Sinlge Image

Single Image with an engaging narrative..






For my single image i was inspired by the photographer Cig Harvey.

Cig Harvey captures narrative images which are inspired by her own emotions, feelings and life experiences.
Her narrative photographs are set up images which she plans before taking to really ensure the image clearly represents the narrative. One image in particular which interested me was an image which Cig Harvey created to represent a difficult time a close friend of hers was going through.


The painting of a whale and the canvas being held above her head in this self portrait image was a way of representing the hard time a close friend of hers was going through and the way she carried that friend and the weight which often feels greater than yourself, through this time.

This whole concept of basing a narrative photograph around your current feelings, emotions and life experiences is what led me to the idea for my single narrative image.

It didn't take any time at all to think of what main experiences or emotions i was dealing with at this current time. A very prominent experience i had just gone through at the time of this project was a very close friend of mine loosing her grandfather. Seeing her go through such an experience led me to constantly think of my own granddad, as all i could think about was how unimaginable it is for me to think of having to go through loosing my grandfather. 
So because my grandfather was what i was mainly thinking about i chose to take a photograph of him to represent this experience and what it had then led me to think about. Rather than create a set up image however, i wanted to capture a natural photograph of my Grandad, or even, capture an image of something i associated with him.

(jpeg version, much lower quality)

Something which happened naturally and when i came to think of it is something which my Grandad does and has done every single time i see him is this, hand me any change he has in his pockets. I feel this image says a lot about my Grandad and successfully fulfills my idea of wanting to capture an image of my Grandad that said something more about him rather than just a normal portrait. 

After the group critique..

It was extremely interesting to see what the group guessed about my single image and hear what they felt the image represented at first glance. A lot of the group guessed and said things which i hadn't even thought my image could represent? 

hearing other peoples opinions of the image made me realise i could have possible tried to portray my narrative in a different way in the image. The critique made me realise this was the case with a lot of my peers work too. It was a valuable lesson in teaching me not to think too far into portraying narrative through an image, as really, all images have a narrative, intentionally or none intentionally. 

Mark Power

Magnum Photographer

After todays class discussions on narrative photography, i found it interesting to hear my tutor say that his opinion is that all photography has some sort of narrative, which i guess is true. This has made me little less worried about trying to come up with some amazing story to fit with an image. I now understand it can be much more simple than id thought. 

In class today we watched a video on war photography which showed the real truth and horrors of modern day war. We then watched a video on female genital mutilation, 
as well as looking into a photography website based around all of this kind of concept.

The videos and both photographers inspired me in many ways, and really had me thinking 
about narrative photography. However one main thing that has stuck with me since today's
session is why these horrific, and what seem to people of our culture, as unnecessary acts,
happen? The main explanation for this is Religion. Throughout today it's played on my mind 
and in fact I actually struggle to get my head around how powerful religion can be, and the
extreme things it can drive people to do.

I've come across a photographer which ties in with the theme of exploring religion, his name is 
Mark Power. His work really caught my eye while i was looking through a magnum 
photography book. After researching more into  Mark Power's photography, I've found he 
actually has a series of images based around the catholic religion. 

" I was drawn to a religious theme in spite of - or more likely because of - being a lapsed Catholic.  Finally completing the work in late 2012, MASS seeks to investigate the phenomenon of the Polish Catholic church and an intensity of faith which appears to cross borders of both class and age... often in settings of spectacular beauty.

Photographed from the 'Organista' (the raised area at the back of the church where the organist sits) during busy services, each 'Mass' image is paired with a close-up of a 'slot' found in the same church, into which the congregation are encouraged to put what little money they might have. "

I think these are stunning images and the intensity of the faith here which is what the photographer

explained he wanted to explore, is really captured just through the incredible interior of the churches.

The images really speak for them selves when it comes to portraying that intensity of the religion. 

http://www.markpower.co.uk/Projects 


It's really brilliant to look at Mark Powers images on his website, as he has such a vast range of photography projects. I think it is great the way in which your given a page of explanation of the story of motives behind the series of images before you go on to actually view them. I feel this is really important as through reading the text before viewing the images you are able to appreciate and understand more about the images as well as understand what the photographer is trying to tell us through the images. 

Cig Harvey

http://www.cigharvey.com/about/

Cig Harvey

In my last post I included a YouTube video of the work by Cig Harvey. This is a photographer i stumbled across on YouTube. It was so helpful to actually watch a video where the photographer is talking through her images, where she got her inspiration and the process in which she went through to create her images. 

Because Narrative photography is all about story telling, it is not always easy to look at a narrative image and fully appreciate or understand the image without being able to hear the photographers story behind it. 

Cig Harvey creates narrative photography based around herself. All of her images are inspired by feelings, experiences and thoughts she is dealing with in her life. She explains in the video on my last post, that often, she takes photographs inspired by her current feelings, often as a reminder for the future, that she doesn't want to be back in that place again in her life.

Alot of her images involve herself being in the actual images, so using self timer. Where as alot of other images she takes, are of object or scenes which are either natural or composed by her, which reflect on how she is feeling and what experiences she is currently going through.

 I feel basing narrative photography on yourself, is a really good idea as its for sure going to be a subject which you really understand, feel strongly about and can connect with. If you don' t feel strongly about the narrative behind your image, how are you supposed to create a truly engaging image or, be able to explain the story to the viewer.

The narrative behind each image is not explained on the website of Cig Harveys website. However from watching the video on my previous post, i know some of the narratives behind her images.

This image is a self portrait of her, holding a painting of a whale. She explains that this was to represent the hard time a close friend was going through and the idea of carrying the weight of that friend and their problems through their hard time.

During being in a relationship with someone she used to regularly wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to breathe.

Self portrait

A borrowed prom dress which she actually ended up having for 10 years

Symbolising feeling on edge

representing something feeling bigger than you and not having the tools to deal with it

Narrative Definition

narrative

NOUN

• 1a spoken or written account of connected events; a story:"a gripping narrative"

[MASS NOUN] the practice or art of telling stories:"traditions of oral narrative"

a representation of a particular situation or process in such a way as to reflect or conform to an overarching set of aims or values:"the coalition’s carefully constructed narrative about its sensitivity to recession victims"

"Narrative photography, sometimes called documentary photography, involves carefully selecting images and scenes to create a story. Rather than focusing on one key moment of an event, narrative photography captures images and moments throughout an event, allowing the story to unfold."

http://www.ehow.com/info_12108302_defining-elements-narrative-photography.html

Using Photography to Create Visual Narratives

Cig Harvey 
Here's a video i came across on YouTube, it's really worth watching, it has helped me understand much more about what narrative photography is and has given me some great ideas and inspiration.
The photographer Cig Harvey bases all of her narrative photographs around herself. The images can almost be considered as self portraits even though she doesn't physically appear in all of them. Shes inspired by and makes images, to do with her own feelings, thoughts and experiences. After seeing this, I feel to create my own narrative photographs, I would probably do best in looking into my own life experiences and how I am feeling at this time in my life and use those ideas to create images as I feel by basing a narrative photograph around myself, I will be able to capture an image representing something I have a strong connection with or have true feelings about. 
A couple of the ideas I took from this video were; 

• Using landscape photography to express how you're feeling inside
• Using photography to represent or remember a moment; the idea of capturing an image to represent the hard times you or a close friend are going through
• Using landscape as escapism
• Capturing an image which represents the way in which you feel you're up against something bigger than yourself and not having the tools to deal with it

Tom Hunter

First post; Narrative Photography

So, I'll be honest, at the moment I'm struggling to come to terms with what narrative photography is? Before i am going to be able to come up with my own idea or direction to take this project in i am going to have to research into as many photographers who create narrative imagery as i can. 

Here the first photographer I have researched is Tom Hunter.
After looking at his work I've come to realize he captures series of images which tell a story, or have a story behind them. For me, it was really helpful to read the story or motives behind the images before looking through the series. I've chosen just one of his series to present here, this one series of images along with the background story or reasons behind the images is enough to allow you to understand his way of photography. 

The series I've chosen by Tom Hunter is called "Travellers"

Tom Hunter 

"TRAVELLERS:

The Travellers series was taken over a two-year period in which time I was living and travelling in Double Decker bus I had bought with a friend. During this time we travelled in Europe from Portugal in the West to The Czech Republic in the East. At this time there was an underground techno sound system movement travelling in Europe putting on free parties and festivals.

The pictures I took during this period are of my friends and fellow travellers, in different parts of Europe as they travelled between festivals and raves. The spaces are their homes, vehicles recycled into new travelling homes, old lorries, buses and coaches. They were meant to be an antidote to all the very negative images that were being published in the press, who like the Government were very anti this D.I.Y. culture. The images in the press at that time were nearly always in black and white and very grainy, making the subjects into victims of society or criminals and other than the viewer.

My pictures are very colourful and try to show the humanity and the dignity of the subjects. By working with a large format camera and tripod, my subjects become collaborators in the artistic process. They had a say in the way they were viewed by the outside world, hopefully changing the way they are perceived in society. "

I like how the child is slightly blurred in this image causing a feeling of movement in the image, obviously not something which has been done intentionally but it works well in emphasising that concept of just capturing a real moment. 

These images are interesting in the way that i guess they could be classed as documentary photography as Tom Hunter is documenting this travelling experience capturing images of real people in their real living conditions, however in almost all the images, the images haven't been taken of the people going about their natural behavior unaware of the camera which is what a lot of documentary photography can look like. Instead, the people look to have been positions especially for the photograph to be taken, with some, even looking into the camera.

My favourite aspect of this series of images probably isn't even the ideas behind them or what is within the images, but the effect of the images which has been created by the chosen large format camera. I think this almost vintage or not so incredibly high quality type of image is amazing for this form of photography; where the photographer is capturing real life, even more so when those real life moments arnt so glamorous and high market. 

Its also interesting to note from the information about the images that the photographer has purposely captured and emphasised the bright colours in his images to put a certain message across. These images were not just taken to capture these peoples lives, they were captured to actually show travelling in a more positive light to others.