Week 5 -Quotes

Figure 1. Advert found on www.carsforvetrans.org

Interesting research done first by Miller, Jones and Ellis and then 10 years later by Micheal Bender in the advertising for charities of disabled or otherwise afflicted.  It was discovered in both studies that people are more likely donate or contribute when the emotions pulled are guilt, sympathy or pity.  But in doing so the advertisements promote the visibility of the people depicted as less than, less capable, and undermining their basic civil rights as equals.  (Bender 2003)  Eliciting negative emotional responses, but higher rates of donation.

It is noted that "The failure of the individual to adapt or immerse themselves generally in society then generally becomes the 'cause.'" (Evans 1999: 274)

This is particularly applicable to my project and how I choose to portray and represent the children I work with.  And while I do hope to elicit empathy (more than sympathy), I strive to present the children as they are: children; laughing, playing, crying, goofing, loving children.

Here are some quote I noted that might be useful as a reference:


"Disabled people are missing from mainstream culture. When we do appear, it is in specialized forms" (Morris 1991: 85).

I don't want to exhibit them as characters that illicit sympathy, or as "Characters that a viewer can't take seriously" (Bogden 2012: 126).

'The answer here lies in integration rather than segregation" (Sheppard in Hunt 1966: 63).

"The focus is to look at the ability, not the disability" (Barnes & Mercer, 2003 p.98).

"Disabled people continue to be portrayed as more than or less human, rarely as ordinary people doing ordinary things" (Oliver 1990: 61).

"Imagining disability as ordinary, as the typical rather than the atypical human experience, can promote practices of equality and inclusion that begin to fulfill the promise of a democratic order" (Thomson 2001: 360).

Recognizing opposition in childhood as ordinary, as the typical rather than the atypical childhood experience, can promote practices of inclusion and the idea that their lives, are lives of value.  They, as human beings, are also worth existing.


Figure 1: Advert V&A [online]. Available at www.carsforvetrans.org

BARNES, Colin & Mercer Geoff. 2010. Exploring Disability: A Sociological Introduction Cambridge:  Polity Press.

BENDER, Micheal. 2003. Explorations in Dementia London: Jessica Kingsley.

BOGDON, Roger. 2012. Picturing Disability: Begger, Freak, Citizen, and other Photography Rhetoric New York, Syracuse: University Press.

EVANS, Jessica. 1999. Feeble Monsters: Making up Disabled People in Hall, Stuart & Evans, Jessica (eds)1999. The Visual Culture Reader London: Sage.

HUNT, Paul. 1966. The Stigma of Disability London: Geoffrey Chapman.

MORRIS, Jenny. 1991.  Pride Against Prejudice London: Women's Press.

OLIVER, Michael. 1990. The Politics of Disablement London: MacMillan Press.

THOMPSON, Rosemarie. 2001. 'Seeing Disabled' in Longmore, Paul and Umansky Lauri (eds) 2014.  The New Disability History New York: New York University Press.

Week 4 Continued

For this week's activity we had to post one of our new images in our current practice without any explanatory text to reflect on our 'readers' interpretations.  I chose to post 'Wild Things 2' as it is one of my new images and I had not shared the image with anyone in the group previously.

Fig. 1 Slade 2019. Wild Things 2.

These were the responses (posted with permission):

And my response back:

 I was pleased with the readings and even was interested in Becky's possible 'oppositional' viewing of something sinister going on.   Its interesting to see your work through others eyes.





Figure 1. SLADE, Bren.  2019.  Wild Things 2.  Available at: www.brenslade.com

Week 4- Dominant, Oppositional, Negotiated

Dominant

Oppositional

Negotiated


I believe a Tableau once created continues to exist.  Barthes proclaims regarding the punctum in an image of his mother in the garden, "It exists only for me. For you it would be nothing but an indifferent picture, one of the thousand manifestations of the ordinary'  (Barthes, 1980 p.73)  While its true that the punctum there may exist particularly regarding his feelings for his mother, that doesn't necessarily negate another persons connection or ability to be pricked by the same image.  If it is a well done image, powerful or beautiful or even grotesque, once created I believe it continues to exist - even if translated differently based on individual experience.  Maybe your mother gardened, maybe you did, maybe you read poetry about gardens that affected your person, maybe you grew up in the country are passionate about your home, maybe you live in the city and it is what you recognize to have lost. Maybe there is just a feeling there and you don't even know why you connect to it yourself. If a photograph truly has punctum- I think that punctum is a powerful element that transfers based on individual experience and interpretation like a universal beauty we recognize, even if we are not sure why.

As photographers, are we willing to let this happen?  I agree with Olin's statement that "The most significant indexical power of the photograph may consequently not lie in the relation between the photograph and its subject, but in relation between the photograph and its beholder or user." (Olin 2012: 114).  The same can be true for the punctum.

However, at the same time I would say all images 'exist' only for us, each as an individual.  Every image we process is interpreted individually, for no one else has lived as we lived and existed as we exist.  All punctums therefore are universal AND unique simultaneously.

Because of this, I often fear the 'oppositional' reading by viewers.  Since I work with children, for me that may be views of exploitation or perversion.  While I want to allow for individual interpretation I feel protective of my images, and the children they represent.



Barthes, Roland. 1980. Camera Lucida London: Vintage
Olin, Margaret. 2002. Touching Photographs: Roland Barthes' "Mistaken" Identification in Representations No.80. Autumn, 2002: 99-118

New Images Complete

This week I finished up several images that I have been laboring on since Christmas.

Fig. 1: Slade 2019. Wild Things 2

The first is the series of 3 images with two boys, one Autistic and one struggling on the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Though very different situations, both boys struggle to understand and control their environments.  Their mothers often interact and provide support to one another in their own struggles, therefore the boys are somewhat friends.  These boys are very much like the boy in the story, Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, that I wanted to create the environment they imagine, where they are in control.

You can see all three images here: www.brenslade.com



I also finished the images for this family of 4 sisters (which you can view at the same link):

Fig. 2: Slade 2019. Four Sisters

Their entire existence is beautiful and fragile, off balance and delicate.  Yet full of hope and joy.



Thanks to the recent webinars I have some new ideas going forward but wanted to finish these images out.

Figure 1: Bren SLADE. 2019. Wild Things 2. V&A [online]. Available at: www.brenslade.com

Figure 2: Bren SLADE. 2019. Four Sisters. V&A [online]. Available at: www.brenslade.com
Sendak, M. 2000. Where the Wild Things Are, Red Fox, London.

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The Viewing of 2 Artistic Events

This week I had the opportunity to attend two unique and different artistic events.  The first was the opening and artist reception for 'Habitat and Refuge' by photographer Darren Clark, at the Jacob Spori Art Gallery.

Fig. 1: Slade. 2019 A quick screenshot at the Entrance

It was a unique collection with some very appealing images.  Darren Clark is an "avid birder and landscape photographer," (Dabell, 2019 at http://www.byui.edu/spori-gallery/current-exhibit) specializing in the forgotten and unique habitats for specialized birds.  I particularly enjoyed his portraits and captures of individual birds and the stories they had to tell.

On his online gallery I also enjoyed his images investigating agriculture and the relationship between the natural and cultural geography.

Fig. 2: Clark 2002. Grain Elevator, Hansen ID Photograph                       

I actually enjoyed the online gallery a bit more than the actual exhibit.  His gallery images displayed at the Spori Gallery were matted and framed in a bit of an antiquated way that I didn't resonate with and I thought the images may have been more effectively displayed without glass and reaching from frame edge to frame edge.  That may have just been my personal opinion.  

The show seemed a very traditional way to consume art and gave me some future reference for how I might want my own show displayed and consumed.  

The second event I attended was a performance of the Golden Dragon Acrobats.  Though not photography, I was extremely affected by the artistic feel and rhythm through out the performance and would definitely categorize it as visual art. 

                                                Golden Dragon Acrobats accessed from Yahoo Images, 2019

The entire show was very visually engaging.  The use of light, color, shape, the icon and the index to create a Tableau was all there- just as in photography. This study of photography has opened my eyes to world of constructed beauty and images around me, in many interdisciplinary formats and displays. 

Everything I view becomes part of who I am. And who I am is reflected in the images I produce as a photographer, also affecting my connect-ability with the viewers of my work.  

Figure 1: Slade. 2019 A quick screenshot at the Entrance

Figure 2: Clark 2002. Grain Elevator, Hansen ID. V&A [online] Available at:http://www.darrenclarkphoto.com/eastern-idaho-architecture.html

http://www.byui.edu/spori-gallery/current-exhibit

https://www.goldendragonacrobats.com/

On Mary Ellen Mark

Fig. 1: Mark 1992. Clayton Moore, The Former Lone Ranger, Los Angeles [photograph]

Even though my images are composites and usually contain a full scene, I still think of them somewhat as portraiture.  It is all about representing the subject.  My images focus on children, and the images have a lot going on in them, since children have a lot going on in their heads.

In the last webinar Mary Ellen Mark was recommended.  I was able to locate some great portraiture advice published by her, posthumously.

The first advice is to try to shoot images that follow the grain of the subjects personality.  "It's not a good idea to try to ask people to behave in ways that don't seem natural for them" (Mark 2015). The picture is not all about you as a photographer, but about the person themselves.  I strive for this in my work as well.  Since I want my image to be representative of the child's life there is a disconnect if I don't get to know the child and the family in a personal way.  I think some of my images that don't work for me typically have to do with my own constructed ideas about the child, but a gap in what actually is the child.

The other element I appreciated was that she strives for her images to go beyond her story. She strives for every image to be epic, though she realizes that may not be possible.  I like her tenacity there.

In the end she recommends not letting the great legacy of history's photographers paralyze you.  She encourages all to contribute to the legacy and be your own person.   She says not to stress over making your style different, that will come from shooting from your own point of view (Mark 2015).

Mary Ellen Mark represented the distinctive but commonplace (Oxford University Press 2018).  I love the contradictory idea there.  I feel the children I work with are the same, distinctive and commonplace, unique but not alone.  Mary Ellen Mark also looked for human elements that connect to all of us.


Figure 1: Mary Ellen MARK 1992 From: Mary Ellen Mark 2015 On Portraiture and the Moment, Photo District News. Vol. 35 Issue 9, p42-44. 3p. 

Mark, M.E.  (1940–2015) 2018, , 2nd edn, Oxford University Press.

Sometimes We Want Construction, Sometimes We Want the Real

As this weeks presentations began I immediately thought of Jeff Wall and and Charlotte Cotton before they were even mentioned (this was a new experience for me since I had heard of neither before starting this program).

I also thought of John Wilhelm.  Born in 1970 in Switzerland, he essentially grew up with photography.  In 2011 he began to explore photoshop and 3D tools and now he says photography is "a complete passion."

Fig. 1: Wilhelm. Children Have No Choice [photograph]

John would be considered as 'Farmer' and constructs his images digitally with photoshop and other 3D tools.  

Looking at other mediums- Edward Degas and his famous dancer images.  Though the art medium would lend him to be a farmer also, he may have hunted the scenes in real life before producing.

Fig. 2: Degas. The Dance Class II 

Then there is the Australian photographer Peter Lik who hunts his opportunities for 'pristine images' compared in the Washington post to the avid Crocodile Hunter (McCoy & Kirkpatrick, 2014) 

Fig. 3 Lik. Whispering Sea [photograph] https://lik.com/collections/new-release/products/whispering-sea

This weeks videos and reading synched completely with the progress of my project.  After last weeks webinar and the suggestions and reflections I received I have recognized that although I will continue to construct, I will take a closer look and be careful not to dismiss the real.

I'm carefully hunting a few 'real' images I will consider adding into my project along side their more 'constructed' counterparts.

I definitely assert my images as pure fiction.  I still strive for believe-ablity and to create that sense of connection- I want people to complete or even construct the narrative of my image for themselves.

In My Practice: I need to work on inviting the narrative, not telling so much as asking.

"I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed" (Winogrand, cited in Badger 1885)
I photograph to see what the imagination looks like, in a photograph.  Like Soth, "I take the reality of the world and use it as a springboard for the imagination," (Soth, cited in Bubich 2015). Only in the actual construction of the image as well.




Figure 1: John WILHELM. Children Have No Choice. [photograph] V&A [online]. Available at: https://www.johnwilhelm.ch/bestof?lightbox=dataItem-itkjkdec

Figure 2: Edgar DEGAS. The Dance Class II. V&A [online] Avalable at: https://www.edgar-degas.org/The-Dance-Class-II.ht

Figure 3: Peter LIK. Whispering Sea [photograph]. V&A [online] Available at https://lik.com/collections/new-release/products/whispering-sea

Bubich, Olga (2015) 'Alec Soth: photography is a unique medium with its own mix of variables' in Bleek Magazine (7th September 2015) www.https://goo.gl/SF0e9h
https://www.johnwilhelm.ch/making-of

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• McCoy, T. & Kirkpatrick, N. 2014, This Peter Lik photograph reportedly just went for a world record $6.5 million, WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post, Washington.
• https://lik.com/collections/new-release/products/whispering-sea

The Real And The Iconic

As Szarkowski points out; photography deals with the actual.  But it is also just an image of the actual- not the actual themselves (Szarkowski, 1966).  My photographs often contain barely a trace of the actual.  To the obvious extreme, but past the point of deception, and instead to spark the fantastical.

In C.S. Peirce's semiotic theory the index is based on the image reflecting actual representation. 
Lets look at this simple image representing some natural produce of the midwest:

Fig. 1: Slade 2018.

In this image the Icon would be- a squash, or a squash family.
The Index of the squash may be food we eat.  Or food we are able to grow.
The Symbol is a little more interpretive and may be the struggle of being different, or fitting in with a crowd.

C.S. Peirce may not of enjoyed my style of images, or regarded them in the family of photography at all.  Many current photographers, ones who strive for the indexicality of the image, may agree.  Yet the trace is there, even if the manipulation is more obvious.

My images are not unique in their genre.  Similar to my work are the dream like tableaux of Martina Lopez, who, when introduced to computer editing over a decade ago immediately recognized its potential (Hess).

Fig. 2: Lopez 1994. Revelations in Time 1 [cibachrome print]

In photography, is 'automatism' (Cavell, 1971) a must for an image to be considered true photography or does a 'trace' of the actual qualify? If the first is true then I am not sure my images are photography at all. But if the second is acceptable them my images are photography in what is becoming its new form, in a most illustrative example.  The process is there from 'birth' (Arnheim, 1974), and even though it is manipulated in post, its origins in photography still make a difference, even though my images are edited.

For example here are some images from a recent project session:

This is Jane*.

                                                              Fig. 3: Slade 2018.

Jane has Microcephaly among other diagnosis.  She is 100% care dependent.  She is non-mobil and non-verbal, and she has to be fed by a G-tube. She has surprised doctors by bypassing her estimated life span.  Jane has 3 sisters, 2 of which were born with Cystic Fibrosis. Their family lives an alternate form of 'normal' life.  Here are the 4 girls together:

Fig. 4: Slade 2019. Four Sisters

Only a family that cares for a severely disabled child can understand the extreme difficulties, countered with the extreme joy that child brings into the home.  The whole family cares for Jane in uttermost unselfish and tender ways.  You only have to watch their interactions to see the joy and love that she returns to each one- similar to the joys of a newborn babe.  I myself have heard her giggle.

Here are some SOOC images of Jane that I captured:

Here is the image I completed for the mother:

 Fig. 5: Slade 2019. Child Alive

The Icon is still a child.
The Index may still be that of disability, as exhibited particularly in the hands and feet. 
But the Symbol becomes life and beauty.

In this image, particularly when you look at the eyes, my goal was for the 'trace' of the 'real' to be a trace of her beautiful SOUL.

Her mother's reaction to the image:

"I'm seriously crying right now. This is the single greatest gift anyone could ever give me. You are insanely talented.This girl is life!" 

The mother complimented my talent- but only because I illustrated Jane in the way she already sees her everyday.

What truth does photography offer us?  I believe the truth it offers is the proof of Human Connection.  The photographic image crosses all cultures and knows no human diversity.  Each human may connect individually, and in vastly differing ways.  But the connection is there nonetheless, evidence of some universal human binding agent.



UPDATE:
 This weeks webinar was particularly interested and I presented my images of Jane for discussion.  A great discussion ensued that covered everything from why I represented her the way I did, and the value of some of the SOOC photos- particularly the power in this one:

                                                                Fig. 6: Slade 2018.
The combination of her eye contact, and the caregivers hand on edge speaks volumes in this image.  It made me interested to look back through my other images to view the SOOC images in a new light.  And perhaps include them in my project in juxtaposition with the edited ones (there was a suggestion that the raw may be more powerful than the edited one but the conclusion was it is the edited one that sparks the conversation about the raw).

I also got some wonderful suggestions for future resources to visit or revisit- I will note them below:


The Documentary Impulse by Stuart Franklin
Mary Ellen Mark @
http://www.maryellenmark.com/books/titles/ward_81/index001_ward81.html
also 'Ward 81' hardcover
Leon Borensztein
https://www.leonborensztein.com/sharon
Wendy Ewald
http://wendyewald.com/portfolio/margate-towards-a-promised-land/
Clementine Schneidermann
https://www.clementineschneider.com/publications-1/
Another Way of Telling by John Beger
Jo Sutherst
Photography Degree Zero; Reflections on Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida
The Photography Reader by Liz Wells
The Documentary Impulse By Stuart Franklin





Figure 1: Bren SLADE. 2019. Private Collection: Bren Slade.

Figure. 2: Marrina LOPEZ 1994. Revelations in Time 1 [cibachrome print]

Figure 3-6: Bren SLADE. 2018-2019. Private Collection: Bren Slade.

ARNHEIM, Rudolf. 1974. On the Nature of Photography, Critical Inquiry

CAVELL, Stanley 1971. The World Viewed, New York

HESSE, Gary. Digital Allegory Martina Lopez. V&A 2019 [online] Available at: http://www.johnvalentino.com/Teaching/Art190/Projects/190Proj3/Lopez/MartinaLopez.html)

PEIRCE, C.S. 1986. Philosophical Writings of Peirce, Dover Publications;New York. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central.

SZARKOWSKI, John 1966 The Photographers Eye, New York: Museum of Modern Art

*The children featured here in this project are real, their names are not.