Saturday kicked off the start of the week with the Bristol Annual Photobook Festival. A chance to meet some colleagues and Jesse Alexander for the first time. Starting with coffee (of course), a brief chat revealed the divergent backgrounds of our cohort. Teachers, Anthropologists, Rock Musician Photographers a heady mix of life experiences for us to share and build diverse projects in collaboration and by ourselves.
I was booked into two talks. The first, a talk by Alicia Bruce regarding her photobook I Burn but I am Not Consumed. Alicia presented a portrait of a Scottish coastal community in conflict with Donald Trump. Alicia had deeply embedded herself into the community, gained its trust and became part of the movement. It struck me that her commitment and emotional involvement was total.
This paid off, with her work reflecting the pain and frustration but also the moments of joy within the community as it faced up to the David and Goliath battles against the Trump organisation. The photography and accompanying poetry eloquently provided a record of the lived experiences of locals involved in the fight. As I listened, I wondered if I would be able to embed myself so deeply into my own chosen community of food banks and soup kitchens, a group far removed from my own background. The film shown during Alicia’s presentation was very moving and strengthened my resolve to include a film as part of my final-year project.
The second talk by Lua Ribeira showcased her latest book Subida al Cielo (Ascent into Heaven). Within five separate projects, Lua was able to create performative, theatrical bodies of work that are able to transcend cultural barriers, providing unique insights into migrant and religious communities utilising highly staged and pre-determined visual structures. Uniquely Lua’s photobook included her drawings and ‘workings out’ that preceded the shoots.
Lua’s work spoke to several levels. Firstly, it rammed home the possibilities of pre-imagining how subjects and their environments might be arranged within the frame. Although this is not always possible, in working for example within a soup kitchen, there will always be aspects of the environment that will work better than others. Secondly, when speaking afterward with Lua signing my copy of her book, she confirmed that all of the work had been shot on medium format film. My determination to attempt shooting at least part of my FMP on medium format film has strengthened.
After lunch with a few colleagues, I was able to browse the photobook sellers. My purchases were illuminating. I was drawn towards gritty monochrome scenes of urban depravation. Was this going to be my prefered execution style, or a hangover of my earlier documentary preferences of photographers such as Don McCullin, Mary Ellen Mark and Bruce Davidson. I guess this is yet to be resolved.
Monday was ringfenced for a shoot in I Margate. I have yet to fully explore the best ways to achieve environmental portraits with my medium format Mamiya 645, in particular the focussing issues that have dogged my first few weeks with the camera. Arriving mid-morning my first opportunities came early. I was able to persuade a couple of Latvian wild swimmers to engage and have their portraits taken. Setting up quickly while chatting was challenging. Focus was difficult with the waist-level finder. I had to take several meter readings with a separate light meter. I did not use the screen magnifier and relied on a snatched focus. The result, missed focus. Note to self, either use the prism finder or waist level magnifier and take time to focus carefully if subject sharpness is to be optimised.
With great light I took the opportunity to take a number of seascapes using the tripod, waist level finder and my travel tripod. To minimise camera shake (I was shooting at 100 ISO Kodak Ektar) I utilised the cameras inbuilt shutter delay. This is probably even more effective than cable release as I can still use the mirror up function avoiding mirror slap vibrations. Over lunch took a portrait of an elderly lady with her two dogs. I used this as practice in approaching strangers out of the blue for impromptu portraits.
After lunch I drove across Margate to the now collapsed site of the lido. A Somalian lady sitting on the collapsed wall caught my attention. I approached her and asked to take a series of portraits both environmental and closer up. Having engaged her in conversation it transpired that she grew up in London and had moved to Margate teaching art to under-privileged children in Margate. I now had Portra loaded rated at ISO 200. The light was strong but not overly directional. I used my prism finder shooting on the cameras internal meter and able to focus more carefully than earlier. The results can be seen here MARGATE SHOOT 9/10/2023. The resulting negatives were dense, indicating that in future when using the prism finder I could shoot at box speed without the danger of under-exposure.
When sharing details of my intended food bank project, Ayaan pointed to a local food bank that had recently been set up by Sharon Goodyear. I took the opportunity to go there before catching the train home. By a sheer case of serendipity, Sharon was standing I the doorway. Thinking she was a client waiting for the centre to open, I approached and asked if she knew the whereabouts of Sharon that afternoon. It turns out she was in fact Sharon, and we proceeded to share our various backgrounds and current projects. It transpires that the centre is newly opened, is both a food bank and soup kitchen and is promoting healthy options as a push back against over-processed food. My impressions were that Sharon was interested and would be keen for me to be involved. I tool her details and e.mailed her the next day. As of 4 days later I have had no reply but intend to follow up and if possible, arrange a face to face in Margate over the coming weeks. I hope to use this opportunity for a small test shoot with images included in my first assignment.
Tuesday kicked off with a briefing webinar from Jesse regarding our upcoming reflective presentation. Although there is significant guidance available online, it was useful to hear first-hand from Jesse. In particular, he stressed that this was not a task of merely creating a biopic. Rather, it should be a critical analysis of our previous style of work and where it sits within the various genres and philosophies within photography. We were reminded of the usefulness of reviewing the exemplar reflective presentations on Canvas and the value in reviewing these with the learning outcomes to hand. The scope of the task is now clear. The assignment is due Monday 13th Nov.
This week’s assignment was a collaborative presentation due at the end of the week. Luckily, my uploaded proposal of exploring and executing various conceptual ideas around ‘waiting’ was accepted by three others; Natasha, Steve and Jonny. Once we had coalesced, we were quickly able to delegate tasks with myself writing the background research and the others creating photographs to support the presented ideas. The collaboration was surprisingly efficient and despite having not worked together previously, we were able to give a credible presentation on the Thursday afternoon.
Wednesday was spent finishing the research and writing up the slides for the presentation. I also reviewed the presentation on authorship and collaboration and read the paper by Susan Meisel on collaboration. To be honest, I have found some aspects of this week’s topic challenging. I realise my view of photography as a creative and intellectual pursuit is seen negatively in the supplied texts, and presentation. My career to date would seem to have followed the same path.
Although I have spent decades in commercial creative environments including design and advertising agencies and have executed projects collaboratively, this has tended to be when the teams were cross-functional. In other words, working with artworkers, film editors and designers. I have tended to create my strategies and conceptual design ideas mostly solo, then shared the ideas as as a finished product. I tend to be highly self-critical and by the time I am ready to share, I believe (most likely incorrectly), that the idea cannot be refined or polished further.
Within photography, I have been self-taught and have learned my craft by voraciously consuming the ideas and work of individuals I have placed on a creative and photographic pedestal. Bruce Davison, Don McCullin, Mark Ellen Mark, Ernst Haas, Saul Leiter. I have tended to avoid the more contemporary and artistic voices, choosing to follow the classic masters. Consequently, I have found some aspects of this week difficult and at times uncomfortable. I recognise that I am focussed on a style of documentary photography that was perhaps at its nadir 30-40 years ago. Is this wrong? I guess the coming topics and activities will refine my thoughts on this further.
Finally, there was also an evening lecture by Stinus Duch. This was an interesting account of the independent art photobook market and how these photobooks are conceived and their journey from inception to completion. Whilst highly creative, many did not stir my emotions. On the spectrum of art vs pure documentary, they definitely veered towards art. I found some rather incomprehensible, however, some were highly original. The webinar highlighted the dissonance I currently feel between aesthetics and meaning, art and more representative styles of documentary photography. I have yet to resolve these contradictions.
Thursday was spent refining the presentation including the list of figures and bibliography. I also developed my first three rolls of colour film (Cinestill C41). Finally, I have restructured the menu within my CRJ so that my previous portfolio is separated from the work I shoot while at Falmouth.
Friday was taken up with personal matters as well as continuing to process my Margate analogue images.
FIGURES:
FIGURE 1: BRUCE, Alicia. 2023 Trump the Greatest Liar. I Burn But I Am Not Consumed. [online]. Available at: https://aliciabruce.co.uk/book/iburn [accessed 13/10/2023].
FIGURE 2: RIBEIRA, Lua. 2023 Subida al Cielo. [online]. Available at: https://luaribeira.com/Subida-al-Cielo [accessed 13/10/2023].
FIGURE 3: ROSEN, David. 2023 Margate Wild Swimmers. [online]. Available at: https://luaribeira.com/Subida-al-Cielo [accessed 13/10/2023].
The Photography of David Rosen 