Photography and its impact upon 1950-60s

David Bailey, Building up sitters 



In the 1960's the portraits produced by David Bailey were highly influential. Its interesting to look at the way David Bailey produced these cutting edge images through this use of black and white photography and his interesting view points and angles. The view points david bailey used in his images and what he directs his subjects in the images to do, whether that be looking at the camera or away from the camera or how the subjects stand in the image give an almost subliminal message, or say something about the person being photographed. 

Whats really interesting and what would have been edgy about this image at this time it was produced is the way david bailey fills the frame. Rather than the typical idea of having the frame equally filled with the models standing in the middle, david choses to capture one model half in and half out the frame, this draws the eye round the image as appose to just focusing on the centre. 

Its also interesting how much like the images below, the subjects arnt directly looking into the camera. 

Because of what these brothers were known as, it seems fitting the way David bailey has captured this image of them. The camera slightly below them looking upwards creates and effect of the brothers over powering the viewer and having some sense of greater authority. The stern faces rather than warming smiles also create a fitting vision of the brothers as they are obviously not known for being kind smiley people. 

Its evident that David Bailey considers the space around the subject as well as the actual subject. The image is a perfect example of this, the image feels so much more interesting than what it would have done if you imagine the subject being completely central in the image. Chosing to have the subject of the image smiling and so up close creates a much different effect to the previous images. This image feels more inter mate and comforting for the viewer. 

Whats most interesting about this image in the interlinking of the two subjects. Again this creates interesting shapes and space to the areas not filled. the two people create an almost abstract feel to the whole image. 

This image really shows Baileys talent to fill the frame. To any photographer they will understand how not so easy it is to fill the frame in such a way, especially when focusing on getting so many of the people in the one image. The fact the family have natural expressions on their faces rather than beaming smiles like a typical family portrait causes the viewer to think a lot more about each subject. The viewers eye is also drawn all over the image because of the many different faces on all different levels and depths of the image. 

The photographic Message

Decoding the image as 'fact.'



In a lot of imagery there is more than what just meets the eye, a lot of images have a deeper meaning. aspects of the image are often purposely included to get something across to the viewer. Propaganda is a good example of this. For example if a photographer is capturing an image of a person, a celbritiy perhaps and they want the viewer to see the person in a certain way or feel a certain way towards towards the image, the photographer can do so.

Photography: A critical introduction
liz wells
page 210


Weve introduced to Ronalds Barthes theory. He wrote an essay called the photographic message. In this he explains a theory in which he believed could be applied to the decoding of an photographic image. This theory consists of the 'dennoted' and 'connoted' message.


denoted; what we see infront of us
connoted; what this is telling us.


Example

The denoted image, what we see in front of us, is two people; priminster of the united kingdom and the president of th united states, stood in front of flags, by the looks of things, having a discussion.

The connoted image can be hard to read without the use of text with the image. This image was actually used in a newspaper so had a heading and article accompanying it. just by seeing what type of paper the image is in can say a lot about the deeper meaning of the image.

Starting Contextual Studies

Intro:

Context of Photographs.


Questions to consider when looking at the context of an image;

• Why
• When
• What for
• Who for 
• Who will see
• Where will it be seen 

Understanding the term 'Modernity';

1. Google: "Modernity is a term of art used in the humanities and social sciences to designate both a historical period, as well as the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in post-medieval Europe and have developed since, in various ways and at various times, around the world."

   
   

   
   

   Picturing the City

   When looking at urban photography it is interesting to look at where todays urban photography style has stemmed from and how it has developed into what it is today. Before photography painting was the closest way to capturing a scene, it wasn't until photography was developed that artists views of urban surroundings began to change. Paintings of the urban landscape often presented real life but in a much more picturesque way before the development of photography.

   
   

   

   Gustave Caillebotte: Paris Street, Rainy Day

   http://blindflaneur.com/contact/browse-the-archives/flaneurs-gallery/gustave-caillebotte-paris-street-rainy-day/

   
   

   Many photographers began exploring a more modern style of urban photography, which captured the 'under belly' of the city as a way of raising awareness. 

   
   

   Example of this is the photography by Jacob Riis, whom captured images of the desperate and deprived people and areas of New York during the 19th Century.

   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089243/Slumdogs-New-York-The-remarkable-images-capturing-immigrant-families-unrecognisable-19th-century-New-York.html

   
   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   The level that this photograph has been taken at means the viewer feels more like they're in the situation themselves. Its as though you're knelt down to the same level as the suffering children. The way the childen are huddled in the centre of the image and the way the image has been taken from a straight on view point means that the walls either side of the children draw the viewers eye into the centre even more so. 

   
   

   This style of photography particularly appeals to me as i am so interested in street photography as it is. However what i like most about street and documentary photography is being able to capture the real nitty gritty sights of the streets we see every day and think nothing of. 

   
   

   
   

   

   Thomas Annan.

   http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/tight-spaces-thomas-annan-old-closes.html

   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   
   

Bibliography

Bibliography covering all posts to this blog.


Books;

Abbeydale Press, 2001, Handbook of Word War II, An Illustrated Chronicle of The Struggle for Victory

Aston, M. Thames and Hudson, The Panorama of the Renaissance

Campbell, A. ILEX, 2012, Inspirational post cards for hard times. We Can Do It!

Claibourne, R. and the Editors of Time-Life books, The Emergence of Man. The Birth of Writing

Kynaston, D. 2007, Austerity Britain

Kynaston, D. 2009, Family Britain 1951-57

Malpas, J. 1997, Movements In Modern Art, Realism. 

Milena Magnano, 2012, Leonardo, Prestel

Murray, P & L. The Art of the Renaissance

Orminston, R.Foreword by Gary Sheffield. First World War Posters

Osterwold, T. Taschen, 2007, Pop Art

Phaidon, 1997, The Photo Book 

Phaidon Press Limited, 2007, Raphael

Spike, J.T. 2012, Young Michelangelo

Timmers, M. The Power of the Poster

The institution of Arts. Citezens and Kings, Portraits in the age of revolution 1760-1830

Websites;


http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/lange.shtml

http://www.allworldwars.com/Crimean-War-Photographs-by-Roger-Fenton-1855.html

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/lindisfarne.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/4224/Interlace-patterns-of-the-initial-page-of-the-Gospel-According?topicId=341885

http://www.eccentricbliss.com/tag/book-of-kells/

http://www.missgien.net/celtic/art.html

http://english.islammessage.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?articleId=1075

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/leon/hd_leon.htm

http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Pieta/Pieta.htm

http://www.rome.info/michelangelo/pieta/

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Michelangelo-David.html

http://baroqueart.tumblr.com/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/53809/Baroque-period

http://www.absolutefacts.com/arts/baroque-period/rembrandt.htm

http://wadingacross.wordpress.com/islam/quranic-troubles/

http://artnouveaustyle.tumblr.com/archive

http://blog.the-dot.co.uk/design/soviet-russia-propaganda-posters/

http://www.all-about-photo.com/photographer.php?name=Chris%20Killip&id=264&popupimage=4

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL5357TF

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keCUMHhsvUQ&feature=player_embedded&noredirect=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O34YVQsFiWY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keCUMHhsvUQ&feature=player_embedded

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03pn6xz/Italy_Unpacked_Series_2_In_the_Footsteps_of_the_Poets/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRHNOtYRTH4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8ChAfzWaYg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oXAekrYytA

1970's - Current Times.

70s, 80s, 90s, Present time.

Jamie Reid and John Varnum,
'Never Mind the Bollocks', UK, 1977

Original artwork advertising the
album by the Sex Pistols. 

Power of the Poster 
Margaret Timmers
page 69 




"The emergence of mass politics not only expianed the flood of political propaganda printed in the las decades of the nineteenth century, but also the forms that many of these posters took."

Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising
'Labour isn't working', UK, 1979.
Published by the Conservative Party.
Power of the Poster 
Margaret Timmers
Page 104 

Photography

Chris Killip

A photographer who is considered to have captured the 1980's in a rather interesting light.  With current political disagreement and disruption in the country, chris fillip worked on taking a eerie of images called 'another country'. These images opposed all that the current political party who was in charge at this time stood for. 
With Margret Thatcher seeming to be saying the country was all fine and well, Chris Killip sure showed the reality of the damage the conservative government was doing to the north east of England through his photography. 


Another Country

http://www.all-about-photo.com/photographer.php?name=Chris%20Killip&id=264&popupimage=4

Angelic Upstarts at a Miners’ Benefit Dance at the Barbary Coast Club, Sunderland, Wearside, 1984

Bever, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, 1980

Crabs and People, Skinningrove, North Yorkshire © Chris Killip, 1981

BRUSSELS SPROUTS, GATESHEAD, TYNESIDE 1977

TRUE LOVE WALL, GATESHEAD TOWN CENTER, TYNESIDE 1975

QUEUE DURING "THE BREAD STRIKE", NEWCASTLE, TYNESIDE 1977

MEN LEAVING SWANN HUNTER SHIPYARD, WALLSEND, TYNESIDE 1977

His black and white images are raw and brings the viewer to reality. It is easy to imagine the response these images would have got in a time when politics had the country divided. For me i feel a series of images like these really show the power and effect photography have. 

Martin Parr

Another photographer who during this same era had political reasoning behind a series of his images. Photography from the 70's right through to now. A series of images named 'Last Resort' by Martin Parr work in the same way of Chris Killip's by showing the shocking truth of the state and reality of Britain's working class during the 1980's.

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL5357TF

Last Resort


                                  GB. England. New Brighton. From 'The Last Resort'. 1983-85.

Martin Parr Current Work

Even in Martin Parrs recent work its clear that he is still as interested in British as culture as what he was 20-30 years ago. A lot of these images appear to have similar themes to the body of work created in the 1980's. By photographing every day work class people and families seems to make such engaging and interesting images. A lot of his images have a sort of humour within them, i think this is because the images are relatable to the viewer, and really do capture the 'typical' not so glamorous side of things that we would associate with Britain.

1940s-1950s

Second World War


Much like we saw in the first world war, the second world war also used posters as propaganda. Many of the most well known posters from the second world war were ones which were aimed at those living at home such as the 'Grow your own' and 'Dig for victory' posters which were based around the rationing of the second world war.

Here is a mixture of both British and American World War II posters;

AL PARKER GROW YOUR OWN, CAN YOUR OWN

USA, 1943

J. HOWARD MILLER WE CAN DO IT!

USA, 1942

ARTIST UNKNOWN FREEDOM IS IN PERIL

1939, UK

ZERO (AKA HANS SCHLEGER) GROW YOUR OWN FOOD

1939-1945, UK

USE IT UP

1943, USA

We Can Do It

Inspirational post cards for hard times

ILEX

A lot of the American posters remind me of pop art style even though this was before that era. As can be seen from these examples, propaganda was heavily used to influence woman back home. I feel a clever technique used for the posters aimed at women is not a way of scaring them into doing something, which is something the technique found in war posters aimed at men. These posters appear to be relatable to woman, for example the first one where a child is helping her mother put food into jars. The posters are vibrant and mostly give off a positive vibe which one would guess would have worked well in getting people on board in doing what the country wanted. 

1950's - 1960's

Consumer Cultures and Pop Art.



"pop culture and lifestyle became closely intertwined in the sixties... The subject matter, forms and media of Pop art reveal the essential characteristics of a cultural atmosphere and way of life we associate with the sixties."

"Sometimes i think that extreme beauty must be absolutely humourless. But then i think of Marylin Monroe and she had the best fun lines." - Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol 
The Twenty-Five Marilyns, 1962

"Andy warhol's series of Marilyns, produced in 1962 after her death, reveal the inauthenticity of her image by repeating her face - or her lips - in rows."

POP ART, Tilamn Osterwold, page 12

This is my own photograph of  Andy Warhol's,  Ten Lizes, 1963. I took this image during my visit to Paris in 2012 while in the pompidou centre. A piece which was created by Andy Warhol in the same way in which he created his Marilyn Monroe piece. 



Consumer Culture, Pop art. 

Pop Art, Tilamn Osterwold, page 29

Andy Warhol Close Cover before Striking (Pepsi Cola)1962

Pop Art, Tilamn Osterwold, page 31

Andy Warhol Green Cola Bottles, 1962

Using Art to place an emphasis on the consumer culture. During these times there was an obsession with money. 

"Artists soon turned their attention to looking behind the facade of this much hyped symbol of the times, and exposed it as inflationary and average."

Pop Art, Tilamn Osterwold, page 34

Pop Art in Britain

"British Pop Art arose out of a new understanding of contemporary life. It was intellectual, interdisciplinary and programmatic in character. Detailed study shows that its emergence as an artistic phenomenon was gradual, developing cut of the wider cultural context in Britain at the time."

Again much like discovered through the research into more American based pop art it appears that in britain too, pop art came as a result of social  and cultural change and development in the country. 

Richard Hamilton

Just what is it that makes todays homes so different, soappealing? 1956

Pop Art Tilman Osterword, page 64

Although its claimed that Americanism was influencing Europe at this time i think it is interesting to look at the vast differenced between American and British Pop Art.

1920 Russia.

Russian Revolution, Soviet Russia. 

"Accompanying a new outlook on politics and economy, there had to be renewal and change in other areas too, including the way the new state presented itself and its ideas.

The revolution coincided with a period of many radically different art forms in western culture, dada, futurism, constructivism, surrealism and so on. Especially in its early years, propaganda posters produced in Soviet Russia were influenced by such movements.

Though the more experimental looks eventually gave way to designs more akin to what could be seen in other western countries, Soviet propaganda still retained a look of its own, beyond the presence of cyrillic lettering." 

http://blog.the-dot.co.uk/design/soviet-russia-propaganda-posters/

1920

1920's

Liberated woman – build up socialism! 1926

" The poster was a means by which artists could commit themselves to the Revolution."

"The photograph was favoured because its mechanical character suggested modernity, and its reproducibility suggested democracy." The power of the poster, Margaret Timmers, page 118

My personal feelings and observations on the posters seem to give across the feeling of anger. Notice the repeated red colours in every poster produced, and often the harsh geometrical lines and shapes used in most. 

page 119

"Soviet Russia initiated programmes of propaganda which were designed to elicit support for the Revolution in a massive country populated by largely illiterate, peasant people."

Power of the Poster, Margaret Timmers, page 118

Power of the Poster, Margaret Timmers, page 118