Empathy & Sympathy

Empathy

Understanding what others are feeling because you have experienced it yourself or can put yourself in their shoes.

Sympathy

Acknowledging another person's emotional hardships and providing comfort and assurance.

I think that by posting the very definitions of both empathy and sympathy, I am showing further meaning into my project and my beliefs. I really do empathise for the metalworkers when I shoot at the forge, through conversations with them over the last few weeks it has become apparent just how passionate they are about this lifestyle. This post is also relevant to link with the work of August Sander, who's emotional connection to some of his subjects made him to one of the great portrait photographers of his time.

Empathy is a reoccurring theme throughout this video and is one of the main reasons for me coming up with this idea.

Feedback

Feedback is a massive part of my progression as a photographer, I need to be able to give and take it. Throughout this project, I grasped every opportunity to get feedback on my progression at certain points, this enabled people to raise things that I may have missed or let slip. When I was looking at my video for any length of time, I started to become to used to it, I therefor couldn't notice certain aspects of my video needed attention. The feedback also helped me to gather relevant lines of research and through other peoples knowledge, I was able to take note and learn about different photographers who might be of use to me. 

Feedback from Les especially helped me, with his knowledge and professional eye, I was able to see where I was going wrong and correct it or change this. One point in the project which changed my final view and video was when Les pointed out that my work had in fact become an actual documentary, similar to those you see on channel 4. This feedback was very interesting, I knew that that is the look the my video had formed and I embraced this and changed my view according to this. I then looked at the whole project in a different light, I was able to engage more with Phil and the interviewing process. This showed me how useful feedback can be.

Blogging my feedback was a great way to keep track of my progress.

Evaluation

­­­­Throughout this module I have learnt many different transferable skills as well as developing my initial idea to produce a very suitable way of putting across my feelings and beliefs. I initially had two proposals; I chose to focus on the one that I believed I was more passionate about, the metal work brief. My idea has been influenced and has changed somewhat in a positive way, naturally changing the idea that I had initially.

Having worked in the metalwork industry for over 5 years on and off, I really wanted to praise the skilled craftsmen and the techniques that they are still utilizing in small forges around the UK.

As the narrative progressed with my idea, I decided to focus on a certain aspect of metalwork in particular instead of praising the industry as a whole; this seemed more suitable as well as being more manageable. For my first shoot, I went down to the forge and began to take some establishing/ experimental shots. This enabled me to learn about the lighting and best places to set up the camera; this also helped my subject matter to get used to the camera being in this intimate place for them. It was very important that the subject was relaxed and comfortable with being filmed so that I got more impacting and natural video footage, audio and still images.

As previously mentioned, I decided to focus on one aspect of the forge. I thought of the best way of deciding what to focus on and chose to ask the owner of the forge what he thought. The owner of the forge, being a subject in my final moving time based piece was very enthusiastic about a certain piece of machinery, which he had recently acquired. This seemed like the perfect thing to focus my video on. The piece of machinery we chose was a late 1960’s metal working lathe.

In terms of the aesthetics of the video, I decided to research such photographers such as Jasper White and Tom Hunter who I knew had similar looks about their work, this really helped me to realize that everything doesn’t have to be well lit and bright. From this research, I decided to do another shoot, to see what the outcome was after my research into several influential photographers/ videographers. In the second shoot, I also wanted to focus on the audio to go with the final video footage. Initially I had never thought about using a separate audio recording device however once I trawled through the first shoots footage, it became apparent that the audio wasn’t of a high enough quality. Audio was a very important part of the overall meaning of the video as it progressed; it was the engaging and interesting part that coincided with the visual. I wanted the listener to become emotionally engaged with what the craftsman was saying which in turn would help to document my initial idea, the praise of skilled craftsmen and the techniques that they are still utilizing. With this all in mind, I decided to borrow some recording equipment from the media department, this really helped me to separate the audio from the background noise and helped to isolate the information that the subject was telling us. This was a worthwhile thing to do in the end and I believe that it has helped to give the final video more of a professional quality. The research part of the assignment, which ended up being an ongoing part of the project as it progressed, was an interesting time and the photographers and information that I read will stay with me to further inspire and influence my future work.

I wanted to capture the dark, dirty atmosphere that the craftsmen work with in the forge and consciously decided to photograph using the natural light available helping me to portray to the audience exactly how the man in the video see things through his own eyes. The calm humorous vocals in the video are a contrast to the dirty exterior of the machines and the man working them. This contrast is backed up with the passion and knowledge of what the skilled craftsman says, again juxtaposing the dirty decaying machines. One thing that I like about the final video is something that I wanted to incorporate in the final piece from the beginning; this is the humour in the forge. From working in the forge, I got to know the men who worked there and the humour that keeps the team going sometimes. I wanted to really put this across in the final video but didn’t know how to do this. It eventually surfaced when the man in the video, Phil Gannon, brought humour into his speech, as I expected he would. Towards the end of the video, Phil’s flow is disrupted, this is when he starts to talk about how metalworking has changed and how the new computer operated machines work. This is my favourite part of the video because you can really hear the passion and sadness about how the work that they are doing is rapidly declining and how the new machines and techniques are taking over. This links me my belief that many other photographers who document the industrial society are literally just documenting the decline whereas I set out to praise the work that is still being done, as it would have been many hundreds of years ago.

I want to talk about how my video has changed from my initial idea of just a sequence of events that shows the making of a product from the raw material. Around half way though the project, I realised that I was in fact getting involved in the video by asking questions and connecting with the subjects, this is when I realised that the project had become of a documentary style. I was no longer taking a back seat and just recording the series of events. The video became more about what Phil had to say instead of the creation of the product. This completely changed my idea and I am very happy that this happened because it has now opened a new path for my future work. I now know more of what my style is about and I feel much more passionate about my documentary work.

Another thing that I would like to talk about is how I made the final video, using only video footage. I initially wanted to use primarily still images however after the first shoot, the footage that I gathered was extremely engaging and looked similar to the works of Jasper White with a similar lighting to images from Tom Hunter. This was a big change from my initial idea and I believe that this format change has created a more engaging and beautiful documentary.

In terms of me blogging my research, I have been very proactive with my approach, trying to keep up with putting down my ideas and thoughts. I have blogged about relevant photographers, and also about theories and ideas. In the past my blog has been neglected however because I have been really interested in my subject matter, I have found it easier to read around relevant subjects.

Overall I am very pleased with how the project has gone and am grateful for the learning curve that I have been on with my own documentary style, it has really helped to define my practice as a photographer. I have attended 100% of the lectures/ seminars which ahs enabled me to gather the most research and feedback about my project as it progressed. Through thorough research, I was able to focus my own ideas whilst being influenced by other photographers who have done similar projects to that of mine. Another thing that I happy that I have been able to fulfill is that I have made progress on another assignment through this module, I have read more books and have practices with video/ moving image. Both of which are targets from my PDP (personal development plan), which I have wanted to focus on for some time now. The transferable skills that I have learnt in this project will also further define my professional career, I now feel very confident with video and will defiantly continue working on this in the future. Also, editing skills and software skills that I have learnt throughout this assignment will stay with me forever. The final video is better than what I expected and I especially like the passion and emotion within it as well as the humor that I really wanted to incorporate into it. I know now that I will continue to pursue the praise of the metal working society throughout my photographic career and believe that this is a stepping-stone in my path to defining my own documentary style.

Note

I want to talk about how my video has changed from my initial idea of just a sequence of events that shows the making of a product from the raw material. Around half way though the project, I realised that I was in fact getting involved in the video by asking questions and connecting with the subjects, this is when I realised that the project had become of a documentary style. I was no longer taking a back seat and just recording the series of events. The video became more about what Phil had to say instead of the creation of the product. This completely changed my idea and I am very happy that this happened because it has now opened a new path for my future work. I now know more of what my style is about and I feel much more passionate about my documentary work. 

Source Magazine

In my initial briefing notes, I was told about a magazine called Source Magazine, it sounds really great for information about artists. This being something that I have wanted from magazines, but from being a subscriber to The British Journal of Photography for several years, I have never really got this information. I have decided to not include this on this blog but research into this magazine for my other university assignment which focusses on myself as a professional. 

Final Video

Below is a youtube video of my final time based piece. 

Overall I am very pleased with how the project has gone and am grateful for the learning curve that I have been on with my own documentary style, it has really helped to define my practice as a professional. The final video is better than what I expected and I especially like the passion and emotion within it as well as the humor that I really wanted to incorporate into it. I know now that I will continue to pursue the praise of the metal working society throughout my photographic career and believe that this is a stepping-stone in my path to defining my own documentary style.

Change of Idea

I want to talk about how my video has changed from my initial idea of just a sequence of events that shows the making of a product from the raw material. Around half way though the project, I realised that I was in fact getting involved in the video by asking questions and connecting with the subjects, this is when I realised that the project had become of a documentary style. I was no longer taking a back seat and just recording the series of events. The video became more about what Phil had to say instead of the creation of the product. This completely changed my idea and I am very happy that this happened because it has now opened a new path for my future work. I now know more of what my style is about and I feel much more passionate about my documentary work.

Raw Video Footage

Below are a selection of the raw video files that I have taken over several shoots at the forge. From the videos, it is apparent that I have tried many different angles and camera set ups when recording in the forge. The reason being that on my initial trial shoot where I experimented with lighting and such things, I wanted to see which view would be best inorder to portray my ideas most successfully. 

In the end I decided to use low lighting, this helped me to put across to the viewer the darkness in the forge as well as the dirty way of life in this line of work. The calm humorous vocals being a contrast to the dirty exterior, whilst showcasing the craftsman's skills.

                            

Artist Research

Tom Hunter

I was told about this photographer during one of the feedback sessions, I was told that my initial videos looked similar to that of hunters work. This was purely an aesthetical link.

I like how he chooses the deep dark colour, he chooses to take a lot of care lighting his works in a clever way. 

"Hunter photographs the people and places of his immediate community. Woman Reading Possession Order, is part of a series of work he made of a group of squatters living in Hackney. In this photo, Hunter borrows his composition and colours from Vermeer’s A Girl Reading At An Open Window. Like Vermeer, Hunter portrays quiet, everyday scenes which give his ‘outsider’ subjects a visible presence and quiet nobility."- Saatchi Gallery.

The above overview of his work gives a brief insight into his style and reasons behind what he photographs. One thing that I can pull from his work is the connection between himself and the area that he lives in and photographs. This is similar to what I am doing in my video, photographing a local community or in fact my local community.
Below are some of Hunters most well known photographs, along with a few of my photographs by him and also which all of them have the things that I looked at with the lighting in.

August Sander

August Sander, a german photographer most well known for the catalogue of german people which helped to archive "Citizens of the Twentieth Century". With citizens of the twentieth century, Sander wanted to create a ranked order of portraits of the german people, from farmers to members of parliament, he set out to photograph every "type" of person. Sadly, he died before he could finish his idea in the early 1960's.

The thing that I like most about Sanders work is the link to some of the subjects that he had in his photographs. By this I mean that, he was originally a labourer (more specifically a miner). I think that from this, he already had that initial emotional connection to the farmers and other manual labour ways of life. This connection brings me to talk about my reasons for choosing to photograph the forge, I have worked in this industry for years and have a first hand account of the decline of this particular industry, similar yet different to that of August Sander.

It was said that "The theme for the project grew out of the portraits he made of Westerwald farmers, in whom he saw the archetypal contemporary man."- Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).

One thing that I like about Sanders style is the way that he chooses to isolate the subject with a dead pan feel but how he is able to give some indication of who the person is, be this subtle or obvious. In some of his photographs he chooses to show a lot of the background of the sitter while in other photographs he choose to be more subtle and only tell us about the person through their clothing or fashion. Either way, he gives the viewer information about each person which helps to set the scene and create an interesting image. His photographs are truly beautiful. Below are some examples of some of my favourite works from Sander.

My personal favourite and one of his most well known photographs is 'The Three Farmers'. 

"This black and white photograph is a group portrait of three young men portrayed outdoors on a path in a natural setting. They stand behind each other in single file, their bodies facing in the same forward direction perpendicular to the picture plane, their heads looking to their right straight at the camera. All three of them wear suits and hats and gaze with some self-assurance directly at the photographer. The young man on the left has unkempt hair peeking out from his tilted hat, a cigarette dangling nonchalantly from his lips, and holds a wooden cane at an angle to the ground. The central figure is holding a cigarette in his left hand and clasps a cane in the other, while the man on the right and at the front of the group seems rooted to the spot, his cane held straight to the ground echoing his upright posture." - Christian Weikop (The University Of Edinburgh) March 2013 for Tate.

I read up on this iconic image in a book I recently acquired, 50 Photo Icons- Hans- Michael Koetzel. It was in this book that I learnt about Sanders passed and what influenced this photograph. I quote " Sander, who had came from a simple background himself, had a great understanding and appreciation for the area and undoubtedly stuck up a sympathetic relationship with the farmers who lived there." He chose to use only available light (like myself) and also made the sitter feel comfortable.

Jasper White

Jasper White was one of my aesthetic influences, the set of photographs that he produced called "sheds" was about many Australian working mens sheds or man caves as they are also known. There is also a subtle link to the forge within these photographs, in both scenes there is a busy look about them, as soon as you step into the forge your eyes are open with things to look at.

Below are some images from Whites set of photographs.

http://www.jasperwhite.co.uk/


Dusseldorf School

"A group of artists, including Andreas Gursky, Candida Hofer, Thomas Stuth and Thomas Ruff, who studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Dusseldorf Art Academy) in the 1970s and rose to prominence in the 1980s. Responding in part to the concerns of the new topographics, these artists’ works are characterized by a sober, documentary quality, “straight on” (and often expansive) "topographic" views of landscapes, a focus on cityscapes or interior environments, and the minimisation of the human figure. Since the 1990s, aided by new technical capabilities in digital photography and printing, a hallmark of the group’s photographs has been a combination of dizzying detail and monumental size, giving the works an immersive quality and contributing to a blurring of the boundaries between photography and painting."- Artsy.net

The Dusseldorf School has turned out some of my favourite photographers including Bernd and Hilla Becher. A couple who are most well known for their typologies of industrial buildings and structures such as water towers and pit heads. The thing that really stands out for me is the fact that they photographed all of these magnificent structures before many of them were torn down, they documented something similar to of that I am currently doing, part of the industrial world. The standard and strategic layout of photographs, with 3x3 set of images gives an almost political/ governmental feel to the sets of photographs.

Below are some examples of their works. 

Thomas Ruff

"Arguably the most versatile artist of the Dsseldorf School, Thomas Ruff reinvents himself as an artist, both conceptually and aesthetically, with each new body of work. From architectural photography to portraits, from aerial views and cityscapes to color abstractions and internet-derived nudes, Ruff constantly challenges the given meanings of photography. This book presents for the first time his most recent body of work, the so-called "Machine" pictures. In this series, Ruff borrows from the picture archive of a Dsseldorf machine factory, where he discovered glass negatives that had been used for commercial brochures. The artist scanned the negatives and then proceeded to digitally alter their color and size. By freeing these images from their original context and re-processing them, Ruff grants them a pictorial autonomy. Thus, with theMachines series, Ruff not only investigates the history of photography, but also ponders such fundamental questions as how something can appear in a picture, how we perceive pictures, and what role our assumptions about media play."- Caroline Flosdorff and Michael Stübe. Although he was always just questioning the authenticity of a photograph, his subject matters i.e. the machines and lathes that he photographs (or uses from archives) are relavant to my studies at present. Below are some examples of his works.