CONSTRUCTED PHOTOGRAPHY - OPENING

First session in Constructed Photography! On flashguns. I am not confident in flashguns but after some trials on Nikon SB800, it is quite straightforward. The light inverse square law worked quite well.

The assignment was given. First one is to submit 6 film stills and to build narrative in digital in 3 weeks time. Second one is a group project of 4 film stills in medium format colour transparency printed in A3.

Individual Project: Film Stills (DSLR)

Working in pairs in the taught sessions and independently outside the classroom, you will produce 6 final images in the style of film stills. Each image should have a sense of a key moment taken from a film. You should stage and direct for each shot accordingly and in keeping with the style or genre intended. You will use a flashgun as a component of the lighting, taking care to consider the part the light sources play in the narrative.

Creating narratives in photographs, and carefully controlling the staging and lighting, will empower your images and make them highly persuasive in communicating their intended meanings. This is true for images intended for editorial, campaigning, propaganda, advertising, gallery and even photo journalistic contexts.

Group Project: The Narrative or Sequence.

Working in groups of four, you will produce four linked images of narrative based constructed photographic work. The outcome of each group will be a body of work, which communicates and interrogates an issue or concept.

In week four you will present a (5 minute) group PowerPoint outlining your proposal, preliminary research and related images.

Consider the potential context for your work: Editorial, campaigns, advertising, fashion, the gallery, portraiture, tableaux, posters, billboards, flyers, etc.

In documentary photography a ‘found’ scene is supposed to convey the photographer’s meaning or the supposed ‘reality’ of the situation. This generally assumes a direct relationship between the photograph and reality and tends to reveal effects rather than causes (can a photograph of a march against a war reveal anything about the conflict?) In the studio, or on location, meaning is created through juxtapositions and connotations of objects, people and lighting. Pre-visualization, construction and lighting are crucial considerations in constructed photography.

‘As Brecht says: “. . .less than ever does the mere reflection of reality reveal anything about reality. A photograph of the Krupp Works or the AEG tells us nothing about these institutions. Actual reality has slipped into the functional. The reification of human relations - the factory, say - means that they are no longer explicit. So something must be built up, something artificial, posed”. (Extract from “A Short History of Photography” by Walter Benjamin, 1931.)

Contemporary practitioners construct images with passion, or controlled dispassionateness, insight and sometimes wit, questioning and confronting a wide range of issues.