What is Conceptual Photography? (part 3) Video Reflection

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TvpxG9fLqo

Oliver Chanarin: "There is no such thing as conceptual photography... all photography is conceptual and then all photography is not conceptual".

Lucy Soutter: "All contemporary art photography is conceptual to some degree, so the question is what isn't conceptual photography?".

These two above quotes really stuck out to me during this video piece.I found this video very informative and thought provoking. It really made me think about the labels we give to things and how sometimes the labels aren't entirely representative of the things their designed to portray. In addition to this, another thing that stuck out to me was the 'abstract' project in Afghanistan entitled 'The day nobody died'. It's inception was developed when the two artists were judging the world press photography awards. They explained that they looked at 18,000 images in 4days (of the Afghanistan & Vietnam war) and that they were shocked by the similarity of the images being produced. Consequently, they were concerned about the repetition of cliches that were represented as 'legitimate' photography.

This made me think about how much a photograph of an event has to represent an event in order to be considered 'legitimate'. 

I also think this piece speaks about the state of contemporary photography in terms of the freedom, control and censorship process that happens with the government and various advertising agencies, editors and photojournalists. This was a piece that really made me think.

Walead Beshty at The Curve, Barbican Centre, London Video Reflection:

Waslead Beshty is an artist, writer and professor that works in Los Angeles. He's been described as a formalist and abstract photographer.

“A Partial Disassembling of an Invention Without a Future: Helter-Skelter and Random Notes in Which the Pulleys and Cogwheels Are Lying Around at Random All Over the Workbench” - This is the title of of his exhibition that was featured in this video.

For this particular exhibition in London he transformed the curve into a massive panorama series which was made up of over 12,000 cyanotype prints. I learnt from this video that the cyanotype printing method is one of the earliest photographic processes that have a cyan-blue tint to the images. Beshty opted to present the exhibition in a chronological order, as a result this allows his instillation to be 'read' as a timeline that is visual. 

What I liked most about this interview was that Beshty was openly detailing his process of creating and choosing artwork that would be included in the final exhibition. He explained that he didn't choose pieces based on their aesthetic beauty or any fixed narrative, rather he chose to sort through the material in an 'open' way that didn't close off any possibilities that he couldn't see. His aim was to choose in a very passive and basic way. 

In addition to this I really impressed by the sheer size and magnitude of the exhibition. As well as his thoughts about the studio as a machine that makes photographs. 

Reflection on the 'RiP! A Remix Manifesto' video

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EnX0vACj4Q

RiP!: A Remix Manifesto is a 2008 open-source documentary directed by Brett Gaylor about the changing concept of copyright.

This documentary was made over six consecutive years and it was essentially created by hundreds of people who opted to contribute to the film's website.

What I personally liked about this documentary was the interactive relationship that the director was able to have with his contributors, this is something that I haven't thought of before (in this documentary context) but it's an interesting way to approach a documentary or a piece of 'art'. I think it has the ability to change passive receptive viewers into active engaged viewers because of the ability to contribute to a project. In addition to this, contributors (encouraged by Brett Gaylor) had the ability to 'chop and remix' the final documentary in a variety of ways which could potentially breath more life into the project.

The manifesto reads as follows:

1. Culture always builds on the past.

2. The past always tries to control the future.

3. Our future is becoming less free. 

4. To build free societies you must limit the control of the past.


This open source documentary deals with copyright issues in contemporary society by give a historical context to the argument. Gaylor distinctly separates the public domain from the corporations. He defines the public domain as 'CopyLEFT' and the corporations as 'CopyRIGHT'. It is evident that Gaylor favours the 'CopyLEFT' because it represents the feee exchange of ideas within the public domain. 

Aside from music and film (which this documentary focused on) this piece made me think about copyright with regards to the photographs that I take. Depending on where I've taken them, who the subject is, or even where I go on post them could affect the copyright of 'my' images. With social networks like facebook, instagram and twitter (places I often post photographs onto) I believe they have the right to use and in some cases even sell the images I upload, so it really made me think about who Really owns things.

Reflection on Brian Bress' Status Report

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mlQYJHbb6U

"Are you asking me about my work? Or are you asking me about my hobbies?"

I can honestly say that I have never ever seen anything like this before. I found this 'status report' video by Brain Bass very funny in some parts because of how bizarre it was but I also found other elements of the video quite scary. 

I think that in terms of the filmmaking techniques involved to create this piece are remarkable, there was lots of elements that I wasn't entirely sure how he made them, for instance the numerous times that one of the characters in the space ship 'flew' slowly across the busy screen. I think that the video editing was great because it kept me captivated despite the fact I felt a little 'uneasy' watching this piece. In addition to this I thought the use of sound was excellent, it was varying and prominent throughout the piece.

After watching this video I found this curators statement online that 'sheds light' on this video:

"Status Report as a beautiful and telling meditation on how society deciphers the seemingly separate personalities of the artist- work versus hobby, the art market, competition, the need for love and acceptance, mental health and comfort, hiding behind or within one's work, and the search for something unknown in wondrous and complete isolation. Each of these embedded in a separate character played by Bress. Each inhabiting their own unique and delicately devised universe."

This statement gave me a new found scope or lens with which I can interpret this video as a social commentary or cultural barometer, this is something I hadn't considered previously. 

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