In terms of my final project, I think I'd like to experiment with various expansions: working with a wider age group, maybe get some of my parents' or grandparents' stories, or a young kid's, maybe giving a more complete portrayal of subjects (actually covering all 13 scars on one friend for instance--I myself would probably provide a plethora of stories). I definitely enjoy this sort of macro-portraiture and would like to do more. (I don't know if that exists or if I just made up that term.) The relationship between portraiture and personal narrative is also something I've enjoyed exploring, and I feel requires further investigation in the future when I have the opportunity to do so.
I remember I found the article we read on smiling in portraiture intriguing. It definitely makes me want to examine my portraiture folder in that light, and is something I believe I will continue to at least think about while taking portraits in the future.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Final: Close Encounters
Observations on Personal Encounters with Subjects
In some cases, I actually learned some new stories about my subjects and friends, while some I specifically asked to photograph because I already had an idea of some of their personal narratives that would be appropriate for this piece. I also knew beforehand that I wanted to photograph people I was more familiar with because of the potentially invasive nature of the project.
I got the impression from the photo shoots for this project that it was at least somewhat awkward, but I actually think in most cases the audio capture was more awkward than actually shooting photographs for them. I ended up wandering away from them after I'd given direction so that they could take their time to figure out what they wanted to say and give themselves multiple takes if they needed. In general I was regarded as the director. One ended up playing around with the audio capture quite a bit before jumping into explanations; another needed a good five or ten minutes to collect thoughts before recording audio. (I had them record themselves so they could take their time or start over or say as much as they wished.) This wasn't a problem per se, but it was intriguing since I was approaching it from a desire to capture things more so than arrange them to my particular liking. (I felt I already was arranging quite a bit of the experience of this piece in framing them in an interactive web format.) I didn't want to instruct or direct them too strictly from a desire of the portrayal through their portraits to have some kind of personal truth in them, or at least to feel like I was representing them honestly in their essence. (That leaves open the issue of self-portrayal, and the truth one creates of oneself in telling one's own stories, but that is another lengthy topic...)
I think some of the awkwardness, even though it wasn't terribly so, likely came from the focus of the piece itself. Regardless of how self-conscious one is about one's body or how camera shy a person might be, physical oddities, flaws, or scars--and if not that, the stories or associations--tend to be personal and often private matters.
I felt the way in which the subjects of the portraits told their stories was vital in their portrayal (mine and theirs combined.) I hadn't quite expected it, but many of the stories included in the piece were actually humorous on some level, or at least the subjects seemed to look back on the experiences, even if they were bad, with some kind of fondness and good humor. In that way, their voices and their tones while speaking brought so much to the piece, that I would argue is utterly indispensable, and gave greater insight on the subject when composed spatially and temporally with the visual references.
I got the impression from the photo shoots for this project that it was at least somewhat awkward, but I actually think in most cases the audio capture was more awkward than actually shooting photographs for them. I ended up wandering away from them after I'd given direction so that they could take their time to figure out what they wanted to say and give themselves multiple takes if they needed. In general I was regarded as the director. One ended up playing around with the audio capture quite a bit before jumping into explanations; another needed a good five or ten minutes to collect thoughts before recording audio. (I had them record themselves so they could take their time or start over or say as much as they wished.) This wasn't a problem per se, but it was intriguing since I was approaching it from a desire to capture things more so than arrange them to my particular liking. (I felt I already was arranging quite a bit of the experience of this piece in framing them in an interactive web format.) I didn't want to instruct or direct them too strictly from a desire of the portrayal through their portraits to have some kind of personal truth in them, or at least to feel like I was representing them honestly in their essence. (That leaves open the issue of self-portrayal, and the truth one creates of oneself in telling one's own stories, but that is another lengthy topic...)
I think some of the awkwardness, even though it wasn't terribly so, likely came from the focus of the piece itself. Regardless of how self-conscious one is about one's body or how camera shy a person might be, physical oddities, flaws, or scars--and if not that, the stories or associations--tend to be personal and often private matters.
I felt the way in which the subjects of the portraits told their stories was vital in their portrayal (mine and theirs combined.) I hadn't quite expected it, but many of the stories included in the piece were actually humorous on some level, or at least the subjects seemed to look back on the experiences, even if they were bad, with some kind of fondness and good humor. In that way, their voices and their tones while speaking brought so much to the piece, that I would argue is utterly indispensable, and gave greater insight on the subject when composed spatially and temporally with the visual references.
Final: Obstacles and Response, Technical and Artistic Concerns
Some issues needing to be addressed became apparent fairly early on in the website design. I realized I might need more pictures of individual body parts or areas, especially if the audio going along with the images was of any significant length, which brought up the challenge in some cases of how many different ways can I photograph particular things.
As is nearly always an issue when using image maps, I had to think about whether the audience could intuitively navigate through the site's maps or whether more direction was needed. I think to a degree navigating image maps is intuitive to most computer-users, but to be safe I included both the mouseover caption/titles and indicated in my introduction of the piece that investigation, finding the links, would be required to explore and navigate the portraits. I considered looking for a code which highlights image map areas when you mouseover them, but most I found were more suited to image maps of actual maps of continents with individual countries and such. I thought this effect would be too jarring with the organic shapes of the body.
I also had issue obtaining a better quality microphone for audio capturing. In the end, I decided it would be easier for me to use my laptop's microphone and edit the audio to the best of my ability rather than try to call in my subjects for multiple sittings. I was aware of the awkwardness of doing the photo shoot and the audio captures for me, so I tried to gather all the material from each person in a single meeting with them.
I wished to use essentially a slideshow for the photography that went with the audio, and while I originally started out using simple jQuery fade ins and outs, it became apparent working that script for multiple consecutive photographs would be too much of a hassle. I eventually found a fairly simple Javascript which allowed me to easily create simple slideshows, altering the timing as necessary. As timing was also an issue, I encouraged my subjects to keep their audio captures brief (I believe the longest is two minutes, for which I had to take more images), and generally took more photos than necessary so I had sufficient material to work with the timing of the audio tracks.
I also encountered some more editorial concerns, particularly with regards to what parts of my subjects' narratives I showed. In the case of one of my subjects who had an overabundance of scars in particular, I worked with a sampling of those rather than capturing them all. In some cases, the scars were very difficult to see, and I felt just shooting the general area with the physical evidence of the story so faint wasn't appropriate where simply a story generally concerning a body area or part might have been. I was aware of how this would alter the truth of the personal narratives, which is partly why I was so keen on the subjects coming up with what to say on their own. I knew I was playing a major role in portraying them (although most seemed to expect as much from me as the photographer).
Something I might have worked on more besides gathering a more complete narrative from subjects and find subjects from a wider range of ages, was on experimenting more with composition and lighting with the close-up shots. Certain areas were very challenging for finding different views or perspectives.
As is nearly always an issue when using image maps, I had to think about whether the audience could intuitively navigate through the site's maps or whether more direction was needed. I think to a degree navigating image maps is intuitive to most computer-users, but to be safe I included both the mouseover caption/titles and indicated in my introduction of the piece that investigation, finding the links, would be required to explore and navigate the portraits. I considered looking for a code which highlights image map areas when you mouseover them, but most I found were more suited to image maps of actual maps of continents with individual countries and such. I thought this effect would be too jarring with the organic shapes of the body.
I also had issue obtaining a better quality microphone for audio capturing. In the end, I decided it would be easier for me to use my laptop's microphone and edit the audio to the best of my ability rather than try to call in my subjects for multiple sittings. I was aware of the awkwardness of doing the photo shoot and the audio captures for me, so I tried to gather all the material from each person in a single meeting with them.
I wished to use essentially a slideshow for the photography that went with the audio, and while I originally started out using simple jQuery fade ins and outs, it became apparent working that script for multiple consecutive photographs would be too much of a hassle. I eventually found a fairly simple Javascript which allowed me to easily create simple slideshows, altering the timing as necessary. As timing was also an issue, I encouraged my subjects to keep their audio captures brief (I believe the longest is two minutes, for which I had to take more images), and generally took more photos than necessary so I had sufficient material to work with the timing of the audio tracks.
I also encountered some more editorial concerns, particularly with regards to what parts of my subjects' narratives I showed. In the case of one of my subjects who had an overabundance of scars in particular, I worked with a sampling of those rather than capturing them all. In some cases, the scars were very difficult to see, and I felt just shooting the general area with the physical evidence of the story so faint wasn't appropriate where simply a story generally concerning a body area or part might have been. I was aware of how this would alter the truth of the personal narratives, which is partly why I was so keen on the subjects coming up with what to say on their own. I knew I was playing a major role in portraying them (although most seemed to expect as much from me as the photographer).
Something I might have worked on more besides gathering a more complete narrative from subjects and find subjects from a wider range of ages, was on experimenting more with composition and lighting with the close-up shots. Certain areas were very challenging for finding different views or perspectives.
Final Project synopsis
Memoirs Through Anatomy
With this project, I wanted to work with portraiture in a way I haven't really investigated before, focusing on the idea that people tend to wear or carry their histories or parts of themselves around with them on or in their bodies. In that way, I think it is perhaps a spin-off of the environmental portrait, in which the environment is actually the physical person themselves as opposed to their surroundings. Or perhaps one can think of it as the marks and impressions left on the body by their surroundings throughout the lifetime.
I also wanted to create an interactive experience with it; I believe that idea came from the metaphor I had in my mind of the landmarks or lanscape of the body or the body as a roadmap through one's personal history. As such, the portraits actually consist of several photographs, an "overall" view (the roadmap, if you will, which doubly serves as the image map and navigation on the site), a number of more close-up, intimate views (portraits of parts of the whole), and the spoken narrative provided by the subject him/herself in the audio.
With this project, I wanted to work with portraiture in a way I haven't really investigated before, focusing on the idea that people tend to wear or carry their histories or parts of themselves around with them on or in their bodies. In that way, I think it is perhaps a spin-off of the environmental portrait, in which the environment is actually the physical person themselves as opposed to their surroundings. Or perhaps one can think of it as the marks and impressions left on the body by their surroundings throughout the lifetime.
I also wanted to create an interactive experience with it; I believe that idea came from the metaphor I had in my mind of the landmarks or lanscape of the body or the body as a roadmap through one's personal history. As such, the portraits actually consist of several photographs, an "overall" view (the roadmap, if you will, which doubly serves as the image map and navigation on the site), a number of more close-up, intimate views (portraits of parts of the whole), and the spoken narrative provided by the subject him/herself in the audio.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Environmental Portraits
~~
I think normally one would expect the environmental portrait with the less familiar person to be more of an awkward situation. I'm not sure that was the case with my set of environmental portraits. I think I felt about equally awkward with both subjects. While Dr. Krueger is one of my professors this semester, I'd never actually spoken to him individually (nor had I read up on all of his accomplishments in his field) previously. Shooting him involved slight awkwardness; for some reason I feel compelled to converse with my subjects while shooting portraits, either for their comfort or my own. In terms of the portrait itself, his office was the perfect environment, from just about any angle.
Photographing my friend Holly involved a different nervousness. I think I had more concern for how I was portraying her because of our familiarity. When I might have expected more eye contact in photos with the person more familiar to me, the reverse was true here. Dr. Krueger had a tendency to meet the camera with his eyes though I hadn't asked him to do so or not.
The environment in Dr. Krueger's portraits also showed more his profession and fields of study, whereas I feel Holly's reflected more so her personality as well as her interests. There was a kind of quiet elusive quality to her photographs, especially when I decided to focus on the bookshelf items in the foreground rather than her directly.
In terms of captioning, Dr. Krueger's ended up being more lengthy because of his accomplishments, and because I felt the items in his office needed identification for the audience to understand their significance. Holly's portraits I felt stood on their own better in this way, and relied more visually on communicating the portrait information rather than on the text.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Context and Decontextualization: Thoughts on "Thinking Images v.10: Jodi Bieber's Afghan girl portrait in context"
Jodi Bieber (whom I have never met) was interviewed after my lecture and remarked: “What Campbell said about our lack of control was quite obvious and very true. As soon as you hand over your work its not yours anymore.” This means when Bieber’s portrait of Aisha appeared on the 9 August 2010 cover of Time, with the headline “What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan,” its form was beyond her control (see below left). At the moment it entered the public domain the image was no longer Bieber’s. #
Focusing on the headline, Jim Johnson calls the Time cover propaganda and the World Press Photo award a category mistake. He provides an effective demonstration of how meaning is changed by associated text with an imaginary cover using the same photo with the headline “What Still Happened Despite Ten Years of Occupying Afghanistan” (above right). #
~ Thinking Images v.10: Jodi Bieber's Afghan girl portrait in context
It's an unfortunate truth in photojournalism that once your photograph is sold, you give up control over the manner in which your photograph is displayed and contextualized. As for the World Press Photo award, I think it is possible to look at photographs in isolation and judge them formally--it's just a matter of choosing a narrower analytical view--but depending on the photo, it may or may not strip the image of its potential full meaning or impact. Artworks can and are usually examined, analyzed, and valued through different aspects and fields of study, but in my experience the holistic view is the generally preferred one. Practically, no photograph can be fully appreciated for what it is out of the context in which it was taken, but some may be more closely tied or dependent on context than others, and therefore more susceptible to contextual corruption (such as the above example). Examining a photograph from a purely formal standpoint is quite possible, and is done, but it must be understood that doing so risks at least some de-contextualization. Perhaps formal elements and historical/social/political context could both be taken into account in the World Press Photo award, but once this context is recognized, it is likely that certain photos will be judged based on the significance of their context rather than on design and composition.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
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