Globalisation

When defining the term Globalisation, it is key to first acknowledge which bow of the metaphorical tree of politics you hang from, as Capitalists and Socialists will offer distinctly different explanations as to the meaning:

Capitalist
"The elimination of state enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result.

Socialist
The process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces.

Key words and phrases that instantly relate to 'Globalisation' are 'westernisation', or 'Americanisation' in reference to the growing dominance of western forms of political, economic and cultural life. It is also adequate reference to the proliferation of new information technologies, also known as 'The Internet Revolution'. Finally and most importantly it represents the notion that humanity stands at the threshold of realising one single unified community in which major sources of social conflict have vanished, which is known in short as global integration.

Globalisation has been made possible through geographical distance being typically measured in time and thus, the time necessary to connect distinct geographical locations is reduced, distance or space undergoes compression, or 'annihilation'. This can be put down to our human experience of space being intimately connected to the temporal structure of those activities by means of which we experience space. Changes in the temporality of human activity inevitably generate altered experiences of space or territory. Theorists of globalisation agree that alterations in humanity's experiences of space and time are working to undermine the importance of local and even national boundaries in many arenas of human endeavour. Since globalisation contains far reaching implications for virtually every facet of human life, it necessarily suggests the need to rethink key questions of normative political theory.

"If we are talking about the 'cultural', we are concerned with the symbolic construction, articulation, and dissemination of meaning. Given that language, music, and images constitute the major forms of symbolic expression, they assume special significance in the sphere of culture. Yet culture globalisation did not start with the worldwide dissemination of rock 'n' roll, Coca-Cola, or football."
Manfred B. Steger, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, page 69

An excellent example of the sheer force of globalisation within photography is the German visual artist, Andreas Gursky, known for his enormous architecture and landscape colour photography. His is especially distinctive for his incisive and critical look at the effect of capitalism and globalisation on contemporary life. He often depicts people as tiny protagonists caught in vast landscapes. Since the 1990s, Gursky has concentrated on sites of commerce and tourism, making work that draws attention to today's burgeoning high tech industry and global markets. His imagery ranges from the vast, anonymous architecture of modern deay hotel lobbies, apartment buildings and warehouses to stock exchanges and parliament buildings in different countries around the world.

Andreas Gursky, Mayday

His work contrasts the common conception that Globalisation is a good thing, shown in the size of the common person, never depicted within his work any bigger than a pin prick within the frame. Alternatively he could simply be drawing our attention to the insignificance of singular citizens and the necessity for globalisation in order for society to progress.

Week 3 - Task

Create a 200 – 300 word statement contextualising an example of your own practice. Most of you have work in the current FD Photography 2nd year exhibition. If you do, then use the work in the exhibition, and if you do not, then choose an example of your work and print it in a suitable format so that it can be seen by a group of people.

The Pop Up Portrait Studio

Over the course of a weekend in late November last year James Hawley opened his doors to the general public for the oppurtunity to be photographed, free of charge, with absolutely no strings attached; a rarity within the photographic world. Over the two days almost 30 poeple graced his studio and left with a smile on their face and their image, retouched and post processed to the highest standard on the way out to their e-mail inbox for them to do with as they pleased.

The studio was a platform for a continued search for beauty and the photographer's own artistic expression mused by any man or woman, boy or girl, who allowed themselves to grace the studio.

Critical Positions on the Media & Popular Culture

Communication Theory Lecture Notes

Human communication is understood in various ways by those who identify with the field. This diversity is the result of communication being a relatively young field of study, composed of a very broad constituency of disciplines. It includes work taken from scholars of Rhetoric, Journalism, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, and Semiotics, among others. Cognate areas include biocommunication, which investigates communicative processes within and among non-humans such as bacteria, animals, fungi and plants, and information theory, which provides a mathematical model for measuring communication within and among systems.
Generally, human communication is concerned with the making of meaning and the exchange of understanding. One model of communication considers it from the perspective of transmitting information from one person to another. In fact, many scholars of communication take this as a working definition, and use Lasswell's maxim, "who says what to whom in what channel with what effect," as a means of circumscribing the field of communication theory. Among those who subscribe to the transmission model are those who identify themselves with the communication sciences, and finds its roots in the studies of propaganda and mass media of the early 20th century.

Other commentators claim that a ritual process of communication exists, one not artificially divorcible from a particular historical and social context. This tradition is largely associated with early scholars of symbolic interactionism as well as phenomenologists.
(source: wiki)

Bernd & Hilla Becher

The German born Becher couple concentrated on photographing and documenting the disappearing German industrial architecture. They would exhibit their images of barns, water silos, storage silos, warehouses and other industrial features often side by side so as to invite viewers of their photography to compare details in the architecture. Often the differences were few; but their choice of exhibiting style made these differences all the more apparent.


(mariam goodman gallery)

The couple took a very objective approach to their photographs and their use of a large format camera medium suited this almost scientific documentary style very well. With their chosen medium they were able to eradicate any perspective distortions that a single lens plain camera cannot.

The Bechers are clear lovers of the mid 20th century industrial architecture and through their photography have caused others to consider the structures with the same interest and due diligence. They however give us no access to detail in their images, not even an angles perspective on the structures: They are all photographed from a head on, straightforward point of view.

Although some, like the Bechers may consider the structures that they photographed to be beautiful, non were purpose built to meet those ends. They simply serve a purpose and I can imagine most of the communities that saw them on a day to day basis would happily let them blend into the mundane everyday scenery and wouldn't offer them a second glance. However when they are presented as an art form people seem to feel much more at ease scrutinizing them as an art form rather than structures performing a purpose and built to suit that as such.

As individual images I highly doubt these would work. Alone they would be an image of a boring structure shot in a boring way: However as soon as they are placed together the mind immediately attempts to connect them and in doing so analyses their slight differences and compares their resemblances to one another. As a set they work tremendously well together and this is justified in that their 1976 study of cooling towers sold for the grand price of $150,000 at auction in 2004 (pictured below)


(artnet.com)

I think the Becher's style of photography correlates with Baudrillard's notions of simulation and that they are most probably making a satirical comment on the disappearance of these old German industrial features whilst juxtaposing it with the way in which they exhibit their work which is strongly reminiscent of the mass-reproducible copies of items; an example of which that was taking place at a similar time to their work being exhibited might be Andy Warhol's numerous screen prints, which also play on the modern mass consumerist culture.

Larry Clark - Tulsa

Larry Clark's 1971 photographic book documents his three-year methamphetamine binge with his friends. It is disturbingly honest - many of the images featuring his friends shooting up speed in partial nudity (or completely nude) and their drug induced orgies.

The images are disturbing for their raw reality - Clark has an amazing ability to put the viewer in the room with him and his friends. What is crucial in making none of the images appear at all staged or posed, is that not once in the book do any of the subjects' make eye contact with the camera lens, and us, the viewers looking over Clark's shoulder.

Clark's work relies on the shock factor. However this being said he is giving us an honest insight into this period of his life - which frankly is shocking. He makes no apparent effort to make it any more shocking than it actually is - which makes it all the more disturbing.

It was proclaimed by the Dick Cheverton of the Detroit Press as ‘A devastating portrait of an American tragedy’. He goes on further to accurately gauge the book saying, ‘it is the light – light that comes in cold and New England hard (or Oklahoma vague) into a barren room occupied by an anonymously pregnant woman, beautiful, waiting, a needle in her arm.’ Published with this post is the image; but I think that without visual evidence of that – the description alone is enough to send shivers down one’s spine.

Larry Clark’s images are unapologetic, unorthodox, completely uncensored and chilling to the core. All this being said he is my favourite documentary photographer, my favourite filmmaker, and a man who I see as an all-round revolutionary. He makes it near impossible for anyone to shock the public with their work in quite the same way he has – and go down a legend whilst doing it.

Week III: Research historical and contemporary documentary photography, compare and contrast

Martin Parr serves for an excellent response to most of these questions. Having been a serious photographer since 1975 he has nearly half a century of first hand experience of the photography world, a quality for which there is no substitute. He also attempts to keep his equipment, style and subject matter contemporary throughout the years; and it must be for this reason amongst others that he declares himself as a “post modern photographer” [Parr by Parr, Quentin Bajac & Martin Parr].

Throughout his photographic years Parr has been a slave to manual cameras. Although the battle between manual and digital camera-using photographers has waged for years it’s safe to say that to this day any photographer practising on film and labouring over their work for hours on end in the darkroom will be considered as more of an artist, and as a product for their work to be considered art.

It was only in the 1970s that documentary photography became widely accepted as a valid art form. Until this point photographers were shunned from exhibiting; photography was more of a job to serve a purpose rather than the thoughtful, often purposeless ‘art forms’ we see today. Documentary photography these days is exhibited all across the world in galleries, magazines, books etc.

Documentary photographers have a duty to their subjects to be truthful to reality, but as photographers tried to add their own interpretive and artful dimension to what they see around them; it was only a matter of time before discrepancies began to arise concerning the photographer’s fidelity towards his subject.

In the words of Jerry Thompson; “Whether their [the photographer’s] intent is descriptive or expressive – truth depends on the vision and mastery of the photographer.”