- Co-Evolution of Photography and Technology April 15, 2023
Call me lazy, but I asked ChatGPT to write an essay on how, from the beginning, photography has been totally intertwined with technology. in fact, ...
Read more... - British Synthpop Revolution April 1, 2023
I asked ChatGPT this:
Q: Write 2000+ words on synthpop music from the UK in the 1980s, with key reviews and references
This was the result.
Title: Synthpop Revolution: ...
Read more... - Ethics of Photography and ChatGPT March 31, 2023
I am still exploring ChatGPT’s capabilities, and this is an interesting thread. I asked several related questions, and what follows is a consolidated set of answers ...
Read more... - ChatGPT and the ethics of AI March 29, 2023
I gave a lecture at the University of Leeds this week on Data and the Ethics of AI. I used ChatGPT to demonstrate some key ...
Read more... - Abolition of the Slave Trade August 23, 2022
August 23rd is UNESCO’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. It commemorates the night in 1791 of the uprising ...
Read more... - Street and Travel Photography December 28, 2021
I came across a really interesting YouTube video from The Raw Society on Street and Travel photography.
Some of its is as you might expect – ...
Read more... - Ethics of Documentary – Side Gallery April 10, 2021
The Amber Collective / Side Gallery has been running a short Zoom series on ethics, and I thought yesterday’s session was particularly good, especially with ...
Read more... - Photography Copyright February 18, 2021
I found this of interest. Whilst it has a US focus, it sets out some useful principles to consider. From David Coen of PikWizard:
PikWizard’s guide How ...
Read more... - Stefan Lorant & Juxtapositions February 11, 2021
It is interesting how serendipity ‘happens’. I was asked by academia.edu to consider reviewing a paper by Simon Pierse, Faculty Member at Aberystwyth University, entitled ‘DOUBLES: synchronicity ...
Read more... - Intention and the Photographer December 22, 2020
Intention is a critical factor in all photography – indeed, in all art. Let me illustrate.
Historically, I have not considered landscape photography as central to ...
Read more... - Vox Darkroom November 20, 2020
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
When Roger Fenton took the first war photographs during the Crimean War (1853-1856), did he fake the most ...
Read more... - Mark Sealy – Decolonising the Camera: Photography in Racial Time August 1, 2020
Notes from Sealy’s book:
‘Throughout this text I suggest that a photograph of a racialised subject must be both located in and then de-located from the ...
Read more... - An Ethics Framework for Photography (Part One) July 26, 2020
I have been researching the ethics of photography, as developed in earlier posts during the MA. My current ‘best approach’ is a Ten Point Framework.
SURFACE ...
Read more... - A Question of Ethics July 24, 2020
A very interesting conversation occurred recently in the RPS Documentary group on photographic ethics. Copied here with permission of the participants.
Frankie McAllister
A general question on ...
Read more... - Everbody Street July 7, 2020
I recommend this movie. To me, it exemplifies the power of street work as social commentary and documentary. Time certainly changes how we view images, ...
Read more... - Boring Street Photography July 5, 2020
During Lockdown, I have given Zoom talks on street photography to both PhotoBath and to the East Sutherland Camera Club. Having updated and extended the presentation, ...
Read more... - Reflections on the Pandemic June 28, 2020
My photographic project on the pandemic and lockdown has also meant daily research and establishment of accurate medical facts, social statistics and news headlines. Today, ...
Read more... - We need to urgently renew the Age of Enlightenment May 6, 2020
Yesterday, at the UK Government’s daily news conference it was announced that the deaths from Covid-19 in the UK is now the highest in Europe. Ministers ...
Read more... - Liberty in Lockdown April 27, 2020
John Harris in the Guardian has just written a very good article on how Coronavirus has deepened prejudice against older people. It is hard to be ...
Read more... - Street Photography, the law and data collection February 27, 2020
This summarises my understanding of the UK legal and data collection frameworks as they apply to street photography. There is much confusion on the subject, ...
Read more... - The Ethics of Street Photography February 6, 2020
Fuji released a short promotional film for their new X100V camera, featuring acclaimed street photography Tatsuo Susuki. It led to a heated debate online about ...
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- At the University of Leeds October 25, 2019
I was in Leeds this week, giving my first lecture to the MA Media and Communications students. I had been invited by Dr. Jim Brogden, Programme Leader ...
Read more... - A Constructed Image October 16, 2019
As I am closing in on the final choices and hanging plan – and nearing the time that I need to write a Critical Review ...
Read more... - Week Fourteen Reflections – video and subtitles October 14, 2019
In the short video of Sarath narrating his story about going to meet his Mother, I use what is called the ‘UN Style’ of voiceover ...
Read more... - Week Thirteen Reflections – a photograph is ‘and’ not ‘or’ October 9, 2019
I want to pull a particular point out of some of my research on ‘atrocity’ images. That is, that a photograph always have a multiplicity ...
Read more... - Interactive Presentation October 7, 2019
I have to give another presentation of my work at the end of this week, to the Frome Wessex Club. I’ll be sharing the Unfinished ...
Read more... - Auschwitz & Memory September 23, 2019
Over the past 18 months, I have spent a good deal of time researching atrocity and the ethics of images of such. In this I ...
Read more... - Changing the Story September 20, 2019
Frank Finlay, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures at the University of Leeds put me in touch with Paul Cooke. Paul is Professor ...
Read more... - Socially Engaged Photography August 24, 2019
In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to aid American farmworkers during the Great Depression. Its photographers aimed to document what ...
Read more... - Place and Placelessness August 18, 2019
As I have been finalising the book edit, I have increasingly been drawn to maps to help tell the story – both the Khmer Rouge ...
Read more... - Bending the Frame – Fred Ritchen August 14, 2019
Notes from Ritchin’s 2013 book:
Chapter 1: The Useful Photograph
Sets stage for profusion of images, loss of professional monopoly, power of tech and the web.
Citizen journalists ...
Read more... - Let Us Now Praise Words August 13, 2019
During the Depression, Fortune sent writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans document the lives of cotton sharecroppers in Alabama. It was meant to be ...
Read more... - Stereotypes and Navajo August 9, 2019
Photography’s Other Histories, edited by Christopher Pinney and Nicolas Peterson, is a well-researched work covering a lot of ground on two broad issues – the ...
Read more... - Ethics of Photography – Participation August 8, 2019
Ethics has two broad modes of definition – personal and organisational.
In everyday use, the word ‘ethics’ gets used in many different ways. For example, sometimes ...
Read more... - Ethics of Photography – Nature August 7, 2019
Whilst it is a little bit more in the background right now, I am continuing to work on the Ethics project. As a reminder, I ...
Read more... - A Sense of Place July 13, 2019
I have been reading James Tyner’s book, The Killing of Cambodia: Geography, Genocide and the Unmasking of Space.
It is well established that in defining Year Zero, ...
Read more... - Deleuze, Time and Archives July 12, 2019
Gilles Deleuze is both an influential, original philosopher – and a hard one to totally ‘get’. Frankly, before the MA I had paid only passing ...
Read more... - Feedback on Journalistic Ethics June 27, 2019
Feedback on my Journalistic Ethics post from Paul Clements and Gary McLeod.
Paul:
Such a coincidence that only last week I was talking about Joan Diddion’s book ...
Read more... - Journalist Ethics June 26, 2019
The photograph in the header shows Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, 26, and his 23 month old daughter Valeria, lying face down in shallow water on the ...
Read more... - Cambodia Project Ethics June 17, 2019
There are several layers in any ethical discussion of photographs. I am researching new ways to address these issues, with global relevance. This includes research ...
Read more... - Notes on Paul Martin Lester’s ‘Visual Ethics’ June 9, 2019
Preface
Lester considers six philosophical ethics ideas as a way to ‘judge’ photography:
Categorical imperative – Kant, role-based rules
Utilitarianism – useful to the many
Golden Mean – Aristotle, ...
Read more... - FMP Week One Reflections June 9, 2019
Well, here we go. the end of the first week of Final Major Project, although (based on my CRJ writings), it does seem to have ...
Read more... - Looking is Necessary June 4, 2019
Gian Butturini (1935-2006) was an Italian graphic designer who travelled to London most likely in 1969. He took photographs of what was happening in the ...
Read more... - Beauty and Utility May 27, 2019
This follows on my comments on Harmony and ‘Environmental Aesthetics‘, as well as the post on ‘What is Good‘.
Perhaps my overriding point in those posts ...
Read more... - Environmental Aesthetics May 24, 2019
I posted a short item on Facebook, as follows:
Tea
Okakura Kakuso, in his 1906 The Book of Tea, builds the case that a better understanding of ...
Read more... - What is ‘Truth’? May 23, 2019
When we talk of a picture being ‘accurate’, we are using a variety of the concept of ‘truth’. Its meaning depends on the context that ...
Read more... - What is ‘Good’? May 18, 2019
Sir William David Ross (1877 – 1971) was a Scottish philosopher who is known for his translations of Aristotle and his work in ethics. He developed a ...
Read more... - The Triangle of Photography May 1, 2019
Malick Sidibé (1936-2016) was a Malian photographer, who gained an international reputation. He documented Malian culture as the country transitioned to independence.
Sidibé photographed on the ...
Read more... - Webinar with Wendy April 30, 2019
Had a very good ‘kick-off’ conversation with Wendy, today.
We talked a little about the FMP process, and where I was on the Cambodian project. I ...
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- Responses & Responsibilities March 16, 2019
James Elkins, in What Photography Is (2011), analyses photographs from 1905 of Lingqi, the Chinese ‘death by a thousand cuts’. (chapter 6, pg 177-220). I ...
Read more... - And When I am Formulated, Sprawling on a Pin March 14, 2019
And I have known the eyes already, known them all,
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a ...
Read more... - The Explicit and the Implicit Gaze February 23, 2019
Ansel Adams famously said
‘There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.’ (Sheff Interview, 1983)
There are always two gazes for every photograph, ...
Read more... - The Advertising Idea February 20, 2019
Katherine Frith likens reading adverts to peeling an onion. She pinpoints three stages in reading adverts:
The surface meaning
The advertiser’s intended meaning and
The cultural meaning.
She concludes ...
Read more... - Traces, Spaces, Faces, Places February 16, 2019
With your peers, discuss whether you think the constructed photographs included in this session ‘lie’, the extent these photographs are fictional, and the methods you use to ‘interpret’ ...
Read more... - Facts and Ethics February 12, 2019
Was chatting yesterday about Wittgenstein with a friend of mine who is a Professor of Inter-Disciplinary Applied Ethics at Leeds.
Wittgenstein wrote, in the Tractatus, that ‘The ...
Read more... - Cultural Context January 13, 2019
Almost all of this MA program to date uses a European / American ‘gaze’, in its choice of reading and referenced photographers – even the ...
Read more... - What is Street Photography? January 2, 2019
I have an ongoing project to digitise my film archives, which has been a bit interrupted by the MA. So a 2019 resolution is to ...
Read more... - Ain’t no Shame in my Game December 29, 2018
I used to do a lot of street photography, although most recently I have been a little bored by it – in the sense that ...
Read more... - Dorothea Lange December 19, 2018
A while back I was asked to make a short presentation to the PhotoBath group on an image that has always inspired me (September, 2016). It ...
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- Martha Rosler, Decoys and Disruptions March 20, 2018
Martha Rosler, Decoys and Disruptions (2004)
Lookers, Buyers, Dealers And Makers: Thoughts On Audience (1979)
‘More and more clearly the subject of art has become the self ...
Read more... - The Cruel Radiance – Susie Linfield March 18, 2018
I just read The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political violence, by Susie Linfield (University of Chicago Press, 2010), and found it totally fascinating. Essentially, Linfield ...
Read more... - Some notes on Ariella Azoulay’s writing March 10, 2018
These notes are not a full book review – more the key points that struck me, appropriate to my project work.
On ‘The Civil Contract of ...
Read more... - Constructs and Seeing February 24, 2018
In talking with Steph Cosgrove about my documentary work at the recent Falmouth ‘Face 2 Face’, she was good enough to share some videos about the image ...
Read more... - The Camera as Judge and Executioner February 15, 2018
Archiving the Unspeakable, by Michelle Caswell, is a fascinating read. It deals with the role of photographic archives in the activities of the Khmer Rouge ...
Read more... - The Filters of Citizen Journalism February 13, 2018
It would seem to me that there are many themes flowing through this week’s work on Rethinking Photographers. I’ll pick four:
First, the impact of technology on ...
Read more... - Three Images – Contexts & Disciplines February 7, 2018
For this week’s webinar with Gary, we have been asked to consider the disciplines other than photography, and the critical contexts which are relevant to ...
Read more... - Qs week 2 – 3rd presentation – “Fields of Cultural Interest” February 6, 2018
Q: Which of the disciplines discussed here do you feel is most relevant to Sam Shere’s famous photograph?
In the ‘fields of cultural interest’ (Roland Barthes), ...
Read more... - A Poet not a Logician February 3, 2018
I am a rather ‘logical’ person. My BA is in Mathematics and Philosophy. I have an MSc in Consulting and Coaching for Change from HEC. ...
Read more... - Interdisciplinarity February 3, 2018
The theme of Week Two is close to my heart, as I am Visiting Professor at the Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre of Excellence for Teaching and ...
Read more... - There’s always an image January 29, 2018
I am at the University of Leeds today, teaching, and I took this picture at Kings Cross – shot and edited on iPhone 7Plus.
Seems to me ...
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