The City...

The city, Manchester, my city...

So in my last post on here I presented you with the images from our 'Urban Walk' around Manchester city centre. Now I know it was only 5 days ago since I posted them but it seems a world away, everything's starting to become blurry through all the work...

Anyway, today in my presentation I seeked some help as I felt I was lost as to where this brief goes next. I know we have to create a series of work around the city and our take on psychogeography. I was told to go away, look at the work I created last week and see what, if anything, can be done to further it. On the bus on the way home I wrote a few notes/questions down what I think can help me take my work further if need be...

• Look at who my work most represents?
• Who influenced them?
• Why am I influenced by them?
• Look at how I can extend on my work

Before I started uni, I'd say my work mostly consisted of landscape photography but in the 9 or so weeks since I've been here I have took a completely different path in my work, one I feel is a lot more interesting. I am starting to produce a lot more detailed work, looking at the smaller picture rather than the big. Not exactly macro close ups but looking to see what's closer to me, on the floor, on buildings etc.

Looking back over the four photographers I've researched in my earlier posts I think the one who my work most represents would be the Boyle family, I haven't exactly blind folded people and given them an air rifle to shoot at a map but the exact pin point detail is more significant than say Eugene Arget's work.

I can't find no references to any photographers or artists for the Boyle family's inspirations but I've found that when Mark Boyle was in the army he wrote a lot of poetry. His was said to have a big love of Dadaism, Surrealism, Photorealism and Hyperrealism.
Dadaism: The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-warpolitics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works. -Wikipedia.


I wouldn't say I was influenced by them, I wouldn't say I have an influence from any photographer to be honest, not knowingly anyway. Maybe when I find my own 'style' I could look to see who's work mine is most representative of but until then I'll just keep growing and being my own individual inspiration!

I think the only way for me to further my work is to get out there with my camera and just keep snapping. The hands on approach has always been the best way to learn, for me anyway.

Urban Walk...

Good evening and welcome...

So today at uni we went out on our 'Urban Walk' as part of this new assignment. As this new brief is all about street photography, there's no better way to do it than getting out there and snapping, so off to Manchester we went... Here are a few of the images I took...

  

 

These images have had a slight bit of editing done, shadows, temperature, saturation and exposure. I don't normally do much editing on my images but I'm pleased with the results.

The first few images were taken in the car park at uni, just a warm up if you like, then off we went, let loose on the streets. I'm really starting to enjoy street photography and am looking forward to building on this and seeing where the rest of this assignment goes, plus the Christmas markets start in Manchester tomorrow so that'll offer a perfect opportunity to get some more experience in this field!

I think that's about it for tonight so until next time, you stay classy San Diego....

Photographer Research: Sergey Larenkov

Last but not least....

Sergey Larenkov centres his work around World War II. As Eugene Atget documented old Paris and people now try to find the places and document the modern world to show the comparisons, or lack of them in some cases, Larenkov fuses images from the second world war with modern day images to create striking effects, and striking they are!

The images bring history to life in such an amazing way. He has created images from cities including Leningrad (His hometown), St Petersburg, Prague, Moscow, Paris, Berlin amongst others...

Larenkov is not actually a professional photographer, he apparently does this as a hobby. The old images are located in archives and he travels to the sites and tries to get the pictures to match up as best as he can.

'It's very interesting to find the point where another photographer once stood. Suddenly, you see an old world with your very own eyes. You are transported back in time, it's almost as if you've stepped into a time machine. Sometimes, this is scary' - http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/ghosts-of-world-war-ii-paris-6

Photographer Research: Brassai 1899-1984

Hello again, back so soon?

The next part of my research will be covering Brassai (Gyula Halasz). Brassai was Hungarian and started his career as a journalist in Berlin in 1920 before moving to Paris in 1924, where he would live out the rest of his life, and what a life it turned out to be!

Falling in love with Paris is essentially what got him into photography, he often walked the streets by night due to his line of work keeping him out until all hours. Brassai would use photography 'In order to capture the beauty of streets and gardens in the rain and fog, and to capture Paris by night' - Wikipedia.


In 1933, Brassai had his first collection published in his book named Paris de nuit (Paris by night). The photographs in this book captured the essence of the city brilliantly. They were a mixed bunch of images, ranging from the seedier side of the city, to the higher class side, the ballets and the operas. As he began to mingle with the upper class residents he befriended many now famous artists including Salvador Dali, Alberto Giacometti and none other than Pablo Picasso!

In his later working life he went on to direct a film, wrote some 17 books and various, again now famous articles. In the 1960's he turned his back on photography and became somewhat of an artist, taking up sculpting.

Brassai passed away in 1984, a few months before his 85th birthday. He left somewhat of a legacy behind, kickstarting aspiring photographers careers and leaving hundreds of works, some undiscovered, behind.

 Avenue de l'Observatoire 1934

Open Gutter 1933

Lovers in a Bistro 1932-33

Brassai photographing Paris at night 1932

Grand Central 1957

I love the sunlight on this.

Picasso 1932

I tried my hand at night photography properly for the first time just recently, around Manchester City Centre, and I must say I really enjoyed it. Teaming up with a fellow student, off we went snapping, obviously Manchester is a busy, vibrant city come day and night but if you get to the right areas it's quite 'romantically quiet' if that's a fitting description? I will definitely be going back out and shooting again in the near future and 'Manchester at night' may just be my big break... Well we can but dream eh?

Photographer Research: The Boyle Family

For the next part of my research I have chosen to document The Boyle Family. Mark Boyle and Joan Hills met in 1957 in Yorkshire. Mark wrote poetry whilst serving in the army and Joan had been an art and architecture student. They both shared the same view on art, that anything is a worthy subject when it comes down to creating art and nothing should be dismissed. They went on to have two kids together, Sebastian and Georgia, although Joan had a son, Cameron, from a previous relationship. From an early age the kids were around the studios, helping out here and there, getting more involved as time passed.

Their best known work is the Earth Studies which included projects: The London Series, Tidal Series, Thaw Series and Japan Series.

'World Series' is the one what stands out to me though. Visitors to their studio were asked to get blindfolded and throw darts or fire an airgun at a map of the world which covered a wall. By the end of this bizarre technique they had acquired over a thousand random sites.

 Addison Crescent, London Series 1969

Earth Piece

'The World Series (Initiated in 1968) pieces involve the meticulous re-creation of randomly chosen areas of the surface of the earth (using resin and fibreglass, as well as real materials from the site)' - Wikipedia.

Mark Boyle sadly passed away in 2005 but the family and their works have still been exhibiting around the world at various galleries.

I have to chosen to include The Boyle Family's work not because it directly appeals to me, but because of the ideas they adopted in choosing the areas to cover the subject. Blindly firing a loaded air rifle in a room, who wouldn't enjoy that! 

I think I would like to try something along the same lines if I can find some fellow students who would also maybe interested in trying it out, although I think it would have to be called 'The Manchester Series' cos I'm a student and I can't afford to be gallivanting around the world.... Yet.  

Photographer research: Eugene Atget 1857-1927

When we were given our new brief this week, we were also given a list of famous photographers to go and research in order to gain some ideas and inspiration. This was quite a list to go through! When I got home I Googled each one to find out what their 'style' is/was and if it appeals to me in any way.

I have chosen to start with Eugene Atget because I would say he is one of the most appealing to me. Atget's work is mostly documentary, capturing old Paris before the French Revolution which would see most of the buildings, palaces, courtyards and narrow lanes demolished...

 From what I can gather this image was taken in 1927.

 Rue De Ursins 1900,

 I'm not sure what year the replicating image is from. I love how little change has actually happened in this image.

Trainon Pavillion Francais 1923/24.

I love the composition in this image. Everything seems perfectly symmetrical also.

I can relate with Atget's work because I have documented, or tried to, my local area due to a lot of redevelopment. I know it's no 'Gortonian Revolution' but it has changed nonetheless. I think I will be doing a lot more research into Atget's work to see where it could possibly lead me with ideas for my own city project.

Look out for the next researched artist, coming up shortly...

Psychogeography

Psychogeography, 'The study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals', as defined by Guy Debord in 1955.

From what I've read about psychogeography, my understanding of it is about showing people different views of their daily journeys, When ever you walk around your home town or venture into your city centre, do you actually take in anything around you, apart from the deals of the century in the windows? Do you look any higher than the shop door? Have you ever thought about the history of the shop you are actually stood in whilst trying on your fancy, new swag?

Next week we're going out on an 'Urban Walk' around Manchester City Centre to try gain a different perspective of the city we occupy on such a regular basis. I personally have a bit of a love for architectural history, the stories behind the buildings, the changes they have seen, both inside and out. I'm looking forward to going out and having a walk around the city that I love, the city that lives inside me, Manchester, with such a rich history of trade, trouble and modern regeneration. I have a few buildings already in Manchester that I hold dear to me but next week will give me a chance to go and document others that I haven't myself already seen. The notes I will be taking will go some way to giving me an idea for my final series of images, although I have nine weeks to get that sorted.

For now at least I have typed and researched 'Psychogeography' enough in the past few hours to last me these whole nine weeks, plus I have a two hour lecture tomorrow so from me, goodnight...

An introduction to this blog...

Hello and welcome to another chapter of my uni blog, excited much? This blog is all about the new brief we were given today, Photography and The City. So we have 9 weeks to experiment, research and reflect upon how photography and the urban environment can be perceived from a sociological, anthropological, cultural and visual arts point of view, my god that seems like some kind of alien talk but getting my head stuck into all the artists we've been given to research will go a long way to helping me learn this unfamiliar tongue.

I'm really looking forward to this assignment, I think now I've learnt to be more creative and think about ideas that I wouldn't usually ponder from the last assignments, that I can get out there and put my ideas into practice... I just have to think of where I'm going to go with this task but that will come to me once my research process starts.

So yeah that's about it for now, research will be my new hobby for the next few days... And you thought this wasn't going to be exciting!

Until next time my friend..