A2 PHOTOGRAPHY

ESA 2013

Inside, Outside, In Between

I spent 20 minutes thinking of all the words linked to these key areas and the theme word: INSIDE, OUTSIDE, IN BETWEEN – my list is: Inside: private, secret, interior, confined, within, feelings, hiding, incarcerated, limited, hidden, obscure. Outside: alien, apart from, extreme, outdoor, foreign, distant, skin, surface, top, superficial. In between: middle, mediate, transition, centre, entwineACTIVITY: in pairs complete the chart – be creative and imaginative – write down anything you think of

Genres & photographic elements

First response: my thoughts and ideas for direction of my project

people Skin: creases and folds, marks from outside pressure (shoes / watches / belts)Inside the mouth: teeth, tongues, piercings, stains, food and chewing – drinking – eating – straws - Clothing – outdoor &/or indoor – slippers/boots/sandals – putting shoes on in different locationsClothes spilling out of wardrobesChildren playing dress up (sally mann)

locations The beach: huts, water, in between the pier struts or boardsThe contrast of Shops and marketplaceArchitecture and structures – Charles Sheeler / Scott SpeckHome / work Underpasses and bridges: Through doorways and windows – outside or inInto cupboards – Under stairs – in boxes - Automobiles: busses / cars / bikes : view from / into / through

Nature Woods and natural shelterThrough undergrowthNatural spaces between buildingsSpace and texture in landscapes

Objects  

Using gels / filters & framesPiercings Inside drawers: organised and disorganisedThings spilling outObjects stacked inside each otherShells and seed headsflowers

technique MacroExperiments with depth of field and changing focusLooking through reflective surfacesCreating natural/constructed frames that are included in shot Photoshop effects / layers / filters & gels.

Imagination / abstract Challenging perspective: Escher / KahloExploring feelings emotions and dreams: Kahlo / man ray / Dali

Reaction, viewpoints & message

Fears Emotions DreamsAlienation / loneliness / Migration / immigrationGrowing old / older teenagers / babies“7 stages of man”Pagan concept og “Mother: Maiden: Crone”

Let’s look at some art to gain inspiration, so that YOU can come up with YOUR OWN ideas …

Steve McCurrySteve McCurry is a photo-journalist. His images of children around the world are often haunting – these young humans seem to gaze accusingly at us in our wealthy Western world and we are left guiltily reflecting on our own situations.

Steve McCurry

Olivia Parker, Whelks (from "Lost Objects portfolio), 1980

Olivia Parker often produces intricate still life photographs of natural objects. The apparent simplicity of her technique acts to emphasise the complexity of these natural forms – the hard shell which had at one time contained the soft living creature, the feather which once adorned the a bird’s exterior.

Olivia Parker

Damian Hurst, The Virgin Mother, 2005, painted bronze sculpture

Dianne Arbus is known for her photographs of those on the ‘fringe’ or edge of conventional society: transvestites, circus performers, dwarves and so on. These people often lived within society and yet were simultaneously a set apart.

Photographer Yousuf Karshexplained that when photographing Winston Churchill, he grabbed the cigar away from Winston and then immediately took the picture, producing a portrait which better represented the steely determination of the man in his expression. The resultant portrait was far more effective in telling us about the real ‘inside’ Churchill.

Winston Churchill was often pictured smiling with a cigar in his hand or mouth.

Lewis Morley, self portrait

Mainly known for his work from the 1950’s and 60’s, photographer Lewis Morley often used dramatic lighting to help reveal something hidden or inside the person being photographed

Photographer Arnold Newman would often employ backgrounds in his portraits which helped tell the story about the subject.Newman said that he didn’t like the “cold studio portrait” but instead wanted to show his subjects in their surroundings.Quoted from the Palm Beach Post, 2006

Barbara Hepworth, Family Of Man, 1970, group of site specific* bronze sculptures.

*Site specific sculptures are when the artwork is created for a specific location, which could be outside (as in the case of Hepworth’s Family Of Man) or inside, or perhaps even inbetween.

Louise Bourgeoise, Maman (Giant Spider), inside and outside Tate Modern 2000 & 2007

Howard HodgkinNotice how the frame becomes part of the image rather than existing as a simple border to indictate the edge of the image.

Frames & Borders See:

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Borders-and-Frames-6087988/

A recurrent theme in the work of American artist Edward Hopper is the representation of both the inside and outside world in his paintings, perhaps alluding to something about the relationship between our ‘interior’ and ‘exterior’ lives & emotions.

Philip Lorca Di Corcia

Robert Capa

Robert Doisneau

Robert Doisneau was a French photographer now famous for his street photography.

Here we see a Parisian lady drinking. She is neither inside or outside, rather she is in that area so loved by tourists even today where one can benefit from the service inside and yet simultaneously enjoy ‘people watching’ outside.

Robert Doisneau

Ana Mendieta, from the series Silueta, 1976

The silueta (silhouette) was a series of artwoks made by Ana Mendieta in which she left an ‘imprint’ of her body in snow, mud, sand, grass etc. These were transient ephemeral artworks, at their creation a performance piece, then recorded photographically.

Artist Richard Long is known for his Land-Art, often photographing tracks made by repeated use, or arranging natural materials within the landscape and then photographing them (see also the artist Andy Goldsworthy).

Andy Goldsworthy‘Land Art’

Robert Frank

Rieneka Dijkra

Rieneka Dijkra

Rieneka Dijkra established her reputation with a series of photographs made of young people aged at that difficult time between childhood and adulthood which all humans must traverse.

Marilyn Monroe was a famous ‘Sex Symbol’ actress in the 1950’s and 60s.Photographer Eve Arnold captured Marilyn relaxing off-set (times outside normal filming) during the filming of The Misfits (Dir. John Huston, released 1961),Eve Arnold has managed to catch something of the fragility and vulnerability of this celebrity who would eventually commit suicide (or be murdered by the American secret service if you believe the conspiracy theories).

Lee Friedlander documented Amercian life in the 1960’s and 70’s. Many of his photographs include or were taken from inside that iconic symbol of American industry, energy and freedom – the automobile.

The landscape photography of Michael Kenna is clearly produced ‘outside’ in the countryside, yet his minimalist style is perhaps more reminiscent of dreamlike or half remembered landscapes.In a sense then, these landscapes could be about the human experience of encountering a landscape, the subconscious – our hidden mental interior.

Artist Man Ray was part of the Surrealist movement. One of the goals of Surrealism was to visually represent the unconscious - our internal dreams, desires and fantasies.

Distortion, as in these photographs by Andre Kertesz can mediate – it can come between reality and what is presented, completely changing our viewing experience. In a sense, distortion can take the viewer outside their normal experience and into an imaginary world.

Edward Degas

The French impressionist painter Edward Degas is best known for his paintings of ballet dancers and race horses.Yet Degas often chose not to paint during the performance or the race. Rather, he chose those moments of practice or quiet reflection before or after the performance – outside that time when the main action takes place.

Edward Degas

Many photo journalists and photographers also prefer to record an event after (or before) it has taken place (outside the ‘normal’ time when the subject might ‘expect’ to be photographed).

This might at first seem odd but can actually produce very powerful artworks as here in Bruce Davidson’s Clown & Circus Tent.

Bruce Davidson, Clown & Circus Tent, 1958

David Seymour (Chim)

This image was clearly NOT photographed during the battle and yet still remains a powerful and shocking image.

Alfred Stieglitz, The Steerage, 1907

How would it feel like to be an immigrant – a foreigner in a strange land – an ‘outsider’?

In this famous photograph Alfred Stieglitz records immigrants arriving travelling to America on board the Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1907, escaping the poverty and oncoming turbulence which would escalate into a world war.

The work of Hungarian Andre Kertesz demonstrates sublime compositional skills, with shapes within shapes (shapes spaces, shadows & tone inside shapes & spaces).

Scene from Psycho, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

Shoot through a transparent or semi-transparent surface such as glass with condensation or rain drops, or even a shower curtain as in the film Psycho.

The surface is between the distant subject and the camera.

Images like this can obscure or hide the subject behind the surface, creating a mysterious, dreamlike or scary effect.

Naoya Hatakeyama

Slow Shutter Speedscan be used to create an impression of ‘aloneness’ or alienation*

* Alienation is to be or feel ‘outside’ of society, lonely, alone, apart.

Shadows

Shadows and silhouettes can be used to ‘hide’ or ‘keep outside’ information about the subject of an image.

Silhouettes

Reflections

Reflections can distort reality, they can also act as an ‘in between’ the subject and the image.

Use Filters

Filters placed between the camera lens and the subject can radically enhance or alter the visual appearance or feel/mood of an image.Similarly a gel filter between light source and subject will alter the colour of the light.

Sometimes it is what is left OUTSIDE the image that is that is important. This is usually determined by the photographer’s viewpoint & chosen crop.

In this image by Weegee, we see inside the image children and two adults, with a multitude of different expressions and emotions.It is the dead, gunned down body that is left outside of the image which the children and two adults view.

Arthur H Fellig (Weegee), Their first murder, c.1941

The theme ‘Inside, Outside, In Between’ can be interpreted in many different ways.

Here are just a few thoughts and ideas to help inspire you:

• Outside - forests, the beach, the countryside, moors, mountain passes, highways, tracks, arches, urban landscape, architectural exteriors, the universe – stars & galaxies, aliens, • Outside – alienation, loneliness, exclusion, foreigners (outsiders), • Outside – skin, clothing, raincoats, hats, boots, shoes• Bringing the outside ‘in’ – binoculars, telescopes, microscopes, looking out through a window or doorway, greenhouses, tubing, pipes• Bringing the inside ‘out’ - looking in through a window or doorway, X rays, ducts, conduits• Inside - tunnels, underpasses, subways, arches, Diving, swimming under-water, birth• Inside - cupboards, wardrobes, drawers, boxes• Inside – emotions, fears, dreams, imagination, love• Inside – operations, piercings, tatoos, drugs, syringes• In between - asexuality, apathy, inaction, puberty, pregnancy, birth• In between – thresholds, edges, cliff edges, holes, caves, tunnels, underpasses, pedestrian crossings, bridges, mediation• In between – filters, gels, post production Photoshop effects, windows, masks