9) Research: 'Photography: A Critical Introduction - Liz Wells' - 11/2/18

After thinking about how my project comes into the genre of documentary, I decided to do some reading into 'Cultural politics and everyday life' and 'Documentary and photojournalism in the global age' within Liz Wells' book, 'Photography: A Critical Introduction'. Scans from the most prominent pages can be seen scanned in below.

I really liked the quote from Don Slater where he describes the camera as a tool for

"documenting one's conditions (of living, working and sociality; for creating alternative representations of oneself and one's sex, class, age group, race, etc; of gaining power of analysis and visual literacy) over one's image; of presenting arguments and demands; of stimulating action; of experiencing visual pleasure as a producer, not consumer of images; of relating to, by objectifying, one's personal and political environment".

I thought this really described some aspects of my own project and what I'm trying to achieve with it. For instance 'creating alternative representations' of the van dwellers in terms of trying to show them in a positive light after their negative representation in the media. I think this also ties in with the phrase 'gaining power of .. visual literacy', because I have the power on how I want them to be represented through which photos I choose to present in my final output. I want to show them in this positive light by highlighting 'one's personal and political environment', trying to illustrate their way of life and personal opinions and ideals through my photography.

I also found it really interesting that in the example of East London community group 'Hackney Flashers', they used "a variety of montage techniques, together with text and slogans, to overcome the perceived limitations of documentary photography". This limitation is described by Angela Kelly in the way that

"Photographic images are presented as constructs and the viewer is forced to read the system and to become aware of being actively involved in the process of the creation of meaning. This approach stands in opposition to the notion of the photograph as a transparent 'window on the world'.".

After reading this and relating it to my own project, it makes me think I should include some sort of text to accompany the images, and overcome these limitations of constructs and forcing the viewer to read the system of signs. I think this could work well in the form of interviews, to accompany the images and allow the viewer to not be involved in the process of the creation of meaning, but see it from the way I am representing these individuals.

Another interesting point I picked out was this quote:

"All over the world people continue to make documentary photographs, which are shown in journals, books, newspapers ... moreover much documentary work is now to be seen on gallery walls".

which I thought was prominent because it makes me think about the different audiences you reach depending on where you exhibit your work and how. For instance, making something such as a zine or newspaper means it can be cheaply produced and distributed, reaching a wide audience of many different types of people. However exhibiting prints in a traditional gallery space, (a space which can often give off a sense of intellectual and cultural elitism) would bring in an audience more likely to buy your prints - quite a different audience to those receiving a cheaply made newspaper or zine. After reflecting on all this, it makes me think where do I want my work to be exhibited, and what do I want my final output to be?

I want to exhibit my work near where it was shot, so those involved can come and see the exhibition at ease. I also want them to have copies of the work, so something like a zine or newspaper would be beneficial to make because it's cheap to produce lots of copies for people in comparison to prints. I also think my work in general is telling an important story, so a publication format could work more successfully than prints because I can put more images in, rather than printing lots of big images to exhibit.

Overall I felt this research into Liz Wells' 'Photography: A Critical Introduction' was really beneficial, because it got me thinking about what I'm trying to achieve in my own project by reading about the topic of documentary. As well as this, reading about techniques for presenting work and different exhibition spaces has made me reflect on where I want my own work to go in terms of this. This text is going to inform my project further as I develop my ideas around this research.

#creativeinteractions #research