Well the assessment results are in and truthfully I am well pleased with my marks. Results came in on July 25th, 2016 and the results letter confirmed – Formal Assessment – Passed. Huge sigh of relief! I now have 80 credits to my name – only 280 credits more to go!!
The Summative Assessment Feedback was broken down and graded according to the Visual Arts Assessment Criteria. The assessors comments are below. My comments, where applicable are in italics.
Demonstration of technical and visual skills (materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills)
Development of excellent visual and technical skills. Highly effective design and composition.
Quality of Outcome (content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner with discernment)
Highly effective work presented in a professional way, showing strong judgement.
Demonstration of Creativity (imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice)
Excellent development of analytical and creativity thinking, showing independent judgements and presenting a developing personal creative voice.
Context (reflection, research, learning logs)
Awareness of an excellent breadth of contexts and debates supporting your growing personal and/or professional knowledge and understanding.
My marks were up from last year’s assessment in all these areas, so I’m very happy.
Overall Comments and Feed Forward
This is strong, gutsy and honest work that is very nicely presented. There is evidence of both effective communication of ideas through visual images and diverse creative experimentation.
Your self-portraiture in Assignment 2 and your cultural references to being a foreigner in Assignment 3 are emotive and powerfully communicative of layers of meaning without being sentimental. The use of titles in that assignment is particularly pointed and strong.
Assignment 5 did seem a little frivolous considering your intention to make a visual statement against hunting, so do be sure to understand signifiers like toy guns, animal masks and special make-up clearly, as they may be interpreted as comic.
You’ve given a strong Barthesian analysis of the Capa photograph picking up on the incongruity and duality of signs in a lucid and well researched essay. And your other research is just as clear.
Your personal voice is emerging and should emerge clearly with continued study.
I’m very happy with the feedback on Assignments 2, 3 and 4 and a little disappointed with that of Assignment 5. I do see, though, that I may have missed explaining the signifiers properly, so will carry that forward to the next module and try and ensure I cover this succinctly. Overall, I am pleased with my progress.
Well this is my last posting for Context and Narrative. I have signed up for Identity and Place. To everyone who has followed this blog, I thank you sincerely for your interest and support and invite you to follow my photographic journey in my new blog https://lyndakuitphotographyiap.wordpress.com/ .
Thank you for taking the time to evaluate my work.
My learning log is online and can be located at: https://lyndakuitphotographycn.wordpress.com/ . The blog is in descending date order (standard blog format), however, I have arranged the assignments so that they can be viewed in consecutive order. Each assignment’s post begins with the assignment, followed by the tutor feedback and my reflections and ends with any revision/rework that I have done as a result of the tutor feedback.
To access each assignment, tutor feedback and any revisions done, please click on the assignment number you wish to view on the menu at the top and you will be able to scroll in consecutive order.
My research is accessible by going to the submenus under Research and Reflection on the menu at the top of the blog as illustrated below. Research relevant to each assignment is mentioned in my assignment write up and is hyperlinked to the relevant posts as well.
Included in this package are:
the contact sheets of prints for each assignment as well as the final reworks or revisions. Contact sheets are clearly labeled on the back of each sheet.
a selection of eight (8) prints from assignments 1. Ten (10) prints for assignment 2; ten (10) prints for assignment 3 and three (3) prints for assignment 5(total of 31). Prints are clearly labeled on the back of each print.
A critical essay for assignment 4.
all five (5) tutor reports. Electronic copies of the tutor reports have also been uploaded to my assigned Google Drive and are located under Tutor Reports, clearly named in the following format [Lynda_Kuit_512863_Assignment_No_CN.pdf].
one (1) supplementary physical learning logs which I have mainly used for inspirational images and gallery visits.
Please note for assessment purposes that I have only uploaded the tutor reports to the Google Drive. Everything else is located on my blog.
And so I’ve come to the end of my journey in Context & Narrative and would just like to thank all my followers who have supported me throughout this past year. Many thanks for your support and comments – all are highly appreciated!
As the time draws near for assessment, I will briefly reflect on my studies while doing Context and Narrative this past year. The course was not what I had expected. It far exceeded my expectations! I have probably learnt more in this course than in any other photography course I have taken. The course has led me down paths that I probably would not have ventured or even attempted if left to my own devices. My special thanks to my tutor, Gina Lundy, who has been so supportive and encouraging. Gina, thank you for pushing me beyond my comfort zones and encouraging me to take risks! My fellow students on the Facebook Level 1 group have been fantastic and very supportive. I have summoned up the courage this year to ask for constructive feedback, before submitting assignments and this has paid off in spades. It really is good to have such a group with which to interact. I am still enjoying the freedom that distance learning affords me, although it does require quite a lot of self-discipline. Below are a few points that have stood out for me over this past year. My in-depth reflections can be read under each assignment’s individual tab.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Demonstration of technical and visual skills (materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills)
I found myself slowing down and analyzing scenarios more this year. Due to the nature of the assignments a lot of thought had to go into framing and composition – not always easy when you are doing self-portraits. I found myself paying particular attention to the overall tones and colour palates of my assignments as well. I think I have begun to think more in a ‘series-related’ fashion as opposed to each individual image and this has resulted in more cohesive sets of projects.
Quality of Outcome (content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas)
The most challenging and difficult assignment for me was Assignment 2, as I was making images right after my surgery and a few weeks beyond that. However, in retrospect, it might have been one of the assignments in which I learnt the most. Due to the very personal nature, it also left me feeling rather vulnerable. It is quite one thing to talk about your feelings, but really another to translate them into images. My third assignment had me reflecting on my identity as an immigrant – again very personal issues were raised. I am definitely more comfortable expressing myself in my blog and have rather enjoyed writing about various photographers and exhibitions.
Demonstration of Creativity (imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice)
My creativity has definitely come a long way since the previous module, The Art of Photography. I have experimented in all but two of the assignments (Assignment 1 and Assignment 4 excluded). I feel that the experimentation has reaped dividends and I now have a base measurement to improve from in the following module. The assignment that I had the most fun with was my anti-hunting narrative in Assignment 5. It was good to be stretched in this creative fashion. I have also found during this module that the more personal and crazy the ideas I had, the better the outcomes – something to carry forward to the next module.
Context (reflection, research, critical thinking)
I think my research methodology has improved quite a bit since doing TAOP. I have become more focused in researching photographers that are relevant to whatever particular assignment I am busy with and this has helped me to become more structured in my thinking. When looking at images I am now able to look with more of a critical eye at the work, exploring the what’s, why’s and how’s of the photograph. Semiotics has been a tricky concept to grasp at times. Learning how to use and decipher it will, of course, come with practice and more in-depth reading.
Finally I’d like to thank my family members for their support and willingness to be used as models and accompanying me to exhibitions. My thanks also to my work colleagues who follow my photographic journey and provide valuable feedback and commentary.
Context and Narrative has come to an end, but another new and exciting journey awaits me: Identity and Place.
Construct a stand-alone image of your choice. Alternatively, you may choose to make series, elaborating on the same theme. … draw upon skills learned from Parts One to Four – using various forms of narrative, using yourself as subject matter, telling stories and reading images. The only stipulation is that you produce work that has been controlled and directed by you for a specific purpose. Remember to create a story with a specific context … This means you need to have an artistic intention. …The aim of this assignment is to use props, costume, models, location, lighting, etc. to contribute to the overall meaning of the image. … If the narrative is to be set in a different era then the elements of the image must reflect this. Also consider the symbolic meanings of objects and try not to be too literal in your approach. … For this final assignment, you should also include an illustrated evaluation of the process you went through to produce your final image(s). Include snapshots of setting up the work and write about how you felt your direction went, how you found the location, props, etc. How did this process affect the final outcome? Write around 1,000 words in total (including your 300-word introduction).
Introduction
For centuries, mankind has been the dominant species. We’ve domesticated animals, locked them up, killed them for sport. But a series of recent events seem to suggest, all across the globe, animals have decided no more.
Zoo TV Series Opening introduction, episode 4 (narrated by Nonso Anozie), Wikipedia
This statement from the TV series Zoo served as the inspiration for my project, If I (the animal) were you (the person). This mythical, surreal narrative is my reaction to the senseless hunting and poaching of game that is taking place in Africa and other countries. By reversing the roles of hunter and prey, I hope to create a moral and visual awareness that may help to address the custodial role that humans need to take to safeguard the longevity and existence of the various species in the animal kingdom. The prey lying on the ground will hopefully “rise from the scene, shoot out of it like an arrow, and pierce [you]” (Barthes, 1980: 26).
Location scouting
To enhance the surreal nature of my project I scouted out a location that would not be indigenous to lions, namely a forest of spruce and Douglas fir trees. The location for my photo shoot was Kealy Woods Park in North Vancouver, a rather deserted little forest. When I first went to scout out the location a couple of weeks ago the forest floor was slightly damp. On the day of the shoot it was positively soggy and slippery, which was rather treacherous for us in some spots. I mainly shot in front of the huge rock outcrop. Movement was restricted by the trees, exposed tree roots, fallen trees and stumps. Below are a couple of pull back shots from different angles.
Pull back shot No 1Pull back shot No 2
Make up trial/Props
I did not need very much in the way of props as initially mentioned in my planning post. I had purchased a lion’s mask which I sourced online in China, a camouflage jacket and gloves for my hunter model (my husband) to wear which was purchased from a red-neck American outdoor/hunting store which shall remain nameless, as well as a toy rifle, from the same store, which hopefully comes across as fairly realistic in the images. My prey model (my son) just wore regular clothes.
My main prop was really the bullet wound makeup that I had to apply to the model’s face prior to the shoot. I had practised this two weeks ago and felt fairly confident in recreating the prosthetic. However, it seems that every attempt comes with its own challenges and I struggled to get the shading right this time. Unlike the practise run, this time I had real fake blood obtained from a movie FX retailer, which made the makeup more realistic. Below is a closeup taken after the shoot. As you can see, the dripping blood held up really well as there was no need for any touch ups during the shoot.
Lighting
I had initially planned on using flash in the forest as I had hoped to get in there fairly early in the morning. However, the makeup took longer than expected and I arrived at the location later than I had anticipated with the sun already quite high in the sky. As a result I did not need to use flash and relied on the beautiful natural lighting that was filtering through the forest canopy from camera left at about the eleven o’clock position. Initially I had set up using a tripod, but found that the location was too restrictive, and the terrain was not conducive to a tripod as it was fairly steep with lots of obstacles to navigate, so I abandoned the tripod so that I could change my viewpoint more easily.
Direction
I had a fairly good idea of the poses that I wanted from my models, but once in the forest we had to adapt to the in situ conditions as there were many branches that had come down during the two wind storms that occurred after my scouting trip. For the most part the direction went well. I took care to direct my son to keep his head turned to his left in the same direction that the blood was flowing, otherwise his poses would have looked strange. His greatest problem was to keep a straight face. The biggest problem my hunter faced was keeping his chin down, so that the camera would not pick up his face inside the mask. From certain viewpoints the wearer’s mouth is visible through the lion’s mouth. To help with this I had him wear a balaclava so that there would be a dark tone inside the mouth. Happily this strategy worked well.
The StalkerThe ShooterThe Trophy
Contact Sheets
Because I took quite a few photos of the same poses, I have whittled down my contact sheets to show a few options of the relevant poses.
Demonstration of technical and visual skills (materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills)
My equipment used for this assignment were my 18-140 mm and 70-300mm lenses together with my Nikon D7200 and tripod. Going in I had a fairly good idea of the type of images that I was after. I found that certain spots in the forest allowed in too much overhead lighting and although my hunter was backlit rather nicely, my highlights were totally blown out. Unfortunately I only discovered this after uploading the images to my PC – note to self to check my histogram after taking the photo. Fortunately though, even if the exposure had been correct, I would not have used those images as the hunter’s and prey’s postures were too awkward and looked contrived. Not too much post-processing was involved: mainly just adjustment of highlights, adding contrast and clarity and a little dodging and burning over selective sections of the images.
Quality of Outcome (content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas)
I am happy with the outcome of these images. My planning pages can be viewed on these pages: Assignment 5 Planning, Assignment 5 Planning – Location Scouting, Assignment 5 Planning – Makeup Trial Run, and Assignment 5 Planning – Preselection. I put four test images up for peer review on the OCA Facebook Level 1 group regarding my final image. I was pleased with the positive feedback which can be read here. I was also relieved to see that the correct connotation had been made in the hunter becoming the hunted. A few comments were made about the wonderful lighting in my second preselection option, but as the lighting was basically the same between images 1, 2 and 3, I simply applied a little more post-processing to my final image of choice. A fellow student also suggested that it might be a good idea to annotate my contact sheets which I have done.
For my ‘trophy’ image I have emulated David Chancellor’s and the countless other images that one sees on the internet with the hunter and the prey centrally placed in the frame to continue the illusion of a real hunt. Like Meatyard, I feel that the use a mask does depersonalise the situation, but at the same time also adds a bit of shock value to the image.
I believe my thought processes are clearly signposted in my planning posts and in my introduction above. I intentionally did not want to overload my images with signifiers as I want to leave the viewer room to play with his/her own interpretation of the myth.
Demonstration of Creativity (imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice)
When I first verbalised my concept for this assignment with a couple of colleagues from work and took note of their reactions, which ranged from horror to “how disgusting/weird” I realised that my narrative had some good potential, even if it was a bit risky. If my verbal narrative could elicit such responses, hopefully a visual one would do so as well. To emphasise the mythological aspect of my narrative, I chose a location where lions are not indigenous (a forest in Canada), with the intention of drawing attention to this global problem. Initially I had planned on only doing one image, namely the trophy pose, but the more I thought about it, I became convinced I needed a few more images to complete my mythical narrative. I have, therefore, followed a bit of a cartoon-like strategy, where some reading between the “boxes” is necessary from the viewer’s standpoint.
I have tried to portray the “thrill” of the hunt in my images. I also decided not to go for the super, polished look that John Hafner’s photographs have, preferring a natural look for my images. The series of images also alludes briefly to the close vicinity that wildlife and humans find themselves in these days. In North Vancouver, where I live, bears, coyotes and racoons regularly encroach into our living space. In my final image by posing the hunter in front of a rock face which is defaced with graffiti, I also want to draw attention to the fact that humans also encroach on wildlife’s living space.
Context (reflection, research, critical thinking)
Hunting is not a subject widely found in the contemporary or fine art environment and it was a bit of a struggle to find suitable photographers to research. In preparation for this assignment I looked at the following photographers (my detailed remarks can be found on their pages):
John Hafner – a Montanan based commercial photographer, who specialises in sport hunting photography.
Ulla Schildt and Liza Dracup – as suggested by my tutor, as they both photograph animals in an alternative state.
David Chancellor – photographer who splits his time between the UK and South Africa and has won the 2010 Taylor Wessing portrait prize for one of his hunting images. I had written to David to request permission to use one of his images in my write up, which he kindly gave. He also requested to read my write up and thought that it was “a fascinating observation” and further requested to read my assignment when completed.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard – mentioned by a fellow student for his use of masks in photography.
My detailed notes on the exhibitions that I attended are linked to their individual postings and listed below. A few were not of a photographic nature and therefore a little difficult to comment on.
Adad Hannah: Case Studies – cinematic approach and focuses on performative photography using digital video, exploring motion.
I did an online MOOC course through Coursera on Learning How to Learn, which imparted valuable study methods which will definitely come in handy as I try and assimilate the theoretic aspects of this and following courses.
I caught up on some backlog I’d had with reviews, namely Roland Barthes’ Rhetoric of the Image.
Another MOOC course that I completed through Coursera was Seeing Through Photographs which was presented by the Museum of Modern Art. This was a new course and I only wish this course had been available when I began Context & Narrative as it is so relevant to this module. I found the materials and resources MOMA made available for this course very useful and comprehensive and particularly enjoyed the exposure to new artists and their opinions. This is a great companion piece to Context & Narrative.
I read This Means This This Means That by Sean Hall, a very down to earth, no-frills book on semiotics with examples of every aspect. This book was recommended by a fellow student on the OCA Level 1 Facebook group and it has really been extremely helpful in expanding my semiotic knowledge. I would not use it as a substitute for Daniel Chandler’s Semiotics for Beginners, but definitely as a companion text.
Reference List
Barthes, Roland. (1980) Camera LucidaReflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang
After a few weeks of anxious waiting for my final tutor feedback, I received it today and I really couldn’t be happier. I’m relieved that my final assignment is wrapped up and also the course, but also sad to say aurevoir to my current tutor. She has been absolutely amazing with her feedback, pushing me beyond my comfort zone with each assignment for which I am grateful.
Her feedback follows below. My comments are in italics.
Overall comments
A great set of images exploring the hunter and the hunted, technically very proficient, well styled and thoughtfully executed. Your background research is thorough and supports your creative experimentations. Well done!
Thank you – very pleased to hear that.
Feedback on assignment
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity
As a series of images I really enjoy the piece of work you have created for this assignment. There is something of the unreal/surreal, within the set up that jars my reading of the work. We know this is a constructed image, a lion is obviously not going to pick up a gun with their paws… but somehow I want to believe this is possible and to see it enacted in a photograph. I want to be tricked!
This was the reaction that I was after, so good to hear this feedback.
The saddest thing about some of Chancellor’s images, that you comment upon in detail, is the evident pride in the expression of the hunters who have killed such beautiful animals. The way the animals bodies are draped around the hunters like trophies induces a real sense of sickness and disgust in me when I look at the photographs. Perhaps it is the carnivalesque mask that punctures my viewing, its lack of expression or inability to change expression that doesn’t quite have me convinced.
I had hoped that the lion’s stance with his foot on the prey’s shoulder would convey some of this arrogance.
I feel you have done extremely well to produce the images you have in the context of the forest with the resources available to you (considering that Jeff Wall and Gregory Crewdson have massive teams of assistants and helpers to create their work).
Extra voice activated light stands would have been most welcome :-).
Technically the shots are well observed, as you note there are some exposure issues, but in this context I don’t think they matter massively as we are interested more in believing the shot. You make great use of a variety of poses, experimentation in make up, the natural lighting and different view points within the frame to create a set of effective, stylised and constructed photographs.
Thank you.
Have you considered how you will present the work for final assessment? I enjoyed seeing the sequence of images develop, or perhaps you will opt for one single image. Something to think further about.
One of the OCA students had suggested a tritych and this might be my best option. If there were a few more images, I might have considered a short film clip, but I think with only three images it might not have the deisred effect. I also don’t have the time available before the assessment submission deadline to learn how to put a film with sound together.
Your pre-shoot location scouting is well documented and you have evidently spent much time considering how to construct the shots. The annotated contact sheets work well in this context to show your working process. This is highly effective work presented in a professional way showing strong judgement. Well done.
Thank you and also thanks to Jayne Kemp who suggested annotating the contact sheets.
I like that your colleagues thought you were weird for wanting to do this, as you rightly state it probably means you’re on to something! Well done for taking a risk, being imaginative, creative and playing around with your ideas. It’s been great to see your work develop throughout the assignments.
I think I’m beginning to realise that the wacky ideas are more fruitful in the long run and I’m now more comfortable getting out of my comfort zone. Of course I know that the comfort zone boundaries are ever shifting so we shall see where this leads me in the next course.
Coursework
Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity
You have engaged thoroughly with all the suggested exercises and projects within this assignment. You often go the extra mile in terms of additional research and reflection in relation to these projects. Your log is easy to navigate and I was able to quickly locate all of your responses. I especially like the embedded links to specific practitioners and your analysis of their work/application to the assignment in hand.
Thank you. I know how frustrating it can be to navigate a badly signposted website or blog.
As above, your research is thorough, detailed and insightful. You visit a range of sources to inform your practice and are able to critically evaluate the work within its wider contemporary context.
You write well, clearly communicating the information that is relevant to the exercise/project/task in hand. You also strike a good balance between writing in an academic context, where analysis is valued over description, whilst also maintaining a sense of the personal approach and view of the subject. I find your reflections and research both enjoyable and easy to read.
Thank you. Academic writing is quite hard and very dry to read most times, so I’m very relieved that there is a good balance between that and the personal approach.
It is commendable that you are also pursuing other MOOCs to do with photography at MOMA and other online sources. I’ll have a further look into some of these as they might be a good resource for other students on the course.
I can highly recommend the MOMA course as a companion piece to Context and Narrative. It would have been wonderful to have had that available at the start of this module. The accompanying reading texts from the MOMA exhibition catalogues are also very handy to have.
Similar comments as above, your learning log continues to be thorough, detailed and insightful. The depth of self reflection is evident in your write up, where you consider both technical improvements that could have been made whilst weighing up the practicalities that the situation demanded. You go on to implement several of the suggestions into the presentation of your work, which works to good effect (annotated contact sheets – nice!).
Seems like I’ve made a bit of an improvement in self reflection which is always difficult for me, so I’m happy to hear that.
In using the OCA student forum, you take full advantage of peer feedback and develop this further, following up practitioners suggested by other students and incorporating this into your wider research. I think I have mentioned before in a report, the importance of being critical of some of the feedback and pushing beyond the purely positive comments to find some critique, or have some of your own in response. This is not a criticism, more of an observation, it is also something that is not always possible depending on the student group. However I would encourage you (perhaps on future courses) to guide the feedback a bit more and push people to engage beyond the positive comments.
Point taken. I did make a note of amendments I had made after receiving peer feedback, but I do take your point. I should analyse and document my responses better. I will take this through to the next course.
Pointers for the next assignment / assessment
Ensure prints are of high quality and presented well – min. A4 size
Double check all links to log/images are loading well.
Complete all tasks and projects/exercises/research points for each assignment before submission.
North American paper sizes are different to those used in the rest of the world. The closest I have to A4 is 8.5 x 11 inches which is what I will use for assessment.
After deliberating for a while I decided to try and create a video with sound effects for my final assignment If I (the animal) were you (the person). I first created a PowerPoint presentation and inserted blank slides between each photograph to create a sense of anticipation and mystery. Various sounds effects were also added to the presentation. I then enlisted the help of a student at the university where I work to help me convert the presentation to a video file, which I uploaded to Vimeo.
The video If I (the animal) were you (the person) can be seen here.
Adad Hannah is a Vancouver based artist who has exhibited widely across Canada as well as internationally in the United States, Korea, Prague, Chile, Shanghai, Bucharest and Birmingham. His work is cinematic and focuses on performance and movement. Jeff Wall, Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol are some of the influences he draws inspiration from.
When I first read the gallery handout and saw that Hannah used digital video to create his images I was rather puzzled as to the process. I then checked his website and found that he actually builds a mise-en-scene, poses his subjects as if it were for a still photograph and then videos the still scene for about 4 – 10 minutes. When viewing the video, only slight movements are noticed: little things like the blink of someone’s eye, a slight readjustment of an arm stretched out and so on. This must be extremely difficult for the subjects to hold these poses for such a lengthy period. Like Jeff Wall, he builds elaborate sets as can be seen in his documentation of Blackwater Orphelia.
Hannah’s Case Studies project mimics Muybridge’s work in a similar fashion. Where Muybridge’s work is all in sepia tone, Hannah uses rich colours. He also uses a grid as a background, but in his case the grid is black, where as Muybridge used white in order to reflect as much light into the lens as possible. Another difference is that Hannah has some black-clad helpers that help lift and support the subjects in their various poses and this creates a slightly sinister feel to the photos. It’s as if there are ninjas lurking in the background wanting to do evil to the subjects who are in the light. The ninjas are less noticeable on the actual print than on the photograph as the saturation is more dense. Whether Hannah videotaped these images as staged images as he has done with his other work, or photographed these motion images in a similar fashion to Muybridge, I cannot say. But either way the motion is very carefully captured. There is less of a forensic/scientific feel to Hannah’s work which is probably due to the use of colour and the background ninjas.
Adad Hannah: After Muybridge: Wrestlers 2
Another series Hannah had on display was his Polka Dot Case Study. In these images he uses a polka dot background, all the props bar the bowls are covered in the polka dots. The subject is also clad in an all-in-one jumpsuit that matches the background. Various yoga or gymnastic poses are struck with the subject balancing contrasting coloured bowls on various parts of her anatomy. The images form an optical illusion and from afar one is not really aware of the subject in the photos, just the background and the bowls. It is only when the viewer draws closer that the misaligned polka dots of the subject and cube she is seated on truly stands out from the background. I found this to be a really creative series of images.
Adad Hannah: An Arrangement (Polka Dot Case Study) 1
The gallery handout introduces this exhibition with a quote from Charlotte Cotton’s latest book, Photography is Magic:
Photography is a form of magic – or to put it another way, the photographic provides cerebral experiences for the viewer that are equivalent to magic.
And for the viewers of these photographs in the 1870’s it must have been a truly magical experience. Forty-five of Muybridge’s collotypes were on display for this exhibit. All the prints were made in the late 1880’s. What a feast! Muybridge was born in 1830 and is best know for his motion studies, which began in 1870 when he was asked by Leland and Jane Stanford to help demonstrate that at a certain point in time, all four legs of a galloping horse were off the ground. Muybridge did this by using a bank of view cameras to record the galloping horse’s movements. Each camera’s shutter was triggered using a thread as the horse passed. I find this process utterly fascinating knowing how long view cameras took to process an image back in the 1870’s. Admittedly, Muybridge had the help of Leland Stanford’s crew of engineers and technicians from the Central Pacific Railroad to help him develop new high-speed mechanical camera shutters for his view cameras. Cameras did not have shutters at that time. After the galloping horse study, Muybridge expanded his project to study motion of other animals and people involved in various activities. His legacy of these studies has been passed on to the cinematographers.
Eadweard Muybridge – dogs playing
The beauty in these old photographs lies in their technicality, the split second precision of an action captured. Could we do it better today? Most definitely – the technology has changed dramatically since 1870, and today we have Joe McNally with his impressive banks of flashes. Even so the quality of the Muybridge prints and the resolution is quite crisp and the subject matter fascinating. Muybridge has applied a very scientific or forensic approach to his photographs and I liked the way that he used different angles for a lot of his series photographs: side on views, frontal and rear views. The individual frames are quite small and the viewer is really drawn in to study the stop-motion flow closely.
I was quite taken aback by this exhibition. It is an exhibition by a group of indigenous female artists from the First Nations in North America. I had not planned to go to this exhibition initially as I had expected it to have the usual First Nations traditional artwork on display, but because it was literally a stone’s throw away from my targeted viewing I decided to drop in afterwards and was very pleasantly surprised.
The exhibition pays homage to the indigenous women, through all their trials and tribulations of colonial rule. It challenges the viewer to view the First Nations women in a different light by regarding the matriarchal roles in diverse representations. This exhibition is both art and political in nature and deals with the First Nations right to reclaim their rightful position in society.
Participating artists were Maria Hupfield, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Wendy Red Star, Tsēma Tamara Skubovius, Janice Toulouse and Olivia Whetung.
One of the most interesting pieces was a display by Wendy Red Star, a Crow Indian from Montana. Displayed across the width of the gallery wall was a series of posters above a shelf of displayed books. The books were a series written by E. J. Hunter in the 1980’s. There are 24 books in total. Wendy Red Star has created a montage of the original cover and inserted a self-portrait instead of the original “squaw” for each book. The sub-titles on the book come across rather risque or non politically correct in today’s environment and Red Star has played upon the nuances of the sub-text to create her portrait.
Below is the original cover of book # 11. The sub-text reads “She sees what’s coming and blows her way out of trouble!” The sub-title at the bottom of the book reads “Hot-handed Heathen”.
White Squaw 11 – Original cover
And this is Red Star’s play on this cover:
White Squaw 11 by Wendy Red Star
By using modern day gestures, often seen on selfies, she is contemporising the literature and drawing attention to the fact that First Nations women are really just like the rest of us.
Possibly the most thought provoking image of the exhibition was a huge life size photograph by Tsēma Tamara Skubovius of a girl sitting naked, hunched over on a rocky beach among washed up discarded, rusty iron rods and bricks.
Re (Naturalize) by Tsēma Tamara Skubovius
The foetal position of the girl on the beach is symbolic of the much awaited reclamation and return to society by the First Nations people. A symbol of rebirth. The iron rods are representative of the society’s current restrictions and obstacles that stand in the way of this happening. For me the rocks on the beach are indicative of the difficulties that lie ahead in effecting this change.
Lea Toulouse, curator of this exhibition, explains:
I am fed up with the oppression, racism, and victimization of my people and believe it is time to reclaim our position on this land, to celebrate our culture, and to govern our lives.
Lynda Kuit Photography - Context & Narrative 