Sitting in my home office listening to podcasts (by A Small Voice) on photographers discussing their work with Ben Smith. I have decided to post an update. It has been a strange 6 months and I have played way to many video games while working out what I need to or can do while the Covid virus is still around. I have to because of person circumstances remain shielding for the foreseeable future. It is difficult working out what to photograph when a lot of photography is about access. remaining in seclusion does not work well for a street and portrait photography based practice. So I am and remain thinking about what I can photograph. I really don’t do my own family and as I am not meeting others very much, friends are also not going to be my subject. I don’t really do landscapes and I love photographing people so I am at the moment thinking about what I can do while shielding and now with the new lockdown reducing movement even more I am going to have to thing creatively about what I can photograph.

Recently, I added to my photography kit by making the mistake of going online during The Photography Show and finding a small portable flash for such a reduced price that I found myself buying it on impulse. Originally the little Profoto A1 lights where £1000.00 and I got it for half price. Years ago, I used a Norman 400B and it was my favourite light for location photography and this little light with its dome diffuser reminds me of that. So I am keen to try it out now that it has arrived.

Oh another note I have been experimenting with Twitch a gaming platform that enables live webcam and Discord also a gaming platform for chat. When I can get my internet provider sorted so the bandwidth is as advertised, I will be able to start, right now my upload speed is to slow. I want to do live Webcam video chat sessions, where I answer questions and discuss images, submitted via the Discord channel.

Here are the links to both Twitch and Discord.

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/michaelwplant

Discord: https://discord.gg/YnGrVWY

With Discord, I have set up a channel and for now, I am happy to answer questions there and when I can, I will start the live Webcam video sessions on Twitch.

Michael 

Oct 2020.

I am guessing by now you have been affected by the global Pandemic that Covid-19 has brought to the world, this is the first time I have lived though something like this happening on a such a global scale. With governments and people responding to this crisis with such widely differing responses, it is hard to know where to turn to for reliable information, As an example living here in the United Kingdom, we have the UK government giving one advice and the other three governments (the devolved nation) giving different advice. Personally, I believe that until the UK government gets involved in a proper Testing, Contact Tracing and Isolation program, think it is still best to self isolate as much as possible. This article in yesterdays Guardian newspaper says this far better than I can; ‘Unless the Government changes tack, the UK’s lockdown will have been for nothing.’ by Devi Sridhar. 

So for the foreseeable future, as I have no way of know whether I or my family has had the virus, we are limiting our contact with others. We wear masks and gloves when we go out and regularly check our temperature and have even bought an oximeter to check our oxygen levels.

On the work front, I have done a bit of preparing for teaching and have had a session with students at Working Mens college in Camden. This went well and we will be doing this on Monday nights for the next 6/7 weeks. My teaching at Morley College has seen me be furloughed, and for the foreseeable future I am not getting out to create much new work. So for my personal photography, I am editing my archive and working on the two books that I want to produce. I am also learning new skills and thinking about doing a bit of research into different raw convertors to get the most of the image files I currently have. 

So I just want to say please stay safe and keep your distance from as many people as possible, because with an increase in the number of contact points with others you have comes an increased risk of getting the virus. I have to say that I am glad that I am not being forced to go by to work by the Government or an employer and feel really strongly that people should at this stage be able to choose whether they risk exposing themselves to Covid-19, as everything that I have heard if you get it bad it is not a nice thing to get, that is assuming you do not die from it. 

On a positive note though for the lucky the world is moving a little slower and that is a good thing, as it is time to reflect and spend time with the ones in your household. 

Till September, we will have to wait and see what happens to the show later in the year. This email just arrived in my email inbox. It looks like the Coronavirus is going to affect this photography show as well.

Hi Michael Wayne Plant, To date, The Photography Show & The Video Show has been following Government guidelines regarding the continuation of our event surrounding the outbreak of Coronavirus. However, as the news has been progressing we have listened to the concerns, from all parties, around the health and welfare of their staff.   The wellbeing of our visitors, exhibitors and staff is of the utmost importance, we have therefore taken the extremely difficult decision to postpone The Photography Show & The Video Show until later in the year, when we will be able to deliver the show you deserve. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation.   Please bear with us while we try to establish new dates. We will be in touch with all our visitors as soon as we have more information about when this incredible show will happen.   We have compiled a list of FAQs below to answer any concerns you may have. Message from The Photography Show & The Video Show Team; ‘We are incredibly disappointed that we’ve had to take this action so close to the event opening. However, it became clear that the recent acceleration in Covid19 cases in the UK has led to heightened concerns for all participants and the show would be negatively impacted from all perspectives should we have proceeded. We understand how important the show is both from an industry and community point of view so we are pleased that we are able to postpone to September when we are hopeful that the threat of Covid19 will have significantly rescinded. Please bear with us while we make all the necessary arrangements to facilitate this move and contact all participants’.   FAQs Q – The show has been postponed, will I need to register again for the new dates? A – Good news, your badge will be valid for the September show so you don’t need to do anything. Q – I have bought Extras (Masterclass tickets, Super Stage tickets, Workshop tickets), will I be issued a refund? A – All Super Stage and Workshop tickets will be automatically refunded. Masterclass tickets will remain on your order unless you request for them to be refunded. Q – Will the programme and exhibitors be the same for the postponed show? A – We will aim to keep the programme the same where possible, subject to speakers being available for the new dates. We also hope that the exhibitor list will remain much the same. Thank you for your understanding.   Kind regards,   The Photography Show & The Video Show Team

Photographers all have different approaches to their photographic equipment, While I am not necessarily a fan of the guys formerly from Top Gear now on Amazon with their Grand Tour show this is funny.

However, the one with the donkeys is even more surreal.

And it reminds me that if you are using long lens, then you might just see something that you where not expecting to see.

Dorothea Lange

What I learnt from Dorothea Lange

For social documentary photographers on the the icons is Dorothea Lange, we have studied her images and her work on documenting communities that where not highly visible is impressive. For example, her work documenting the lives of Japanese internees during the second world war is really good. she tackled subjects that where highly contentious and made good images. Her work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) had an agenda that had been set for her to help raise awareness and funds from the government to keep the work that was being done to alleviate the worst of the depression on those most affected by the worst (at the time) depression in American history.

When I studied for my MA in Photography and Urban Cultures I was introduced to the work of Dorothea Lange, though a module on the Photobook in American Culture. (I am not linking to that book as it now sells for a lot of money) Dorothea has had a lot written about her by a lot of writers and the stories that relate to her work have historicised her on many levels. Especially how we relate her to be a Depression era photographer only. For me what I learnt when I looked at the images made as part of the sequence of images she created prior to her famous Migrant Mother photo, show that a photographer should never ever settle for a plain record photo, but work the scene, till they get an image that works for them, Even then she was not happy with the image as she had her darkroom printer remove the thumb in the bottom right corner. The removal of the thumb would not be allowed ethically in todays photojournalism. 

Often when teaching, I would see students making an image and look at the back of the camera, and make a judgement call that the images was good enough. I learnt on film and could not do that so, I learnt the hard way make more images, as the important one might not be the last one, but somewhere in the sequence of images and it is a bit like a dance: you introduce with the opening notes, move around your ideas and then fine tune them till you get the image then you add an exit as you back away from the core idea you where trying to express visually and try a different angle, which may or may not work, this way you will get better images. All good photographers, I believe work something similarly to this.

Migrant Mother images

Links to articles on her work. Dorothea Lange

Jörg M. Colberg at Conscientious has a good article exploring the book Day Sleeper about how artists can disappear and not seem accessible and relatable, and how it is nice to see work though a contemporary perspective so we can keep it fresh and relevant to our current understanding and somehow still feel connected to the people in the images.

Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection. this is a great resource worth looking at.

Books by/on Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange (Phaidon 55’s)

(Amazon US link), (Amazon UK link)

Dorothea Lange: Aperture Masters of Photography

(Amazon US link), (Amazon UK link)

Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits

(Amazon US link), (Amazon UK link)

Day Sleeper Dorothea Lange – Sam Contis

Publisher link (Amazon US link), (Amazon UK link)

Dorothea Lange: Politics of Seeing by Edited by Alona Pardo (Author), with Jilke Golbach

(Amazon US link), (Amazon UK link)

Photographic artists are notorious for not wanting to or being able to write about their art, they often refer to the fact that they are visual artists, to avoid writing about their work. I personally think that this is lazy thinking on their part and I to have been guilty of this myself. In the past I have been heard to say I don’t have the words for that, or I can’t explain that, and it is why I am a photographer. I am now of the conclusion that this is artistic laziness. I aim to change this. I have recently been attempting to write an artist statement for an application to something and in doing my research on how to create an artist statement remembered that not so long ago (two years maybe) I got a book on writing “How to Write about Contemporary Art” by Gilda Williams.

This line struck a cord with me, “Ideally, writing is not just a chore, churned out to satisfy other people, but can help you track and develop your thinking.” (pg 219). I think it is a good point to reflect on, thinking about your work can only be helpful and having to write in a  clear no nonsense way can be equally liberating and difficult at the same time. In part because one should really be reflecting on what one is doing. I think is can only help a project or artwork, as it enables you to be clear about your intensions. Currently, I am in the process of editing two different projects and clear thinking is important, so I think that writing two different artist statements might be of benefit in helping me to get my thinking clear and also with the editing process.

A word I want to avoid is Explore, The word is so over used, e.g. ‘The artist…  is exploring the spacial relationships of the urban context between the protagonists, within their work’. just don’t do it, you are not exploring anything, you are making or creating something artistic, we as photographers are not explorers, so why use the word in an artist statement. This is the one word that I am just plain going to avoid in any writing on my own art/photography. For example I could have said about my work that I am “Exploring the city with my camera, photographing the chance events in the encounters I have, as I document the City of London, using street photography as my approach to making work.” but this does not work, I am still working on how I want to talk about my work.

Resources

ArtQuest also have a handy page on their website on Artist Statements with some general things to include and to avoid: www.artquest.org.uk/how-to-articles/artist-statement

Getting Your Sh•t Together has a nice page on artists statements that is also worth having a quick read of: www.gyst-ink.com/artist-statement-guidelines

Bibliography

Williams, G (2014), How to Write about Contemporary Art. Thames & Hudson: London