The Prompts - Responding to and writing about images "Socio-economics".

This is one of the more complex aspects of photographs that you should aim to address when making sense of them and being that bit more complex increases the chances of you attaining higher grades.

Ways to address this are numerous...

One of the first things you should look at is the relationship between the photographer and the people/situation that they are photographing. Look at all of the clues you have and make a judgement on what you know of the photographer about their socio-economic status or background. Then look at who is being photographed and again make a judgement of their socio-economic status and then look to see if there is a difference and ask yourself if this is relevant or significant?

It may be useful to identify and compare your own socio-economic status and make connections with either the subject or the photographer themselves?

As an example if you look at the work of Joni Sternbach here think about what you know of Surfing already and look at the visual clues in the images.

Think about your own ideas and own life experiences, living conditions and financial status. Are the people in the images the same or similar to you - what things do you share with the people? The very basic questions you should look at, might include questions such as...

Are the people Western or Non-Western?
Are they poor?
Are they comfortable (Financially)?
Are they wealthy?
Are they working class, under-class, middle class or upper-class?

Whatever assumptions you make, you then need to discuss in your work what leads you to believe these assumptions - the visual clues?

Then ask yourself does the photographer share the same lifestyle or values as the people in the images and does this then affect your feelings towards the photographers work or not - does it matter?

In many instances, photography because of the nature of it ... cost/access to equipment and resources is conducted by people that are predominantly middle-class. One of the defining features of being middle class is to be in control of your life to some extent, having excess capital (money) that allows you to be involved in activities such as photography and travel. You might want to discuss how photographers interact and relate to different people from differing socio-economic backgrounds? Looking at the image/s your writing about - how are they are shot and used, are there any observations you can make with regards to whether you feel the subjects in the images are being exploited? Or does the photographer go about their work with a sense of empathy, making the images in such a way that they imbue their subjects with dignity?

Returning to the Joni Sternbach images, with only a few minutes of researching on-line we can establish a number of facts about Sternbach's work ...

1. She is a white middle class American. Things that connote that she is so include the fact that she has a degree and an MA, she makes a comfortable living through making art photographs, which allows her to travel all around the world pursuing this career.

2. The people she photographs for the most part are similarly white middle-class Americans, Australians and English. How do we know they're middle class even though they're almost without clothes on the edge of a beach? Surfing is for the most part a middle-class past time, the surfboards for instance are expensive luxury goods. All of the people in the images look fit and healthy and they live near the beach and again that is a reasonably good indication of wealth combined with all of the other factors.

You therefore have to look at the images used in your research and ask these types of questions and offer responses to them by way of trying to establish what the images are really about. You only need a few lines (As above in italics) or a paragraph that demonstrates that you've considered this aspect of the images in your image analysis.

If that doesn't make sense - what about this...

One way of approaching it is to look at who is being photographed and who the photographer is. Look at the subjects and ascertain what their socio-economic background/status is… Are they from a certain background e.g. Under-class, working class, middle class, upper-middle class or upper-class? Look at the visual clues that might suggest the people’s status. Read the articles that you’ve researched and get some sense if this is an important aspect of the images. Explain how you might have arrived at this assumption or fact.

Then ascertain the photographers background and status, does he/she share their status in anyway, historically did the photographer come from a similar background? Are they the same nationality or ethnicity? Do you think this matters or through your research can you ascertain whether this does matter?

The relationship between the photographer and their subject potentially matters a lot as it may mean the images are shot with a bias? Are the images supportive, derogatory, neutral or condescending explain how and why?

Is it possible for a rich western, middle class white photographers to take images of ethnic, third world, indigenous people and do so in a neutral non-colonial manner? Similar issues can be discussed in terms of men taking pictures of Women, Women taking pictures of men. ­

Example of sketchbook work.

Here's an example of how you might choose to put your work together. At our college we suggest either using the traditional sketchbooks or this method using A3 display folders. The current course leader advocates the use of the traditional hard-back A4 sketchbooks.

The next question we're confronted with is "What the hell do I write and what do I put in it"? Another thing that seems to be lost on students is the work rate and how organised you have to be to get the work completed and in your books.

Question... What the hell do I put in my sketchbook?

There's a number of answers to this - one is everything, the other is the stuff you need to meet the assessment criteria. The bottom line is what-ever you do put in your books, whether it be a minimal approach or an everything approach it does have to meet the assessment criteria.

To this end, it is essential that you engage with this aspect of your work and you make sure you know what it is you've got to do - ask the question "What criteria do I have to meet - what exactly do I have to do"? This information will be on your assignment/brief sheet under the section titled "Assessment Criteria". It tends to be a bit 'wordy' so if you don't understand it, ask someone to explain it to you in terms of what you have to do. If in doubt ask.

Work Rate... Fast and efficient, do it as it happens. Use college time to write stuff up, print things off, read the BJP's, stick your work in your book. Do it there an then!
When you're working in the darkroom where you have to wait for things to happen, don't wait around, use this 'dead time' to write up records and explanations of what you're doing.
Do you travel to college by train? Work on the train?
Set aside time to do the work and do it as it happens.
Diary Style. Work on your book as though it's a diary, do a bit every day, write it as a diary.

Page 1. Always ensure that you have a page that identifies your work with contact details for the college in the event that you lose the work. If it gets left on the train or somewhere the chances are someone will return it. Without this page, you may never see the work again and we cannot assess work that we have never seen.

For our current students, the next page may include the work that was produced prior to joining the course - research work using the British Journal of Photography (Images and you're analysis of the work and the accompanying text).

 

The first lesson was the Visual Language work where we explored and shot images of mugshots over two stages. Simply record what you did, what you were thinking and what you understood of the task at that stage using both images and written work. You could include technical details, but the most important aspects are the visual language aspects - the conventions that relate to creating images that look like a classic police mug-shot discussing the complexities involved in making the image.

 




 Once you'd shot the first series the results and conventions were discussed and you went out again and we developed the work further aiming to make the work a more convincing version of the classic mug-shot...

As much as you can you're advised to include sketches and drawings. UAL love sketches and drawings and the more you do the less you'll have to write. There's a balance to be had between how much writing you do and how much you illustrate your learning through the use of images (photography or sketches). Potentially you can write a lot less than the example here, but you then need to use images and sketches far more in the process of evidencing your learning and analysis (See the example at the bottom of this post). 

Listen for suggestions in lessons, if an idea or experiment is suggested, you should grab the opportunity and try it out. In the lesson the lecturer discussed the one-eyed aspects of using lenses at different focal lengths. That was a prompt for you to do additional work that would help you attain the higher grades...

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Research is essential and as you go through this course you'll be directed as to how to go about your research at this stage you need to have completed research in conjunction with your practical work you need to do outside of college. (See your brief 'Sinister'). The research at this stage is being directed in that we're pointing you towards specific artists and resources. In response to the artists you're being directed to look at you need to include images and then start the written content offering your initial response to the work prior to reading and learning about it. Once you've offered your opinion and analysis of the work, you then need to read the accompanying text and then write up a summary of the important aspects that relate to your task. This might look like this...

 



 

 

There are loads of examples of how sketchbooks can be put together and a particularly good resources for exploring how others do it is here

On this website you'll find links to videos such as these and you may find them helpful...

 

 

 





 

Visual Language in Photography

http://www.listofphotographers.blogspot.co.uk/

Visual Language in Photography

Visual language in photography relates to visual elements contained withing an image that we're able to read and make sense of that communicate ideas and meaning. 

Your introduction to Visual language will usually include the use of an image of Kylie Minogue shot by Derek Ridgers, in the session we deconstruct the image, analysing it, using the list below. Through this process we arrive at a series of deductions that allow us to speculate as to why the images exists, what it's purpose is, how it was shot, why it was shot in that way, what equipment was used, whether the image is natural or constructed, who the audience is, how the image communicates to that audience specifically and a whole raft of other aspects that give us a far greater understanding of what photography is and how it communicates.

Through this deconstruction/analysis process, we can see what visual langauge tools the photographer uses and bit by bit, we come to understand that images that seem to have just been 'taken' are in fact carefully constructed and designed in order to maximise their impact on the audience.

Another set of images that we look at are Thomas Ruff's deadpan portraits. We discuss the difference between the portrait of Kylie and Ruffs portraits in terms of the images being subjective or objective.

Within your work you will need to show that you've analysed two or more of your key research images. The suggestion is that you produce 2 high quality images in conjunction with your research and print these off A4 in size and in full colour. These images should be annotated using some of the prompts listed here below showing that you understand how images are constructed. In addition to the annotations that accompany the A4 images, there should also be an in-depth written component as part of your research that uses additional images (Smaller) where you attempt to analyse the images fully using as may of the prompts below discussing why these elements are used and how they could be used and incorporated into your own work.

• Subjective/Objective?
• Flat or contrasty - tonality
• Mono-chromatic, colour contrast or discord
• Composition - line - rule of thirds
• Format - Landscape/Portrait
• Texture • Light
• Mood • Location - scene -set
• Background
• Use - documentary; social; fashion; landscape; portrait, advert, art, editorial
• Production values - size, format, quality
• People -persons - who, what, when, why, how
• Expression/body language
• Involvement
• Meaning - message - semiotics
• Constructed/reality
• Purpose
• Target market and audience
• Props
• Socio-economic factors/Class
• Western or Non Western - cultural values
• Sexism, rascism, patriarchy
• Educational or commercial
• Art bias - expressionist, impressionist, abstract, minimalist
• Inspired by and following in the tradition of
* What if the image was colour/B&W?

An additional method of deconstructing the images and making sense of them can be found here.  This is a 13 point questioning approach that uses a system based on one used at the Tate Modern.