The Grey Area
Jack Latham is a contemporary photographer from Bristol, Uk . He explored the grey area between fact and fiction in his 2019 book "Parliament of Owls', the book is based on the infamous Bohemian Grove mens club in Monte Rio California, that houses some of the world's most powerful influential men for two weeks every summer, the grove is shrouded in secrecy as very little information about it is known to the public. However the location of the club is known to the public and is available to anyone via a quick search on google. It is rumoured to be the host of satanic rituals and other creepy doings.
Another of his books "sugar paper theories" also touches on a grey area as it is about people being framed and imprisoned for a murder that it was later discovered that they had not been part of even though each person had confessed to it. |
a grey area is a place or a situation that is in-between two mutually exclusive ideas, for example an image classed as 'grey area' photography could take place in the midst of fact or fiction or even a hybrid of a situation that is both legal and illegal.
from a photographic standpoint a grey area image could be an image that is very vague and lacks obvious information about the background of the image being given to the viewer, or a piece of work that blurs the lines between genres such as landscape, portrait or still life however they could use techniques such as editing to create a piece that blends the lines between real life and a fictitious world.
documentary photography is a form of photography used to document events , an example of documentary photography could be war photography as it is used to accurately document wars however, this may not always please the media trying to convey a certain image to the general public.
these are reliable for the most part because they are rarely doctored and are taken from a third perspective to avoid being biased. However , on the flipside, images can be unreliable due to images being doctored using software and photographers being biased while photographing an event.
contemporary photographers may be weary of photos being used as evidence as they themselves would know how easy it is to doctor an image, for example depending on the skills of the person editing an image may have , they may be able to remove or add objects without it being noticeable to the untrained eye . another reason they may be weary of this is because the meaning of photographs can be very misconstrued depending on whose hands the images being used as evidence could possible end up falling in to .
from a photographic standpoint a grey area image could be an image that is very vague and lacks obvious information about the background of the image being given to the viewer, or a piece of work that blurs the lines between genres such as landscape, portrait or still life however they could use techniques such as editing to create a piece that blends the lines between real life and a fictitious world.
documentary photography is a form of photography used to document events , an example of documentary photography could be war photography as it is used to accurately document wars however, this may not always please the media trying to convey a certain image to the general public.
these are reliable for the most part because they are rarely doctored and are taken from a third perspective to avoid being biased. However , on the flipside, images can be unreliable due to images being doctored using software and photographers being biased while photographing an event.
contemporary photographers may be weary of photos being used as evidence as they themselves would know how easy it is to doctor an image, for example depending on the skills of the person editing an image may have , they may be able to remove or add objects without it being noticeable to the untrained eye . another reason they may be weary of this is because the meaning of photographs can be very misconstrued depending on whose hands the images being used as evidence could possible end up falling in to .
With this photo-shoot being conducted at several times and locations on 26/9/19, I attempted to play with some of the genre conventions regarding landscape imagery mainly, however the images that include my feet may have conventions of portraiture and the images with leaves and trees may play with and blend the lines between still life photography and landscape photography . I also used conventions of street photography as most of these images were taken of / on the same street however no people (with the exception of my feet) appear in any of these images.
I would say I played with them in a way to attempt to emulate how Latham created his photographic work 'Parliament of owls' by taking images relating mainly to one place (with the exception of the tube imagery which was taken at a different location in London to the other images i took for this task), for a backing story I was envisioning either a teen runaway being lost or a murder story similar to that of Latham's other work 'Sugar paper Theories'.
WWW: the content of the images, the first 11 images have been exposed correctly and have had enough lighting to not look blurry as is the issue with the latter portion of this shoot.
EBI: Quality of some images , if i had used the right level of exposure in most of these to capture what i truly intended and if i had shot these images on the black and white filter setting rather than editing it in this way using my iPhone's built in image editor.
I would say I played with them in a way to attempt to emulate how Latham created his photographic work 'Parliament of owls' by taking images relating mainly to one place (with the exception of the tube imagery which was taken at a different location in London to the other images i took for this task), for a backing story I was envisioning either a teen runaway being lost or a murder story similar to that of Latham's other work 'Sugar paper Theories'.
WWW: the content of the images, the first 11 images have been exposed correctly and have had enough lighting to not look blurry as is the issue with the latter portion of this shoot.
EBI: Quality of some images , if i had used the right level of exposure in most of these to capture what i truly intended and if i had shot these images on the black and white filter setting rather than editing it in this way using my iPhone's built in image editor.
Slant Response: Lewisham Rail Crash of 1957
While i was researching this event in the planning stage of this photoshoot I came across an article online reclaiming a man’s account of seeing the ghosts of those who died on this cold December night in the train crash pleading for help from the buildings surrounding the area of St. john’s Railway Station in Lewisham, South-East London. Upon seeing this I then decided this would be the story i did my 'Slant' inspired piece of work on.
I decided to place myself in the perspective of a ghost of one of the victims of the crash while i photographed parts of each of the stations near the actual coordinates of the crash site, which is now on private property. I could not photograph the actual sight as I had decided to shoot this at night due to the fact that this is when the ghosts would be interacting with people upon their nightly journeys crossing paths with these alleged ghosts.
While i was researching this event in the planning stage of this photoshoot I came across an article online reclaiming a man’s account of seeing the ghosts of those who died on this cold December night in the train crash pleading for help from the buildings surrounding the area of St. john’s Railway Station in Lewisham, South-East London. Upon seeing this I then decided this would be the story i did my 'Slant' inspired piece of work on.
I decided to place myself in the perspective of a ghost of one of the victims of the crash while i photographed parts of each of the stations near the actual coordinates of the crash site, which is now on private property. I could not photograph the actual sight as I had decided to shoot this at night due to the fact that this is when the ghosts would be interacting with people upon their nightly journeys crossing paths with these alleged ghosts.
Response installation
to install this response, i chose to install it in the revolving door to the school's darkroom so that these photographs would be seen in the dark , via a flashlight which would most likely be coming from someone's phone torch, as seen in the middle image below. i chose to display it this way so that it would be a more personal experience for the viewer, as not a lot of people would be able to see it at a given time, also contributing to this decision is the fact that i put the pictures on display in the door in a sporadic fashion, echoing the rubble and debris of the train crash that would have been left sporadically
to install this response, i chose to install it in the revolving door to the school's darkroom so that these photographs would be seen in the dark , via a flashlight which would most likely be coming from someone's phone torch, as seen in the middle image below. i chose to display it this way so that it would be a more personal experience for the viewer, as not a lot of people would be able to see it at a given time, also contributing to this decision is the fact that i put the pictures on display in the door in a sporadic fashion, echoing the rubble and debris of the train crash that would have been left sporadically
trip to bristol 1/11/19:
On the first on november 2019, my class and i went on a trip to the city of bristol, primarily to see Jack Latham's Sugar paper Theories and to also visit the Martin Parr Foundation gallery armed with
On the first on november 2019, my class and i went on a trip to the city of bristol, primarily to see Jack Latham's Sugar paper Theories and to also visit the Martin Parr Foundation gallery armed with