The Commission Research for Ollie Gapper

Who would you look at and what ideas can you take from those photographers/artists in order to structure the project?


Whilst discovering different photographers that focus their journalistic photography on that of War and Suffering, related to the waste of life, I go no further than to look at the work of Peter Turnley. His imagery is shocking and real.

You can find more of his series "The Unseen Gulf War" if you just simply search it on Google Images. It's pretty nasty stuff, but it truly does depict a realist view towards ongoing wars and wars of past tense. The image above's aesthetic is ironic, as the contrast isn't that strong, depicting a dull yet (cleverly) lifeless image. This could be seen as a binary opposite to that of the subject within it, most notably a dead body. It is important to note that his work is not to be taken lightly, as his passion is shown through the Journalistic photography.

This set reminds me of that which is Robert Capa's (not to be confused with ... your own surname), "The Falling Soldier", which is a well known photograph among those concerned.

This particular image can be seen from many different viewpoints; you can see it as a comical still from the movement of the soldier if you remove yourself emotionally, but when you consider what's been captured, you essentially have what is a capture of the moment between life and death. This soldier is killed and the camera catches the very last moment of his life, it's quite profound. This particular reflection on the imagery is one I think that you should incorporate into your own set to fully construct a reflective sympathetic audience.

War is incredibly relevant to your topic and to take the route of staging photography that's within the action of soldiers battling would not be far off in terms of focus. A great photographer in that instance comes to mind - Julia Jacobson. She's associated with the press, but she has taken some fantastic photography that really captures the moment of soldiers in intense war.

As you can see, this photograph has that style captured incredibly well, so it's always something to consider when drilling down to what you want to focus on specifically.

If you strive for more of a dead aesthetic around the film as well as in the subject, you can go no further than Matthew Brady. This is the most haunting of images shown here, and probably the most relevant from what I recall you wanting to focus on. The photograph holds a picture of dead bodies, on what seems to be from a destroyed worn down film negative. This is what I personally think represents your idea best.

As you can clearly see, this image isn't for the faint-hearted. The dreary edge that the negative accumulated clearly adds to the overly capture. If you don't think any other image shows best the waste of life, this one most certainly does.

Sam Horne