Single image

Final (single image)

The narrative behind this image is insecurities. Wanting to be skinny and thinking you’re not or you need to be skinnier because of today's society portraying that if you’re not skinny you’re not beautiful. 

I think insecurities and identity is quite a common thing in photography, you find it everywhere I guess. Maybe people are getting sick of it I don't know but I wanted to have emotion in my narrative there's probably thousands of other topics I could have chosen but I feel this is more personal in a way. I found that people around me talked about their appearance a lot and what you needed to do to be "perfect", it’s all kind of a load of nonsense really but we all have our own insecurities.

So the image I chose to present is of my sister. My original idea for this image was to try experiment with Polaroid, which I used on my other sister but it

didn’t really turn out that well so I disregarded them and instead went with digital. I captured quite a few shots of this pose, getting her to disfigure her stomach in different ways but I though this particular pose showed exactly what I was wanting. I do actually like some of the other images better but I wasn’t sure about them. I edited my image in Photoshop, changing the tone to black and white then adjusting the shades on the curves graph. I also deliberately blurred my image using the blur tool. I decided to go with a black and white image because to me with black and white images you just get more emotion I find that I wonder more with black and white. It’s very beautiful I think. I also decided to blur my image because I thought that it added to the insecurity and meaning of the image. In a way I guess it could represent a thought, this is what she's thinking about herself and how she wants to look.

These are just showing the process you could say I went through on deciding whether to blur my image or not.

Before blurred

Some blurred (hands, bra)

All blurred

My original plan was to add some text on the image, but from feedback I was told that it didn’t need text and was already strong without the text. In some ways I do agree but I would still have liked to experiment more with it. This isn’t a great interpretation of my image with text but you get the idea, I think it would have been more successful if I had wrote the text on her stomach before taking the picture or it was suggested that I could write on the print itself which made me think about Douglas Gayeton's images he capture about life in a Tuscan town. I would definitely like to experiment with this idea, I think it would be interesting to see how it would turn out.

And these are the different poses I experimented with, I decided to rather have them all blurred out to try some in focus. I think it also works, my favourite (in focus) image is image two. I did blur out the bra because I thought it took the focus away from the stomach with all the patterns, I think if I was to edit it more I'd blur it out more. My favourite photo I think out of them all is image 3. I like the composition of it, I think I need to edit the tone of it more maybe make it lighter in some places more so around her stomach to emphasize the distortion. And maybe try it in focus to see what sort of effect it has.

1

2

3

4

5

Im going to continue with the theme of insecutites for my series, I have a few ideas with how i want to experiment with them Im looking forward to see how they turn out and where it takes me. 

Don McCullin

Don McCullin, Biafra,1969

McCullin is an internationally known British photojournalist recognised more for his war photography. Like Nachtway, McCullin is trying to show what is actually happening in the wars he captured and tried to bring awareness. But unlike Natchtway, McCullin is trying to get away from the label of being a war photographer. He states that, "I was building this reputation as a war photographer, which today I really detest. I worked for it and then when I suddenly felt that I was being acclaimed as a war photographer suddenly I felt uncomfortable and dirty, I felt being called a war photographer was worse then being called a mercenary". I think the only difference between the two photographers, and their thoughts on wanting to continue or get away from capturing war is that McCullin has a family. 

McCullin didn't want to weaken his strength by thinking in a sentimental way about his family, he just wanted to do his job and to hopefully go home to them. He wondered what they thought about him leaving, whether they thought they would see him again after. I guess if you where wanting to become a war photographer and make a living from it, you do need to be selfish in a way. Both photographers state that it can be addictive and the things they capture is only a fragment of what they have seen, felt, smelt and heard. It haunts you.

 

          "emotional awareness is the most important aspect of photography..."

           

            The image that caught my eye the most in McCullins work is this:

Homeless Irishman, East End, London, 1969

McCullin would walk around the streets of Brick Lane in the East End of London, looking for homeless people. Capturing the story of derelicts-the human beings who are pushed aside and ignored by our society. He captured this portrait of a man that was lying in the embers of an all night fire. I find this image so powerful. It holds so much detail and character, even though its quite intimidating to look at you still want to. The first thing i see and draws me to the image is his eyes, when talking about this image McCullin states that, "He sat up and looked at me full faced and I just held his stare, I just drought my Nikon camera up to my eye and took this picture. He never moved an eyelid, I was looking at the bluest eyes I've ever seen". I would have loved to see this image in colour, to compare the contrast and to see if it would hold the same character as the black and white image does.

War Photography: The Art Show - James Nachtwey

"If you believe in something strongly and want to tell the storey of it, you can do it, you can do anything"

Recently I watched a film documenting a war photographer, James Nachtway. It basically followed Nachtway and his work, showing us what is required to be a war photographer and the tragic holdings it left people in. Nachtway first decided to become a War Photographer in the early 70s during Vietnam. He said that "The pictures that where coming out of Vietnam where showing us what was really happening. And it was in contradiction to what our political leaders and military leaders where telling us". I guess this is where 'propaganda' comes in. While watching the film I was unsure, I guess a bit confused about what propaganda was. But after watching and discussing the film I think I've come to understand it a little more. From my own thoughts, propaganda is something that influences our beliefs I guess and attitudes towards something that we only know one side of the storey of. It can be either true or false, twisted, so that we only know what 'we need to know'.

 

Rwanda, 1994 - Survivor of the Hutu death camp.

     

Nachtway expressed a lot that the images he captured wouldn't have been made if he wasn't accepted by the people he was photographing, he said, "It’s simply impossible to photograph moments such as those without the complicity of the people I'm photographing, without, the fact that they welcomed me that they accepted me that they wanted me to be there". His images give the people a voice and show the grim conditions and shocking effect the war had left. James went on to documenting poverty in Indonesia. He follows a family who live along the train track. The father losing his arm and leg from being run over by a train on a drunken night that still had to go out and provide for his family begging for money on roads. He then went to Jakarta and discovered that a country that had been celebrated for a kind of economic revival, there was still a large part of it that people where still living in poverty.

Indonesia, 1998 - A beggar washed his children in a polluted canal.

 

West Bank, 2000 - Palestinians fighting the Israeli army.

Nachtway's images show that he's always a part of what goes on, they show he's right in the middle of it all. I think you would have to be brave to do what he does, you would have to be quite level headed. Everyone has an idea for what it would be like to see the things Nachtway has, simply by looking at images and hearing about it. I think we would all think that we'd be prepared for it but in reality we wouldn't. Our expectations of it just wouldn't be what we thought it would be like if we did see it for ourselves. When discussing the film I got asked if I 'would i do it?' It’s not something that I would personally want to make a career out of. But, if I had the opportunity to, I think I would. Mostly because I'm curious to see for myself what it’s like, to see what actually happens to people that are effected by war.

We had a discussion in class about awareness. And it was said that there's loads of awareness around already, I disagree. I think there isn't enough, if there was wouldn't there be a change? Nachtway said "It’s occurred to me that if everyone could be there just once, to see for themselves, what white phosphorus does to the face of a child, or what unspeakable pain is caused by the impacted of a single bullet, or how a jagged piece of shrapnel can rip someone’s leg off. If everyone could be there to see for themselves that fear and the grief just one time, then they would understand that nothing is worth letting things get to the point where it happens to even one person, let alone thousands". I think that he’s absolutely right, photos do make us have empathy for the subjects but not enough because it’s not around us.