Thai Exchange

Siobhan Francis Thai Exchange Proposal

“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” -Ansel Adams

I based my Proposal around this quote from Ansel Adams. I firmly agree with this idea that it takes more than just a click of a shutter to truly make a photograph. I am constantly trying to push myself and grow in my photography and what interests me the most will always be people and there stories. I would love to travel and document different people around the world and I feel the Thai exchange trip would be ideal for me to do this.

Why is it so important to document everyday life…?

Neil kenlock 

 ‘Untitled [Young lady points to ‘Keep Britain White’ graffiti at the International Personnel training centre in Balham]’, 1974

“If I didn’t take it, they would say it never happen, its not true”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31660553/embed

Neil kenlock was an official photographer for the Black Panther Movement, from the statement alone you can already understand how important it was for him to document this side to the everyday life of black people at the time. His statement exclaiming how important the images he took were, I feel is really important in my understanding of the power of photography. We still even today hold this idea that if there is a photograph, then it must be true. I also listened to a separate interview where Neil went into detail about the image. In it he said that if he had taken the image on its own it may lose its meaning, people may believe he put it up there and the point would be lost, so he asked the receptionist of the building to come out and point at the graffiti, as sort of a proof I suppose. I think that was clever of him as on its own its less powerful, having Barbara Grey in the image highlighted who the graffiti effected, it added a personal touch to the image. We connect with Barbara as the viewer and therefore are forced to sympathise with her in the image. It is very powerful.

The statement about photographs being perceived as the truth made me think of this Prime Example:

I came across this on my Facebook feed with a lot of complaints about the well being of the lion etc.

Captioned “I’ll never look at the MGM Lion in the same way”

It is quite obviously a fake as I am very sure this level of high tech equipment as not around when the logo was being created, yet still the amount of people who blindly believed was astronomical. If its in a photograph it must be true…

For me personally this again makes me realise how much power I have as a photographer and why documenting my experiences is important.

Emilie Wattellier Brazza Night

Brazza Night 2011

While looking through Generation Elili I came across the work of Emilie Wattellier. I particularly liked her use of long exposures to explore the movement in the streets and would love to do the same with my images in the church. For me the work questions existence as the people are faded out. Its also about the limited levels of light that are in the streets at night and how people come together under the light. I feel that long exposures would give an ethereal feel to my images in the church and I look forward to trying it.

Natural Hair 2012

Some of her other images from a natural hair series, they remind me very much of J.D ‘Okhai Ojeikere’s work. You can see straight away its all about hair. Everyone is shot in this side angled profile which kind of gives a little more than J.D Okhai Ojeikere’s work in terms of face. I like the fact that she uses what looks to be traditionally patterned piece of material as a backdrop for the models. The short text that accompanies the images roughly translates to Emilie asking the question why Congolese women do not keep their hair natural. Describing the different styles that are used. For me this piece is a ‘praise’ of natural hair. I think the images are blank enough that the viewer is able to easily draw there own meanings from it, there is no distractions from eyes or a face nothing to really connect to other than the hair in terms of wandering who these people are and their narrative. It is labeled as a work in progress on her website and I would love to see the finished pieces.

Richard Flatley Creative Arts

Evidence for him contacting me.

Andre Wagner tips..

Its good to see someone using film for street photography so professionally, it takes so much skill and he speaks about acquiring skills through practise. But the main thing for me would be his approach to photographing people. He says he smiles at people constantly, he’s always interacting with people and the people that he sees in his neighbourhood always no him as the camera guy as he constantly has his camera on him. He speaks about

‘exude[ing] something thats positive, and that feels good’

This is important for me and I feel it echoes with what I learnt from Vanley Burke about how to approach people who you want to photograph. Its also something I personally worry about and try to improve myself on also in order for me to progress through my photography.

Carl de Keyzer

Early on Robb suggested to me to take a look at this piece of work. God inc.

I did and honestly I didn’t like it. It feels brash and in your face. The images feel intrusive to me and I think that may because of my personal background with religion.

Cheap and cheerful … The Good Friday procession at Our Lady of Guadalupe church. Photograph: Carl De Keyzer/Magnum Paris (http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/jul/08/photography)

Above is an image Keyzer spoke about in an interview for the guardian. Keyzer speaks negatively about the subject matter and i get the impression he is mocking what is going on. When I look at his photographs I think this is the feeling i get from them he is judging his subjects. it almost feels like exploitation and my intention is definitely not to do this with my work.

The angle is not flattering the inclusion of coke cups and the brash red colour, all paint a mockery of what is happening. Obviously this is Keyzers intention and his composition and use of colour all work towards this. Angling upwards to include the buildings and coke cups says something to the viewer it almost tells them what to think on the subject. I can’t fault him for doing this but I still do not like his intentions.

One thing I will say he succeeds in making the subjects appear alien. its possibly a way of detaching the viewer from whats happening and allowing the viewer to safely experience some of these acts that do seem ‘crazy’. Some of his images like those that show the Klu Klux Clan need to be approached in such a way as these can be highly sensitive acts that tie beliefs in with negative subjects like racism. For me his style paints all religion in a bad light rather than set aside that which can be deemed negative and that which can be positive.

My understanding of religion is different…

Teal BEARD

The one day I am without my camera I come off the bus to find someone with a Teal beard. Rather than walk away I approached the gentleman and got talking. If not for Vanley Burke and other documentary photographers who have encouraged me through their work to really come to terms with approaching people who you want to photograph. So it turns out Mr teal beard is an artist and he invited me to come and see the creative arts council he works at.

In all honesty if not for the Vanley Burke masterclass I attended and being forcibly challenged in approaching people I may not have understood the importance of me being able to approach people who I don’t know.

What i learnt from Sara?…

We spoke about the different traditions of the sub categories i’d be exploring.

Dancehall is not something that I understood greatly. To me it promoted the negative and through my study i wanted to understand more about it. I aimed to be neutral and present the facts.

(google search for Jamaican Dancehall just to give an idea for those who don’t know)

We basically discussed the possible routes and how dancing in general has been a major part of Black culture. She sent me a link to this video about African Tribes Dances.

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/intl_tv-shows/2015/03/24/spc-inside-africa-kenya-dancing-c.cnnS

Religion- Christianity

I mentioned some of the traditions of the church in terms of the Lord’s Supper ceremony I would be photographing and She mentioned the Umanga Tribe in africa also wore white when taking part in Ancestral Ceremonies. The ceremonies were usually for calling upon Ancestral Spirits and I found this related to the belief in speaking in tongues aswell. I searched and searched and couldn’t find anything on the manga tribes.

Christophe Dillinger

Through Frame15 I came across Christophe Dillinger, a great film photographer. I know that film is costly and blah blah blah but it doesn’t change the fact that film is one of my passions in photography. There is something different about a film camera and taking film photographs and it shouldn’t be ignored. Christophe’s work uses self created methods of experimenting with film to get amazing results including unravelling film in the darkroom/change bag and re rolling with thin inky paper, acetate prints and even bits of tape. He then shoots the film as normal and develops the film. He also does things after the film has been developed like typing on it, scanning image in with other things attached etc. His work is really inspiring for me as in the holidays I have been forming ideas to experiment more with the physical photograph itself.

These images are taken from his Swirl series.

Swirls series

Various implements (pencils, sticks, toothbrushes), ink, and pigments) are used to mark thin paper, which is then inserted on the film in the darkroom. The modified films are then used in camera as a normal film. Free from digital manipulation – Description taken from the webpage.

I love the series as for me part of the interest in photography is to photograph the unseen. The added bonus of film photography is the fact that you don’t know what will be developed and because Christophe often adapts his films his style is very unique. I love that he has thought outside of the box and basically experimented with his craft. Its very interesting.

CAN YOU ANALYSE THESE PHOTOGRAPHS EVEN THOUGH TECHNICALLY THERE BY CHANCE?

Perhaps I can analyse the intention the need to explore and create something new and unique. Also the choice to use analogue this could easily be carried out digitally, perhaps its more about the challenge of creating photographic pieces like this all ‘manually’ so to say.

Because of photographing Frame15 Christophe needed some images for his website and asked me for mine. Now he wasn’t able to pay me for my images but he gave me some 120mm swirl film for me to have a go with.

TYPEWRITER SERIES


I love this series it stands out. Clever moulding of letters and photography. The text he physically uses a typewriter and types onto the negative moving negatives by hand in order for the composition. Whilst at the conference Christophe spoke about making the ordinary more interesting. Without the text each of these photographs would not be as interesting as they are.“Free from digital manipulation”

My favourite image in the typewriter series. Without the text the image doesn’t scream out a narrative but with the two names on the seats immediately it peaks the readers interest. You start looking for clues as to who Andy and Sue are and your mind even starts to create a picture of them just from the differences of the chairs. The chairs have become personified they represent these two individuals as they are absent and the image works so well because of this. It makes me think of advertising campaigns with similar techniques.

Clark Doll experiment…

https://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/the-clark-doll-experiment/

My own nephew from a young age hated being black… he wanted to be lighter…?! My hair is such an important thing for me I keep it as natural as can be for a reason. It is a key issue amongst the black community