The first was the need to think far more about why I take photographs than what I take photographs of. This required introspection and a much greater sense of how my work sat within the broader context of photography but also art in general. Secondly, as a Level 2 student I found that I had much greater latitude in what I did, my work was my own. I was not simply following instructions. Although the course title was Landscape and the guide was quite clear about what Landscape was, I turned it on its head and worked entirely within a city, rather than the countryside I was being pointed towards.
An outcome of the decision to focus on the urban landscape was that my work continually skirted the fine line between landscape and social documentary. Indeed, I would argue that today almost all landscape photography contains a comment on humanities impact on the globe. However, it is in the cities that landscape photography addresses social issues. My take on this was that Urban Landscape photography should address where we live, perhaps now with Social Documentary the question becomes how do we live.
My final assignment for the Landscape course, a study of the "Innenhofs", (inner courtyards) of apartment buildings firmly placed my work in the domain of social documentary and provides an ideal bridge to this course.
Looking back to the point 3 years ago when I started my first OCA course I can see a developing maturity in my work and an ability to isolate themes in the world around me. Narrative and context have become critical to how I present my work, in particular I find a need to link my work into the city I live in, Munich. Context is beginning to displace an obsession with technical accuracy, the idea of creating a single outstanding image seems pointless now. I now work serially, each photograph only having meaning as a part of a whole. Whilst the OCA usually asks for 12 images for an assignment, I generally produce 60 in a book form, from which the 12 might be extracted. That does, however, point to a key weakness, as a true believer in the Digital revolution I take far too many photographs, still it could be worse.
Turning now to Social Documentary. I have scanned through the course book and see a challenging series of Assignments, although some of the accompanying projects do a look a little similar to many other courses I have done. Perhaps that is the way of things, learning comes from repeating key exercises, refining skills through repetition, but each time in a new context.
I am currently thinking to do this course a little differently to the others I have tackled so far. The first 3 courses I completed in a serial fashion, finishing projects and then doing assignments. I would plan and execute each assignment individually, with limited linkage between each. Landscape brought some changes to that practice. The assignments were loosely bound by two themes, the city of Munich and the legacy of Munich's past. I spent far more time on the assessed work than before, the Portfolio was completed over roughly 15-20 weekends, Assignment 3 needed 25 separate early morning trips to a local park to produce 8 photographs. Working over long periods of time on very personal projects was the most enjoyable element of studying for the Landscape course. Through this practice I have started to mature as a photographer engaging more closely with my subject and developing an empathy for what I do.
With Social Documentary I plan to continue and intensify this approach to photography. I already have a plan in mind for tackling the assignments in a way that continues my engagement with the city. Rather than treat each project and assignment separately I intend to work them into a single study.
Assignment 1, is the exception to this, it is a distinct piece of work and the one I least look forward to doing - spending a day annoying someone with a camera is not really my style, but hey needs must. Last year I shot two weddings, this year none are planned; pity, they would make a great fly on the wall day in the life of...
The other assignments, however, have great potential to be part of a unified consistent body of work. My subject will be the city of Munich and its people, locals, tourists, the ex-pat community, my neighbours. My goal will be to document a year in Munich's social existence. I have in mind as a goal a book very similar to Robert Frank's "The Americans", perhaps "Die Muenchener".
One of the first "real" photobooks I bought when I signed onto TAOP was "The Americans". At the time I found it very puzzling, it was my first exposure to serious photography. As time passed I kept coming back to this little volume, the images in it gradually taking on new meaning and depth as my understanding of the medium grows. Very much a case of how the background of the reader can affect the reading. As a result of the recent 50th anniversary of the books original publication, many biographical reviews and reprints of his work have become newly available.
Robert Frank changed the way we produce and look at photographs, creating a body of work that at the time was reviled, but rapidly became one of the major Canons of the art. He revealed America in all it's grubby reality, challenging the orthodox view of a rich country built upon the equality of man. He was ironic, witty, critical, revealing, all within a small set of images.
My personal goal will not be to emulate his visual style, but to incorporate his world view into my photographs, I want to look at the people of Munich as he looked at the Americans, in both cases foreigners taking a new look at a familiar social landscape. I cannot predict how this will turn out, although I already think my take will not be to bring Munich or Germany down, but rather to present a positive view of the people that perhaps contradicts the commonly held British stereotype of the Germans. A major part of this work will be to document the seasonal fests, joyful events following a social and religious calendar that bring the people of the city onto the street to celebrate. Every weekend, somewhere in Munich there will be a festival.
A second element to my study will be to document the Irish community in Munich, through the Gaelic sports club, an organization for whom I am gradually becoming the in house photographer. This year the club wants to raise their profile and recruit new members, I am already producing publicity shots for them.
If I was to plan out the course right now, here is how the assignments would look:
- A day in the life of my Irish neighbour and best friend, Niall. I will pick a day on which the Gaelic club or Irish community plans a major event then do a fly on the wall documentary shoot.
- Use the festivals and events of the Summer and Autumn (did anyone mention a small beer festival that we have here in Munich) to produce a series of photos of people getting together and letting their hair down. Munich can seem like the Jubilee only repeated most weekends.
- Robert Frank
- This will be the hardest assignment, but my current goal will be to continually document Munich and it's people over a 6 month period and then pull a coherent set of images with a linking narrative from this set. As mentioned above I want to bring Frank's approach to his subjects to my set, not necessarily his visual style. A key question will be Colour or B&W. With colour I may end up with a Martin Parr set tather than Robert Frank, however, I see Parr's work as a natural progression from Frank.
- This one I will leave until the end of the course, experience will point to an appropriate subject.
OK, it probably will not work out this way, but the key point is that I start this course viewing my work as a single coherent study of the city's population, not a series of individual projects and assignments. I plan a body of work.
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