Author Archives: Samantha

Bibliography

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Books:

  • Auster, P. (1988). The invention of solitude. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin.
  • org, (2015). Sally Mann – Immediate Family – Photography Book – Aperture Foundation. [online] Available at: http://aperture.org/shop/books/sally-mann-immediate-family-book [Accessed 18 Mar. 2015].
  • Barney, Tina, Grundburg, Andy, ‘Tina Barney Photographs: Theater of Manners’, Scalo Publishers, 1997
  • Bright, S., 2005. Art photography Now. London: Thames and Hudson
  • Bussard, Katherine A, ‘So the story goes’ exhibition catalogue, Yale UP, New Haven, 2006
  • Coles, Robert, ‘Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a lifetime’ Aperture, New York, 1982
  • Collings, Matthew ‘Sarah Lucas (Modern Art Series)’ 1st Edition, Tate Publishing, 2002
  • Cotton, C., 2004. The Photograph as Contemporary Art. London: Thames and Hudson
  • Davis, Keith F, Botkin, Kelle A, ‘The photographs of Dorothea Lange’ Abrams, New York, 1995
  • Dillon, Brian. In The Dark Room. Dublin, Ireland: Penguin Ireland, 2005. Print
  • Don mcullin: ‘Don mcullin’ published by Johnathan Cape 2003
  • Foresta, Merry A, ‘The Europeans: photographs by Tina Barney’ Barbican Art Gallery Steidl Publishers, 2005
  • Freud, Sigmund. The “Uncanny”. 1st ed. First published in Imago, Bd. V., 1919; reprinted in Sammlung, Fünfte Folge. [Translated by Alix Strachey.]: N.p., 1919. Print.
  • Gordon, Linda ‘Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits’, W. Norton and Co, 2011
  • Johnson, Dr Clare, ‘Femininity, Time and Feminist Art’ pp115-132, Palgrave Macmillan 2013
  • La Grange, A., 2005. Basic critical theory for photographers. London: Focal Press
  • Mann, S. (1992). Immediate family. London: Phaidon.
  • Moore, K. (2004). Jacques Henri Lartigue. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Neri, Louise, Aletti, Vince, ‘Settings and players: theatrical ambiguity in American photography’ exhibition catalogue, White Cube, London, 2001
  • Partridge, Elizabeth, ‘Dorothea Lange: Grab A Hunk of Lighting’, Chronicle Books, 2013
  • Partridge, Elizabeth, ‘Dorothea Lange: A visual life’ Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, 1994
  • Quinnel, Justin, ‘Mouth Piece’ Dewi Lewis Publishing 2006
  • Ravenal, J., Strauss, D., Tucker, A. and Mann, S. (2010). Sally Mann. Richmond, VA: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
  • Rose, Gillian ‘Visual Methodologies: an introduction to researching with visual materials’ Third Edition, Sage Publications, 2013, Chapter ‘Content Analysis’ pp54-68
  • Simon Nina ‘The Participatory Museum’ Chapter 4- ‘Social Objects’ 2010
  • Shore, Robert, “Post Photography- The Artist With a Camera” Laurence King Publishers, London, 2014
  • Stewart, Kathleen. Ordinary Affects. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. Print.
  • Szarkowski, J. 2007. The photographers’ Eye. New York: The Museum of Modern Art
  • Walker, Tim, and Ruth Ansel. Tim Walker. London: Thames & Hudson, 2012. Print.

Exhibitions:

  • Andre Lichtenburg Solent Showcase Gallery – Southampton – UK – 13th Feb / 21st Mar 2015
  • Taylor wessing photographic portrait prize 2014 visited 4th feb 2015
  • National Gallery London, Visited 4th February 2015
  • National Portrait gallery London, Visited 4th February 2015

Journals:

  • Aperture 216 ‘Fashion” pp121 margaret durow ‘miami,2012’
  • Cox, Christopher ‘Dorothea Lange’, Aperture, 1987
  • Hotshoe issue 188, summer 2014 roe ethridge pp34-45
  • Hotshoe issue 188 Summer 2014 Lisa Barnard pp56-67
  • Hotshoe issue 189, autumn 2014, Michael Lundgren pp34-45
  • Hotshoe issue 189 Autumn 2014 Aaron Schuman pp56-67
  • Portfolio #29 June 1999 Surveillance and solitude jame casebere david bate pp50-51
  • Portfolio #28 December 1998 sophie calle pp52-53
  • Portfolio #35 Mari Mahr ‘Symbols of ourselves’ pp.46-49 and pp63
  • Portfolio #35 Sam Taylor Wood pp.52
  • Portfolio #35 david bate pp.26-27 and pp18
  • Portfolio #52 sarah lynch pp52
  • Portfolio #52 Karen Knorr ‘Fables’

DVD/Film:

  • Don mcullin ‘seeking the light’ online video source http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/Don_McCullin.do02.15
  • The Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb. British Columbia: Shawn Levy, 2014. film.-
  • Toy Story 3. Disney, Pixar: Lee Unkrich, 2010. DVD.-

Internet

A Statement and An Image.

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I’ve never lived anywhere for longer than a year, until now. Moving around constantly packing up your life, memories and experiences into a cardboard box and leaving. What would you pack? Along the way so many things get lost. Objects that embody you, like a self-portrait of who you are. Things that you regard as the most important become empty when you are no longer there to define them; our existence makes them personal artifacts. Sourcing the dolls for my shoots in charity shops intending to explore the reverie of objects and memories they trigger to represent our uncanny relationships with our affects through portraiture.

Inspired mainly by books by Paul Auster, Brian Dillon and Kathleen Stewart I have enriched my process and practice to break the preconceptions that the genre of portraiture holds and to instead explore the allegory of objects. Animating them in a way and playing with location and scale similar to the work of both Laurence Demaison and Tim Walker. The way in which angles and composition can impose a specific message much like the childlike way we are led through the window into my final image. Realising the potential of haunting memories that the dolls trigger led to research into Freud’s the “Uncanny” creating horror in my images through the innately human resemblance the dolls have and the slight green colour casts. It is said that portraiture is about working with the person you are photographing but what about when you are embodying a person through an objects reverie? Significantly there was different representation to every person who viewed it; some commenting on the look of searching that the doll has, some recalling memories of nightmares and childhood horror and even some looking away in repulsion at what the image recalls. This images interpretation varies dependent on experiences. What this doll embodies for people personally allows a different view on portraiture one that is recollected and gives an idea of self to the viewer.

To some extent it this project could be an embodiment of self-portraiture. The idea of animating the doll to search for what she has lost represents the crossroads I find myself at, being twenty and leaving my childhood and becoming an adult; searching for meaning and leaving the past behind. The uncanny effect you feel between what you remember and who you are now. I have learnt that we are people first, before we are photographers. Our own experiences are encapsulated in our work and our objects. Inanimate objects hold us within them, a notion and representation of our uncanny mortality.

The Final Image for submission

The Final Image for Submission

©samanthajaneriley

Reductive Editing

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So everyone is different and I’m sure they have their own way of making the final edit but for this project we only have to submit one final image which represents our whole concept. I began by using the contact sheets as a tool to highlight which images were worth printing. Reductive editing is time consuming as you don’t want to narrow down options that later might be relevant. The two things to consider are the technical aspects and your intention.

Printing images from various shoots allowed me to have a wide selection to choose from:

Laying them out on a table allowed me to see which ones weren’t working. Looking for both technical skills and concept coming through was key and helped narrow my selection. But because I have always known that the audience I am displaying it to may not read it the same I got peer opinions on which ones worked and which ones didn’t. Of course all of the constructed criticism was valued and I knew one thing for definite: the idea of the uncanny was the first thing noticed in the images, if anything this made the reductive editing process harder.

Not all images are of high technical standard in form of colour casts but that was intentional from the start, I wanted to add a slight green to connote subdue emotion in the picture of which In my final came across. Because my intention is to portray objects and how they embody us, they way people see the image is therefor a portrait of themselves and what the image triggers with them. It is essential that the haunting uncanniness comes across immediately as an uncomfortable viewer is an intrigued one, which has more chance of conjuring memories and experiences connecting the object I have represented. Therefor allowing a sense of self when reading the image. When selecting my final image all of these qualities needed to be present but represented in the image. Framing, composition and angle became the go to areas for the final edit.

Over and over during feedback sessions it was this image that got the most attention. It is framed in a way that is childlike in its perception allowing the viewer to glance through the window and feel like a part of the image. Playing with scale and composed in a way to create the uncanny. The slight green colour cast is perpetuating the notion of uncomfortable and subdue. But what was most significant is the different representation to every person who viewed it. Some commenting on the look of searching that the doll has, some recalling memories of nightmares and childhood horror and even some looking away in repulsion at what the image recalls. Every viewer is different, this images interpretations vary dependant on experiences. What this object embodies for people personally allows a different view on portraiture one that is recollective and gives an idea of self. This is THE one but will be submitted with the significant other prints that made it to the final selection.

©samanthajaneriley

The “Uncanny” By Sigmund Freud

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As the opening paragraph explains usually the study of aesthetics is toward the theory of beauty, which in turn promotes the theory of the qualities of feeling (Freud, 1919, pp1) However what of that, that isn’t beautiful but instead haunting and unsettling? That can be referred to as the subject of the “uncanny”. The uncanny refers to that which is not familiar and that is why its so frighting it promotes horror in its very being. I am looking into this concept, as I mentioned it at the beginning, but as the level of feedback I received today suggests the uncanny is apparent in the images I displayed. Even more so that the dolls are not mine. “or we can collect all those properties of persons, things, sensations, experiences and situations which arouse in us the feeling of uncanni- ness, and then infer the unknown nature of the uncanny from what they all have in common.” (Freud, 1919, pp1) The exert suggests that we can derive a meaning from the properties or objects, creating a persona or portrait of the owner connoting to our own mortality by disregarding the preconceptions of sensitivity and delicacy of perception something I set out to achieve.

I understand that the most appealing photography is beautiful creating a more “positive nature in the  objects that call them forth, rather than with the opposite feelings of unpleasantness and repulsion” much like the uncanny. (Freud, 1919, pp1) As said before everyone is different, singular in their memories, therefor my work may not communicate a memory or a dream but it will make them uncomfortable enough to read into what the object embodies and what it is a portrait of.

The task of taking a portrait of objects or simply working within the means of the uncanny alludes to “manifestations of insanity” (Freud, 1919, pp5) which is created by how the objects when animated are reminiscent of mortality something which scares and resonates with all of us. Deciding weather it is alive or real is another uncanny perspective. Paired with the photographic tools and directorial decisions representation can vary from image to image and person to person.

On page 5 ‘The Sand Man’ story is described by freud as key point to the uncanny from the very childhood gruesome stories (although not evident at the time) seem to be encripted within us the way we learn morals through treacherous tails forms a basis for triggers that make us uncomfortable. I touched on the link between the china dolls and horror briefly before but the reaction from my peers upon my work suggests a deeper sense one that relates to the psychoanalytical theory of the uncanny and its formation. One that again, like Paul Auster and Brian Dillon stems from the innocence of childhood and in growing up only then can we decipher the memories, feelings and dreams. Retaining our experiences into adulthood, sometimes causing mental disarray otherwise known as the “castration-complex” outlined in Freud’s work.

In this particular exert of Freuds writings he explores the way in which “Jentsch believes that a particularly favourable condition for awakening un-canny sensations is created when there is intellectual un- certainty whether an object is alive or not, and when an inanimate object becomes too much like an animate one. Now, dolls happen to be rather closely connected with infantile life. We remember that in their early games children do not distinguish at all sharply between living and lifeless objects, and that they are especially fond of treat- ing their dolls like live people. In fact I have occasionally heard a woman patient declare that even at the age of eight she had still been convinced that her dolls would be certain to come to life if she were to look at them in a particular way, with as concentrated a gaze as possible” (Freud, 1919 pp 8-9) Perhaps why my images of dolls and various compositions raised such despair and ideas of the uncanny and promoted this research in its depth.

“Concerning the factors of silence, solitude and darkness, we can only say that they are actually elements in the production of that infantile morbid anxiety from which the majority of human beings have never become quite free. This problem has been discussed from a psychoanalytical point of view in another place” (Freud, 1919, pp20) In other words objects that we hold or even photograph embody who we are and what appeals to us. They are a portrait of how we are seen by ourselves and how we are perceived by others. Just like our brains our objects hold onto the deepest of memories, evidently from infant years, not all of them pleasant but each and everyone can be triggered by something.

Freud, Sigmund. The “Uncanny”. 1st ed. First published in Imago, Bd. V., 1919; reprinted in Sammlung, Fünfte Folge. [Translated by Alix Strachey.]: N.p., 1919. Print.

Time for a comparison.

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I find since studying on this photography degree that I know more about photography now more than I did before. Working in film gives you a whole new concept of colour, lighting and camera controls. Its very easy in digital with the point and shoot mechanism to be forgetful, if you don’t get the perfect image you can edit it later. But in film you are restricted to just 10 shots per film and the effort that goes into making sure it is correctly developed and printed is astounding.

It takes patience and skill, its a development of skills and experimentation. When it goes right its very fulfilling but can be equally frustrating when it goes wrong. I have still gotten into the habit of shooting digitally first and then on film to double check its how I imagined it in my head. For one main reason unfortunately working in film is no longer cost effective and in order to save money its worth test shooting on digital cameras.

Examples of digital tests for composition of my main shoots:

My digital skill are still better than my film skills but the way I have progressed in this unit (evident in this blog) has really pleased me, especially now I feel more equipped to experiment with various mediums.

©samanthajaneriley

The technically perfect or the creatively acceptable?

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In a recent group session we debated weather a technically perfect print is the most important or weather the intention showing through is more relevant. This had our class divided. We are after all studying photography so we have to meet the specific technical requirements.

However I feel personally that the creative intention is most important especially with a project under the title of representation. For example my previous feedback I was told that what I wanted to be my final images embodied a blue colour cast. This was deliberate to create a sense of loneliness and abandonment. From the outset of the shoot being in a forest and with the dull weather I knew it would be slightly blue, Its only very slight but I am now scared to submit this work for the final deadline even though the colour cast was a directorial decision it makes me apprehensive on others readings of it. Continuing with my printing by focussing more on what is technically perfect. By printing a range of images this will make the editing process clearer by giving a wider prospective.

The blue colour cast was being read differently depending on who my viewer was, a notion that I had previously come across. Everybody is different and each image taken will effect them differently dependant on their experiences. This is also what makes representation an interesting subject. In this particular critique I was asked why dolls?

So why dolls? I was stumped at first, sometimes its easy to run with a project and get caught up in the technical elements as well as applying all of your research and its easy to leave your statement of your intentions behind. I set out to explore how objects embody us. This developed into our connection with objects in specific toys. Bears just didn’t work well in the shoots and I can’t explain why but I had an infinity to the dolls. But as pointed out to me the dolls I have used aren’t for children, they are grownups collectables. This is significant because it is still an obsessive need to collect and archive objects. the compulsive need to reconnect with our inner childhood but in a grown up way…

So what is important a technically perfect print or a print in which your intention came across clearly?

©samanthajaneriley

Shoot 28 and 29.

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I wanted to continue the success of shoot 27 after developing that shoot it was clear that I was intent on using this composition as a final submission. Using the same doll and the same location together again in hopes of creating final shoot in which I can use to print my final print. The day I shot this shoot was quite a bit brighter and for me this dampened the creepy, subdue effect of the blue colour cast. Also deciding in group feedback that in my last shoot the images of the front of the doll were more effective made it clearer what compositions I could test. Due to previously experimenting with both the Yashica 365 and the Mamiya it was evident that although the yashica allows me more shots I don’t want to compromise detail so like the other shoots I will be using the Mamiya with its incredible lens for detail.

The only issue being the weather which will effect the denseness of the blue colour cast I will create, I feel like this shoot went well. I need to develop my skills in the double exposure area but not on this project. I am very happy with the images. But I am very glad that I shot these two extra shoots because now I have extended the amount of image and the diversity of compositions I can choose from. Although my contact sheets are wonky I can still use them as a useful tool because the whole idea of the contact sheet is to supply you with an accurate look of what is on the film and that is still what they do. The doll set on the swing is the stuff of nightmares the abandoned object, because it is innately human seems to resonate more with the life long connections we have with our affects. When we grow from children who love their toys into grown ups the toys and selections of the objects we keep develop. Using these creepy victorian dolls directly alludes to the childish notion of relationships with dolls in the adult world. A more sophisticated way of representing how they embody us, our memories and our beliefs.

©samanthajaneriley

Tim Walker

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Much like Laurence Demaison, Tim Walker has also used dolls as a source of inspiration for his photography in his series ‘The Storyteller’. However Walker’s images are playful and well within the scope of uncanniness. Being famous for his predominantly fashion based career in photography and shooting for magazines like Vogue has made him famous. However I am not interested in the commercial side of his career instead looking at his more interpreted series.That said it is evident that the two worlds compliment each other, Walker expressing that the fashion photography funds his other work but he is most happy when the magazine lets him do what he wants to combining both elements (like in the images below). Recently he has merged the two worlds together using his fashion photography to create a realm of fantasy. So much so that it has been suggested that he seemingly doesn’t come from this world, instead he is described as a daydreamer, a fantasist.

Tim Walker 'Story Teller' Lindsay Wixon, Italian Vogue January 2012

Tim Walker ‘Story Teller’ Lindsay Wixon, Italian Vogue January 2012

In fact most of his work in fashion has influenced his use of scale in his fantasy work, the unrealistic way models are portrayed as taller than normal people has inspired both the use of dolls and also the way he is playful with their scale making them unrealistically big. The use of the forest as a location for the shoot is uncanny in itself, it sets the scene for a nightmare. The scale and composition of the huge doll adds to the allegory of the nightmare. Half hidden behind a tree adds a sense of fear as half the face of the doll is missing leaving us feeling disconnected. At first glance we assume that the doll is chasing the model but upon closer inspection the model is holding the dolls dress. Looking almost as she is comforted by the doll. It seems to connote a childlike relationship, representing what the strangest of objects embody to us when we are young right through childhood until adulthood but eventually suffering at the rate of our own mortality. Childhood and Mortality are themes that seem to crop up in every form of research that I have found whilst constructing the context of my project. These themes alone suggest that objects have a greater effect on us that was previously suggested. They seem to no longer be put into boxes of meaning like the 17th century Vanitas paintings but instead are subject to our various experiences and the embodiment of persona we place upon them. So much so that I believe that they can create a portrait that represents their owner, or at least raise an uncanny retrospect which is generic across all generations. Something which itself could be a portrait of the viewer as they will only draw from it what they have experienced themselves, much like Mari Mahr’s work.

Time Walker 'Story Teller' 2012

Time Walker ‘Story Teller’ 2012

This image from the exhibition storyteller at Somerset House. The lighting in the exhibition seems key to how we follow his work around. Note that the lighting isn’t entered on the dolls face but at what we imagine to be human eye level causing us to look up to her. A stance that is quite intimidating, the use of spotlights furthers this ethereal effect. If anything I am inspired by his use of composition and framing. The way he pursues a sense of scale with the dolls to elude a uncanny feel to his images and represent the relationship we have with our affects through his own serene mental state. Using photography as an outlet to explore the fantasies he endures.

Smith, Karl. ‘Interview With Tim Walker | The White Review’. Thewhitereview.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 Apr. 2015.

Walker, Tim, and Ruth Ansel. Tim Walker. London: Thames & Hudson, 2012. Print.

Walker, Tim. ‘Biography – Tim Walker Photography’. Timwalkerphotography.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

Walker, Tim. ‘Tim Walker Photography’. Timwalkerphotography.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

Shoot 27

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Shoot 27 Contact Sheet

Shoot 27 Contact Sheet

At the end of the last shoot I wanted to find an area in ‘The Hundred Acre Wood’ that either resembled human presence or the lack there of. A dreary, overcast day made it all the more creepy when after hours of exploring we stumbled upon a rope swing. We didn’t notice the wind that seemed to knock the trees together once the doll was placed upon the swing. Oddly looking at home where she was put.

The shoot itself was challenging to capture, the wind keeping the swing swaying. Control over the focus was essential and surprisingly it was easier to focus on the back of the doll rather than on the intricate detail of her face. Also the back of the doll is the most haunting image of the shoot as you are left to presume. I really enjoy the effect that the rope swing adds to the representation of the image. Suggesting that the doll was abandoned just like the swing, we can conclude that the owner is no longer there but that the doll still embodies a reflection of them, making it a portrait of the owners mind more than their physicality.

The lack of human presence and interaction in the image is what is so haunting, because there is still a human connection there. Although like many photographs that fall into the genre of representation these images were completely constructed upon the belief that I could reconstruct the owner without knowing them. When in fact all I was doing was playing on the audiences memories that the object could trigger (much like Auster and Dillon do in their novels) and letting them draw their own conclusions on what the object represents. I would like my final image to come from this shoot but I do realise that there are slight errors in framing, evidently I will shoot again with the same doll, location and compositions.

©samanthajaneriley

The Trees of Change.

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Ahh a clever play on words for what I am attempting to discuss. Part of photography to me is keeping it relevant to todays society. Seeing that my target audience is adults I thought I would have to have a more mature subject matter like china dolls. But as I found recently dolls have been in the news and exploding over the internet. Not just any dolls but a unique adult who likes to play with dolls.

This special lady has decide to take dolls and give them new life. Sadly in todays society dolls have been subject to a very negative stereotype. With their tiny bodies and over made make up it has be decided they may impact disastrously on our children. Because of how they view the dolls and then inflict that view upon themselves. This lady, Artist Sonia Singh, recycles discarded unwanted dolls and makes them into more natural looking dolls. I have been inspired by using  a similar idea to her by looking in charity shops for my objects.

Tree Change Dolls By Sonia Singh

Tree Change Dolls By Sonia Singh

The drastic change is obvious and to her surprise kids love her dolls better than the originals and they are in high demand on Etsy (online shop) as they have become the must have toy for any child. She has recycled an object which had a negative influence and made it into a more relatable affect for children to have. I however am photographing other’s dolls in order to awaken a connection. Both taking something old and giving it a new purpose. Objects that have lost their function and making them relevant again.

Singh, Sonia. ‘Tree Change Dolls™’. Treechangedolls.tumblr.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.