Photography Unit.

Lately i have really interested in visual 'story telling' i have found a strong interest in renaissance paintings (14th - 17th century works).  One of the main aims of art in this time was to illustrate stories. I wanted to think about story telling in modern times for this unit under the theme of their. 

In medieval and Renaissance society, art and religion when hand in hand. Art aided religion by giving common people a visual story because they could not read the bible. It also helped invoke emotional responses swell as gave people a visual memory of a story. 

 How could artists suggest the flow of a story in the fixed painting? Developing ideas that represented time, movement.

In the 14th century paintings changed the way artists told a story, it went from one single painting to things known as Polyptychs or Altarpieces. These are 3 panelled paintings larger than a triptych. 

Attributed to Lippo di Benivieni The Crucifixion with Scenes from the Passion and the Life of St John the Baptist, c. 1315–20

This example is interesting as its main focus starts with the middle. Then the other sections are almost like flash backs to the beginning of the story. 

This is the start of how they used imagery to tell a story. They also used Double imagery to express movement and the passing of time:

Jacopino di Francesco  The Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi, c. 1325–30 

Or split framing an image to create the illusion of two different scenes. 

Fra Angelico The Healing of Palladia by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, c. 1438/1440

They would also use continuous narrative.

Master of the Osservanza The Meeting of St Anthony and St Paul, c. 1430/1435

So in this painting above for example one event follows another in a progression across the picture. 

I found a quote by a sixteenth-century Venetian critic Ludovico Dolce that says

'As for disposition, it is necessary that the artist move from section to section following the course of time in the narrative he has undertaken to paint. . . . He should not place later in time what ought to come earlier, nor earlier what should come later, but lay things out in a most ordered fashion, according to the way in which they succeeded one another.'

Then you have an artist like Caravaggio who would use compositional lines to take your eye across a paintings to tell a story in one single image. 

The Calling of Saint Matthew - Caravaggio

This painting by Caravaggio shows a story from the bible. A moment when Jesus gained the following of Matthew. Standing next to Saint Peter Jesus points at Mathew, who is sitting at the table with 4 men.  His use of space and composition makes you feel like you are not a viewer you are actually in the scene as well. It makes me think of  Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting of God, pointing directly towards Adam to 'awaken' him. 

This is another painting by Caravaggio that tells a story.

‘Doubting Thomas’

This painting is also known as ‘The Incredulity of Saint Thomas’. Again it is from the bible and it tells the story of one of the apostles,doubted the resurrection of Christ, saying he would not believe it until he could place his finger where the nails had pierced Jesus's body. Aside from the painting being painted so beautifully i love the use of emotion, all 4 men in this painting show a different emotion and again with the elbow coming out into our space it makes me feel like i am involved in this scene, not just viewing it. 

This painting i next looked into is very interesting because unlike most Italian art from the time, it does not tell a story from the bible or roman mythology. 

‘The Fortune Teller’

It is a scene from normal, everyday life. I think these paintings were popular in Europe but not so much in Italy. It is the story of a rich young man who is getting his palm read by a gypsy girl. He is looking into her eyes while she slips the ring off his finger. This is a good example of  how Caravaggio separated himself from other painters at the time by drawing inspiration from the real world not from idealized god like worlds from the past. 

For my photography unit I wanted to create work that is telling a story. I always thought that these paintings were so powerful because they could not only tell a story but they could tell you exactly what they wanted you to think while seeing it, showing people in a certain way or events in a certain light. They could help steer an opinion in a certain way. I thought about if things have changed now and it made me think about the news. How we are given and how we accept news.

 How reports infuse there own opinion or how certain papers have different political views and how that influences what we think. Using the idea of these paintings and the worlds made by Raqib Shaw i wanted to make my own collages telling news stories.

At this point i started working on my 'Project' for that i am looking at PC culture and i thought i worked really well with what i was looking at in news story. I wanted to start looking more at how Pc culture is presented through news story's and social media. Using the same idea just focusing in and connecting it to my project to try and keep my focus.

I went onto the BBC web sight and randomly scrolled and landed on one about the Christmas song being anti PC like baby its cold outside and i wanted to make work about this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46425160

I started off thinking, whats my opinion on this, i am the journalist and what do i think, how can i get people to see it how i want them to see it.

I started playing about.

I started with Baby its cold outside. People dont like this song because they feel it is about a man trying to pressure a woman into staying the night and having sex with him.

Raqib Shaw Last Rites of the Artist's Ego at Shankryacharya Temple (after Ludovico Mazzolino) 2015-2016

I wanted to try and make something a bit different...Although i think visually pleasing i find this sort of romanticized way of working very difficult to make. I found it hard to get excited about and to keep my interest. keeping in mind the story telling the image of the 'fortune teller'. I enjoyed making collages in this way but i wanted to push myself a bit, i find a lot of inspiration from Dada artist Hannah Hoch and i wanted to incorporate imagery more in this way, i find it a lot easier to express what i am trying to say...

Keeping in mind the PC culture i am working on i started looking at more new articles...

I found a bunch of articles on banned words in schools and unis.

https://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/university-cardiff-metropolitan-bans-phrases-mankind-gentlemans-agreement-gender-neutral-terms-free-a7609521.html

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/03/02/university-bans-phrases-right-hand-man-gentlemans-agreement/

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/774562/sexist-word-banned-university-students-sportsmanship-mankind-housewife

I thought this was so interesting and hearing people on both sides i wanted to use this as fuel for both my project and my photography.

I used the fortune teller as inspiration. as well as some hannah hoch collages.... a very strange combination !

I wanted to use imagery that would express cultural appropriation as well as things like gender identity and how i see people arguing about it but no ones hearing or seeing what is being said or done. I wanted to start thinking about the English language or language in general. I wanted to think about modern gender as a concept, Cultural appropriation, history and emotion as well as evolution of humans. 

At this point i wanted to start making my final 4 images.

Sources:

http://www.veryshortintroductions.com/view/10.1093/actrade/9780192803542.001.0001/actrade-9780192803542-chapter-3

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/storytelling-in-christian-art-from-giotto-to-donatello-by-jules-lubbock-412680.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/19/style/a-storytelling-renaissance.html

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/10-artworks-by-caravaggio-you-should-know/

http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-6/essays/introduction/

http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-6/sub-page-03/painting-in-the-service-of-religion/
http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-6/essays/chronological-order/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46137925