Anyone who has been reading this blog will by now be aware that this has been a very challenging course, one that has stretched me to the limit and tested my commitment. More than once I contemplated simply stepping away from the course, to either start a different path or quit entirely. However, my previous tutor for Landscape told me that I needed to do this course and my respect for his views coupled with the excellent support from my current tutor kept me on path. A few days ago I packaged together the prints, essay, tutor comments, and my responses into a 4 Kg box that just arrived in Barnsley for assessment. Yesterday, I enrolled on Level 3. So this course did not kill me or worse than that cause me to quit the OCA. But, what did it do?
Putting aside the fact that the course is old and lacks the intellectual rigor I need at this stage, the subject matter was a real problem. I do not have a problem photographing people, with or without their consent, however, people increasingly have a problem with me photographing them. Not me specifically, anyone! During Social Documentary I ran right into the fact that society has changed in it's attitude towards photography, and in particular German society. I experienced an increasing sense of hostility towards me, at times dangerously so. Cameras seem to be increasingly seen as a tool of surveillance and threat. Perhaps this stems from the fact that smartphones are the modern imaging instrument of choice. "Real" cameras are used by professionals and what is a professional doing photographing me? In Germany it is illegal to publish a photograph of a person without their written consent. Publish, means any form of dissemination in print or web form. I feel that this prohibition is gradually extending to the idea that the act of photographing someone without their permission is illegal. It isn't. However, it is now a major breach of politeness and even offensive to photograph a person without their permission. This then translates to many taking issue, even violently so to being photographed.
Complying with the project and assignment structure of Social Documentary became progressively more difficult. I solved the problem in Assignment 1 by photographing myself, written permission obtained. In Assignment 2 I mostly photographed drunk people, who in the main did not care, but were also slower than me if offense was taken. By assignment 4 I was growing weary of the hostility and it began to show in my imagery as I became more distant, more voyeuristic, maintaining space between myself and my subjects. Arriving at Assignment 5 I finally solved the problem, stop photographing people, but still describe society.
This was the key learning point from the course, if taking pictures of people is too challenging in a society that values privacy above all else, stop doing it. As a photographer I must work with the zeitgeist of the environment within which I find myself. If Germany prohibits the candid image then make that a part of my work. Either get right into peoples face and work the reaction, risky, but interesting or make absence of people the point. Looking at successful contemporary German photographic artists, none are doing street photography, people are either clearly complicit in the images or they are entirely absent. Gursky's work springs to mind. Even those artists such as Thomas Struth who take images of crowds of people (Gallery work) do it outside Germany!
I live in Germany and must respect German societal norms even if they get in my way. The trick is to work with those norms, to use them to make artistic statements that interest people. Where this brings me as a photographer I am not sure, but it will be a major element of how I approach my final year work, Perhaps this will drive me back towards Landscape, I truly do not know, but this investigation will form one of the first things I plan to do as I start Level 3.
So to conclude Social Documentary, the key learning was to stop taking photographs of people without their permission and if that means no longer photographing people, so be it!
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Looking for Inspiration and rediscovering Art
With assignment 5 now completed, it is time to think a little about where I am, where I have been and where I am going. This post is not a "formal" reflection on the course, rather it reflects upon a very disturbing realization. During the 2 years it took me to complete SocDoc I did not visit a gallery or engage in any way with the broader world of art. I became very inward looking and insular, somehow trapped in a soulless cave of introspection and angst. As I look back on the train wreck that my degree studies have become the lack of engagement with the art world stands out. However, this is something that can be easily fixed and on Friday I started what I hope is a kind of healing process and re-engagement with visual art.
I took a day off and walked across the city to the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich's modern art gallery. Specifically I went to see the following exhibition:
http://www.pinakothek.de/en/kalender/2014-04-02/43330/people-river-landscape
August Sander was an early discovery for me in my study of photography, a man who created a unique body of work that attempted to catalog the German people through a series of portraits that captured the differing professions and classes present in 1920s Germany. He was vilified by the Nazis who destroyed the plates for the book he created and sadly much of his original work was destroyed by an allied bombing raid. However, some original work remains and once again it was a thrilling experience to get close to works of art about which I had read so much.
Munich has a group of 5 art museums, 4 of which are co-located and make up an area called the Kunst Arreal. Each houses a different body of work, generally moving from past to present from museum to museum. For 90 Euros it is possible to get a pass that gets you into any of them, including special exhibits for a period of a year - good value, but only if you go frequently. Well, that is my plan. Next weekend I shall be back as the Brandhorst museum has a major Richard Avedon exhibit. Not exactly my thing, but fabulous to get a chance to see work by a major artist.
Just visiting the Pinakothek der Moderne is a joy, the building is wonderful and the space is always filled with something or another, this time straw bails littered the lawn outside, but made of plastic drinking straws rather than the more traditional material. Hard to do justice in a photo, but these objects supplied colour and humor to the museum entrance.
I am also unable to not take photographs of the fabric of the museum, it has featured in a fair number of courses and assignment submissions.
The museum is predominantly focused on modern art of the 20th century, from paintings and sculpture, through to room sized installations, such as the magical light sculptures below. Created by Dan Flavin, there is something about a sculpture of light that appeals to me as a photographer, I try to capture and describe light, Flavin's work creates it. The work also had a strange affect on the eyes, leaving the room everything was a rose pink, that over a couple of seconds white balanced back to normality. The art had not only impressed with its shape and form but it also changed how my brain interpreted colour, questioning reality and revealing that what we see is merely an interpretation of the mind.
Another key benefit of visiting art galleries is to look at how work is presented, how artists assemble their vision for exhibition. These strangely childlike drawings became more powerful when displayed as a block of images spanning a 10 meter wide wall. Individually they are a little banal, together they are fascinating.
However, the most marvelous discovery from my visit was finding that the museum has changed its hanging policy for its photography collection. Mixed in among the sculptures and paintings were small groups of photographs, the ones below are Lewis Baltz. I always knew that the museum had a strong photograph collection, but not as good as this. I like the fact that they are not poked away in a side gallery, but hung alongside work by Picasso. In doing so the gallery gives equal predominance to photography as a medium and provides a through provoking arrangement.
Among the work was Lee Friedlander:
Boris Michailov
And most surprisingly, Diane Arbus. The photo below has that awkwardness so characteristic of Arbus, people are presented as oddities rather than human beings.
However, the point of the visit was to see original work by August Sander. Below is my personal favorite and a photo so characteristic of his honest and revealing style. The subject confronts the camera and is clearly going about his daily work. The contrast is powerful and the engagement with the subject clearly present.
Accompanying the works by Sanders were photographs by other German artists who have grown up with his influence. Most obvious of all is the work of the Becher's their industrial typologies echoing Sanders catalog of German people. Their approach also echos the work of Sanders, very factual, front on imagery that also finds its power in being hung as a series. Individually these are strong images, but collectively they are more. They invite inspection and comparison.
In the theme of inspiration, work was also present from the Becher's strudents, Thomas Struth
And a huge surprise, Rhien II by Andres Gursky. Rhein II was the topic of my Landscape essay and to find it here was a huge surprise. I knew that Gursky was in the exhibit, but not this piece, still the most valuable photograph (by auction price). Seeing it on a wall and experiencing the immensity of the print finally brought home its value to me. Although at face value a very simple image standing in front of it, it is immersive. It draws you into the landscape and holds the gaze. There is no where to go, I felt as if I was flowing in the space above the river. magical...
However, the exhibit was about Sander and his landscape work, which whilst impressive in its own right did not compare to the series of beautiful portraits. This is a fine example of German farm lads dressed up well for a day in town perhaps. Living here, I can see the echoes of those faces when I am also in the countryside. The photo is very candid and honest.
It was good to re-engage with art once more, Friday reminded me of why I was doing this degree and brought a feeling of euphoria in rediscovery.
The day after was another art experience. Each year in Munich, artists in the Schwabing district open the doors to there workshops and studios, inviting the public to join them and see where they work rather than look at the final product. Heidi and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering from studio to studio. After seeing the work in the gallery this experience further reinforced the sense of wanting to be an artist and a need to strat making my own work once more. Quite what is another story, but I feel I am getting back on track.
I took a day off and walked across the city to the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich's modern art gallery. Specifically I went to see the following exhibition:
http://www.pinakothek.de/en/kalender/2014-04-02/43330/people-river-landscape
August Sander was an early discovery for me in my study of photography, a man who created a unique body of work that attempted to catalog the German people through a series of portraits that captured the differing professions and classes present in 1920s Germany. He was vilified by the Nazis who destroyed the plates for the book he created and sadly much of his original work was destroyed by an allied bombing raid. However, some original work remains and once again it was a thrilling experience to get close to works of art about which I had read so much.
Munich has a group of 5 art museums, 4 of which are co-located and make up an area called the Kunst Arreal. Each houses a different body of work, generally moving from past to present from museum to museum. For 90 Euros it is possible to get a pass that gets you into any of them, including special exhibits for a period of a year - good value, but only if you go frequently. Well, that is my plan. Next weekend I shall be back as the Brandhorst museum has a major Richard Avedon exhibit. Not exactly my thing, but fabulous to get a chance to see work by a major artist.
Just visiting the Pinakothek der Moderne is a joy, the building is wonderful and the space is always filled with something or another, this time straw bails littered the lawn outside, but made of plastic drinking straws rather than the more traditional material. Hard to do justice in a photo, but these objects supplied colour and humor to the museum entrance.
I am also unable to not take photographs of the fabric of the museum, it has featured in a fair number of courses and assignment submissions.
The museum is predominantly focused on modern art of the 20th century, from paintings and sculpture, through to room sized installations, such as the magical light sculptures below. Created by Dan Flavin, there is something about a sculpture of light that appeals to me as a photographer, I try to capture and describe light, Flavin's work creates it. The work also had a strange affect on the eyes, leaving the room everything was a rose pink, that over a couple of seconds white balanced back to normality. The art had not only impressed with its shape and form but it also changed how my brain interpreted colour, questioning reality and revealing that what we see is merely an interpretation of the mind.
Another key benefit of visiting art galleries is to look at how work is presented, how artists assemble their vision for exhibition. These strangely childlike drawings became more powerful when displayed as a block of images spanning a 10 meter wide wall. Individually they are a little banal, together they are fascinating.
However, the most marvelous discovery from my visit was finding that the museum has changed its hanging policy for its photography collection. Mixed in among the sculptures and paintings were small groups of photographs, the ones below are Lewis Baltz. I always knew that the museum had a strong photograph collection, but not as good as this. I like the fact that they are not poked away in a side gallery, but hung alongside work by Picasso. In doing so the gallery gives equal predominance to photography as a medium and provides a through provoking arrangement.
Among the work was Lee Friedlander:
Boris Michailov
And most surprisingly, Diane Arbus. The photo below has that awkwardness so characteristic of Arbus, people are presented as oddities rather than human beings.
However, the point of the visit was to see original work by August Sander. Below is my personal favorite and a photo so characteristic of his honest and revealing style. The subject confronts the camera and is clearly going about his daily work. The contrast is powerful and the engagement with the subject clearly present.
Accompanying the works by Sanders were photographs by other German artists who have grown up with his influence. Most obvious of all is the work of the Becher's their industrial typologies echoing Sanders catalog of German people. Their approach also echos the work of Sanders, very factual, front on imagery that also finds its power in being hung as a series. Individually these are strong images, but collectively they are more. They invite inspection and comparison.
In the theme of inspiration, work was also present from the Becher's strudents, Thomas Struth
Thomas Ruff
And a huge surprise, Rhien II by Andres Gursky. Rhein II was the topic of my Landscape essay and to find it here was a huge surprise. I knew that Gursky was in the exhibit, but not this piece, still the most valuable photograph (by auction price). Seeing it on a wall and experiencing the immensity of the print finally brought home its value to me. Although at face value a very simple image standing in front of it, it is immersive. It draws you into the landscape and holds the gaze. There is no where to go, I felt as if I was flowing in the space above the river. magical...
However, the exhibit was about Sander and his landscape work, which whilst impressive in its own right did not compare to the series of beautiful portraits. This is a fine example of German farm lads dressed up well for a day in town perhaps. Living here, I can see the echoes of those faces when I am also in the countryside. The photo is very candid and honest.
It was good to re-engage with art once more, Friday reminded me of why I was doing this degree and brought a feeling of euphoria in rediscovery.
The day after was another art experience. Each year in Munich, artists in the Schwabing district open the doors to there workshops and studios, inviting the public to join them and see where they work rather than look at the final product. Heidi and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering from studio to studio. After seeing the work in the gallery this experience further reinforced the sense of wanting to be an artist and a need to strat making my own work once more. Quite what is another story, but I feel I am getting back on track.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Assignment 5: Tutor Response
I finally made it, sent my assignment to Simon on the 17th May, left for vacation on the 25th. My course time ran out on the 7th June, at which time I was sitting on a plane returning from the Maldives. This was cutting it too fine for me, but hopefully now my mid-course crisis is over so I can consider Level 2 complete and start turning my thoughts towards enrolling on Level 3.
However, after the experience of hitting the time limit on this course I am not in a hurry to enroll on Level 3, I plan to have a breather over the summer and then embark on the final year in the Autumn. Summer is a very busy time for me work wise, so I do not want to overload again. There is still plenty to do, starting with my response to tutor feedback on the assignment and then preparing for assessment.
This was not an easy assignment, in particular I struggled to develop a conceptual basis for presenting the images, working around German law and the increasing hostility of people towards photographers. My resolution of this problem by working with the law to describe a people without actually presenting the people felt risky. Perhaps the fact that I felt uneasy contributed to making this a better set than it would have been with a more conventional photo-documentary style focusing on people, their interaction and expression. The treatment also aligned with my own feeling of separation from the society I live within. I look at a world of structure not people, I rarely have time to interact, my foray's into the world of the street are generally a rush to grab some food and get back to the mountain of work I face each day. This resulted in a very personal view of the world I live in that at the same time looked distant, I am an observer not a participant.
All in all I was quite concerned about how my tutor would see what it is that I have created. His opening statements suggested that I had made the right decision to go with my own interpretation of the brief:
Presentation was a key question that was posed several times in the comments and relates to the question of adding captions. When I was preparing the photos and the strip image I had given some thought to combining them, at least providing some sort of key that located the individual photographs within the strip. I concluded that this would not work well with the presentation as an assignment, however, in a gallery setting I think it would work well. Below is a rather rudimentary sketch of an exhibition space for the photographs:
The viewer would enter the room and be faced by a wall opposite on which would be a textual narrative of the street and it's people containing a few images that relate to the development of the space, e.g. Google street view as used in my submission. Then on either side of the narrative the two walls could contain the "Street", the strip photo running along each side from North to South as you walk into the room, East on the left and West on the right. The individual photographs could then be located on the wall roughly at the position relative to the strip at which they were taken. For this to work I would need more than the 15 images used in my submission. If exhibited in the locale local people could then add there own photographs to the wall, adding in the people that are absent in my imagery. If they take the photo and exhibit it themselves, they bypass the legal issue. Perhaps a series of "selfies" taken using a polaroid available in the exhibit space which would then be attached to the wall where they live.
This also brings me to the vexed subject of the strip photo and the fact that one image is inverted. I am not alone in this treatment, Ed Ruscha did the same, and I suspect for the same reason. On the strip the photos read from South to North, with the West side at the top and the East at the bottom. This enables the viewer to metaphorically walk along the photograph looking left and right. If I was not to invert the East side, then the photos would not align correctly. The alternate would be to have South to North on the top and North to South on the bottom, then the photos could be correctly aligned. However, in that case I think it might be better to have the photos as two separate objects, as there would be no spatial relation between the top and bottom. I have yet to resolve how I will print and display this image. The OCA specifically states no rolled art work, however, a scroll might be the logical way to present this. I am considering buying some continuous feed paper and creating a single very long image. This will keep me busy for a while.
What pleased me most was a comment that this work showed the ongoing development of my own voice. This is a critical piece of feedback as I have felt that during Social Documentary that I have somewhat lost my way and my photographs no longer reflected my perspective on the world, rather a series of objects designed to meet a brief. That is not a problem in of itself, meeting a brief is key to a commercial approach to photography, however, I am doing this for the art not the money. My own voice is very critical to me. I want my photographs to reflect who I am (good and bad) and to be an outlet for creativity.
I will need to carefully consider how to present this course for assessment, address the fact that I have not completed all the projects and also express what I have learnt and how that will inform my ongoing studies. To conclude, this has been the most satisfying of all the assignments I have undertaken for this course, because I chose to bend the rules ad take a risk with both presentation and content. That is a key lesson and one I will keep in mind...
However, after the experience of hitting the time limit on this course I am not in a hurry to enroll on Level 3, I plan to have a breather over the summer and then embark on the final year in the Autumn. Summer is a very busy time for me work wise, so I do not want to overload again. There is still plenty to do, starting with my response to tutor feedback on the assignment and then preparing for assessment.
This was not an easy assignment, in particular I struggled to develop a conceptual basis for presenting the images, working around German law and the increasing hostility of people towards photographers. My resolution of this problem by working with the law to describe a people without actually presenting the people felt risky. Perhaps the fact that I felt uneasy contributed to making this a better set than it would have been with a more conventional photo-documentary style focusing on people, their interaction and expression. The treatment also aligned with my own feeling of separation from the society I live within. I look at a world of structure not people, I rarely have time to interact, my foray's into the world of the street are generally a rush to grab some food and get back to the mountain of work I face each day. This resulted in a very personal view of the world I live in that at the same time looked distant, I am an observer not a participant.
All in all I was quite concerned about how my tutor would see what it is that I have created. His opening statements suggested that I had made the right decision to go with my own interpretation of the brief:
There were a number of critical issues that Simon raised and I need to address. The first was captions. He was unsure whether the images needed captions or not. I had deliberately avoided the use of captions, trying to tie the images together with a written narrative.. In previous courses and assignments I have always added captions or technical notes to my photographs, this was the first time I have not done that. I still think this is the right decision, each photograph was chosen carefully to contain it's own message, adding a caption risks the viewer reading the text and not the photograph. However, the set still needs a narrative text to link the images together. In a magazine this might be an essay, in a gallery I could envisage a wall of large text telling the story of the street.It’s good to see the realisation of where your interests lie and if nothing else then this module will have been successful in this respect.Your decision to go with the privacy laws and concentrate on making the absence of people a virtue in telling the story of Richard-Strasse is both sensible and successful.You have taken the brief and made it your own. Your images observe and report on the place and done so in a way that goes beyond a straight recording of the physicality to draw attention to the character of the people that inhabit the place.
Presentation was a key question that was posed several times in the comments and relates to the question of adding captions. When I was preparing the photos and the strip image I had given some thought to combining them, at least providing some sort of key that located the individual photographs within the strip. I concluded that this would not work well with the presentation as an assignment, however, in a gallery setting I think it would work well. Below is a rather rudimentary sketch of an exhibition space for the photographs:
The viewer would enter the room and be faced by a wall opposite on which would be a textual narrative of the street and it's people containing a few images that relate to the development of the space, e.g. Google street view as used in my submission. Then on either side of the narrative the two walls could contain the "Street", the strip photo running along each side from North to South as you walk into the room, East on the left and West on the right. The individual photographs could then be located on the wall roughly at the position relative to the strip at which they were taken. For this to work I would need more than the 15 images used in my submission. If exhibited in the locale local people could then add there own photographs to the wall, adding in the people that are absent in my imagery. If they take the photo and exhibit it themselves, they bypass the legal issue. Perhaps a series of "selfies" taken using a polaroid available in the exhibit space which would then be attached to the wall where they live.
This also brings me to the vexed subject of the strip photo and the fact that one image is inverted. I am not alone in this treatment, Ed Ruscha did the same, and I suspect for the same reason. On the strip the photos read from South to North, with the West side at the top and the East at the bottom. This enables the viewer to metaphorically walk along the photograph looking left and right. If I was not to invert the East side, then the photos would not align correctly. The alternate would be to have South to North on the top and North to South on the bottom, then the photos could be correctly aligned. However, in that case I think it might be better to have the photos as two separate objects, as there would be no spatial relation between the top and bottom. I have yet to resolve how I will print and display this image. The OCA specifically states no rolled art work, however, a scroll might be the logical way to present this. I am considering buying some continuous feed paper and creating a single very long image. This will keep me busy for a while.
What pleased me most was a comment that this work showed the ongoing development of my own voice. This is a critical piece of feedback as I have felt that during Social Documentary that I have somewhat lost my way and my photographs no longer reflected my perspective on the world, rather a series of objects designed to meet a brief. That is not a problem in of itself, meeting a brief is key to a commercial approach to photography, however, I am doing this for the art not the money. My own voice is very critical to me. I want my photographs to reflect who I am (good and bad) and to be an outlet for creativity.
I will need to carefully consider how to present this course for assessment, address the fact that I have not completed all the projects and also express what I have learnt and how that will inform my ongoing studies. To conclude, this has been the most satisfying of all the assignments I have undertaken for this course, because I chose to bend the rules ad take a risk with both presentation and content. That is a key lesson and one I will keep in mind...
Assignment 5: Submission Photos
Unlike other assignments, I did not write individually about each image. Instead, my submission document was written in the style of a narrative essay, each comment made to accompany a photograph. This reflected the fact that I wanted the images to work together as a whole and not be treated as individual objects. After all, the assignment name was "Photo Essay". Here is the final set as submitted
Assingment 5: Submission
Rather late, but here is my submission text for Assignment 5:
Introduction
2 years ago I
enrolled on this course following successful completion of the Level 2
Landscape module. I had a choice;
either Social Documentary or Progressing with Digital Photography. At the time the new Level 2 modules were yet
to be released and not wanting a gap in my studies I needed to make a decision
between the two existing options. I
discussed this at length with my tutor from Landscape and followed his very
firm advice that I would learn more from the Social Documentary course than
from PWDP.
The advice was
sound and I have learned a tremendous amount, but it has been hard, very hard! I am not a natural photographer of people, my
leaning is towards structure and abstraction rather than expression and emotion. I have shot weddings, and am a fair
portraitist, but there I have a degree of control and in effect it becomes a study
of the human landscape. I struggle with
spontaneous work, shooting strangers close up, ducking and diving through the
crowd. I can do it, but it takes a huge
effort of will. I prefer to spend time
looking and understanding, returning several times to create a picture that is
slowly taking shape in my mind.
I am also a
solitary person, comfortable in my own company.
I enjoy going out with friends, but I am not a member of any clubs or
societies. My job in Hewlett Packard is
technically demanding and time consuming, 50-60 hour weeks are the norm. I work from home, start when I wake and often
finish an hour or two before I retire for the day. I have little time to socialize. I am not a member of society in the
conventional sense, I go my own way and do my own thing – that thing happens to
be photography. This means few
opportunities to engage with groups making a course that is people centric
harder to engage with than I expected.
I am
effectively left with street photography as my opportunity for photographing
people and here I have walked into the brick wall of German privacy law, simply
put street photography is illegal in Germany.
During my second and third assignments I danced around the problem
essentially ignoring the law. However,
the hostility I encounter has grown over time and recently I have decided that
it is not worth the increasing risk of violence or litigation.
As a result, in
this assignment my subject is not people, rather, I am returning to my own
passion in photography: the urban landscape.
If it is no longer possible to photograph people I will investigate the
environment those people occupy, recording the signs that reflect on society
and describing the spaces that society builds for itself. My goal is to use photography to investigate
and illustrate modern German society. This
aligns to the final assignment in my Landscape course, which was a study of the
“Innenhof”, the hidden spaces inside apartment blocks normally only seen by the
people who live in the surrounding buildings:
By bringing
Social Documentary to a close with a study paralleling my other Level 2 work I
feel I am creating a platform from which I can start to think about Level
3. My biggest learning from this course
is that I am not a people photographer, I am perhaps also not a landscape
photographer, but my definite leaning is towards the topology of modern life
rather than that life itself.
Privacy Law
and the impact on German Photography
Modern Germany
has emerged from a difficult history, suffering totalitarian rule under both
National Socialist and Communist governments.
Both states pried deeply into the personal lives of their citizens
looking for dissent and meting out severe punishment for those it felt posed a
risk to the state. The twitch of a net
curtain was more than a joke., people’s lives could be destroyed by a nosy
neighbour with malicious intent. Partly
during the Nazi era, but extensively under communist rule, the photograph was
used as an instrument of oppression, the Stasi (Staatssicherheit - state
security) maintaining compromising images of people under suspicion. In East
Germany, files were maintained on 6 million out of a total population of 16
million, nearly 1 in 6 of the population acted as an informant.
Understandably,
this has led the modern German state to adopt strict privacy laws. People are entitled to protect their person,
their reputation, and their image. The
right not to be photographed is a matter of law. Following is the law on the rights of people
to their own image:
§ 22 Recht am eigenen Bilde
Bildnisse dürfen nur mit Einwilligung des
Abgebildeten verbreitet oder öffentlich zur Schau gestellt werden. Die
Einwilligung gilt im Zweifel als erteilt, wenn der Abgebildete dafür, daß er
sich abbilden ließ, eine Entlohnung erhielt. Nach dem Tode des Abgebildeten
bedarf es bis zum Ablaufe von 10 Jahren der Einwilligung der Angehörigen des
Abgebildeten. Angehörige im Sinne dieses Gesetzes sind der überlebende Ehegatte
oder Lebenspartner und die Kinder des Abgebildeten und, wenn weder ein Ehegatte
oder Lebenspartner noch Kinder vorhanden sind, die Eltern des Abgebildeten.
§ 23 Ausnahmen zu § 22
(1) Ohne die nach § 22 erforderliche
Einwilligung dürfen verbreitet und zur Schau gestellt werden:
1.
Bildnisse aus dem
Bereiche der Zeitgeschichte;
2.
Bilder, auf denen die
Personen nur als Beiwerk neben einer Landschaft oder sonstigen Örtlichkeit
erscheinen;
3.
Bilder von
Versammlungen, Aufzügen und ähnlichen Vorgängen, an denen die dargestellten
Personen teilgenommen haben;
4.
Bildnisse, die nicht
auf Bestellung angefertigt sind, sofern die Verbreitung oder Schaustellung
einem höheren Interesse der Kunst dient.
(2) Die Befugnis erstreckt sich jedoch
nicht auf eine Verbreitung und Schaustellung, durch die ein berechtigtes
Interesse des Abgebildeten oder, falls dieser verstorben ist, seiner
Angehörigen verletzt wird.
And a mixture
of Google Translate and help from my wife, Heidi (not a literal translation,
but the meaning is correct):
§ 22 Right to their own image
Images may be put on public or widespread
display only with the consent of the person portrayed. If the person is paid
for their image, permission is assumed. For 10 years after the death of the
person portrayed, consent must be obtained from a relative. For purposes of
this Act, the surviving spouse, domestic partner and children of the person
portrayed must be consulted, or if neither a spouse, partner or children are
still present, the parents of the person portrayed.
§ 23 Exceptions to § 22
( 1) Without the required consent , images
may be distributed and showcased if:
1.
The images are from
the realm of contemporary history
2.
People appear only as
an accessory in addition to a landscape or other location
3.
It is a picture of a
meeting or similar event, where the depicted persons have participated
4.
If a person paid for
the image to be made that image may be used in promotion
( 2) Even if permission is granted by a
person since deceased, the family may still prevent publication if the
photographs compromise their reputation.
Whilst it is
not specifically illegal to photograph someone in a public space without their
permission it is considered extremely rude and intrusive. The net is that permission should be sought
before photographing someone, and must be obtained in writing if the photograph
is to be shared in any form or media.
The following Wiki page has a good summary
This has had a
manifest impact of modern German art photography, few if any street
photographers exist here. One such is
Siegfried Hansen (http://www.street-photography-hamburg.siegfried-hansen.de/); this is a
statement from his web site:
“Siegfried
Hansen traces visual compositions from graphics and colours and creates „Street
Photography“ which main points are not humans and faces, but graphic
connections and formal relations. It shows the aesthetics of the coincidence in
a public area, which is full of surprises.”
His work was featured
in the recent Street Photography Now compilation of contemporary artists (P74, Howarth & McLaren, 2010). The pictures included are people, but they
are blurs, their forms hinted at, faces very much obscured.
This
constraint is visible in the work of many German photographers. Candida Höfer’s
work explores Human Spaces, but there are rarely any humans present (Krüger,
2003). Thomas Struth made a series of
photographs in art galleries (Krusztnski et. al., 2010). The photographs taken in Russia and Spain
show people close up, gazing at an art work behind the camera. Those taken in Germany depict people as
distant objects or facing away from the camera.
Where people are the subject of a photograph it is as a gigantic portrait
where the physical size of the photograph changes the person into an object
(Ruff, 2012) or they are depicted as a densely packed swarm of people as
depicted by Andreas Gursky in his almost epic compositions (Galassi, 2001).
Without
permission a photograph of a persons face is valueless as an art object, it
cannot be reproduced, it cannot be shared, it is simply a potential source of
expensive litigation.
Richard-Strauss
Strasse
Instead of
fighting the law, I now choose to work with the law, but make that a part of my
work. As it is illegal to make
photographs of people, then I elect to absent them from my pictures, but make
that absence visible. This assignment is
a visual essay of modern German society through the signs and symbols that
represent the people.
My subject is
a street. One block away from where I
live is Richard-Strauss Strasse, once the path of Bundesstraße 2 R also known
as the Mittlerer Ring, Munich’s inner ring road, the equivalent of Paris’
Peripherique.
Shortly before
moving to our current address work began to displace the Mittlerer Ring about
10 meters downwards. For years we
endured the chaos and noise of a major construction project as the street was
converted from 6 lane highway to a leafy inner city street. However, it was worth it, since then the area
has changed, small shops began to appear, the buildings were renovated and a
new vibrant neighbourhood has emerged.
What used to be a grim dirty place to live is now a joy.
In a sense
this street is very representative of modern Germany, a society still in
transition, still figuring out what it is and where it is going, confident yet
full of angst, modern yet traditional. Richard-Strauss
Strasse is too long and for my purposes I have chosen to focus on the stretch
from Liszt Strasse in the South and Mühlbauer Strasse in the North, roughly
150m long (Yes, I live on the junction of Brahms and Liszt, a fact that greatly
amuses my English friends to the utter confusion of my German friends). This constraint simplifies the assignment,
but also makes it more difficult. I have
less visual material to work with, but more time to work with it. My job never goes away, making a study of
somewhere 5 minutes from home greatly increased the amount of time I could
spend actually taking photographs. The
challenge was to create something that worked as documentary, but was also
visually interesting.
To add
context, this is a Google Street View image of the street during the
construction.
Apart from
helping to illustrate the transition that has taken place this image (Looking
North about half way along the stretch I am studying) shows the sensitivity to
privacy in Germany. Legally there is no
issue in taking photographs of buildings from public spaces, however, Google
was forced to include an opt out in Street View to anyone who objected to their
residence being viewable in the application.
All over Germany these privacy screens appear in Google.
The
Photographs
In common with much of the work I have
done towards this course, my study of Richard-Strauss Strasse has evolved over
a long period of time. The germ of the
idea began two years ago when an exhibit of US photography was held at Munich’s
modern art museum, The Pinakothek der Moderne (http://sclarke-landscape.blogspot.de/2012/03/gallery-visit-pinakothek-der-moderne.html). Amongst
the modern photographers represented was a first edition copy of Ed Ruscha’s “Every
Building on the Sunset Strip” a fold out with a composite photograph showing
every building along the street, published in 1966. Each side of the street was shown on the strip,
one appearing upside down to preserve the direction of the photographs. I found
this fascinating and looked for a copy I could own, lowest price was
$1,700.
A year later I decided to revisit this
idea and create my own strip photograph, of Richard-Strauss Strasse. The renovation had resulted in a two lane
road replacing the previous 6, meaning that there was plenty of space on either
side of the street for a wide sidewalk which with typical German efficiency ran
exactly parallel to the buildings. By
placing my heels on the edge of the pavement and shooting at a constant focal
length I was able to maintain the magnification of the buildings and aspect of
the buildings. Each side comprises 24
individual photographs. I have not tried
to create a photomerge as Andreas Gursky did with his image of the apartment
blocks in Montparnasse, I have adopted more the approach of Ed Ruscha,
accepting discontinuities in the photographs.
This photograph is designed to ask the
viewer to talk a metaphorical walk along the street, to experience the space as
do the people who live there. To cross
the street the picture must be inverted, requiring action from the viewer to
change their view. This photo captures a
moment in time, the weather is warm but overcast, signs point to a forthcoming
election, a few shops are vacant, building work is ongoing, people are going
about their business. This is a simple
portrait of a street, no judgment, simply observation. It stands as a record of a place at a
time. Google Street View with Google.
A year after taking the photographs I
took another look, refined them a little and did a test print on a laser
printer. I was happy with the result and
decided to make this the basis of my final assignment.
For the past
two months I have been taking an hour here and there to return to the street
and start building a set of more detailed images that illustrate on or the
other aspects of German society. Some
are details, others landscape shots taken from an alternate angle to the very
geometric approach taken to the strip photographs.
The assignment
brief did not specify the number of photographs, I have chosen those that work
for me, leading to an additional 15 over and above the 48 photographs in the
composite. I started trying to
incorporate people and managed to obtain a few good images, but it was not
working; this is not a busy place, there was nowhere to hide among a crowd,
every photograph I took was clearly visible to the person being
photographed. I adopted small discrete
micro 4/3 mirrorless cameras but was still too conspicuous. I had to rethink and that is when I adopted
the approach of eliminating the people from the frame. This supplemented the geographic constraint,
further limiting the range of subjects I could choose. I limited the areas I shot in to those
immediately adjacent to the street, using a simple rule that wherever I took a
photograph I must be able to still see the street.
I have
returned to colour, I consider my experiment with B&W to be a success,
however, I am far happier working with a more complete palette. Colour is
important to this set, in particular the greenness of the urban landscape is a
key indicator of social attitudes towards the environment. To that end I have increased the brightness
of the Green and Yellow in the photographs as well as reducing the blue, adding
a little colour contrast. Otherwise I
have tried to be careful with the application of contrast and sharpening. To add continuity to the pictures all retain
the 4:3 aspect ratio of the camera that I used and all are in portrait, they
should be thought of as a series of slides in a drum projector.
Apart from
what to include the sequence was not an easy decision and one I am still not
totally happy with. The photographs are
contextually linked but there is not linear narrative and so no immediately
obvious order for the photographs. The
sequence basically starts with where people live, moves to where they shop,
looks at the signs of regeneration in the area and then gradually starts to add
people back into the frame, first through posters then finally an end shot that
shows real people, but walking away from the camera, their identities still
private. A key shot is the very first,
the names on the apartment door bells, illustrating the social diversity of
Germany, of the 12 names, 5 are clearly not German in origin. This is a diversified community at ease with
itself.
Germany in
2014
So what does
my photo essay reveal about the Germany of 2014 and the people that live
there?
Richard-Strauss
Strasse is not a wealthy street, the apartment blocks, although recently
renovated show their age when looked at close up, a nearby building has 1942 on
the wall above the door. The people here
do not own their properties, they generally rent as do Germans all over. However, there is a sense of pride; it is a
tidy place, it is clean. There is a
little graffiti, but it is prominent by its rarity. Living in a flat provides limited outdoor
space, however, that space is well maintained, balconies become small gardens
and the green surrounding the flats is well maintained with provision for
sitting and enjoying the fresh air; even if the tendency towards modernity can
provide slightly odd looking garden furniture.
Along the
street several shops can be found, on the East side a large entirely organic
supermarket, Basic, occupies a third of the street. Next door Garibaldi a wine merchant
supplements it’s income selling a glass of wine to a few customers at outdoor
seating. On the West side are mostly
small businesses that include a traditional seamstress, an office furniture
shop, and computer component retailer.
Supplementing the shops is a hairdresser, nail parlour and fitness
studio. At one end just across the
street a fruit and vegetable stall sells fresh produce during the summer months
just opposite the steps to the subway station.
The organic supermarket points to a belief in eating quality food, fresh
fruit and vegetables are valued, it is not all Sauerkraut and Wurst. Germans do not shop once a week for
everything they need, they buy a little often ensuring that they have fresh food.
At the South
West corner stands the Hüttenwirt a tiny corner pub selling the best beer and Schnitzel
in the area. I rented the whole place
for my 50th Birthday last December.
On the North West corner a new Italian café has opened making their own
ice cream. Although this is a low rent
neighbourhood, it is one that values quality and convenience. The supermarkets have little or no parking,
if you want to shop bring a rucksack.
Times are changing, though, every so often a large white van from Rewe
Online trundles down the sidewalk to deliver an internet load of food to
someone, advertising delivery until 10pm, 2 hours later than the shops can open
by law.
The lack of
parking for the retail businesses does not hide the fact that Germany is a car
obsessed society. Careful scrutiny will
reveal that most of the cars are made in Germany, people believe in buying
German wherever possible. On the other
hand everywhere you look there are bicycles, cars are for long distances, a few
kilometres travel is a bike ride not a car journey. Using a bike to transport furniture is not
deemed odd, although a bed might be taking that a little far. Garibaldi has cheekily suggested that people
can park on the pavement when picking up wine, their sign offering a rare
example of a German play on words, Einfahrt (entrance) has been supplement with
a W. The fact that the W is in brackets
suggests an insecurity in even this meagre attempt at humour.
The street
does not have an Apotheke (chemist), surprising in a society obsessed to the
point of hypochondria about its health.
Sitting in a draft is almost a form of suicide to hear people talk. This absence is corrected by a helpful sign
pointing to a nearby Apotheke on Barbaross Strasse (another oddity, given the
history of the word). There is an
Apotheke every 200-300m in the city.
Although most
of the post build renovation is nearly complete, building continues and is
evidenced by the presence of a bright blue Portaloo, perched on a rather
precarious slant (the mind boggles).
These blue plastic boxes are all over the city, as far as I can tell
there was no major turn down in building here, I suspect the government
invested in public works to keep people in jobs and maintain crucial skills
during the recession. Almost opposite
across the street one of the shops vacant a year ago is now an Estate Agent. Estate Agents are rare in Germany, the very
presence of this office is a visible sign of the gradual move upmarket of the
neighbourhood. If you look closely,
though, it is temporary, the sign is attached not placed and no attempt has
been made to tidy up the shop front, I feel as if they are still unsure of the
market.
Amongst all
the modernity and change a poster provides a counterbalance, 3 typical Bavarian
men in Lederhosen sit up against a bar.
The language is Bayerische, not German, a dialect few northerners can
understand. The poster points to the tie to tradition, but its placement also
says something about Germany. All along
the street similar utility boxes, probably for electricity or telecoms, have a
space for a poster. These posters are
always for cultural events, never advertising products – fly posting of
concerts does not happen.
It is election
season, in fact it almost always is an election period for something, today it
is the Euro elections, a while ago the city mayor, last year the Bundestag. I
find it rather refreshing that Marxist-Leninism is still alive and well in a
modern wealthy society. Germany is a
pluralist society when it comes to politics, all shades are present and their
views are upheld by society, even the Neo-fascists right to demonstrate is granted,
if not popular. Contrasting with the reds a more typical poster presents Dr.
Gabriele Weishäupl wearing a traditional Dirndl and jewellery that is clearly
targeting the middle class middle aged.
The use of her title on a poster also hints at an element of German
society that stubbornly clings on, a very formal approach to addressing one
another, built into the language with the familiar du and formal Sie for
“you”. Most people in their workplace
still use Herr and Frau to refer to one another. I sometimes feel like I have stepped into Grace
Brothers when I visit a department store.
Altogether I
think this is a society truly at ease with itself, comfortable in its
prosperity, desiring to get along with its neighbours. A little formal, perhaps, and certainly
jealous of its privacy, but a genuinely good place to live.
Learning
In this
assignment I have brought together everything I have learned so far in my
studies with the OCA. I cannot point to
a specific learning point other than the following.
This
assignment brought about an epiphany, the realization that; 1. I dislike
photographing strangers, and 2. that I was going to get punched if I kept on
trying. However, rather than stress over this I have embraced it and included
it within my approach to the photography for this assignment. Social documentary is a study of society not
necessarily individual people. I have
tried to create a portrait of a people using my camera, but without actually
including those people. This is a record
of a place at a time. It risks being
banal, I am sure that some of the photographs are not stunning examples of the
art, but collectively they yield the story of a people in a place.
Bringing
together the thoughts processes that informed my other level 2 course with
those from Social Documentary I think I have established a good place from
which to turn my mind towards the final year studies.
Bibliography
Galassi, P.
(2001) Andreas Gursky, New York: The
Museum of Modern Art
Howarth S.
and McLaren S. (2010), Street Photography
Now, London: Thames and Hudson
Krüger, M.
(2003) Candida Höfer A Monograph,
London: Thames & Hudson
Krusztnski A.,
Bezzola T. amd Lingwood J.(2010), Thomas
Struth Photographs 1978-2010, New York: The Monacelli Press
Ruff, T.
(2012), ‘Thomas Ruff’ exhibition, Munich: Haus der Kunst. 17 Feb – 20 May
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