Richard Billingham

1970 - Present

Billingham photographed his family over a period of 6 years. Billingham was actually a painter but he took the photos to use as source material for his paintings. This proved useful, as his dad didn’t stay still long enough for Richard to achieve any paintings of him. His dad was an alcoholic; he could only afford a 10% homebrew made by psychedelic Sid. His dad never ate any food in a 2yr period despite Billingham always leaving him bread out on his bed ready just incase. His dad only ventured from his bed in order to go to the bathroom, he never went to any room in the house. Billingham’s mum left them because of the way his dad got and Richard’s brother went into care. Richard was the only one who decided to stay.

According to the free information leaflet accompanying the show: "Richard Billingham's photographs demonstrate the way in which the artist's intentions influence the way we perceive images".

To create his photographs he originally took black and white photographs but then moved onto use disposable cameras for his photos, some with built in flashes and some with out of date film, which actually added extra contrast and a warm feeling to his photos.

The camera he used was something like this.

Within the 2yr period his mum left she had gathered a collection of 10 cats, 3 dogs and several spiders. She even went back to Richard’s dad after the 2yr period. Images were of the family, not showing them in the best of light, being in a clean home and not showing them behaved as one would in front of a camera.

 “It's not my intention to shock, to offend, sensationalise, be political or whatever, only to make work that is as spiritually meaningful as I can make it - whatever the medium” Richard Billingham

He is showing his own family in a bad light, but at the same time is a true-life representation. The family is living in squalled conditions, rubbish and dirty surroundings, yet the father can still manage to afford his homebrew.

The work has been interpreted as a representation of working class poverty in 1990’s Britain following years of conservative Government.

Entertaining reality drama, satisfying a never-ending appetite for the confessional revelations.

Reminds me of the following tv programs that show certain other aspects

The tv program “The house hoarder”

The tv Program “How clean is your home”.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/richard_billingham.htm

http://www.designboom.com/eng/funclub/billingham.html

Video Links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCQJlwrrVlk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAt9VQXBwes

His work has been shown in Galleries across the world from the likes of Guernsey Photography Festival till as far out as Los Angeles.

He also has books:-

Rays  a Laugh, which covers the above subject.

He also has other books relating to separate subjects and lines of interest

Contemporary Documentary Photographer

Roger Ballen

1950 - Present

Born in New York City in 1950, Roger Ballen has lived and worked in Johannesburg, South Africa for almost 30 years. During this period from 1982 to 2008 he has produced many series of works which has evolved from photo-journalism to a unique artistic vision. This exhibition tracks the development of his style which has made an important contribution to the visual arts. Ballen's work has been shown in important institutions throughout the world and is represented in many Museum Collections such as Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England and Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.

 

For better or worse, one image more than any other has come to define South African photographer Roger Ballen - the photograph of adult twins Dresie and Casie taken in the Western Transvaal in 1993, an image distressing and unforgettable.

The twins have misshapen faces, necks as thick as bullocks', ears that protrude like chimps', bluntly cut spiky hair and prominent lower lips. Ballen has photographed them with a long thread of drool dangling from their blubbery mouths, their shirts wet and stained with dribble.

The image provokes an uncomfortable rush of thoughts and emotions: curiosity about the twins' genetic make-up, intrigue about their story, concern that someone could so brutally point the camera and shoot - did the twins understand the ramifications of that moment?

 

Published books

• Boarding House, 2009
• Shadow Chamber, 2005
• Fact or Fiction, 2003
• Outland, 2001
• Cette Afrique', 1997
• Platteland, 1996
• Dorps: Small towns of South Africa, Clifton Publications; 1st ed edition (1986)
• Boyhood, 1979

 

Quotes

"My goals have never really been to make overt political statements. The most important political statement I could make would be to change a person's psychological interior, or to change their relationship to themselves. My work has always been primarily existential and psychological," he says.

Sourced From:-

http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/what-are-you-looking-at/2009/09/25/1253813608962.html

oakazine.com

Historical Documentary Photographer

WALKER EVANS

1903 - 1975

He was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression.

Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera.

 From the mid-1935’s to early 1937 Evans worked for a regular salary as a member of the so-called “historical unit” of the Farm Security Administration (FSA; earlier, the Resettlement Administration), an agency of the Department of Agriculture. His assignment was to provide a photographic survey of rural America, primarily in the South. To the degree that the function of the unit was ever defined, its goal was less history than a form of political persuasion.

About FSA

 Initially created as the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty.

The FSA stressed "rural rehabilitation" efforts to improve the lifestyle of sharecroppers, tenants, very poor landowning farmers, and a program to purchase submarginal land owned by poor farmers and resettle them in group farms on land more suitable for efficient farming. Critics, including the Farm Bureau strongly opposed the FSA as an experiment in collectivizing agriculture — that is, in bringing farmers together to work on large government-owned farms using modern techniques under the supervision of experts. The program failed because the farmers wanted ownership; after the Conservative coalition took control of Congress it transformed the FSA into a program to help poor farmers buy land, and continues in operation in the 21st century as the Farmers Home Administration.

I have chose the above pictures because they show the families and how they are coping through the depression and current climate. As you can see some of them do not even have shoes, is this because they can't afford them or just haven't put them on.

They all look under nourished, but yet they all seem to some family comforts, ie. cigarettes, a dog and pictures on the wall.

 

Quotes

He said that his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent"

Images sourced from:-

shelleypowers.burningbird.net

hopwalkerevans.wordpress.com