I will complete the same the work the students have been set as a pedagogical approach to demonstrate how I explore my own working practices in my own area.
I will begin here by discussing a photograph that I have always found makes me smile..
 |
| Yves Klein (1960) Leap into the Void Photographed by Harry Shunk &
Jรกnos Kender
Source: Met Museum
This image to me is important as it encompasses photography, photomontage and performance art. This image was created by taking many images, the Met Museum states that;
'Klein hired the photographers Harry Shunk and Jean Kender to make a series of pictures re-creating a jump from a second-floor window that the artist claimed to have executed earlier in the year. This second leap was made from a rooftop in the Paris suburb of Fontenay-aux-Roses. On the street below, a group of the artist’s friends from held a tarpaulin to catch him as he fell. Two negatives--one showing Klein leaping, the other the surrounding scene (without the tarp)--were then printed together to create a seamless "documentary" photograph. To complete the illusion that he was capable of flight, Klein distributed a fake broadsheet at Parisian newsstands commemorating the event.' (Met Museum 2000-2018)
This picture questions and plays with the idea of the photograph as truth, the artist performed the act of jumping however in his 'real' jump he obviously was caught. The photograph (a still and beautifully silent creation) is a moment caught that now can remain forever preserved, Klein will endlessly remain suspended in the void, the unknown cyclist to the right of the image will forever also be trapped within the image without knowing that he (in the image) just misses witnessing the leap. The performance a moment, but preserved and recreated forever. Klein wanted it mass-produced and created a newspaper to do so - perhaps if he had lived in this age he would have created this and then mass-distributed the image through social media or his own blog. This performative photograph really does embody the values of photography that I find most interesting, it is constructed, performed, created and speaks of the photographic process itself (in this case the photographic film and using more than one negative to create a single image).
If Klein did blog he would be interested to know that there was a study on Blogger Perceptions on Digital Preservation that showed that 'preservation was an important issue for photobloggers; most photobloggers would be "miserable or unhappy" if their blogs were accidentally deleted; yet, additional findings of the study revealed that less than half of them take actions to preserve their blogs' (Bushey J. 2013, P200). Klein wanted to distribute and show his image to as many people as possible and also he would have wanted to preserve and keep this image in its original form (gelatin silver print). As photographers today we have a duty to preserve and keep our work in an archival format, this image is nearly 60 years old - I am hoping that in 60 years maybe someone will discuss one of my images in a similar way.
References
Ed. by Farnell G. (2013) The Photograph and The Collection: Create, Preserve, Analyse, Present, Bushey J. Web Albums: Preserving the Contemporary Photo Album, MuseumsEtc Ltd, Edinburgh, UK.
Met Museum (2000-2018) Heilbrunn: Timeline of Art History, Leap into the Void [Online] Available from: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1992.5112/ (Accessed 23rd September 2018)
|
No comments:
Post a Comment