Dirty Food - Commission Unit Critical Appraisal

Dirty Food Project - Commission Unit - Samuel Horne

The Comission Unit - Idea & Research

Through doing some digging, I have found a photographer called Ken Graham, who takes photographs on behalf of National Geographic. When musing on the particular subject of Waste, or even more specifically Food Waste (which I've chosen as my subject of focus), Graham's photographs are extremely relevant, and live for a cause. This particular image of his was taken off the coast of Barrow, in Alaska. 

This food waste and general trash has made it's way into the waters of the sea due to simple carelessness. Some of it decomposes, some of it floats onto the coastlines littering the beaches polluting the land's sourced water. Worst of all, it all harms the marine creatures which mistaken the rubbish for acceptable food. This attitude towards our planet's health is intolerable and must be stopped. This is just a small impact of how our food waste can disturb the environment.

Pollution is a quite obviously a worldwide problem. This is a section within the area called Manila Bay located in the Philippines where it is full to the brim of discarded food and trash, it's almost possible for a person to walk across the trash as accumulated grounding. The sad thing is, this boy is there to see if he can fish out any trash that's worth selling, let alone the feeling of wading through it all. Seeing this just makes me shudder. This is just the tip of the Iceberg though, metaphorically speaking. There are many more places within India that have a similar problem and right now there doesn't seem to be a solution being put in place. 

As I reflect upon this subject, I aim to brings it's relevance towards my own project, I will attempt to source my own images of relevance on the subject within the Medway area. I shall either hunt down a place to make a journalistic photograph or construct my own image. The idea of leftover food and the packaging/trash that is left behind is my main focus of subject for this project. What I hope to achieve is similar in concept, but largely different in aesthetic. My initial ideas right now consist of scattered rubbish, lots or little, but having it as as the centre of the photograph, with the camera's small depth of field creating a blurring of unimportant objects around the food rubbish. I want it to be dark and empty around the main subject of food trash and packaging, as I find that it creates a metaphor for the attention this issue is largely getting from all people, that is to say, it's being ignored and people need to notice - therefore, I choose the high aperture to create a suggested focus of the subject, for the people.

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 

The Commission Research by Ollie Gapper

Who 
would
 you 
look 
at
 and 
what 
ideas
 can 
you 
take
 from those
 photographers/artists
 in 
order
 to structure 
the 
project?
More recently the work of René Riis has come to light, notably with his place in the Hasselblad masters, under the theme of food, with his clinical series depicting food undergoing surgical-type procedures.



I feel this idea, in terms of aesthetic approach could easily be manipulated into a style that would suit the themes Sam wishes to communicate in his work. This visual style has heavy links with still life and macro photography, which may not be the best style to adopt in terms of highlighting waste, as this is an idea more commonly and succesfully communicated though vastness, images that have a kind of endless repetition to them that the eye and mind struggle to comprehend.

Someone that links to this idea of mass and vastness would, of course, be Andres Gursky, with his images of landfills that boggle the eye. His images from this series all use a kind of visual seizure-style to overwhelm the viewer as to the immensity of the actuality his images are representing.

Chris Jordan is another artist I would look into for his body of work 'Midway: A Message from the Gyre', where he documented baby albatros's who have been killed from being fed plastics and other rubbish, collected by their unwitting parents from the Pacific Trash Gyre. The idea of this waste then being mistaken for food could be interesting to look into, as it could be a counter argument to the idea of food being mistaken as waste. His style delivers an idea of both vulgarity through content, whilst juxtaposing this with a soft aesthetic style, through the use of limited colour palettes and vast tonal ranges.

What 
visual 
tools
 would
 you 
use 
to 
represent 
the 
concept 
(what 
would 
the 
viewer 
encounter
 in
 your
 image)?
I would incorporate the use of repetition, whether the style is that of landscape or macro, to connote the sense of immenseness in terms of our problem with wasting food. If more landscape style images were to be used, then I would wholly encourage the use of a large format camera, as the larger film plane allows for far greater amounts of detail, tonal separation and hierarchy to be achieved.


What 
would
 the
 visual 
elements 
of 
your 
image
 be
 (composition, 
objects/subjects 
within
 the
 pictorial 
frame)?
I would look into carefully composing singular elements into the frame of an image, with the intention to print them larger than real life, if I were running with the macro idea. With the landscape idea I would be tempted to very sparingly include horizons in my image, opting to fill 90% of the frame with repetitive mass, rather than sky etc.

What
 would 
be
 your
 visual
 choices
 in 
the 
images 
(focus,
 distance,
 lighting,
 camera 
position
 etc)?
In either image styles I would opt to use a very great depth of field, with very small apertures allowing for maximum sharpness and clarity throughout the focal range of the image. This would be harder to achieve with the macro, due to the nature of close focusing, but entirely possible through the use of studio lighting and long exposures.

I have found that in still life images, especially more close up images, the use of acutely angled lighitng works well to accentuate the shape and form of the subject being photographed. Karl Blossfeldt is one of my leading inspirations in terms of this, creating perfect documents of natural forms that interested him, with clinical precision. This may be another good reference point for Sams visual choices, in terms of both lighting and depth of field.

What
 practical 
experimentation 
would
 you
 undertake
 to
 visually 
refine
 the
 concept?
I would decide on the style of objects or subjects to be photographed and begin shooting in either 35mm or medium format asap. I, personally, have always found it very fruitful to take a Mamiya 7 to my intended location and shoot off a roll, experimenting with angles and perspective, whilst simultaneously testing the light and scouting locations to shoot and/or avoid. With studio tests, even just setting up a single light and a Horseman can really help in the decision making process, allowing you to see the frame as it would appear in the final image and allowing you to use this to decide upon lighting (simply by moving the light with the modelling lamp on). The sooner one begins to experiment and test, the more likely you are of achieving a far stronger outcome (and it gains points in the time management section too!).

The Commission - Seminar 1 - Analysis of three images

This photograph, created by Finlay Mckay displays great focus and sharpness on the subject at hand, yet the clouds and dark greenery creates a subtle negativity within the picture. This almost dull outlook on the general aesthetic can be disappointing to a viewer as the athlete displays great focus and determination, yet the general outlook of the colours presents little hope. This could represent the characters need to complete his task even while he ventures onwards through the darker roads.

Contrastingly, this image by Toby Glanville gives off a generally relaxing vibe due to the gentle light resting on the teacher and the back wall. The dull green, although not that pleasing on the eye, presents a sense of long existence (which could tie into the character) as the colour is aged and visually out of fashion. The subtle light and the subtle smile all present tiny quirks that can generally make the audience assume a positivity from gazing at this image, which somewhat differs to that of the image above.

Lastly, this image by Ulrich Gebert presents itself in a middle ground. The character has focus, yet the image shows strong primary colours. The use of strong and vibrant colours is simple, so it's easy on the eye and therefore pleasing to look at. The image places itself nicely in-between the first and second above, as the vibe given can be positive, and the expression shown is similar to McKay's character. I would say that there is a sense of hope, more so when compared to McKay's, but the subtlety of colour is not present. The colours are vastly different, with the lighting being much higher key. 

This image has a sense of documentation shown, much like the second image, whereas the first image has a constructed, almost commercial aesthetic. The first image and the third's characters share a similar desire to keep focus on the task, but the general vibe of the second and third are more alike in there positivity.