Research Honours Exegesis

Example 1

The use of Vernacular Photography to examine

photography in contemporary arts practice

‘It is no longer enough for a photograph to be a picture of something. For a

photograph to succeed in the art world, all the signs now suggest it needs to be an
object. And the more elaborate the better.’
Andy Grunsberg, Crisis of the Real

NOTE: For this example there are 3 types of comments made in the Comments box
• COMMENTS IN UPPER CASE INDICATE WHERE IN THE TEXT THE
AUTHOR HAS INTRODUCED; ADDRESSED THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN FORM AND MATERIAL; DISCUSSED PROCESSES;
CONTEXTUALISED THEIR PROJECT AS REQUIRED.
• Comments in lower case are a “move analysis” which is used to explain the steps
(claims, references, explanations etc) the author has taken to develop their ideas.
The main point to notice is the way in which the author follows each “claim” with
some supporting ideas either from academic research or other artists’ work
• Comments in lower case italics indicate where the author might have strengthened
the communication of their ideas

Student’s text Comments

Critical reflections on photography often take the form of INTRODUCTION

great photographers; seminal images; or of - General introduction which situates
cultural/social/political readings. Very few commentators the field of research as photography.
address the materiality of the photograph. Geoffrey Batchen - Claim that little done on materiality
(1999) explains: of photograph
All of us tend to look at photographs as if we were simply gazing through a -Claim supported by research
two-dimensional window onto some outside world This is almost a
perceptual necessity: in order to see what a photograph is of, we must first
repress our consciousness of what the photograph is. As a consequence, in
even the most sophisticated discussions, the photograph itself- the actual
object being examined – is usually left out of the analysis

My studio practice this year has addressed the invisibility of CONTEXTUALISING

photographs as objects. I have pursued several lines of - Aims of research
inquiry, both theoretical and studio orientated, that explore
the taxonomy of photography’s history; vernacular
photography; links with painting (particularly Modernist); and
relationships with digital media. With each outcome, the
materiality and the nature of the photograph have been the
primary concerns.

Previously, my practice has been inspired by the qualities of PROCESS/MOTIVATION

photographic printmaking processes. For five years I pursued -Previous research into particular
and redeveloped 19th century photographic processes such as processes which have been used in the
cyanotype, gum bichromate, van dyke brown, and kallitype. current project
These processes offer richness of material and highlight - Explanation of the relevance of these
through their very nature the photograph as object. “An processes to the current research
awareness of the physicality of the photograph is an
unavoidable feature of photography’s earliest processes ”
(Batchen 2000)

The history of Photography became an integral part of my CONTEXTUALISING

practice and the use of vernacular photography this year was - Reference to research on the history
initially employed to examine the shortcomings of the of photography, particularly
taxonomy of photography’s history. There were three main vernacular photography as relevant to
reasons for pursuing vernacular photography which include: the current research

The use of Vernacular Photography to examine photography - Explanation of why vernacular

is an underdeveloped area in contemporary art practice. photography was relevant to current
Found images have become frequently used in contemporary research.
art, in fact the tendency to appropriate, then recontextualize The first reason includes a:
other people's photographs became a major feature of nineties - Claim that the vernacular is
practice (Bull 1997). “Artists of all stripes readily appropriate underdeveloped in practice supported
vernacular images'', from Gerhard Richter, Christian – Claim supported by evidence of
Boltanski and Patrick McCoy, to Maria Miesenburger, Peter other artists’ work
Fischili and David Weiss (Kaplan 2000). My research,
however, uncovered only one artist that used vernacular
photographs to examine photography itself. Joachim Schmid
uses vernacular photography to undermine the legitimising
practices of photo-history.

Geoffrey Batchen is one of a handful of critical writers that FURTHER CONTEXTUALISING

use vernacular photography in contemporary photo theory to - Additional claim that the vernacular
highlight the shortcomings of photo-history. Vernaculars have is underdeveloped in theory
been excluded from traditional accounts of the History of - Claim supported by research.
Photography since they do not follow the standard critical
methodologies – authorship, originality, chronology or style.
Batchen, in particular, uses vernaculars to investigate new
models for analysing photography.

Vernacular photographs are viewed and handled more as PROCESS &RELATIONSHIP

objects rather than merely images. Examples of this can be -Explanation of why vernacular
seen in the way we collect and display images in our home – photography was relevant to current
albums, mantle frames, shoe boxes etc. research.
Where much photography seeks to repress its own existence in favour of the The second reason includes a claim
image it conveys, vernaculars have presence, both physical and conceptual
(Shore 1998).
that the ‘objectness’ of vernacular
I believed they could provide clues to uncovering ways of photographs links to materiality
addressing materiality.

Looking for alternatives to the Modernist methodologies - Explanation of why vernacular

traditionally employed to classify photography, my initial photography was relevant to current
work classified photographic prints according to physical research.
qualities such as size, format, colour etc. This form of The third reason given is to find an
classification was inclusive of amateur and professional alternative to Modernist methodology.
photographs, under/over exposure, old film stock, damaged (could have been strengthened by
images etc. Colour classification offered the most exciting reference to specific methodologies
outcome and avoided groupings based on authorship, genre, used in Modernism to classify
or quality. photographs and evidenced from the
research)
It soon became apparent that to explore materiality, my desire PROCESS
was to suppress or remove the subject. My intention was to -A preliminary conclusion to the
challenge the idea of photography as a medium of depiction. section on aims of the research and
Jeff Wall (1998) argued that this was not possible. the first phase of developing those
Photography cannot find alternatives to depiction, as could other fine arts. It aims.
is in the physical nature of the medium to depict things. Without the
dialectical conception of its own surface, it could not achieve the kind of
- Draws on research that indicates that
planned spontaneity painting has put before the eyes of the world as a the aims as stated are not achievable
universal norm of art.
 Stephen Shore (1998) offered clues as to the removal of INTRODUCTION TO NEXT
the subject from the photograph. In The Nature of PHASE OF PROCESS
Photographs, Shore describes the photographic print in - Introduces next phase of the research
term of its physical dimension. In essence it is a base of - Reference to previous research
paper, plastic or metal coated with a light sensitive
emulsion made of metal salts. “A photograph is flat, it has
edges, and it is static; it does not move.''

I was in search of a rebuttal to Jeff Wall's thinking. The CONTEXTUALISING & PROCESS
modernist ideologies underpinning photo-history, coupled -Explains the next phase of the
with Shore's examination of the material nature of the research which involves modernist
photograph, led me to modernist painting. In particular, the painting
abstract expressionists. Armed with the knowledge of 19th PROCESS & RELATIONSHIP
century photographic processes, a series of works developed plus the processes mentioned in the
that used cyanotype (blueprint) in a painterly fashion. My third paragraph above
focus on the photograph as a surface of colour, tone, shape,
movement etc explored abstract photography without a
camera; gave rise to photographs not dependent on a Statement of the results achieved
depiction of the world; produced a subjectivity and
spontaneity not typically associated with photography; and
resulted in the blurring the lines between painting and
photography.

This series of painterly photographs, allowed me to pursue PROCESS

my research rigorously with new ideas about what a - statement of the incorporation colour
photograph is. I returned to the colour classification with new classification to the experimental
ways of presenting. That encompassed other disciplines process
including painting, installation/sculpture, and digital media. I
examined current writing on post-photography and artists who
used this form of photographic theory to pursue investigations
into photography.

My practice included digitally animating vernacular images as PROCESS

a way of presenting the sensation of the photograph. Statement of the incorporation of
Animation allowed movement and colour to dominate by digital animation to the experimental
delaying the image information. This process of converting process
photograph to digital file to moving sequence to video type
formats, gave rise to the ideas found in the series of final
works.

Encapsulated Postscript INDIVIDUAL WORKS

My primary concern with this series of work still lies with the Introduces the discussion of the
materiality of the photograph. In broadening my studio particular works being shown.
practice, my objective was to use materials that were directly
related to the photograph. I became interested in distilling and Statement of the intentions for the
highlighting the individual elements of the photographic print. work, drawn fro m the research
This idea is reflected in the piece Encapsulated Postscript: described previously. These are then
Bounding Boxes. applied to a specific work
Encapsulated Postscript: Bounding Boxes presents the
photograph in elemental form - light source, image, paper
support. The function of the box is two-fold. The subject of Explanation of the work to show how
each photograph has been obscured by the use of paper boxes it realises the intentions expressed in
while still allowing the colour, shape, tone and texture to the previous paragraph
remain accessible.

Secondly, the origami box directly references the way in

which Encapsulated Postscript as a computer programming
language translates images for printing. Postscript is an Explanation of the work to show how
object-orientated language, meaning that it treats images as it realises the intentions expressed
collections of geometrical objects rather than as rows and previously
columns of dots (bit map). Encapsulated Postscript contains
Bounding Box comments, which are used to indicate where
an image will be placed on a page. The Bounding Box is a
box, which completely encloses the image.

Encapsulated Postscript: Bit Map is an alternative A second work is introduced as

arrangement of the same elements - light, image, paper. In variation on the first work
this instance, the light source is the slide projector - the
traditional manner in which to view these images. The
intention of this piece is two-fold. It addresses materiality by Explanation of the work that links it to
presenting the photograph as colour, light and surface. It is the ideas and research previously
also an analogue memisis of the digital bit-mapping of an stated
image
.
Unlike postscript files, which only contain postscript Additional explanation of the work
commands, Encapsulated Postscript files also contain a bit- that links it to the ideas and research
mapped representation of the image for display purposes. The previously stated
bit map represents an image as a two-dimensional array of
bits, where each bit represents the colour of a single pixel in
the image. A bit map defines a display space and the colour
for each pixel or bit in the display space.

In the piece Encapsulated Postscript: Bitmap, the image A third work is introduced
information is projected on to the rear of the grid of boxes.
The origami boxes stand in for pixels, so as the image is Explanation of the work that links it to
projected through the grid, it is presented as a formation of the ideas and research previously
coloured boxes/pixels. stated

Because a bit map uses a fixed method of specifying an Additional explanation of the work
image, the image cannot be re-scaled by a user without losing that links it to the ideas and research
definition. This loss of resolution/definition is addressed in previously stated
my work. As the image is projected through the boxes/pixels,
some information escapes the grid and is visible on the wall.
As the grid grows or shrinks, the information that escapes
varies.
Encapsulated Postscript: Snapshots, the final work in the The fourth work is introduced
series documents the sensation of colour, light and surface of
encapsulated postscript: Bit map. Replicating the
pixels/colour formations of individual photographs shown in
the previous work, distils the sensation of the photograph and Explanation of the work that links it to
removes the subject. Each resulting work is an analogue and the ideas and research previously
hand-made bit map of a vernacular photograph. stated

The lineage of the photograph and the computer can be traced CONCLUSION
respectively to Talbot's photogenic drawings, and Charles Begins the conclusion with an
Babbage's Differential and Analytical Engines. Babbage, a historical linking of photography and
close confidante of Talbot, would display Talbot's photogenic computers with Talbot and Babbage
drawings and calotypes at his famous London soirées.
Babbage would entertain his guests with demonstrations of a
working model of his first computing machine, the
Differential Engine. These visitors to Babbage's drawing
room encountered photography and computing together, for
the first time. The computer and the photograph share a
common history.

My art practice this year has been an involved process of Conclusion relates this historical link
researching and consolidating histories. I have drawn to the connections made across
connections within and across disciplines that have led to a disciplines and applied to
greater understanding of the photograph. With this photographic objects in this research.
knowledge, I have been able to play with links established
with painting, installation and digital technologies and create
a dialogue across the mediums. Research into the photograph
as object has allowed me to break from conventional ways of
viewing photographic images and pursue a practice that
explores the possibilities of the photographic object.

References
Batchen, G 1999, ‘Pondering criticism’, Creative Camera, No. 361, pp.13-16.

Batchen, G 2000, ‘Vernacular photographies’, History of Photography, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 262-271.

Bull, S 1997, ‘Other people’s photographs’, Creative Camera, No. 344, pp. 38-41.

Kaplan, D 2000, ‘Vernacualr photographies – responses to a questionnaire’, History of Photography,

Vol. 24 No.3, pp. 229-231.

Shore, S 1998, The Nature of Photographs, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

Wall, J 1998, ‘Marks of indifference: Aspects of photography in, or as, conceptual art’, in Veronica’s
Revenge, ed. E Janus, LHC, Switzerland, pp73-90.

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