P e r s o n a l I n v e s t i g a t i o n : S h e i l a S a m
“Photography is the act of ‘fixing time’, not of ‘expressing’ the world. The camera is an inadequate tool for extracting a vision of the world or of beauty” - Daido Moriyama.
Photography is the chance collision between the reality of the world and a fixed image. We either view the world as constantly moving and changing, or still and framed in a photograph, a moment that could never be recreated again. I have never been the type to have a fixed idea, it would never work out for me. For me, the idea of chance is photographing a moment that can never return because in reality, everything is in flux.
Fo my photo book I researched a range of artists such as Luke Fowler and Anouk Kruithof, in order to find what genre of photography I instinctively liked. My first idea was ‘architecture’. I have always been captivated by different kinds of architecture in the city. I took series of photographs of different buildings in the city which inevitably looked touristy. I was dissatisfied with these images so returned to some research. I came across a Japanese photographer, Hiromix Toshikawa. I liked her portraits in relation to their locations. Most of the photographs in ‘HIROMIX’ had neutral tones and colours. Her message in this book is personal and emotive. My photo book ‘Sáng’ (which means ‘bright’ in Vietnamese) was inspired by Hiromix and includes a series of portraits of friends and domestic photographs. This book was quite personal and intimate.
In continuation of my personal investigation, I thought about what kind of photographer I am, starting with the concept of chance. I discovered the notion of ‘happy accidents’, an event that is common to the practice of photography since the camera eye can capture far more information than the human eye or brain can ‘see’. Also, machines like cameras and photographic enlargers can sometimes generate unusual outcomes and it’s up to the artist to work out whether or not s/he wishes to accept them. I became fascinated by Daido Moriyama’s ‘Farewell Photography’ from 1972, a failed attempt to end his relationship to photography. Moriyama sent a pile of misprinted, salvaged and damaged images to his publisher and asked him to publish them in any order. It was meant to be his final photographic gesture but has now become one of the most famous photobooks ever. I watched a short film about Moriyama’s called ‘Exotic City’ in which he describes his attitude to photography. He explains that he relates his photography to his and the viewer’s memories. I became immersed within my culture and took inspiration from Moriyama’s open attitude to the city to become more extrovert in my photography. I usually tend to photograph inside but, for this project, I conducted various of photo shoots out in the city streets and whilst on a journey. I shot, using my phone or DSLR, whatever I found interesting on my journeys. This idea came from Moriyama’s photo book ‘Hunter’ which was inspired by a novelist Jack Kerouac and his book ‘On The Road’ 1957. Moriyama’s book includes a series of landscape photographs that he captured with his intention of “drawing a line and observe Japan by walking on it, a hunter with a camera” - a photographer’s journey.
I drew additional inspiration from photographers such as Sian Davey, a mother who captured the lifestyle of her daughters. I was inspired by the use of locations and portraiture and I was determined to get outside my comfort zone by going out, exploring urban areas and being with close friends and family. With this interest, I discovered the idea of ‘psychogeography’ which is the exploration of urbanised environments, invented by Guy Debord in the 1960s. Psycho-geographers attempt to navigate the city according to their own interests and attractions rather than being told where to go and what to do. They take notice of their surroundings, treating the city as a kind of playground, rather than a massive shopping centre. My personal investigation allowed me to bridge a range of ideas and focus my questions about what kind of photographer I am. Starting with not having a clue what I was instinctively interested in, I now became more aware of what I like to capture in my surroundings. In total, I conducted 6 different photo shoots on bus journeys and walks through the city.
Having looked at a lot of East Asian photographers’ work, I felt re-connected to my Asian roots and made series of photographs at the Moon Festival in Chinatown, which is a traditional celebration at the end of autumn for Chinese and Vietnamese people. I became really interested in Asian portraiture and symbolism. I captured strangers or close friends and Asian typography. I was also intrigued by the abstract qualities of artificial lights. I conducted another photoshoot at ‘God’s own Junkyard’ a cafe/gallery, focusing on the combination of light and typography.
I had rarely experimented with my photographs and was a little nervous about the unpredictable outcome. I wanted to discover a new experience of manipulating my photographs. I wanted to manipulate my images physically. This lead me to create overprinted photocopies of my images using single colours such as cyan and magenta. The original images were placed randomly on the copy bed and the images appeared overlapping unpredictably on sugar paper. Some of the outcomes turned were successfully abstract. The original images were still legible but in new accidental arrangements. I found this process really liberating.
I found it difficult to select photographs. I have always struggled with deciding which images go well together and which don’t, especially for the large range of photographs I took during this project. It became gradually harder to cut down photos. Thus, in order to gain advice and assistance, I conducted a collaborative activity among my peers. I began this by printing A5 photographs of my photocopies, mounting them on board and displayed on a shelf. I asked individuals to plan a sequence and place the cards on the shelf in under two minutes, in any order they desired. This was a really interesting experience as I definitely developed my sequencing skills and it was fascinating to see others organising a sequence using their own instincts. Some were quite hesitant and others acted rationally. I have never done anything collaborative before so it was definitely a new experience. Seven individuals successfully created a sequence using the cards. I wanted to create a more abstract outcome, therefore, I took close-up photographs of each sequence. These new diptychs were really successful, revealing the decisions people had made to place certain images side by side.
I was keen to experiment with projecting my images inspired by the slide show of Moriyama’s images at the Tate. I created a video with a tracking shot of selected photographs in a sequence. After my collaborative sequencing activity, this became an easier practical skill for me. I was interested in the line running down the centre of my re-photographed cards. I created the film using Adobe Premiere Pro. Initially, I was going to film it physically but the photographs weren’t as clear as the digital ones, thus I decided to create the video digitally. I am really pleased with this outcome because the pace of the movement in the video was perfect.
I have also included the shelf and mounted photographs of my photocopies as another alternative outcome. I began to think about the idea of an installation combining a range of outcomes. I decided to print some of the diptychs A3. I intended these images to overlap the film projection. However, during testing I did not feel that the overlapping projection worked because the photographs in the video were too detailed and it was hard to identify much about the mounted photographs. Alternatively, I decided to separate all the outcomes in their own sections yet depict it all together as a final installation.
Overall, I am very pleased with my final outcome. I encountered difficulties to get to the final stage and I am pleased that I was able to keep experimenting until I was happy with the idea and the resulting installation. With the advice of my peers I was able to narrow down and sequence my photographs which has always been a challenge for me. I have definitely developed a really good understanding of the threshold concepts especially 4, 5 and 6. During this investigation I have expanded my practice to include street photography and portraiture, moving away from the stylised images of buildings I made at the start of the course. Reading about the PROVOKE photographers most definitely gave me an enthusiasm to take risks and become a more extrovert photographer. This personal investigation became a fascination. The more I explored, the deeper I got, the more I wanted to photograph and have more potential outcomes. This became a challenge because it meant I generated a large number of photographs.
I have been provoked, learned a lot and enjoyed every minute.
b i b l i o g r a p h y
PHOTOGRAPHERS Daido Moriyama Hicham Benohoud John Maclean Luke Fowler Mike Terry Nick Waplington Peter Fraser Sian Davey Yoshikawa Hiromi BOOKS Broomberg, Adam and Chanarin, Oliver - 'Humans & other Animals' Clavarino, Federico - 'The Castle' Davey, Sian - 'Looking For Alice' Fowler, Luke - 'Two Frame Films' Fraser, Peter - 'Two Blue Buckets' Hiromi, Yoshikawa - 'Hiromix' Kruithof, Anouk - 'The Bungalow' Maclean, John - 'Two and Two' Mikhailov, Boris - 'diary' Moriyama, Daido - 'Farewell photography, 1972 PROVOKE Stig, Martine - 'Noir' Taki, Kōji and Nakahira, Takuma and Takanashi, Yutaka and Okada, Takahiko - 'THE PROVOKE' Waplington, Nick - 'The Indecisive Moment' Webb, Alex - 'From the Sunshine State', Xoubanova, Antonio - 'Xoubanova' YOUTUBE Daido Moriyama – In Pictures (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foWAs3V_lkg) PHOTOBOOK BRISTOL 2014 - THE FUTURE OF PHOTOBOOKS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBBip77mT8w) PLACES + FACES DROP (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huArvYw51mw) Powers of Ten™ (1977) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0) The History of Cutting - The Soviet Theory of Montage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYedfenQ_Mw) WEBSITE/ARTICLES Extract, Gerry Badger, Eventually, Everything, Connects, in Peter Fraser, Nazraeli Photograph, Nazraeli Press, USA, 2006 Website, Fw.Books, Daria Tuminas, Martine Stig (https://fw-books.nl/product/martine-stig-noir/#largeimg) Website, PhotoPedagogy, Threshold Concepts (http://www.photopedagogy.com/threshold-concepts1.html) Website, TATE, Daido Moriyama, Exotic City (http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/daido-moriyama-erotic-city)