Mikiko Hara: The Fleeting Moment

 I will begin my research with Mikiko Hara, mainly as I have not investigated her work previously and I very much want to photograph objects and things within my project.  Hara uses a German-made Ikonta from the 1930s and as I am using film photography through the Polaroid I felt an affinity to this artist.  The images Hara takes are in snapshot style; 'She [Hara] photographs the nonchalant figures of fleeting passersby, as well as the landscapes and material things that emerge and disappear before her eyes wherever she goes' (IBASHO, 2024)  The idea of fleeting moments, things, objects, people are important and made more so by their capture.  The image below of a room, too small and containing the three young men, reminds me somewhat of a frame by Bill Brandt with a Miner and his wife at a table.  Their whole life was in the frame and here these young men's life surrounds them in this small space where they live and eat and sleep. They are packed into the frame and the gentle light makes these; 'intriguing images are printed from colour negatives made with a classic camera originally designed for monochrome films, adding a distinctively soft tonality and texture.'  (Yoshinaga, 2024).  The softness is in contrast to the chaos of the small space, the young man sleeping looks as if he passed out uncomfortably exhausted in this odd position while the other young men one dressing, the other eating pay no mind to each other clearly used to this existence, maybe thinking that this will not be forever.  However, now in this image, it is for eternity.

Mikiko Hara Japanese, b. 1967

Untitled, 2017

chromogenic print

14 x 14 in (image)

In this next image by Hara from the series 'Small Myths' (2022)  Hara captured passerbys and things without the awareness of the subjects, her camera hidden, 'Yet, these portraits reveal something infinitely personal, as if the photographer and her subjects were bound by an invisible pact' (IBASHO, 2024)  It can seem like that in the image as if the image were meant to exist.  The image below of the boy standing by the bed, looks ghostly, angelic and so still as if asleep.  I remember my own child when he was very young and could not sleep or had a bad dream just standing by my bed in this way (used scare me so much, to awake to find him just standing there).  Again the soft colours and gentle light are present and in the frame the domestic environment seems to hold the boy in place within the frame. 

Soto states of Small Myths that; 'Hara’s personal vision full of authenticity and intimacy is established throughout a lively sequence of pictures, regardless of whether they were taken in her living room or the streets of Japan.' (Soto, 2023) and this is certainly true it does feel as if by looking at these images we are intruding in a personal moment, even in the image below of the pear, it feels intimate and personal.  Small Myths is work made over two and a half decades (Colberg, 2023) Colberg argues that Hara' photography; 'is based on connecting with things and people, on being in and with the world — and not on extracting pictures.' (Colberg, 2023) I think this is important as pictures that are good come from an understading a connection to teh subject in some way and taht is what I am hoping to achieve in my own work.

From Small Myths (2022) By Mikiko Hara

I am unsure what I will photograph, I have ideas and thoughts but nothing concrete and with this in mind I took a few practice shots, I thought that they were overexposed and I have not quite understood the idiosyncrasies of the camera yet (all cameras have their quirks!) The practice shots here are just called 'Sunday Morning' these were shot using the manual polaroid with I-Type black and white film.  I used settings of F16, 1/125 and I adjusted the exposure compensation.  I used a tripod and the self-timer function

'Magic'

In this first image I liked it that the only thing that was clear was the word 'magic' across my t-shirt

'Pensivity'

Here the pose worked and the framing, I will work more on this image, I may shoot this again in colour thinking of Hara with the soft tones and gentle lighting

'Day Slumber'

I liked the colour tones here and I may work more in colour as it is a very soft look. I like it that I am overexposed on one side, as if I am disappearing.

I will experiment further with my own images and I particularly like the idea of working with the tonality of the colour film and will try to explore this further. 

References

Colberg, J.M. (2023). Small Myths. [online] Conscientious Photography Magazine. Available at: https://cphmag.com/small-myths/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2024].

IBASHO. (2024). Mikiko Hara - Series. [online] Available at: https://ibashogallery.com/artists/46-mikiko-hara/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2024].

Soto, A. (2023). Mikiko Hara - Small Myths. [online] c4 journal. Available at: https://c4journal.com/mikiko-hara-small-myths/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2024].

Yoshinaga, M. (2024). Mikiko Hara - Photography Artist. [online] Miyako Yoshinaga. Available at: https://miyakoyoshinaga.com/artists/mikiko-hara/overview/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2024].

Project Sign Off: Mortality & The Photograph

 I have now finalised my project and this, in my case, has been signed off by me!  Below is an image from Karen Knorr who also uses Photographs and Text.  Below is from 'Gentlemen'; 'The photographic works Gentlemen (1981-1983), photographed in English gentlemen’s clubs in Saint James’ in central London, consider the patriarchal values of the English upper middle classes with text constructed out of speeches of parliament and news. The complete series of 26 images and texts investigate the values that ally these classes to conservative aristocratic values where primogeniture is still an issue in a country symbolically ruled by a constitutional monarchy' (Knorr, 2014) Knorr's image and text pieces are beautifully constructed and presented and this is is an example of the kind of work I intend to produce over the term.

From Gentlemen 1981–1983 by Karen Knorr

Black and White Silver Bromide Prints on Ilford Paper

50 x 60 cm / 20 x 24 in

Edition of 10 + 1 AP

My own Project Sign Off can be found here. My images will not be as formalised and will be taken using a manual polaroid camera.

References

Knorr, K. (2014). Gentlemen | Karen Knorr. [online] karenknorr.com. Available at: https://karenknorr.com/photography/gentlemen/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2024].

SMART Objective: Photography & Death

This is my SMART Objective for this term.  I will be exploring themes of mortality and the image using images I will make on a Polaroid camera in the manner of Robert Mapplethorpe

Untitled (self-portrait), 1974 By Robert Mapplethorpe

 In my photography project I will be creating this term in Digital Arts a Photo and Text book.  I intend to take photographs using a manual Polaroid camera that I am learning how to use, these images will be black and white and will be on the concept of photographs and mortality.  I will be adding text that will be in the form of poetry or prose that will work in conjunction with the images. I will create a book using Blurb and I will create a Flipbook to go onto my digital Portfolio on my website.  This will be completed by 10th December 2024.

Milanote: Intended Research

 Today I created a milanote just explore my intended research for my Photography and Death project.

Death & Photography

I have added the intended research here which will be the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, Nobuyoshi Araki and Mikiko Hara.  Mikiko Hara's works are new to me and use the snapshot technique, just collecting passing moments, street photography but also photography of objects and buildings. 

Untitled, 2014 from These are Days Dei (#052), 2014 by Mikiko Hara

In the image above Hra captures this empty urban landscape with evidence of a person living in the space with the bed/tent and trolley.  this reminded me very much of Wim Wenders Places Strange and Quiet.  I like the traces of human existence, evidence of life. I will discuss all my research in much more detail throughout the term in relation to my own work, looking forward to discovering new and occult beauty.

Major Project: Initial Ideas

 It is major project time again in Digital Arts!  This term I am unsure what form my project might take.  However, I have been dreaming of the end and I am reminded again of Araki's images of his wife's funeral.  Araki stated in Tokyo Still Life; 'Someone has said that "photography is the medium of death", That as long as you are using photography you are conscious of death. you can't get beyond death' (Araki:2001:5) I think this has been weighing on my own mind, once an image is taken it is death as that moment is gone and the photograph is just a remembrance.

Nobuyoshi Araki (1990) From Winter Journey

In Sentimental Journey (1971)  Araki, through his images, tells of the love story with his wife and this image is shot 20 years later after his wife died of ovarian cancer. United Nations of Photography states of the book Winters Journey; 'One of the last scenes is a close-up of the casket: hands place orchids around the dead woman’s body, and Chiro appears again, on a book cover placed by her head. The photograph manages to be moving and beautiful, but also shocking. Not just because of the death of this lovely and still young woman, but because of the intimacy of the image.' (Hayes, 2016) Intimacy is throughout Araki's images whether it is a couple eating in a diner, a flower, a tree branch or an explicit image of women in ropes.  Araki's images always make you feel part of the image, we enter the frame.  We touch the frozen image

Nobuyoshi Araki(1996-1997) Private Tokyo

I was also thinking of Robert Mapplethorpe's last self-portrait.  Here below, Mapplethorpe's slightly sunken face looms out from the darkness, his hand is strong and holding onto the walking stick with a death's head.  Mapplethorpe died on the 9th March 1989 of AIDS. 'In the three years after his diagnosis in 1986,  the artist organized the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to manage his estate, support the medium of photography in arts institutions and fund HIV/AIDS medical research.' (Vin de Vie Wine of Life, 2019) Mapplethorpe lived with the shadow of death after contracting HIV and, at the time there was no cure he spent the last years ordering his estate to support the fight against HIV/AIDs whilst supporting photography and the arts.

Self-Portrait, 1988, platinum-palladium print.  Solomon R. Guggenheim, NY. 

Mapplethorpe's work also has intimacy and beauty his images of flowers with their curves and how the light seems sensual against the delicate petals and stems are beautifully shot, just as beautifully as his images of men, whose curves imitate the curve of the flowers.  Mapplethorpe's Flowers were; 'described by Patti Smith as “worthy conspirators in the courting and development of conflicting emotions. [Mapplethorpe] came to embrace the flower as the embodiment of all the contradictions revelling within.”' (Document Journal, 2015)

Calla Lily (1988) by Robert Mapplethorpe

These images, these still life's, live within the frame but are also the embodiment of death as both the flower and the man will never be as beautiful again as each day we live we walk closer to death.

Ajitto (1981) Gelatin silver print, printed 2009 

These images are my meditation on an idea, a thought that keeps returning  I am thinking I would like to make a small book that has both photographs and text. The text may be poems that are about my own mortality or death in a photographic image accompanied by photographs that illustrate the poems in some way.  I will consider this idea further as I would like to really take photographs this term and go back to where I started in photography to revisit ideas and techniques and look at new ways to see.  I also want to experiment with a manual Polaroid that I have not had a chance to enjoy and learn and see what I can do with an unfamiliar camera.

References

Araki N. (2001) Tokyo Still Life (Text by Adrian Searle), Ikon Gallery Birmingham.

Document Journal (2015). Mapplethorpe’s Flowers by Marcela Gutiérrez. [online] Document Journal. Available at: https://www.documentjournal.com/2015/04/mapplethorpes-flowers-by-marcela-gutierrez/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2024].

Hayes F. (2016). REVIEW: ‘Araki’ at MNAAG Paris, 2016. [online] The United Nations of Photography. Available at: https://unitednationsofphotography.com/2016/06/30/review-araki-at-mnaag-paris-2016/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2024].

Vin de Vie     Wine of Life. (2019). ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE:  Five Self-Portraits and a Legacy without Price. [online] Available at: https://vindevie.me/2019/06/28/robert-mapplethorpe-five-self-portraits/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2024].

Sentinel - Final Advert

 As I was attempting to make my final piece, I continued my search for a woman in armour that I had in mind, depressingly all the images (and there are thousands) are sexy, pretty women in armour, many AI-generated.  I do feel feminism is going backwards and this idea of generating the perfect woman is rather disturbing.  Tomorrow Woman states that as a woman; 'The mainstream pressures of ‘looking the part’ and living up to unrealistic standards has been taken into a completely new realm with AI. We’re no longer dealing with the likes of Photoshop – instead, we’re battling hyper-intelligent algorithms that have no grounding in reality whatsoever.' (TW Diary, 2024) Deepfake porn and AI girlfriends are further evidence of this disturbing new world in which we all now live. I want to create an advert about women's safety and I am confronted by unrealistic images of women as content.  Obviously, if I was to create this in the real world I would have shot the images myself  and ensured I had exactly what I wanted.  After a frustrating search, I finally found a real woman that I thought would work in the advert.  All the images I used in the end were from Freepik with no AI generation!

To start the process I opened Photoshop clicked on New and then on Print, I chose A3, Landscape 300ppi (high resolution for print output) and chose a grey background as I intended to keep this as a frame.

I then used the same image in the background as my mock-up and changed it to black and white simply by clicking in the top menu on the image, adjustments and then black and white. I then clicked on 'select' in the top menu and then 'select all', I went to 'edit' and 'copy' 

I returned to the canvas clicked on 'edit' and 'paste' and used the transform controls to adjust size and position of the background image.

I opened the image of the woman I would use and again changed her to black and white using 'edit' and 'adjustments', I then clicked on the selection tool in the left hand menu and right-clicked to access the object selection.  I clicked on the women and selected her as the object and then copied her and pasted her into the canvas. 

I then used the same method to add the man in the background.  I added text by clicking on the Text tool in the left-hand menu and then clicking into the canvas to add a text layer.  I used High Tower Text at 44pts for the main tagline. I changed the colour to a very light grey and positioned using transform controls.

I then added the QR code I created in the previous post and added further text to strengthen my message.  The QR code works and goes to a guide to women for staying safe.

I liked the logo but thought I could do better so I created this again in Photoshop using bolder text (Gils Sans Ultra Bold) and a stronger image with a tagline as I felt this again strengthened the message.

I added the logo by just selecting and copying and pasting this into the canvas. 

I then cropped the frame and just quality-checked the final advert. I saved the final advert as a PSD and jpeg file.

This is my final advert ...

I was much happier with this than my mock-up - the woman was closer to my vision and was far more like the Joan of Arc character I had in mind. The logo is far improved and much stronger with the tagline and I like it that I have made this big so it is clear what the advert is for.  I think the tagline works. I also really like the working QR ode with real information available to women travelling alone. Obviously, if I had shot the images myself I would have had wider options and it would be far better than this but this gives a good idea of the concept and in the time given this is a fairly good outcome.

References

TW Diary (2024). Pixel Perfect: The Rise of AI-Generated Women and Its Impact on Society. [online] Tomorrowwoman.com.au. Available at: https://www.tomorrowwoman.com.au/blog-posts/pixel-perfect-the-rise-of-ai-women [Accessed 12 Oct. 2024].

Women's Safety Advert: Mock up Process & Final Piece

 I began my final process by looking for images that I could use in my final piece - I looked on Pexels, Pixabay and Unsplash.  

I started with trying to make a mock up as I was looking for women in armour and a train or train environment for my background.

I found these images on Pexels and Pixabay 

Woman in Armour by Kyraxys on Pixabay

Tunnel by Veneet Panchal

Man

I opened Photoshop and created a new canvas at 300ppi with a black background. This was A3 in size and landscape orientation.  I then opened the three images above that I was going to use.  I wanted them to be black and white so I went to the top menu and clicked on 'image' then 'adjustments' then went to 'black and white'.  I went to the image of the environment and to 'select' and then 'select all' in the top menu and then I clicked on 'Edit' then 'copy'.  I went to my canvas and clicked on 'Edit' and 'paste'.  I wanted to add the woman in the foreground, returned to the original image, and then clicked on 'Select' and 'Object 'on the left-hand tool menu.  I clicked on the woman and then right-clicked to copy.  I then went back to my canvas, clicked on edit and then paste and then changed the size and positioning of the woman using transform controls.  I repeated this process to add the man.  I then clicked on the Text tool in the left-hand menu and then clicked on the canvas to add a text layer I changed the font to High Tower Text at 47pts.  Finally, I added the logo that I made on Adobe Express and just used transform controls to position this.  I then saved this as a PSD and jpeg file.

This advert works okay but needs much more information and also I need better images as this was not my vision for the woman in the image.  I have now created information and a QR code to access this please scan the code to see the document. I will add this to my final poster.