The Grey Area.
'The Grey Area' as a phrase often refers to a place that holds confusion or no real meaning. A Grey Area can be quite literal, referring to fog, where everything is clouded over and covered, or could be more metaphorical, like a state of emotion or life.
Personally, I really like using the phrase 'the grey area' whilst I'm taking photos, as it helps create images that make people think, which I think makes the photographs more interesting.
Personally, I really like using the phrase 'the grey area' whilst I'm taking photos, as it helps create images that make people think, which I think makes the photographs more interesting.
Sequence Of Photos
I then went out to create my own photographs, and was given a list of prompts to try include in my series of photographs.
The List we were given was:
-The Back Of Someone's Head
-An Empty Room
-A View through a window
-A small object shot in shallow focus
-A sign
-A worm's eye view
-Looking up
-An Open Book
-A gesture
-A note
With the photos i took, i rearranged them in different ways to see if the way the photos were laid out would affect how the pieces would be percieved. In the first layout, it goes from light to dark, telling a story of progressing from the outside to the inside. In the second layout,each row seems to tell a seperate story. The first row seems to be capturing the beauty of nature and the outside. The second row shows more fear and corruption, holding more gloomy images, for example. |
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I then added quotes onto each photo, and i noticed that when words are added, the art seems to change, creating a new meaning. I gave these two images the same two quotes: 'This has never happened to me before and I had no idea how to bring the world back into focus' 'The camera was no longer an instrument that recorded presences, it was a way of making the world disappear.' I chose to link these quotes to these specific images as these images are trying to capture nature within them, but seem to fail, being out of focus and blurry from motion. It gives a sense of a warped world which i really like. |
The Grey Area -- Further.
We were then told to go out again and create a series of photographs, which MUST include the following things:
-A disguised portrait
-A doorway
-Tree bark
-An empty path
-A message
-A broken fence
-An abandoned object
-A glass or cup
-A disguised portrait
-A doorway
-Tree bark
-An empty path
-A message
-A broken fence
-An abandoned object
-A glass or cup
Jack Latham
Sugar Paper Theories |
Sugar Paper Theories by Jack Latham is a project that explores an infamous double murder that occurred in Iceland. In 1974, two men were reported missing in the southwest of Iceland, many months apart from each other. The first victim was an 18 year old, heading home from a night out drinking, and the second victim was a family man who went out to meet with a stranger and both sadly would never return home. A group of young people confessed to the murders, however none of them actually had memories of the nights in question. It was concluded than they were not the murderers, and the real murderer has still yet to be found.
Latham felt drawn to this case after reading about it. He proceeded to photograph the places and people in the narrative, met with surviving suspects, conspiracy theorists and witnesses. The book was designed to mimic a conspiracy theorist's journal, full of clues and facts about the case. He found an 'interesting power dynamic' putting his photographs to the evidence used in the case. |
I noticed that depending on where you decide to look, this project is seen differently. I looked around an online exhibition of this project (found in this link) , and all of the photos were interesting and easily perceived - but a lot different than how they are in the book. In the book the photos are printed on different types of paper, with different types of ink, and looking into the book was amazing.
Create a series of 5-10 pictures (including 3 different genres) that tell a story
The story should be based on a real incident - a memory, a news story, an event you’ve witnessed or an activity you’ve taken part in etc. but you may also introduce fictional elements
Choose your location(s) carefully
You will probably need to take more than 10 pictures so that you can edit down to the best 5-10
Upload this sequence of pictures (in the correct order) to your website on a new page (in Component 1) entitled ‘The Grey Area’
The story should be based on a real incident - a memory, a news story, an event you’ve witnessed or an activity you’ve taken part in etc. but you may also introduce fictional elements
Choose your location(s) carefully
You will probably need to take more than 10 pictures so that you can edit down to the best 5-10
Upload this sequence of pictures (in the correct order) to your website on a new page (in Component 1) entitled ‘The Grey Area’
Telling A Story.
I was inspired by Jack Latham's project 'Sugar Paper Theories' and I decided to create a series of photographs telling a story that i was interested in.
Documentary Uncertainty
While the notion of a document is historically tied to ideas of certitude and confirmation and is primarily used in the legal realm, this certitude has all but vanished from contemporary consciousness. The experiences of the 20th century, its large-scale enterprises of propaganda and disinformation, have created an attitude, which could be called habitual distrust as well as advanced media literacy. Documentary modes still appeal to institutional modes of power/knowledge and cite their authority, but the effect is rather a perpetual doubt; a blurred and agitated documentary uncertainty...
-- Maria Lind and Hito Steyerl, ‘The Greenroom: Reconsidering the documentary and contemporary art’.
Image And Text.
Create a sequence of photographs that explore the relationship between pictures and texts.
For example, you could:
- photograph signs (especially if they are unusual in some way)
- photograph pages from books (perhaps using shallow focus to pick our particular words/illustrations)
- photograph discarded newspaper/magazines in the street
- photograph advertising billboards/hoardings (especially if they are in unusual locations or have been damaged/adapted in some way)
- make photographs inspired by poems/song lyrics/news stories (remember to include the relevant text as a caption)
For example, you could:
- photograph signs (especially if they are unusual in some way)
- photograph pages from books (perhaps using shallow focus to pick our particular words/illustrations)
- photograph discarded newspaper/magazines in the street
- photograph advertising billboards/hoardings (especially if they are in unusual locations or have been damaged/adapted in some way)
- make photographs inspired by poems/song lyrics/news stories (remember to include the relevant text as a caption)