Social Documentary
People in Places
By narrowing down Social Documentary to "People in Places" this means that in the artist's work the focus is both the people and where they are and how this effects the overall effect of the photo. The three artists which I'm going to focus on are; Nick Waplington, Martin Parr and Paul Graham.
Nick Waplington- Living Room:
Nick Waplington was born in 1965 and is both a photographer and an artist and was born in Britain. He attended West Sussex College of Art & Design in Worthing and the Royal College of Art in London. Waplington travelled a lot when he was young as his father was a scientist in the nuclear industry. As well as this, Waplington frequently visited his grandfather who lived in Nottingham and this is when he started photographing his immediate surroundings. This soon led to his family and friends becoming the subject of his photographs and he continued this project over the next 15 years which led to Waplington publishing two books; Living Room and Wedding, Parties, Anything
In his project, Living Room, Waplington explored what was happening in Britain at the time through his photography. During the late 1980's there was a collapse of industry which led to a large rise of poverty and unemployment and during this time the government abandoned both people and place. It was also during this time that Waplington spent 4 years capturing the lives of 2 families who lived in council estates in Nottingham. Waplington captured these families through saturated colour which meant he was able to pull out a sense of poignancy and unexpected humour, which differs from the photographic conventions of social conventions. The way in which Waplington carried out this project was by going to live with these two families for a few days which meant that he got to know the families he was with very well and meant he was able to capture some very intimate and unusual photos.
In an essay John Berger wrote he said “What is remarkable about the photographs is the special way in which they make the intimate something public; something that we, who do not know personally the two families photographed, can look at without any sense (or thrill) of intrusion,”
This work explores the daily struggle which many people in Britain experienced during this time in a way which they could relate to.
Nick Waplington was born in 1965 and is both a photographer and an artist and was born in Britain. He attended West Sussex College of Art & Design in Worthing and the Royal College of Art in London. Waplington travelled a lot when he was young as his father was a scientist in the nuclear industry. As well as this, Waplington frequently visited his grandfather who lived in Nottingham and this is when he started photographing his immediate surroundings. This soon led to his family and friends becoming the subject of his photographs and he continued this project over the next 15 years which led to Waplington publishing two books; Living Room and Wedding, Parties, Anything
In his project, Living Room, Waplington explored what was happening in Britain at the time through his photography. During the late 1980's there was a collapse of industry which led to a large rise of poverty and unemployment and during this time the government abandoned both people and place. It was also during this time that Waplington spent 4 years capturing the lives of 2 families who lived in council estates in Nottingham. Waplington captured these families through saturated colour which meant he was able to pull out a sense of poignancy and unexpected humour, which differs from the photographic conventions of social conventions. The way in which Waplington carried out this project was by going to live with these two families for a few days which meant that he got to know the families he was with very well and meant he was able to capture some very intimate and unusual photos.
In an essay John Berger wrote he said “What is remarkable about the photographs is the special way in which they make the intimate something public; something that we, who do not know personally the two families photographed, can look at without any sense (or thrill) of intrusion,”
This work explores the daily struggle which many people in Britain experienced during this time in a way which they could relate to.
Martin Parr- The Last Resort
Martin Parr is also a british photographer and was born in Surrey in 1952. His photography was inspired by his grandfather who was a keen amateur photographer himself. Parr then went on to studying photography and Manchester polytechnic and in 1994 he became a full member of Magnum Photographic Cooperation. Parr has won many awards over the years such as the Eric Salomon prize in 2006 and the Baume et Mercier award in 2008. Parr has used his photography to address subjects such as fashion and advertising and also developed an interest in film making. Along with this, Parr is known for his photography which focuses in on human life in an intimate and satirical way. He then relates this to modern life and documents different social classes mainly in England but also in the wealth of the Western world, which led to some of his major projects such as Rural Communities, The Last Resort and The Cost of Living.
Martin Parr's project of The Last Resort shows his interest of colour photography really spark off. In 1982, Parr and his wife moved to Wallasey in England which is when he permanently moved to colour photography. This was inspired by many famous photographers who had also used colour photography significantly in their work such as William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel Meverowitz. This shift was mainly due to the "big impact bright saturated colour" had on Parr himself. During the summers of 1983, 1984 and 1985, Martin Parr photographed the nearby seaside of New Brighton and the working-class people who would go to this 'resort'. Parr was criticised for his capture of the working class and the scrutiny with which he did so however some believe that he was just capturing the authenticity f the social class whom were exploring leisure in whichever way they could.
Gerry Badger comments on Parr's project of The Last Resort saying "It is difficult from a perspective of almost a quarter of a century to underestimate [sic] the significance of The Last Resort, either in British photography or Martin Parr's career. For both, it represented a seismic change in the basic mode of photographic expression, from monochrome to colour, a fundamental technical change that heralded the development of a new tone in documentary photography."
Even though these images appear as quite intimate they were shot on a camera which would've been very easy to spot by the public and therefore the public would've known they were being photographed. However these images still capture this social class in a way in which they appear natural and more concentrated on the environment they are in rather than 'looking good' for the camera.
Martin Parr is also a british photographer and was born in Surrey in 1952. His photography was inspired by his grandfather who was a keen amateur photographer himself. Parr then went on to studying photography and Manchester polytechnic and in 1994 he became a full member of Magnum Photographic Cooperation. Parr has won many awards over the years such as the Eric Salomon prize in 2006 and the Baume et Mercier award in 2008. Parr has used his photography to address subjects such as fashion and advertising and also developed an interest in film making. Along with this, Parr is known for his photography which focuses in on human life in an intimate and satirical way. He then relates this to modern life and documents different social classes mainly in England but also in the wealth of the Western world, which led to some of his major projects such as Rural Communities, The Last Resort and The Cost of Living.
Martin Parr's project of The Last Resort shows his interest of colour photography really spark off. In 1982, Parr and his wife moved to Wallasey in England which is when he permanently moved to colour photography. This was inspired by many famous photographers who had also used colour photography significantly in their work such as William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel Meverowitz. This shift was mainly due to the "big impact bright saturated colour" had on Parr himself. During the summers of 1983, 1984 and 1985, Martin Parr photographed the nearby seaside of New Brighton and the working-class people who would go to this 'resort'. Parr was criticised for his capture of the working class and the scrutiny with which he did so however some believe that he was just capturing the authenticity f the social class whom were exploring leisure in whichever way they could.
Gerry Badger comments on Parr's project of The Last Resort saying "It is difficult from a perspective of almost a quarter of a century to underestimate [sic] the significance of The Last Resort, either in British photography or Martin Parr's career. For both, it represented a seismic change in the basic mode of photographic expression, from monochrome to colour, a fundamental technical change that heralded the development of a new tone in documentary photography."
Even though these images appear as quite intimate they were shot on a camera which would've been very easy to spot by the public and therefore the public would've known they were being photographed. However these images still capture this social class in a way in which they appear natural and more concentrated on the environment they are in rather than 'looking good' for the camera.
Paul Graham- Beyond Caring
Paul Graham is also a British photographer who was born in 1956. His photography focuses in on documentary photography but he also has an interest for fine art. Graham is a self taught artist and over the years he has been awarded multiple times including the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and the Paris Photo-Aperture foundation PhotoBook Awards prize for the best photographic book over the past 15 years. The time at which Graham was a photographer marks a period of time where the medium of photography was a stand alone medium before it became part of the contemporary art world. At this time photography was seen as a unique artistic territory. As well as this, Graham was amongst the starting photographers to use colour photography which stood out massively compared tot he majority of black and white photos which were around at this time (1980's). Combining both colour photography and documentary photography had a massive effect on the photographic world in which it was able to expand due to the broadening of visual language and curiosity to how this sort of photography works.
Paul Graham continued to capture photographs in colour and presented these in many different projects which were based in Europe and abroad. One of his earlier projects is called Beyond Caring and was shot between 1984 and 1985. Not only due to the financial drain from two world wars but also from the change in the UK's presence on the international stage, Britain entered a major period of poverty and unemployment due to the government's financial crisis. Graham was commissioned to capture his "view of Britain in 1984" and due to his first project, A1, it was exemplified that Graham wasn't scared to address themes such as social inequality, poverty and desperation. The way in which Graham captured these images was by entering Unemployment offices and Social Security offices and took photos of nameless individuals who were waiting in these places. One theme which can be highlighted in this project is the isolationism each subject exhibits. No matter how full a room is each subject is looking at the floor or at a newspaper, which their hands in their pockets and trying their hardest to not come into contact with another human being. This links to something which Thatcher said at the time which was “there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families.” This project is a documentary which captures the real life experiences of individuals which is conveyed through the secretive nature of the photos as this results in none of the subjects posing. This means the audience has to fill in the blanks of how the subjects would interact with each other.
Paul Graham is also a British photographer who was born in 1956. His photography focuses in on documentary photography but he also has an interest for fine art. Graham is a self taught artist and over the years he has been awarded multiple times including the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and the Paris Photo-Aperture foundation PhotoBook Awards prize for the best photographic book over the past 15 years. The time at which Graham was a photographer marks a period of time where the medium of photography was a stand alone medium before it became part of the contemporary art world. At this time photography was seen as a unique artistic territory. As well as this, Graham was amongst the starting photographers to use colour photography which stood out massively compared tot he majority of black and white photos which were around at this time (1980's). Combining both colour photography and documentary photography had a massive effect on the photographic world in which it was able to expand due to the broadening of visual language and curiosity to how this sort of photography works.
Paul Graham continued to capture photographs in colour and presented these in many different projects which were based in Europe and abroad. One of his earlier projects is called Beyond Caring and was shot between 1984 and 1985. Not only due to the financial drain from two world wars but also from the change in the UK's presence on the international stage, Britain entered a major period of poverty and unemployment due to the government's financial crisis. Graham was commissioned to capture his "view of Britain in 1984" and due to his first project, A1, it was exemplified that Graham wasn't scared to address themes such as social inequality, poverty and desperation. The way in which Graham captured these images was by entering Unemployment offices and Social Security offices and took photos of nameless individuals who were waiting in these places. One theme which can be highlighted in this project is the isolationism each subject exhibits. No matter how full a room is each subject is looking at the floor or at a newspaper, which their hands in their pockets and trying their hardest to not come into contact with another human being. This links to something which Thatcher said at the time which was “there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families.” This project is a documentary which captures the real life experiences of individuals which is conveyed through the secretive nature of the photos as this results in none of the subjects posing. This means the audience has to fill in the blanks of how the subjects would interact with each other.
Leaflet of exhibition
From these three artists we then had to make a leaflet to advertise an exhibition we would put up which would exhibit the work of these three artists.
Room 1- Social Inequality
Martin Parr:
Martin Parr is a british photographer and was born in Surrey in 1952. His photography was inspired by his grandfather who was a keen amateur photographer himself. Parr then went on to studying photography and Manchester polytechnic and in 1994 he became a full member of Magnum Photographic Cooperation. Parr has won many awards over the years such as the Eric Salomon prize in 2006 and the Baume et Mercier award in 2008. Parr has used his photography to address subjects such as fashion and advertising and also developed an interest in film making. Along with this, Parr is known for his photography which focuses in on human life in an intimate and satirical way. He then relates this to modern life and documents different social classes mainly in England but also in the wealth of the Western world, which led to some of his major projects such as Rural Communities, The Last Resort and The Cost of Living.
Martin Parr is a british photographer and was born in Surrey in 1952. His photography was inspired by his grandfather who was a keen amateur photographer himself. Parr then went on to studying photography and Manchester polytechnic and in 1994 he became a full member of Magnum Photographic Cooperation. Parr has won many awards over the years such as the Eric Salomon prize in 2006 and the Baume et Mercier award in 2008. Parr has used his photography to address subjects such as fashion and advertising and also developed an interest in film making. Along with this, Parr is known for his photography which focuses in on human life in an intimate and satirical way. He then relates this to modern life and documents different social classes mainly in England but also in the wealth of the Western world, which led to some of his major projects such as Rural Communities, The Last Resort and The Cost of Living.
Paul Graham:
Paul Graham is also a British photographer who was born in 1956. His photography focuses in on documentary photography but he also has an interest for fine art. Graham is a self taught artist and over the years he has been awarded multiple times including the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and the Paris Photo-Aperture foundation PhotoBook Awards prize for the best photographic book over the past 15 years. The time at which Graham was a photographer marks a period of time where the medium of photography was a stand alone medium before it became part of the contemporary art world. At this time photography was seen as a unique artistic territory. As well as this, Graham was amongst the starting photographers to use colour photography which stood out massively compared tot he majority of black and white photos which were around at this time (1980's). Combining both colour photography and documentary photography had a massive effect on the photographic world in which it was able to expand due to the broadening of visual language and curiosity to how this sort of photography works.
Paul Graham is also a British photographer who was born in 1956. His photography focuses in on documentary photography but he also has an interest for fine art. Graham is a self taught artist and over the years he has been awarded multiple times including the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize and the Paris Photo-Aperture foundation PhotoBook Awards prize for the best photographic book over the past 15 years. The time at which Graham was a photographer marks a period of time where the medium of photography was a stand alone medium before it became part of the contemporary art world. At this time photography was seen as a unique artistic territory. As well as this, Graham was amongst the starting photographers to use colour photography which stood out massively compared tot he majority of black and white photos which were around at this time (1980's). Combining both colour photography and documentary photography had a massive effect on the photographic world in which it was able to expand due to the broadening of visual language and curiosity to how this sort of photography works.
Room 2- Home Sweet Home
Nick Waplington:
Nick Waplington was born in 1965 and is both a photographer and an artist and was born in Britain. He attended West Sussex College of Art & Design in Worthing and the Royal College of Art in London. Waplington travelled a lot when he was young as his father was a scientist in the nuclear industry. As well as this, Waplington frequently visited his grandfather who lived in Nottingham and this is when he started photographing his immediate surroundings. This soon led to his family and friends becoming the subject of his photographs and he continued this project over the next 15 years which led to Waplington publishing two books; Living Room and Wedding, Parties, Anything
Nick Waplington was born in 1965 and is both a photographer and an artist and was born in Britain. He attended West Sussex College of Art & Design in Worthing and the Royal College of Art in London. Waplington travelled a lot when he was young as his father was a scientist in the nuclear industry. As well as this, Waplington frequently visited his grandfather who lived in Nottingham and this is when he started photographing his immediate surroundings. This soon led to his family and friends becoming the subject of his photographs and he continued this project over the next 15 years which led to Waplington publishing two books; Living Room and Wedding, Parties, Anything
Richard Billingham:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/13/richard-billingham-tower-block-white-dee-rays-a-laugh-liz
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/13/richard-billingham-tower-block-white-dee-rays-a-laugh-liz
Room 3- How the other half lives
Tina Barney:
Dougie Wallace: