Henri-Cartier Bresson

Tags

ASSIGNMENT 3, decisive moment, HCB, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Nick Brandt

Henri-Cartier Bresson, was renowned for his Street Photography and the phrase of the ‘Decisive Moment’. So where has the phrase the Decisive Moment come from?

It (the Decisive Moment) is probably the most mentioned and discussed phrase in photography. His work shows glimpses of reality and in geometric patterns. He was obsessed with form, composition and aesthetics of photography. He began in earnest to photograph seriously in the 1930s influenced by the Surrealists. Cartier-Bresson was also an accomplished painter. Cartier-Bresson’s book published in 1947 ‘The Decisive Moment’ the book is divided into two chronological and geographical sections. The first years 1932 to 1947 and comprises of photographs in the west; the second from 1947 to 1952 and mainly in the east.

In Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Brussels, 1932, using a small-format Leica created intrigue and air of mystery with two males facing a cloth barrier one of whom appears to be peeping through, while the other acts as a look out and he gazes uneasily. Why does there appear to be such a look of guilt? There seems to be a respect for authority. Isn’t it the case that whenever a police car follows you and although you have done nothing wrong and committed no offence you feel guilty and you behaviour changes. Yet the police have no interest in your activity, unless you are doing something illegal. I wonder how the facial expressions would look like? Would it be the same as the two gents in 1932?

 

 

The decisive moment, which was at the core of photography for over a century, has been whittled away by technology. Now, on your DSLR you can roll video and (while editing) pluck out a perfectly good quality frame – this makes me push my work further.’ (Bonita Evans, 2016)

In essence Nick Brandt makes a statement that the decisive moment no longer exists because technology no longer allows that to take place. Surely a decisive moment still dictates when to capture that moment although editing removes that whereas with film you cannot simply delete and move on. Brandt says in his article that ‘There’s a part of me that wants to go through the stress, neurosis and paranoia of using film. You don’t have the luxury and temptation (or distraction) to check what you just shot with analogue, so you have to stay utterly focused and in the moment with your subject matter.’ (Bonita Evans, 2016)

Biblography 

Bonita Evans, A. (2016) ‘Hearing Nature’s Cry’, Black+White Photography, September 2016, p. 96.

 

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Assignment 3 – Tutor Formative Feedback

Tags

ALS, ASSIGNMENT 3, Decay, decisive moment, Decline, Formative Feedback, HCB, HDR, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Indecisive moment, Kennedys Disease, Lunatic Asylum, Mental Health, MND, St Augstines Hospital

Overall Comments 

Overall, I thought this assignment submission was an effective and personal take on the ‘decisive moment’. At first, I struggled not with your approach to ‘the decisive moment’, as the indecisive moment is just as valid, but with how your diary entries related to the pictorial content of the pictures. Once I found your website and read through the assignment post everything became much clearer and I thought the work was very effective in communicating an autobiographical ‘decisive moment’. With this in mind I would suggest the key aspect to address between now and assessment is how to present the work so that the links remain absolutely clear. By this I don’t mean the text must be descriptive, but I would suggest finding a way of matching up small segments of text with each picture. These might be written on the prints or printed on the labels, the final method depends on how you want to personalise the work further.

Feedback on assignment 

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity 

Below are some key points I wish to make about your work. The list is not exhaustive but covers what I feel to be the most salient at this stage.

• I’ll admit I felt a bit lost in the work when just looking at the prints and the accompanying text. It was almost as if the text referred to what you wanted to be doing vs the prints looked at your reality, but everything made sense when I found a link to your blog in an old assignment and reviewed the post here: https://mndcanttakemyeyes.wordpress.com/category/assignments/assignment-3/ 
• It was apparent then that ‘Day 1’ doesn’t necessarily equate to print 1, etc, and the work began to fit together more for me as a viewer with no experience of your day to day reality.
• Once I read the online diary alongside the pictures the work came together so I think you will need to consider this when you collate the work for formal assessment. Perhaps longer, diary entry captions on the back of each print? Or text (just a few lines that hit the heart of that day’s entry) under the image on the print might work. As you have your own printer perhaps try a few different approaches and see which works.
• In terms of presentation the prints looked good but you don’t need the plastic inserts. Just a portfolio box of A4 prints with labels on the back is acceptable and appropriate for assessment.

Coursework 

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity 

I see that you weren’t able to complete one of the exercises. This isn’t the end of the world and you should not be penalised for it at assessment. I will forward your comments to the Unit leader and we will think of a compromise for future students. I agree they could be worded better but the first part at least is entirely optional and depending on students still having access to a manual film camera. The second part though does not need to be completed from an elevated position, it is just easier. Your view shown in the window (photograph 5) is actually ideal for the exercise. The exercise is all about understanding how the view can be a multi-layered scene and is designed to encourage students to look at everything with in the frame, rather than just the aspect that caught their eye.

Research 

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis 

I noticed you spent some time looking at Fay Godwin’s work. What you may not know is that Godwin made several bodies of colour work, the most interesting of which were one set looking through greenhouse glass and another of found objects on a beach photographed with a scanner. You can find all of Godwin’s archives on the British Library website.

I see that you include a lot of research into other photographers with the actual assignment but I wonder if these sections might be better separated away and in their own posts within the Research section of your learning log. You can then link to them from within the assignment post. This will then demonstrate very quickly to the assessors the breadth of your wider research into photography.

Learning Log 

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis 

The blog is easy to navigate. My one hesitation is as I mention above, that perhaps you would be best served by dividing the research included within the assignment post into separate posts under the research category.

Suggested reading/viewing 

Context 

Whilst not dealing with physical disability, I think you could do a lot worse than spend some time looking at John Darwell’s ‘A Black Dog came calling’, all about his experiences with depression after the loss of his wife.

PDF – Decisive Moment – Feedback

Reflection

Overall, I am pleased with work on this assigment given the limitations I had. David makes some relevant points in particular  “At first, I struggled not with your approach to ‘the decisive moment’, as the indecisive moment is just as valid, but with how your diary entries related to the pictorial content of the pictures. Once I found your website and read through the assignment post everything became much clearer and I thought the work was very effective in communicating an autobiographical ‘decisive moment’.”

I can see why this could be the case perhaps my labelling of the prints did not necessarily make sense with the text and the suggestion by David, “I would suggest finding a way of matching up small segments of text with each picture. These might be written on the prints or printed on the labels, the final method depends on how you want to personalise the work further.” 

I researched John Darwell’s work as far as I can at the moment as the thesis is currently not avaible to me until I visit Kent University Templeman’s Library. However, I found a e-book with a study of Darwell’s work. I was struck by the similarity to my print submissions. Darwell must have had quite a traumatic time with the death of his wife, which caused his depression. I have to agree with sterotyping that depression is ‘ a black hole’ or ‘darkness’. Depression is not like that or for me personally. I would say it a sense of hopelessness, feeling lost and living at time without a purpose and difficult to be motivated; at times life seems quite normal, whatever that is? But that ‘black dog’ is never far behind snapping at your heels dragging you back to the dark corners of your thoughts and mind and the world looks upside down.

Mental helath is more widely accepted and without the stigmatism that it has had. But I found the images of the decay and abandoned mental health hospital a refelction of today’s NHS crisis and it cannot cope with the demands placed on it. A lack of resources, buildings and mental heath beds. I find it very sad.

A couple of years ago when I was more mobile I visited an old mental health unit that had long since been abandoned. St. Augstine’s hospital had a eerie echo of it’s former use but to me echoed the decay; metophorically representing mental health. It is very easy to slip into the state of chaos and find no way out from the labyrinth of corridors.

I found a couple of articles about the life of St. Augstine’s, which closed in 1993. https://www.kentlive.news/news/nostalgia/gallery/inside-one-kents-most-infamous-980615

The hospital succumb to vandalism, theft and damage and with exposure to the elements felll into decline. The NHS, sold the land and properties and moved to St. Martin’s, Canterbury. I have my own thoughts on the ‘new’ hospital having visited with patients as a Police Officer and I can easily see some of the old victorian buildings falling the same way as St. Augstine’s. It all feels a bit unloved and uncaring when you arrive not exactly a place of rehabiliation and recovery.

Mental Health, is a massive issue with underfunding and the government’s promises to plough extra resources into it. I only hope that we have not gone too far to cope with demands placed on a creeking system.

Big Points

Decay

Main Hall

Nature reclaims

On the recommendation of my tutor I looked at Fay Godwin’s colour work, which it would seem that she turned to later on in her career. Godwin’s colour photographs’ are a total contrast to the more traditional black and white early years. She seems to have focused in minute detail.

Godwin’s Pioneer Glassworks series (1999) produced abstract work of leaves, flower petals shot through a diffused medium such as glass or netting, and mixed with debris and detritus working at close range to the subject.  I found one example in the British Library Prints. (Fay Godwin: Glassworks and Secret Lives, no date)

I now feel I missed an opportunity here that St. Augustine’s was perfect for producing some interesting photography with all the old and ruined parts of the building and infrastructure left behind. Sadly, not a place that I can re-visit as it is now demolished and became very, very unsafe. But Dungeness has a wealth of old fish netting, delopodated fishing huts and old boats, so perhaps this this maybe a project I can start when the warmer weather arrives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Godwin was filmed in ‘Don’t fence me in’ a production by Malachiterthe most fascinating abstract work using a digital scanner and artifacts she found beachcombing and by placing them onto the bed of the scanner producing mysterious, accidental compositions in contrast to her macro photography of tangled beach finds. (Mapleston, 2014)

My tutor suggested, “Once I read the online diary alongside the pictures the work came together so I think you will need to consider this when you collate the work for formal assessment. Perhaps longer, diary entry captions on the back of each print? Or text (just a few lines that hit the heart of that day’s entry) under the image on the print might work. As you have your own printer perhaps try a few different approaches and see which works.”

I gave this a great deal of thought and having looked at Darewell’s work and how it was produced with small captions I felt this enhanced my photographs. It took a little figuring out how to produce the final work. I used a combination of Lightroom and Photoshop to create the final set of images.

I think I worked to literally and that each image had to be in the order of the day I took them, when in fact it works in any order and adding my diary gives more of an insight to each image and as a collection. I am pleased with the final seven photographs and could easily add to this.

 

Biblography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Augustine%27s_Hospital,_Chartham

Fay Godwin: Glassworks and Secret Lives (no date) Warwick Arts Centre. Available at: https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/mead-gallery/previous-exhibitions/1995/fay-godwin-glassworks-and-secret-lives/ (Accessed: 20 February 2018).

http://johndarwell.com/index.php

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OzslDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=john+darwell+a+black+dog+came+calling&source=bl&ots=EdDGV8hJjY&sig=Erlj9QNemjFzS3BQzcsCYG2gqBk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE6svOw9LYAhVMDcAKHc8kB-oQ6AEIajAO#v=onepage&q=john%20darwell%20a%20black%20dog%20came%20calling&f=false

Mapleston, C. (2014) Don’t Fence Me In – Fay Godwin’s Photographic Journey. Available at: https://vimeo.com/88588932 (Accessed: 19 February 2018).

 

 

 

The Routine of Daily Life – Assignment 3

Tags

ASSIGNMENT 3, Bathroom, BBC Modern Times, brain fog, Broken Body, Daily Life, David Hevey, decisive moment, Disability, Disability Rights, disabled access, I am breathing, Kennedys Disease, Mental Health, MNDA, Motor Neurone Disease, Neil Platt, NHS, NIV, Non Invasive Ventilation, part man part machine, Plattitude, prescription drugs, Respiratory Failure, step free access, suicide, Terminal Illness, Without Cure

Assignment 3

Initial Thoughts

I have struggled to kick off this assignment not through laziness or cannot be bothered with my studies but the sheer battle of my disease and the routines that I cannot escape. I am bound to my home, which has had a massive impact on my mental and physical health over the last few months.

To live with a life-long condition and all that entails is bad enough but when it is compounded with a world of isolation and routine, which relies on others to help you wash, get up out bed or do the simpliest of tasks is really depressing.

My road to being independance has taken almost 11 months of my life, that’s one fifth of my diagnosis waiting for a specially adapted wheelchair accessible vehicle. Motabilty awarded me with a £20,000 grant to not only help with my daily life but my BA Photography degree and studies. However, it has been a long, long road and something I could never of foreseen.

It is fair to say I lost my way with the course and Expressing Your Vision when it came to Assignment 3. The never ending battle to research and getting access to a library has been huge and this may sound like a moan but I have found through the journey of the course I am a book person. I do not absorb information from the internet. Perhaps, the fact that my brain is suffering because of my disease has something to do with it. Who knows? I am not a neurologist but merely living with it.

After a call and chat to the OCA office my imagination was sparked and with a new vigor I started work on Assignement 3. My life is mudane, boring and monotonous so why could this not be my ‘Decisive Moment’?

I began with a Mind Map and my thoughts, ideas and research and added to it as I progressed with the assignment.

Decisive Moment Mind Map

Research

Henri Cartier-Bresson and others

Henri-Cartier Bresson, was renowned for his Street Photography and the phrase of the ‘Decisive Moment’. So where has the phrase the Decisive Moment come from?

It (the Decisive Moment) is probably the most mentioned and discussed phrase in photography. His work shows glimpses of reality and in an geometric patterns. He was obsessed with form, composition and aesthetics of photography. He began in ernest to photograph seriously in the 1930s influenced by the Surrealists. Cartier-Bresson was also an accomplished painter. Cartier-Bresson’s book published in 1947 ‘The Decisive Moment’ the book is divided into two chronological and geographical sections. The first years 1932 to 1947 and comprises of photographs in the west; the second from 1947 to 1952 and mainly in the east.

In Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Brussels, 1932, using a small-format Leica created intrigue and air of mystery with two males facing a cloth barrier one of whom appears to be peeping through, while the other acts as a look out and he gazes uneasily. Why does there appear to be such a look of guilt? There seems to be a respect for authority. Isn’t it the case that whenever a police car follows you and although you have done nothing wrong and committed no offence you feel guily and you behaviour changes. Yet the police have no interest in your activity, unless you are doing something illegal. I wonder how the facial expressions would look like? Would it be the same as the two gents in 1932?

© Henri Cartier-Bresson

The decisive moment, which was at the core of photography for over a century, has been whittled away by technology. Now, on your DLSR you can roll video and (while editing) pluck out a perfectly good quality frame – this makes me push my work further.’ (Bonita Evans, 2016)

In essence Nick Brandt makes a statement that the decisive moment no longer exists because technology no longer allows that to take place. Surely a decisive moment still dictates when to capture that moment although editing removes that whereas with film you cannot simply delete and move on. Brandt says in his article that ‘There’s a part of me that wants to go through the stress, neurosis and paranoia of using film. You don’t have the luxury and temptation (or distraction) to check what you just shot with analogue, so you have to stay utterly focused and in the moment with your subject matter.’ (Bonita Evans, 2016)

Meyerowitz, began his photographic career in 1962 inspired by the work of Robert Frank. A street photographer, however, unlike Frank, Walker Evans and HCB he favoured colour prints. That’s not to say he did not produce black and white photographs.

I found a video on his website where he discusses his Leica and why he favoured this camera. Interesting that his early work was an 8×10 as he talks about how the viewfinder is offset as opposed to a DSLR, which means you still have one eye in the frame yet can still see the opportunities with the other that would otherwise be missed.

HCB also talks about framing, composition and geometry but I cannot agree with Meyerowitz entirely in his statement that you are somehow missing part of the story with a DLSR because the other eye is covered by the body.

If I rotate the body to portrait rather than landscape orientation I still have 50% of my view left. While it’s not ideal and restricts my use of a DSLR this tactic could be used in Street Photography.

Provincetown, USA, struck me as a colour version of Evans work but would not have had the same impact if it were not in colour. The vivid hues of the sunset and the clouds lit up by the sunset and the half-light left on the front of the building still able to illuminate the signage. Time here is captured so well with the visual clues and the change in light as the bright fluorescent tubes light up yet we can read clearly the words DAIRY LAND and FOOD in black lettering against the weather boards. That fleeting moment captured.

© Joel Meyerowitz

Eddie Adams, photojournalist photographed the Siagon Chief of Police mercilessly shoot in the head a suspected Vietcong. At that precise moment the trigger was pulled he pressed the shutter. This one act was recorded on camera and was a perfect example of the decisive moment. Adam’s photograph froze a micro-second and monumentalized it, turning it instantly into an iconic moment of great import. (Badger, 2013)

© Eddie Adams

Adams, was in the right place at the right time a moment either way and the scene would have looked different; equally if the framing had changed and it was halfed we would have been

As I searched the internet for other photographers’ who have documented their own lives rather than the conventional Street photography I found an article about Graham MacIndoe. Graham a Scottish photographer living in New York pursuing a professional career but with the pressure of work his life spiralled out of control. He started to use drugs and ended up doing a spell behind bars. https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/graham-macindoe-coming-clean

What I found most interesting that he began to photograph what was happening to him. In his interview he said, I looked at myself and thought ‘Wow – this is how bad I look’. I realised that photographing myself was more relevant than photographing other people. (Fraser, 2017). I have often caught myself looking at my body in the mirror, sitting in a chair or laying in bed and thinking I don’t recognise myself.

Approach

In part my inspiration for this assignment came from Neil Platt’s story and blog ‘Plattitude’.

Neil Platt, was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in his early thirties when he began to lose the use of his legs. This once professional architect was being reduced to nothing more than a withered body and there was nothing that anyone could do to stop it. Motor Neurone Disease was depriving him of his life, his son, his wife. I similarly have watched my life, career and family be devoured by this disease.

In Neil Platt’s documentary, “I am breathing”, which is heartbreaking to watch, but I can relate to. Almost at the beginning it starts with Neil’s Non-Invasive Ventilation (NIV) breathing machine sounding and the day begins with his wife opening the curtains as it does it mine! I would encourage anyone to watch “I am Breathing” to gain an understanding of what life is really like with MND.

Today in the news Neil Conway, who also has Motor Neurone Disease is challenging the right to die. Of course this issue is a contentious one and I have my own thoughts on this particularly living with a variant of MND. I watched the BBC interview and I thought how it may come across that Neil’s life is challenging he seemed to cope all be it with his wife caring for him. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-40615778

It doesn’t show the low points or the as I call it ‘Sod’s Law Sunday’, when it always goes wrong on a Sunday and all the medical professionals you can call in the week are off work.

Unable to do the conventional Street Photography project or any other traditional decisive moments. I decided that to record my day; and at crucial points that are repeated each day but with a change in the light, scenery and time of day from one of my semi-permanent places during the day e.g. my riser recliner armchair, office desk or bed.

I have approached this with a week’s worth of photography and photograph one significant part of my day.

Hopefully, my assignment will explore this and give a glimpse of my daily life.

I look at the same view everyday but the weather changes, the seasons change but still I am looking at the the same view and position each morning, afternoon and evening. I will need to add to the blog as the week progresses so it will be both narrative and pictorial review of my thoughts, feelings and reflect my mood.

 

My veil to a world beyond.

Day 1

Today, I started this assignment with my morning bathroom routine. I am sure that millions of us do this activity everday and without thought or regard and move onto to the next task. However, for me this is a reminder that I am not quite right and I catch a glimpse, a fleeting moment that my muscles are wasting.

My intial thoughts were how would I overcome being on my own and photograph myself doing a sequence of routine and mudane tasks. The answer was quite simple and use time lapse photography. I was able to record each part of my routine.

I pre-focused the lens at the mirror and mounted the camera to a tripod. I used the natural light from the window to illumate the scene. In Lightroom I edited the images converting them to black and white and increasing the contrast.

I have included the contact sheet at the end of the assignment.

Atrophy

Gagging

Pain

Day 2

Today, I am totally shattered a night of pain. The impact is a lethargic body and mind that feels full of brain fog. The easiest tasks are becoming so hard it’s like I am climbing Mount Everest and I haven’t even left base camp.

The bin men came today. Thank god for assisted collections. I heard them, the dogs barked as usual and the gate slammed I know my bins are empty. The same cycle of washing, dressing and eating have all taken place.

Breakfast followed the same as yesterday scrammbled egg for breakfast, lunch swiftly followed pasta again and then I came down with a bump!

The result I MUST stop and rest after lunch and go back to using my NIV. I am now part man, part machine. I’m all topped up with the mornings medication and feel a bit like a drug addict dependent on a cocktail of drugs to get me through another 24 hours.

Tuesday

Part Man, Part Machine

Cocktail anyone?

Day 3

One size fits all?

We are supposed to live an age where disability rights and access have no barriers. Well the reality is somewhat different where access can be a real headache. I have to think to myself before I head out and ask myself a set of questions; Where are the toilets? Does the building have ramped access? Can I park?

My own home is not entirely wheelchair friendly even though I spent a whopping £48,000 on my disabled living extension. The original set of double doors into the rear of my home and not wide enough for a wheelchair. Ramps are essential to getting in and out along with fingerless cycling gloves. I found very quickly that using a wheelchair is can be unforgiving on your knuckles!

Today, I ventured out of my home a rare occurrence these days to visit the GP’s. A simple task for most but my GP’s surgery has only two disabled spaces for the entire surgery and 99% of the time they are occupied by those who are to lazy to walk the extra 10 yards to the front doors or the commuters into London making parking nigh on impossible. Mentally, I asked myself a million and one questions before leaving home as I do each time I leave to go anywhere.

During my research I discovered David Hevey. Hevey, himself suffered from Epilepsy as a child. He is a successful photographer and directed three films for the BBC documentary series Modern Times. The Disabled Century was directed and produced by Hevey.

I watched the three series including an episode ‘Suicidal’. The powerful and moving stories told showed how society perceived disability after post-world war I. The most shocking episode personally was the final and third listening to disabled rights activists, who chained themselves to buses and delayed trains but were challenged by members of the public who asked them why they couldn’t get the bus! Thankfully such behaviour is not tolerated today but I can empathise with the plight. I still have to request assisted travel on trains and notify 24 hours in advance of my travel into London. http://davidhevey.com/viewing/

We held the Para-Olympics in London yet you cannot access South Kensington, High Street Kensington, London Bridge, Stockwell tube stations’ to name but a few using a wheelchair. No step-free access.

We haven’t moved that far on in my opinion and have a long way to go to remove all the barriers.

http://content.tfl.gov.uk/avoiding-stairs-tube-guide.pdf

No Access

Ramps required

Essential items

Locked

Disempowered

Day 4

It feels like a scene out of Oliver and the phrase “Can I have more please?”. The start of another day and with little difference to any other morning this week. Breakfast is always the same with a smoothie but I have to drink it through a straw. This makes me feel like a child.

I cannot tip my head back otherwise it will cause a laryngospasm; this can be quite unsettling when it first happens. It has the sensation of dry drowning; waking from a deep sleep and gasping for air tends to send you into blind panic. When I had my first attack my neurologist didn’t belive me and told me that it was too early in my diagnosis. He was wrong and later conceded that I was suffering from dry drowing.

Then came the referrals to other clinical outpatient appointments to the SLT (Speech and Language Therapist), Dietician and lots of others. The appointments are relentless each week I can attend up to six in a week others I have one or two. It all takes my energy and I am exhausted or in pain, hence up and awake again at some ungodly hour typing my blog. Oramorph is my friend.

This morning my personal assistant Tara made a magnificent breakfast from the MNDA (Motor Neurone Disease Association) cook book. The smoothie was quickly followed by a cup of tea with added thickener and scrammbled egg and salmon. No toast, no cornflakes, weetabix or anything really, really tasty as long as it resembles baby food I can eat it almost. I never feel like saying, “Can I have more please?” Unless it’s me and the camera for a few hours where I can lose myself in another world.

The post arrives and I sink in the chair as I recognise the postmark and style of typeface as yet another NHS letter. I wasn’t surprised when I opened it; another Outpatient Appointment to see my Speech Therapist. This makes the 5th appointment in 3 days. My heart really does sink when will this ever stop!

 

Can I have more please?

Thickened

OPA

Day 5

Saturday is usually one of the busiest days of the week. Today was no exception and my good friend Rod came around to help with the weekly bee inspections and his weekly tuition in Beekeeping.

I would be totally lost without his help and had to give up beekeeping a couple of years ago. My friend and I marvel at the growth of the hives; although in my case the lack of Queen in one of the hives has mean it has descended into chaos!

I find beekeeping such a relaxing hobby and distraction from the normality of daily life. I look forward to seeing how my hives have progressed, what has changed, what is to change and how they will fair from one season to the next.

The orchards are rich and full of apples and pears and a heavy crop to come. The hedgerows are full of blackberries and the seasons seem to be ahead. The bees are storing like mad a sure sign that winter will come early. Nature is far better at predicting the future than we are! Shame that medical science is not as good at prediction.

For reasons of safety I used my iphone to take the photographs of the bees.

Day 6 

Awake half the night in pain not great to almost see every hour from 11pm to 4am. Exhausted I feel asleep after two large doses of Oramorph and I look forward to my appointment on Tuesday for a steroid injection into my hip (bursitis).

The rest of the day is a very quite day with little energy to do anything. I welcome going back to bed at 10pm.

Morning

Midday

Sunset

Bedtime

Day 7 

I wake to bright morning and as I open the bedroom patio doors the breeze gently wafts the voile. I glimpse on the world and what could be the next chapter in my life.

The long awaited day has arrived. After months of wrangling from one consultant to another and one hospital to another I am off to discuss a feeding tube or PEG as it is referred to. This will be a decisive moment in my journey and a pivotal turning point. It will release me from the risk of choking and daily grind of eating and drinking orally unless I desire to.

Post Processing

I used Lightroom CC to edit my workflow making slight global adjustments to exposure, contrast, noise reduction etc., I rated each image from one to five and then coloured the final selection of images.

My screen is calibrated using a ColourMunki Photo, which I also produce ICC profiles for my Canon Pro10 for each photo paper. For the final seven printed photographs I used Permajet Oyster A4, which is lustre paper and I feel suited the final images. That is not say that I would not use one should I need to on other assignments.

I have not considered using an external printing company e.g. DS Colour Labs because I previously worked in the Printing Industry as a pre-press originator and have sufficient knowledge to produce high quality prints.

If I were to display this assignment I would have preferred this to be displayed in book format.

Final Images 

Veil to the world beyond

Atrophy

Breakfast

Medication time

Same view different day

No access

Part Man, Part Machine

Contact Sheets

Biblography 

Badger, G. (2013) The genius of photography: how photography has changed our lives. London: Quadrille.

Bonita Evans, A. (2016) ‘Hearing Nature’s Cry’, Black+White Photography, September 2016, p. 96.

Fraser, G. (2017) ‘Photographer Graham MacIndoe captures his life on drugs’, BBC News, 7 April. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-39531545 (Accessed: 16 July 2017).

Joel Meyerowitz | Contemporary Color Photography | Author of Cape Light (no date) Joel Meyerowitz Photography. Available at: http://www.joelmeyerowitz.com/ (Accessed: 4 July 2017).

http://davidhevey.com/what-david-hevey-does/

http://www.iambreathing.com

http://www.inheritthedust.nickbrandt.com

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/graham-macindoe-coming-clean

 

Project 3 – What matters is to look

Tags

cartier-bresson, decisive moment, L'armour de court

Project 3 ‘What matters is to look’

Watch the Henri Cartier-Bresson documentary ‘L’amour de court’ (‘Just plain love’, 2001) available in five parts onYouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL707C8F898605E0BF

‘L’amour tout court’ is also available on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/106009378 (accessed 26/09/2016).

Write a personal response to the film in the contextual section of your learning log, taking care to reference properly any quotations you use (300–500 words).

 

I think that it’s fair to say that the phrase ‘the Decisive Moment’ has been used over and over again or perhaps misused. After all, the title of the book was in French, Images a la Sauvette, translated may be better read as images on the sly. Cartier-Bresson was convinced that given the right set of parameters; all the right ingredients of geometry, framing, proportion and rhythm come together in perfect balance to create the perfect photograph. The paramount and key point he makes is observation. He questions do we really look before we press the shutter? Do we indeed? In part four Cartier-Bresson is asked, “Can one learn to look?” He replied, “Can one learn to have sex?” (‘Just plain love’, 2001)

It is a basic instinct humans are programmed genetically to have sex, therefore, we look at each other intimately. We pick up on facial clues, body language and gestures when we fall in love. We must then look but do we know or even realise it?

Photography is in the most part instinctive and intuitive without it we are lost and just resort to taking pretty pictures that have no real value or meaning. I think we are all guilty of setting the camera to take hundreds of shots in a matter of seconds and hope that we have that winning image. The truth is we’ve probably missed it between the split seconds of each exposure. Is it better to take one good image than a hundred?

In that one perfect image, which encapsulates the decisive moment there needs to be an exchange of views about a photograph; although editing adding contrast and dynamic range seems permissible to create the final image. Cartier-Bresson took a break from the pressure of producing good photography and took up drawing; this gave pleasure and meaning when he returned to his photography. He owned a Lecia with the shiny parts painted black to enable it to be discreet and an extension of himself. Cartier-Bresson sums up how he is that extension in the boy performing a handstand. What he could not do was stop as none of us can is the aging process. “I am the young man who’s done all the things that took risks, knowing I could not do these things as I grew older.” (‘Just plain love’, 2001) So, Bresson participates in the image almost as if he is the subject despite being an old man.

In Africa he recorded his life, his residence but it was not about recording his life. He was living in the moment; as we do with today’s social media. He captured everyday occurrences including death. However, Bresson would have to wait weeks to see his results from the laboratory.  Why did photograph death? Because we are staring death in the face every day just as am I with my terminal condition and in my eyes mundane events become quite special, unique and there for a split second then gone.

Bibliography

‘L’amour de court’ (‘Just plain love’, 2001) (2001). ARTE France. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL707C8F898605E0BF (Accessed: 14 February 2017).