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My PowerPoint presentation visuals.

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Essay question.

8. Discuss one photographic case study (e.g., an image, article, book, or exhibition) using historical contextualisation as your main method. Reflect on how the context influences your understanding of the image(s).

 For my essay I have chosen to use question 8. I feel that through this blog and preparing for the seminar I have been able to understand the historical context of my topic and now can use that when analysing a photograph. For my topic I have also chosen to focus on protest photographs during the Vietnam War, with the conflict of the population back in America drawing most of my focus.

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seminar review.

Overall I think that our group did well in our presentation of our topics. We came at our brief from different angles giving different times of interest, for example mine being the Vietnam War. From my own point of view I should have focused more on using history method to analyse the images I choose, rather than focusing so heavily on context. I do feel with more time I could have got round to talking about it further.

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My notes from the presentation.

Marc Riboud

-French photographer

-known for political themes

-Made several trips to Vietnam and china during the course of the war.

Yoichi Okamoto

-white house photographer for Lyndon B. Johnson

-new York born and raised

-he aimed to capture the ins and out of a presidents life.

 After the war ended the winning European countries were meant to release their colonies and grant them independence. Vietnam was one of these countries. Wanting away with French rule and to have its independence. However the French were resilient to their wishes. And as a result war broke out. As the war progressed  the north Vietnamese aligned themselves with China, resulting in America stepping up their involvement, with the first troops landing in 1965.

America had become divided; the younger generation had grown tired of the generation before. The lies about drugs and the rebellion of youth had begun. Long hair, colourful clothes and new music, was signs of rebellion. During this time such movements as the hippie and student protest movements had begun to form. Throughout this America had seen vast economic growth thanks to growing industries such as cinema, arms and oil. This sparked the growth of media as every house hold had their own TV.

If America had stuck to their beliefs as a former colony the war could have been avoided. But thanks to the spread of communism in China and Europe, this put America on edge. However this was a war America couldn’t win as it was an idea, the drive for freedom couldn’t be squashed by bombs or guns. As a result a staggering 2 million civilians dies on both sides combined, with 1.1 million Viet cong killed in action. It was also to become one of the first televised wars, resulting in honest imagery reaching the general public at home. It also caught the attention of film makes and photographers who captured some of the most disturbing images of war. The tide of support changed dramatically over time due to many factors one of which being the sharing of images.

Colleges became the hub of the anti-war movement with many universities up and down the states holding rallies and protest throughout the course of the war. The largest war took place outside the Lincoln memorial, where 100,000 protesters turned up in support of the anti-war movement, and a further 30,000 marched towards the pentagon

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Seminar context

During the 1950s the parents of that were raising children would have grown up post World War 2 knew a world of rules and constraints. Men and women were expected to act a certain way, dress like everybody else, do what everyone else had done before. However the next generation had other ideas on style, music, sex, drugs, as the pat seemed outdated and constricting. As this generation explored new avenues of rebellion, they began to realise that the government were lying to them about many different topics, such as drugs for example. This caused further divide between the older generations and the younger generations therefore the generation gap had grown unlike previous generations, and the world was changing. Hippie groups and student protest groups were beginning to form and new voice, spreading love and peace.

Fuelled by the distrust in the government, the younger generation were poised to make a stand; the Vietnam War was everything the younger generation despised.  Starting around 1965 the first anti-war movements started to form in colleges up and down the states. By 1967 America’s involvement in the war had reached its peak with some 500,000 troops being stationed out in Vietnam. With casualties reaching over 15,000 and the wounded over 100,000 the effects of this war were really hitting home. This sparked one of the largest anti-war protests, on the 21st October 1967, over 100,000 protesters gathered outside of the Lincoln memorial in Washington D.C. Alongside the protest outside the memorial, 30,000 protesters marched to the pentagon to further get across their anger and condemnation of the War.

By 1968 the presidents had changed but the same issues still were there, Americas involvement in the war was still causing the country to divide further and further. As newly appointed President Nixon Claiming that only a small percentage of the population were anti-war and ‘silent majority’ were still behind America’s war efforts. Whilst this was all going on the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, he had been vocal in his objection toward the war and expressed condemnation on the disproportionate number of African-American casualties in relation to the total number of soldiers killed in the war. His Assassination caused riots across the US,  resulting in America becoming a very tense social and political climate. With the anti-war movement growing by the day, Vietnam Veterans began to take part in protests, seen to be throwing away their medals, this only sparked more support for the anti-war movement. This divide was only going to grow if America’s involvement in the war continued

In 1969 President Nixon instituted U.S. draft lottery, the same draft system used for World War 2. This prompted a mass migration of young men across the border into Canada to avoid conscription. Tensions began to grow, as collisions between protesters and the National Guard began to get violent, In Kent State in May 1970, when National Guard troops shot into a group of protesters demonstrating against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, killing four students. And in January 1973, almost three years later president Nixon called an end to America’s involvement in South East Asia. The Vietnam War had become the America’s longest war with casualties on both sides reaching staggering numbers especially on the Vietnamese side.

-As many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters.

-The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war.

-In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., inscribed with the names of 57,939 members of U.S. armed forces who had died or were missing as a result of the war.

-Over the following years, additions to the list have brought the total past 58,200.

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seminar planning.

Prior to the seminar workshop I had aimed to cover both the protests during the Vietnam and those of the current climate change movement. However due to time constraints there won’t be enough time for me to delve into both. Therefore I have chosen to focus on the protests during the Vietnam War. This then brings up another dilemma, do I focus solely on the protests in America or do I look at the protests more globally. On one hand choosing to focus on only the protests in America I would be able to go into greater context, when laying the ground work for my presentation. It would also mean I could add in extra bit about America and their current state of affairs at the time and prior to the war. On the other hand I could add in the protests in London, this would mean I am be able to show the global scale of the  uprising against this war. As a result the inclusion of the protest in England, the reasons behind using history as a method becomes clearer to the view, as a photograph from England look more out of place and away from the context, until explained.

Choosing between the two will become clearer the more research I get into. There is a photographer called David Hurn who went to a protest in London and captured some images from that day. If I were to look into the protests around Britain, I would use his images as my analysis. However when deciding on American photographer there are more to choose from.  Whomever the photographer I will have to do some research into the biography and their background.

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Seminar planning.

As I have been placed in the history group I have decided that my topic will be the American public’s reaction towards the Vietnam War during the 1960s, and how this compares to the recent extinction rebellion protests in London. Although the latter part of this topic isn’t to do with an actual war, I do feel that the two protests have a lot in common and aimed to achieve similar results. One similarity that I was look into is the desire from both protests to have an immediate impact on the government. With such a high goals it takes the protesters a prolonged period of protests to achieve even the minor victory. However over time the governing powers have become more aware of the power of the people. Although this point is hard to evaluate, I will aim to do more research into this field to determine if the governments have improved when it comes to listening to the people.

Another area that this avenue might lead down is one of tracking a particular photographer and seeing how through their lens the changes in protests or movements and what the issues have become rather what they were.  By using the two previous topics as comparison it is easy to see how the main issues have changed from literal war, to the current climate crisis. As it is hard to compare one that has ended to another of which it is still ongoing and without an ending, because the outcome will always change the narrative of the past.

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gallery visit 2.

Feast for the eyes

The exhibition included works from all forms of photography, ranging from fine-art to photojournalism. With the topic not revolving around a potential essay topic it was hard to compare. The role of food in today’s society and its impact on the climate is becoming common knowledge, especially livestock, as more is known about the foot print left behind as a result of such high consumption of farmed meats. As a result the way we as a population has to watch what we eat.

“Animal-based foods have a bigger carbon footprint than plant-based foods. Producing beef, for example, uses 20 times the land and emits 20 times the emissions as growing beans, per gram of protein.” (https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment/2019/06/choosing-chicken-over-beef-cuts-our-carbon-footprints-surprising-amount)

The once pinnacle of a menu, the steak, may become a less desirable food if the negative impacts of beef consumption continue. However this is not to say all the blame on beef production and consumption, a lot of other livestock have a largely negative impact on the environment.

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further research

When thinking of a method for my essay I am stuck between using history theory and environmental theory. As I have done pliminary research into a topic within history theory I have tried to look into another topic. rewinding back to the gallery visit and extinction rebellion, that day opened my eyes to the effort that the general public and artists are putting in trying to spread the message of change. The climate change movement has really grown in the last couple of years as the environmental crisis draws closer. So much is now known about the changes needed and possible ways to prevent any disasters. However these changes aren’t being met, therefore the people are taking a stand to provoke change, and this reminds me of how people all over the world were protesting the Vietnam War. As a result of protests and other factors the war came to an end, and as a result of the protests in London and all over the country the British government announced we were in an environmental crisis. However there is still so much more to do and I have no doubt that the people won’t be fooled by smooth talking politicians any more. Through looking at this topic with both history method and environmental method in mind, I can see how they both can be used to analyse a piece of work within this topic.

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History as a Field and method of photographic research.

There are two ways that history can be used is as a field and method. Each way can be used to analyse different aspects of an image while allowing you two ask meaningful questions about the work. History theory and History method are the two ways of analysis. By using history as a method, understanding the context behind the picture is key when analysing the picture. When analysing a photograph using this method I am able to look into certain topics, such as:

Individual practitioners (their lives and works, who worked with whom, when and where, how and why they did what they did)

Period (what kind of work was created during a specified time period)

Styles (how styles interacted with each other - what influenced what/whom)

Movements (how movements came and went how they interacted with each other)

By using these topics I would be able to understanding more of the meaning behind the photograph. As a result a photograph becomes more than what you can see. In our lecture we were given example of the questions we could use when analysing an image with the history method:

What exactly happened in a period x–y?

Why did it happen?

How was it possible that it did happen?

Why an individual/set of individuals acted in a certain way.

 All photographs are produced within a context. A photographer works with materials (camera, computer, prints etc.) within a definite social place and time. These materials and the choices the photographer exercises over them, whether conscious or not (i.e., not ‘thinking about it’) organizes the look of the picture.

(Bate, D. 2009, p.16.)

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Vietnam documentary.

doc: The vietnam war, by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.

As context for the possible essay on Don Mccullen’s work in Vietnam I have found a very interesting documentary that depicts the historical background to Vietnam and their relationship with America. The documentary start just after the second world war, showing how Vietnam a former French colony wanted to take back its independence from the French which had ruled over them for many years. With America being an ex-colony itself Vietnam hoped for support from America, however due to the rise of communism in the west the Americans could ill afford to ruin relations with the French. As the documentary progresses the narrative starts to change towards the war and its relationship with the general public back home in the states and across the world. The war had become so divisive, as the documentary explains, that after the war had ended many people never spoke about it in the years to come as it left a scar in many people’s minds. Even soldiers that had gotten through the war wouldn’t speak about it with pride. With the lives lost and the mental damage left on the ones that returned the war had developed itself into a social outcast. When comparing it to world war two and how the soldiers that fought in the war would talk about their heroic efforts, it’s a stark contrast compared to post Vietnam.

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The History and Theory of Art as Method.

So far these two methods I find to be the best fit when comparing a photograph to any other medium. For example when using this method analyses a Man Ray image you’d use art history as a method to look into surrealism and periods of time when this genre of art was prominent . Alongside this analysing his influences using the same method would lead to a greater understanding of his work. Looking at work which revolves around inanimate objects and how photography has taken cues from art in terms of composition and the actual objects which feature within the work. A prime example is to compare Olivier Richon, A Devouring Eye, 1989, to Juan Sánchez Cotán, Quince, cabbage, melon and cucumber, 1602. The composition is almost a direct copy. Evidently this trend has carried on over time. Photographs have always been understood to be honest in what they show. However for photographers to take photography as a medium into surrealism or any artistic trend which revolves around the twisting of reality, photography’s truthfulness has been lost. However this point only works if photography was truthful in the first place. This has also been affected as technology keeps updating and evolving the trust towards photography has changed over time.

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Olafur Eliasson: In real life exhibition which heavily focuses on the environment though a wide array of work, from the large dramatic installations to the series of photographs depicting the slow regression of glacial forms. Kaleidoscope, one of the major installations is a horizontal tube in which the inner walls are angled mirrors, distorting the world around you as you move from one side to another. This installation captured my attention the most as the kaleidoscope made me think about how I perceive the world around me and reflect on myself in context to the environment. Without highlighting any particular environmental threats, this piece to me aims to highlight the personal side to the environmental crisis, causing the audience to be drawn into self-reflection. Obvious methodologies that could be used to analyse this work is environmental, ethics, politics and anthropology. As most of the work in this exhibition can be analysed from multiple angles, it is hard to know where to start, however the most interesting to me would be analysing how the work communicates the global environmental crisis in both a personal experience, while communicating the ideas in a large scale therefore creates a communal atmosphere. On reflection the usually quite gallery space was filled with conversation and interaction about and with the exhibits. Proving that this exhibition for me is successful in the first stage, however its aim on communicating the crisis across to the audience is hard to track outside the gallery.

Whilst this exhibition is being shown in the Tate modern, the extinction rebellion was in full swing down at Trafalgar square. By attending a few speeches and partaking in peaceful protests by number 10, I was able to contextualise the work in the gallery with the outside world. I made note on how the exhibition and the protests are one and the same. Through different forms of communication the same ideas are being put forward to their respective audiences, both using forms of media to highlight the crisis facing the human race. I found that they both felt inclusive and captured the attention of the crowd.

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Further research.

This week just past I went to the Bristol museum, the gallery space was filled with a variety of pieces of art dating back to the 1800s. A Painting by the artist Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, called the cutting-out of the French corvette at Chevrette, stood out to me as its dramatisation of the soldiers reminded me of the point I made in a previous post relation to how soldiers have been characterised as heroes in the past. This painting clearly proves my point. The painting shows the close combating fighting out at sea, with men clambering over parts of the ship and each other. Looking closely you can see the bodies of fallen men dotted around the painting. This adds context to how throughout history wars and in particular soldiers have been presented to the public through the most mediums as heroic.  

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Philosophy as method: Ethics, Aesthetics, Ontology of Photography. 2

Going into the lecture I was apprehensive about the title and what the lecture entailed. However by taking each section in steps I was able to grasps the key concepts of ontology, ethics and aesthetics. Alongside the key ideas, I was able to understand how this would be applicable to most analytical essays or tasks.

The first method that we tackled was ontology. Put quite simply the science of being. From what i understood ontology asks the question of, what is photography? Throughout the history of photography there have thought to be signs or ways of distinguishing or separating it from other mediums. A couple of these ideas was that a photograph should be sharp, another that photography is truthful, and finally that it was reproducible. Although these three ideas can be found within photography, there is work by many photographer that proves these to be false. For example Jeff Walls work is not truthful, as the image is staged. As a result the image is no longer truthful.

Ethics the second topic for me was more easily understood. This method took to questioning the ethics of photography and pertain to applied ethics. The two ways taught to us about questioning the ethics of an image are consequentialism and deontological. consequentialism is if the consequence is good the act is also good. Whereas deontological is you have to do your duty, for example you want to tell the truth even if the consequence is wrong/bad. Both these methods can be used to question a photographs ethics but each oppose directly what the other is say, so most of the time they can be both used.

Often, aesthetics is thought to be the theory of the beautiful in art and nature. As well aesthetics is often thought to be the theory of formal properties in images: what colours are used ( if any). However in photography this is disputed, especially in documentary photography where often the beauty is not dealt with or the main priority. From the lecture this lead to further questions, such as is photography in fact an art at all? For me this is hard method to compare the whole of photography to as there are so many different branches of the medium.

Overall I found this lecture to be helpful in my understanding of the module and how to further my analysis for the essay at the end of the module.

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Don McCullen, The Athlete.

“I took a picture of another black marine hurling a grenade at the citadel. He looked like an Olympic Javelin thrower.” A quote from Don Mccullin’s autobiography on why he took this shot. He later explains how this same man had his hand blown off a few moments later, while the man who took his place would die instantly. Although this picture doesn’t show what later transpired, the destruction of the surroundings highlights the horrors of war. When deciding on a methodology to use as a tool a couple spring to my mind. History would be the stand out theme; however politics and environmental theory could both be used. Through the use of history theory I would analyse how Don Mccullin likens the soldier to an Olympic athlete. Throughout History soldiers and Olympians have been referred to as heroes, even though their jobs couldn’t be further apart. Yes there is a similarity in having to keep a good level of fitness; however the goals are vastly different. Through the Vietnam War the media played a huge role in its outcome. Being the first televised war the general public had access into the reality of war. As the war went on the notion of soldiers being heroes faded in the eyes of many, even the soldiers themselves. The change to how soldiers were viewed in some people’s eyes wasn’t purely down to the soldiers themselves but thing out of their control. Such as using Agent Orange and some of the tactics used throughout the war.

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Advanced research methods. Lecture 1

The introduction to this module was extremely helpful in understanding the key concepts of the module, the tasks this module involves and the potential routes I may take when writing my essay. What I found most interesting is the detail you can get into when analysing with multiple methodologies. For example you may start out with a broad scope such as political theory, and then delve in deeper using a more precise theory. Alongside theoretical methodology is historical analysis, as explained to us can be used as a separate method or in unison with theoretical methods.

When thinking about an essay for this module I would like to use my prior knowledge in Historical theories and social theories to analyse a piece of work. One idea is to analyse historical issues or social issues using methodologies that stem from history theory. A photographer that I would like to do some research into is Don Mcullen and his work in Vietnam. As a piece of history it is very interesting how the wars coverage changed the worlds view on the fighting.  However further research is needed on this topic.

I aim to use many forms of media to research this topic as the key will be to analyse don Mcullen’s work with a historical context. To do this I will have to understand the time period his work in Vietnam was made, by researching the time. My main aim will be to research the American culture at the time; however this war affected many other countries, so this will be taken into account. Apart from history methodology, I will look into using social, political and architectural theories as they all play a part in his work while helping me to analyse the time period.