a viewer interacts with the image of the person, responding in some way as if the actual person was present. As a result, the direction of a subjects gaze has a significant effect on the character of the image. If the viewer looks directly into the subject's eyes the interaction between viewer and subject is very different to a photo where the subject is gazing at something else.

Strangers as subjects
For me, one of the mysteries of candid/street photography is what makes a stranger interesting as a subject? The photograph Stranger 1999 on the cover by Shizuka Yokomizo which is on the cover of Train Your Gaze is one where this question comes to mind. The picture is visually pleasing with white curtains framing the subject repeated in the background. At first glance, I was intrigued by the image as I could not put my finger on the facial expression of the subject. Once I had read the background to this photograph, it becomes clear that the man is just bored and fed-up. This is not surprising as he was asked to stand in his window and just wait, whilst the photographer anonymously took photographs, without any contact with the subject. Why would anyone want a picture of a stranger of no interest to them whatever? I can understand that it is good to try anonymous photography and it may occasionally be possible to capture a significant moment or expression. This photograph seems to me to be little more than decorative. Similarly, the example of Beat Streuli's work shown in the book "New York 00" passes me by.

Whilst in Tokyo, I had an opportunity to see the retrospective exhibition of Robert Doisneau's photographs which provided further food for thought on this subject. Doisneau photographed ordinary people, but the images are compelling. For some he used models, I understand, but others seemed to be taken unaware.

Approach to creativity and Hockney exhibition

I read an interesting newspaper article recently which was reviewing the latest research on approaches to creativity. The article was directed to businesses but there were some of the points were potentially relevant for photography.

The main point of the research is that new ideas are not only the result of eureka moments when sudden moment of insight changed understanding or creates a new product idea. In fact, about half of new ideas come from a persistent approach, where someone keeps trying and does not give up. The example cited was the IdNY advertising slogan. The designer had already produced a design that had been accepted but he nevertheless continued mulling over different ideas, until he produced the one that is now so well known.

One of the things which struck me at the Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy shortly after reading this article was how Hockney painted the same (or similar) subjects in so many different ways: some highly stylised, some naturalistic, some with harmonious colours, some with vibrant colours. I was not concerned whether some of his work should be considered masterpieces or not as I am not sure how anyone can conclude one way or the other on that. For me the point that I took away was that even established artists probably experiment with different versions of a subject. Picasso is another famous artist where there seem to be a multiplicity of work on the same subject in different styles and different forms.

I acknowledge that the photographs I have been taking so far are conventional in style, and I should aim to experiment more. Most of the experimental versions will be failures, but with persistence there may be some which are effective.

Travel photography - Luke Duggleby, Larry Louie, and James Morgan

I came across the photography of Larry Louie and James Morgan as prize winners in the Travel Photographer of the Year Competition in 2010. My tutor, Michael Kinsey also suggested Larry Louie and Luke Duggleby as modern photographers that I might find interesting.

James and Luke are both commercial photographers working for magazine and corporate clients on photojournalism type assignments. Larry, in contrast, is an ophthalmologist by profession who practices in North America. Larry photographs remote parts of the world as a pass time.

Each of these photographers has photographed in Indonesia and have included portfolios of Indonesian subjects on their websites.

Larry Louie - Indonesia 2006 (Java and West Papua)

Luke Duggleby - The Salt Book - Kusamba, Bali and Savu, Indonesia

James Morgan - Papua Elections 2012

As I am familiar to some extent with these Indonesian locations and conditions, I chose these particular photos to review as guidance on these photographers approach and style.

Larry Louie

Larry's series of photographs of Java and West Papua are visually dramatic black and white pictures. The composition and enormous tonal range make the images strongly eye-catching and he clearly merited the Photographer of the Year award. I would differ however with the observation made on his website that his photography is "Realism at its best". For me, on the contrary, these photographs portray an visually exaggerated view of these scenes and places. The images seem to be touched up that they represent an imaginary ideal of the world. This is somewhat similar to the comment that images of women in magazines do not portray what women are actually like. These are very memorable images, but they convey little sense of the actual place.

Luke Duggleby

Luke, on the other hand, is taking photographs in locations without the stunning scenery and colourful characters photographed by Larry. Traditional salt production in Bali is taking place on a rather nondescript beach with local people dressed in their everyday clothes. The location is Savu is similar, although the ground is rocky. Nevertheless, Lukes photographs use compositional techniques of framing, asymmetry, pattern and so on to produce images which are visually interesting. The colour and light seem totally natural, and I had no impression that the colour, contrast etc had been adjusted at all.

His sequences of photographs portray the various stages of natural salt production without individual captions. An overview describes each stage of the process, so that a viewer can work out for himself or herself what is happening in each picture.

The photographs are limited to scenes of salt production and he includes no images of other aspects of villagers lives, for example where they live, is there a school, how is the salt transported and sold. As a section of a book on natural salt production, the scope of these photographs was presumably limited by the brief for the book.

I noted a similar limitation looking at his photographs of the whaling village on Lamalera Island in Indonesia. He clearly must have spent a week or more in the village to take the variety of creatures that are shown in his photographs. In this series, the photos focus on the extraordinary process of fishing in this village. I would also have been interested to see more of village life away from the whaling.

James Morgan

James sequence of photographs about the run up to the 2012 election in West Papua are most definitely a form photojournalism. James sequence of photographs depict an event rather than a place. Whilst the sequence of photographs describe the process of this event, the captions add some key information on the role and activities of the people and the place. I feel that the captions are essential to assist the viewer understand the images.

The photographs juxtapose the strongly held traditions on one side against western style shopkeepers, religion and processes of government on the other. James uses a wide angle lens close up to the subjects for a lot of these photos. One effect of this is to draw the viewer into the scene. He nevertheless varies composition and viewpoint to compose strong visual images (I admire the way he gets himself right into the centre of these scenes). The style is high contrast with vivid colours. I assume that most are natural light, with possibly some fill flash for the locations under shade.

Conclusions

These photographers represent three very different styles of what might be described as "documentary/photojournalism". All appear highly professional but their photographic objectives would appear quite different.

• Larry Louie's photographs can stand alone as iconic images. These are artistic in the sense that he reveals the beauty around us which we do not normally see. We do not have the perception nor do we look with sufficient attention.
• Luke Duggleby's photo-essays in contrast take the viewer on a voyage of discovery. The viewer is left to explore for himself the location and to form his own impressions of the people and the place. I felt as if I had been on the beach at his side and had seen for myself the salt making activities. (I would not have come back with photos as good as his however).
• James Morgan's photo-essays go one stage further, in that they show a society that is virtually impossible for us to understand or experience. Even if we were with him, we would probably not understand who the people are, what they were doing and why. In fact, we would probably be unwise to visit these places, even if we wanted to. His photo-essays come with an opinionated commentary which provides insight into the complexity of human society and its problems.

Do these photographers have relevance for my travel photography? I suggest that they all do in their different ways:-

• Do I want to see the iconic sights of the countries that I visit? This seems to be the basis for the mainstream tourist industry and for example, the cruises to far flung parts of the world. Like most people, I am attracted to the stunning photographs of places that I have not yet visited, and this will often encourage me to travel somewhere new.
• I enjoy exploration to discover things for myself when the opportunity arises. Watching fisherman working on a beach or walking around a rural area is often fascinating. I would like to collect my own impressions of holidays encompassing the regular daily lives and character of the places we visit, not just the famous sights. I have started in a limited way by writing a blog on our visit to Patagonia and will endeavor to develop this on future trips.
• Whilst I would love in my imagination to do investigative photojournalism like James Morgans, in reality this would not be desirable or practical. I am happy to take pleasure from looking at his work and the work of others like him.

Visa Festival of photojournalism - Fernando Moleres

I bought the September edition of Photo magazine whilst in France last week. The main articles covered photography presented at the Visa 2011 Festival of Photojournalism held at Perpignan. Whilst the subjects taken by photojournalists are often distressing, I felt that there were some aspects which parallel with travel photography: -

• Understanding a foreign location and developing a narrative/theme for a series of photos
• Planning how photos can visually communicate the features of the situation.
• Compiling and presenting a sequence of photos.

I have chosen to write about a series of photographs by Fernando Moleres "No children in prison" for various reasons:

- plenty of material: the article included six pages of photographs plus an interview with the photographer;

- people are the principal subject, with a mixture of portraits and people in a specific environment;

- I felt the compositions were effective in communicating points in narrative;

- these photos are displayed on his website, which I could link my comments to.

Fernando Moleres is a photographer based in Barcelona. He took up photography in 1991 after previously working in hospitals in third world countries. This project was inspired an exhibition of photographs by Lizzie Sadin at an earlier Perpignan festival about young people in prison around the world. He obtained funding from a municipal council in north west Spain intended to encourage tolerance by photography of social realities around the world. The photographs were taken in a particular prison in Freetown, Sierra Leone over a period of forty days. I have just selected a few that impressed me.

Behind bars (my description as the photographs are not titled)

This image shows the faces of two young prisoners standing behind the bars cell with a background filled with the faces of the other prisoners. The faces are looking directly at the camera engaging the viewer strongly.

Sleeping arrangements

This image shows part of a cell where 65 prisoners are sleeping on the floor of a small cell. They lie in a mixture of heads, feet, legs and arms. Just one person is alert and looking at the lens.

Rain shower

A group of prisoners are standing out in the rain, with arms outstretched, shouting out in exhilaration, it seems. The prison has limited water supply so rain is a rare opportunity to wash. The elation displayed by the mens postures in this photograph contrasts with the (understandably) solemn expressions in most of the other photographs.

Prison release office

This photograph of a man asleep on his desk in a room stacked with piles of papers was placed as the final photograph in the sequence shown in Photo magazine. The caption says that this is the man responsible for release of the prisoners, but he has little motivation to properly process their release. The hopelessness of the young prisoners situation is aptly conveyed by this scene of utter disorganization.

Conclusions

I was impressed by the visual qualities of these photographs, only a few of which I have mentioned above as illustration.

The photographs show a surprisingly frank view of the situation for someone visiting for a relatively short time.

They convey pictorially the key points of the situation in the prison. It shows the hardships of the prisoner's lives, but without using the camera effects to over-dramatize their circumstances.

Whilst the photographer has a deliberate "agenda" to show the plight of the prisoners, I feel the sequence of photographs are relatively neutral, showing glimpses of daily life, good and bad, as well as the indifference of the guards and administrators.

I would assume that the presence of the photographer has excluded the worst realities of life in this prison. Nevertheless, it is better to have some insight into the conditions in such a place rather than none at all.

It would be interesting to understand the ethical standards used by the photographer in relation to this photojournalism assignment. I did not find information on this in the article or the website, but I assume the photos represent a "controlled" situation "undisturbed setting, but photographer influences the scene e.g. "hold that pose".

Chris Marker - Passagers

I have read a number of photography articles in recent months on the annual photography festival in France "Les Rencontres d'Arles 2011". One of these that particularly drew my attention was about a french photographer called Chris Marker and a series of his recent photographs entitled "Passagers" (passengers).

The series comprises photographs of people taken in the Paris subway. In four of these, he noted a similarity between the features and pose of four women passengers with four masterpieces of painting for example the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and Mademoiselle Riviere by Ingres. I liked the juxtaposition of the painted portraits within the frame of the photographs. This draws the viewer into seeing these women, who are like those we see every day, as extraordinary. It emphasizes their distinctiveness, their features and their beauty.

From a practical viewpoint, the subjects appear to have been unaware that they were being photographed. It is, of course, possible that these poses were arranged deliberately by the photographer, but I see nothing in the photograph to suggest that this is the case.

He (I assume the photographer is male - see below) would seem to have been sitting or standing close to the subjects using a standard range lens. The lighting, which I assume is the artificial lighting in the carriages, would seem to be overhead and does not cast hard shadows.

The biography provided for Chris Marker states that he is now 90 years old, he started out as a writer, journalist and editor. Later he became a film critic, film maker and photographer. Chris Marker however is apparently a pseudonym, and his real name is not disclosed. This hidden identity seems very surprising for someone whose work is so prominent.

Observations

These photographs led me to the thought that the role of much of photography (whether photojournalism, nature, street photography, portraiture, landscape) is to see the world and its life, acting on behalf of the majority of people who are too preoccupied or too busy to look around for themselves. I recognize that some photographers stage manage the image contents to fulfill their objective, and therefore do not operate in this way.

The majority of photographers however are specialists in seeing, looking closely at life and recording the aspects that they find interesting, amusing, shocking, curious etc. hoping that others will want to look at them as well.

This would seem to be a way to distinguish the "photograph" (an image of some aspect of life or the world which possibly will be of interest to others) from "snapshots" (an image of a person or place which has been taken in the same way hundreds of times previously).

This also be a way to distinguish photography from much of painting and sculpture, which aims to create or represent something for particular purposes. Stage managed photography has definite similarity with this creative art.

On this basis, I would categorize many of the famous photographers as great "seers", as they recognized and recorded distinctive features of the world around them, rather than creative artists.

The Elements of Colour - Johannes Itten

This book was recommended by my TAOP tutor as I mentioned that I found some aspects of the topic of colour somewhat confusing. I found the book both useful and interesting, in that it explains in rather more detail than the course notes the use of colour in pictures. There is a lot here of interest for photographers, even though the book is directed mainly at painters.

Some of the main points that I picked up from the book are listed below.

1. I was interested in his observations of the effects of juxtaposition of bright colours on perception. This accounts for the photographic impact of certain colour combinations which are not complementary pairs, e.g. red on black, blue on white, yellow on blue.

2. His explanation that contrast of hues is virtually lost for diluted or darkened colours was something I had not considered.

3. The distinction he makes between "corporeal" colours (e.g. printed photographs) and "prismatic" colours (e.g. projected images) clarified for me the reason for the two colour wheels in the TAOP notes.

4. The theory that pairs or larger groups of colours are harmonious if they would produce grey if mixed together seems to be based on empirical observation. His observation that such juxtapositions maximize the vibrancy of each of the colours I can understand. One of the points that confused me during the colour section of TAOP was that I did not find complementary colours particularly "harmonious". I did not find violet and yellow more "harmonious" than blue and yellow. Indeed, the author makes the point that contrast of hues increases the further away around the colour circle that two hues are located. This makes more sense to me than saying complementary colours are "harmonious".

5. I read with some scepticism his comments on Form and Colour, which suggested that certain simple shapes in pictures convey impressions which are similar to the effect of colours. Hence, use of a corresponding colour and shape in an image can strengthen an impression. for example, painting a square shape bright red enhances the expression of its stability/groundedness.

6. His observations on colour expression were interesting, and seemed to ring true even though these were very subjective. I assume that the advertising industry has developed such ideas considerably since the publication of this book.

Yangtze - The Long River by Nadav Kander

This book was Xmas present which seemed particularly appropriate as a subject for study for this part of the course. Nadav Kander was awarded the Prix Pictet for this project, which is a prize for Photography and Sustainability.

He travelled from the mouth of the Yangtze, which is near Shanghai up to the source in the vicinity of Tibet over a period of three years from 2006 to 2009 with the aim of charting the consequences of China's economic development. The environmental effect of development on the water quality, environment and the natural terrain have been significant. In the introduction, Kofi Annan former Director General of UN noted the paradox between the beauty of the photographs and the scenes of damage done.

In the artist's notes included at the back of the book, he notes that he had no intention of making a documentary, but his photography was influenced by what he perceived as the mistakes of humanity and the helplessness of individuals.

The foreword, written by Jean-Paul Tchang, gives some background on the significance of the river both in symbolic terms as well as cultural history. Symbolically, the immensity of the river has conveyed a sense of melancholy - the inexorable flow of water and time. Historically, the river represents both happiness and tragedy - a supply of plentiful water for irrigating agricultural land, but also a history of devastating floods and a succession of bloody battles for political control. He makes a point that the ephemeral nature of the photograph is particularly suitable as a means of evoking a sense of loss and nostalgia for what is no more.

A small selection of the photographs are shown on Prix Pictet website and a larger selection on the artists website.

Observations

There are 76 photographs in the book, grouped into four sections of the river moving progressively from "The Mouth", passing through "Upstream", "The Flooding" until the final section of "The Upper Reaches". The photographs are displayed one to a page on a white background, with just the title and an image number on the opposite page. The titles state little more than the location. The viewer is accordingly left to discover the pictures purely on their visual content. At the back of the book, the artist provides brief notes on each picture and the circumstances in which some of these were taken.

The photographs are all in horizontal format and in colour. What is notable however from early on in the sequence is the lack of bright colours. Bright colour is used sparingly in just a few photographs e.g. a line of turquoise blue trucks lined up (photograph 13 in the book), orange uniforms drying on the balconies of an apartment block (photograph 8 in the book).

In most of the photographs, the sky, the ground and river are "muddy" colours. Furthermore, the atmospheric visibility is extremely poor which means that the horizon and background are mostly hidden by the murky light.

Looking at the non-advertising work shown on the artists website, the main themes of his work would seem to be portraits (especially faces and hands), photographs of people and interiors, and some landscape projects. He seems to make the use of muted colours a feature of many of these photographs with bluish skin colours in several portraits. His portfolio of photographs of desert scenes in Jordan are also unusual in the absence of bright skies which are characteristic of desert areas. The Jordanian sky seems to take on the earth colours of the sand and rocks. It left me with a small doubt to what extent the consistent foggy atmosphere shown in the Yangtze photographs was a result of selection by the artist in compiling the portfolio.

Many of the photographs include people or indications of their existence. They are almost always small figures underneath vast skies or huge manmade structures. The artist notes that he was influenced by the scenery to stand back from figures to portray their helpless position as individuals.

Except for the upper reaches of the river, he is often photographing the drabness and ugliness of construction sites, during the demolition and building phases. There are just a couple of photographs where areas of agriculture are included, and these are clearly being encroached by construction work. In the upper reaches of the river, he does find some vegetation, but the plants appear brown and there is a sense of decay. The relatively low level of inhabitants in the upper reaches of the river means that he does find some open spaces. However, the barren terrain means that there is virtually no vegetation. Human development is nevertheless visible even in these remote regions.

There are a number of photographs which are highly ironic: a derelict "monument to progress and prosperity", a broad unpaved street with unattractive shop houses down both sides is the supposed location of "Shangri La". This may reflect the humour used in some of his advertising work.

Conclusion

The portfolio of photographs in this book create a disturbing feeling of depression in the future of humanity.

The fact that this project won the Prix Pictet should indicate that the view portrayed is reasonably accurate of the situation in China at that time. It would be interesting to see the work of other photographers at some of these locations today to see whether the photographs in this book are a picture of a transitional situation, which by now has some positive aspects. Maybe I just find it difficult to accept such a dark view of development in China.

There are many things to learn from this prize winning portfolio of photographs in relation to communicating a message through photography.

Photography book - Galen Rowell's "Vision: The Art of Adventure Photography"

This is a book that I bought and read almost fifteen years ago (the paperback version that I have was published in 1995). Living at that time in a large and congested city, Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, I especially valued weekend trips away along the coast or up into the mountains. There were plenty of fascinating places and people to photograph and each trip was a small adventure into the unknown. It was in this context that Galen Rowell's photography particularly appealed to me.

The most important idea that I gleaned from this book at that time was that it is essential to move around to find the most appropriate viewpoint for a subject. Second, the importance of using the morning and afternoon light. One of his comments that I picked out this time is "Zealots get things done - need to accept discomfort to get the best photos."

I have been reading this book again over the past few months. It is a collection of magazine articles and essays on four themes, which I have summarized as:

- the importance of vision, truth and style in photography

- techniques relating to equipment, film, work flow etc.

- ethics and issues that arise for a photographer working in far flung places

- photography as a means to influence public opinion

The section on use of equipment and film available in the 90's is of limited interest as a result of digital technology. The other articles remain interesting today, and the photographs are fabulous, even in the paperback version of the book.

In the context of my current position as a student on The Art of Photography course the points of interest that I noted from the book are as follows (not in any particular order):-

• A large number of the photographs are landscapes, but I was surprised to find that in many of these, he used people (less often animals or trees) in the foreground to create a sense of scale.
• He was adept at using colour and form to create drama in his photographs, for example twilight skies, alpenglow on high peaks, silhouettes.
• On exposure, expose for the most important highlight (my italics)
• His minimum equipment for mobility were: 24 mm prime lens, 85 mm prime lens, graduated neutral density filters, flash, light but strong tripod. (This maybe explains why my 18-70mm zoom lens is the one that I use the most when out and about.)

Several of the articles deal with some nature photographers' dilemmas:

• By photographing a natural place, a photographer may be encouraging further destruction of the wilderness. On the other hand, without communication, no-one may care whether a natural place is ruined.
• Should the photographer be strictly an impartial observer or should he participate?
• What is good practice regarding "truth" of photography and "manipulated" photographs.

In relation to borderline between "Nature" and manipulated photography, Galen refers to an editorial classification for photojournalism:-

• "Manipulated" - cannot be used for photojournalism e.g. cloning something out of a photograph. (I read that even cloning out a foot not essential to a scene disqualified a photograph from a press award recently)
• "Contrived" - manipulation of setting e.g re-staging of real event
• "Controlled" - undisturbed setting, but photographer influences the scene e.g. "hold that pose"
• "Found" - record of the scene as it would have been without the photographers presence

The "Found" classification is a similar standard to that which should apply to Nature Photography. Galen goes on to suggest refining this "Found" category to distinguish the quality of the artistic input of the photographer:-

• "Snapped" - technically good photograph but no forethought
• "Pre-visualized" - conscious composition of scenic photograph as found
• "Pre-conceptualized" - active intention to capture a "found" scene in a particular way e.g. to return in a different light
• "Created" - image visualized and then location researched and found.

I do not feel that this classification has much practical use. Nevertheless I was interested as this analysis might describe the steps required to successfully complete the Art of Photography course.

At the start most of my photographs would fall within the "Snapped" group.

Half way through the course, I am much more conscious of trying to achieve an interesting composition of contrast, form and colour - "Previsualized".

By the end of the course, I will hopefully have gained some ability to "pre-conceptualize" or even "create" a photograph of a natural scene, a person, or an event.

On a different subject, I think that, subconsciously, this sort of analysis underlies my lack of desire and distaste for photography of captive animals. The images taken by some members of my local photography club at such places are stunning. I love photographs of natural creatures, but I feel that a distant photograph of a bird or animal in its natural habitat is far more valuable than a photogenic close up of a captive animal. My concern is that if photographers and viewers become overly accustomed to the detailed photographs of captive animals, pictures taken in a natural habitat which lack the equivalent lighting and detail become devalued and appear to be second rate.

Paul Gallagher - Curves of Grey

I unexpectedly had the opportunity to look at a book of monochrome landscape photography after a friend visited the exhibition "Curves of Grey" by Paul Gallagher at the OXO Building in London. She was so impressed that she bought the book and lent it to me.

"Curves of Grey" is a collection of beachscapes, rivers, lochs, woods and trees mainly in Scotland and other relatively wild areas of UK. I understand from information on his website that the book and exhibition are a selection of his black and white landscape photographs taken over a number of years, often with large format equipment.

The points of interest I noted from studying these photographs (in the order in which I noted them down) were as follows.

• The book is in vertical format and the majority of the photographs are in vertical frames. A relatively small proportion were in horizontal frames and of necessity these are printed smaller. I cannot tell whether the vertical format was chosen because most of the photographs were vertical, or whether the shape of the book led the editor/designer to select predominantly photos in this format. I had previously thought that a horizontal frame was more "natural" for landscape subjects. In a number of his photographs the vertical frame seems to accentuate the sense of depth as the viewers eye is drawn from the foreground to the distant background of the pictures.
• The photographs appear to have been taken in a variety of lighting conditions. A few have shadows and highlights that suggest they were taken when the sun was low on the horizon. Many have been taken in relatively flat lighting conditions.
• I did not find any sunsets (not surprisingly). Furthermore, the photographs seem to have been taken in the clearest of weather conditions. Distant hills were only slightly affected by haze and there were no mist or snow scenes that I noted.
• He appears to adjust the tones of the features in the landscape in a very controlled manner. To me, this has the effect of adding a subtle glow to the photographs which is striking but does not disturb the veracity of the image for the viewer. For example areas of vegetation are sometimes lighter than I would have imagined they might have been originally. I did not have the impression that the photographer had used infra-red photography and I believe that the adjustments were made by dodging and burning methods to specific areas. He may also have used coloured filters.
• I tried to judge what type of lens was used for the photographs either "wide angle" or "standard/telephoto" and found a roughly 50:50 split. Again, this was a slight surprise as I had previously assumed that landscape photographers would tend to use a wide angle more commonly than a narrower angle of view. I saw no photographs which I thought had used an ultra wide angle or photo-stitching techniques.
• As might be expected from a photographer of his calibre, sky was only included in the frame where this contributed to the composition.
• I have heard somewhere that some photographers use zones of tone or texture to achieve a balanced and interesting composition. This could be the case of some of the pictures in this book. For example, in the photograph of Formby on page 57, foreground areas of dark sand ripples with highlights give way to dark pool of water that stretches back to a line of reflected light from the sky just in front of a dark sandbank. Behind the sandbank, which is just below the middle of the frame, is an area of light sky (as if it was late afternoon), above which there is a band of grey clouds reaching to the top of the frame. The variation in tones and textures seems to draw theviewer around the frame looking for clues and details to visualize the physical reality.

Conclusion

Even though the photography in this book has not much relevance for the Assignment on Colour that I am currently working on, this may be potentially be valuable for the subsequent topic of light. I have not in recent years taken many landscape photographs, but having seen this book, it would certainly inspire me to sign up for one of his workshops.

Frans Lanting - Life: A Journey through time

Frans Lanting is one of the photographers whose work I came across as a reader of the US magazine Outdoor Photographer ten to fifteen years ago. I revisited his website a few months ago when putting together a list of photographers that I had found inspiring for my learning log.

I followed the link to "Life A journey through time" and quickly scanned through this astounding collection of photographs. I was fully engaged in Elements of Design - assignment 2 at the time, but I have now taken more time to look through the images.

This is a collection of eighty-six images in which Lanting aims to portray the history of life from its origins to the present time using photographs of the world today. There are too many images to review one by one. Furthermore, it does not seem possible to link directly to individual pictures. I have therefore restricted my comments to some of pictorial qualities that are relevant for the topics covered in this course so far.

Figurative representation:

These are nature photographs, in other words photographs of the real world today. However, they are used to represent major milestones in the history of life.

• The first image, for example, conveys the idea of the "big bang" at the start of the universe. A series of concentric tones radiate from a single point just off centre giving the impression of the aftermath of an explosion. It was a real surprise to discover that the subject is a slice of petrified tree trunk.
• Another example which I liked represented the destruction of the dinosaurs after an asteroid struck earth. This was portrayed by a silhouette of two marine iguanas with the blurred image of a bird in the sky above. This resembled the artists impressions of dinosaurs with a pterodactyl in the sky that I knew as a boy.

Use of contrast:

He uses framing and focal length to emphasis visual characteristics of the subject.

• The most striking example is the use of a long focal length to magnify the size of the legs of a group of elephants relative to an impala at a drinking hole. The picture represents the contrast between giant herbivores that roamed the earth at the same time as more slender and agile mammals.
• Another example is his use of a short focal length to emphasize the broad feet and strong toes of a barefoot native guide in the rain forest of Brazil.
• His photograph of horsetails is cropped so that the viewer can believe that he is looking at the tree size plants that used to cover the earth.

Use of movement:

Living things adopt a whole variety of strategies to both succeed as predators and/or defend themselves from predators. The collection includes photographs of fish, birds, deer, cheetah with motion blur revealing their bodies at speed.

Use of graphical elements:

The photographs include a wide range of graphical elements. Two particularly stunning photographs have a similar composition:-

• A photograph of a Black heron in Botswana with its wings spread over its head. The blue-black shape of the birds body creates a flattened semi-circular shape, which is reflected in water.
• A photograph of a water-lily taken from water level creates a similar flattened semi circular shape, which is again reflected in water.

In both cases the main subject is a rugby-ball shape placed just off centre.

Use of light and colour:

I will mention just two examples.

• In a photograph of plants adapted to drought, his photograph is taken in a vertical frame against the sun. Large flower heads in the foreground are backlit and the top of the frame is bright with the suns rays. This gives a strong impression of the difficulty of living in strong sunlight with limited supplies of water.
• His photograph of fern fronds was striking for me as the unfolding stems are mauve in colour, instead of the expected green. The unexpected colour made it difficult to identify that the plant is actually a type of fern. Also the colour stands out really well against a muted green background.

I have just been reading the section in Michael Freeman's book "The Photographers Eye" on Intent and his observations on the choice between a "clear or ambiguous" portrayal was interesting. He mentions Life magazine as having the ethos of choosing photographs which "say it all" without ambiguity. (When I first looked at Life: a Journey through Time, I mistakenly assumed that this was a project for Life magazine. I subsequently found out that Frans Lanting was working for National Geographic at the time of this project.) Nevertheless, I feel that the each photograph in this collection has a powerful visual impact which tells the narrative of the history of living things in a clearest possible manner. Indeed, the narrative adds to the pleasure of viewing the collection in a way that is not present for example when viewing the winners in the Nature Photographer of the Year competition.

They may not be the sort of picture that conveys an air of ambiguity that one would want to contemplate over and over again, but this is not their purpose.

Trevor Gellard - Brighton and beyond

Trevor Gellard was the guest at Guildford Photosoc yesterday evening. He presented a selection of his prints, mainly his repertoire of street photography. This included scenes of holidaymakers and events in Brighton, circuses and protests. Many of the candid photographs were taken with a neck slung camera with a wide angle lens.

Several techniques were interesting:

- Taking pictures of people watching a street entertainer.

- Photos of people in and around beach shelters taken through translucent glass.

In his digital photographs he often desaturates the background colours where these are bright and distracting. He also desaturates other images to provide a pastel colour instead of bright colours.

His sense of composition was excellent using a variety of different compositions. An inspiring evening.