Adama Jalloh

Adam Jalloh is a recent(2015) photography graduate of Arts university Bournemouth. She is London Based. (Gives you a sense of context)

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A series that focusses on the individuals (black and asian men) who are more likely to be stopped and searched and also the area they are from. I love this idea as it is very much an issue in Black culture. I love that she has addressed this issue through photography by empowering these young individuals to show themselves in a different light and take control of how they may usually be portrayed in the media.
 Probably my favourite portrait from the series. I think knowing the context of the series the shadow of the photographer in the image brings a different meaning. It almost feels like someone who has approached and stopped the subject and it echoes the cause of the photograph. Whats more interesting is the positioning of it all because the shadow belongs to the photographer and the viewer effectively takes the place of the photographer it looks as though the viewer is in fact the culprit who is stopping the individual. Identity

A project quite similar to my own. I love that the title explains to those that wouldn’t know that Hair and Hairstyles amongst the black culture play a huge role in our identity. This is heightened by the fact that all the faces of the subjects (the people getting there hair styled) are either partially or not visible at all. We cannot connect with their eyes we can only know their narrative through their hair. Its a very interesting view and I think it really works for these images.

I wanted to start interacting abit more with people that I would photograph, so that I can hear their stories and share it with people who can relate.” – Adama Jalloh

I think I like the fact that her work rings true with how I feel about certain issues and I aspire to be addressing issues in a unique way also. The more I see film photography the more I love of it and it really makes me want to go out and do the same.

Adama Jalloh uses photography to fight preconceived notions and show a more genuine picture of South London life.- Alex Taylor Huck Magazine

Generation Elili

From looking at Black british photographers I knew that there work was about taking control of their own narrative to change the mass produced story of themselves. I came across a group of photographers who are doing just that in the Congo.

“To show my photos here is also to show everyday life in Brazzaville and to counteract all the different cliches that lots of people have about Africa. There are always a lot of images of war, so i want to show another image of Africa thats why we have for example the series Pavement of Knowledge” Baudouin Mounda

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1

I loved this video and really really love the idea of the collective. I think its key for me to understand the power that comes with my photography to transform a narrative or even just preserve a narrative. i love that there are photographers out there doing this and I definitely want my photography to follow suit.

Emily Stein Hairdo (2015)

“The aim of this series was to capture the natural beauty of charismatic children with charismatic hairstyles,” Stein told A Plus in an email. “I would hope that when people see the images they feel the positive energy of youth and the spirit of undiluted individuality.”

I love the playfulness of this series. The different coloured backdrops work so well with the children’s creative poses. I love the fact that Emily Stein encouraged the children to pose anyway they felt as it really allowed her to capture their character and personality. I think for me personally I love how positive these images are and how they promote natural hair. Its very hard for young black children growing up to ‘accept their hair’ and how different they are from the world around them. This for me is something for them to enjoy and be proud of and you can see it in their faces. For me the fact that this is very recent confirms my view that ‘hair’ is still a big issue in the black community today.

As a documentary photographer I feel that allowing my subjects to show the personalities and character is key in front of the camera. As a black british photographer her work inspires me to try and see positive narratives and portray it in my own work.

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.

Orientalist Paintings…

A branch that grew from Romanticism, would be Orientalist Paintings. This idea of exploring and painting foreign cultures (of people) is definitely something that could have inspired National geographic ‘Human Story ‘ – [Exploring where we come from, how we live today and where we may find ourselves tomorrow(Taken from the national Geographic About us page).]

Alphonse-Etienne Dinet/Nasreddine Dinet 1861-1929

French Orientalist painter who’s work stands out for me. A lot of historians say his understanding of the arab culture he painted set his paintings above so many others.He later converted to Islam and his work then reflected this. He started to paint more on the subject of religion (Islam). I personally like the idea that his work was something exclusive to him because of his ‘insider’ Knowledge of the language and culture. And I feel my work is similar in that sense because of my upbringing in the particular church I am going to photograph. I was trusted by the congregation and so could witness and document things that others weren’t able to.

Girls Dancing and Singing 1902

Oil on Canvas

The Snake Charmer 1889

Oil on canvas

I love the detail in the lighting of this image. I wonder how long it must of taken to paint and how awkward that would of been with the changing light of the scene. The painting feels like a tightly cropped photograph to me.

Imam Presiding over Prayer. 1922

Oil on canvas

The image feels up close and personal. Again quite tightly cropped rather than a vast scene. This images were made with the intention of going back to France to show those not lucky enough to travel to Algeria. This painting was produced well after Dinet’s conversion to Islam(announced in 1908) and also after he brought a house in Bou Sada Algeria. This shows how there was such a sense of trust again between the painter and his subjects as he would of been more accepted through living there and being of same religious beliefs. For me a lot of documentary photographers have to live and breathe their work in order to get the photographs they require and I definitely think these pieces of work highlight the need to be accepted by our subject.

Charlie Phillips

I watched a mini interview with Photographer Charlie Phillips. (I cannot seem to find the video 😦  )

What he had to say… key points I picked up

His initial interest in photography was as something to “occupy his mind.”

“Everything you do is a part of history”

He speaks about this idea of preservation that for me echoes what I have heard from Vanley Burke. This importance of documenting whats happened not just for now but for the future also.

Photography was something that “let his voice be heard”

I love this. We learn as a visual communicator that our work has a voice, there is a message in our pieces. I definitely agree and feel this project is helping me to find my voice and understand what I want to say about the world I see.

How Great Thou Art

50 years of Caribbean Funerals.

Kensal London 1972

Part of Caribbean tradition for the men in the family to fill the graves while everyone sings songs at the graveside. It comes from slavery days were the slaves had to dig and fill their own graves. I love the fact that phillips has chosen to document something so unique to ‘our culture’. I hope that my images will also do the same.

Cassidy the Mechanics Funeral 1973

Dress codes. St Mary of the Angel’s church 2010,

This image reminds me again of my own culture and how for my uncles funeral there was a dress code of camouflage/khaki dress. Its one of the traditions we as a culture have at funerals. charlie has managed to capture so much and as an archival set they work tremendously.

Notting Hill Couple 1967

That was unheard of back then. A mixed couple. Images like these would of been really powerful at the time they were taken, the world was still very racist and for Charlie to take control and produce images like this would of meant a lot in the community.

For me his images work well as an archive or even some work well on there own. He manages to really capture the ‘black british experience’. Id love to do the same with my work whether that be on the side or in general. In particular the National Geographic brief I think this style will work well as the exotic nature may not necessarily be in the framing of the images but the in the content itself.

Vanley Burke

“My observations of migration and settlement are that in time, history gets disrupted and can be lost as it is superseded by a new generation of people. So the idea of collecting these objects is to represent those times, and how this particular group of people struggled to establish themselves. It’s about saving material that can be referenced by future generations. It’s about recording an immigrant history that otherwise may go forgotten.”- Vanley Burke on At Home with Vanley Burke

At home with Vanley Burke brought tears to my mother’s eyes.

For me it was nostalgic walking through to see things I associate with from grandparents and distant relatives, stuff that is lost in the next generation. It was very eyeopening for me. It really highlighted how little I knew about my culture and as a result fuelled my decision to explore my culture through my photography.

“Back then, the press was not reflecting that experience. All we were getting was very negative commentary – not too dissimilar to what we are getting now about immigrants – that we were all overcrowded, disease-ridden immigrants, occupying the houses and taking the women,” says Burke. “And I remember standing on Broad Lane, near our family shop, and deciding that history has a starting point and that this moment, right then, would be the starting point of our community’s history from my perspective.”