I have just been over on the Freeman view looking again at the excellent post on W.Eugene Smith’s ‘a country doctor’ . I am interested in what I can learn from this piece in relation to the piece I am working on for assignment 1. For a start it seems to me that this is essentially a day in the life of someone, just like the brief in for assignment 1. While I was with my subject last week I was guilty of thinking in too linearly a fashion. My presumption led me to think in terms of shooting literally from morning time until evening time.
On Structure & Layout.
From looking at the pieces I can see that I need to think more in terms of laying out a photo essay for this assignment. So rather that needing the first shot to be an early morning photograph it needs to be a good opener. This is related to the structure of the presentation. The story I want to tell is one about life after a stroke. I want to talk about a man who has had a small stroke, he is in his late 60’s. He lives alone but is independent and very active. Now life has changed, he has health worries but is determined to make the best of it and live life to the full. So just like in the country doctor story, I am considering using an image with a dark, moody feel to it, to set the tone. The right expression will be important too.
Here I think the sky gives the right atmosphere but the facial expression and the scale don’t quite fit the mood I am looking for.
The camera angle here is better than the first and the sky is nice and moody too but the smile gives a contradictory message. Perhaps this is good though or I guess though it could be used else where in the essay.
Again, the sky and the mood are what I am looking for but as an opener it doesn’t work because we can’t see who he is. Could be useful elsewhere, to me it could say thoughtful, reflective.
Moody and a little dark and the scale is not bad but for the opening shot I think the subject needs to be facing the camera however looking at it with the benefit of a little distance I can see how this could be a good opener. The opener is the shot that will introduce the subject to my audience. It does depend on the accompanying caption.
Leaving the opening shot for now on the theme of independence I am not 100% sure how to capture the essence of this. For instance I have this:
I am not sure that this on its own would convey independence.
Same here, but I think there has to be some inclusion of the mundane and the ordinary too.
At the pharmacy collecting medication.
As above however the eye contact is good here, the facial expressions are good too.
Here again is the theme of health but also how meticulous and organized my Dad is.
Crosswords and puzzles are a good metaphor for life but also a chance to use text in within the image.
Having looked at and digested (somewhat!) both the work of Larry Sultan and Richard Billingham I have been thinking on the difference in approach of the two photographers. First there is the quality of the images, (not in a techno-nerd “what camera did he use” sense) Billingham’s work, it seems to me is deliberately shot on a low-tech throw away camera for the simple reason that this is what a lot of family photo albums would have been filled using. This brought to mind for me that his work is like a dark and violent family photo album filled with the snaps that no one outside the family ever get to see. It is vernacular.
Larry Sultan’s work is also concerned with the family photo album:
“Photography is there to construct the idea of us as a great family and we go on vacations and take these pictures and then we look at them later and we say, ‘Isn’t this a great family?’ So photography is instrumental in creating family not only as a memento, a souvenir, but also a kind of mythology.” (Larry Sultan)
What I also noticed was the difference in approach between the two photographers. Although I could not find any specific mention about how Billingham took his pictures I feel they are taken as an observer, someone looking on. Sultan is more of a director, sometimes instructing his parents to role-play. He is also collaborative, his parents have some input into how the photographs are shot too. This difference in approach I think is a fundamental one. Up until now I had been thinking in terms of being an observer only. I win tended to get up in the morning and photograph what happened. Now I am thinking of discussing my ideas with my Dad and asking him to take part in a couple of stagings.
Finally as this is such a long blog post I must mention the element of time in all of this. I have read that many street photographers take their pictures home and load them onto the computer then leave them for some time before editing them. I can now see the wisdom of this as even now looking at the images above I see them in a completely different light. I plan to visit my Dad later this week and spend a couple of days with him, when I return I will do a cursory edit then leave the images alone for a while before putting the piece together.
A social Documentary photography blog. 