Print Scans

Finding Images

I decided I wanted to used found photography for my work. I chose to look for negatives as I liked the idea of not knowing what I was getting until properly enlarging in the darkroom. I decided to look on a bidding website - ebay. I had no idea what I would find or even if anyone would be selling of photographs at all. It was quite hard to find a set of negatives that had no description and were not extremely expensive but in the end I ordered some old-looking black and which 35mm. I liked the excitement of having no idea what was on them, although ultimately I was taking a risk as they could have been awful quality, over exposed, under exposed or completely blank. However when I opened them I found out I had purchased what seemed to be film stills from A Clockwork Orange. I enlarged some of the images and soon will be looking into how I can present them in a way to completely take them out of set their context.

 

Vernacular and Found Photography

Vernacular photography is a term used to describe images normally taken by amateur or unknown photographers of everyday life including snapshots, family portraits, holiday photographs ect. However Vernacular photography has now started to integrate vastly into the public eye in new art forms. Photographers such as Joachim Schmid have used different ways of gathering an archive of found photographs and re-presenting them as their own work or, in his own words, "I'm using photographic garbage and turning it into art". This notion came about after artists started insisting there are already too many photographs in the world and there is less of a need to create more. When collecting found images like these however we take away the traditional notion of 'authorship'. Like many of these photographers do, when collection images from places such as a flee market they have just the bare material of the image to work with; there is no sign of a typical 'author' nor any information of the subject. This leaves us as viewers to construct our own narratives without the constraint of having a fixed knowledge of the photographer, in other words it is open to any kind of interpretation, where as the majority oh artists normally hold an intention behind their work. This also highlights the power that these kinds of images that surround us in everyday life, even without a context we can now view them as 'art'. It is said that Vernacular photography holds honesty and purity that other forms of photography now lack. In this case we can compare it photojournalism, which is meant to portray and share truth yet it seems to be very structured and in some cases staged. Where as found photography that has documented something in the past as, for example, a snap shot has no intention of being in the public eye, therefore no intention of lying or being mis-leading. Recently Vernacular and Found photography has grown in popularity and has become somewhat of a 'trend' in the art world and is starting to overtake visual culture. This may be because as 'authored' photography is seems to be controlled by sales, galleries and collectors, 'found photography' somewhat defies commercialisation by having the recycled and historic effect. Evidence of this can also be seen now in print. In 1994 a magazine was published named FOUND. It is a collection of donated submissions by its readers. It not only includes images but also personal belongings such as love letters, birthday cards, tickets, poetry ect. Another magazine similar to FOUND is Useful Photography, published later in the 90's it includes not only Vernacular images but photographs from print, catalogues, porn, and in general most forms of photography. There are now also websites available that have large catalogues of found images, some which pre-date 1950s. These sights include: http://look-at-me.tumblr.com http://timetales.ddfp.nl/index.htm http://www.objectnotfound.net/photos . The interesting question that found photography raises is: Who does know what lies beyond the images? This brings us to the ethics of found photography. When you are reproducing existing images there is always a question of copy right and ownership issues. This is similar to found photography, where in some cases when unknown photographers have sold bundles of their old family photos they have given up the right of ownership however there is an ethical issue of privacy involved. Is it disrespectful to publish a persons private life without their knowledge? In some cases where the photographer has come forward a disclaimer is issued however if the photographer remains unaware is it irresponsibly invading into their privacy? This is one of the reasons Joachim Schmid founded the 'Institute for the reprocessing of old photographs' where owners would donate their images, knowing what they would be used for. When first creating this institute Schmid advertised his scheme by telling people "the chemicals contained in all photographs pose enormous dangers to our health. What‘s more, photographs in such quantities increase visual pollution and undermine our thinking power" while he may be exaggerating a little when it comes to "damaging our health", I do agree with his point that we should start recycling more photographs when we can.

Perfume adverts are well known for using famous actresses and beautiful models. Many adverts on the tv and print have connotations of sex and use generic representations of woman and men. The adverts use these to try and persuade the customer that when they buy their perfume they will conform to the stereotypes of 'beautiful woman' or 'masculinity'. Its this sort of media which invited children and teenagers to judge at an early age whether or not someone is 'normal looking'. Bellow are a few images I have found and added text to change the meaning.

Appropriation and Kruger

Appropriation means to place an object or image in a context with which it is not conventionally associated with, forcing the audience to create its own interpretation. The text appropriates (takes over) the image. Barbra Kruger uses appropriation by embracing both image and language commonly used in advertising to convey a different message. For example, in 'Your comfort is my silence', 1981, Kruger combined a black and white image of a man pushing his finger up to his lips insinuating silence with 'your comfort is my silence' text. The first two words cover the mans eyes in order to remove identity and portray the idea of 'all men are the same'. By arranging the text in an advert-like collage format to convey a message of gender stereo types, Kruger's image becomes a work of appropriation. However at the same time she is keeping her statements somewhat ambiguous, forcing the viewer to construct meaning and actively participate themselves in the appropriation process of the work. Appropriation is also used in the way Kruger's work was distributed: in the form of umbrellas, tote bags, postcards, mugs, T-shirts, posters, and so on, purposely confusing the boundaries between art and advertising. Most of the images Kruger uses for these works are found photography taken from American print media, she was using images to mock its their own sources.
                                                 
                                           

Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer is a conceptual artist who lives and works in New York. I first came across her work after reading she had studied with Barbra Kruger and immediately became interested. Holzer is mostly known for her large public displays on billboards, buildings and even landscapes. She uses projection of words to present her views on feminism and society. As well as this she uses a large array of media to present her ideas and statements such as signs, benches, stickers, t-shirts, paintings, sound, light, video ect. Her large scale projections with statements such as ‘There is a fine line between information and propaganda' are intended to provoke public debate. She is also trying to break the boundaries of niche audiences within art, proving that her work can be seen by anyone, anywhere. She also integrates appropriation within her work using LED signs. The signs look like a form of advertising you would see in large cities, which is why she placed them in areas such as times square. However once read the audience can tell it is not an advertisement and questions the intention of the sign. It also points out how easy we can consume information through different media, we walk past advertisements, billboards and automatically read and consume the information and store it. It questions whether consumers today have any real control over the information that is provided to them. I find her work really inspiring as she uses words and presentation to create her art. I have so far added words on photoshop to create my images. I would like to explore and experiment using other means such a projection and possibly in the dark room.

Year 2

Last year for my independent project I looked at how words can affect images and how words used in images can create a whole new piece of art. I added words to old, boring found images to make them more interesting and meaningful. This year I think I will continue to use found photography and possibly explore ways in which I could change the artists intention. I will start by returning to look at Barbra Kruger's work and investigating her use of appropriation to portray her views. I then hope to gather a collection of used images myself to work with as I really like the idea of recycling images as there are too many in the world. Last year I used old family-taken photographs. This year I intend to dig deeper and find old photographers images and hidden treasures.