05: Music Music has inspired filmmakers and photographers investigating the connections between sound and image. In the video Dancing in Peckham by Gillian Wearing, the artist dances to music that is inaudible to the public around her. The direction and speed of movement in a musical performance is recorded in The Cellist by Anton Giulio Bragaglia. The black and white photography of Francis Wolff features many important jazz musicians with their instruments during recording sessions and rehearsals. Investigate appropriate sources and produce your own response to Music. |
I chose option 5, Music, for my exam as I felt it resonated most with me as opposed to the other options. With choosing this topic, I believe I will have a lot of creative freedom when taking images, whilst also sticking to my own personal style of photography. In the past, I created a piece of work based on music, On The Floor, specifically the large role music had to play in my childhood, it was extremely interesting and I had planned to continue someday.
For this topic, I am particularly interested in focusing on House music and rave culture, however I am also interested in the idea of Grime music, the rise of rap in England and the impact on the UK in the 90s/early 2000s. Currently, I am thinking of creating a photography video similar to my Morocco projects, having a house song play in the background with videos from old raves/parties as well as images that I have taken that could relate. I believe that buying a disposable camera and getting pictures developed would tie in perfectly with the early 2000s basis of the project. In addition, I would be able to include videos of my dad Djing and old images of my mum when she was younger during the peak of house music and grime if I decide include, which will add more of personal touch to the work.
Dancing in Peckham
Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing
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Gillian Wearing is the creator of extremely thought-provoking pieces based on the complexities of personal identity across film, video and photography. In 'Dancing in Peckham', it is recording of Wearing in the spotlight dancing by herself to no music in the middle of the shopping centre as we see this reactions of those around her, ranging from puzzlement to lack of concern, showcasing the difference between public and private expression. Wearing's determined hold of the art of documentation intellectually directs the division between public representation and private reality. Her work challenges the audience to consider the complexity of identity as humans and the impact self representation has on the world. |
Drumz Of The South
Georgina Cook
Drumz of the South is a visual portrayal of a music scene by Georgina Cook, somebody who was apart of it herself, capturing the crowds, DJs and pirate radio stations from the the front line. Through the eye catching images, Drumz of the South holds a impactful platform for praising the electronic music arising in South London - where Cook is from. With a phrase that explains the moral of the collection "Music is a journey, life is just something that happens along the way."
Between the years of 2004 and 2007, the collection captures the beauty and essence of the graudually growing music scene before Dubstep's global acknowledgement and its adaptation to its subgenre 'Brostep'. As the collection continues, the viewers witness the evolution of the scene, seeing the dance floors consistently fill up, including more of a balance in gender. Aspects such as the 'intense bass face' and 'gun fingers' adds further to the rich music culture and understanding of the images.
Between the years of 2004 and 2007, the collection captures the beauty and essence of the graudually growing music scene before Dubstep's global acknowledgement and its adaptation to its subgenre 'Brostep'. As the collection continues, the viewers witness the evolution of the scene, seeing the dance floors consistently fill up, including more of a balance in gender. Aspects such as the 'intense bass face' and 'gun fingers' adds further to the rich music culture and understanding of the images.
When I consider the realm of creative expression, music stands out as a beacon, instantly bringing to mind memories of my parents. Both avid enthusiasts of house music, they inevitably installed a large appreciation and admiration for the genre in me. It's a legacy I hold dear and a gift passed down through generations.
Reflecting on my own photography journey, it became clear that I wanted to centre my work around my deep rooted love for house music and its rich culture. The reason for this decision came in the form of a video clip my mother shared with me, captured back in 2008 in Ibiza. While the video may seem simple at first glance, it serves as a nostalgic window into a bygone era, a time before the clubbing scene evolved into its current form. It's a breath of fresh air and a reminder of the pure, unadulterated joy that fills the atmosphere of such events.
Looking through the history of house music, there is a deep history of the genre within the black community. Originating in Chicago, the underground club culture in the 1980s slowly morphed from the era of disco music as the songs developed more mechanical beats. The largest marketing tool for music is photography and film, allowing outsiders to see what the culture is like. There are many house songs that take inspiration from disco, soul music before looking into other styles of house music. This understanding relates well to photography and adds to the lessons of developing and refining work until you meet your personal best.
My parents had a very large impact on how much I love music today. My father was a house music producer and ran 'Switched on Records', a record label. This upbringing helped me develop a creative mindset focused on expressing myself freely. The pictures above show some of his mixtape covers, from the mid 2010s reflecting that time period. While these designs may seem simple at first glance they hold a lot of meaning for me from my childhood days, sparking my creativity. Still inspiring me in my artistic pursuits.
Idea Generation
After doing some research, I came across the artist Christian Marclay who has a collection named 'The Body Mix' where the images are of vinyl album covers collaged together with connections within the images to create one large image. Before travelling to find actual vinyls, I thought I have a digital experiment, using Adobe Photoshop, to link the images together. I am content with the middle image and think that relates mostly to Marclay's style. As I am still generating ideas for my final outcome, I am going to do this project again with physical album covers, with the privilege to showcase all the different layers and textures on the covers.
In order to move with my project, I took a trip to my dad's office where I have full access to a large amount of vinyls. Following Christian Marclay's inspiration, I made sure to take as many images of vinyl records and covers as possible. When moving into the editing process, I intend to use photoshop to collage and blend the images together. Furthermore, I'd also like to experiment with photoshop and work with the images on the vinyl records.
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Music Derive
Moving forward with my work, I felt myself being stuck and unable to come up with any ideas that I genuinely liked and I felt that my ideas weren't able to showcase my skills that I've learnt throughout the years. After expressing my concerns to my teacher, I was given the idea to simply go on a walk whilst listening to music, allowing my eyes to do the thinking as my brain was distracted by the music. I spent about an hour walking around Kidbrooke listening to my house music playlist and developed some images.
Edited
Putting the images through an editing process allowed me to push the images to their full potential. I was able to amplify the colours, add a grain effect, and fully highlight the main point of the images. I wanted to make the images appear as warm and comforting as possible, wanting to give the impression to the audience that they are looking at old images of a place they once knew. The influence of music as well as the opportunities, for example, the empty can on the floor, helped to think outside of the box when taking images around the area. I worked my hardest to find coincidental images that are so
On the walk, I played my house music playlist, which I strongly believe allows me to see the most creative aspects of my surroundings. House music influences to me to think outside of the box when it comes to photography and is the reason
pre rafalites all art inspires to the condition of music
Through the Melody
When sitting down one night at home, the idea came to me of giving people in my class a pair of headphones and capturing their reactions to the songs. The next morning, I brought my personal camera to school, Sony a7 iii, and decided to carry out the idea. I started off the process by asking my closest friend in the class so it was easier to start, I don't tend to ask people to take pictures of them I usually stick to candid shots and capturing the moment. I allowed each person to pick their own song and simply just asked them to react on camera. Some people were more awkward than others, which explains the hand covering their face or big smiles. I only spent about 2 minutes with each person but the fast shutter on the camera allowed to get about 20 pictures in that time.
Originally, I planned to edit the images into black & white and that would be the final outcome, however after playing around with some colour and I do enjoy the gritty, urban colour and can't decide which style I like more so i decided to publish both.
Originally, I planned to edit the images into black & white and that would be the final outcome, however after playing around with some colour and I do enjoy the gritty, urban colour and can't decide which style I like more so i decided to publish both.
In lesson, I printed out the images I took of my classmates and handed each person their picture to them and asked them to keep hold of them until our making day. Through the waiting time, the images will be ripped, folded, torn and more showcasing the history behind each person and their image.
I came up of the idea of visually showing the contrast in digital vs physical. There is a great difference between downloading a song into your phone and the process of buying a record, working with the vinyl and maintaining the cover to keep the vinyl safe. Today, there simply is a luxury of having music to listen to, companies like Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud and many more have stripped away any journey it takes to find music as it is so accessible. Compared to life in early 2000s in before, having music at home was a privilege and people had a connection and story behind all the music they collected.
This idea is similar to photography in the idea of having images as well as taking images today is so much more accessible than before. Every phone has a camera, you can buy digital cameras and everybody practically uses a camera everyday through social media. I wanted to convey this message through physical representation of how printed images can be tarnished however the weight of the memory is still the same much like vinyl records.
Making Day :
Dark room - photogram, increasing them, scanning the images
Re photograph close ups of damaging (blue tac to wall)
I came up of the idea of visually showing the contrast in digital vs physical. There is a great difference between downloading a song into your phone and the process of buying a record, working with the vinyl and maintaining the cover to keep the vinyl safe. Today, there simply is a luxury of having music to listen to, companies like Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud and many more have stripped away any journey it takes to find music as it is so accessible. Compared to life in early 2000s in before, having music at home was a privilege and people had a connection and story behind all the music they collected.
This idea is similar to photography in the idea of having images as well as taking images today is so much more accessible than before. Every phone has a camera, you can buy digital cameras and everybody practically uses a camera everyday through social media. I wanted to convey this message through physical representation of how printed images can be tarnished however the weight of the memory is still the same much like vinyl records.
Making Day :
Dark room - photogram, increasing them, scanning the images
Re photograph close ups of damaging (blue tac to wall)