Exercise: People Surveys - Daniel Meadows

In this exercise we are to Listen to Daniel Meadows talking about his work at  http://vimeo.com/28349336# and then to read Guy Lane's essay ‘The Photographer as Recorder’

In past modules of the OCA course I have covered Daniel Meadows at some length and have most likely listened to this video recording before. Sadly it is no longer available at Vimeo. In previous modules I was also very interested in Meadows story telling videos, constructed of still images that moved using panning techniques in video editing software. Many of these videos were about his work on Green Street and the Photobus Tour. I even made contact with Daniel Meadows via email and he encouraged me to make my own story telling video for the course, which I did.

Lane's essay was interesting and took me on a slant that was unexpected. Rather than concentrate on the work of Meadows he looked at how Meadows presented his work, canvased for funds and the image he wanted to give about his photographic project. This interpretation I found a little presumptuous and some of the conclusions far reaching.

For a student in his early twenties I never drew these conclusions from my observations. Lane's vision was that of someone who wanted to present himself as a photojournalist recording facts with images of a society and a time, namely the working class of Northern England. I understand and agree with this principal. Lane extracts words from the leaflet Meadows published to indicate his intentions  of this but I wonder if these words were soley fir this purpose of raising funds? In the early 1970's this would have been an appropriate thing to do. Likewise the comments on the accompanying photograph of Meadows and the bus was quite business like, in full portraiture and formal and "an appropriate practioner". Whilst this may have been the intention I know that Meadows is extremely tall and the full portrait with a narrow tall bus just works well in a proportion showing off a similar build of photographer and bus.On first seeing this image some while ago I though he was mimicking a bus conductor. Interestingly enough on Meadows website specific to the Photobus he has a much more casual image taken from the same period, likewise in the book published in 2011, "The Bus" he has again a much more casual image in the first few pages of the illustration. This leads me to believe that it was not intentional for commerce but part of the creation of art in photography.

The Bus - Daniel Meadows 1973 -2001

Exercise: Information and expression

This is a two part exercise. First to read John Marz's essay on Sebastiao Salgado and secondly to research into the work of Salgado and give evidence of this in our learning log.

Salgado was a highly intelligent person, gaining a Phd in economics that would have given him a handsome salary. Instead of this path he chose the world of photojournalism, to his love of photography and its use to document the poor and unfortunate of the world. Coming from Brazil, a poor country in itself would have given  Salgado  a compassionate understanding of what it is like to be in such a position. As Marz points out his photography is "pictured through Latin American eyes".

Salgado's first published work was the "Other Americans" in 1985.  This work demonstrates well the interest in Latin American, its title reaching out that there is more to the America's than just the USA, a direct play on Robert Franks work no doubt. The images are well staged and capture an atmosphere of neglect, perseverance and struggle. All taken in black and white they are crisp and well defined. The do not demonstrate war or violence just poverty but in a kind and sympathetic way reporting back to a wider community of the everyday struggle of the Latin Americans.

A great source of the images can be found at http://monovisions.com/sebastiao-salgado-other-americas/. I found the image of half naked children playing with bones for toys quite disturbing, whereas the following image could be taken for a modern "photo-bomb" and I wonder if it was staged this way or not. The contrasts between the sad and happy faces cause tension in the image and I cannot fathom it out; perhaps this is the intention.

The Other Americans - Sebastiao Salgado 

Marz calls out individual images and questions why they are all so dour. The girl though in this image gives a light heartened smile to liven things up.

Salgado's other publication of note was "Terra" in which he documented the native's of Brazil and Ecuador in their struggle to gain land that was taken by historical colonisation. This would be similar to that of the native North Americans.

Salgado is also renowned  for the work in worn torn cities and spaces of violence and destruction. There is a very good article that I have read from the guardian on this with the title "Viewer or Voyeur" ref: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/mar/08/world-press-photo-sean-ohagan

This is an interested piece that discusses Salgado's world of photography and whether we look at the gore of such images with disdain or with a lust for more?

The following statement from Salgado sums this up very nicely.

In the course of my various reportages, I had witnessed so many tragedies that I believed I was now accustomed, but I hadn’t expected to encounter such violence, hatred, and brutality.” – Sebastião Salgado