Tuesday 22 September 2009

Week 16: Context.

An image can be totally manipulated by just one or several words. This entire blog has been manipulating your perception of my images by a scroll of words written by me. I have paired the images with context that roots from the origin of the photograph, this can be seen as either positive or negative in the world of art. I believe it totally depends on the circumstances I.e the photograph. The positive is that the explanation, caption or title of an image defines what the artist wishes the audience to perceive from his/her said image. The negative is that it can destroy the imagination of the audience for that one image. So I leave you with this image, with nothing I quoted by myself...

Dan.

"To be of any use to an artist, photographs must be rooted in a context, in a past; there is no such thing as a context-free photograph, and abstract photography is good for nothing but record covers."

John Stathatos ('A Reading of Peeter Linnap's "Summer 1955"')

Song listening to right now: Black Dog - Led Zeppelin

Thursday 17 September 2009

Week 15: Dedication.

What we understand as dedication is merely human will in a more specific (extreme) form. I will adore a person that is passionate enough to posses this or anybody that has sucessfully executed this.

Daniel



A bagpipe player in the city of Oxford showing power through dedication. A different type of power, an internal and more select power. There are certain signs in this image that show a great indexical and also quite symbolic signification to his lifestyle. Take the sign in the background for example. I spotted this before I took the time to set up the image, and selectively chose to keep part of the word "Friends" in the shot. This man dedicated every song he played to a friend he had lost over his lifetime. Primarily, internal dedication is what we must posess to subsequently gain an external look of power.

Song listening to right now: Me, Myself and I - De La Soul

Tuesday 8 September 2009

Week 14: Contradiction.

My life, in total, will end up being a severe paraprosdokian, in the end I will have to look back on my life to understand the final clause. It is for this reason that I started this life blog project. I will look back over my life and gather up all the information to see why I ended up like I did. My final destination may even contradict the reason for starting this blog.

Contradiction may occur, but at least it won't be an anti climax. Whilst posting this blog acts as the present for the moment, I will look over it in years to come and the immense nostalgic feeling will rush through me in such an awesome way.

Humans observe humans without observing fact.

Fact is true and true is that every human has a self. We look at others without realizing they are viewing the world just the same, in a first-person bubble. On the rare occasion when this is perceived, we contradict our cognitive thoughts by having personal emotions forced onto us such as sympathy, empathy or pity. I now contradict myself by speaking of metacognition in such a way that it seems trivial.

"Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself (I am large, I contain multitudes)."
-Walt Whitman Song of Myself

Dan.




So, no doubt quite a few of you have seen this picture before. It's one of my old ones. This was taken in Golders Green, London. A lot of you will also know that I am Jewish, and respect a lot of different cultures. In the morning there were a group of polish men sat on a bench, drunk and asleep. I took a couple of pictures of them, but found the images quite boring. Later on, when I was just getting in the car to leave, a couple of community support officers walked past and queried them, suddenly one of them woke up and started shouting at the female officer. Just as we drove past I saw an orthodox Jew walk past and look back at them. I quickly took the opportunity to snap the image whilst my father was driving the car.

I like to think this image shows and defines the phrase "Cultural Diversity". The lifestyles contrast yes, but he has observed an event involving three human beings. He observes truth, he notices that he is a completely different human being to the man being questioned. The setting for this was a little coincidental but also very relevant. The shop in the background shows multiple sale signs, the man does not notice this as he is obviously much more distracted by the drama that is happening. This symbolises his connection with human rather than material. He will look back at the youth of today and compare it to his own past.

Song listening to right now: The Bare Necessities - Jungle Book

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Week 13: Pensive.

So last week's post was about me being content with my own lifestyle. This week I have been in deep thought about my final destination (no pun intended to the film, I've never seen any of them) in life. People make decisions for a reason, but they also choose the reason why they make the decisions. I have ended up where I am now due a technical web-like construction of options. My perception of other people's options has also been blurred by my own ignorance and selfish desires. There are certain people I have lost faith in and there are certain people that I have gained faith in, all in the space of one week. This has probably been (quite subtly) one of the most influential weeks of my life. I have sat down and contemplated all the larger choices I have made over the past year, some were definitely wrong and some were obviously right. A subconscious choice brought me to the exact point where I may have totally failed my course at university, but I chose to put that aside and march on. I am glad I did this, and I am glad that I have noticed this.

Thank you for reading.

Dan.

mediumformatedit.jpg

The Arboretum in Nottingham was pretty empty when I took this photograph on the university's Hasselblad 500. I used an Ilford Delta 400 roll of film and this was actually one of the first Black and White medium format shoots I had ever taken. This man didn't really talk to me much but he did tell me his name and where he was born. I will keep these details to myself as I will feel a sense guilt if I exploit him on the internet. He also said that he could sit by the bird cages all day, thinking about his life so far and just watch the world go by. I didn't question him much (unlike the other people I have captured). I think maybe his pensiveness made me rather nervous, maybe he was judging me or maybe he was just thinking "Why would you even take a picture of me?." Either way I will never know, but I'm glad I took this photograph of him. It conveys deep thought and seems timeless to me. If you would like to see more images from this shoot, please have a look at my Facebook page that is linked at the top of this blog.

Song listening to right now: These Eyes - The Guess Who