Sunday 9 May 2010

WwL - Week 3

Thursday 6th May

Today's lecture began with a quick recap of a previous lecture - What is a Photograph? - which aimed to help us better understand the physical qualities of a photograph (in other words the physical manifestation of our practice), and then to recognise those elements in others' work, and moreover consider them in our own practices.

Five physical qualities of photographs were highlighted (as taken from Stephen Shore's book - The Nature of Photographs. A primer).
  • It is two dimensional.
  • It is limited in scope (i.e. bounded by a frame).
  • It is still.
  • It is multi-coloured or monotone.
  • It ages.
We discussed and evidenced these qualities in further detail, and thereby began to get a clearer idea of how we as practitioners may apply a consideration of these elements to our working practices. In other words: pre-visualisation.

The godfather of this, and the man who coined the term - Ansel Adams, suggested that photographs are made, not taken. 
"In my mind's eye, I visualise how a particular... sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice."
"I can't verbalise the internal meaning of pictures whatsoever. Some of my friends can at very mystical levels, but I prefer to say that, if I feel something strongly, I would make a photograph that would be the equivalent of what I saw and felt... When I'm ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my mind's eye something that is not literally there, in the true meaning of the word. I'm interested in expressing something which is built up from within, rather than extracted from without."
To demonstrate this approach we looked at his famous work 'Moonrise'. Comparing the straight print to the fine print we can see the dramatic differences in appearance, and remember that Adams envisaged the fine print whilst taking the exposure. He always aimed to make the best interpretation of the negative so that it would express not how the scene looked in reality, but how it felt to him emotionally.

Pre-visualisation is not something that can be acquired quickly and definitively, it is a skill that we as photographers must grow and develop, and it will always be present and progressing within our practices. We edit the world, we show things to people that they otherwise would not see. And as our photographic eye develops, we will see things that can potentially take on a new meaning - a certain beauty and illusion - when we photograph them in a particular way, controlling that creative process. Just as Beethoven pre-visualised (or if you like 'pre-audibilised') his great symphonies. 

And so for this week, the task of 'control' has been set. To control the light of your location (by taking a light, or lights to it), to create a mood/effect/whatever of your image - and hence determine something more of how the image is viewed.

Chungking Express

I didn't come away from this screening thinking much on the plot, instead I was more interested in the style of the film, and this lead me to inquire further into Wong Kar Wai. There's a good article on his radical and inspirational method of film making here. I didn't find myself mulling over Chungking Express as I do with films that make a strong impression, but I find myself now wanting to see more from Kar Wai, titles such as - Fallen Angels, Happy Together, and In the Mood for Love, so as to experience more of what this director/writer has to offer, hopefully some films with more engaging stories.
Rebecca Bett's review of Chungking Express.

Today there was also a significant technical workshop on studio and location lighting. We covered a lot, both technically and creatively, in a rather short space of time. In the next peer led session (on Monday) we will spend a sizeable chunk of our time going over these lights, answering questions, setting light-based challenges and so on. A technical post on that will follow.

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