There  is  a  difference  between  looking  at  photographs-­-­which  has  become  a  common  cultural  practice  in  connection  with  reading  newspapers-­-­or  seeing  the  image.  The  latter  refers  to  reconstructing  the  photograph  by  exploring  the  deep  structure  of  the  image-­-­which  involves  the  application  of  practical  knowledge  and  creative  insights  and  relies  on  the  cultural  or  historical  consciousness  of  the  reader.  Looking  is  the  visual  routine  of  readers,  seeing  is  the  visual  practice  of  the  literate.  The  professional  or  artistic  disposition  of  photographers  reflects  a  commitment  to  the  image  as  an  expression  of  ideas  or  feelings  that  are  beyond  words.  -­  Hanno  Hardt  

Introductory Project for Year 13 Photography Students 2011/12 Develop artwork in response to the given starting point. Your work should also reflect your key photographic interests (through style, genre, technique etc). This work is for potential exhibition at the Lighthouse 21st October 2011, and is also likely to be a key piece of portfolio work. Your sketchbook / blogs should show in-depth developmental studies that fulfil the assessment objectives for A2. In particular there should be clear evidence of an increased level of analytical and critical understanding.

Project title: Soliloquy an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play oxford dictionary A device often used in drama whereby a character relates his or her thoughts and feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters  Webster  dictionary      Context  for  project:  The  Lighthouse,  Poole  is  keen  to  continue  a  successful  partnership  with  Yr13  Photography  students.  They  have  requested  work  for  exhibition  over  a  period  when  two  Shakespeare  plays  will  take  place  at  the  Lighthouse:  A  Midsummer  Nights  Dream  and  Macbeth.  This  request  coincides  with  a  time  when  students  are  reflecting  on  individual  future  pathways  and  areas  of  focus  for  A2  study.  The  theme  ‘Soliloquy’  has  been  chosen  as  an  open-­‐ended  starting  point  to  encourage  students  to  research,  explore,  experiment  and  express  themselves.      What  do  I  want  to  capture  most  in  my  photographs?  I  am  more  interested  in  capturing  the  inner  truth.  Human  emotion  and  the  essence  of  human  being.  Lighting  and  fine  camera  equipment  are  useless  if  the  photographer  cannot  make  them  drop  the  mask,  at  least  for  a  moment.  And  so  it  becomes  more  often  the  good  psychologist  rather  than  the  good  photographer  who  makes  good  portraits.  It  is  the  sitter’s  mind  that  controls  the  portrait  a  photographer  makes,  not  the  photographer’s  skills  with  his  camera  or  with  direction.  -­  Philippe  Halsman      “In  my  case,  it’s  been  an  interior  dialogue  and  not  an  exterior  dialogue.  The  question  is:  ‘Who  am  I?’  Too  many  photographers  look  no  farther  than  the  surface,  not  only  of  the  things  they  photograph,  but  of  their  own  lives  and  emotions.  Duane  Michals    Writings  on  Sam  Taylor  Wood’s  series:  Soliloquy  (www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hpj/graiwer.htm)  As  the  title  Soliloquy  suggests,  the  series  is  an  extended  rumination  on  the  entrapment  of  individuals  within  themselves  –  the  exhausting  and  endless  monologue  that  is  the  human  condition.  We  view  a  brief  glimpse  of  a  privately  coded  vision  presented  as  part  of  the  undercurrent  or  optical  unconscious  of  a  singular  individual,  and  we  are  acutely  aware  of  the  insurmountable  gap  in  understanding  that  separates  us  as  viewers  from  the  intimate  fantasy  we  voyeuristically  observe.  We  are  repeatedly  reminded  of  the  fundamentally  subjective  nature  of  human  perception,  imagination,  and  consciousness  as  we  attempt  to  inject  signification  and  narrative  content  into  the  enigmatic  panoramas  underlining  each  subject’s  portrait.  What  at  first  seems  an  intensely  private  space  of  someone  else’s  imagined  fantasy  –  a  distant  and  unreal  ‘elsewhere’  –  subsequently  evolves  through  our  viewing  of  it  and  our  efforts  at  comprehension  and  identification  into  a  muddled  amalgam  of  the  image  objectively  exhibited  to  us  by  the  artist  and  the  artificial  narrative  and  tale  we  as  viewers  have  constructed  and  projected  onto  the  work,  thus  subjecting  it  to  our  subjectivity.  This  world  is  waiting  for  us  to  give  it  meaning.      Is  it  possible  to  convert  your  own  (or  someone  else’s)  imaginings,  thoughts,  fears,  hopes,  dreams  and  ideas  into  photographs  /  artwork?        References  in  introductory  presentation:  Sam  Taylor  Wood,  Italian  altarpieces  with  predellas,  Francis  Kearney,  Gillian  Wearing,  Rineke  Dijkstra,  Gregory  Crewdson,  Guy  Bourdin,  Manu  Pambrol,  Annee  Olofsson,  Richard  Billingham,  Nick  Turpin,  Steven  Berkoff  

 Sam  Taylor  Wood,  Solliloquy    

 Henry  Wallis,  Death  of  Chatterton    

 Sam  Taylor  Wood,  Solliloquy  

     Annee  Olofsson    

   Richard  Billingham                

 

   Gregory  Crewdson    

   Gillian  Wearing,  Confessions  video  Installation