Juan Orrantia
Juan Orrantia, a Columbian anthropologist, documents his life in South Africa through the medium of photography. The photographs point inwards, taken within his own house, using personal subjects. South Africa has a rich culture, one that Orrantia attempt to capture; rather than the focal point being the outside world, he uses those who have touched him , and chain him to the country. His connection with South Africa derives from the life he has made there, his daughter and partner, who are seen in fragments through the book. South Africa has a historical and political link with colour; he alludes to this through his experiments using materials such as cellophane to alter the colour of the world around him.
Juan Orrantia has a background in visual anthropology. He is interested in the history, the representation, and the culture. The visual language chosen to talk about the issues which concern him is colour, which has historically defined the place. Initially, he began recording this process using natural light, photographing inwards; his family, his home. Moments from his everyday life, in order to present a new narrative. Tied to Johannasburg through his personal relationships, the history transcends cultural links, and creates a new language, presented here through his photography. " Like Stains Of Red Dirt" is not about representation, specifically, but about the fragments of thoughts and experiences, tied together through colour. The transition throughout the book, from inside to outside is seamless, using images of nature layered with social and historical context. The title, " Like Stains Of Red Dirt" is a metaphor; in South Africa, the ground is sandy red dirt, which stains easily when the wind blows, whether you like it or not. This translates into the way in which Orrantia feels South African culture and history stains him.
This photograph is playful, light, experimental. The yellow cellophane that encapsulates the image connotes with happiness, freshness, new beginnings, which are all represented within the book. Orrantia seems to be concerned with altering and abstracting the ordinary through his lens, yet by almost find natural ways to do it. This photograph manipulates light through a coloured surface, reliant on scientific laws to do so. His main theme seems to be colour, as it ties all the images throughout the collection together. This image is quite abstract- there is no clear subject besides the cellophane that we can use to gain an insight about his surroundings.
Journey of Discovery
moments
colour
people
movement
stories
sequence
light
fragments
experimental
youth
social
colour
people
movement
stories
sequence
light
fragments
experimental
youth
social
The same but different
Luxe Saxon
Growing up in London do you think this has strongly effected your photography? Or has other people/places influenced the direction it has moved towards?
Growing up in London, I have had access to galleries and exhibitions, a large influence on my practice. The diversity and sheer vastness of London opens up a lot of opportunities, and also allows you to experience different ways of life all within one city.
The use of colour comes across very prominently in your work, almost paintingesque. Is photography your sole background or do you have other art influences?
I predominantly use photography as my main practice, however just through the sheer amount of exposure and influence that art has in our day to day, it is a subconscious addition. Colour and composure are elements I like to focus on, which apply to both art and photography.
What inspires you to shoot?
Everyday life. I want to be able to capture soft, rare moments, but I also enjoy the grittier side of life.
Let's touch on a subject that I'm positive has never been discussed before: do you prefer shooting on film or digital?
I prefer the look of film to digital, but the digital camera that I have is on its last legs, the screen doesn't work and you're unable to adjust the settings. This adds an intriguing concept to my photography, an element of excitement because its almost like shooting on film. You kind of need to just hope for the best.
How is this decision relevant with your photography?
This is relevant because it takes away the element of perfection, and boils the practice down to the basics.
Who are some of your favourite photographers?
I love the works of Larry sultan, and I recently saw the work of Adi Nes at the Barbican exhibition on masculinities, which I loved.
Growing up in London do you think this has strongly effected your photography? Or has other people/places influenced the direction it has moved towards?
Growing up in London, I have had access to galleries and exhibitions, a large influence on my practice. The diversity and sheer vastness of London opens up a lot of opportunities, and also allows you to experience different ways of life all within one city.
The use of colour comes across very prominently in your work, almost paintingesque. Is photography your sole background or do you have other art influences?
I predominantly use photography as my main practice, however just through the sheer amount of exposure and influence that art has in our day to day, it is a subconscious addition. Colour and composure are elements I like to focus on, which apply to both art and photography.
What inspires you to shoot?
Everyday life. I want to be able to capture soft, rare moments, but I also enjoy the grittier side of life.
Let's touch on a subject that I'm positive has never been discussed before: do you prefer shooting on film or digital?
I prefer the look of film to digital, but the digital camera that I have is on its last legs, the screen doesn't work and you're unable to adjust the settings. This adds an intriguing concept to my photography, an element of excitement because its almost like shooting on film. You kind of need to just hope for the best.
How is this decision relevant with your photography?
This is relevant because it takes away the element of perfection, and boils the practice down to the basics.
Who are some of your favourite photographers?
I love the works of Larry sultan, and I recently saw the work of Adi Nes at the Barbican exhibition on masculinities, which I loved.
Experiments with Colour
Altering colour using technology: I like this technique because it produces bright, contrasting colours, rather than just one overarching hue.
Altering colour using coloured tape: This produced a nice faded, blurred effect, however, due to the thickness of the tape, it was hard to let enough light in, so the photographs are not as clear as i would have hoped.
Hichem Benahoud
'The Classroom' is a collection of images by Benahoud, taken of children at school in Marrakech. Benahoud is Morrocan, and took these images, over 100, when he was working as an art teacher. The genre is performative; it shows students manipulating the way they look using objects. It is staged; they were instructed to stand in the specific way and hold these objects. Whats interesting though is the background of some of them. We see the rest of the students laughing and joking, working in their natural state, in direct contrast with their classmate at the centre of the image.
John Szarkowski
The thing itself: The photographer understands that the subject and the picture were not the same thing. "Much of the reality is filtered out in the static little black and white image... unnatural clarity... exaggerated importance." Thus, the photographer is likely to claim that what our eyes saw was an illusion, and what the camera saw was the truth.
"The image would survive the subject and become the remembered reality." Photographs capture the fleeting moments, forcing them to become ever-lasting. Yet in this process the reality is lost, and the photograph, an imprint, becomes the truth.
The detail: The act of the photographer is to gather the evidence, which is "found in nature in a fragmented and unexplained form...". In documenting these fragments, the photographer claims its significance. " The compelling clarity with which a photograph recorded the trivial suggested that the subject had never before been properly seen, that it was in fact perhaps not trivial, but filled with undiscovered meaning. The attempt to achieve narrative through photographic sequences has always been rendered unsuccessful. NO sequence of photographs were enough to inherently explain the narrative, without the addition of captioning.
The frame: What is inside the frame is now marked as what the photographer saw as significant. "Since the photographer's picture was not conceived but selected , his subject was never truly discrete..." The subject of the image is able to create a different relationship between the reality and the photograph. "The sense of the pictures edge as a cropping device is one of the qualities of form that most interested the inventive painters..." There is little of evidence of to what degree this was a conscious choice.
Time: A photograph encapsulates a small period of exposure, during which light from outside paints the present of that time. "There is no such thing as an instantaneous photograph". At the time of slow cameras, ones inability to keep still throughout the duration of the long exposure time resulted in photographic inaccuracies. As the practice became faster, it focused on faster moving subjects, and was able to encapsulate a wider range of settings. "Immobilising these thin slices of time has been a source of continuing fascination for the photographer."
Vantage point: "Little has been said about the obscurity [of a photograph]. " The frame may allow for a feigned sense of significance, however what is kept out of the frame has the ability to change the photograph's inherent meaning. Photograph's are able to be conceived as the truth, and therefore have the ability to change our perception of reality.
"The image would survive the subject and become the remembered reality." Photographs capture the fleeting moments, forcing them to become ever-lasting. Yet in this process the reality is lost, and the photograph, an imprint, becomes the truth.
The detail: The act of the photographer is to gather the evidence, which is "found in nature in a fragmented and unexplained form...". In documenting these fragments, the photographer claims its significance. " The compelling clarity with which a photograph recorded the trivial suggested that the subject had never before been properly seen, that it was in fact perhaps not trivial, but filled with undiscovered meaning. The attempt to achieve narrative through photographic sequences has always been rendered unsuccessful. NO sequence of photographs were enough to inherently explain the narrative, without the addition of captioning.
The frame: What is inside the frame is now marked as what the photographer saw as significant. "Since the photographer's picture was not conceived but selected , his subject was never truly discrete..." The subject of the image is able to create a different relationship between the reality and the photograph. "The sense of the pictures edge as a cropping device is one of the qualities of form that most interested the inventive painters..." There is little of evidence of to what degree this was a conscious choice.
Time: A photograph encapsulates a small period of exposure, during which light from outside paints the present of that time. "There is no such thing as an instantaneous photograph". At the time of slow cameras, ones inability to keep still throughout the duration of the long exposure time resulted in photographic inaccuracies. As the practice became faster, it focused on faster moving subjects, and was able to encapsulate a wider range of settings. "Immobilising these thin slices of time has been a source of continuing fascination for the photographer."
Vantage point: "Little has been said about the obscurity [of a photograph]. " The frame may allow for a feigned sense of significance, however what is kept out of the frame has the ability to change the photograph's inherent meaning. Photograph's are able to be conceived as the truth, and therefore have the ability to change our perception of reality.