Brief
Do your own research into some of the photographers mentioned in this project.
Look back at your personal archive of photography and try to find a photograph that could be used to illustrate one of the aesthetic codes discussed in Project 2. Whether or not you had a similar idea when you took the photograph isn’t important; find a photo with a depth of field that ‘fits’ the code you’ve selected. The ability of photographs to adapt to a range of usages is something we’ll return to later in the course.
Add the shot to your learning log and include a short caption describing how you’ve re-imagined your photograph.
Reading the suggested examples, I realised I hadn’t thought about the different styles as being aesthetic codes, but it does help to make sense of them, and suggests when to use them to make a “statement”.
The title “Panem et Circenses”, of the series by Gianluca Cosci, translates as bread and circuses : sustenance and entertainment provided by government to appease public discontent. At first I don’t think I really understood, and indeed Gianluca himself states “I think my work has a certain political atmosphere, even though, perhaps, it is not immediately detectable”. He also comments: “Often one is forced to have only restricted views” (Gianluca Cosci, 2006) which seems to equate to his use of a wide aperture restricting the view itself. I really liked some of the images and find the the things around us that go un-noticed, and taken for granted intriguing.
One approach I always try to take when viewing images is to try and look at them before reading any titles, explantations or reviews. I believe this helps me to get a much more personal idea of an image. I did this when looking at Mona Kuhn’s Evidence series and I was immediately reminded of the Portugese film Sunburn. I searched out some stills from the film and they do use a similar aesthetic code in order to convey a message of tension. Both the film and the Kuhns series are described using similar words:
A review from Cineuropa by Vladan Petkovic (2018) describes the film as: “Portuguese filmmaker Vicente Alves do Ó’s fourth feature is a drama involving four characters bristling with tension because of the unexpected return of an old friend and lover”.
In an excerpt from a forward by Gordon Baldwin (n.d) of Mona Kuhn’s Evidence series, he uses the phrase: “Psychological tensions presumably resulting from their interactions with each other”.
For my image below, I chose a wide aperture to make sure the cheetahs stood out from the background. I was aware at the time of shooting that the one in the background would be blurred along with the bushes and trees but I did think it might make a nice composition. The eye is drawn to the cheetah in the foreground, then wanders over the rest of the image and eventualy to the second cheetah who is blending in nicely. He looks like he has been sent to the naughty corner! There are lots of ways this image could be interpreted but without doubt the cheetah in the foreground is the focus of the image. The one in the background however, once noticed, could fire the viewers imagination and bring a whole new narrative to the scene.
“In the dog house” 400.00mm, 1/500sec, f/5.6, ISO 800
Bibliography
Mona Kuhn (n.d) Available from:https://www.monakuhn.com/portfolio/works/ [Accessed 1st July 2019]
The Open Reel (n.d) Available from: https://www.theopenreel.com/portfolio-item/sunburn/ [Accessed 8th July 2019]
Vladan Petkovic (2018) Available from: https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/364467/ [Accessed 4th July 2019]
OCAPhotography 