Photography and Everyday Objects

PHOTOGRAPHY AND EVERYDAY OBJECTS


Why photograph inanimate objects, which neither move nor change? Many of the earliest photographs were still life of necessity: only statues, books, and urns could hold still long enough to leave their images on paper. But with the still lifes of Roger Fenton introduce a new note: the dusty skin of a grape, a flower petal curled and darkened at the edge. Photographic still life is about our sensual experience of everyday objects, and the inevitability of decay.


The nineteenth-century art critic Théophile Thoré objected to the French term for still life, nature morte, proclaiming, “Everything is alive and moves, everything breathes in and exhales, everything is in a constant state of metamorphosis… There is no dead nature!” The Czech photographer Josef Sudek tersely echoed this thought when he said that to the photographer’s eye, “a seemingly dead object comes to life through light or by its surroundings.”

André Kertész



In 1928 Kertesz photographed a fork, or rather the idea of a fork - a fork that represented the idea of form and the idea of light; light gliding perfectly over an object, which then transcends its usual practical function and becomes a vehicle for deeper thoughts.
Kertesz was not trying to create an abstract, but to reveal the beauty hidden within objects.


"Life is composed of such fleeting glimpses of beauty, but one must learn to look at the world in wonder in order to be able to catch these moments of enchantment before they fade away"




After his wife Elizabeth’s death in 1977, Kertesz began placing objects that reminded him of her or of their life together in front of the window of his New York apartment and shooting color Polaroids of them. The series was eventually collected in a book called From My Window. Through this same window in previous decades, Kertész had taken black-and-white pictures of Washington Square Park and surrounding rooftops with a telephoto lens. Now the city became a soft, distant backdrop for his miniature theater of memory.



Edward Weston
On 10th March 1924 Weston wrote in his diary - "What is the best use of a camera? You only have to look at the masterpieces of a great sculptor or a great painter to know that a camera should be used for the recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh." And later "To photograph a rock means that the image should be more than a rock. A meaning not an interpretation."

A few years after writing those words Weston produced a series of photographs of Peppers, in which they have all transcended their ordinary existence to become objects of muscular beauty.


(Paul - Appologies for not attending class today I am having some financial trouble and as I am home alone consequently cannot afford the journey to college this morning. This issue will be rectified soon - I hope! )

Public and Domestic Incident

When first researcing Photography and Domestic Incident I came across Rankins work with womens aid. The ACT campaign comprised of nine female celebrities made up to look like victims of domestic abuse. The campaign recieved substantial media attention and went on to win a number of honours in the advertising industry.

This subject then lead me on to the work on Nan Goldin.

Nan Goldin describes her photography as a "visual diary". She has stated - "These are my friends, these are my family, this is myself. There is no separation between me and what I photograph".


The self portrait "Nan one month after being battered" was taken to prevent Goldin from forgetting the damage caused by her boyfriends violence.

In one of her better known images, Nan and Brian in Bed NYC 1983, the scene is suffused with a crepscular orange glow that palpably captures the mood of a dying relationship. Brian, her lover at the time, sits naked on the edge of the bed, smoking a cigarette; Goldin lies behind him, her face a mixture of affection and vulnerability. The relationship ended in a storm of abusive violence, as the next image, Nan One Month After Being Battered NYC 1984 dramatically showed, with Goldins scarlet lipstick vividly echoing the blood in her injured eye.

My final images are by a lesser know young photographer named Chris Buley.

The images depict the effects domestic abuse both mental and physical can have on a child.

These are beautiful black and whites which speak for themselves.

The Body in Abject Photography

Jeffrey Silverthorne - Morgue - Woman who died in her sleep 1972

When asked what influenced him to start shooting in the morgues Jeffrey Silverthorne responded -

"It was Vietnam time. People were being killed on the television screen as I ate supper. I had to do something and there was a general feeling of people not looking enough. I grew up safe in Conneticut> I thought the morgue was unsafe but it wasn't. Physically it was the safest place I could go> The streets were volitile. Psychologically, the morgue was transfomative, years later. Death is for the living, the dead are gone. Paying attention is the key to being alive.

British Photography Journal 24/31 / 12/08

Oxana Mazura digitally manipulated images of the body show a range of emotions and internal states of mind. Some use grotesque cuts and markings on the models back artistically shot in back and white in order to portray these feelings and emotions.

Antony Crossfield - Foreign Bodies

Antony Crossfield uses photographic compositions which digitally combne multiple images of individual male bodies into multilimbed hybrids. Disturbing and distorted yet reconisable and human. The subjects look as if they are struggling like conjoined twins of control of the merged body. This collection explores masculine streotypes of physical strength and control, made vulnerable through decay, fleshyness and furthered through lack of clothing.

Larry Dunstan

This photogrphers work is inspired by the fact that everyone in life is affected by health issues at some point. His unsettling images of distorted bodies use a range of techniques. Prosthetics, digital manipulation and straight portraiture. He is influenced by Joel Peter-Witkin and artist Otto Dix and his horrific injury paintings of WWI

Recorders - Rafael Lozano Hemmer - Manchester Art Gallery

Recorders features various technologically inspired installations by Mexican Canadian electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Each piece depends upon physical interaction from its viewer.

Visitors to the exibition "sign in" via a small metal hole in the wall in which you put your index finger and a large image of your fingerprint is shown on screen in front of you and your p

ulse is measured.

As we continue into the main room we see a circle of vintage style microphones under a spotlight. Well positioned this piece is inviting and is almost like a stage in the centre of the room. When speaking into the microphones (as the artist has very surely predicted that every visitor will do) you hear your own voice back very faintly, followed by someone else's recorded voice - a previous visitor to the exhibition. This has a ghostly sense as you realise that in this silent and nearly empty room your input, just like the voices you can hear, will not be discovered until you are long gone.

Empty your pockets - this piece was very much like an airport baggage scanner except clean cut and brightly lit. Any item placed on the conveyor belt was scanned and appeared as a projection with all the other items that had previously been scanned by other visitors, appearing as a pile of objects on the belt.

I believe the most time was spent collectively playing and interacting on this piece as it was fascinating to see items from your own pockets suddenly and permanently become part of the exhibition.

The pulse room was for me personally although highly technological, the most like what i consider to be artwork in this exhibition.

This room was lit by hundreds of hanging light bulbs each pulsing and representing a heartbeat, all different visitors to the exhibition. You can hold on to two metal rods at the end of the room and record your pulse to add to the collection.

The room was literally filled with the hearts of every person to visit. It was a beautiful sight to be seen and incredibly calming in atmosphere. I could have sat there for hours.

In conclusion, I found this exhibition very interesting and fun to visit and interact with. However, with the exclusion of the pulse room I felt that these pieces were more like something I would expect to see in Manchester's Science and Industry museum and reminded me more of something I would have enjoyed when i was younger as part of a school trip.

When visiting an art gallery I hope to leave feeling inspired to try something new with my photography and top be full of new ideas, unfortunately this was not the case when visiting this exhibition. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable trip and a lot of fun.