Category: Part 4

The category containing all posts for part 4.

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Research point – Post colonial ethnography

517401 OCA Photography

Do your own research into the bodies of work discussed in this project. Can you find any examples of work carried out amongst indigenous peoples that, in your view, honestly document the lives of their subjects without falling into some of the traps that we’ve been discussing here? If so, how has the photographer achieved this? The works discussed in the course notes high-light some of the common pitfalls that western photographers failed to avoid when photographing non-white subjects. These include: Romanticism, particluarly the idea of the ‘noble savage’ or ‘primitive beauty’ De or recontextualisation, removing the subject from their … Continue reading Research point – Post colonial ethnography

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Exercise – To print or not to print – part II

517401 OCA Photography

In Michael Ignatieff’s article ‘But should you print it?’ he puts forward four areas of sensitivity that should be considered when publishing photographs, these being: violence, intrusions into privacy, sex and public decency and faking (digital manipulation of images). Alongside these areas to be considered when thinking about publishing images, Ignatieff also include a list of questions or tests in order to detemine whether or not publish is appropriate. The four questions are: Is the event the iamge portrays of such social or historical significance that the shock is justified? Is the objectionable detail necessary for the understanding of the … Continue reading Exercise – To print or not to print – part II

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Exercise – To print or not to print

517401 OCA Photography

Read Claire Cozens’ Guardian article about Guerrero’s photograph of the Madrid train bombing in March 2004. Cozens’ article looks at the ways different newspapers chose to publish Pablo Torres Guerrero’s graphic image of the aftermath of the Madrid train bombing in 2004. Although the article is still available, the images that were used in the different newspapers are not. Looking at other students’ work I found a link to a Portugese presentation that features the original image from El Pais and the altered versions used in the Guardian, The Times and the Daily Telegraph. To summarise the differences, El Pais … Continue reading Exercise – To print or not to print

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Exercise – The ethics of aesthetics

517401 OCA Photography

For this exercise I have to comment on a WeAreOCA blog post from 2012 looking at images produced for Oxfam. One of the challenges in trying to comment on the work Alejandro Chaskielberg and Rankin produced for Oxfam is to view it in context. Although the images are available online, it is difficult to find out how they were presented when first used back in 2012. Because of this, I am not sure if the images produced by both photographers are meant to be viewed as documentary images, or as seems more likely, advertising images; and if the distinction matters. … Continue reading Exercise – The ethics of aesthetics

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Exercise – Documents of conflict and suffering

517401 OCA Photography

Gilles Peress work Farewell to Bosnia was produced over a period of six months in 1993 and was focused primarily on the areas of Tuzla, central Bosnia, Mostar and Sarajevo. The series eschews images of dead bodies, but instead focuses on the impact of the civilian population of the Bosnian conflict. I think what makes the series powerful is a combination of the rawness of the images and also the fact that they bring to mind European conflict from earlier in the 20th century. When I saw the above image I was reminded of the deportation of Jews by Nazis … Continue reading Exercise – Documents of conflict and suffering

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Exercise – ‘The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geographic’

517401 OCA Photography

Read the article ‘The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geographic’ by Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins. In what ways does the idea of the gaze apply to your photography and what are the implications of this for your practice? The article by Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins was published in Visual Anthropology Review volume 7 issue 1 in March 1991 and is an examination of rhe concept of the gaze using the magazine National Geographic as a point of reference. The article starts by looking at previous writing on the concept of the gaze by … Continue reading Exercise – ‘The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geographic’