This is an interventionist workshop – One of the main issues I have found is the lack of diverse references in the course. The students come with an opinion formed with the superiority of the western model of photography – basically that what is in the Western market place is the best and a standard to attain. Alongside this importantly there is a lack of knowledge of photographers who are Black/ People of Colour / Gender.
What I am also finding is comfortability in their own backgrounds rather than interaction with students who are not from their background.
Workshop – A Diverse language spoken and unspoken
“I take pictures, in order to see the world.”
Has photography become the international language now? With the democratisation of photography through the smartphone, visual literacy is now the new normal.
But is it enough,or do we need to disrupt our senses by making what is deemed a “bad”photograph. Can this allow us to see with clarity ? If so how does this affect our senses and ultimately how we approach commissions and personal practice.
Importantly to include Diverse references rather than looking at artists and photographers from a Western tradition, I would use resources ranging from the Global South, Africa and Asia. Using both contemporary practices including inteventions and positionality from this practictioners.
I want you to find out something important about your partner – it can be a secret, a food, a book, it can be anything that they keep for themselves and then I want you to interprete this.
It an start with a phone text or voice message for you to listen to.
Then
I want you to REIMAGINE the spaces, still lifes, portraits into a contemporary reading.
How can you look beyond the Ordinary, Boring sometimes Mundane situations around us. It is these moments that we can see something special. Looking at the use of architectural spaces, staged portraiture and distruption of the colonial gaze.
We are going to elevate the photographs we make in this session in the various areas of the university whether that’s in the studio or in the buildings/ classrooms / canteen and also outside in the local area.
You will be working together as a group importantly these groups have to mixed , a possible intervention would be a buddy system, and could be formulated across the different MA Photography Pathways.
After the exercise of making the work a non linear narrative impromtu exhibit. Using Blue tack and Stick on a Wall, however the stipulation is that nobody is allowed their own photographs they must give them over to another group.
Educational Resources
Reading materials – Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain
AUTOGRAPH ABH – Acts of Solidarity
2025 – 2028
Tamvi Mishra
Veerangana Solanki
Renee Mussai
Black Portraiture -Activating Histories: Visualizing and Restaging the Archive
Identity in Contemporary Photography
A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China, edited by Melissa Chiu and Betsy Johnson-
“A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China will be the Hirshhorn’s first survey of photography by leading multigenerational Chinese artists made between the 1990s and 2000s. The exhibition will showcase 186 artworks made between 1993 and 2022 of which 141 are a landmark promised gift to the Hirshhorn from pioneering collector of Chinese art Larry Warsh. The exhibition’s title is drawn from a 1997 publication, a near manifesto, by Rong Rong and Liu Zheng that celebrated the possibilities in shifting the practice of photography away from realism toward a conceptual art practice.
Tasks
- You have 15 minutes as a buddys to make the photographs where you will together help each make your photographs. Working as a team to share the resources
- If notice something you want to make a photograph of , make a mental note
- and one its your turn go make the photograph.
- Don’t wait for the image to appear – as soon as you have made your photograph pass the camera to the next person.
- Work as a team
- observe each other
- Make a note mentally of what you think the person is photographing
- We can then see if its what they intended or what you invisaged
- Each member of the group must make one image as a minimum
- We have 10 sheets of Polaroid Instant Film per group of buddies/
- A Polaroid Camera
- Remember that this task is about disrupting both your visual literacy and taking into account the briefing
- So experiment making a photograph that is “ordinary” “boring”
- A simple observation elevated to stature.
What I am also finding is comfortability in their own backgrounds rather than interaction with students who are not from their background.
Workshop – A Diverse language
“I take pictures, in order to see the world.”
Has photography become the international language now? With the democratisation of photography through the smartphone, visual literacy is now the new normal.
But is it enough,or do we need to disrupt our senses by making what is deemed a “bad”photograph. Can this allow us to see with clarity ? If so how does this affect our senses and ultimately how we approach commissions and personal practice.
Importantly to include Diverse references rather than looking at artists and photographers from a Western tradition, I would use resources ranging from the Global South, Africa and Asia. Using both contemporary practices including inteventions and positionality from this practictioners.
I want you to find out something important about your partner – it can be a secret, a food, a book, it can be anything that they keep for themselves and then I want you to interprete this.
It an start with a phone text or voice message for you to listen to.
Then
I want you to REIMAGINE the spaces, still lifes, portraits into a contemporary reading.
How can you look beyond the Ordinary, Boring sometimes Mundane situations around us. It is these moments that we can see something special. Looking at the use of architectural spaces, staged portraiture and distruption of the colonial gaze.
We are going to elevate the photographs we make in this session in the various areas of the university whether that’s in the studio or in the buildings/ classrooms / canteen and also outside in the local area.
You will be working together as a group importantly these groups have to mixed , a possible intervention would be a buddy system, and could be formulated across the different MA Photography Pathways.
After the exercise of making the work a non linear narrative impromtu exhibit. Using Blue tack and Stick on a Wall, however the stipulation is that nobody is allowed their own photographs they must give them over to another group.
Educational Resources
Reading materials – Shining Lights: Black Women Photographers in 1980s–90s Britain
AUTOGRAPH ABH – Acts of Solidarity
2025 – 2028
Tamvi Mishra
Veerangana Solanki
Renee Mussai
Black Portraiture -Activating Histories: Visualizing and Restaging the Archive
Identity in Contemporary Photography
A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China, edited by Melissa Chiu and Betsy Johnson-
“A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China will be the Hirshhorn’s first survey of photography by leading multigenerational Chinese artists made between the 1990s and 2000s. The exhibition will showcase 186 artworks made between 1993 and 2022 of which 141 are a landmark promised gift to the Hirshhorn from pioneering collector of Chinese art Larry Warsh. The exhibition’s title is drawn from a 1997 publication, a near manifesto, by Rong Rong and Liu Zheng that celebrated the possibilities in shifting the practice of photography away from realism toward a conceptual art practice.
Tasks
- You have 15 minutes as a buddys to make the photographs where you will together help each make your photographs. Working as a team to share the resources
- If notice something you want to make a photograph of , make a mental note
- and one its your turn go make the photograph.
- Don’t wait for the image to appear – as soon as you have made your photograph pass the camera to the next person.
- Work as a team
- observe each other
- Make a note mentally of what you think the person is photographing
- We can then see if its what they intended or what you invisaged
- Each member of the group must make one image as a minimum
- We have 10 sheets of Polaroid Instant Film per group of buddies/
- A Polaroid Camera
- Remember that this task is about disrupting both your visual literacy and taking into account the briefing
- So experiment making a photograph that is “ordinary” “boring”
- A simple observation elevated to stature.
Your Sites
| 24045934’s blog | Visit Dashboard | View Site |