Task 6 Andreas Gursky- Globalisation.

99 Cent,II, Diptychon.
© Andreas Gursky.

"For me, vision is an intelligent form of thought"


Andeas Gursky, Prospect:Photography in Contemporary Art, by Peter Welermai.


Gursky tackles globalisation within his imagery by sanctioning the imprint of the power of production and the money driven ideology of the capitalist mindset.


His images display detail and colour that has an aura that imposes a will on the viewer, leaving them lost in the scale of human production of material goods, or equally the production of wealth via the globalisation of the world and its societies especially those of the 'third world'.


Looking at Gursky's images, it becomes obvious that he is drawn to open spaces that contain a vast amount of detail and sense of scale that can match his finished print size.
His images are printed on a very large scale 2m by 3m. This large scale printing has the effect of overwhelming the viewer with information, leaving them overawed. 


The New York based critic Calvin Tomkins said that after viewing Gursky work that they,

Chicago Board of Trade, II.
© Andreas Gursky.

"Had the presence, the formal power, and in several cases the majestic aura of nineteenth-century landscape paintings, without losing any of their meticulously detailed immediacy as photographs. Their subject matter was the contemporary world, seen dispassionately and from a distance". 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Gursky 

Dubai World.
© Andreas Gursky.

His photographs could be seen as a warning, on how man is changing and exploiting the world and its finite resources, damaging them irrevocably in the process. Gursky has also concentrated his photography upon how we interact with our environment, shaping and changing it to our will. 


Even though this is a hotly debated subject, his images are so aesthetically perfect and beguiling, that when looking upon them, it's easy to forget the original intention was to warn us about the effects of globalisation or global warming. 

Task 8 Derby Format Festival -Head On, Bruce Gilden.

Bruce Gilden and the Documentary photograph. 

Head On, Derby Format Festival.
© Bruce Gilden.

Bruce Gilden was commissioned for the Derby Film Festival to document the people of Derby.

Gilden's technique is to roam the streets, looking for individuals that he considers to 

have a strong persona - people who stand out from the norm.

The individuals he picks, or you could say 'targets', are unique in that they have a distinctive look that could seen as idiosyncratic or unorthodox; perhaps they have the look of loneliness and poverty, or eccentricity and wealth.

The defining feature, and the success, that Gilden has in locating and documenting these characters could be very difficult to pin down for those less observant of the human condition. But it is Gilden's ability to notice the peculiar in the everyday street scene that makes him so impressive and remarkable.

His technique is to go unnoticed by his chosen subject: he either waits for the subject to pass as closely as possible to him or he'll wander by, keeping his camera concealed. As soon as the subject is close enough, he'll shoot, normally with a flash. The flash catches people by surprise, further extenuating their features and leading to less than flattering portraits. 

Gilden says 'I'm known for taking pictures very close, and the older I get, the closer I get'.  

Head On, Derby Film Festival.
© Bruce Gilden.

Looking at Gilden's imagery within the critical framework, there can little doubt that he intends to document the individual without their express consent or prior knowledge; there is something slightly voyeristic in this style of photography.

Gilden could be seen as a watcher or observer who separates himself from the norm of 'street life' to be able to observe it - to be the voyeur of the great mass that is humanity on the move, going places, dressed accordingly, looking 'normal'.

Gilden's has a mastery of voyeurism, an ability to spot the un-normal for us, 'the viewer', to gaze over and to ponder, the oddity, the unconventionality, the bizarre and the kookiness: that is his talent to document.

Task 7. Artists Statement.

Fading From Memory,2011.
© Stuart Leckenby.

Stuart Leckenby’s photographs display a connection to a generation which is politically disregarded and sometimes socially excluded.  He aims to raise awareness of these people by documenting them, involving the subjects he is photographing.

Modern Times, 2010.
© Stuart Leckenby.

His work relies on gaining the trust of the people involved and building a relationship that places both  subject and photographer on a level playing field. His documentary-style approach is carefully considered and watchful, displaying his eye for observation. His foremost intention is to honestly portray the subject and their environment.

His subjects show a connection to him via an extra- diabetic gaze, which entices the viewer to look at the subject, inviting him or her to be viewed. The capture of those moments, which are frequently unseen by the  society we live in, are displayed in a compelling yet gentle manner. 

Stuart attempts to disentangle the barriers which are posted onto the older generation, to educate and inspire us to take notice.

Opal Tea Dance, 2010.
© Stuart Leckenby.

Displaying the images in a gallery forces the viewer to notice not just one person, but many, which solicits the viewer to look beyond the social restraints applied by society and encourages a mutual respect for the subject and what he or she represents.   

His images apply indexical rhetoric which he uses in a persuasive manner, to convey a message to the viewer to notice another generation, in some regard a lost generation.

Repetitions Task 5

Bernd&Hilla Becher
 Cooling Towers.

The Becher intention was to document the industrial landscape of Europe and America. They wanted to photograph the water towers, mine shafts and silos of a disappearing and unappealing industrial past. 


The Becher approach was to record them within a strict code of rules. Photographing the structures as identically as possible using a large format 6x9 camera. Always with a flat grey sky and with a front and profile angle providing a clear objective image of each structure, the structure is always placed central in the frame and separated from its environment. Another thing worth noting is that the Becher always shot without a human being within the frame, humanising an image would alter the rawness of the structures and reduce the brutality of the industrial edifice.


This creates a coherent typology seeing all the structures documented in the same place within a book with multiple images on one page or as a collage with multiple images in a frame.

Bernd&Hilla Becher.
Blast Furnaces.

Once the images are set next to each other we begin to see how the Bechers have succeeded in creating and documenting the vast differences of industrial structures and yet they have ensured that this variety has come together to create the perfect typology of European industrial structures.

Bernd&Hilla Becher
Gas Storage Tanks.

These documentary images by the Bechers are representations of the reality. They cannot by described as simulacra because the Bechers went to such great lengths to ensure that they are a direct a copy as possible without the influence of the environment or from human interaction. 
These images are not a slight or unreal or a superficial likeness or a semblance 
of reality they are the real thing, documented as meticulously as possible.

The Rhetoric of the Image Task 4

Untitled (Cowboy), 1989
Richard Prince (American, born 1949)
Chromogenic print

Richard Prince's images were created for advertising, the main focus of his attention was the Marlboro Man cigarette advertising campaign. This very influential campaign became famous for its macho imagery of the all-American cowboy. These advertisements idolise the rugged nature of this all-American cowboy set against the roughed and untamed landscape of the American west.

Richard Prince
Untitled (Cowboys).
Ektacolor print.

Prince's technique was to take photographs of previous advertisements, inside the magazine or on billboards. He'd then set about reframing the Ad by cropping the image with the aim of creating a more ambiguous meaning. His aim was to get the viewer to reconsider what is real and what isn't. 
Prince obviously realised the power and influence of the advertising industry and in particular the macho idolised all-American man of the Marlboro campaign.


He hoped to to identify were the ad stopped and the man began, separating the perceived reality of the ad campaign of a unattainable ideal, of how smoking the Marlboro brand would make you tougher, more rugged just like the surrounding American west.


By re-shooting the advertisements he changes the intention of the ad's creators; within the act of re-shooting, he weakens their shameless and impossible ideology and equally importantly the power of the photography in which the ad was set. By removing the wide landscape of the ad he reduces its connotations of the great outdoors. 
He creates new meaning forcing the viewer to reconsider the original intention of the ad and all its connotations of personified machoism into something much more subtle, but just as powerful, he raises the question of just how powerful and remote are the dreams sold to us within these extremely influential campaigns.