Posted on

Part 4 – Project 2: Exercise 4

Conclude your work on photography and time by reflecting on the role of photography in the work you’ve just looked at – and similar projects.

In the photography section of the course, we have looked at the following photos/artworks:

It’s About Time

– Photographs from the 1800s that required several minutes exposure time
– Cousin Bichonnade In Flight by Jacques-Henri Lartigue
– Passing Place by Derek Trillo (2006)
– Bullet and Apple by Harold Edgerton (c.1964)
– Multiflash Tennis Serve by Harold Edgerton (1949)
– Jockey on a Galloping Horse by Eadweard Muybridge (1887)
– Benzie Building by Derek Trillo … Read the rest

Posted on

Part 4 – Project 2: P.163 Research Point

The sequential nature of documenting a journey is illustrated by classic ‘road trip’ series such as Paul Graham’s A1 project, Stephen Shore’s American Surfaces, Alec Soth’s Sleeping by the Mississippi and Robert Frank’s The Americans.

Go online and find out more about the bodies of work listed above.

Paul Graham – A1 project

https://www.paulgrahamarchive.com/a1.html
https://vimeo.com/112269814

The A1 project was carried out in 1981 and 1982 by Graham, and was a road trip up and down the A1 (The Great North Road that linked the north and south of England), documenting life in areas around the A1 through photographs. The pictures … Read the rest

Posted on

Part 4 – Project 2: Exercise 3

Family photos are often cited as being the possessions that people would most want to save from a house fire. Why do you think that photographs are such a significant part of our lives? Write down how you feel about photos – or videos – from your family’s past.

I think the reason that people love photographs is that it is so hard to remember things clearly. I remember very little from my childhood, for instance, and although photos don’t really jog memories of my very young years, I do love to see what I was like back then. Some … Read the rest

Posted on

Part 4 – Project 2: Exercise 2

Earlier in Part Four you considered the argument that the ‘mechanical’ nature of photography precludes it from being considered an art.

Does this make photography a medium uniquely suited to portraying time and the passage of time?

I think that everything we have seen so far shows that photography is perfectly suited to capturing time, and can be done so in both a scientific and an artistic way. As an example, Dr Edgerton’s photographs were never meant to be artistic, they were more like experiments. ‘“Don’t make me out to be an artist,” stated Edgerton. “I am an engineer. … Read the rest

Posted on

Photography – Project 2: Exercise 1 – It’s About Time

Look carefully at the images in the course book. Also look up a fourth image, Jacques-Henri Lartigue’s Cousin Bichonnade in Flight online. Make some notes about how each conveys movement. You don’t have to write anything technical; just note down what you feel is going on in each image – and how successful it is. Compare what you’ve written with the commentary.

The first image is Derek Trillo’s Passing Place. The work is of two people walking towards each other on a set of stairs with a multicoloured wall behind them. The figures are a little blurred, so the shutter … Read the rest