This submission is the culmination of ‘Putting yourself in the picture’. which covered self-portraits and self-absented portraiture. The assignment raised challenges whichever route I took as discussed in my Early Ideas post [1].
I was keen to understand the mundane Washing-up series by Nigel Shafran [2], as I was dismissive of his work in my coursework post [10]. It raised questions as to why I liked Wolfgang Tillmans’ desk in Studio Still Life [8] and not Shafran’s sink. They are both showing us something about their daily life and the places where they spend a lot of their time. I started taking Shafran a little more seriously after reading an interview [3] he’d had with Charlotte Cotton where he described his process. As a result I decided to take this opportunity to produce a self-absented portraiture project inspired by Shafran’s work.
My diary [4] concentrated on my leisure activities around the home and it became obvious that I spent a lot of time wearing Bluetooth headphones, listening to mp3 music and watching You Tube and Netflix. I noted that I played a CD the other day which was probably the first time this year. This made me think about the analogue to digital media age, including photography. I had already noted the things I now take for granted around the home – books on shelves, DVD cabinet, CD Cabinet, Vinyl LPs tucked away.
I was also intrigued by the notion presented by psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos [11], that stress in the modern age is on the increase due to humans not keeping pace with technology and how quickly technology has moved on relative to mankind’s existence. We used to be ‘deep divers’, reading books, LP sleeve notes. Now we are ‘jet skiers’ skimming across readily available digital media.
I have attempted to produce a narrative of my daily interaction with analogue and digital media which will tell the viewer a lot about me without me being present. I don’t want the images to be too staged as I want to make it like a wander around my home. The older media will be shown in cabinets fairly well organised and unused. The modern media will be shown in current use.
My research [5] involved looking at Abelardo Morell’s Childhood [6] series of objects from around the home from a child’s perspective. I also decided to use a technique that Paul Graham had used in Shimmer of Possibility [7] where he produced a series of small stories and combined it with the process of looking and glancing at the subject and surroundings.
After a number of presentation iterations [12], I have presented my diary in the form of an eBook that shows my interaction with media and provides an insight to my home life. There are 5 ‘stories’ intertwined, made up of 4 images. The five stories are in an overlapping sequence with a single image on one page at the point a new media story is introduced. These signify the start of a new day and the subsequent images make reference back to a previous day.
The development of the images and my creative choices are described in my Contact Sheets and Edits [8] post.
Click this link: My Media Diary to view the eBook. (Note: Image quality on a Windows platform is improved by increasing the magnification. Refer to Late Changes post 12] for discussion of variability across platforms).
The eBook page layout and all the stand-alone images (cropped and uncropped) are available to view in case there are problems viewing the pubHTML5 eBook.
Although I have embraced new technology, as this assignment demonstrates, I am still left with a feeling of nostalgia where I reminisce about simpler times.
References:
- M. Rainbird, Early Ideas post, 2017
- Nigel Shafran Washing-up [accessed 24/11/2017]
- Nigel Shafran and Charlotte Cotton interview 2004 [accessed 27/11/2017]
- M. Rainbird, Diary Ideas post, 2017
- M. Rainbird, Research post, 2017
- Abellardo Morell, Childhood, 1986-1991
- Paul Graham, Shimmer of Possibility, 2007
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Studio Still Life, 2014
- M. Rainbird, Contact Sheets and Edit post, 2017
- M. Rainbird, Self-absented Portraiture post, 2017
- Dr Linda Papadopoulos , Psychologist [accessed 15/12/2017]
- M. Rainbird, Late Changes post, 2017
12a. Graham. P, Whiteness of the Whale, MACK, 2015
12b. Paul Graham, Shimmer of Possibility, 2007 [accessed 24/11/2017]
12c. Designing an Exhibition Wall [accessed 16/12/2017]
12d. Image [&] Narrative Vol 16, No 3 (2015), B. Lockemann essay [accessed 16/12/2017]
12e. Beyond the Decisive Moment: Temporality and Montage in Paul Graham’s A Shimmer of Possibility, Bettina Lockeman, 2015,[PDF]
12f. Blas Gonzales- Putting Yourself in the picture, OCA post, Rob Bloomfield [accessed 16/12/2017]
Martyn Rainbird 