Exhibitions & Talks

Exhibitions

Artes Mundi 2019

National Museum of Wales

Artes Mundi – Exhibition

I attend exhibitions, photography talks and galleries for inspiration. Not all of the content is relevant, however I always seem to take useful information and inspiration from each one, no matter how large or small.

I attended the ‘Artes Mundi’ exhibition at the National Museum of Wales, and at first I thought that the works displayed was not relevant to my research. Then I stumbled across the surveillance work of Trevor Paglen within the exhibition. The images on display, showed surveillance he had captured, sometimes monitored from some 26miles away.

I made a connection with his work, as the idea behind my final major project has been born out of personal experience of being under surveillance and the effects it has left on me.

Trevor Paglen is a photographer, writer and investigator. His work takes aim at the U.S. government’s network of secret facilities and programs that have burgeoned since September 11.

https://dronecenter.bard.edu/interview-trevor-paglen/

Interview link with Trevor Paglen

The image above is of a drone

Exposed - Tate Modern 2010

'Exposed' was an exhibition held at the Tate Modern in 2010. aestheticamagazine.com/voyeurism-surveillance-and-the-camera/

Aesthetica Magazine journalist Niamh Coghlan, reported that the exhibition, 'Exposed', tackled taboo subject, questioning the ambiguity of surveillance and voyeurism. The prolific use of mobile phones, cameras, CCTV, and the internet has ensured that we are never alone or unwatched. The exhibition identified.. the close relationship between candid street photography and voyeurism.

Coghlan stated;

New technology has enabled us to become amateur artists and removed the cloak of innocence that used to shroud candid, amateur shots. Dramatic as it may sound, we increasingly live in a Big Brother society where every move is watched and charted, in, for the most part, the interest of “safety”. We are members of a post-9/11 society that is increasingly content to allow a higher degree of surveillance and intrusion into our private lives as this intrusion supposedly offers more protection. The inherently invasive quality of the photograph is discussed by critics, typically from a more theoretical standpoint than an actual examination of the historical use of photography as a tool of investigation and documentation.

Kirsty Mackay - Guest Speaker USW 20/2/19

As part of my primary research, I attended the University South Wales on the 20 February 2019 to listen to a photography guest speaker, named Kirsty Mackay. She is classed as a documentary photographer, her talk was basically about how she planned and researched her project, which grew over a matter of years.

The years of research and planning, included producing a book of the project, the project is called 'my favourite colour used to be yellow'.

The project is about the colour pink and how it is forced upon girls as being a girls colour. Mackay explains that in todays so called modern world, itʼs assumed that pink is for a girl in blue is for a boy. In todays modern world we are suppose to be gender neutral, however in this case it seems more strict than back in the 70s. It appears we have not gone forwards but backwards.

Mackay talked about project planning and when finding a project you want to document, you need to ask yourself the questions, what is it about, and why are you doing it?.

She reiterated that you need to write about your work, keep a diary or journal as you go along, this will help you find your voice in photography and find out where you need to be.

Important facts I took away from listening to Mackay's talk was that 'subject matter' is very important when youʼre publishing a book or exhibiting your work in a gallery.

Being born in a certain place, really shapes your future and you naturally build a strong emotional attachment for that place, this is a strong base for making photographs.

I found this talk very useful on how to develop and research a project, remembering always to ask yourself, 'why are you doing what you are doing'.

Mackay shot her project all on film, this slowed her down, and made her think about her shots in more depth.

Talks or exhibitions are not completely useful, but I seem to be able to take a small part or a link from each one. When I piece them all together itʼs a worthwhile experience that Iʼve made the effort to listen to other photographers and see their work. When applying all these things I've learned into my project pot, I believe it makes me a better photographer.

Mackay also touched upon project funding, she applied for funding through 'kick starter', she spoke quite often about funding which I had not thought. This is something that I will research when I start one of my projects.

What has left me pondering after this talk was the 'finding your voice in photography' comment. This is what I am trying to do at the moment, I feel that I want to shoot what drives me emotionally and expresses my mood, story, past and finally something I want to remember or forget.

a9fbc3_7778f751c33a4e6cb8472d4aa2171089~

This is the cover of her book - 'My favourite colour used to be yellow'

The series of photographs documenting that the majority of girls bedrooms, attire, toys and accessories are pink in colour.

Ffotogallery Exhibition - 'Noises in the Blood'

Lua Ribeira

Lua Ribeira is a Spanish photographer I should say a photographer from Spain. I went to see one of her exhibitions in ffotogallery in Cardiff , called ‘noises in the bloodʼ and I found it quite confusing I did not first know what the exhibition was trying to say , on delving more into research I found that Ribeira is a documentary photographer and she she is expressing the differences in culture and femininity from where she is from in comparison to Jamaican women.

The project documents Jamaican women that are trying to westernise themselves, in dance halls they perform provocative and sexual movements in their dance acts. Ribeira finds this completely shocking and different to the oppressed culture that she had been brought up in . I couldnʼt connect with the images until I read the research behind the images which then brought it together for me. Ribeira has been nominated by Magnum for her work on ‘noises in the bloodʼ she graduated with a photography documentary degree from the University of South Wales last year 2018. She has won a scholarship grant to work on her next
project .
What I took away from this exhibition was the narrative style and how to put a story together through a series of images.

So again this exhibition was useful for planning and researching a project. I liked the way the photographs were presented as they were bold, shocking, colourful, big , brash and in your face . There was also a projector set up showing video footage of the Jamaican women performing in the dance halls. It was quite shocking to see how they express femininity compared to westernised culture.

Ribeira goes on to say that her photographs represent her confusion and sharing her images to raise awareness that the confusion may always be there due to cultural differences.

I did not like the images as I found them hard to look at, I was confused as to what Ribeira was trying to say. After reading the exhibition statement it became more clear as to what the narrative was. Ribeira commented that it is ok to be confused and sometimes that is because of different cultures.