The last trip I took was around Southbank and Waterloo in the early evening. The conditions were slightly different to what I was used to and I had to adjust quite often to varying light conditions. That being said I did start to take some photographs that fit within my project but are slightly different.
To firm up my idea I went back to the book recommended to me by Andrew “The Photograph as contemporary art”. There was a passage in the book that was looking at the work of Gillian Wearing that resonated with my work quite strongly.
“[…] challenges the notion of traditional documentary portraiture. By making the thoughts of her subjects the focus of the portraits, [Gillian] Wearing proposes that the capturing of the profundity and experience of everyday life is not intrinsic to the traditional styles or compositions of the documentary photograph, but is more effectively reached through artistic intervention and strategy.”
In my previous crit we talked about how my photography is “documentary photography” – “Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life.”
I thought my answer to the brief would be a self reflective one. A self reflection of my method exploring the various levels on consciousness that I had as a witness. This idea came about as I realised I thought in very very different ways whilst taking photos and then looking at them. Whilst I was on the street I became sort of unconscious of what I was doing. I would spend hours walking around taking photos. I lost perception of time and all that mattered would be getting the next shot. Eventually I would return home and look the photos on my computer. I would see things that I didn’t see before and started to make links throughout the whole series that showed an interconnection. I also questioned my morals. The first photographer I researched was Bruce Gilden and one of the first things I heard him say on his documentary was “I have no morals”. This was similarly backed up by Dougie Wallace and his approach. I couldn’t quite commit to this. I took photos of strangers arguing, in intimate moments with one another – I intruded. It became self witnessing, how does taking photographs of people I don’t know affect me. I did notice myself becoming agitated and uptight during this brief and my friends were worried because I wasn’t really engaging socially with them. I think it’s because it challenged me and I created an importance around what I was doing. I love getting obsessed with my work but perhaps confronting humanity in this way was a new experience for me. I latched onto the term “Unconscious cognition” which “is the processing of perception without being aware of it.” which I think reflected my method. I think this is neither celebratory or derogatory, just an observation.
Cameron Aitken Graphic Design 