Summer Project | developing ideas/raw research

The first thing I decided I needed to do after reading the brief was research. I knew I wanted to do something around minority rights or maybe poverty, leaning more towards the former.
The first thing I wanted to research was protest/minority photographers to help me get an image of what shots i wanted to capture in what style, as well as this I wanted to think about what kind of perspective I wanted to capture. I wanted to concentrate on the lgbt community so began googling things like 'protest photographers' 'minority photographers' 'political photographers' 'candid photographers', etc.

something i had been thinking a lot about is when people say 'you dont look gay/trans/etc', because does 'gay' or 'trans' look like? i think a lot of people arent used to, more so trans people, seeing these things in real life and only as on screen with the characters that are constructed are very caricature ish cishet normative way, and not presented realistically, which makes it seem like these people don't exist in real life. So maybe this is why people tend to be surprised, especially when you dont look like the image conjured by TV. I have always wanted to focus my work around minorities, etc and would like to photograph people in normal living in a documentative and normalising sort of way. I then decided that the time i would have the most access to LGBT people would be at pride at the end of August in Manchester.

This then had me thinking of how this would alter my shooting process. i would have to be prepared beforehand to shoot and look out for things on the go. I also thought about how interesting it would be to document the current community and Pride compared to Pride years ago. A couple of different things come to mind like the idea that pride is no longer needed and also the copious amounts of companies jumping on the rainbow themes bandwagon and selling Pride products even though a lot of them give no or next to non of the profits towards any LGBT organisations. there is a difference between showing support and noticing that during the summer is a perfect time to 'join in' and make the £££. Exploiting the community£££ MONEY MONEY MONEYYYYYYYYY?

note:
Id have to go prepared - take pen &paper or use phone notes to write about subjects and take dictophone or use voice recorder on phone?

::::::::::::RESEARCH::::::::::::::

liked this off

https://www.autostraddle.com/22-stunning-queer-photography-projects-showcasing-lgbt-community-diversity-309837/

found this website https://www.widewalls.ch/lgbt-and-photography/the-movement-through-the-lens/

The section about 'The Movement Behind the Lens' was interesting as it spoke about a range of photographers which was what I was looking for.
The first was Wilhelm von Gloeden and I liked this photo in particular.

Another artist mentioned that I looked up was David LaChapelle. I found this interesting guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/nov/21/david-lachapelle-photographer-hawaii-warhol.
He has a glossy pop style that resembles renaissance paintings with the dramatic performativity and he is well-known for the photographs he took of celebrities in the 90s and 2000s. I really would like to look at some of his books, however I can't go to the library which sucks, but I most definitely will when I get back in Farnham. However, I did manage to find some articles and videos that were super interesting.
I liked these two articles:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/nov/21/david-lachapelle-photographer-hawaii-warhol
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/feb/22/david-lachapelle-can-the-king-of-hyper-real-photography-help-heal-the-world
and these videos:

WATCHED THIS LECTURE> FOUND IT SUPER INTERESTING & INSPIRING.

FOUND IT INTERESTING MADE ME THINK ABOUT LOVE & BEAUTY. liked the analogy between trans and mermaids and other mythical creatures. - how will this effect my shooting idea? What do I want to focus on?
1. I want to show 'different sides' of pride
2. also focus on the beauty?
3. Corporative Pride/exploitation of LGBT community.
4. documentation of pride/lgbt people & community. In a WE EXIST kind of way and there's no one way to be trans or gay etc.

THIS RE BROUGHT UP SOMETHING I HAD BEEN THINKING ABOUT A LOT PREVIOUSLY AND HAS BEEN CHILLING IN MY MIND AFTER WATCHING A VIDEO ON ASEXUALITY AND THAT IS THAT LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS/SEXUALITY/INTIMACY/ IS ALL SO FLUID AND COMBINED. WHAT IS MONOGAMY, WHAT IS POLYGAMY ETC??  U CAN LOVE UR FRIENDS ETC. I FEEL RELATIONSHIPS ARE SO MUCH MORE COMPLEX.

 THEN BEGAN THINKING ABOUT GREEK FORMS OF LOVE....
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201606/these-are-the-7-types-love
EROS - sexual and passionate love.
PHILIA - friendship, affection, 'brotherly love'. Aristotle believed that a person can feel this for 3 reasons bc they are useful, pleasant, and/or good.
STORGE (store gae) familial love, natural love. eg between parent and child. fondness born out of familiarity and/or depedency
AGAPE universal love. love for strangers, nature,
LUDUS - playful, uncommitted love. can involve teasing dancing flirting. focus on fun no strings attatched
PRAGMA - practical love. compatabilities, shared goals
PHILAUTIA self love.healthy or unhealthy

then found colour wheel theory of love by John A Lee

 I also found this article from wmagazine which had a few photos that interested me.

I also looked at this article of '20 Famous Photographers Who Deserve Your Attention' and there were 2 that i was particularly interested in.
1. Robert Frank - did a series called the Americans
2. Jay Maisel - doesnt believe in complicating images

Then I found this article on street photographers
It mentioned Henri Cartier-Bresson which intrigued me as I had only previously looked at his portraits. The article said this, which I thought was interesting:

Another photographer the article mentioned was ROBERT DOISNEAU.

This particular image is what drew me to look at him. It has a lot of movement to it like a gust of wind and looks like a freeze frame from a movie.
It looks like a high mm lens has been used and the movement of the scene around the subjects seem to wiz by. It really draws the focal point to the centre, creating this little sort of bubble.
This has caused me to again think about what kind of settings I want to use on my camera - more in particular the shutter speed.
JILL FREEDMAN

I love this Photo! It's Mysterious, Dark, Contrasting, Classy, Shiny.
Freedman is a documentary photographer.










SUSAN MEISELAS
I looked at more of her pieces and I have decided i Love Her !
I love the style of the photos, the ones ive put on here in particular

WILLIAM KLEIN

this first photo was the one used on the article and i found its composition and use of focal layers interesting. He uses wide angle lenses and high grain film & known for having a dreamy, out of focus look.

SAUL LEITER

Saul Leiter was another artist that interested me from the article.
I loved this image with the colour peeking from the gaps in the grey condensation giving the photo a mysterious fogginess to it. the letters on the window are especially interesting.
I think his photos are quite dreary and melancholic, some of them also seem quite teary and i can feel and smell the weather.


I also found this photo which i LOVED. i like the small letterbox shape of the visible image with the dark boxed around it like a doorway or narrow hallway which is then again split by a wall/door frame.


I THEN LOOKED INTO CANDID PHOTOGRAPHY

this article gave some useful insight into shooting candid photography
it suggested to:
- capture social interactions
- moments of solitude
- look for people absorbed in thought or activity



there was a list of documentary photographers on wikipedia that I decided to check out

Jim Goldberg - photographs subcultures and includes text in his pieces often written by his subjects. He often takes photos of his subjects straight on with them right in the frame looking back at him, which made me think of how it would be interesting to take photos of people at pride as there would be a range of different people and outfits etc.

Lee Friedlander - imitated language of urban landscape. found him p. interesting, but nothing that really caught my eye or anything that I thought I could apply to this project, although i did quite like this one:

Joel Meyerowitz - use of colour in his street photos. popular photo of his is at a parade of a black man in a cardigan with a dog and a white man stood near him in a suit. interesting contrast of social positions/groups.

Mary Ellen Mark - street/portrait photography. quite close up framing.

Brassai - photographed paris night life.

Ken Grant - working class life in the liverpool area in the 1980s.

CANDID PHOTOGRAPHY THOUGHTS:
often use of smaller camera - use phone? will b easy to blend in as lots of cameras at pride
GETTING THE SHOTS W/O THE MOMENT RUINED
- USE PHONE. COULD USE in clubs
- from the hip
- long lens

DAZED ARTICLES I FOUND ON LGBT/GENDER

1. HOW PHOTOGRAPHY HAS PROGRESSED IDEAS OF GENDER IDENTITY AND EXPRESSION
"representation has the power to influence ideas, beliefs, behaviours, and ultimately, laws and society around the world."
this!!!!^^^ this is something I have always thought, the power of representation is crazy. I have also been thinking about how crazy it is that the Nazis burned so many books, etc. I dont know if thats really relevant but it blows my mind/makes me sad about how much has disappeared due to this. kinda like medicine and witches and the idea that the whole burning witches thing erased a lot of medical knowledge. kind of comforting to have the internet, also comforting that you cant erase people, like wanna kill or try get rid of a certain group? you cant, gays r still here, transgender people are still here, etc. kind of empowering to think of it this way against the waves of negativity.

'Oliver in a Tutu' by Catherine Opie 2004

PORTRAITS OF LOVE AND DESIRE AND WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY IN POLAND

Krystian Lipiec 2012 Between Us series

Found the above image captivating; the framing is perfect and i love the deep red tone.

Between Us series 2012 Krystian Lipiec

Homosexuality is legal in Poland, however 70% of the population still believe that it is immoral and wrong. I think the photos included in this article are interesting. The people and relationships are normalised and show soft moments.

PRIDE HAS FORGOTTEN IT TRULY RADICAL ROOTS
"Pride has become a profitable party for global corporations with little genuine interest in LGBT rights putting their best rainbow coloured stalls"
This is an interesting perspective/side of pride that the article discusses - something that I may be interested in capturing.


GROWING UP GAY IN A STRICT, ULTRA-ORTHODOX ISRAELI CITY
i found these photos super captivating.

photos by benyamin reich



NEXT STEP:
go through this post and select parts i think inspire this project with ideas & perspectives as well as direction of project.