Kicking the second year off to a start the first visual project has the title of “Weird and Wonderful”. To explore what this means through photography, by giving the audience a narrative to question. This title gives me the opportunity to explore different photographic techniques and theories to create imagery that does not necessarily fit into the norm. The Oxford definition of “weird” is something that is supernatural or unearthly and “Wonderful” inspires delight, pleasure, something really good or marvelous. Throughout this project, I will use photographic narrative to embrace the “Weird” in the stories that I create, by opening the mind of the audience into another part of their imagination.
Reflecting on the work that I made during my first year I know that I need to develop a narrative for which my viewer can follow. Much of the work that I have done in the past has been in a documentary style, therefore the narrative has been apart of the visual and personal exploration on the series. For this project, I work like to work with a theory or an already existing narrative to create images inspired by those themes. I think that is important for me to be able to create photographic work in more than one way. So for this project, I plan on distancing myself from documentary inspired work and focusing on cinematic narratives that tell stories in single images.
Sarah Jones- "The Dinning Room Table" 1997
Tableau
A Tableau is the French word for “living picture”, it is a static scene that contains one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume and in character and may be theoretically lit. A Tableau may be performed in visual theatre, a painting, and since the 19th century, a photograph.
The term was first used in the eighteenth century by French philosopher Denis Diderot to describe paintings with this type of composition. Tableau paintings were natural and true to life, and had the effect of walling off the observer from the drama taking place, transfixing the viewer like never before.
In the 1860s, the concept of the tableau reached a crisis with Édouard Manet, who, in his desire to make paintings that were realistic rather than idealised, decisively rejected the concept of the tableau as suggested by Diderot, and painted his characters facing the viewer with a new vehemence that challenged the beholder.
In the 1970s, a group of ambitious young artists like Jeff Wall and Andreas Gursky began to make large format photographs that, like paintings, were designed to hang on a wall. As a result these photographers were compelled to engage with the very same issues revealing the continued relevance of the tableau in contemporary art.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/t/tableau
Gregory Crewdson "Twlight"
We can see modern-day tableau’s in the works of Gregory Crewdson. His cinematic work, such as his series “Twilight” and “Cathedral of The Pines” takes the viewer into a supernatural and nostalgic dimension of narrative. Crewdson’s work “Twilight” uses big suburbanite scenes places the viewer in uncomfortable places and spots of questions. The supernatural experience is created by placing light upon objects and elements in the scenes to draw in the viewer’s eye. Giving the audience a feeling that there is something outside of the frame that is controlling what is going on inside of it. Subsequently making the viewer question the narrative that Crewdson is creating for them.
Johannes Vermeer " A Girl Reading At A Open Window" and Tom Hunters interpretation
Tom Hunter is an artist using photography and film, living and working in East London. He is Professor of Photography at the London College of Communications, University of the Arts, London, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of East London.
Hunter’s work creates narrative like a tableau. Staging scene that are inspired by classic paintings such as Ophelia and Johannes Vermeer’s piece – ‘A Girl Reading At a Open Window.’ He does this by recreating these stories photographically while commenting on issues in Hackney such as poverty, squatting and environmental issues in the area.