I am happy with how my proposal has turned out, I found it challenging at the beginning to put my ideas into a logical order, however once I had found a good flow, it has become useful to create this plan in a way that is flexible enough for evolution. It has also given me the opportunity to apply some additional skills that may come to inform and support my work.
The proposal was consciously designed to mirror the layout and style of a government information document, similar to the EU Referendum pamphlet that was widely circulated during the 2016 referendum. Many state organisations choose to use the typeface Helvetica due to its clarity and appearance of stable governance (Helvetica, 2007). This is a subtle coding that we interact with regularly. I felt it important to start utilsing in my work on the community. My aim was not to create a complete copy of this but to consider the civic and political elements of community.
In order to make the document as accessible as possible I utilised Adobe InDesign to add elements such as navigation links and bookmarks to aid people in reading the document, although this might depend on prior knowledge of PDF reading software.
Helvetica. (2007). [film] Directed by G. Hustwit. Canada: Veer, Swiss Dots.
After this week’s webinar, I have had to consider the way I am discussing my work, and how much that I am projecting onto the work, which can distract from the reading of it.
We looked at critical perspectives to locate my practice:
Community is the shared space and activities that provide many with meaning. Eli Durst has said “Many People need a sense of secular purpose” (Zoo, 2019).*
Robert Putnam discusses a decline in ‘social capital’ in his book ‘Bowling Alone.’ Traditional community groups have functioned to serve in providing the participants with the skills and knowledge to function within society. Civic engagement, for example, has decreased as education has risen over the past 30 years. People now have the skills to function within a society that historically would have been nurtured through clubs, organizations and associations (Putnam, 2000). †
In Roland Barthes posthumous essays entitled ‘How to Live Together’ (Barthes, 1977)‡, he considered the individual and society in an attempt to ask the question on if it is possible to create a community where everyone lives according to their own rhythm, and yet respects the individual rhythms of others? (Reference, paper on barthes).
I continue to read ‘Bowling Alone’ which has inspired the concept of looking at the theme of community. It has been useful and provided me with a number of critical perspectives to consider moving forward. The writing is very much in the field of economics and everything is considered as such. I have come to realise that I need to expand my reading in this area and started to look at the work ‘How To live Together’ by Roland Barthes, where he considered the individual and society in an attempt to ask the question on if it is possible to create a community where everyone lives according to their own rhythm, and yet respects the individual rhythms of others?
During the Webinar, it was noted that my explanation of the work could be considered melancholic where the images did not read that way. This perception could be a factor in the way that I was applying the Social Capital theory in terms of the decline that Putnam discusses in his work. The reading of the images is correct as there is much positivity in the images that I shot and clearly show a strong sense of community. My emphasis on the decline is mostly a projection of the unprepared statements I was making regarding my work. An area of clear development as although, Putnam is right to assert the decline in social capital, however, my work is to look at what is replacing it. Is the traditional community in decline, or is it evolving. If it is evolving, what is replacing the traditions.
My work on the Carnival was also a look at Putnam’s Bonds, Bridges, and Linkages’ in that the carnival culture and community is mainly that of the established working class demographic of the somerset region which feels besieged by the gentrification of the area. Local traditions are very much perceived as under threat by the people moving to the area. The bridge between these two levels of social capital are not considerate or in dialogue with one another.
Suggested further reading after the webinar
Charlotte Cotton – The Photograph as Contemporary art (Cotton, 2014)§
Work in Progress
I have been working on my sequencing of the work and now have updated my online gallery, hopefully ready for the portfolio submission.
The work has a new tighter edit that focuses on the ‘Adult Play’ and secular sense of purpose, which are concepts that I have come to this week through reading Alice Zoo’s review of Eli Durst’s new book ‘The Community.’
I feel my work now sits very well on my website and has a clear narrative running through the set. I asked peers to also have a look at the work and received very positive feedback on how it all works together. A critique however, was to consider the information That I am providing to the reader, and avoid generalised sweeping statements regarding my work.
*
Zoo, A. & Durst, E., 2019. The Community. The British Journal of Photography, Issue 7890, pp. 40-49.
†
Putnam, R., 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. 1 ed.
‡
Barthes, R., 2018. How to Live Together: Novelistic Simulations of Some Everyday Spaces (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism). Translation Edition ed. New York: Columbia University Press.
§
Cotton, C., 2014. The Photograph as Contemporary Art (World of Art). 3rd ed. London: Thames & Hudson.
Figure 1. From the Harris Lantern Slideshow (Seely Harris, 1904).*
Alice Seely-Harris traveled to the Congo Free State as a missionary, which was under total control of Belgian King Leopold II. After witnessing many atrocities there, she became an activist photographing and creating a travelling slideshow touring much of Europe and the US. The images highlighted the plight of the Congolese and is seen as groundbreaking documentary photography, shifting perceptions of colonialism, slavery, as well as gaining public attention and a significant political will to intervene, rightfully ending the brutal regime of the Belgian King. (Liverpoolmuseums.org.uk, 2019).
The significance of the images and the impact on highlighting human suffering shouldn’t be diluted here, however It is important to understand the context of the time – The Congo Free State was a Catholic nation as was the king. Seely-Harris was a Christian British Missionary at the height of the Empire and colonial rule.
One reading of the images is that of a perceived moral authority that being a British Protestant had over Catholic violence. Protestants missionaries were part of a larger agenda of gaining territories, sent out by the state to take the message of British Protestants to the ‘Native’ and converting the local population to Christianity. Showing the King’s abhorrent treatment of the Congolese was an opportunity to show that under a more ‘civilized’ form of colonialism, a British Colonialism, these kinds of atrocities would not be happening (Sealy, 2019)†
Given that The Congo did not gain independence until the 1960s and the inherent racism and violence persisted in that culture up until then, the images did not make the Congolese free from slavery, the choice was a violent Catholic regime, or the rule of another version of colonial power.
*
Liverpoolmuseums.org.uk. (2019). Alice Seeley Harris – International Slavery Museum, Liverpool museums. [online] Available at: https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/exhibitions/brutal-exposure/alice-seeley-harris.aspx [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
†
Sealy, M. (2019). Decolonising the camera. 1st ed. London: LW.
