This is an area that needs more exploration, last weekend was cursory, but that was the point to explore not to examine. In terms of the current assignment this was not so successful a day, the photos I found were more concerned with landscape than people, although as a part of this study landscape is important in helping to define the context that surrounds and influences the people.
This is a photo that would mean little to anyone not living in a city where cycling is a primary form of transport. These are trolleys that attach to the back of bikes into which shopping, pets, or as designed children can be placed. Kids love them, I must admit they look lethal to me. Anyway this line of parked trolleys is suggestive of the waiting for the sun, winter is still dominant. Not so interesting other than as a record shot.
Very typical residential area, high gates and security in a part of town that whilst very fashionable is also rough at the edges. This appealed to me because of the structure, the parallel lines and the depth. It does not contribute much to the current assignment, but does say something about Munich.
At risk of a study of "The Other" I found the juxtaposition of the poster and the shop interesting - it suggests to me that the lifestyle portrayed on the right is the subject of scrutiny. I like this image because it says something about the city, there is an open acceptance and even embrace of alternative lifestyles. Munich is a very liberal and progressive city embedded in the culturally conservative state and deeply catholic state of Bavaria. There is a balance operating here.
More landscape, this time an anything goes men only gay club. Again there is a risk of negative comment here, but somehow it does look seedy and uninviting. Maybe that is the purpose, keep away those who do not approve.
No idea what this was all about. The mattress is made of bronze and draped over a low wall in front of a chapel. I think the statue is representative of the down and outs who hang out in the adjoining cemetery, however, why there is a half burnt new testament next to it is a mystery. Perhaps this works as a metaphor for the uneasy truce between religion and unconventional lifestyles.
Gothic photographs of graveyards are a cliche, but an often visually interesting one. This is one of the oldest cemeteries in Munich, many of the graves are decaying the writing on them slowly fading. The grave furniture is massive and clearly a major investment in the preservation of memory, an investment that is slowly failing.
OK, this is odd, but again a comment on the city. This shop is not an antique gallery, the suit of armor is new and intended to be used. In the UK we have a number of different groups who get together and re-enact history, normally as conflict. The English civil war is a big one, but the Napoleonic wars and WW2 are popular. Re-enacting recent warfare is not an option in Munich, wearing a Nazi uniform here is not an embarrassment committed by the rich and stupid, it is a route to prison. Thus people with a yen for history and wearing costume gravitate towards the high medieval period. This is their shop!
I like people in rows and lines. This would work as part of a bigger study, but not in this one, however, I like the structure. It simply does not say very much.
However, this one is better. There is an ambiguity in the scene created by the plastic window on the tent that obscures the inside. Might work better in the evening, when the light inside would lift some of the gloom.
Another people in rows type of photo, but a better one. There is depth and some animation in this image, plus the contrast of the man drinking alone against the crowded and more convivial background.
Grrrr.... Landscape as social comment. This used to be a wonderful old beer keller, wooden carving, painted walls, surly but efficient staff, inexpensive but marvelously filling food, and a good glass of beer. Now it is a hole in the ground that will become a new gastronomic experience. GRRRRR
This frustrates me and many other people in Munich. They will preserve the curtain wall at the front offering the new building a facade of age, but inside all will be new and more expensive. It truly is a symbol of commercial pressure winning over tradition.
I finish this set with the weekend demo, this time against the Venezuelan government. Every Saturday someone gets a permit to make noise and have their time to protest. I thought these people to be more sincere than most, they cared about their message and were happy to be photographed.
In the response to my essay my tutor made the following comment:
In your blog you refer to images in Frank’s style. What many seem to lack is his immersion in the topic - look back at his study of the Welsh miner! Look again at how you remark on his use of focus to be in the middle distance with material closer to the lens being blurred. This adds depth and brings the viewer in. You work seems pin sharp through out and very ordered in terms of uprights and horizontals. Frank’s work was much more fluid. Look again!This comment is well meaning and informative, but I have a problem. My goal with this assignment is to explore Frank's world view, his methods and his way of presenting his work. What I am trying to avoid is to copy his visual style. Perhaps I am wrong in this, but my goal at present is to further develop my own style, a style that is precise and clean. I do not think I would gain very much by imitation. What I want to learn about is context and narrative, to try and imbue Frank's complexity of vision within a single photograph. I may reject photos that are visually compelling if they do not tell a story that requires some thought on the part of the viewer. This was Frank's powerful contribution to photography in the The Americans and is something I need to explore in my won work.
Come on Shaun - 16 days since your last post....
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