(Jamie Livinston)
(My own work)
The first image is by the photographer Jamie Livingston and depicts an anonymous subject, known to be Livingston himself due to the subject matter and nature of the project, surrounded by his medication. There is pen drawn on the image to fill in details missed due to over exposure but also to fill in details to an audience who might not understand the purpose of the medicine and the context of the photograph. The notes on the photograph create a naive almost child-like atmosphere through the drawing to create a more light-hearted interpretation of the difficulty of facing cancer; the doodles convey the messages "chemotherapy dispose of properly" and "2nd cycle". More explicitly, the polaroid conveys a subject who is positioned on the outer edge of the image and has his identity constructed, instead, through the objects on the table which are medicine bottles and pills. There is pen physical experimentation on the photograph to fill in area of the image that became too over exposed. Contextually, this photograph was captured in Livingston's final year and is only a month prior to his death. The photograph shows the endless fight and hope and courage that the photographer conveyed throughout his life and later his death.
My photograph is depicting a singular subject composed centrally in relation to the rule of thirds grid and was captured using the medium of polaroid photography. I asked my subject to physically manipulated this photograph using pens to tell something about themselves; this subject answered the prompt "Why did you choose this design?" by saying "I feel a prisoner in my job. I would love to retire and play golf and go fishing all day!". The arrows worn on the uniform is used to connote a traditional form of prison attire where subject wore grey pyjamas with upwards facing arrows whilst the thought bubbles show the hidden hopes and dreams of the subject through iconic symbols. In relation to image denotations, the medium is a polaroid photograph which brings an element of nostalgia and the singular subject was composed in a way to mimic the compositions of Julius D High in that the subject was allowed to pose themselves however they wished.
The similarities between Livingston's work and my own can be seen in both the technique and the concept. Technically, both above photographs utilise polaroids and the post-production physical experimentation ideas of using pen to manipulate the photograph. In reference to conceptual similarities is the fact that Livingstons' entire project was a documentary of his life and the people in it which therefore means he, either deliberately or subconsciously. studies self-identity and the constriction of it. I also decided to study identity through a series of connected images and therefore there is a similarity in that reason for creating the final images. Despite this, there are also some differences. Two major differences being the technique of lighting and composition; the lighting in Livingston's was over exposed whilst mine was possibly under exposed due to limited camera settings or instead as a result of scanning the polaroid in. The other difference of composition is that my work employs ideas of composition relating to Thomas Ruff and his 'portrait' composition instead of Livingston's layout in the above analysed image although that layout may not have been intentional as the photograph is a self portrait which can be difficult to capture when using a polaroid.
No comments:
Post a Comment