Produce a series of five portraits that use some of the types of gaze defined above. 

Outcome

I have reinterpreted this exercise slightly. 

Whilst at the National Portrait Gallery recently, I came across a picture of Kate Moss by Corrine Day (see fig. 1).  What struck me about this picture is that the different poses combine to give a sense of Kate’s character, or at least that is the perception for the viewer.  The poses are not all serious in nature, although perhaps the far right image on the middle row is the most serious.  

I am carrying out this exercise during the times of the COVID-19 lockdown and so the opportunities to go out find subjects, or tell stories with different backdrop are pretty limited.  I decided to use Day’s image as an inspiration for my exercise and produce something similar using my wife as the subject.  

I provided a certain degree of direction in terms of asking her to look down the lens, to the left of the lens, not to smile, to smile, etc.  But I did not do much more than that.  

All of the images are shown in the contact sheet and I then combined my nine favourite images into the single frame to produce the image below. 

Image

Contact Sheets

Learning

Earlier in this module I took some posed images of Jude working in a pub, and at the time I commented on how it was to take an image that did not look posed.  I found the same here, even when there is no background, just a head shot, I can tell which images are posed and which are just natural images of my wife.  The learning is that if one is going to have an image posed, then this needs to be given consideration, or perhaps sometimes it would be better to acknowledge this and make the image overtly posed so that there is no ‘conflict’ in the viewers mind.

Getting rid of a smile is difficult.  My wife is a naturally happy and smiley person.  The hardest gaze to achieve in this shoot was a serious one.  The closest I came was the image that is top right.  In terms of my objective, which was to show her character, this is not such a bad thing.  But if the objective had been to portray a serious topic, the outcome would have been harder – although in the context of creating a serious image, maybe it would be easier not to smile.

Figures

Figure 1. Day, C., 2006. Kate Moss. [image] Available at: <https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw129573/Kate-Moss?> [Accessed 14 March 2020].

An example might be one shown below in Fig. 1 which is taken from his collection ‘Bridges’.

There is nothing remarkable about the image but when seen as a complete set, I do find myself studying them in more detail. It is a great example of the concept of typology and how a consistent set of images taken of a specific type can build to something more than the individual image.

For me, it is astonishing how far Gill has taken this concept. In his collection ‘A series of dissapointments’ Gill collected screwed up (presumably therefore losing) betting slips from outside of bookmakers (Warner, 2019). This shows the power of the concept, along with the dedication it takes to deliver on it.

Some viewers appreciate Gill’s huge attention to detail and cite how it is changing their view of photography. Hill, a commentator stating “Stephen Gill is changing the way I take photos, the way I see photos. The echoes of the exhibition I visited recently continue to resonate through me. Everything I see now is part of a potential series. ” (Hill, 2005). However a look at some of the comments to that page show that not everybody agrees.

I think the difference of opinion comes from looking at a single images versus looking at the collection. Personally, I feel that one has to view the set to fully appreciate the power of each image.

This particular piece of research was focused on his collection called Audio Portraits.

Audio Portraits

Stephen Gill’s collection ‘Audio Portraits’ shows how captioning can cause a viewer to see images in a different light.  In his series, see Fig 2 for the collection, he has photographed a number of individuals that he met listening to music on headphones or ear pods.

The portraits show the individuals standing posed for the image, and they are all still wearing their headphones.  The caption for each image is simply the music that the person was listening to at the time the image was taken.  An example is below in Fig. 3.

When I view these images alongside their captions, I find myself comparing the way the person looks, the clothes they are wearing, the setting they are in, with what I would have expected them to be given the track that they are listening to.

In my chosen example in Figure 2, if I had to guess what they were listening to, it would have been something like Chemical Brothers or Basement Jaxx, something electronic, 1980s/90s not quite main stream music.  Instead the track is Boyzone.  When I discover this, it makes me realise that what I hold as a stereotype for either genre is wrong.  In turn, this makes me re-evaluate the subject in the image, to look at him in much more detail.

Learning

I think there are three learning points here.

1. Typography can be very powerful if applied in a consistent manner across a specific type.

2. There can be much more to learn in an apparently straightforward portrait than one might think at first glance.

3.  Creating an unexpected caption, even a very simple one, can create a tension between the image and the caption that can lead the viewer to spend far more time looking at each image, making up their own story.  It seems to lead to a far more polysemic experience than might otherwise be the case.

Biography

En.wikipedia.org. n.d. Stephen Gill (Photographer). [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Gill_(photographer)> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Warner, M., 2019. The Pillar By Stephen Gill. [online] British Journal of Photography. Available at: <https://www.bjp-online.com/2019/07/the-pillar-by-stephen-gill/> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Hill, D., 2005. Stephen Gill And Photographing The Everyday Invisible. [online] cityofsound. Available at: <https://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2005/05/stephen_gill_an.html> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Figures

Figure 1. Gill, S., n.d. Portfolio » Portfolio – Bridges. [online] Stephengill.co.uk. Available at: <http://www.stephengill.co.uk/portfolio/portfolio/nggallery/album-1-2/bridges/thumbnails> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Figure 2.  Gill, S., 2014. Portfolio » Portfolio – Audio Portraits. [online] Stephengill.co.uk. Available at: <http://www.stephengill.co.uk/portfolio/portfolio/nggallery/album-1-2/audio-portraits/thumbnails> [Accessed 3 March 2020].

Figure 3. Gill, S., 2014. Boyzone. [image] Available at: <http://www.stephengill.co.uk/portfolio/portfolio/nggallery/album-1-2/audio-portraits/thumbnails> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Typically, this group, on top of being homeless, will have mental challenges and probably at least one type of addiction.  These challenges often lead to violent behaviour which exacerbates the problems they face.

It would be very easy to tell a side to this story that shows the ‘trouble they might cause’ with violence, thefts etc.  This is the image that the public would more regularly see and therefore images showing these acts underway would simply serve as confirmation that they held the right view of what these people do and who they are.

My daughter sees a different side.  More often than not, the people will have had challenges at home, maybe witnessing or suffering abuse in some form or another and really having no choice in their own minds to leave home.  Nobody chooses to put themselves on the street.  From there, the need to survive drives all the other behaviours I have mentioned, the stealing to obtain money for food or to feed an addiction, drugs or alcohol to lose oneself.  The viscous circle is endless.

To photograph this group of people, I would aim to show their life through their eyes, not necessarily looking, by which I mean I would put them in the picture, but I would aim to show the circumstance in which they find themselves and how the crime or additions were a consequence of that, rather than being a reflection of who they inherently are.  I think that it would be easy to fall into a trap to aestheticize this into being all about the poverty but that would miss the point.  I think the real point to show would be their human side, how underneath their outward acts, there is a human being suffering anguish just like any other person would if they found themselves in that position.  The objective of the images would be to have the viewer understand that connection with themselves.

Wider Reflection

I think that final point above is possibly a key element for providing insight into any group.  After all, all groups of people are still people, whatever they are doing or whoever they are.  If that underlying humanness, that connection with the viewer, can be captured, I think (or hope maybe) that this would be enough to make the viewer stop and think about the group being portrayed and their perspective on life.

This exercise is being done during the times of COVID-19 and the constraints that this places on being outdoors – namely one can only go outside for a daily exercise, shopping, or work if it cannot be done from home – which mine can.  This limits my ability to take photographs outside so I have chosen to describe how I might express things rather than show actual images.

Some aspects of my character that I thought of doing this exercise are:

• I am essentially introvert in character, drawing energy from rest rather than social contact.  However, once in an isolated situation such as the present day, I do crave social contact of going out .  This is a paradox that could somehow be shown. The image below (which I would light much better for a formal presentation might show some kind of wanting to go out but not being able to but I think it would need others to tell a fuller story.

• I enjoy space, so country walks are great for me.  I could give an insight into the country walks that I do for my daily exercise.

• I suffer from ochlophobia, an irrational fear of crowds.  I did an assignment on this during my study for Context and Narrative which is linked to here. (http://can.tonys-view.com/assignment-2-final-submission/).   I could develop this further, given that this fear is heightened further at the moment due to COVID-19.  Maybe a set of images could combine with those of the walks – at the moment, when somebody comes the other way on a walk, it is scary for me! Something like the image below might tell the story but again, it would need other images (and this one is shot into the sun but in times of social isolation, other people are taking great exception to posing for images).

• At the moment I spend all day every work day on web based conference calls.  This is exhausting for me so by the end of the day I am totally worn out.

This is an exercise that I can add to over time and would serve as a useful source of inspiration for future projects.

I researched Niall McDiarmid after he was suggested to me by my tutor after Assignment 2.  

In my Assignment 2 Reflection, I had made a bit of a throw away remark that I had chosen black and white presentation of my images because I wanted to position my images in the street photography domain, I discussed the merits of this with my tutor and we agreed that this is not necessarily the case.  My instant reaction when viewing McDiarmid’s home page (McDiarmid, 2020) is how a deeper consideration is needed on a choice such as that.  Fig.1 below is a screen shot of his page and the most striking point of the page before studying the images is the colour. 

The images themselves (focussing only on those with people in them) are portraits of people that McDiarmid has simply met in the street as he has visited different towns across the UK. They are street scenes in the sense that they are taken where McDiarmid has met them, but they are posed for the capture of the image itself.  McDiarmid describes his method in a discussion with Daniel Meadows (Meadows and Carroll, 2018); typically talking to the subject for a few minutes and then capturing two or three frames per person.

The number of frames is interesting, this is not many and leaves no chance to recover if the shots have not worked.  McDiarmid also describes his approach to lighting which is to aim for soft lighting with no shadows, he does not use a flash (ibid.).

One comment from the same video caught my attention as he was describing his process of visiting random towns “I didn’t have to please anybody apart from myself”.  I found this interesting as I have noticed that when I am capturing shots for assignments, I have found myself thinking more about how they might fare in assessment rather than whether or not they are images that I would like to capture.  I think that this is an important point to reflect on, capture images for myself, not what I think an assessor might think.

Images

It is obvious that McDiarmid chooses his subjects for their own interest but also through their relationship to the environment in which they stand, with a particular focus on colour.  Figure 2 is a perfect example of this technique, the colour of the person’s outfit and the door in which they stand an obvious parallel but then the details of the person holding the viewers eye, for example the cap, the untied shoelace, the chains etc.

In a video discussion (Meadows and Carroll, 2018), McDiarmid discusses the concept of ‘portraiture’ and says that he finds it a difficult concept to define.  Images such as Fig. 2 are what many would consider a portrait but then the image in Fig. 3 also caught my attention.

The image shows only the lower legs of a person in their wellington boots standing on a train platform as a train goes by.  Graphically, the lines on the back of the wellingtons have a certain parallel with the yellow line on the platform and of the lines on the train itself; both the lines in their own right but also the colours.  But then there is the consideration of the passenger herself.  What do we know of her? Is it actually a she?  What are they doing there?

I think that I might have dismissed this as a portrait in recent years, but I think although we don’t know who the person actually is, the questions one asks plus I get a feeling of a metaphor with life rushing past the person whilst they stand waiting for their time, means that this could be considered a portrait of sorts.

In Figure 4, McDiarmid goes further still, there is no person in the image at all.  

This images is apparently taken in a café and shows what looks like a cup of tea sitting on a table.  The chairs at the table are empty.  The image is taken from the series “Southwestern” which McDiarmid took over a period of 10 years walking around South West London (McDiarmid, n.d.).  Is it a portrait?  I think it could be, there is something quintessential about this image that certainly could be anywhere in England and one is left wondering about who the absent drinker of the cup of tea might be.  Graphically, I feel that the repetition of reds and browns throughout the image also caught McDiarmid’s eye and he has placed the only bright yellow object in the scene central to the image, itself presented in square format.

Relfection

I pick up on the following points:

• The term portrait does not have to mean the classically posed portrait that one might first think of.  Rather one might think of what is the key message that the photographer is trying to convey, or what questions do want to provoke?
• Very successful images can sit in the street ‘genere’ and be in colour.  In fact in McDiarmid’s case, the colours are enhancing the images.
• It is possible to blend approaches, here the is a fusion between street setting and formal portraiture.

Bibliography

McDiarmid, N. (2020). Niall McDiarmid Photographer. [online] Niallmcdiarmid.com. Available at: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Meadows, D. and Carroll, B. (2018). Encounters with strangers: The photography of Niall McDiarmid. Available at: https://youtu.be/PBWBTTtXtIg [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

McDiarmid, N. (n.d.). Southwestern – Niall McDiarmid. [online] Niallmcdiarmid.com. Available at: http://www.niallmcdiarmid.com/books/southwestern [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Figures

Figure 1. McDiarmid, N. (2020). Niall McDiarmid Photographer.  At: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Figure 2. McDiarmid, N. (2018). Missy, Marketplace, Blackheath, Rowley Regis. [image] Available at: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com/work/5 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Figure 3. Diarmid, N. (2017). Clapham Junction, South London. [image] Available at: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com/work/3 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Figure 4. McDiarmid, N. (2019). Lambeth. [image] Available at: https://www.niallmcdiarmid.com/work/22 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2020].

Mirror

I chose all of these images for the Mirror section as when look at them, they remind of things about myself:

• Children – This image has three of my four children. Whilst this could be a window onto my life, I watch what my children do and so often see and hear myself in the things that they do and say, especially when it is something a little quirky
• Airforce – I was a member of the airforce from 1985 to 1997. Again, although this image would tell others about me, for me, I often reflect on how much of my character was shaped by the RAF; seeing this image reminds me of that in myself.
• Office – This image reminds me of my inner feelings about work, and how sometime I how I would love to escape. In fact, I took this image to represent that for an earlier assignment and so it automatically reminds me of it.
• Caravan – This image reminds me of my childhood and the life I had growing up. My upbringing has shaped my personality so much and this image seems to remind me of everything that has gone between then and now
• Cottage – This image reminds me of how I now like to live away from work. This image was also taken for an earlier assignment and illustrates the contrast with the earlier image Office.
• Men in Family – This image shows all of the male characters in my family. It reminds me of family but it also reminds me that I am seen as the eldest, and the one who has to be wise.

Window

I chose these images for Window as they tell others something about me:

• Pork Pie – simply that anybody who knows me knows that this is probably my favourite food!
• Shadow – Over the past few years, since moving to the Cotswolds, I have found myself more and more at one with nature. This image for me signifies that feeling.
• Sadhana – my wife, who is, of course a huge part of my life
• Toadsmoor – this is a sign in the valley in which I live. Whilst the image does not tell you that explicitly, if the viewer knew that these images were a window to my life, I am sure that they would guess some association.
• Garden Waste – as a window onto my life this felt quite apt, since the cottage where we live seems to generate a never ending amount
• Cottage – this image is in both sets. In the context of a window, the image shows a viewer where I live, and from the Barbican brochure I am reading, maybe they will discern that I am interested in the arts.
• Children – again this image is in both sets. In the context of a window, the image lets the viewer see three of my four children.

Reflection

In choosing where to place the images, I certainly felt the confusion of the multiple ways in which an image can be interpreted. I found that I needed to stop and think what was it that had made me choose the image. Once I had done that, it was clearer to me which category the image should be placed into. When taking future images, I think that this is a useful aide to consider why I might be taking a particular picture.

When putting these images into this page, I felt more self-conscious about the mirror images than the window images. I think that because the mirror images are reminding me of something personal, then it feels like publishing the image is granting a view access to my own personal thoughts. My thoughts are not available to observers and so putting an image on a page and explaining how it says something about those thoughts is an act that creates vulnerabilities. In the case of the window images I have chosen, these all portray information that is available to others in other forms and so whilst a viewer may not previously have known that I had children, for example, this is information that is already in the public domain and so putting the image on the page is not an act that makes me vulnerable.

Some images are in both sets, Children for example. The images are there for different reasons and so I think that it is valid for them to be in both. This reflects the polysemous nature of all images but also serves to illustrate how important it is to understand why an image is being included in a set and to make deliberate choices.

Overall this exercise surprised me. I have read about the topic of windows and mirrors before but having to choose images from an archive and position them makes the concept more subtle than I had thought. I had expected that simple visual cues in an image would suffice to categorise it however this is wrong, the categorisation comes from the meaning intended in the image. If when capturing an image the photographer is intending to position an image into one set or the other, I think considerable thought will be needed to ensure that the meaning, and the categorisation of the image can be interpreted by the viewer.