Move

This video is 1 of 3 short films created by Rick Mereki, Tim White and Andrew Lees. Commissioned by STA Travel Australia the three of them document their 6 week journey around the world. The video is compiled of a series of short video clips of continual movement between locations. To me it works as an example of how photography or in this case videography can be done and shared anywhere. These platforms allow the user to document their experiences and share it as a story to with the world. It demonstrates to me how photography is so easily accessible and is practically possible wherever you are. Through these quick shots you soon gather a sense of their journey and build up a sense of their experiences. Although intentionally depicting the different locations they visited, it is reflective of how photographs of ourselves are taken so frequently that they capture a sense of our general living (drinks at the pub, nights in with friends...) not primarily specific events (birthdays, graduation...), where in fact we are documenting our own living.

1 Second Everyday

I came across this video on Vimeo, where the videographer documents a year of his life (age 30), having time off from work. As you can probably guess by the title he does this by recording a second of his life everyday, revealing small snippets as to his social identity and behaviour. Here you can start to see regularities such as cycling, drinking with friends and working on his laptop. This concept of snap video clips links in with mine of a 'story' through photography, as through the collation of images or in this instance clips, you can start to visualise a film of seemingly unattached and segmented events.

What becomes difficult in this video through the eyes of the cameraman, is what second he should film everyday? Does he randomly choose that period of time, does he wait for a more significant event to take place in his day, or film a selection of seconds and opt for what he feels is the best one that day. As with my previous test video, I would like to aim to develop it further and over a longer period of time using a regular intervals to photograph. Taking the decision away from me of what to film in order to create a more honest documentation.

His video is also made possible through the accessibility of technology, where the shots are predominately filmed on his iPhone, with a selection of other clips captured with a small range of digital cameras (Canon 7D to GoPro HD). In some cases utilising iPhone apps to create desired effects for certain shots. What makes this video more exciting is that he plans to continue this project for the rest of his life.

Film slides

When shopping in Brighton I came across a box with a huge pile of film slides where i had to buy a selection. I found them strangely enticing where they don't work as a picture in their own right, such as to hang on the wall, but are still very desirable physical objects. This highlighted to me the attraction to analogue photography and how the object, even the film, creates a far greater sense of a precious possession than pixels on screen ever will. Personally i find these slides more attractive than actual prints of the photograph, seeming that much more fragile and original. Especially being someone else's film it feels like a sneaky insight into their life. 

Documenting

I set myself the task of photography myself wherever i was every 10 minutes, to great a portrait sequence of myself with changing backgrounds to represent how digital cameras are making photography more accessible. This test was made using just my iPhone camera, over a period of 4 hours. The idea was to show that you can start to get an idea as to a person's social identity by seeing what they're doing and where they are, portraying how digital pictures can be taken in such large quantities and so quickly that they are leading more and more towards moving image and film. Through document myself at regular intervals and the different locations I'm situated in you start to build up a image of the type of person I am, especially if captured over a long period of time.

This was just a quick test so i did forget to smile when i took the pictures!

Social Identity

As mentioned in the previous post photographs nowadays are so popular and uploaded online so frequently that they almost become a story or disjointed film depicting a person's events. This is what I aimed to explore through my first test video. Here I have collected all my tagged Facebook photos and ordered in sequence, revealing how others can easily pass judgement towards my social identity. However, one clear factor I discovered when reviewing the pictures is they all largely revolve around time spent with friends or nights out. Photographs of me and my family barely appear showing how the two are separate through the social site, showing how the site or certainly in my case predominately revolves around use with friends.

Does the photographic 'moment' still exist?

Kodak based their photography around the idea of capturing the 'moment', in the sense of those times you want to cherish and remember. Analogue played a big part in those moments being special or 'one of a kind', since you only had a limited amount of photographs available to capture, with film you had to choose the best to photograph. Nowadays with the accessibility of photography and the potentially limitless amount of photographs we can take, is that 'moment' lost?

Virtually everyone owns or has access to camera, be it an SLR, a compact or a camera phone... People are forever taking pictures, it has gone from a rarity and special occasion to have your photograph taken to something we take for granted. We generally have a camera of some form on us at all times, as a result we are no longer in search of that 'moment' but rather an opportunity. I don't mean to negate digital photographs as we do all have ones of special occasions but so many of them are of seemingly unimportant scenes. We all use photography as a method of documenting our lives, Facebook becomes a prime example, featuring a variety of images from drunk nights out with friends, to a yummy plate of food we just ate for dinner. 

Photography becomes a social means of communicating, telling others something about us and what we have been up to. Sadly through social sites, I struggle to take a photo without thinking I must upload this. Making that 'moment' no longer a prize possession that you'd happily reflect on alone but a way of showing off. I find that photography currently is about the telling of stories, no longer a few special photos but a vast collection of the events of our lives. 

The reason for this is photography no longer involves any skill. With current technology anyone can point a camera, on an auto setting, and take a nice enough image. This evolution means what once involved a great deal of knowledge and ability, is now so simple toddlers are capable of taking photographs. I'm not suggesting they could operate an SLR to great effect, but they are perfectly capable of capturing an image. Therefore I do find labelling these types of photos as photography unfair as, the user has done very little work other than point and shoot (purely relying on the technology), undermining the efforts done by professional photographers, suggesting what they do is one and the same.

Tacita Dean's Turbine hall film

The Turbine hall at the Tate Modern has recently been hope home to Tacita Dean's homage to film, as she see's it as a soon to be extinct medium. Her film shows the possibilities of editing 35 film, and the true craftsmanship that painstakingly goes into the eventual reel of film. Working alone and compiling shots together by hand, using traditional techniques to mask in overlays.

Dean is in no way against digital film but doesn't want to see it eclipse a much loved possibility of film-making. Currently analogue film's use is arising again through young artists. Is it not possible for these two platforms to co-exist, where practitioners at least have the choice to choose between them. The Soho Film Lab was the last UK practice to still print 16mm until its new owners Deluxe, terminated immediately its production in mid-February. This was apparently done as it was no longer being used by the cinema industry, but it through them that the industry is able to print 16mm film, by stopping it they are giving the industry little other choice than that of digital.

It is down to the lack of trained professionals who can handle analogue film that is resulting in it's steady 'phasing out.' As shown with Dean's Turbine piece, who came across a potentially serious issue in the cutting of the film, where white flashes would be seen between each frame projection of the film only a short while before installation at the Tate Modern. A professional negative cutter from the UK, Steve Farman, had to recut Dean's film and then drive over night from the Amsterdam studio back to the UK to pass the film onto the Tate Modern's curator. This highlights the current loss is technically trained professionals, as if they continue to decrease (Steve Farman being the last negative cutter in the UK) then future for analogue film truly is looking bleak.