• Create a series of work (aim for 7–10 images) which in some way reflects upon the ideas surrounding identity and place that you’ve looked at so far in this course. Use the written word to play a part in its creation.

You may be inspired by a poem, song or a novel or decide to write your own fictive piece. You may draw upon other people’s words via eavesdropping or another source or use extracts from journals. You might find interesting textual accounts in archives in libraries that could inform this assignment. Allow your creativity to be spurred on by spending time with these words and reflecting on them.

Be wary of illustrating your text with pictures and vice versa. Allow for the viewers’ interpretation to be opened up rather than shut down by the pairings. You may decide not to include the actual words in the final production; that’s fine, as long as they have in some way informed the research and development of the concepts and have pushed the imagery further as a result.

• Write a short reflective commentary (around 500 words) describing how your chosen ‘​words​’ have informed your series of images and make this available to your tutor alongside your images.

Introduction

The ideas of using text and images to create challenging narratives had quite an effect on my from the latter stages of Context and Narrative, and on into Identity and Place in early this year. When I started this unit, I had recently left my job as part of a redundancy programme and the country was in its third national lockdown. Although not as restrictive as the previous two lockdowns, which were aimed at preventing a second spike in infections throughout the UK, there was a general feeling of “is this going to ever improve?” and “will we ever return to a normal life?”. A number of vaccines were being given to those who wanted them, but I was struck by how different the sense of feeling was in my town compared to the rhetoric from the government. I had the idea to explore these contrasting experiences at some point, either as part of this course or as a photo book project. However, the ‘project’ was put on hold during the Spring and Summer as I struggled to mentally adjust to my being out of work.

When I read ahead to this assignment during Part 4, I saw a way of revisiting my embryonic idea and see if I could create a series of images with text to explore the theme of ‘similar but different’; the similarity of message from our country’s leadership over time with against what I observed to be the mood in our little town. I started shooting as the course progressed, completing the set during this assignment. I decided to use quotations from the Government daily briefings over a specific period to act as the relay text for my contemporary images. When I started to read the briefing transcripts I soon recognised patterns in the messages, particularly in the very first 3 months of the first lockdown. Among the core messages to “stay safe” and “protect the NHS”, there were real stories of the impact of the virus and optimism for the future. My series would pair quotations with images to tell the story of the first three months through the lens of the past three.

The Photographs

I decided early on that I wanted a visual aesthetic that suited the time. I’ve been a film photographer for several years and was interested in using this medium to create a visual mood through its ‘imperfection’. I settled on a recently re-introduced film stock made by Ferrania called P30. Ferrania P30 had a difficult re-birth with hurdles put in their way by everything from outdated machinery to the Italian Government demanding that the factory pay to re-route a local river as part of the planning deal. Their story of conquering adversity immediately stood out for me. Better still, the film is a slow speed black and while emulsion that has a 1930s film noir feel to it (this is what Ferrania were originally famous for). To add to this visual, I wanted the whole series to have a dreamlike feel to them to reflect the time they were shot; it felt like we were living in a nightmare. I achieved this by using a special lens for my Leica M6 that has an f/0.95 maximum aperture which I shot for many of the photographs as wide open as possible.

Inspiration for the Series

There are many artists covered in Part 4 that inspired me when creating this series. David Favrod’s Hikari [1] made me think about how a simple conversation can resonate with the viewer and invoke not just direct memories, but also the mood and emotion of point in history. Favrod’s annotations varied from being added to the picture as a graphic to the use of titles, all the time helping the viewer create a narrative. I was conscious of how immediate assumptions that I made about the series were affected by the method used for including text. With the example of Baoummm, the image has a feeling of desolation without being able to understand the Japanese text is that is added to it. When we realise the title is actually a phonetical representation of the explosion, we get a sense of shock. That shock then ties in with the feelings of rejection that Favrod is exploring regarding his attempts to gain dual citizenship. The series leaves more questions than answers, an approach which is further exploited in Sharon Boothroyd’s series [1]. Now we have a conversation that isn’t directly quoted apart from in the series’ title. The title sets a baseline by which the series is observed and her careful use of tableaux allows the viewer to put themselves in the place of both central characters; the child and the father. Michals and Deveney were also influential in his use of direct quotations forming part of the image presentation. The inclusion of the ‘spoken’ words helped narrate without actually referring to any specific element in the photograph, as in Michals’ The Enchanted Bee. The final inspiration for this series was the essay by Barthes. His analysis of the symbolic messages within an image and the use of relay text to ‘control’ but not describe the narrative is the core intent within my series. I was intrigued by his example of the comic strip being driven by the incorporated text for expediency but working in partnership with the image to tell the story. Anna Fox achieved this with My Mother’s Cupboards… with the quotation being part of the image that is almost read first and separate from the partnering photograph. I would take a similar approach to my series.

The Series – Next Slide Please…

Note: This isn’t how the series is to be presented for assessment, but it is shown this way because of limitations in WordPress. The final presentation of this series is as an ebook, which can be found at this address:

https://heyzine.com/flip-book/619b102eaf.html

Reflection

My intention for this series was to use quotations from the Government COVID-19 briefings as relay captions for photographs with metaphorical iconic messages. Reflecting on the series, I think the questions that each pairing raises and the possible narratives that they create, make it work well overall. The overall aesthetic of black and white ties in with how I was feeling at the time, which I perceived to be a similar experience to others in my home town. The sequence of the series also leaves the impression of déja vu with the text being from nearly a year before the photographs were shot. We learned previously that photographs do not describe the passage of time specifically but highlight the impact of its passing [3]. In this series, the captions clearly anchor the time of the statements being made and the images show how little actually changed during the intervening year. In the selection of shots for the series from the 70 or so taken, I deliberately avoided using straight images of people, instead choosing to use space as the metaphors for the people of the town and only including traces of them where they are seen (Four, Five, Seven and Ten). With a nod to the reading of an image as proposed by Barthes, the text included in the images themselves is kept to a minimum and in those cases, the words do not describe the rest of the photograph. Only in Seven does the word ‘Pharmacy’ actually refer to the decal of the woman in the abandoned building window. In review, I don’t find that where these signs exist, the impact of the images are strengthened over the photographs where they are not present. For example, in Two, the Queen’s comments about the nation pulling together is paired with an image of a bowling green with a union flag in the corner. When I saw this composition originally, I thought about the precise criss-cross pattern of the mown grass and how it reminding me of an order of people gathering, much like a regiment of soldiers standing before the flag. When paired with the text, that narrative was strong enough without needed any other signage relating to the bowling green being included.

The most impactful images for me are Three and Four, with the former having the desperately sad announcement of one of the first child deaths from COVID-19. The photograph came from seeing the empty playground which was naturally closed at the time and the rockers which featured a hedgehog as the point of focus. It resonated with me because I’ve been an active carer and campaigner for the plight of hedgehogs for the past few years and the fear that they might be extinct within a decade is of obvious concern. I like the way the text works to reinforce the narrative that nobody, including our children, is safe from the virus. In Four I saw the distorted reflection and the way that it cut the man entering the frame in half to be a metaphor for the effect lockdown was having on our mental health. In this case, the words offer reassurance that it is not unusual, but is ok to react this way, For me, this contrasting pairing makes the photograph work.

The two images that I think could have been a little stronger are Six and Seven, for the main reason that I couldn’t get a better position to shoot from. In Six, I wanted to emphasise the Orwellian conspiracy poster while still giving the impression of a small, vintage shop. The resulting composition was a compromise between making the former element bold enough that it could be read with including the other elements of the shop front. The same issue occurred with Seven, trading the smaller words ‘pharmacy’ and ‘drugs’ with the decal and the rest of the window detail. That said, I think there are still enough contextual elements to support narratives when combined with their captions, which shockingly refer to people criminally exploiting the impact of COVID and the admission that there may never be an effective vaccine. Both issues from 2020 didn’t really exist when we entered 2021 so I like the way they work with the contemporary images.

My main conclusion from this assignment is that I can see how far I’ve come in terms of telling stories with my photographs. The fact that I was looking for metaphors in the context of a project about lockdown and its impact on my community before I started thinking about the assignment, shows to me that my ‘process’ has changed. As Elina Brotherus said in her Q&A with the students of OCA[4], the curation of a project from themed photographs is where her creation of art happens. I feel that with this series, I took a strong set of photographs and turned them into a commentary on the different experiences of a shared crisis like COVID, by using rhetoric being broadcast at the time. When I reflect on the series, it invokes a cultural post-memory of the radio broadcasts that were put out by Pathé and the BBC during the Second World War. The experiences of the people listening were far different from the perspective of the country’s leadership and some of the general ideas of giving reassurance, encouragement and ‘stiff-upper-lippedness’ still resonate us today.

Against the Assessment Criteria

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills

The photographs were shot with a view to creating a visual aesthetic that reflected my mood during the more recent restrictions caused by the pandemic. I deliberately used a high contrast film stock previously used in early black and white cinema, and a lens that creates a dreamlike visual to further emphasise how unreal the experience has been. All of the images are composed to emphasise the contextual elements that support narrative creation, while reducing unnecessary clutter. The exposures are all as shot with the only post-processing being slight contrast enhancement to compensate for the scans, cropping and dust removal.

Quality of Outcome

I believe the images are of good quality and are visually pleasing. This course has taught me to let go of my reliance on seeking traditional ‘technical excellence’ at the expense of what the photographs are trying to say. For example, these shots are not razor sharp because the lens doesn’t allow for that when shot wide open – this was intentional to create the visual. When paired with the text, a variety of narratives can be created from the pictures, but within a construct as indicated by Barthes’ treatment of the symbolic message.

Demonstration of Creativity

I have had feedback from those who have seen this series to that they needed to study the pictures carefully and for a significant time to get their own sense of meaning. They agreed with the mood that the images have though, which I take to meaning that the series meets my intent for answering the brief. My choice to experiment with chronology within the series by using quotations from the previous year helps to reveal that ‘not much has really changed since the pandemic began’. As indicated in my Reflection, the series invokes post-memory of the broadcasts from the leadership and Royal family during the war, which contrasted in many cases to the experiences of the people living with the day-to-day impact. I feel that this series represents my most creative work to date in both the photography but also the curation of the images with the challenging captions that go with them.

Context

I was inspired by the duality of Favrod’s work where the images are often obscure, stark in the way they are shot and could have a wide variety of interpretations without the accompanying captions and annotations. When they are included, the series really does relate his grandparents verbal commentary with his own personal struggle with identity. In my series, I only included traces of people, for example graphical representation (the decal), in in reflection (Four) or Shadow (Ten) rather than making this a portrait series. I was inspired to do this by Favrod’s fantastical representation of people in his images, e.g. with the watermelon helmet. I believe this series takes its inspiration from the work of most of the artist in Part 4.

References

[1] Favrod D, Unknown Date, “Hikari – Photographs and Text by David Favrod”, LensCulture Magazine, https://www.lensculture.com/articles/david-favrod-hikari

[2]Monarchi C, 2012, “Will You Still Love Me? Interview with Sharon Boothroyd, Photomonitor, https://photomonitor.co.uk/interview/interview-with-sharon-boothroyd/

[3]Fletcher R, 2021, 1) “Project 1:Historical Photographic Portraiture”, OCA Blog Post, https://richardfletcherphotography.photo.blog/2021/02/23/1-project-1-historical-photographic-portraiture/

[4] WeareOCA, 2015, “Elina Brotherus Student Talk”, The Open College of the Arts, https://www.oca.ac.uk/weareoca/photography/elina-brotherus-student-talk/