Diane Arbus

Looking at photographers such as Meatyard and Tress have engaged me even further and I came across a photographer who I had heard of before but never thought to explore further, Diane Arbus. She was an American photographer and writer noted for photographs of marginalized people—dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers—and others whose normality was perceived by the general populace as ugly or surreal. This fits in with my theory of misplaced people in society and the way she styled her images reminded me of Meatyard.  I like the way her images are black and white and in a simple square to give a minimalism effect. Some of her most famous images include the giant, twins, grenade and circus performers.





I believe her work fits in well with my theory of people feeling out of place in society due to something they cannot help, in this case height or in my case mental health.I think she is a wonderful photographer who not only took care in her work but has create a gap in society where there should be no judgment.

Final images

Looking at my images I am really impressed with them and wanted to present them in a way the corresponds. I am a big fan of photos with a narrative which is what I found in my last years work based on the work WOODLAND and from all my research. I decided on an idea and spoke to my photography teacher who gave me a few pointers about timing and organisation and I sent my images off from print. Below I have added a final image proposal I write summering my final images and how I want to present them:

Psychotic misplacement

Throughout my research into misplacement I have begun to notice a lot of my work and the majority of my research works around a narrative. This being said my biggest inspiration for this work is Arthur Tress. Not only have Tress’ work helped inspire me but I have also looked into related artists, all of which their images revolve around a narrative. This narrative is what adds context and information around a subject in this case misplacement.  Along with Tress and some other visual artist I have a found interest in the way a story is formed and the images are just a small insight to the research behind it. With this in mind and my inspiration have a dramatic effect on my work I have developed an idea in which my final images will rake form. The idea of misplacement in not just a physical idea and my research has shown how I have taken this into account. On a more psychological level using my research from Tress but also using other types of research such as Sigmund Freud I have concluded my project with research into mental health. This image I have used to my advantage and with my final images I want to create a narrative. There is a lot of stigma surrounding mental health and although it is not spoken about in depth the problem for some is the mental fight with themselves. In this project I have brought my skills I photography and my artist ability to compile a project that not only looks at mental health but the way we judge them. My images contain 10 portraits that can be interpreted by the audience yet the narrative I have composed is with a boy with mental health issues. Although the images are striking it is a representation of his mental health and how he has to contain the emotions. It shows how people have to cope with such huge issues and yet are judged for not being able to see their problem.  Through the use of props I want to create a narrative of this boy and his troubled past resulting in a mental illness. Using case files such as doctors notes, drawing by the patient, daily check-ups, dietary information and general notes about the boy alongside my final images acting as portraits to tell the story.  The file will contain notes on some problems which I have done extensive research on to ensure I still respect the subject matter.  Overall I believe images tell a thousand words and with this project I want not only the images to speak for themselves but also allow the audience to interpret this in whatever way suits them.

charlottehobbsclick.blogspot.com

Editing and final images

From my images a few days ago I really liked how they came out. In order to use them as  my final images I need to edit them. With my theme of mental illness in mind I want to create an eerie effect and allow them all to match. After hours of editing all 13 images I edited them into black and white images with a higher contrast and brightness and slightly more grainy effect. I really like the way the images have come out and feel they will look really effect hung up on a wall as a collection.



Here are the final images:

Ticehurst House Hospital

ttp://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2014/10/a-victorian-lunatic-asylum-begins-to-reveal-its-secrets/

Dr Richard Aspin pursues the dramatic account by a Victorian barrister admitted to a lunatic asylum in 1875 in the newly digitised casebooks of Ticehurst House Hospital.

“I was therefore ‘removed,’ half-dying, in a state of semi-consciousness, I can scarcely remember how, to the castellated mansion mentioned in my first chapter. The wrong should have been impossible, of course; but it is possible, and it is law. My liberty, and my very existence as an individual being, had been signed away behind my back. In my weakened perceptions I at first thought that the mansion was an hotel. Left alone in a big room on the first evening, I was puzzled by the entrance of a wild-looking man, who described figures in the air with his hand, to an accompaniment of gibber, ate a pudding with his fingers at the other end of a long table, and retired. My nerve was shaken to its weakest, remember; and I was alone with him! It was not an hotel. It was a lunatic asylum.”

In this shocking account from Herman Charles Merivale (1839-1906)  it shows the way hospitals treated the mentally ill. Looking into this closer I am really interested in the treatment of the mentally ill during the Victorian era as it has always interested me. I love looking at the ways people were treated and what they were admitted to the hospital for. This has interested me due to the massive leap we have made in medicine and how different it is compared to today's mental health hospitals. This being said I researched for Victorian asylums and found some interesting stuff. I want to link this with my final project and my final images. The misplacement of the patients is quite interesting as they were put in the hospital for the most bizarre reasons. I have found afew images of this real life asylum and feel they link really well with the similar ideas from both Arthur Tress and Meatyard both of which I have researched and found as a big inspiration. 

Shoot #2

I looked at the past images using light and decided I wanted to re-shoot them. I used my boyfriend to create the images and the same settings.
I used  a tripod to keep the camera steady, the camera had a setting for a self timed in order to get into position and a slow shutter speed. This enabled me to capture the light on the model and catch the light waves in the images. Due to the focused light it lit up certain aspects of the models face and worked more effectively. I like the way the images look quite creepy due to the multiple faces in some of the images. I adds to the tense atmosphere I am looking for in my images. Here are some of the first images:

Although these images look creepy and are exactly what I want, I still wanted to better them. I started playing around with the images to create images that look like the person is screaming and showing more than one personality. 

From this I learnt a lot such as: 

-Using a more direct light works better

-playing with the shutter speed created different images

-these image took longer than expected due to me playing around with the camera and learning such new things.

This being said I wanted my images to stand out and again took my images after reviewing the last ones. Keeping my mental health theme in mind I started to focus the camera on certain parts of the face and asked the model to vary they light movements. This changed the way the images looked and started putting me on track. 

Here are the best images from the shoot including a contact sheet and a few of the best ones: 

RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD

RALPH EUGENE MEATYARd

When I first saw Meatyard's work through researching Arthur Tress I found it initially quite shocking. His work has a strange tense feeling about it and not only did it shock me because of that but the images themselves and of quite a intense scary narrative. His final series, The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater, completed shortly before he died in 1972, pays homage to his beloved family and talented friends. Monographs include A Fourfold Vision, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater and Other Figurative Photographs, among others.

An autodidact and voracious reader (it was said that he read books while driving), Meatyard made work in productive bursts, often leaving his film undeveloped for long stretches, then working feverishly in the makeshift darkroom in his home. "His approach was somewhat improvisational and very heavily influenced by the jazz music of the time".  Using his children as props to explore what could be called his prime subject, Meatyard addressed the surreal "masks" of identity and the ephemeral nature of surface matter.

Much of his work was made in abandoned farmhouses in the central Kentucky bluegrass region during family weekend outings and in derelict spaces around Lexington. Some of his earliest camera work was made in the traditionally African American neighborhood around Lexington's Old Georgetown Street.

His images although are strange I feel really inspired by them. I know typical photography once stereotypes tends to look more aesthetically pleasing and then the story behind it is quite simple. I want to contrast against this and create a narrative. Through my research between Meatyard and Arthur Tress I want to interpret misplaced through a story and explore deeper into my work. This will require a lot of research and a lot of work yet I feel it will be worth it in the end. 

Using my research into Freud and dream theory I want to continue exploring this in deeper detail and use it in my final work.

Below are some of Meatyard's work which shocked and caught my attention the most:

Mental Health Research- GRAPHIC IMAGES

Large Victorian public asylums haunt the history of psychiatry. They were hailed as places of refuge for some of society’s supposedly most vulnerable men and women. These buildings were called ‘lunatic asylums’, and later renamed ‘mental hospitals’. They earned a reputation as dehumanising, prison-like institutions.

Asylum physicians’ exaggerated claims of curing ‘lunacy’ by moral treatment backfired. Expensive but inflexible buildings became overcrowded, and by 1890 the majority of patients left only in coffins. Old techniques returned - straitjackets, seclusion and sedative drugs such as bromides were used on unruly patient

In the first half of the 1900s asylums (or ‘mental hospitals’) became testing grounds for controversial treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and lobotomy. These methods helped some patients function again, but they irreparably harmed others. Such therapies became widely used because doctors and nurses wanted to offer patients cutting-edge treatment. ECT and lobotomy, however, reinforced an old and persistent image of asylums as intimidating places of last resort.

Many mental hospitals closed in the 1970s and 1980s. This was due to pressure from the antipsychiatry movement, feminist criticism, ex-patient activism and political suspicion of large, unaccountable institutions. Other mental hospitals were converted to ‘short-stay’ treatment centres - a policy enabled by new psychiatric drugs. In the UK this was called ‘care in the community’.

Many patients were left homeless. Others, especially people with profound intellectual disability or brain damage, remain institutionalized in ‘care homes’ their entire lives. Such patients and ex-patients depend on loved ones or charity to weather political and economic changes. People without such shelter are often forgotten. This distantly echoes the situation of people called ‘mad’ in the Middle Ages.

Not only is this what I found out but I had a small idea about due to my past studies. In my AS Psychology we studied mental health and looked at ECT in great detail. In my studies I was very interested and explore this is a little more detail. I want to link a aspect of the older treatments of mental health as it adds to the scary element of my project.

Shoot for final images

Whilst doing all this research it engaged me and made me what to take some images. I looked at my past work and really liked the idea of using light but still wanted to look into mental health. I have had a previous idea of the way we can think and create ideas in our head and yet no one knows this. I kept this in mind and conducted a shoot.

 I used a slow shutter speed and a small pen light to create similar images with my teacher as a practice, I really like the way the images came out as they show the multiple different characters we have and the different way we act with people. In relation to misplacement it shows how multiple features allows the audience to interpret this for themselves.


Here are them images:

Repressing Memories and Photographer #10 Arthur Tress

"A repressed memory is the memory of a traumatic event unconsciously retained in the mind, where it is said to adversely affect conscious thought, desire, and action. It is common to consciously repress unpleasant experiences."

I took AS Psychology and really enjoyed it last year. We looked at a psychologist called Freud and his approaches to memories. His theory was this:

"Sigmund Freud emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind, and a primary assumption of Freudian theory is that the unconscious mind governs behavior to a greater degree than people suspect. Indeed, the goal of psychoanalysis is to make the unconscious conscious"

This has always interested me and yet the whole theory is quite bizarre. I wanted to look into how people view this. The way he believes our memories are misplaced within our unconsciousness and we have no choice or idea its happening.

Something shocking happens, and the mind pushes it into some inaccessible corner of the unconscious. Later, the memory may emerge into consciousness.



I started researching within this more and came across Dream Analysis and The Reality of Repressed Memories. I started to do some research into this and look deeper into it. Looking at dream analysis it really fascinated me. I love the idea that you can communicate what you see in your head and let someone analyse it and almost tell you what it means. I think this is quite a strange process and started looking for ways people are influenced by this. 

One way was a photographer who translated children's dreams in artwork through photography. The photographer Arthur Tress was found within my research. His work has an eerie feel and quite a chilling thought into the children dreams. 
His images are mostly black and white which give the scary feel. I also think the idea of him trying to recreate children's dreams a scary idea in itself. We cannot explain full what we are thinking as we all may have a different perception of the same thing. His idea of these dreams may be different to the actual dream and to someones perception. 
I love how some of the images are quite strange and almost represent the way children have these dreams which are completely unbelievable.  Yet the way some of the images almost represent the dreams or ideas adults can have the same thoughts that still can scare you no matter what your age. 



These are the images that I feel are the most effective out of them all:

Focused Research

Taking a look over at my bog and my past research I feel I am needing to look closer into a subject and develop this further. Due to my love of research I am researching quite a lot and finding it hard to specify. One of the topics I have always wanted to talk about is mental health and dreams. This sort of subject is an interesting one to me yet I have never found the reason to explore further. I believe not only do people with mental health feel misplaced in society but the older ways of treating people with mental health show a great lots of change which is another reason this is so interesting.

I want to explore photographers who look at darker topics and are not afraid to talk about such controversial topics such as mental health. I will research mental health, dreams and other ideas similar in great depth and see what I find.

Satoshi Tomizu- Microcosms

Small universes housed in glass spheres by Satoshi Tomizu

Each one of these pendants created by Japanese glass artist Satoshi Tomizu carries within it a whole galaxy. Though they’re no larger than an eyeball, the artist renders an entire galactic microcosm inside each sphere made up of opals, gold flakes, and swirling trails of colored glass. Looking inside one of these seemingly luminescent pieces could easily remind one of the starry night sky above. The spheres come with loops so you can easily chain them and wear them around your neck.

I found this and just really liked the idea of a small microcosm similar to this. I've always had a love for mood rings and love the way they represent so many things. I really like the way they a so small and yet they contain one of the biggest things in the universe. The colours and shapes are magical and create really nice images. 

I believe they would look even more beautiful with some light shining through them. 

Photographer #14 - Qiu Minye

Sculptures showered in light by Qiu Minye

Looking online I found this website: http://artistsinspireartists.com/sculpture/sculptures-showered-in-light-by-qiu-minye

The website allowed me to take inspiration from artist who create beautifully stunning pieces of work. Not only does it show work from artists and sculptors but other creatives like photographers and musicians. Here is one artist I found who looked at light and the way it can be turned into art.

"Chinese photographer Qiu Minye bathes his sculptures in sparks of light. The blue and purple toned pieces are showered with sparks that follow the silhouette of the forms and leave luminous trails as they bounce to the floor. In doing so, Minye alters the recognizable form into delicate and transparent shapes of animals, humans, and abstract objects. In his ongoing series, My God, the photographer aims to manipulate time and light to create his ethereal and delicate images. “A spark is a unit of time,” he says. “Flashes of light, give this life. This work is a response to temporal life.”

His work looks at the human form and the "luminous light trails". These two mixed create these pieces of art that would look amazing in the night. The small lights show a delicacy for human nature but the large scale of them can counteract this and how the dramatic effect of them.  I would love to recreate something similar using lights by maybe incorporating lights in nature and show a comparison between nature and people who live in it. 

Medium #1- Art

"The portraits of hundreds of endangered bird species are now on display in a beautiful series of artworks across Upper Manhattan. The Audubon Mural Project kicked off in October 2014 with a mission to depict the large number of birds threatened by global climate change. So far, 314 species are represented across 20 artworks in the area surrounding the old neighborhood of John James Audubon."

These pieces of art I came across whilst looking into the graffiti that raises awareness of subjects. I found this work on the side of buildings in Upper Manhattan and thought it not only looked beautiful but advertised a really big issue in the world. These beautiful pieces of artwork inspired me to create something bright and honest. I love the way the colours stand out and the way the birds catch your eye. I believe this is a really effective way of raising awareness endangered animals and birds specifically which in society are not noticed as much as other endangered animals. 

Medium #1- Art Banksy

Who is Banksy? Who is the man behind the art? It is a total mystery to all his fans and following his nomination for an Academy award his seat was left empty. What are the thoughts behind his work and why does he do it? His work from the start of his career has been a mystery to us all and not only is the artist himself a mystery but the work sometimes leads to multiple meanings or none at all. He takes issues and with a sense of humor allows the audience to acknowledge it further. His work is said to be very controversial. Some of his controversial work includes drawing depictions of the poor on hurricane-destroyed properties in New Orleans, painted scenes of children digging holes through the Israeli West Bank Barrier, and replaced 500 copies of Paris Hilton’s debut CD with remixes questioning her worth. It's no shock people find his work alarming.

This work I believe to be a way of expressing his opinion and although nobody is aware of his identity it makes his opinion a question to society. Is the things he create art worth talking about or are they subjects people tend to ignore?  

My research into this has given me an understanding of how he may feel these subject matters are viewed as misplaced. His work is almost a paradox as he uses controversial topics and explores then through graffiti which is seen as a controversial art form too. The misplaced nature of his work is seen by some audience members yet I believe it acts as a reminder of these issues. 

Misplaced items

Following up from the work I completed last week about Identity, I found that some of the images I had taken represent me and almost look misplaced when singled out. I started taking important objects that I believe sum up me and my personality and photograph them on their own. This means the images are focused on the object and not anything else. They image are unedited as I feel they don't need much changing.  I liked the way I set up the tripod in order to get the angle I wanted. These items although they make sense to me and I understand these specific items in this order, to some people it may look like a mis match of objects and therefore look misplaced.