FRAGILITY

The other day, I was lucky enough to visit an exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society in Bristol. I was hesitant at first because I was unsure what the photography would be like, however, each room had different photographers with different perspectives from archival to sculptures.  There was something for everyone especially for myself as I am unsure how my practice will develop in the future. However, seeing these images allowed me to have a soul-searching moment around how I can better apply myself in areas that I am interested in without being overwhelmed by the raw talent that my peers  and professional photographers have. I guess, by understanding themselves and what they want to communicate to the world.

I know, I know, I am going off topic but it helps you understand why I found this and many other exhibition interesting. I have always struggled with the idea of fragility of life and if you are not the next CEO or Scarlett Johannson then you are irrelevant as a human being and as an artists. 

This is about it for the daily update. keep an eye out for the next daily update. 

The image denotes that there is a man and his dog sitting in amongst a landfill full of plastic and thrown out rubbish. The man looks down at what looks like or preceived as a mobile phone of sorts. Furthermore, the vibrant background colours which are mostly primary colours which makes it sharper and more confusing for the eye to see.

On the other hand, the connotation of the photograph suggests that we are living in what we know in recent years as the Anthropocene. This includes the knowledge of the environmental wastage and climate change. Moreover we have been so caught up with the fascination of technology that we have forgotten about protecting our environment from the human species.

The link between denotation, connotation and the article is that it brings up a situation we are now coming to terms with and have been living with it for years unaware of the destruction we have caused to the biological tissues of our world. In addition to this the quote below sums up my thoughts on the Anthropocene and how we are again unaware of the environmental issues we face today.

“There is already an official
narrative of the Anthropocene: ‘we’, the human species, unconsciously destroyed
nature to the point of hijacking the Earth system into a new geological epoch.”
 Pg. 12

Panadora landfill, 3, plastics recycling, Nairobi Kenya, 2016

https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/photographs/anthropocene

https://theanthropocene.org/

I will be looking at Marc Sealy’s book, ”Decolonising the camera excerpt”, and specifically the chapter “Violence Camera”.

This reading is about the European camera and how it was for colonising countries such as the era of apartheid which caused a racial violence out brake throughout especially in South Africa. It then goes on to say ’It could be argued the condition in the west been created within photography, where it is difficult to see any photographs of black or subjected people’.

To me this book suggests that it has an underlining massage  of the history and the documentation that photography creates within the twentieth century. 

Seal also tries to engage the readers and source vital information on the in just we face in todays society. On the other hand,  it also touches upon the colonialism and the racial abuse which is not only in Africa but is happening in America too. From this it can and is happening in children as well as adults. So equality is non existent, objectifying and categorising people into segregated groups which is caused by authority according to Sealy.

Finally, it covers the narrative, documentation and history of photography and how it plays a role in colonialism and racism in the past as well as in the present day. 

Quote reference: Mark Sealy, Decolonising the Camera: Photography in Racial Time (2019) 

p 109-114