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unseen photography book
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BA (Hons) Photography 2011Leeds College of Art
Adrian Davies, 2011
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The medium of photography is embedded within society and culture fulfilling a range of purposes from commercial, artistic, documentary to vernacular and snapshot photography. Cameras are used by a continuously increasing number of people and the number of images in the world is overwhelming, with billions of images uploaded to the internet alone. The professional photographer now has competition from the amateur photographer and the sheer scale of images already in existence to produce engaging images.
This has been encouraged through constant changes in camera technology as manufacturers are financially driven to make the process accessible for use by the public at large. With the possibilities of digital technology, we are fully immersed and bombarded by images. Not only are the general public more liberated with their use of the camera to record their personal lives, but they are also happy to place the images in the public forum of internet sites for the world to see. Long gone are the fears of the camera stealing souls,
FOREWORD
replaced by a knowing awareness of how the camera ‘sees’ and can project a persona of ones self into the public realm.
The professional photographer has to work hard to find engaging subjects and make their images distinctive for them to have impact. As technology changes so does the role of the photographer. The documentary photographer has to find new ways to represent events when competing against public eyewitnesses who record events with their mobile phone camera and make dramatic images that are a common feature in news coverage of world events.
As the world and our lives are recorded more frequently and covertly, the role of the photographer becomes even more important. CCTV cameras record mundane scenes continuously without consideration to composition and the ‘decisive moment’. Google’s software Streetview uses photographs to create a virtual world where time is blurred and images are stitched together to create 360° views of locations, enabling us to explore areas we don’t have to
physically visit to get a sense of space. Yet to walk through this virtual world is still a complex and difficult experience. Streetview reiterates the important point that photography is all about ‘looking’ and the need to be selective in what is recorded and what the motives are for doing so. The still image can focus our ‘looking’ at the world and help us question or make sense of it.
Looking, responding and communicating has been central to the practice of the photographers within this publication. The photographers have followed their individual interests to make visually engaging and thought provoking images within a range of subjects and contexts. Sometimes the most obvious things around us can go ‘unseen’ without the help of a photographer to focus our thoughts and attention. The camera may still be the mechanical recorder of what it is pointed at, but the personal intention and vision of the photographer is crucial to creating images that will challenge us to examine our understanding of the world.
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CONTENTS
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KIRSTY GARLAND 85
ROSIE COX 57
RACHEL BARKER 53
JOSH ROSE 81
JAYDE SCREATON 77
ALEX POLL 05
DOUGLAS TONKIN 37
ROBERT WIGMAN 33
BUNGLE BROWN 29
FREYA KRUCZENYK 09
ANNE-MARIE ATKINSON 13
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www.unseen-photography.co.uk
LAUREN PISSOCHET 73
HOLLY SAXTON 49
ELEANOR SMITH 45
AMY COCHRANE 41
POLLY PARKER 25
JOHN ROY 21
DAN ROSS 17
MARK ZACHARY HELMORE 93
JACK BOOTH 69
HANNAH-RACHELSUNDERLAND 61
MARIA GALVIN 89
JOE CREFFIELD 65
The Journeys In Between
Travelling alone through familiar and foreign landscapes, an infinite composition passes by. Nuances and poignancies are captured by the eye that please and evoke a sense of beauty and serenity. Only being alone allows one to fully feel and become enveloped by them.
This Page: A Face Through the TreesNext Page [left to right]: A Stain on the Wall in Assisi / Night Travels, 7
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+44 (0)753 399 4122www.alexpoll.co.uk
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ALEX POLL
05
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Something to do with Ruins
Both ruin and photograph are fragments, deemed to connect us to a place in time, with a certain and knowable history, yet both somehow held in a perpetual present. The impulse to photograph is the impulse to preserve; this is surely central to photography. A similar impulse asserts itself in the preservation of ruins and it is the parallel, this allegorical relationship that is here explored.
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+44 (0)758 208 [email protected]
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FREYA KRUCZENYK
09
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Untitled
By merging documentary with fine art practices to scrutinise the provocativeness of everyday, recognisable scenarios, Anne-Marie Atkinson creates familiar yet ambiguous narratives. The images consider the manifestations and difficulties of close relationships; what we can truthfully interpret from a still photograph; and the various contemporary influences on the individual. Creating breathing space for contemplation on the interrelated issues, she aims to hint at a ‘universal sympathy’, the common yet potentially isolating experience of being human.
This Page: Jayne and Paige with a Floral Dress, 2011Next Page [left to right]: Erin and Coco in the Car, 2011 / Rhea and Boys on the Bus, 2011
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+44 (0)789 006 [email protected]
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ANNE-MARIE ATKINSON
13
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Body Builders
This series focuses on the aesthetics of bodybuilders, and how men construct themselves. Without judgement or bias the images simply present each subject topographically for the viewer to construct their own impression of this intriguing group – are the men ‘clones’, or do they retain their personal traits even when shot, processed and positioned identically? The images also reference advertising portraiture, the industry the photographer aspires towards. In historical painting and sculpture it is common for male bodies to be presented as godlike and perfect, a tradition furthered in contemporary media, which raises questions of the affect this representation has on the spectator.
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+44 (0)791 989 [email protected]
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DAN ROSS
17
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Beyond the Flesh
Basing his practice around a personal interpretation of beauty within the world, John Roy asserts that form does not necessarily have to follow function. Some things in life can have the sole purpose of being visually pleasing; the aesthetics of an object or a person can be just as important as the function they fulfill. John Roy explores these ideas through documentary/street and fashion photography.
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JOHN ROY
21
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Playing with People’s Fears
This project highlights the ambiguity of the still image. In contemporary society, it can be easy to assume things that are not necessarily true. The media encourage a state of fear and anxiety. Through fashion photography, this project deals with this tension, asking the spectator to judge the narrative and characters in the images.
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POLLY PARKER
25
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Cheap Meat
Having previously explored freeganism, this work examines how the mass industrial scale production of food allows a large amount of the resulting produce to be wasted. To illustrate this, the photographer has undertaken a systematic and lengthy process; involving photographing a chicken everyday from the day it hatches to the age of 39 days, the point at which if raised on an intensive farm, it would be slaughtered for meat.
This Page: Skipped MeatNext Page [left to right]: Day 13 / Day 27
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BUNGLE BROWN
29
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Open Net-Wireless 1692
This project looks at the unobserved, self-contained environments of Wi-Fi zones. Geographically, a city is made up from a collection of streets and addresses, but in contemporary society it also constitutes an environment created by the personal boundaries of Wi-Fi zones, involving passwords and names chosen by the zone owners. The focus of exploration for Robert Wigman in this project is to visually capture these undocumented, personally-constructed contemporary spaces.
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ROBERT WIGMAN
33
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+44 (0)772 901 4244robertwigman@[email protected]
Transient Systems
Using photography as a form of social documentary, Douglas Tonkin allows the viewer to deconstruct and analyse society. Shooting on 35mm film, he slows down the image making process, creating more considered compositions. Transient Systems focuses on the state of limbo created within society by the transport system, where the commuter, despite being part of a busy metropolis, becomes isolated and absorbed in the self.
‘Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.’- Walker Evans, 1960
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+44 (0)784 960 [email protected]
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DOUGLAS TONKIN
37
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Untitled
This project explores the ideas and emotions of the unconscious mind. Using the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud, the dramatic thoughts of the mind are usually trapped inside, whilst what we choose to show on the surface are sensible personality traits. The images depict powerful and dramatic scenes, leading the viewer to presume the worst. However, closer inspection may believe this interpretation, as a more innocent perspective emerges. The images play with the viewers’ expectations in the hope of leading them to re-examine their assumptions.
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+44 (0)774 748 [email protected]
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AMY COCHRANE
41
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Fishing: UAE
This project is an investigation into the state of the fishing industry in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is a study of location, technique, lifestyle and above all the effects that large-scale commercial fishing has on the marine environment. The photographer has created a series of images to highlight current social and environmental concerns, demonstrating that without change the future of the oceans, the marine life they support and those whose livelihood comes from small-haul fishing, is in serious jeopardy.
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+44 (0)771 765 9241+971 (0)50 153 [email protected]
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ELEANOR SMITH
45
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Atelier
In the world of fashion rarely do we see works-in-progress or unfinished garments before they grace catwalks and glossy magazines. This project is a documentary take on the world of those normally photographed by fashion photographers. Holly Saxton challenges boundaries, fulfils curiosity and explores unseen aspects of this sometimes intimidating and elusive world. Does the glitz and the glamour live on after Fashion Week? Is everything as beautiful and perfect as what is shown in magazines? Blurring the line between fashion and documentary, the grainy fly-on-the-wall aesthetic contrasts with airbrushed magazine images and challenges stereotyped ideas about the fashion world.
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+44 (0)794 900 [email protected]
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HOLLY SAXTON
49
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Being
‘Portraiture challenges the transiency or irrelevancy of human existence.’- Richard Brilliant, 1991
An ongoing project exploring how people respond when encouraged to just ‘be’. Recording the relationship between the subject and the photographer, the series is linked by psychological representations of the self, restrained not only to the sitter. The photographer invites the viewer to create their own understanding of each portrait, enforcing another relationship – that between the viewer and the person behind the glass.
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[email protected]/raychelark
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RACHEL BARKER
53
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The Unobserved Observer
Most people use a mirror every day to do their hair, shave, brush their teeth etc. Placing a camera behind the mirror creates an opportunity to photograph the relationship we have with the image of ourselves. Capturing people looking at their own reflection without knowing they are being photographed allows the viewer an exclusive view of this unique, self-assessing way of looking. This project explores the relationships we have with self identity, the public and the ethixs of photographing public spaces.
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+44 (0)792 965 [email protected]
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ROSIE COX
57
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Setting the Mise-en-Scène
Setting the Mise-en-Scène is a project exploring the moment of transition, between before and after. This conveys a narrative forming through still imagery that includes interior and exterior shots that create a sense of curiosity and suspense; it combines a cinematic style with documentary photography.
This Page: TwilightNext Page [left to right]: Lion Tamer / Fight Before Christmas
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HANNAH-RACHEL SUNDERLAND
61
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HANNAH SUNDERLAND
Hold It
Joe Creffield’s series of images explore the way people react when placed in front of the camera lens. It’s not about voyeurism or capturing people at their most vulnerable, rather this project references the vernacular, the every-day way in which subjects’ pose or smile for the camera. We do it because we are told to do it, but do we ever really mean it?
This Page: MikeNext Page [left to right]: Simon / Hannah
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JOE CREFFIELD
65
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Misadventures
Drawing attention to the abandoned, the derelict and the unappealing by transforming them into enchanted, inviting scenes. Bringing new light to forgotten places and re-beautifying the decrepit and the overlooked.
This Page: York Street - Duke StreetNext Page [left to right]: Buslingthorpe Lane - Scott Hall Street / Mabgate - Hope Road
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+44 (0)777 915 [email protected]@gmail.com
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JACK BOOTH
69
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Sensing Self
The artist strives to explore a hidden truth about us as human beings by capturing an image that pushes the viewer to consider his or her own invisible world, a place that is always hidden behind a delicate veil in reality. Sensing Self is an on-going project that allows the artist’s invisible world to become visible. The artist collapses the boundaries between photography and film in an attempt to represent and understand our internal space. The strange and sometimes unpredictable transitions of our emotions is revealed to us in extreme slow motion. Lauren Pissochet’s goal as an artist is to allow herself and the viewer to seek this position of betweenness and motion.
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[email protected]/laurenpissochetwww.laurenpissochet.com
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LAUREN PISSOCHET
73
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Reflections
‘We are immediately disturbed by wrinkles, pouches and other small imperfections which, in the classical scheme, are eliminated. By long habit we do not judge it as a living organism but something to be perfected…’ - Kenneth Clark, 1959
Following research into the female form and the idea of perfect beauty, this series looks into our own perceptions of ideal beauty and how we view ourselves as a result. In a world where we are bombarded by images selling us products that can improve us and by extension improve the quality of our lives, this work asks, do we even need perfecting?
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+44 (0)785 252 6106www.jaydescreaton.carbonmade.com
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JAYDE SCREATON
77
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Transgression of Space
This work is a revaluation of space. The perception and use of space is constantly changing in contemporary society, and this project considers how the public conceptualise and relate to their immediate environment, as well as alternatives to the social norm. The images feature action and capture movement to consider how we interact with and move through modern spaces.
This Page: Phil Cruise, Kick FlipNext Page [left to right]: Charlie, Back Tail pt.1 / Charlie, Back Tail pt.2
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[email protected]. joshrose.co.uk
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JOSH ROSE
81
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It’s a Mixed Up, Muddled Up,Shook Up World
With an eye for capturing unseen moments, Kirsty Garland’s photography aims to avoid the stiff and conventional. She brings her subjects to life in a manner befitting the person they are, the work they do or the music they make. It’s a Mixed Up, Muddled Up, Shook Up World documents those who make, enjoy, and live for alternative music of all styles. From stripped down rockabilly to technical metal - and everything in between – this project explores the melting pot of passionate, contemporary music.
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KIRSTY GARLAND
85
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Samso: A Portrait of the Danish Renewable Energy Island
Issues relating to the environment form the focus of Maria Galvin’s practice. This project deliberates the idea of sustainability in relation to the symbiotic relationship between man and environment.
This Page: Community engagement, public participation and local ownership have contributed to the successes of the Samso energy projectNext Page [left to right]: Ten offshore wind turbines compensate for the entire island’s transport emissions, including fuel consumption of three ferries / Heating is provided to the district of Nordby by a plant which uses solar power combined with locally grown wood chip
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+44 (0)7959 547 [email protected]
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MARIA GALVIN
89
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Dis-Place
Exploring many genres including industrial, architectural and urban landscapes, Mark Zachary Helmore’s practice lies on the edge of strict photography. Incorporating fine art and conceptualism into his projects, he examines themes of geometry, symmetry, structure and perspective, working with traditional film based media before employing the modern process of digital post-production. This body of work consolidates these various elements. At the heart of the work is the photographer’s personal aspiration of design, using architecture to fill the canvas and photography as the brush. An understanding of modernist architectural movements and the perception of realism underpin the cinematic aesthetic of these challenging images.
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+44 (0)789 630 [email protected]
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MARK ZACHARY HELMORE
93
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Publication Committee
Anne-Marie AtkinsonRachel Barker Alex Poll
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Sponsors
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Pholio
Jack BoothRobert Wigmanwww.pholio.co.uk
Pictures Plus
Lucy CareyPat Careywww.picturesplusleeds.com
Cribs
Timothy Smithwww.cribs.co.uk
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COURSE CONTACT
Leeds College of Art
BA (Hons) PhotographyAdrian Davies / Programme Leader
Leeds College of Art Blenheim WalkLeedsWest Yorkshire LS2 9AQ
+44 (0)113 202 [email protected]
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PrintDuffield Printers Ltd, Leeds
Stock170gsm Silk
Design
Emma Pricewww.emma-price.co.uk
Heather Bradleywww.heatherbradley.co.uk
Chloë Galeawww.chloegalea.co.uk
Carl Holdernesswww.carlholderness.co.uk
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