Reflection Week 2 "Photography and..."

It has become clear that Photography does not exist in a vacuum. It compliments and enhances many other disciplines. For instance, medicine uses photography as a form of reference, and it is used document architecture and art. 

I was impressed by a couple of the collages I was shown, as they hark back to two of the  periods of the evolution of art I enjoy the most, namely DaDa and the punk movement of the 1970s. I must say I had never even considered collage, but I can see the challenges it creates now.

I want to highlight the way science can play a part in creative photography. Since it's invention, people have been fiddling about in dark rooms, pouring chemicals and experimenting with new ways to create photographic images.

I want to do much the same, but not with chemicals, with light. I am fascinatede by the way light can be manipulated, polarised and coloured to create stunningly beautiful images.

http://www.crafthubs.com/light-paintings/12390    
accessed 29/09/2016








 

 http://tullyphotography.wikispaces.com/acongelli+light+painting+reference+page
accessed 29/09/2016

And one of my own efforts,

 


Disturbance 1


This image was made using Leds, a long exposure and music to create the pattern. I will be making a series of these to see if there are any similarities in pattern within a certain genre of music. So this uses three disciplines rather than two. 

To sum up, photography finds itself linked with many other disciplines, for many diverse reasons and serves to augment and enhance those disciplines.

Interdisciplinary Approaches

"Other than" Photography

Thinking about what other media,or writing, or music could relate to the practice of photography led me to this,







 accessed 24/09/16
"The Fighting Temaraire" painted by JMW Turner in 1839. We see HMS Temaraire, the hero of the battle of Trafalgar, being towed up the Thames for disposal and breaking up. Turner depicts her as a ghost. She is fading away before our eyes, already dead just waiting for burial. But could Turner have known this painting can also be seen as an allegory for the fate that would soon befall documentary painting?
At precisely the same time Turner was painting this masterpiece of naval allegory, Louis Daguerre was taking what was the first photograph believed to include people.
 
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boulevard_du_Temple_by_Daguerre.jpg accessed 24/09/16

"Boulevard de Temple" a Dagguerrotype made in 1838, shows a street scene. Because of the lengthy exposure time needed, none of the traffic shows up. But we do see a man cleaning another mans shoes in the bottom left of the frame.
So what? my point is that within a quarter century of this picture being made, photography was documenting the world. The American Civil War (1861-1865) brought documentary photography truly into it's own.
So turner's painting serves as an allegory for itself to some extent, as documentary painting such as this was gradually fading away, just like HMS Temeraire, to be replaced by something more modern.

The Global Image reflection and summary

It is interesting for me to note I have been delighted to learn that there are as many reasons for an image to be perceived to be a "Global" one as there are people making, or looking at those images. 

I must admit that this concept of a "Global image" has taken me by surprise a bit. If I had been asked to name a global image previously, I probably would have cited the obvious easily spotted corporate logo or symbol. It had never occurred to me that apart from the big news pictures, Lee harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby, or later, President kennedy's young son saluting his fathers coffin, 
(which were global because of the possible resonance that assassination might have on the world), or on a lighter note the gangnam style video going viral on social media, there wasn't really anything I would have associated with the term "Global".

I now look at things very differently. I can see that global status can be conferred through many different ideas. For instance, my image of the sun behind an electricity pylon below

I originally took this photo because I wanted to make the point that here was a problem, the greenhouse effect caused by overuse of fossil fuels to supply electricity among other things, and there was a part of the solution, solar energy which is free, clean and doesnt contribute to global warming on it own account. 

Having thought about it for a while, I can see how this is a global image because it deals with a problem that the whole world is facing, that of global warming. 

I found the webinar on this subject educating too.

 Chris Northey showed us an image of a man who chose to be anonymous. I can see the globality in this image because of the subject matter , a person, and the issues surrounding anonymity in a world where everybody else seems to know more about us than we do ourselves.  

Gerry hughes showed us images including a semi candid shot of some guys around a pickup truck, and some construction workers going about their business at the top of some steel girders. I can see the globality in this because one might contrast it, as Chris pointed out with the well known pictures of men drinking coffee sitting on girders at the top of skyscrapers from the middle of the last century. Both sets of men have no safety equipment, for example. So we see the same occupation with a fifty year gap.

I think we also have to ask ourselves why any particular photograph is taken in the first place. The photos I referenced at the beginning of this essay were news items, taken to inform. The video's main function was to entertain. I took the photo above to make a point, Chris's was part of a series and Gerry's was something he saw that resonated with him. All different reasons but all ending with images which could be classified as "Global".

To sum up then. Most of the images that end up with a classification of "Global" were not intended to, apart from news photos, advertising photos and photos making a political point. I think we need to question why any particular photo was taken, rather like we might look at a particular painting and ask why it was painted, and we need to ask ourselves why we might be taking a particular photograph.

It's also to remember that with this power to capture and disseminate images come responsibility-just because we think something is okay doesn't mean it is, and we have to have empathy with and sympathy with other viewpoints and ideals. especially in a world where a touch of a button can send one image to a billion places in the blink of an eye

 The Global image pt 2

Another truly global image is that of the golden arches, the trademark of MacDonalds.




from  https://nietubiera.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/mcdonalds.jpg?w=604&h=424

 It has been estimated that 98% of the worlds population recognise this symbol. How many would link this one with it?
 






 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elliott-negin/mcdonalds-palm-oil-pledge_b_7104982.html

This is an image of deforestation for the production of palm oil. Losing rainforests is a global issue. 

Obvious then, that there are different types of global image. The arches are a corporate image serving as an advertisement. A trademark recognised the world over.
The lonely Orangutan can be looked at a warning of what can happen when corporations are not regulated, or just as an ape wandering down a road cut through the forest. It has many meanings , it becomes a piece of propaganda for people who are anti corporate as well as those concerned about the  effects of global warming.

What does all this tell us?

Possibly that there is no strict definition of a global image, and that the agenda the image is made for is relevant to its global status.