First shoot

I shot a few test shots to get a feel for the kind of shot i wanted. I decided to shoot on location and chose my bed to shoot on as it was convenient. I didnt think the images came out all too well as they were a little dark and they were not focused as i would have liked them due to the plastic bag. I also think that there were too many things in the bag and that the background was to dark so much so that you canot properly see what is there.

I think a different background is in order. but here are the contact sheets.

Image Research

Cindy Sherman- Film Stills

I like how this image is a narrative in itself. It makes you want to know more about her, about her situation about her life and what she is looking at and thinking. She is obviously on the window-ledge looking at something, thinking about something. She is there for a reason. There is a story behind that blank expression. It looks as if it could be a still from Fame or another 80's dance film as she is in tap shoes etc. The image doesn't really give you a story it just makes you ask questions. It doesn't answer anything at all. It is still a narrative it just doesn't tell you a story it makes you create your own. It lets your imagination run riot creating scenarios.

Image Research

Duane Michals

Boogey Man

This narrative makes me uneasy, to be perfectly honest it scares me.It is like something from a horror film. It reminds me of the scarecrow from jeepers creepers that comes to life and kills a little boy. It is definitely the kind of thing that horror films are made of. Its definitely playing on peoples comfort, people feel comfortable in their lives not believing in any of their childhood nightmares. I like the idea that the child knows something is going on that something is not right. She looks at the hung coat and investigates it before believing that it is nothing more than a coat. But then it comes to life and kidnaps her. It is also touching on a parents worst nightmare loosing their children. It is definitely a scary set of images, it touches on emotions that are very unpleasant to feel, fear, the sense of being unsafe etc. I think this image works well because it is something we have all experienced, that movement in the corner of your eye, that heart stopping fear you get for a split second when you see a shadow or a little bit of movement in the corner of your eye that sends shivers up your spine until you summon the courage to look for yourself and find that it was just a trick of the light. For me this is what this set of images portrays, this is what your head imagines will happen when you see a shadow move.

[출tjoe] 작auu성듀a안imagins 마imagins 클 자 일레누

Image Research

Duane Michals

Things are Queer

If you look at this image in the correct order it looks very odd, it definitely caught me out, i honestly didn't expect it to pan out like it does. I like how it ends how it begins, the idea of it going full circle. I like how it doesn't give itself away that it is going to be all funny and strange. It just emphasizes how with images what you see isn't always what you get and although the camera doesn't lie the photographer does. Michals is creating this sense of a world where nothing is truly what it seems and i like that, I like how the images seem to just naturally flow and with each one Michals reveals a little more of the story. The series is a little bit twilight zone like or alice in wonderland or another of those acid trip films.

Martin Parr

Martin Parr : Pies, parties and pink drinks. Images can be found here

A series documenting the differnent towns in Britain and the differnet people who live there;
Although i'm not a fan of martin par, I find this set of work funny. It isnt a true representation of the different towns. And as he moves through the towns it is almost as if there really isnt a difference at all. I found myself criticising him as i came to the Manchester images, for example the terriced houses image is a typical manchester sight and it made me laugh because of just how accuritly it represents manchester but the image of diners has almost nothing to do with manchester. It could just as esily represent any other city. But the series does make you think about your town and i think it makes you quite critical of other citys.

The images themself work together well because it puts city up against city. It compares them and challenges their differences.

I like them.

Narrative In Haiti

I have found two photographers that have documented the Haitian Earthquake in different ways

Peter Turnley :- Has documented the disaster by combining the good and the bad. The celebrating and the death. I like the contrast of new babies being born despite the disaster and people dying in it. People suffering but people coming through it and making the best of a bad situation and being happy that they were still alive. I like the reality of the images, they are not posed too much as far as I know yet they still manage to portray the sence of devistration. It tells the story not of the earthquake but of the aftermath, the struggle to return to normal life. And i think the images really work, they make you aware of the crisis and want to help but not pitty them or make them look helpless or weak in any way i think that is very important.

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/02/haiti-between-death-and-life.html


Julie Dermansky/Polaris:- Produced a series of 27 images that documented what people managed to save from the devistation. It is a really powerful series especially when childeren are concerned one little girl saved her doll and that kind of think pulls on your heart strings more than the documented series by Peter Turnley. I think it huanises them and makes you think about what you would save. I also really like how it has been done, none of the people look despirate, a couple look tired but that is understandable. The images respect the people. They work well as a series also, they tell the peoples stories and struggles. They work well as a narative as they tell the individuals story as well as the nations, hundereds of thousands of people will be in the same situation, they are not alone in their struggles.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/feb/10/haiti-natural-disasters?picture=359195805

Research

So I need to do some work on narrative photographs and photographers.

For now I have chosen James Lomax and Lawerence Ripsher

Two very different photographers two every different sets of work but booth narrative.

James Lomax has produced a body of work looking at gun crime in the UK, Greater Manchester specifically. It documents a crime scene on a street that looks very generic and could be anywhere in the north west of England. It shows the police officers outside the premises and the cars and the tape. I like it because the images alone do not tell the full story, you have to read the text before hand to get a sence of what has happened. If you had no infomation about it at all and you just saw the series your imagination would run away with itself with theories about what happened. The images themselves are not very striking, they show the aftermath of an even rather than just the event itself. The images are a little mundane, they dont really show the tradgedy of the event or the seriousness, you dont get the shock value that the even realy deserves. But then again if you read the accompanying text it says that the shooting was a 'petty incident' so maybe the mundane everyday feeling that the image have are reflecting the mundane every day event that shootings have become.

Lawerence Ripsher

I actually really like Lawerence Ripsher's work. His narratives are actually really eerie and destructive. He seems to be obsessed with destruction and devastation a theme that runs strong through his galleries. He seems to base his work around finding new desolate broken places and basing his work around them. I especially like his galerie entitled 'Wonderland is Dead' It ties in with the lates cultural trend of Alice in Wonderland themed art, cinema, music, fashion and literature. I like the decaying surroundings and the sence of chaotic emptyness that seems to surround the model. She seems lost and really evokes the sence of a dead wonderland, the building looks like it could have been a school a wonderland for a lot of cultures that dont have regular access to education. And the destruction of this is quite sad as it is a shame. The emptyness in the images works well with the theme, wonderland was a confusing jumble of different acid trips and this destrictive chaotic atmosphere is what i imaging wonderland would look like if it got destructive. The set of images work well as a narrative as they dont really tell the story they show the aftermath of an event.

Thoughts

So i started thinking about what things i would put in a bag and wether or not i wanted to have real life items, as in get random peoples possessions and photograph them. I think i have decided on a mixture. It think it would be a little morbid to use items from people i know but then again who would know except me, i wouldnt say anything. I have put together my first , bag but have yet to photograph it, i think i will do that today, or at least explore locations in the home to do it.

I think it would work better photographed in the home as it is moe personal, more real. As if someone has just brought them home. As if the person has returned home.
Places like, coffee table, bed, kitchen counter, drawer, places where you woul instinctivly put it. Or store them.

Martin Parr

A big influence  -  and I just found he has a blog!! 

http://www.martinparr.com/blog/

Narrative Brief

Instead or as well as my usual work book i have decided to produce a blog documenting my efforts on my latest brief for my photography class.  I am a photography student from the north west of England who wants to get her ideas out a little differently than previously.  

My journey Begins ..... 

My Narrative Brief 

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? 

For my current collage project we have been given a brief in which we have to produce 6 images based around a narrative. We must create a sense of a person or of someone's life in these images without actually showing who the person is.   The above quote from the film 'Train-spotting'  has always been a favorite of mine, as i quite like the idea that you can just choose all the different elements to your life, as if your family are as interchangeable as your television.  This quote is describing all of the things a normal middle class family would have. They would argue over which television to get or which health plan is better and have bloody big domestics in p.c. world over what laptop would be best for their 2.5 children.  But my idea takes this one and pushes it further.... 

If you have ever had a relative die in hospital or in an accident or indeed been released from prison you will be all too familiar with a bag of personal effects. A small usually clear plastic sometimes paper if you get it from a funeral home bag filled with any earthly possessions that were found of your person at the time of your death or arrest.  This one little bag of ordinary things encapsulates your life. In a sense everything about you that matters is in this bag.  It doesn't matter if you were a billionaire or homeless, old or young etc your life will mean nothing more than the contents of your pockets. and it intrigues me what can be learnt about the person and how they died.  I want to tell a story in my images, 6 different images, 6 different stories to tell, the last one will be my own, but my fellow class mates do no know this and will be asked to look at the images and work out the story behind. But the 6th image will be the contents of my pockets and handbag. 

I have batted around a few different ideas, ideas about encapsulating peoples lives in boxes ...

Wedding memorial boxes

Baby boxes 

Memory Boxes

Photo Boxes and Albums 

These often contain very personal things that only the maker of the box will understand but with a personal effects bag there is nothing sentimental, it is just what they had when they died and i like that rawness.  

It is a location brief so i plan to shoot in the home, on beds, on coffee tables, somewhere where you would go to look at these things.   

I have even started to look at people in the street and think about what they would have, a mobile, that piece of paper they have in their hand, a bus ticket etc.   

All of these little things tell your story, a prescription, a mobile phone, a bus ticket. . . . .  Run over by the bus because they were rushing to get to the chemist before it shut and was on their mobile not paying attention. ... it happens.  Its a little final destination like but it happens.  

Keep you posted 

Sarah