An open and connected photography class
Lecture Content and Weekly tasks from PicBod 2015
We inhabit bodies and in turn they inhabit our various environs. The way in which we choose and are encouraged to use our bodies to interact with the world is worthy of scrutinisation…
In this workshop task you are asked to photographically consider how you are corporeally connected and/or disconnected with the spaces you conduct your life in. You may wish to examine the structure of the body and how it is distorted to serve certain roles or you may think about the time and locations in which the body shapes the environments it has found itself occupying.
Have a look at the work of the following artists for assistance or critique…
Bertil Nillson Anna Fox (41 Hewitt Road) Jenny Saville Orlan Kevin Miyazaki (Camp Home) Katherine Wolkoff (Deer Beds) Laura Hynd (Lady Into Hut)
22/01/2015: Relationships; fixed and fluid
Relationships are titled (Mother, Father, Niece, Friend, Lover, Hometown, Prey,) but these categories tell us so little about the intricacies and nuances of relationships we have and hold that are constantly in flux…
In this workshop task you are asked to represent a relationship through any appropriate visual or written medium. Focus not on the participants in the relationship but the space in-between which makes up the relationship - this may be a physical environment, it may be an emotional space or it may even be mediated through objects.
The likes of…
Viggo Mortensen Carrie Levy (51 Months) Joshua Lutz (Hesitating Beauty) Ron Jude (Lick Creek Line) Elinor Carucci Latoya Ruby Frazier
… may be of interest for various reasons
Today we concentrated on a conversation I had with Ben Krewinkel, co-author of 'A Possible Life; Conversations with Gaulbert', a documentary about identity, memory and documentation of an undocumented person. 'Gaulbert', an illegal immigrant who resided in Amsterdam was both subject and collaborator leading to a wonderfully rich, sometimes tense and consistently powerful body of work.
The talk is split into 4 sections: 00:01 … on conversation, trust and organisation 12:12 … on the ongoing conversation 19:42 … on the authorial conversations 27:42 … on documentation and readingAnd the task is here...
15/01/2015: Conversations; record and stimuli
For the most part, photographs are born from conversations (if they are not conversations themselves); internal or external, with strangers and with close friends. Conversations can be seen as peaks of life or reifications of thought…
In this workshop task you are asked to first record a conversation with a stranger - this may be done through images, written text, audio - transcription etc. You should then use this record as a starting point for a small series of 3 - 7 images.
Work from…
Steve Pyke Laia Abril (Epilogue) Peter Miller (Vermont People) Pierre Bessard (Chattanooga, the Green factory) Shaun Usher (Letters of Note) Leonie Hampton (In the Shadow of Things)
May help form ideas or provide questions
And the task is here -
08/01/2015: Identity; constructed and complex
We think of our identity as personal yet so much of it may well be constructed for the benefit of others (individuals, organisations and cultural hegemony)…
In this workshop task you are asked to create a mechanical* montage of yourself and one of a close friend or relative. This montage should seek to be all that a passport photograph is not - something which tells us of the complexities of identity rather than attempt to provide neatly packaged information for digestion.
*Mechanical montages are made with paper and glue rather than with digital software - allowing a less linear manner of working to take place. Scan the montages afterwards to share online.
Any size, shape, style you like - experiment with the inclusion of your own work (Steacy) and the use of words (Scott/Goldberg). These can be as aesthetically neat or messy as you see fit - perhaps some inspiration can be taken from the likes of…
Jim Goldberg Jo Metson Scott (The Grey Line) Hanna Hoch Kurt Schwitters Grayson Perry (Who Are You?) Will Steacy (Down These Mean Streets)
And see here a roundup of the day's activities from Jonny Bark and Stephen Ma
Share your results on the community linked above as well as in Twitter with the hashtag #picbod. - MattPre-visualise and produce a self portrait using only available light, unrestricted in theme and technique yet still supplying a message to the viewer. You should spend time first understanding what it is you wish to convey before then looking at the composition and mechanics of the image and finally production.