Robert Frank: The American

I am actual overdue for the reshoot for assignment 4. I got the tutor report on the 29th but I keep getting distracted by other things. Along all the excuses, here is one. My tutor recommends me to read Robert Frank's work "The American". I went over to the book store and found a Chinese version of the book. The book itself contains 83 photographs. It was a controversial work back in the 1950's that it was described as a "wart-covered… neurotic… a sad poem for sick people". However, there are also shares of admiration from other photographers. One of which described this works as "stunning, ground-trembling". So, which one is true?

Chinese preface. Anyone interested?

It happens that I have lived in America for many years. Due to school and work commitment, I have moved every couple years and have lived in four different states. So,  Robert Frank's work is not very surprising to me. It is consistent with what I have seen when I live there, even though the work is over 60 years old. Obviously, technology advances and many of the screens, the type of cars and the sign in the store in Robert Frank's work will be obsolete today, but the people are as confusing before as today.

One of the photographs that I found humours is a photograph of a black woman holding a white baby. It does not strike me about the photograph itself but the idea of taking such a photograph. If you take a photograph of something, it implies that you want to share this moment that speaks something to you, right? Race discrimination had been a long standing problem in American. Law against discrimination had passed many years ago, but for people to truly content with it, it takes more of a generation to forget what the grandpa said about the other race. On the surface, there is no discrimination in America, and there is no way there is any. However, when I was driving along in the suburb Chicago, my white friend told me that he feels uncomfortable to stop at the area that is predominately black. That was in 1997.

Of course, the America and the Americans have gone a long way since then. President Obama is a mixed race American. A lot of top athletes are black. New waves of immigrates comes from Asia. However, the most interesting part of American is that, it is a big melting pot. There are always new people coming in. The old mis-conception never quite dies out, while the new mis-conception will show up somewhere. It is so easy to find faults in the Americans to poke fun at. Someone, somewhere, decides that it is cool to burn a Koran a day (here), despite it is totally offensive to the Muslims. Someone, somewhere, thinks that it is a weekend family activity to go a protest next to a soldier's funeral (here) with obscene remarks. We are speaking in the 21 century. 

For Robert Frank’s work, I have seen something similar with my own eye. The part that is interesting to me is why he photographed this instead of anything else. There are other things happens in America, both good and bad. But why only this set of photographs are selected? I think it is quite obvious that he must be a foreigner, hoping that there is some unified personality for the "Americans", but only find out that exceptions are everywhere, and get disappointed. There was a book titled "The Nature of Photographs" written by Stephen Store. The book mentioned that a photograph can be viewed in three levels, and the last one is the mental level. Robert Frank's work is based on the "mental model" he had. Or, to phase it differently, he selected those works because he thought they worth to be photographed. Thus it says more about him than his work. 

So, what is "worthy" to photograph? What is so interesting about taking photograph of a common life that we go through day after day, to something that we are so familiar with that we almost ignored? Is it precisely we start to ignore it, it becomes part of our blind spot and thus, worthy to bring it out once more for discussion? Back in the 15, 16^th century, art works are created because the rich and powerful commission them to be made. Many Michelangelo’s work has a religious theme may or may not because he is a religious man, but the members of the churches commission him to do so. At 21^st century, if we were working for the press, only images that cause public sensation is really worthy (thus there is so much paparazzi). However, if we work for nobody and do photography as a hobby, what is left to judge what is worth apart from our own opinion? Then, what is left to judge if a piece of art work is good or bad if this is all up to our personal opinion? And is it why for the many degree show I have seen produced very low quality of work because amateur photography is essentially an art of talking to ourselves but never mind if it has any value to other people?

I suppose, someone will find me strange to say that I don't find Robert Frank's work ground breaking. Well, try to see this in the era that I live in: Two Iraq wars, Guantanamo Bay, high school shootings, religious fanatic, housing market, loans requires no income proof, a quarter of the population with no health insurance, state government defaults on its own debt, George W Bush, Sarah Palin... The list can go on. Did anyone say that Robert Frank's work look bleak? Which one?

In this book, I only see it as a typical documentary of "normal" Americans, of which we tends to ignore. People in that era has very negative comment toward his work, which they don’t seem to have against other documentary photographer of that era such as Henri Cartier-Bresson. Does Cartier-Bresson’s work make the subject appears in more positive light? Or does it work not concentrate on one nationality, therefore any negativity is less offensive if viewed individually?

I am not ready to discuss the composition and technique of the individual image. This is very strange, but I find it difficult to comment on somebody who is already very famous which we are supposed to learn from if not emulate. I rarely critique on technique level even for my own classmates.

Let’s shift focus a little bit. I live in Britain for a while, so what Britishness is like? Honestly, I can't say much apart from saying that people trying keep themselves to themselves, and everyone is at an arm length. Do we all think that the British are quiet, reserve and polite? Well, here is the work by Leo Maguire during the 2011 Joop Swart master class. His subject is dogging, meaning people engage in outdoor sexual act.  

The Brits? Surprising, isn't it? Here is the link:

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/jsm2011leo-01?gallery=1982

I wonder what is the verdict of his work from the British people? Ground breaking? Offensive? Somebody pigeon-hole into a sub-culture and put the whole population looks in bad light? Personally, I see it not that far from Robert Frank’s work, except that, this is even more shocking when we have a more unity sense of Britishness. 

Exercise 46: Rain

In this exercise, I have to make a magazine cover on rain. To be honest, getting a photograph of rain is easy, but getting a great photograph of rain is very difficult. To turn the question the other way around: what is a good picture of rain? It shows rain drops?

I turn my focus elsewhere. In the last post on “Evidence of Action”, I posted the image on OCA forum for critique. One issue brought up was whether the photograph shown something “have happened” or “going to happen”. I have that in mind when I was doing this exercise. The reason is, it is easier to do it here. I can look at what happen before and after the rain. In the other case, it is much harder for me because I have little experience on what suicide is like for real.

There are before, during and after I want to look at, so what happened.
Before the rain:

1)     Sky gets darker

2)     Wind blow stronger

During the rain:

1)     Sky is still dark

2)     Wind still blow strongly

3)     Rain falls from the sky (what else can it be?)

4)     The street (floor, windows, plants, wall) getting wet

5)     People holding umbrellas

6)     Flooding may happen

7)     Leaks (from ceiling?) may happen

After the rain:

1)     Water droplets

2)     Floor still wet

3)     Sun may shine

Why listing them out? Because a random photograph of rain is easy, but I have no idea what I want to present to you (actually, I am still clueless after doing the shot). Before the rain is very difficult to shoot. I walk along on the street and wonder if this is just another typical (gloomy) day in England, or this is before the rain. There maybe signs of windy, but it leaves the subject wild open.

During the rain is easier. I don’t have any leaks (luckily) at home and no access to flooding. So I want to show something wet.

As a hindsight, I wonder if compositional wise I should shoot from a lower angle and used a wide angle angle lens instead.

After the rain is more interesting, but I wonder if there is a little bit ambitious. The sun happens to be at a good angle to the rubbish bin, so I see rain drops and the sun ray.

To be honest, the composition is quite boring. I want to get closer to the rain drop, but there is a minimal focus distance.

The more typical image of shooting windows with raindrops. However, I wait until the rain is over to shoot this. So I get water droplet and blue sky. I wonder if it hints “after the rain” or it is too unclear (ie. can this be in a car wash or window wash)?
 

So what is the final verdict: the first shot is the easiest and the most clear one. I wonder, if we want to present an idea, why not just use something simple and effective? What is the issue of having cliche, when our goal is to communication the informaton? Is it too boring? Or this is just some what-so-called artist trying to show off their ingenity and end up in confusing the viewers?

Exercise 43: Evidence of Action

In this exercise, I have to produce one photograph in which it implies something has happened...


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Well, I don't know. 
There are a two year time limit on this course, but I really don't think I can make it. 
I feel so scared to tell my tutor that I can't meet the deadline for this assignment.
I really tried hard, but I... 
I don't know what to do now. I feel embarrassed to talk about this. I just ....

If there is any takers, the darker pill is Iron and the white one is Calcium. Both were bought from Boots long time ago. I don't like taking pills even it is just supplements, so they were sitting around here forever. I wish I have more colourful pills to play with in this exercise.  

I wonder if the message is obvious enough. Hmm, I wonder if I omit the words from the very beginning, it will be still be obvious what I intended to "do"...

I should put it on the critique section on the OCA forum to get some feedback. Louise spots hat the pills looks like vitamin pills. It makes me wonder what is the pills that kill will look like. Meander said that the shot looks like someone "will commit suicide", instead of "have committed suicide". This is a harder question, because 1) I have not really thought out if I want this photograph to show an intention or the past, and 2) if someone committed suicide, there will be much fewer pills left. But would fewer pills weaken the message that this is suicide by overdose? 

I will have a think of it and defer the answer to assignment 5. 

Exercise 44: Symbols

My tutor came back to me with the feedback of assignment 4 the day after I sent it. I have never experienced such a turnover speed, so I have to start working on the re-shoot. I guess it is a good thing because I have not forgotten what I have done and why I did that in the assignment yet, so I have better continuation between the original shoot and reshoot.

On top of tutor's report, the deadline of assignment 5 is going to be 15th December, 2012. I did ask for a generous deadline, but I supposed I should have said more clearly that I don't want to rush more deadline this year... In any case, if I finish assignment 5 in December, I will have one month to cough up an assessment package for the March assessment. I enrolled in OCA on the 1st August, 2012, so it puts my target finish date for the first module at a year and a half. To be honest, with the current four years per level limit, I am not sure if I can finish level one at all ... 

Anyway, instead of worrying, let's start rushing through the exercises so that I can concentrate on the assignments.

In this exercise, I have to list at least one symbol for the following subjects and add a shot note saying how I can use them in a photograph.

Growth: I think the most obviously symbol is a cliché already. I can represent growth with a picture of a young plant with two leaves. I will photograph it at 45 degree angle down and leave some space on the frame to show that it is still relatively small.  

The other symbol is a screenshot on Bloomberg equity price diagram. I will pick a stock that is going up in value. However, I think this idea is more graphics design instead of photography.

Excess: How about a middle age man sitting with all 76 (I think there are more now) Nikkor lens surround him arranged in an orderly manner? The man has two camera bodies strapping over his shoulder and holding another on with a long telephoto lens.

The other way is to have a lot of toys pile up in front of a child. The pile has to be bigger than the child.

Crime: How about a photograph with two hands holding firmly on the iron gate with bars? The rest of the details doesn't matter, but the two hands and the bars should symbolize someone is being jailed. Thus a crime has been committed.

I thought of gun before. However, army uses gun and soldiers kill people. Is it considered to be a crime or not?

Silence: A close-up shot of someone face with a duct tape taped over his mouth. 

I was thinking of the usual silence symbol by putting a finger in front of your mouth, but I wonder if it is a little bit boring. The movie "Silence of the Lamb" used to have a poster with a woman with a butterfly over her mouth. However, I wonder if duct type is faster.

Poverty: This is hard! I am poor but I definitely doesn't look like it. 

I guess I will photography of a beggar sitting in the corner with can in front of him. I would prefer the framing to be a close up, focus on the can and the begging action. I supposed if you need to beg, because you don't have money. If you don't have money, you are poor.

I am sure I will come back to use of symbol in photography later in assignment 5. For now, let's call it a day.

Exercise 36: Outdoor at Night

This is the last exercise in this section. To be honest, I am rather exhausted because of all other things come up. Assignment 4 dues this Saturday. So, it will be a (very) rush job to get it done, or else I have a lot of explaination to do. I also have an exam this Saturday (not on photography).

Such as life...

In this exercise, I have to take some photographs of outdoor at night. In particular, I need to pay attention of these screens: flood-lit building, brightly lit store front, large interior with many people

 

Exercise 28. Measuring Exposure, part I

As I mentioned earlier in another post, this is probably the most difficult exercise in this section. This exercise requires me to take 5 photographs that are deliberately lighter or darker than the average. The most difficult part is what is “average” mean in terms of exposure?

Say, what metering scheme are you using in your camera? If for the same screen, spot metering is telling me that the exposure is in the middle (I avoid the word “correct”), but matrix metering says that I am over-exposed, which one is right? Do you judge your exposure with light meter or with the histogram?

I think this is one of those ill-posed questions in photography. I use spot metering, so I only (at least try) getting the exposure right for my subject, while the rest of the screen can go to hell. If I change my metering to centre-weighted or matrix, I think most of my shot will be consider under/over-expose. Strictly speaking I rarely try to over or under expose my subject. Here are some examples on what I think the exercise is asking for:

1. In a screen with a lot of contrast, I can decide to expose for the shadow or expose for the highlight. There is limited dynamic range in the CCD sensor to keep both of them. 

I wanted to keep the detail of the shadow, so this image over-exposed in matrix metering. The highlight is blown on the sky, but I don't care about the sky as much here.  

There are situation in which the sky is more interesting, and I will under-expose the image in matrix metering sense to get more details there. 

There are situation in which either exposure will be correct, depending what do you want to expose for. In this image, I prefer the highlight than the detail of the shadow.

2. In a screen that is mainly white, the camera tends to have it look grey-er than it is. Therefore, I try to overexpose the screen to keep it white. I notice that it doesn't have to be purely white, but a uniform cream colour will cause the camera to underexpose. 

   

Alternatively, we will have the same problem with black background. It doesn't have to be pitch black. Even if I take this with mainly dark colour, the camera default matrix meter tends to over-expose. I need to stop down to get the exposure matches what I saw. 

 

Finally note on this subject: “Exposing to the right” is not totally a myth, but sort of a safe bet in a data collection stand point. Question: If you preview your image on the back of the CCD to judge its exposure, are you sure that your camera CCD is correctly calibrated? I can adjust the brightness setting and the image will give me a different look. So which one is right? If by the end of the day, we are fixing the photographs up at post processing; using the histogram gives a better indication than the light meter. 

Exercise 34 Cloudy Weather and Rain

There are three section of this exercise.

1) Take 4-6 photographs of the same view in sunlight and under cloud

It is rare to have bright sunny day that is stable in England. So I will start with this one near Blackfaire station. F/4 at 1/1600s.

As soon as the cloud comes, the exposure time drops to 1/500s, also at f/4

The weather condition is not getting particularly better as the day progress. Now we are at 1/320s at f/4. 

Question: so does the cloudy shot looks more "blue" as the assignment suggested? Only slightly, and somehow it is hard to make a good judgement with naked eye. One can argue that the building in the photo in the middle does look slightly cooler than the first one, and the third one is cooler than the second one. But only slightly.

To make my point clearer. Here is St Paul shot across the river. The first one was shot in the morning, and the second one is shot at the evening. If I only use naked eye to judge, somehow the second one looks warmer. Why? The angle of the sun shinning through the building lights up both the Millennium bridge and five a less dark grey colour. I think this exercise doesn't work as well, unless all other external condition is fixed.  

Anyway, move on. The exercise suggests that we find two images in our library that is taken in cloudy day and it won't be better if it is taken on a sunny day. 

Well, this is difficult, given that I am a manic who like to shoot in the bright sunny day. To make it worse, I shoot into the sun. There are exception. I think no one will recommend doing a portraiture under harsh sunlight (well, well, we saw it in Saatchi gallery in the last study day). For example this:

I have never done food photography properly. This is not cloudy day, but indoor shot. I think sometime people use sun to create some atmosphere. But for this shot, I prefer not to have some sort of bright sunlight because my main subject is food, not atmosphere. 

I need to cook more often. Eating out too often just make me fat.

Now to the second part of the exercise.


2) Take three photographs outdoor on an overcast day. Look for the type of subject with strong colour and another one with strong detail.

How about that "every little helps" store? Very strong colour that you can see a mile off.

Actually, I prefer colour under bright day light, but with this type of orange, it doesn't look as dull in an overcast day.

Here is some structure with more details.

And do we count rain drop as part of the details?

3) Take two photographs in the rain

I don't think this is exactly an inspiration. When I miss my train, I usually wonder around the station and take photographs. Guess what, I shoot in the rain often due to total boredom. 

Yeah. I am almost done with the exercise in part 4. Maybe I should start worrying about the assignment now.