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Encounter, 2016
I took this photograph in the woods, and used my phone torch to isolate the light on Leylas face.
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Is there a gothic photography?
‘Gothic’ is a term given to a specific genre of literature that was around between the 18th and 20th century. Gothic literature can be recognised by its themes and motifs which include fascination with death, the grotesque and the supernatural; ruins and dark, secret passages; repressed fears and desires; and twinning, doubling and doppelgängers.
The first wave of gothic literature was 1765-1820, the first gothic novel being ‘The Castle of Otranto’ by Horace Walpole. Only ten years later photography was invented, by Louis Daguerre in France (the Daguerreotype) and Henry Fox Talbot in England (invented the salted paper and calotype processes). In Britain in the 1700 and 1800’s there was a fascination with science, which could be seen as a backlash against religion and the authority the Church had over the state. During the latter end of this period, experiments were done on dead bodies to see if a current of electricity could bring someone back to life (which inspired Mary Shelley to write her gothic novel ‘Frankenstein’) and it was phenomena like this that captured society’s interest. The neurologist Duchenne De Boulogne, born in 1806, put electrodes on a brain-damage victims face to stimulate the muscles which was recorded in extraordinary photos.
Throughout the Victorian period there was a continued interest in Gothic ideas and motifs which reflected some parts of society’s growing interest in the supernatural and alternatives to traditional Christian beliefs. Ghost photography came about in the 1850’s accidentally when photographers such as Roger Fenton, observed that when sitters moved during the long exposures they became blurry and ghost-like. From the late 1850s onwards, ghost photographs were sold commercially, usually as stereocards. They were produced solely as novelties and amusements and no attempt was made to present them as genuine ghost photographs.
Contrastingly, ‘spirit’ photographers claimed that they were capturing an image of a deceased person with the help of a medium who was in contact with “the other side”. There was much controversy around these photos, with people arguing whether they were genuine or not. Supporters included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a great believer in the Cottingley fairy photos.
Although the term Gothic is given to literature from between the 18th and 20th century, it can still be applied to modern literature which has gothic content. For example, Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’, published in 1979. Carter uses settings such as castles, graveyards, dark forests, and writes of scary, supernatural villains threatening young, virgin girls. “Though Carter disliked the term being applied to her work, the Gothic tradition is clearly visible in this collection of stories.” www.yorknotes.com. Similarly to literature, I believe some photographers from the 20th century could be placed within the gothic genre. The master of gothic photography would be Joel Peter Witkin. “His work often deals with such themes as death, corpses (and sometimes dismembered portions thereof), and various outsiders such as dwarves, transsexuals, intersex persons, and physically deformed people” www.wikipedia.org. Witkin produced most of his work in Mexico, where he could legally get away with such a thing, and worked out a deal with the local hospital that let him pick up anonymous unclaimed body pieces to use in his artwork. Witkin does not make any reference to the Gothic himself, nor do art historians writing about his work, however, after researching him and being one of the main inspirations for my ‘nightmare’ module, I can find many reasons to place his work within a newly defined Gothic genre. In Witkin’s still lives there are visual themes such as abundance, exaggeration, plentifulness and of course, the macabre. He photographs societies ‘outcasts’. Witkin's practice of stitching together body parts (even making his own hermaphrodites) is a core motif of Gothic literature (Frankenstein’s creature).
Inspired by Witkin, I set up my own gothic still life. I tried to emulate the theme of abundance by using a lot of wine bottles. Hundreds of years ago wine would have been a sign of wealth and fortune. I used dolly heads, in place of Witkin’s real heads, although I wanted to keep the theme of real flesh in my photos and compensated for this with the plate of raw meat. I cropped the picture so that there was as little negative space as possible, to give the photo a feeling of fullness. In Photoshop I brought out the greens in the background, to give the photo a connection to the greens of nature and forests, and brought out the blacks in the photo to emphasize the shadows and dark places, which is a common theme of the gothic.
Another photographer working in the 20th century whose work I believe belongs in a Gothic genre, is Diane Arbus, best known for her portraits of people who live on the margins of society. Having studied and responded to her work in a previous module, I have come to conclude that her work should also be defined as gothic. Her work includes imagery of twins, which gothic writers were very interested in and similarly to Witkin, her portfolio consists largely of photographs of transvestites, dwarfs, and many other ‘outcasts’ of society. The theme of ‘other’ is very present in classic gothic novels, for instance Frankenstein’s Creature, in Mary Shelley’s novel, is an outsider. He occupies a liminal space in which he belongs neither to one species nor the other. The ‘other’ in Angela Carters ‘The Bloody Chamber’ is also a strong theme. Characters occupy liminal spaces and are between states (for instance the werewolf who is neither human nor wolf) and in being so are rejected by society. Arbus also took a collection of people in masks. This relates huge to the gothic, as masks conceal ones identity and therefore creates mystery and often have a sinister undertone.
In my most recent photoshoot I wanted to bring together all the aspects from previous nightmare shoots I had done, as a culmination of the gothic. I first used the ‘bulb’ shutter setting, which enables you to manually keep the shutter open as long as you need, and used a torch to paint with light. I tried various staged scenarios in which I asked one of my two subjects to stay still, whist the other moved, creating a blurry, ghostlike presence in the long shutter speed. I also tried some very physical photos in which i asked one of my subjects to ‘strangle’ or man handle the other one. The camera shake and the lighting of the torch in the dark woods gave these photos a very sinister feel as though one had just stumbled across. I then tried just using the moon for my lighting, which gave the photos a very eery feel. The moon, especially full moon, is a common motif in the gothic genre. I feel these two photos are the most gothic I managed to achieve, and am most happy with. In the top photo, the low camera angle gives a sense of oppression, and your eye is drawn to the white slither of moon we can see behind the trees. In the bottom photo, it takes a while for the eye to adjust and notice there is a figure in frame. Apart from the light on her forehead, she blends into the trees and becomes an ominous presence.
There are a lot of genres defined for photography, but not a ‘Gothic’ genre. When searching “gothic photography” in Google, amateur and ‘cheesy’ goth photographs come up, however nothing I would actually consider gothic in a literary sense. I believe the Gothic is a valid and important genre definition for the art form, with plenty of work by inspirational photographers to fill it.
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Bibliography www.wikipedia.co.uk www.yorknotes.com http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/10/theory-untitled-by-diane-arbus-review.html http://beautifuldecay.com/2013/11/04/diane-arbus-photographing-freaks-costumes-wear-year-round/ http://www.prairieghosts.com/ph_history.html http://www.prairieghosts.com/ph_history.html http://www.artnet.com/artists/joel-peter-witkin/
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Distortion, 05/2016
Exploring the beauty in the distorting effect water can have.
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Role Reversal, 02/2016
Taking the idea of a male Ophelia further, with a more ‘masculine’ model.
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Girl With A Hoop Earring, 04/2015
Nan Goldin is a constant source of inspiration to me, I took this in response to her mirror photographs.
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Just friends, 06/2016
If I can photograph two females in the bath together why can't I photograph two males?
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Christ Being Taken Down From The Cross, 06/2016
The shape of Lennox’s (right) body reminded me of the famous paintings of Christ being taken down from the cross.
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