Single image Narrative - Shoot 1

I chose *RiffRaff based in Middlesbroughs Medicine bar as the setting for my single image narrative. Its the longest running and most authentic house music event in the area. Set over three areas,a basement club affectionately known as the dungeon, a plush bar on street level and a covered terrace where smokers congregate as to not be outside the front of the venue. Of most interest is the dungeon as this is,as they say, where the magic happens. Like a womb of throbbing bass lines engulfed mostly in flashing lights and a plethora of smoke. Inhibitions run lower as you descend deeper into the night.

For their own promotion i presented a set of around 75 images. Some of groups of people and others of varying styles from long exposures to DJ action shots and candid shots of the crowd lost in the moment. On this particular evening the group HVOB were playing live in a corner of the dungeon which gave more permanent light than normal,I had more time to compose and experiment a little.

Tribal instincts to be a part of a collective and feel we belong is something I find fascinating..whether its on a football terrace where everyone sings together or in the basement of a nightclub intoxicated with the aid of loud speakers. The push,or the point when the collective is achieved is not easy to capture away from the obvious. Everyone raising their arms or shouting in unison always reminds me of a tv camera doing a fly by at the front of a concert,when people see the camera they immediately change into a screaming smiling parody of themselves.

So here is the set i chose from for the single image narrative. I thought at first it would be quite easy to choose one with such a simple aim. The narrative is that its a good thing we do this,clubbing in this form . Dancing to music is something we all do and enjoy. Its not so easy to choose one that says all that and not just going with your favorite image for any number of other reasons.

Setting a narrative

The brief states it can basically be anything as long as it is based in the north east..so pretty much anything you can think of and do around here.

Short list from previous life experiences that i could bring..

1. House music related either in clubs or lives of dj's/producers/promoters based in the area.

2. Construction,either from the point of view of a worker or a main contractor.

3. Cats,mostly my cat and his view of mine and my families life around him.

4. The comings and goings of a hair salon,the staff who work there and lives of customers.

5. Something from the real Stockton blog,looked at into more depth and whichever way it was taken.

The most important part of deciding which to do was whether or not i thought i could bring something new and develop new skills during the process. Also the practical side of it,will i be able to do enough shoots.  After a short discussion with Antony I went with  number 1. This would be for the single image critique and for the final narrative.

I had already been in this environment for our first assignment of street photography. Not the usual surroundings associated with that genre but it was a much more candid look at the clubbing scene that is portraid by event photographers.  That was something i wanted to go further into, a narrative that explores the culture and habits of house music lovers from our region.

RiffRaff 10th Birthday - 2013 

Real Stockton - Over The Rainbow

As a part of Nebula's interaction with the area we live in,we decided to do our own blog about Stockton on tees. Together with Katy I produce a blog on positive and interesting places,faces,businesses and spaces in and around Teesside. Its split between us,I do the images and katy does the writing to combine into a narrative of  the subject.
 Ive chosen the "Over The Rainbow" piece as i think it demonstrates how i have made best use of a set of images to describe an event. This took place at the Georgian music venue at the back of the town and incorporated some rainbow light effects on a bridge over the tees.

The original piece can be seen here with Katy's writing and in context with the other real stockton blogs :-

Over The Rainbow - That's Real Stockton

Afronauts

"Cristina De Middel is a documentary photographer and artist now based in London that has been working as a photojpurnalist for different newspapers in Spain (and with NGO´s such as Doctors Without Borders or the Spanish Red Cross) for almost 10 years . She combines her strictly documentary assignments , which has been exhibited and awarded in several occasions (incuding a National Photojournalism Award Juan Cancelo  and a special mention at the New Fnac Photographic Talent ), with more personal projects . This B-side of Cristina´s work  deliberately  asks the audience to question the language and the veracity of photography  as a document and plays with reconstructions  or archetypes that blur the border between reality and fiction. " Afronauts

In 1964, still leaving the dream of their recently gained independence, Zambia started a space program that would put the first african on the moon catching up  the USA and the Soviet Union in the space race.

"Only a few  optimists supported the project by Edward Makuka, the school teacher in charge of presenting the ambicious program and getting its necessary funding. But the financial aid never came, as the United Nations declined their support, and one of the astronauts , a 16 year old girl, got pregnant and had to quit.

That is how the heroic iniciative turned into an exotic episode of the african history, surrounded by wars, violence, droughts and hunger.

As a photojournalist I have always been attracted by the excentric lines of story-telling avoiding the same old subjects told in the same old ways.

Now , with my personal projects,  I respect the basis of the truth but allow myself to break the rules of veracity trying to push the audience into analyzing the patterns of the stories we consume as real.

“Afronauts” is based on the documentation of an impossible dream that only lives in the pictures.

I start from a real fact that took place 50 years ago and rebuild the documents adapting them to my personal imagery" .Afronauts

Visually stunning as it is I think the real charm from Afronauts comes from the approach of the artist. You can see she was seduced by the story of this far fetched scheme and manages to make it seem plausible if only as a dream. The book and following exhibitions are filled with original text and documents to add validation to the concept of possible space travel. Someone at some point was going to sleep thinking this was going to happen,foolishly or not.

Tom Hunter - Life on the road - Le Crowbar

Gotta be honest here and say I was going to omit Tom from my research for this assignment as I felt others covered the same ground, Until i saw this piece he wrote in the Guardian. Covering a subject I find interesting at a time I remember quite well but from totally different perspective geographically. Travelling rave,dance,parties,festival,clubbing and whatever else you might want to call it and its change over the years into a less free spirited affair.

So this is a look at how it was after the laws first changed and the travelling ravers were first forced  to move on. The images don't appear to be staged in any way taking us to the other end of the spectrum of narrative. Images as a set to compliment each other,stopping short of using words with them,although they do have working titles usually as reference to location rather than content.

Being a part of the group would have given a much more candid view than that offered to an outsider say coming for a few hours or days to capture the feel of the lifestyle. The subjects don't appear inhibited or even mostly aware of Toms presence as he documents every day scenes along their travels.

He clearly has a relationship with those in the images and even an affection to some,his photographic style is take images in a complimentary way rather than as Martin Parr would in a similar environment.  He isn't looking to catch them in quirky light of their surroundings. He is one of them so to do so would ultimately mean betraying your self.

"In 1995 Tom Hunter set off from a squatted street in Hackney with a group of friends in an old double decker bus, loaded with muesli, Sosmix, baby-foot table and a sound system. Fuelled by selling egg butties, veggie burgers and beer, their journey took them through folk festivals in France, teknivals in Czech Republic, hippie gatherings in Austria and beach parties in Spain. Le Crowbar Café became an oasis for a nomadic party community hungry for all night food and a break from the hardcore techno." - le-crowbar

"…and with just a flyer from Steve Bedlam, stating “Hostomice, It’s Out There… The Tekno Travellers’ Holiday Destination Of The Year” as directions, we head off to Europe."

Jeff Wall

To get things off to an easy to understand pace we need to look no further than Jeff Wall. His end of the spectrum is that of the single shot narrative image. Incredibly simple ideas constructed from a narrative and executed to an impeccable level of detail. From social commentary to psychological analysis of human behavior and thought processes. His work is presented very large and back lit for high impact.

Jeff_Wall_Mimic

Museo-Magazine-Jeff-Wall-Housekeeping-1996 

Museo-Magazine-Jeff-Wall-Milk-1984

Museo-Magazine-Jeff-Wall-A-Sudden-Gust-of-Wind-1993

Museo-Magazine-Jeff-Wall-The-Giant-1992

Museo-Magazine-Jeff-Wall-Passerby-1996

All images(Bar Mimic) are from This interview with Jeff. Very interesting read and a good insight to how he works and where his ideas come from.

Photography & Narrative

Every image taken has a narrative on some level,there was a reason why it was taken and a story behind the before,during and after. Whether or not that is of any interest to anyone other than the photographer depends largely on the context of that narrative.
Contributing factors such as their integrity and knowledge of the subject and the manor of which the image is obtained or manipulated. Visual memes and staged scenarios can and do have as much to say about real life as those taken in the throws of spontaneous moment.
A street photographer who takes 1600 images a day and maybe selects only a handful can and does have as much narrative integrity as one who presents a single reconstructed thought out scene. The process,research and medium used isnt as important as the way in which the images are presented to create the narrative. Yes the images should be technically good, as all intelligent photography should be, but its not paramount to telling a story.

© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

"I have recently started to understand that it isn’t enough to take interesting photographs. Rather, we should strive to take meaningful photographs. - Eric Kim