The grey area has multiple meanings and interpretations but all of them revolve around one basic subject of confusion where what you are not entirely certain what to photo is or what the photo is of. It could be the subject of the photo doesn't fit with the surroundings it is taken in, for instance a gun on a piece of cardboard there is no reason for those two to be together. That is just a physical interpretation of the grey area, a more mental interpretation is that the place the photo is taken has no meaning or purpose, for example a building foundation but no building on it. It is confusing to know what purpose that it has. For me the grey area has many different interpretations for different scenarios. it could be that the grey area is the middle ground between common sense and hysteria or that every photo taken is in a grey area of it's own with it's own interpretation of why it is in the grey area.
Experiment in Storytelling
Then we printed out those 12 photos cut them out and arrange them in a format that creates a story. I did 2 different formats of creation a story one more logical that the other which is the one I decided to use for when I put predetermined captions we were given before hand to assign to the photos.
The order I chose to put the captions on the photos was done in a way that made no sense when read in order. So I decided to put the photos in a order that makes sense but I put the captions in a order that doesn't the main reason being it creates a contradiction between the the photos and the captions which gives me a sense of confusion and uneasiness when looking at it.
Evaluation
When I was first formatting the photos I saw that the first format was made on common sense whereas the second format was made on a sort of instinct where I put the photos in a order without much thought and saw that the order made no sense but had an idea commonality in the order. When I started adding the captions I chose to add the captions onto the common sense format as when I read through the captions they made no sense so I thought about adding chaos to the order to see if it created something akin to a balance between them, which I would say I achieved as when your reading the captions in the order of the photos the whole series makes no sense but when they are on there own they make a sort of sense.
Series at home
This series was taken at home and had a guide for 8 kind of photos we needed.
* A disguised portrait
* A doorway
* Tree bark
* An empty path
* A message
* A broken fence
* An abandoned object
* A glass or cup
for me the photos story is the process through the the guide of the kind of photos needed and the motion of taken them in a time frame I set for my self in 20 minutes. The reason why I added a time limit to take the photos is because it will make me think quick and it will give it a story that does not need to be made up. not all of them are of the guide photos and the reason being was that I was trying to fill the 20 photos that I needed which gives a sort of flavour to the story of my thought process.
I asked someone what they thought the story was that of a boy who just woke up and started to take photos of things he found interesting objects around the house and just took photos of them and this story is very simple and quite close to what actually happened as I just found stuff that fit the criteria and interesting objects that I found but the fact that someone can get that story from these photos from the multitude of stories that could possibly be made gives a sense of success that I portrayed my fame of mind well which is an achievement for me.
* A disguised portrait
* A doorway
* Tree bark
* An empty path
* A message
* A broken fence
* An abandoned object
* A glass or cup
for me the photos story is the process through the the guide of the kind of photos needed and the motion of taken them in a time frame I set for my self in 20 minutes. The reason why I added a time limit to take the photos is because it will make me think quick and it will give it a story that does not need to be made up. not all of them are of the guide photos and the reason being was that I was trying to fill the 20 photos that I needed which gives a sort of flavour to the story of my thought process.
I asked someone what they thought the story was that of a boy who just woke up and started to take photos of things he found interesting objects around the house and just took photos of them and this story is very simple and quite close to what actually happened as I just found stuff that fit the criteria and interesting objects that I found but the fact that someone can get that story from these photos from the multitude of stories that could possibly be made gives a sense of success that I portrayed my fame of mind well which is an achievement for me.
A new series in class
When we entered class we were given 6 photos and we had to put them in a story.
For my story we started of with the black and white empty room and then moved on to the pen and ruler as the start of drawing the schematics and blueprints then to the actual construction and then to the old man and the containers as the supplier and then to the finished product and then the murder of the old man which I came up with he wa killed by the drug cartel for a supply route through the containers.
Jack Latham
Sugar paper theories
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Jack Latham is a photographer who has been taking photos for quite a long time and as had many shows books and awards for his work and the work he mostly publishes is of the muddle between the truth and the false around prominent cases. Sugar paper theories is a documentary book on a famous murder case in Iceland and how everything happened the story as a whole is intriguing as the method for the false confessions falls in the grey are of wether it is unethical or ethical to do what they did. This work fits perfectly in a standard definition of what the grey area is but it is a completely factual book which does not fit with the grey area as the grey area is the in between which is why I personally think it means it is no longer in the grey area as the book shows the truth if it included pieces of information that might not be true and the reader has to determine for themselves what is the truth then the book would belong to the grey are but as the book is now it should not belong in the grey area.
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This work shows the basis of documentary uncertainty which is basically where the truth was hidden by something or a process. Documentary photos on the basis they are related to a story in the real world and that it is factual but sometimes the photos are manipulated into telling a different story. Now this book show the documentary in the process of the original investigation. The photos which are edited for them to be fact have to be believable for people to accept it. The fact that documentary uncertainty is widely known shows that there are a lot of people that try to gain from it and this is why the whole process of it is in the grey area as the person doing it is creating a story that could have some truth to it to gain from the spread for whatever reason and it that process of creating a story which is in the grey are as you are deciding what is the truth and what it is false the muddle between the two is the grey area.
Parliament of Owls
Parliament of owls is another one of jack's works around conspiracy theories, This book is around the secret meetings between people in powerful positions in the world and when people look into people in power in tv shows and movies they usually get killed in some mysterious way and when I first looked at the some of the photos my original guess was that it was a cult due to one photo in particular with the mask and that was also my first thought due to watching to many tv shows and movies of seeing similar things. With the secrecy behind every meeting and also what they discuss specifically in the meeting is unknown all we do know is that they do some odd things like burning effigies which is very cult like but exploring the idea of the secrecy and seeing where they meet and taking photos of the meeting place and the surrounding area in the town sort of gives light to some of the unknowns about the area and what it looks like. Holding the book it feels more like a document than a book and with the secret pages in the book it gives it more of a feel of secrecy and more like a government document that your not supposed to read which also give more of an incentive to read it the book is quite thick and kind of look odd with that triangular end which gives it a amateurish feeling but it is a good quirk to a book as it is not normally done.
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While the notion of a document is historically tied to ideas of certitude and confirmation and is primarily used in the legal realm, this certitude has all but vanished from contemporary consciousness. The experiences of the 20th century, its large-scale enterprises of propaganda and disinformation, have created an attitude, which could be called habitual distrust as well as advanced media literacy. Documentary modes still appeal to institutional modes of power/knowledge and cite their authority, but the effect is rather a perpetual doubt; a blurred and agitated documentary uncertainty.
Maria Lind and Hito Steyerl, the greenroom: reconsidering the docuandmentary and contemporary art
Homework
We were told to create a series of 5-10 photos about a true story or a memory and I decided to keep it to a simple memory that you will get straight away or struggle and it is the process of making my dinner on a Wednesday night. The reason I chose this memory for my story is mainly due to the fact that the mystery is in its simplicity and the struggle to figure it out otherwise. The photos themselves are not particularly extravagant or special as their simplicity is the main factor as to why it makes it difficult to figure out. Another reason I chose this story is that it is close to me and something I am entirely familiar with and gives a sense of familiarity as a lot of people have done the same thing or something similar in this confined space called the kitchen.
Relationship between text and image
In class we looked at the relationship between text and image and these are the relationships I see on my way to school some are a bit odd while some are completely normal with the road sign of the humps but the other road sign with the parking contradict each other and there are many different types of text that can be portrayed and the relationship with the surrounding is up to interpretation.
Cao Fei 'Nova'
Cao Fei's work gives a sense of the surreal and the possible futures for humanity. In a way his newer work portrays future documentary photography with the dynamic set up for these photos and the work in post edit creating a new world which is being documented. even though the premise behind the photos are fiction the process of creating it is using fact like a facade behind the true fact and even though you know what your looking at is purely based on fiction it doesn't change the fact that it is very nice to look at and wonder if what you see could become a reality and it is the fact that you know that it is not and the fact is that the process making it is outstanding.
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In the 'nova' video you can see the amount of time to create that feeling of actual reality and when coupled with the photos you feel immersed into the work and it is like the feeling of not wanting to leave out of pure curiosity of what you might see.
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Poulomi Basu 'Centralia'
Poulomi basu is a more factual photo journalist with her following wars and the people affected by it and the grey area is the fact that there are pictures of war and the scenery of it but there are photos of people having fun partying and looking at both images you would not think that they are related and for me it gives a sense of unease of where it will be heading. With this centralia series of photos following the lives of these seeming ordinary citizens pick up weapons to survive makes me think about the reasons why it happened and I think I know what caused them to pick it up but why did they have to this is another grey area zone with the ability to not answer a seemingly simple question.
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Exhibition piece
We were tasked out of the images we have taken to create a presentation of a specific idea we have with our images but they have to relate to the grey area
out one oddThis is the title for the layout I have done mainly due to the fact there there are to many oddities in the pictures between each of them and it is just the reverse of odd one out where you find the the that does not fit in with the rest but here in the reverse your not finding what fits them together but the common things that don't fit them together.
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Final product
This is the final layout for my exhibition
For my final layout and product I have decided to create a tint amount of space between each photos to sort of symbolise the passage way for new connections between each image. I have chosen these photos for the main reason that it is hard to find common connections between each of them so you have to look for connections between what makes them them different. I have also put the photos on and angle to make people twist their head and think differently, as when you look at these images on an angle it poses the question why and I mainly did it to twist people necks and strain them selves thinking about it for the plain reason of it is different and makes them see different things every time you twist your neck. each 3 of the photos outside are form the same series which will make it easier to find connections between them but the one inside is not and that is the challenge to find connections between them and the one inside. It is easy to find the odd one out but deciphering and finding out what out one odd is makes the whole premise.
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Resemblance Perspective
Location: walls inside of the buildings (spread around the building) so people when looking for it will try to have to remember and go back maybe to look at it again and see the connections.
Description: As the title suggests each artwork is based on the same idea hence resemble each other but they are of different perspectives around it. Visitors are free to draw your own conclusion on any piece of work, you can look at the pieces of work in any order and make connections between them. The photographers have each created one piece of work and have given them their own titles about that work. Each have based it on the grey area and you can draw your own conclusion on what that means and relate it to any work.
Exhibition date: 10th-21st of January
Resources required: display materials for the work and equipment to put it on the walls e.g bluetack or tape
Technical support: printers and manpower to help set up on the walls
Description: As the title suggests each artwork is based on the same idea hence resemble each other but they are of different perspectives around it. Visitors are free to draw your own conclusion on any piece of work, you can look at the pieces of work in any order and make connections between them. The photographers have each created one piece of work and have given them their own titles about that work. Each have based it on the grey area and you can draw your own conclusion on what that means and relate it to any work.
Exhibition date: 10th-21st of January
Resources required: display materials for the work and equipment to put it on the walls e.g bluetack or tape
Technical support: printers and manpower to help set up on the walls