Innovation & Interference - Artist Research, Steve McQueen

Steven "Steve" McQueen CBE is an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and video artist.

Steve McQueen made impressive use of silence in his video artworks of the 1990s, so it was a surprise for visitors to the 2002 edition of Documenta, the once-every-five-years German show considered the art world’s most prestigious exhibition, to display a McQueen video that used sound to a disturbing, almost deafening effect. Western Deep (2002), one of his first coloured films, McQueen descended into the world’s deepest gold mine; the 3.9km-deep TauTona Mine, in Gauteng Province, South Africa with a Super 8 camera, capturing the claustrophobic conditions in which workers extracted valuable metals.

I was also recommended a piece of work by Steve McQueen where he directed a music video for Kanye West. In the video, Kanye is alone with only the camera following him around a room. This is one of McQueens more contemporary pieces of work and is a piece that really speaks volume to me. In the video Kayne is in his element, rapping his song to camera a.k.a, the gaze. Whilst this is happening, the gaze is trying to break away from Kanye as if it doesn't want anything to do with him or his work. Kanye keeps skipping around the camera trying to get in the limelight whilst the gaze is turning away, trying to lose eye contact. To me this symbolises the early stage of Kanye's career or any young and upcoming rapper for that matter. It shows that he is trying to be seen, to get noticed, be found and catch the eye of the gaze which metaphorically is us as the mainstream consumers.

Halfway through the video the Kanye seems to get tired and ends up with his back to a corner. The gaze takes advantage of this and now instead of shying away, is very close to Kanye's face, as if it doesn't want to give him any breathing space. This part of the video seems to symbolise the uprise of Kanye's rapping career when he started to make a name for himself on the music scene. The gaze has also now become a nuisance to Kanye as I believe it plays the role of paparazzi cameras constantly in his face when he is tired and  burnt out. It pesters him and becomes a burden to his everyday life which is why he seems so spaced out in this part of the video.

The final part of the video to me seems like the current stage of Kanye's career. He has managed to catch the attention of the mainstream media so much so that he is now in a state where even when he is at his lowest point, there are still people watching him from a distance, hoping for him to slip up and paint himself in a bad light. The gaze portrays this in a unique way. Kanye is slumped against the wall in an extremely vulnerable state which to me symbolises how he may be acting once he is in his own home, supposedly safe from the cameras and attention. Having said this, whilst Kanye is sat, the gaze remains on him but backs away slowly, possibly suggesting that even though Kanye is behind closed doors in his own private space, we are all still keeping sight on him, waiting to see what he does next.

Summer Project - Wind Element

I began prepping for the wind element of my project by researching how it can be used in photography and in some cases also film. I started by looking at a particular scene in the (1999) film American Beauty. This is the scene that involves the protagonist watching a tape of a carrier bag being taken by the wind. He goes on to describe how beautifully it dances around with the wind as it's partner. This really inspired me to think about how I could use the wind not as just an element but also as a physical presence. It got me thinking how I could use the wind to make the viewer feel like there are more than one person in the photo. 

I have also taken into consideration how wind can affect the composition and how it affects the emotional response of a photograph. Through the emotion of the model, I found that adding wind can enhance the feeling and mood of the model. For example if the model has a stern, moody face on then adding wind can make it seem as though the wind is getting in her face and is making her mood worse. Having said this, if our model is smiling, laughing and dancing around then the wind could enhance this happiness and show that the model is being swept up in all positiveness of the environment around them.

Bibliography

• http://davidcampany.com/photography-and-the-wind/

Summer Project - Breifing & Antonio Bronic

Over the summer, we have been given a brief of planning a photographic installation that covers a politically aware theme, be it youth vote, minority rights, poverty, etc. I have decided to pursue the theme of environmental issues as I feel that it is one of the more threatening issues that the world is currently facing, especially of recent times following the trauma that was caused by hurricane Harvey in areas like Texas, Florida and several Caribbean islands.

My plan is to study the work of photographers who have worked with capturing the main four elements; water, earth, wind and fire. These four elements play into the theme of environmental issues perfectly as they represent their own elemental disasters. Water leads to flooding, earth leads to earthquakes, wind leads to hurricanes and tornadoes and fire leads to larger fires!

One of the first photographers I have found is Antonio Bronic. Bronic is a Croatian born photographer who has a habit of putting himself in the middle of extreme situations, capturing the sense of misery and dark themes across the world. He tackles sensitive topics such as poverty, war, immigration, etc. There are a couple of photos from Bronic that I found really interesting that were captured during and just after an outbreak of wildfire in Mravince, Croatia.

Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire in the village of Mravince near Split, Croatia

Local residents stand amid smoke as they leave their homes due to a wildfire in the village of Mravinc near Split, Croatia

What I like most about these photos is how Bronic clearly doesn't use a long lens; he prefers to get in amongst the danger so that when we look at these pictures, we feel as though we are a part of what is going on, especially in the firefighter picture. It makes us feel as though we ourselves are a firefighter about to tackle the wildfire as a team. 

-
-
-

Bibliography

• https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2017/jul/18/wildfires-across-southern-europe-in-pictures

• https://widerimage.reuters.com/photographer/antonio-bronic