Photo gallery for Photography as Research
Assignment 1 Photography: Choose examples of a personal self-portrait using different methods of taking your own self-portrait rather than pictures people take of you.
 | This picture I took of myself in my hotel room whilst in Turku. I was experimenting with my phone camera. I like this one particularly because of the light (it was snow outside and the light is particularly bright and white) and the way the shadow cuts across my left eye.  |
   | Three pictures I took as a part of the Phototherapy workshop in Finland. Self portraits don't always have to be of you, they can be about you. The dog I saw tied up outside a bar. He doesn't look too happy. I am thinking about getting a dog when I retire so I keep noticing them, this time I snapped this one - just about the right size and he looked quite friendly. The ribbons reminded me about when I ran my own business making children's clothes. You don't often see such a display as this and it brought back some happy memories. The third picture is about me now. I enjoy looking in junk shops for bargains and collectables and I just love this picture, particularly the jar that looks as if it's a face in the mirror and the little curly price tags. Unwanted things from other people's lives but also a picture of an eye.
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This is a self-portrait taken by me not of me. When I get home at night I often sit in the car for a few moments before I get out and go home. I think. Not for long, sometimes listening to the radio. I like this late night moment of tranquility and took a picture of the tree and the shadows. The street looks lonely and very menacing but I find peace for a moment or two. This feeling takes me right back to when I used to sit, holding my first child in the middle of the night, looking out at a tree and seeing shapes and faces in the bare branches.
Below is another self-portrait: this was taken using the front facing camera on the phone where you can see yourself as you take the picture.... it has a different quality to the other picture. The other picture was taken holding the phone at arms length. I think this might be what a dog would see!
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End of Assignment 2: The last of my three websites, not therapy, not therapeutic (except for the viewer), possibly social change regarding ageing.
Web Link 3: Mamika - Hungarian Grandmother who 'performs her photographs'
http://www.myspace.com/frederikagoldberger
Turns out she is also a professional photographer http://www.sachabada.com
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Web Link 2: Patrycja Cudak, internation media/installation artist who is currently reaching the end of a residency at Knowle Media Centre, Bristol. Her personal website (where the image came from) is here The current project is described as: "To build an interactive video installation exploring how people with some dark secrets, including mental disorders or addictions, construct their outer image and how others relate to them. The subjects are people who in everyday life present themselves as normal, successful, smart or friendly, but in private, when no one can see, they practice some abnormal and unhealthy habits, for example self-harming, binge eating or drinking. The installation is to stimulate the feelings associated with meeting the subject, building a relationship with him or her and discovering their dark secrets. " Patrycja Cudak | 
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Commentary: I immediately related to this image - even though there are no people in it. I think because of the Jo Spence lecture last night and memories of being a feminist. Re-assessing or identiy formation doesn't have to be about portraiture - it can be about metaphorical meaning given to objects that represent an aspect of self, similar to Jo Spence's return, during the final phases of her illness, to using obects that represent identities. In this photo (which may be a collaborative 1,1) there is a juxtaposition that highlights the contrast between two objects representing different constraints/opposing ties etc. I see a new (pink) and shiny shoe which I also associate with a certain old fashioned-ness, something my mother would have worn, rather than a contemporary fashion statement (Is this about taste?). As a new shoe (expensive and desirable) I remember well that when my children were young, I had only one pair of shoes which I wore all the time until they wore out and had to be replaced. As a single mother, I couldn't afford a wardrobe of shoes. My shoe was black patent leather.
The shoe is positioned 'as if' on display (buy me). The heel is placed inside a potty, invisible. The potty serves as a displaystand for the shoe placing it as subordinate although in the image they take an equal stance. As an image for Today's Woman, I recognise the possibility that this image represents the issues of being a working mother having to maintain a role, the shoe, as well as the responsbilities of motherhood, the potty.
Taken in conjunction with the statement above, about the current project, I would see this website and body of work as Therapeutic, but not Phototherapy. It is a socially engaged practice.
Note: Patrycja Cudak also used Yola for her website!
Week 2 - Three websites, three categories - Phototherapy : Photography as Therapy : Social Activisim
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Picture - Noah, NYC, 2005 |  |
Week 1 - four images that represent the Del Ethical Diagram
Picture 1: Snapshot for a family album , randomly found on the internet (forgot to get the source information - damn - which means I shouldn't really use this one). Obviously, taken without permission - probably by a parent (because of the every day domestic nature of the picture) and thus 1.2 in the Del Diagram - i.e. this is a picture where the photographer puts the photograph first. This picture was taken to preserve the moment for the benefit of two children to see when they are older. It shows a somewhat cheeky older child showing affection towards a younger sibling. The younger sibling looks more interested in playing than paying attention to the brother. I like the way the kiss has been caught just before it lands! There is just the hint of a suggestion that this might be a surprise when it does. What some people have called 'a happy snap'. ".... the actual meaning of any photograph lies less in its visual facts and more in what these details evoke inside the mind and heart of each viewer. While looking at a snapshot, people actually spontaneously create the meaning that they think is coming from that photo itself and this may or may not be the meaning that the photography originally intended to convey." Judy Weiser (2009) Phototherapy Article, Tailiese Magazine, Canada (available via Moodle) On reflection, I don't know these children - I don't even know if they are brothers, sisters or what. I notice that I have assumed they are brothers - a nostalgic personal interpretation because I have two boys. Wasn't really aware of this at first. Does the picture change if you 'imagine' different genders?
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Picture 2: Another snapshot - or is it? I was asked by a friend (the bass player) to come to a gig specifically to take pictures of the bands first public (and paid) performance. So I think this picture is a 2:1 where the photographer puts the photographed first. The band need pictures for their website so these had a purpose. Everyone in the picture knew I was taking the photograph (had given permission) so they weren't primarily "stolen moments of time" which would make them a snapshot. The process of taking the pictures was difficult because the light levels were low and there were coloured disco lights playing - changing the lighting from red to green to blue etc. every few seconds. I changed the setting on the camera to cian or sepia in the hope that the lighting would improve. It appears to have done so but I couldn't do much about the blurring in most of them I took. This one is one of the best but its still blurred and doesn't show all of the band so its not really 'fit for purpose'. I think its a good picture of my mate though and one that I hope he will treasure as a part of his personal album. I also took a lot of photos, many being the same basic picture, so this was a chosen image rather than a lucky snapshot. I would crop this to show only Ian in the future although doing this would lose a lot of 'atmosphere' of the specific time and place. If Ian chose this one, it would change into a 1:1 where the photographed puts the photographed first - Ian would chose which photograph from a series he liked of himself, making it a portrait rather than a record of an event.
|  A picture taken by me (2011), chosen by me - may be public. |
Picture 3: This picture (a portrait) was taken of me by a press photographer. Like the picture above, this is a 2:1 because I gave permission for the photograph to be taken but wasn't involved in the choice of which picture was chosen to be published in a local paper reporting on my visit to Kokkola, Finland, as key note speaker at a conference. The photographer took a lot of photos and they were originally in colour (they appeared in the paper in colour). I don't have the original; this image is scanned from the picture in the newspaper and the grainyness is because of this. I like the effect of this because it makes the picture look a bit old and worn - rather like me! It's one of the best photos I have of me and I like the wry smile and the rather inquisitive look I have (a testament to the skill of the photographer). Its a bit posed though - but that was me at the time, presenting myself! I have decided to use this photo as my image on Facebook, Skype and in the university. If I am going to be trully honest, I did a bit of touching up on this one, partly because there was a noticeable crease in the photo and I got a bit carried away....... poetic license and a need to look slightly younger or more perfect/flawless than I am, actually? After thought - how would I have felt if I didn't like the picture that appeared in the paper? |  A picture of me (2010) - taken by someone else |
Photo 4: This is a snapshot without permission - it is definitely where the photographer put the photographer first. It was taken on Christmas Day in Rome and shows an Italien family waiting, being bored perhaps, in a Christmas market. I was experimenting on how to take photos, without people noticing I was doing so, hence holding the camara away from my eye line, at hip level. I didn't care who it was being photographed, (again, this was the best of several I had taken) and I had no intention to share the photo with the people photographed. There is no comment on this other than how difficult it was to take the photo and how hostile some people were, in looks an glances, when they saw and I thought worked out what I was doing. It certainly didn't feel comfortable doing this although I think it is a successful image about body language and facial expression. Not a great photo! |  Another picture taken by me (Christmas 2010) - without permission - chosen by me |
Overview: There are four photographs here and I have found it really difficult to make clear distinctions between them because they shift between the Del categories really easily. I have found that taking a bit of time to reflect does throw up my interpretations and the projected meanings I give automatically - like assumptions that the first picture is about two boys - when there is little information to support this. So this meaning must come from me as I have to boys! I'm also aware in the second picture that the meaning changes when choice is handed over to the photographed. The third picture, a portrait of me, throws up a lot of questions about identity and how introducing the manipulation of a photograph brings ethical decisions too. Ethics appear also in the fourth photograph - permission/no permission - but this is also mediated by how the photograph (as an object) will be used or not in this case - it is a picture for my purposes only!
13th January 2011
