Photo III - Project III: Listen, who are you, in fact?

 For the last project we were asked to respond to a monologue from the play Garden Party by Václav Havel. In this monologue the character Hugo delivers a statement about how human beings are essentially unfixed and ever-changing, and that the very nature of existence itself is fluid. This is empathized best to me in the verses about how “A” can be “B” (and so forth) and the quote “We all are a little bit all the time and all the time we are not a little bit; some of us are more and some of us are more not; some only are, some are only, and some only are not; so that none of us completely is and at the same time each one of us is not completely…”

This idea that we exist in a constant fluid state and that we could be a completely new person tomorrow  me thinking what, if any, parts of our body/existence prove a past, exist in the present, and we know will remain the next day. This led me to the ideas of permanent marks on our skin, like scars and stretch marks, because we know that they can only exist because of an event/growth in the past, and, that unlike the more ambiguous and highly changing other aspects of our body and skin, these remain fairly consistent until death. The way I look at it, there is no proof that my hand used to belong to my 10 year old body, but the scar on my arm that I got that year proves I was once 10. 

Initially I wanted to photograph my own scars and stretch marks for this project but this was too difficult to do myself (as I still wanted to be behind the camera). Instead a few of my friends volunteered to have themselves photographed (both scars and stretch marks). The photos were taken on hp5 35mm film with my fujica st-801, then scanned, edited, and printed digitally. 

Stretch 1, 35 mm photograph, scanned film

Knee Scar, 35 mm photograph, scanned film

Stretch 2, 35 mm photograph, scanned film

Responding to “First Priority is to make an entertaining picture” Martin Parr

 -Parr states that most images we see are propaganda, usually consumerist. He wants to show people the funny flaws of the world to make daily life possible. Martin states he his a documentary photographer, and therefore its his responsibility to speak to the times we live in. Personal (often exaggerated) interpretations of the world around him. He plays on the language of commercial photography (flash, bright colours).

-He became interested in photography through his grandfather, and decided he wanted to be a photographer in his early teens. Something interesting that Parr states in relation to his initial interest in photography is that, to be an artist of any kind, you must be obsessed. I think there is a lot of truth to this. When I’m in my more obsessed periods of my practice I find that is when I have my best ideas and make my better work.

-The camera as a way of seeing changes through time.

-Photographing non-conformist chapels: He did this in the 70s. Initially photographed a number of chapels on their anniversaries, then focused on a particular rural chapel. For him this was useful in reconnecting to a sense of community that he possessed in his childhood but had lost later on.

-Parr suggests his black and white photography is more “gentle” than his colour photography. He switched to colour in the early 80s, beginning with his project The Last Resort. He wanted to show the contrast between the shabbiness of this resort/town and the domestic life surrounding it. He says that nearly every artist has just one project that they are really known for, and this is his. I guess that this seems to be true, atleast with the well renowned artists (like Robert Frank and The Americans).

Photographs from The Last Resort:

-“Creating a fiction out of reality.”

-He finds that the middle ground in photography used to be ignored, but states today there is a more personal (and therefore middle ground) approach taken by photographers - like choosing to photograph their own family.

-Parr states that his first priority is to make an entertaining picture, and that there are different things going on in the photographs for those who want to discover it. When he is editing his pictures he likes to chose images with a bit of ambiguity and that capture his contradictory feelings towards a topic. 

-Using a telephoto lens, which is normally associated with journalism and sports photography. A telephoto lens allows you to zoom in very far. He has been using this type if lens on beaches now.

-“To achieve a good photograph you need to take a lot of bad photos. I have many more bad photos than good ones… the thing about photography is you have to be there before it happens. It’s difficult to define how a good picture functions, but you sort of know when it happens.”

-He believes the ideal platform for photographers is to produce a book. 

Photo Book exhibition

 

Prints from photobook The Girls We Are 

Leah Evans

The Girls We Are focuses on the transitional space between girlhood and womanhood by exploring the intersection between traditionally contrasting themes such as innocence and sexuality. The work consists of both my own photography as well as film pulled from family archives. This use of old film scans in the book adds a vintage feel to the work, while allowing me to employ photographs of myself, my sisters, and my mother in our youth. My photobook also looks at themes such as aging, sisterhood, and guilt through the use of photographs, poetry, text, photograms, and finally, the colour pink. Said Poetry and excerpts written by my sister Jordyn Evans compliment a number of the photographs, most prominently and appropriately with her poem “My Sister is Old at 21”. The Girls We Are employs a feminist critique on the sexualization of young girls and the expected embracement of sexuality by contrasting these issues.  

Overall, the book employs a “coquette” hyper-feminine aesthetic in its execution and imagery, while addressing that the girl and the women coexist in many of us.

from left to right:

Heels, found film from family archives, inkjet print

Mirrored Fujica and Nets, 35mm film, inkjet print

Mom on Beach, found film from family archives, inkjet print