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musings on the photographic experiences of keith greenough
Browsing All Posts filed under »photographers«
The Portrait Photography as Stage Kunsthalle Wien 2009
I have been gathering together more thoughts on influences to my thinking on photographic portraiture. This has involved re-reading some of the books I’ve gathered along the way during the Advanced course. The Portrait Photography As Stage is the book associated with an exhibition of the same name held at the Kunsthalle in Viena in 2009 […]
Taylor Wessing Portrait Award 2012
March 8, 2013
I have been to the Taylor Wessing Portrait Award Exhibition each year from the last five years and have always found the experience interesting and intriguing. I believe that my decision to work in the genre of portraiture for my OCA Advanced course may well have been influenced by my enjoyment of this event. This […]
Tom Hunter Study Visit
March 3, 2013
About 25 students from the OCA had the opportunity yesterday to listen to Tom Hunter speak about his work and to ask him questions. The event was organised by OCA tutor Sharon Boothroyd. I was one of the lucky few to go along. Tom gave a fairly long presentation about his work. He started with […]
Roni Horn
February 25, 2013
Roni Horn is an American artist who works in a range of media including photography. Her photography has relevance to my own because she makes frequent use of multiple images of her subjects to explore issues of personal identity and how this is (or is not) represented by the photographic portrait. In You are the Weather Horn’s […]
Bettina von Zwehl
February 24, 2013
I discovered Bettina von Zwehl’s work late in my exploration of ‘Disarming the Pose’, whilst investigating the question of how long exposure times inhibit self conscious posing by the photographic portrait subject.. It is a pity I didn’t ‘discover’ her earlier as much of her photography is highly relevant to my own work. Von Zwehl has […]
Lee Friedlander
February 22, 2013
I wanted Uncle Vern standing by his new car (a Hudson) on a clear day. I got him and the car. I also got a bit of Aunt Mary’s laundry and Beau Jack, the dog, peeing on the fence, and a row of potted tuberous begonias on the porch and seventy-eight trees and a million […]
Paul Graham
February 18, 2013
Paul Graham’s Television Portraits was another reference for my Urban Artists at Work project. I have commented on this previously here. Graham’s influence on my work has however been much more profound. Graham is a photographer who is impossible to pigeonhole. He is perhaps Britain’s most revered art photographer, but his work has extended to documentary, portraiture and […]
Broomberg and Chanarin
February 17, 2013
I came across Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s Trust (Broomberg & Chanarin 2000) whilst researching reference sources for my Urban Artists at Work series. Trust is relevant to my own work as it is an investigation into ‘absorption’. It is a series of photographs of people emersed in various activities such as video games. I have posted a review […]
Elina Brotherus
February 1, 2013
I first came across Elina Brotherus’s work when I was researching photographic self portraiture for my I am an Ironman series. Brotherus’s work is well documented on her website (http://www.elinabrotherus.com/news/). She has also recently published a ‘retrospective’ monograph of her work (Brotherus 2012). Much of Brotherus’s early work was made at times when she was going through periods […]
Rineke Dijkstra
January 31, 2013
I have made several previous posts about Rineke Dijkstra – a photographer who has greatly influenced my approach to portraiture. These posts are listed here. Dijkstra is a contemporary Dutch portrait photographer who works with the format of the photographic series. This approach creates opportunities for typological observation, adding to the fascination of her portraits. Her style […]
Chuck Close – A Couple of Ways of Doing Something
January 30, 2013
I have just come across some work done by Chuck Close and modern day daguerrotype expert Jerry Spagnoli. They teamed up to photograph many artist-friends with Gregory Crewdson, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman amongst them. The resulting daguerrotype portraits are fascinating. The daguerrotype portraits are recorded on polished metal sheets and are quite small at 8×6 inches. […]
Philip Lorca diCorcia
January 27, 2013
Philip Lorca DiCorcia was a reference for my Museums work. Specifically I quoted his Streetworks and Heads series (Simpson 2007, pp 46-63) , both of which are candid portrait series shot in the streets. DiCorcia work stands out from most other candid street portraiture because he used remote flash guns to illuminate and isolate his subjects. The Heads portraits […]
Seduced by Art
January 25, 2013
I made it to the National Gallery’s ‘Seduced by Art’ exhibition in its last few days. I am very glad I did. It gave me much food for thought. The exhibition had pretty mixed reviews and seemed to unearth old prejudices about the status of photography as art. The National Gallery is clearly hallowed ground. […]
Tom Hunter
January 14, 2013
Tom Hunter is a British photographer whose work I referenced for my Markets Assignment (see here). He had produced a series of group portraits of local traders/shopkeepers in Hackney, Trading Places which was relevant to my work. Hunter’s work centres on his local environment of Hackney. In his essay which prefaces his new book The Way Home he […]
Thoughts on the cultural significance of landscape
January 14, 2013
I have yet to enrol for Photography Your Own Portfolio which would be my last module on the OCA degree course. I expect to do so in a few months time and hope to complete the course by the middle of next year. Through research and reading I’ve been gathering ideas which could be of […]
Walker Evans
January 11, 2013
Walker Evans was one of my key references for my Museum project. In my supporting text for this work I commented on Evans as follows: “In the late 1930s Walker Evans made candid portraits of people on the New York subway. He later said that the Subway portraits were “[his] idea of what a portrait […]
Influences – 10 key photographers
January 10, 2013
Following on from the last post I have been reflecting on which photographers have most influenced my work since I began the Advanced course just over a year ago. I have identified 10 photographers who have been very important to my development. I want to make sure that my blog properly reflects my thoughts these […]
Developing my Reflective Account
January 10, 2013
For my final assessment submission for the OCA Advanced Photography Course I need to submit a Reflective Account drawn from my learning log. The idea is to present my thoughts of what I have learned throughout the course. I have given this some thought and feel that I need to plan the structure of this […]
Portraits in the Landscape
January 9, 2013
At the beginning of February I am going on a photographic workshop in Scotland. The leaders of the workshop are Joe Cornish, David Ward, Eddie Ephraums and Adrian Hollister. I attended the workshop last year and thoroughly enjoyed myself. A particular highlight was learning about book production from Eddie who is a publisher – we […]
Assignment 6: Ironman Family – Submission and Feedback
January 7, 2013
Just before Xmas, I completed my selections of photographs for this long standing project, prepared my accompanying text and sent these off to Jesse Alexander my tutor for his feedback. “Ironman Family” is a series of portraits of friends who compete in the endurance sport Ironman Triathlon. My idea was to document this group of people […]
Long Exposure Portraits – Update
December 16, 2012
In my last post on this project, here, I had outlined an approach for making pairs of portrait photographs of a group of Rotary colleagues where the exposures in each were to be around 45 seconds and the diptych presentation would allow the viewer to compare the two poses. The idea was to explore Walter […]
Long Exposure Portraits – Further thinking
November 10, 2012
I have been making some excellent progress with this project. I have now signed up 12 ‘models’ from my Rotary Club. I will be scheduling sittings in my home studio in four/five afternoon sessions over the next four weeks. I hope to finalise the schedule by the end of next week. I really only need […]
Brighton Biennial
November 9, 2012
Last weekend I attended the OCA study visit to the Brighton Biennial Photo Festival. The event was very well attended with around 25 students, four tutors and Gareth. The theme for this year’s Festival was Agents of Change: Photography and the Politics of Space. The website for the event is here. University of Sussex Gallery We started […]
Assignment 6: Ironman Family
November 8, 2012
I have once again revisited my Artist’s Statement for my portraits series of friends who compete in ironman triathlon. I have been progressing the work throughout the last year and have now made around 24 portraits. I expect to make a few more before the end of the course but essentially the work now on […]
Pinhole Self Portraits
October 31, 2012
I am being very indecisive about the long exposure portrait project! I have now decided to pursue two avenues in parallel. The first will be the portraits of my Rotary colleagues in the style of David Octavius Hill as outlined in the last post. The second is the series of long exposure self portraits which […]
Paul Graham – Television Portraits
October 25, 2012
Paul Graham is a highly influential British photographer whose work spans a wide range of work. His work has never settled into a niche. He has always seemed be able to move on. His books A1 – the Great North Road, Troubled Land, and New Europe are likely to be significant influences on my East End […]
Lee Friedlander – At Work
October 19, 2012
Born in 1934 Lee Friedlander has been a prolific photographer over the years. He is best known for his photographic documentation of the American social landscape. He has tended to work in long run series, leading to the eventual publication of a book. At Work is one such series. The book lee friedlander at work is a […]
Broomberg and Chanarin – Trust
October 18, 2012
I have decided to document on this blog the work of photographers who have influenced my own work, as evidenced by my assignments. My intention is to be able to bring these together into my Critical Review text document later in the year. The subject of my next assignments is Urban Artists at Work. This […]
Long Exposure Portraits of Photographers – David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson
September 23, 2012
The Scottish painter and arts activist David Octavius Hill formed Hill & Adamson studio with the engineer and photographer Robert Adamson between 1843 and 1847 to pioneer many aspects of photography in Scotland. Amongst their subjects were a few that have particular relevance to the history of photography and photographic societies in Edinburgh. I have collected […]
A Living man declared dead and other chapters
September 21, 2012
The rather enigmatic title of this post is the name of an exhibition and book by photographer Taryn Simon. Simon currently has an exhibition at MOMA in New York and which I visited on my recent trip. Simon is regarded as the current ‘queen’ of typological studies. She appears to be totally committed to the […]
Rineke Dijkstra Exhibition at the Guggenheim New York
September 10, 2012
I recently passed through New York for a few days whilst visiting the USA. Luckily there is currently an retrospective exhibition of Rineke Dijkstra on show at the Guggenheim. I spent a few hours there looking at her work. It was a great experience as I have studied her work quite a bit during the […]
Thoughts from David Campany and Paul Graham
September 8, 2012
Its a long time since I have posted to the blog. This should not be taken as inactivity. I have been progressing on a number of fronts simultaneously. My Urban Artists work is now very well advanced. I have had feedback from my tutor on Assignment 3 – I am an Ironman Self Portraits. I […]
Bailey’s East End
July 22, 2012
I went along to the David Bailey exhibition at the Compressor House in Newham. I am working on an idea for a long term project which will be about London’s East End. I am thinking about using project this for my Level 3 Your Own Portfolio course. Bailey’s exhibition offered the opportunity to see a […]
Visit to Frankfurt am Main
July 18, 2012
I have just returned from a visit to Frankfurt, where I competed in an Ironman triathlon…the race went as well as I could hope for as I don’t think that I was at peak fitness….too much photography!! (I finished in 12 hours 44 mins) Whilst I was in Frankfurt I had a break from the […]
Gillian Wearing – Whitechapel Gallery
May 2, 2012
I have visited the Gillian Wearing exhibition at the Whitechapel twice. It is a time hungry exhibition with several video pieces which are quite long. Overall I found the work interesting but only to a point. Much of Wearing’s work is founded upon the same premise which is that the public face is quite often […]
Museum Portraits Update
February 25, 2012
I have continued to work on my Museums project, which is a series of candid portraits of people looking at exhibits in London’s museums. The idea is to capture people in moments of reverie whilst gazing at exhibits. My aim is to make photographs which are sympathetic to the subjects whilst capturing the engagement between […]
Zarina Bhimji – Whitechapel Gallery
February 12, 2012
On Saturday I visited the Whitechapel Gallery to see the survey exhibition of Zarinal Bhimji’s work. To be honest before this exhibition I was not familiar with her work. I went along with an open mind and was intrigued with the idea of seeing a mixed media presentation of work, with installations, photographs and film. […]
Real Venice
December 14, 2011
I am a little annoyed….I missed the Real Venice Exhibition at Somerset House. The exhibition showed the work of some of my favourite photographers including Nan Goldin, Candida Hofer, and Philip-Lorca DiCorcia. I have had a good look at the catalogue and perhaps not surprisingly I was most impressed by the work of Hiroshi Watanabe […]
Past Exhibition Tate Modern – Cruel and Tender
November 27, 2011
I came across this article whilst reading an article by David Bate After Postmodernism? . Bate is responsible for the Photography Studies programme at Westminster University. In this essay he argues that Post Modernism with its inter-textual referencing and ‘genre-switching’ …where one genre of photography is switched for another one…(usually a genre regarded as most irrelevant, indifferent or […]
True Men – Brian Shumway
November 27, 2011
I came across the work of Brian Shumway on the Burn Magazine website. here Brian’s practice includes a number of portraiture series. The series featured in Burn is entitled True Men. Shumway’s Artist’s Statement for this work states… Gender can be a perplexing thing. Despite being flexible and malleable, it defines and confines who […]
Advanced Studies Initial Concept and Aesthetic/Practical Considerations
November 25, 2011
I realise that I need to take a decision on the subject for my Advanced studies. I believe now that I can proceed with the Advanced work in parallel with Understanding Visual Culture. My main subject area will be Portraits in Series. I will undertake a critical review of the genre and conduct several projects […]
Inspiration
November 24, 2011
I came across a website which set out advice from Magnum photographers for young photographers. see http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2011/09/35-magnum-photographers-give-their-advice-to-aspiring-photographers/ I was particularly struck by David Alan Harvey’s thoughts. He is so strong on the overriding need to have something to say with your photography. This was the central point I gained from my workshop with him in […]
My Current thinking on Advanced Studies and the photography of Vanessa Winship
November 23, 2011
At the same time as pursuing the Understanding Visual Culture course, making some photographic trips and learning to use my large format Ebony camera, I have still been researching and thinking about my future Advanced studies. Indeed the more I have thought about this, the more I have become convinced that I want to focus […]
Paul Graham Television Portraits
August 31, 2011
I wonder if my selection of portrait photographers for review listed in my previous post – Dijkstra, Avedon, Struth et al – is setting me down a track for my Ironman portraits which is predetermined. Most of these photographers have adopted a strictly formal approach to their portrait series – same pose, same crop, similar […]
Thomas Struth
August 30, 2011
Happily given my current interest in typological studies, the Whitechapel Gallery has been hosting a major exhibition by Thomas Struth. Struth studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher in Dusseldorf. Much of his early work could be viewed as typological. His oeuvre spans quite a range from urban landscapes, landscape, portraits, complex images of modern technology […]
Bernd and Hilla Becher
August 18, 2011
I have started to do some research into the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher and the so called Dusseldorf School of Photography. The Bechers ran the photography programme at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1976 to 1996. The students of this programme have had remarkable success with many becoming world renowned artists. Amongst them are Andreas […]
Rineke Dijkstra
August 14, 2011
I have been thinking for some time about what area of study I should decide on for my Open College of the Arts Level 3 Advance course. In this module I will have to: Design an extended programme of personal study in discussion with your tutor Produce a strong portfolio of photography in your chosen […]
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