Identification

" The moment of identification, unlike illumination, does not distinguish photography from other visual images, or even from encounters in the world at large. At work in any personal exchange, identification plays an integral part in the formation of groups. Moreover, it is not just the identification of a subject that is at stake but, often identification with it. The personal and the social position through which the beholder is looking can bring what she or he sees into focus, or distort it beyond recognition. The encounter with an image might seem more one-sided that a meeting with a person, but it, too is susceptible to the slippage between one kind of identification and the other. Whether scholars seek to avoid such slippages in their work, or to confront or exploit them, they disturb the simple relation between representations and subjects, between images and people, between photographs and their referents. Something had to be in front of the camera."

Photography Degree Zero, Reflections on Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida, page 75.

A Photograph as an icon and an index

"In relation to photography, similarity generally means visual resemblance: a photographed portrait, like a painted one, is an icon. An index, however, represents its object through contact: it points at its object, or it is itself a trace of, or mark made by, that object. A thumbprint is an index. Because the item had to be there for an indexical representation of it to exist, it is often thought that an index is inherently more persuasive that in icon. A photograph is both an icon and an index; it is like an icon with a seal of approval, or, as Barthes calls it, a "certificate of presence" ".

Photography Degree Zero, Reflections on Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida, page 76.

Copy images 62

The above images are copied from A Photographic Exhibition. A book I purchased from Paris in Jan 2014 

The above images are copied from a book titled Mick Jagger The Photobook. Purchased in 2012 from Auckland City Art Gallery

Gazing

I used a slow shutter speed to create movement and distortion of the face and head. It is intended to create sense of ambiguity to the image. Scale is explored again here. Is the head giant or the photograph alley tiny?

Subterraine

I allowed the light to shine through holes in the roof. Plays with scale.

Negative images

I lined a long box with images. The light coming in from the end turned the images into negatives.

Mirror Mask

Here I was experimenting with cut outs and mirrors. I was happy with how the cut out is not isolated as in the previous shots. I liked the reference to where it had been cut from; the negative space or the context. I think the focus on the edge of the second photo is working well, this emphasizes the 2D image and the cut edge.

I became an image

I became an image

I made myself an image and cut myself out so I could meet Micky as an image. I need to make sure the work doesn't look like a bad Photoshop job. It needs to look like exactly what it is...........a photograph of images. I am using lighting and shallow depth of field.

Micky's Room Ideas

I made a diorama with images of Mick. Cutting them out and standing them up. I used shallow depth of field and lighting to create a mood and trying to making sure they dont look like collages. This is all experimenting.
I was interested how the cropping and placement of the image made it look so incomplete.  I was aware that cropping by framing a subject does not give this effect. The viewer assumes there is more body to be seen but it is just not in the frame. We are familiar with the conventions of cropping but only by the frame of the camera.

See the example below

Micky'sRoom