W. Eugene Smith’s “His Photographers and Notes” is a deeply personal and artistic exploration of his creative process, relationships with other photographers, and the thematic undercurrents in his work. W. Eugene Smith (1918–1978) was known for his work in photojournalism and for his dedication to capturing the emotional and humanistic aspects of his subjects. In “His Photographers and Notes”, Smith reflects on the stories behind the images he created and the process that shaped his iconic style.
Smith’s photography often focused on the raw, unfiltered aspects of human life. His photos depicted real people in real situations—often in times of crisis or profound emotional significance. “His Photographers and Notes” provides insight into how Smith sought to evoke deep emotional resonance through his work, highlighting the human condition with a powerful visual language. He strived to tell stories that went beyond the surface, pushing for empathy and understanding.
One of the most iconic images by W. Eugene Smith is his photograph “Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath” (1971), which is part of his larger photo essay on the Minamata disease in Japan. This photograph is one of Smith’s most powerful images, encapsulating the emotional and social impact of the industrial disaster caused by mercury poisoning.
The composition of this photograph is both simple and intense. The image features Tomoko, with her mother holding her in a bath, gazing directly at the camera. The image is intimate, capturing the deep vulnerability of Tomoko, whose condition is a tragic consequence of the industrial contamination.
Mary Ellen Mark was a renowned American photographer known for her deeply empathetic and insightful photo essays, which often focused on marginalized communities and individuals. Her work captured moments of human vulnerability, resilience, and complexity, often highlighting social issues and personal struggles. One of her most celebrated photo essays is “Streetwise” (1984), which documents the lives of homeless teenagers in Seattle.
One of Mary Ellen Mark’s most iconic images is “Tiny, Seattle, 1983” from her photo essay “Streetwise”, which documents the lives of homeless teenagers in Seattle. This photograph is often cited as one of her most powerful works, capturing both the rawness of a difficult life and the resilience of a young girl navigating it.
Mary Ellen Mark often used tight framing and close-up portraits in her work, and in this image, the composition is simple yet effective. Tiny is positioned centrally, allowing her to be the focal point of the image. Her face fills the frame, making it impossible to ignore her presence. There is no distraction from the background, which serves to emphasize her facial expression and the rawness of her situation.
I’m planning to create a short film that showcases the process of boys working on cars, capturing the raw energy and camaraderie involved in their hands-on approach. The film will focus on the teamwork, problem-solving, and mechanical skills they develop as they repair and restore vehicles. Through a series of dynamic shots, I’ll highlight the details of the work, the tools they use, and the passion they have for cars, while also exploring the bond they share as they collaborate on their projects.
La Jetée (1962) is a groundbreaking French science fiction short film directed by Chris Marker. It’s a minimalist, yet deeply impactful, narrative that revolves around themes of memory, time, and the cyclical nature of human experience. The film is entirely composed of still photographs, except for one short moving image sequence. This unique visual style enhances the feeling of being trapped in a specific moment of time, underscoring the film’s meditation on memory, both personal and collective.
The film is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a man, the protagonist, is selected for time travel experiments. He is sent back in time to a pivotal moment in his life, one tied to an image of a woman he remembers from his childhood—an image he witnessed at an airport before the world descended into chaos. The story focuses on the protagonist’s emotional journey as he attempts to reconcile the trauma of his past with the possibility of a future, all while the boundaries between reality and memory blur.
One of the film’s key strengths is its exploration of time and fate. The film’s structure, which loops back to the same image and events, suggests an inevitable cycle, where the protagonist’s actions, though driven by hope for a better future, lead to a predetermined conclusion. This cyclical narrative draws upon existential themes of fate and the inability to escape one’s past, creating a poignant reflection on time.
After looking into these short YouTube videos, I will take a similar approach but edit it slightly, by adding interviews and not having music but instead having raw sound. I think that this will elevate my ideas within my book.
Hannah Altman is an American photographer from New Jersey whose work mainly explores the themes of lineage, memory, ritual and storytelling, known for her use of natural light and intertwining of her Jewish culture. Altman has practiced photography since she was a 19-year-old student at Point Park University, practicing as an amateur on her Tumblr page.
As a 29-year-old, Altman has been involved in numerous solo exhibitions throughout America:
We Will Return to You – 2023, Akabus Projects, Boston
With Rifts and Collapses – 2022, Gallery 263, Cambridge
A Permanent Home in the Mouth of the Sun – 2021, Filter Space, Chicago
A Permanent Home in the Mouth of the Sun – 2021, AAP Exhibition Space, Pittsburgh
Kavana – 2020, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland
Construct of Viewpoint– 2018, Union All Gallery, Pittsburgh
Construct of Viewpoint– 2017, Junior High Gallery, Los Angeles
Humanism – 2017, The Temple Judea Museum, Elkins Park
Intimate Threat – 2016, Trust Arts Education Center, Pittsburgh
She has delivered many lectures on her images and research across the US in venues such as Yale University and the Society for Photographic Education Natural Conference, with her first monograph in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas J Watson Library.
Her Work:
Yad (You), 2023, We Will Return to YouGrandma’s Bathroom, 2016, Indoor VoicesShabbat Candles, 2019, KavanaAnd Everything Nice And Everything Nice
The body of work which I find most relevant to my exploration of Feminism in photography is ‘And Everything Nice’, curated by Altman at just 19 years old as a student posting on Tumblr. Altman did this in the absence of the expectation that this would have global reach, beginning in her dorm room as a personal photo project at Point Park University.
“‘And Everything Nice’ is an unflinching analysis of the standard for female beauty. The ongoing series consists of women in states of affliction; the body fluid of the models have been replaced with glitter to visualize the concept of girls invariably needing to seem attractive regardless of the actual situation” – Altman via her Tumblr post
And Everything Nice:
In these eight images within the series, Altman shoots images with bodily fluids such as blood, tears and vomit replaced by glitter in an act to challenge and visually represent the female beauty standard.
This minimalistic viewpoint of breaking down the standard of female beauty in a detached way allows the viewer to objectively infer how there is a consistent pressure to present themselves as attractive, without thought to the situation at hand. This alternative criticism to the societal expectation of what a woman should be like dives deeper into this concept than others because it pays attention to how even processes of the anatomy are accounted for in the beauty standard, instead of just exploring the stereotypes of ‘what a woman should be like’ at face value.
Altman also uses glitter in replacement of vomit as a young girl lays over the toilet which could be used to target the teenage culture, being going out and drinking with friends (underage or legally) to the point of sickness – something that is normalised when reaching teenage years and wanting to try new things. However, I find that this is highly applicable to the millions of girls who experience eating disorders at such a young age. Bulimia nervosa is a condition where the subject typically purges themselves, this being the self-induction of vomiting to forcefully evacuate the body of stomach matter. This is also down to the misuse of laxatives or dieting pills. I feel that this is highly relevant to the image because many young girls gain a distorted perception of themselves due to a constant reminder in the media of a false image of a woman. This is an extremely common issue and repercussion of the beauty standard being set against young women that psychologically restricts them from feeding their body and mind, resulting in extreme issues and even death. This image is so important because this is an issue that mostly arises during teenage years, with the prediction that 28.8 million Americans will suffer from an eating disorder in their lifetime, with an estimate that 3.4 million people are suffering from eating disorders around the UK too. With an issue that may be seen as normalised by young girls by wanting to be severely underweight in hopes that it may better their self-esteem, images like this are so important because this is something that occurs behind closed doors and by explicating the symptoms of it, it may be a ‘wake-up’ call for young girls and even women who have carried this into adulthood. Misogynistic viewpoints are a factor at the centre of the development of eating disorders which is something I aim to challenge in my work through this photoshoot.
Using this as a replacement of blood too could be seen as symbolic of domestic abuse and male violence, where Altman uses nosebleeds and cuts on knees with plasters on them, and this ‘blood’ smeared. This could be representative of the risk of young girls getting into toxic relationships or situations due to being so vulnerable and impressionable. However, this is also applied in the form of period blood and blood on a razor, crucial in reinforcing Altman’s idea on the pressures, both internal and external, in applying this beauty standard in all situations regardless of what they are down to an anatomical scale.
I feel that this is such a unique viewpoint on the perceived beauty standard because it leads into the extremities that young girls go to in order to feel beautiful. For example, the blood on the razor points towards over-shaving continually in order to be completely hairless to feel desirable, setting an unrealistic expectation as hair is an entirely normal thing that everyone has, however there is a double standard for men and women. This is challenged as it shows the severity of what these ideas can do, and how the normalisation for one gender but not the other can be extremely damaging for women, specifically young girls who grow into their teenage years and begin to see air-brushed fashion magazines that aren’t actually achievable in real life, they are actually just extremely edited.
I also find that the replacement of period blood with red glitter is such a core image within this selection due to the ‘disgust’ portrayed in the media against women’s menstrual cycle even though this is a regular bodily function that is out of an individual’s control. This autonomic process is something that allows a woman to carry a child, however it is suggested that it should not be spoken about in society due to judgement. I feel that this is very relevant to the beauty standard in teens because thousands of young girls don’t even understand the actual biological process behind this due to this stigmatised perception against periods. This also combats the saying of ‘someone’s on their period’ that is commonly used when a woman is expressing feelings of anger or sadness, a way of demeaning the female sex for reacting to situations that they do not feel comfortable with. By curating a scene like this, it leans towards the normalisation of the menstrual cycle, instead of women being judged for a process that is completely out of their control and allows them to carry a child into the world.
For example, when these images were released, there was a large swarm of men (and even some women) with uninformed criticism towards Altman’s work, calling the images ‘gross’. It is evident through this that society has been conditioned to think within a certain frame of stereotypical views, here being that the period cycle should be kept almost like a secret, leaving many young girls uncertain of how their bodies work and what it actually is. Images like these create large reactions out of people because they consist of things so unnormalised in society when knowledge and information on these things is incredibly important.
These images convey messages of violence, teen girl culture and emotionality which overall contributes to the challenging of the beauty standard set against women. They reach out to the younger generation through social media, here being a Tumblr page, to actively represent issues through a different medium rather than simply words. This visual aspect can be empowering and ensures that, specifically young girls getting their period for the first time, shouldn’t be afraid of the reactions of those around them or to be judged for being ‘gross’ when this is a regular thing.
Analysis:
The image uses a short depth of field to force the viewer to be drawn in by the smudge of red glitter across a young girls face. Altman uses natural lighting to create shadows that have not been manipulated, making the composition without the glitter look as realistic as possible. The subject sits with her face turned towards the source of the lighting as the shadows stem from the left side of the image which reinforces the focal point into being the subjects face. This use of natural lighting also contributes to Altman’s intention of targeting the beauty standard against women as it makes the image look more organic and raw, instead of leaning towards the aesthetics of fashion magazines for example. Skin texture is also more visible by using this lighting which contributes again to the truthful portrayal of actual women’s beauty. The subject turns to the side with a facial expression of what seems to be discomfort as her mouth hangs open as if she is in pain, going hand in hand with the use of glitter to replicate a nosebleed. This leaves the symbolic aspect of the image open to interpretation to the viewer due to the subjectivity of it. I feel that this image could be an excellent metaphor for male violence, specifically in teenage girls, as the idea of being in a ‘toxic and controlling relationship’ is more romanticised now in the younger generation rather than being perceived as something unwanted. The girl in the image grits her teeth shut slightly which could be symbolic of feeling as if she cannot speak up about what has just occurred and even feelings of shock due to the diagonal angle Altman has used which opposes the direction of the subjects face. As Altman produced this set of images at the age of just 19-years-old, this could be used to reach out to her age group at the time to show a darker side of this idea of controlling and jealous relationships that may be desired by young girls as they may believe this would make them feel wanted more like they are the only person that matters to their significant other. However, this image is displaying the progression of these kinds of relationships, and how they can quickly grow from something that may be perceived danger less. The ‘blood’ being in the form of glitter can resemble that romanticised idea that young girls have, having relation to the phrase of ‘all that glitters is gold’, suggesting that whilst the concept behind jealousy may be exciting at the time, relationships like this are extremely unstable and can easily turn violent due to the high control over impressionable young girls who may not have a predetermined perception of love.
I would like to utilise this use of glitter in my own work to represent emotionality, domestic violence in young girls, the teenage culture and overall, the set beauty standard towards women that young girls grow up encapsulated in.
I am going to organise a photoshoot using different colours of glitter and use a group of girls to represent each of these things in different ways. I would like to recreate some of Altman’s images such as the image of the girl with bleeding knees because this is such a subjective image that I can use to nod towards male violence in young girls during toxic relationships to show the reality to something that may be desirable to the younger generation as the progression of abuse is often ignored at the beginning which leads into entrapment. However, I would like to use inspiration from some of the images but incorporate different factors. For example, I feel that the image of the young girl leaning over a toilet bowl filled with glitter, however I would like to use this to compile different images looking into the normalisation of eating disorders within young girls due to the feeling of never being skinny enough, and in turn believing that they don’t deserve anything due to the lessening of their self-esteem. With pro-ana websites being easily accessible to young girls (pro-anorexia websites which push the idea that this is a healthy lifestyle) and with unrealistic images being produced for ‘Thinspo’ (extremely unhealthy bodies being pushed towards young girls online to make them believe this is what they must look like in order to be beautiful, and highlighting how to achieve it), it is very important that the dangers and hardships that come with this are highlighted to the viewer because to such an impressionable mind, the realisation that your brain, body and mind needs food to be able to develop and grow.
I will be using glitter to specifically look into the beauty standard set against young girls, and try to actively show the distorted perceptions that young girls face due to misogyny specifically in the media.
With the theme for the final exam being Union, I initially began thinking of ideas by reading through all pages of the exam paper, including features of fine art for example, because this would enable me to fully explore and utilise the information given to me so that I could easily find different movements and artists who inhabit this theme in their own work.
From here, I was able to use search engines to research what I had learnt, beginning with different artistic movements such as Cubism to gain visual examples of what I could gain inspiration from and actually see if I liked the aesthetic components of these images. What helped me here was annotating the exam paper with my own ideas that I had began to formulate because this would let me fully evaluate them all at the end of my research to the concept which I felt most suitable for Union.
I didn’t want this personal study to be similar to any of my other photographic responses because I wanted to ensure my portfolio would have versatility, a range of different methods from objectivity to subjectivity. The specific idea which really drew me in was looking at different societal movements which we have as this is an excellent depiction how the minimal representation of people and important constructs brings people together to have their voices heard in fighting against repression, here being the Feminist movement. Whilst this is greatly a global and universal political movement that has been present for decades, I wanted to use this movement as inspiration as it is important to me, being the fact that I am an 18 year old girl who is actively affected by actions fought against by this movement in partner with billions of young girls and women across the world. I feel almost as if it is my duty to interpret this in my work as it is incredibly relevant to me and something I do feel passionate about which will in turn allow me to create effective images. I wanted to include aspects of tableaux photography by curating staged scenes to represent truthful and real events that happen more frequently than society realise due to the normalisation of objectifying the female sex. So, in terms of my previous research on Mirrors and Windows, I find this body of work will be categorised as both due to its documentation of real and truthful stories captured by millions of women every year, however I will be using staged scenes in order to create this whilst also having a personal connection to my images due to this being extremely relevant in my day to day life due to my preconceived perceptions of the world in relation to feminism as well as having first-hand experiences being female regardless of my young age. I would also still like to create subjective images in accordance to my objective ones to visually display inner thoughts and feelings surrounding the issues that Feminism attempts to tackle.
Statement of Intent:
My main subject within the Feminist movement is going to be shooting people, specifically women and young girls as this is the focal point of the movement making this the best way to represent the hundreds of issues addressed here. I want to use dynamic angles to do this, being low or diagonal with a strong contrast in my lighting as this will create solemnity, seriousness and drama to encapsulate the importance of this topic. This will take place in domestic environments as well as external scenes:
1. Domestic Scenes:
I will be shooting inside my house and my friends house, creating staged scenes, in order to represent domestic abuse, misogyny and male violence that happens behind closed doors in domestic relationships. With domestic abuse being rarely reported due to fear and the entrapment of women, whether this could be due to family connections, separation from close friends and immediate family or financial assets being tied together, 1.5million cases of reported domestic abuse-related incidents were gathered in England and Wales in the year ending March 2022(1). I also want to portray this because it could happen to anyone, and not be realised until the person is too far into the relationship to leave, as this abuse tends to begin emotionally and psychologically before it grows into something much bigger and more controlling, meaning this could be something that has occurred to the woman sat next to you on the bus on a Monday morning, or simply the person serving you as a cashier in a shop. The point is that this topic is universal and kept behind closed doors, so this representation creates the hope that it can influence others to come forward and break out of these toxic situations, forcing realisation that it is entirely unacceptable to be treated in such a demeaning manner and it is not ‘love‘ to fear the person who should make you feel the most safe.
Before artist references and inspirations, I began to create photoshoot ideas to represent domestic abuse:
How domestic abuse rates rise 26% when the England football team wins or draws, and increases a 38% when his team loses. I wanted to utilise this by using different depths of field with a female crying or looking distressed next to the tv with a football game on. In the background I could vary my depths of field and experiment, putting a can of beer in the background for the viewer to infer that they are afraid of the results of the match.
The uniting of women in their trauma, for example the support received once telling friends and family what they have endured or even getting a friend to document the actions of their abuser by using phones to photograph bruises and fingerprint marks.
The fears of spiking, this being an issue that is rife in nightlife by women having things put into their drinks to be taken advantage of and objectified. To do this, I will be staging a party scene in the background and using Photoshop to experiment with different colours to create strobe lights. Of course this would be more realistic in an actual club or party because I would have true lighting, however this would be incredibly difficult because there would be very poor lighting conditions and I could risk damaging the camera depending on how busy the location is. Here, I am going to use still-life images of a glass of wine and putting a small piece of a Vitamin C tablet inside as these fizz when wet, to give off the perception of a foreign body being placed in someones drink without their awareness. As well as this, I would like to create images of a ‘feminine’ hand over the top of the glass as when I go out, my parents automatically remind me to watch my drink and be protective of it to minimise the risk of this happening to me.
2. External Scenes:
My main idea behind using the external environment to create images in this topic is to show the political side of the feminist movement. Within this, I will be creating signs similar to the ones I have seen in the media, and putting them into the sky to photograph them as this is a simple way to show the activism and advocation that has been going on within the feminist movement for hundreds of years beginning with the Suffragettes. I will also be shooting images of fists in the air as this is commonly associated for standing up for what is right and is the forefront symbol of empowerment.
By using outdoor environments, it makes sure that my images are still in touch with the wider applications and impacts that this movement has instead of just looking into the internal pressures that women have from misogyny and sexism. I don’t think I will be shooting images within the studio because I would like to keep the aspect of realism in my work, ensuring that the images produced are raw and relative to real-life. If I do shoot images in the studio, this runs the risk of them not looking as realistic and truthful even though I am using staged environments which won’t allow my images to be as effective.
The other photographic responses I have began to formulate on my own are:
The idea of sonder– being the realisation that every individual a person sees has a life as full and as real as their own. This is in relation to the domestic abuse many women face in silence and alone behind closed doors, and how this could happen to anyone at all. My idea to represent this concept is to have one girl or women staring into the lens of the camera out of a crowd of people moving around her, symbolising a cry for help, in town for example. For this, I can use a slow shutter speed to create a motion blur around the subject to symbolise almost being ‘forgotten’ about in their private fight. This can also be experimented with to be inverse of the male gaze in the public eye, being due to women purposely keep aware of their surroundings as an instinctual response due to past experiences and the knowledge of the high levels of attacks in public areas on women.
The concerns of pregnancy at the hands of abortion bans in many countries, such as Donal Trump’s beginning of his Project 2025 plans which could lead to the deaths of many young women and girls for numerous reasons is a more modernised problem that the feminist movement is striving to battle against. For this, I am going to purchase pregnancy tests and drop them onto the floor of public toilets or place them onto the basin on the sinks and shoot from high, overhead angles, such as standing over the adjacent cubicle, to connote emotions of fear and worry. I will use high contrasts and a lower exposure to make the image have a heavier feeling.
I want to use this ‘birds eye view’ in public toilets again using a high angle, with a girl inside the toilet looking distressed and concerned as if they are hiding or having fears about their current situation. There are typically notices on these toilet doors of JAAR – standing for Jersey Action Against Rape which I think would be very effective as I can utilise this to make the concept of the image more explicit. I will also shoot images of these notices in a more dead-pan aesthetic, being straight on, as this are very relevant to the movement in giving women support systems.
My final piece will consist of a photobook as in my previous personal study exploring the hardships of growing up with a family member suffering with extreme symptoms of a mental illness, I found that this was incredibly moving because I have entire control over the aesthetics and colour palette which are important in connoting different emotions. I feel that this will be the best way to represent such a heavy topic again with the Feminist movement. However, I don’t think this time I will use accompanying text as I want the images to speak for themselves and I don’t want them to be overpowered by textual information, all of the images should speak for themselves.
My biggest motivator in using this for my study in the theme of Union is the relevancy to my everyday life, these are vital and key concerns that I have to be aware of in order to be safe in society, especially when getting into relationships and going out during nightlife as there are so many incidents that happen to millions of women everyday. Having this knowledge and education is important to me because it means that I will be able to prepare myself in the case of something occurring and know where to access this support in a time of need, as well as having an instinct to prepare to defend myself in these cases.
My second reason for this is that I myself perceive myself as a feminist because I’m extremely passionate about being an activist for this inequality. This impacts my family, friends and millions of young girls and women across the world and without having a voice and standing up, nothing will change at all. All of these sub-categories within the feminist movement must be addressed because the ignorance of this could even lead to millions of deaths, and already does. Without preserving women’s rights, history will revert. My hopes in doing this is to display how important it is to be educated and aware of these things, and that they well and truly can happen to anyone even if you think it might not be you. These issues are closer to home than they are perceived and I hope to bring them to light to show that this is the reality of the world, and its important to use your voice to project what is wrong to make a difference.
The theme for the final exam in photography is ‘Union’. To start with my investigation, I began by reading through the entire exam paper as this provides me with starting points to gain inspiration from before I fully research different interpretations of the theme. I annotated and underlined key pieces of information and the names of any movements or artists so that I could research them later on.
I also used the other exam inspirations for different courses such as Fine Art as this could give me an idea of what else I could incorporate into my work and the different ways that artists inhabit this theme in their work. I used this as my starting point when creating my mood board.
Mood Board:
ReligionHuman connection e.g friends/family/strangersLeading lines e.g veins, branches, lanes, websObject connections Team sportsMaps or checkpointsPolitical activism e.g challenging misogyny and sexist views Different movements e.g Cubism
These are just a handful of the suggestions within the exam paper that I found may inspire me. From here, I have already started to think about some different ideas that I want to do.
The word ‘union’ is defined by:
‘a society or association formed by people with a common interest or purpose.’
Once I had defined this term, I began to think of ideas of my own. Some of these ideas were:
Environmental portraiture in the workplace in relation to trade or work unions
Cubism in photography
However, one of my favourite ideas I have been inspired by is political movements surrounding feminism and the like. Being a young person, I have always sought importance in keeping myself informed about the different injustices and movements within society because I understand that it is key that I am aware to these things in society. However, growing up in a world as a young girl has meant that I have acknowledged the inequalities between man and woman in society and have experienced the repercussions of normalising these issues.
Because this is a topic that is important to me as a feminist myself, I want to explore as many issues as I can that are highlighted within feminism within this study. These consist of:
What is Feminism?
Feminism is the advocacy for women rights in society in accordance to gender equality. A common misconception is that feminism is concerned with ‘girls being better than boys’ however this movement strives to remove the barrier between male and female in political, economic, personal and social contexts. A core value of feminism is the position that modern society is infiltrated with patriarchal viewpoints, this being where the male point of view is prioritised due to predetermined stereotypes. This movement is centred around fighting against these close-minded views that women shouldn’t receive the same personal, educational and professional opportunities than men do.
Feminist campaigns originate back to late 18th-century Europe, pushing for women’s equal rights such as the right to vote, earn equal pay, run for governmental office, the right to education, owning property, equal marital rights and maternal leave. These are just a small handful of what the feminist movement has pursued over many years, however this must still be driven to combat the stereotypical views that women equate to lesser than men. This movement was fundamental in ensuring women and girls gain access to contraceptives, legal and standardised abortions, as well as the protection from sexual assault, sexual harassment, rape or domestic violence.
However, these implementations of societal change stem from major historical battles that women have faced for hundreds of years, and are currently still having to be fought for in many third-world countries. For example, there are 24 countries across the world where abortive services are entirely prohibited, according to TIME magazine.
In these third-world countries, this may be due to the undeveloped nature of their medical systems. However in a more familiar and Western world, the U.S Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, which was a landmark in history that granted women in each state of America access to suitable healthcare surrounding their pregnancy freely to the choice of their own. This removed every woman’s constitutional right to abortion rights in America, and handed it to each state to make a decision of their own. After existing for nearly half a century, this jeopardises many young girls and women’s lives, practically taking a step backwards and undoing all of the work that feminists of the past had strived to complete.
Roe v. Wade was initially passed in 1973 allowing the entire right to an abortion during the first three months of pregnancy, however this has been eroded over the years. For example, Texas – a very republican state which majorly agrees with the pro-life movement – passed a law in 2021 allowing the people to sue clinics and doctors for carrying out an abortive procedure after 6 weeks. Now that Donald Trump has been re-elected as president, one of his plans have begun within his Project 2025 campaign which concerns bans on contraceptives and abortions with absolutely no exceptions. This is entirely dangerous and harmful to the millions of young girls and women across the country who could be put in life-threatening situations without simple access to these services.
With the inability to terminate a pregnancy, this could result in numerous deaths as the mother could die from giving birth – whether this may be from not being developed enough to carry to term or the body straining, rape victims being forced to birth their assaulters baby, not being able to provide for the child due to financial instability or pay the extravagant prices of hospital bills due to the lack of free healthcare, not having a support system in place, or just simply not feeling ready to have a child.
Historical events:
The Suffragettes:
The Suffragettes dominated the feminist movement for several decades, and are a notable period of time of activism for the rights of women. These women were members of an activist organisation in the early 20th century, fighting for the right to vote in the UK.
Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst of the WSPU in 1906.
Within this campaign, there was a divide in the choosing of tactics and strategy in making their voices heard.
The Suffragists: NUWSS:
The suffragists sought to achieve women’s suffrage (the right to vote) through deep debating and campaigning through non-violent marches and petitions. This was led by Millicent Fawcett who was the head of the National Union for Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). This was an organisation, founded in 1897, however was merged with other organisations dated back to the 1860s. This consisted of primarily upper- and middle-class, however there were many women representing the working-class too. This was a limited representation as the working-class would be restricted on the time they would have to attend these protests as this would result in the loss of money when it was already difficult to gain a living in the first place.
Many women who were interested in this movement sent delegates to the NUWSS to then report back the benefits to those who were being represented, many of these women were textile workers, sweated labourers and those who worked in mines. By 1914, the NUWSS had over 100,000 members throughout the country with over 500 branches. Some of these methods of constitutional seeking for change consisted of:
Public meetings
Organised petitions
Wrote letters to politicians
Published newspapers
Distributed free literature
‘Suffragist Millicent Fawcett will be the first woman to have a statue in Parliament Square.’ – BBC Bitesize.
The Suffragettes: WSPU:
With the lack of progress with the NUWSS being disappointing, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters formed the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903. Instead of taking a peaceful approach like the suffragists of the NUWSS, the WSPU decided to use a confrontational manner out of irritation of resistance to change by the government – a male-dominated field at the time. This direct advance was referred to as militancy, leading to these campaigners being called the ‘Suffragettes’ instead of Suffragists. This adding of the suffix ‘ette’ was purposely applied to belittle those taking more dramatic action, portraying the idea that these women were lesser than those acting in a peaceful way. However, this insult stuck and was used by the members of the WSPU themselves. This radicalised approach resulted from a culture of women who had already campaigned tirelessly without seeing results.
The Pankhurst family who formulated the WSPU led the way for the new struggle, and due to them being at the forefront of campaigns they were arrested numerous times, being imprisoned and committing to numerous hunger strikes. The Suffragettes These tactics implemented shocked society due to a large number of these women having well-connected families in middle-class society, with this being reinforced by the traditional stereotype that women should be family-orientated, delicate and nurturing – this was seen as scandalous.
Initially, these tactics were employed to cause disruption and some civil disruption, for example 60,000 people gathered in October 1908 as a ‘rush’ on Parliament – this was intending to invade the House of Commons. However, this was just the beginning, as the lack of government attention resulted in:
Ruining male-only clubs and golf courses
Hunger strikes
Handcuffing themselves to railings/buildings as public displays of resistance
Planting bombs
Burning public buildings and unoccupied politicians homes
Disrupting political meetings, the postal service and the 1911 census (this recorded the details of over 36.3 million men, women and children)
Smashing windows of private property and government buildings
Attacking Church of England buildings
Holding illegal demonstrations
Heckling MPs
This is just a fraction of the disruptive strategies that the Suffragettes used to make themselves known and heard.
The Suffragette Newspaper
The Suffragists would not co-operate with the Suffragettes as they did not agree with this form of direct action, and believed that non-violent methods were more suitable. Whilst their civil disobedience allowed them to be the main focus of the country at the time, meaning that no politician could ignore them, this meant that the NUWSS’s actions were often overshadowed by the actions of the WSPU. Many historians still argue over which side of the movement furthered the campaign.
Black Friday:
A notable point within the Suffragettes is Black Friday. In the 1908 election campaign, a member of the Liberal Party named Herbert Henry Asquith promised to pass a law that included women’s rights if elected as Prime Minister. With the support of the Suffragettes behind him, he was elected. However until 1916, this actually resulted in Asquith refusing to reform the right to vote, leaving the women with empty promises and anger.
In response, the WSPU organised a march to highlight the issue with his refusal, however the women were met with violence by policemen and male bystanders. This meant that hundreds of women were badly hurt, even resulting in death.
‘Public conscience must be aroused, and it can only be done by attacks on public property. When women’s bodies were battered on Black Friday that was alright but when a few windowpanes are broken, that is all wrong.’ – Emmeline Pankhurst, 2 years later in a newspaper.
The concept of feminism is still fought for in modern society through protests as well as the use of social media. A great example of this is the #MeToo movement where women can come forward online about sexual harassments or assaults and tell their story in hopes to help those who relate or inspire others to come forward about it. This has also involved celebrities too, highlighting to the world that these people are not untouchable and many of them do awful, inhumane things and expect nothing to occur due to their wealth and fame. This is also extremely useful for those who have reported their assaults but have lost their case.
A predominant issue within modern feminism is the focus of misogyny which has been widely practised for thousands of years, this being a dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women or girls, being a partial form of sexism that women should be kept at a lower status than men. This concerns male violence and domestic abuse against women, where approximately 1/4 women (23% or 2.2 million) have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age for fifteen in the UK. A notable addition to this is the fact that in the event that the England football team wins or draws, the occurrence of domestic violence increases by 26%, and when they lose the percentile increases to 38%.
The feminist movement has been growing strong for hundreds of years, and is still rife in modern society.
Within my project I am hoping to make a small book on blurb, something that is quite informal, therefore rather than looking at book research I am going to research different magazines which I will pull ideas from for my photobook.
Max Power Magazine
Max power is a British magazine based on performance tuning within the car market.
Formula D Magazine
Formula DRIFT or Formula D is the premier United States drifting series. Formula Drift, Inc. was co-founded by Jim Liaw and Ryan Sage in 2003 as a sister company to Slipstream Global Marketing, the same partnership that introduced D1 Grand Prix to the United States.
‘Cartier-Bresson’s famous theory The Decisive Moment, which taps into the idea of the irrational unconscious making itself known in the split second that a photograph is taken, could be read as a product of an environment of the surrealist thinking that dealt in the construction or capturing of dreamlike imagery.’
I will take inspiration from this to create my own decisive moments. Moments of friendship which will in turn correlate to union.
The woman Bresson photographed goes on to say that he was short and hidden behind a tree. I want to take my images in a similar way to capture a pure essence of friendship, something that isn’t staged but is really being felt.
‘To tell Henri Cartier-Bresson’s story and to unravel his work is essentially to tell the story of a look.’
I will use this to my advantage, by having the people I am photographing be working on a car or enjoying playing sports I will not be an obstruction but rather a person looking in, by not being involved in what they are doing, I can move myself and the camera around them to get different angles of this look.
Henri Cartier-Bresson developed a passion for filmmaking in the 1930’s. He studied cinema with Paul Strand in New York in 1935. When he returned to France, he was hired as the second assistant director to Jean Renoir in 1936 for La vie est à nous and Une partie de campagne, and in 1939 for La Règle du Jeu.
My intention for this study is to explore how union is presented through the photography technique ‘Surrealism’:
I intend to begin my study with recording my initial ideas of what I believe represents Union. I will create my first photoshoot as an experiment for my future photoshoots, therefore my ideas will be clear. I will also explore different surrealist artists and how they represent unity within their photography. I will be using surrealism in my editing as I feel it is a clear way to present unity through the combining of faces/body parts. The two photographers I will be researching and using for inspiration is Man Ray and Tommy Ingberg. Both photographers explore Surrealism within their photography in completely different ways. Ingberg focuses on self-reflecting surreal photo montages that deal with human nature, feelings and thoughts, whereas Ray’s photography focuses on elements of both abstraction and realism, blending the line between photography and other visual arts. My photos will most likely be more similar to Ray’s photography, as I am using similar techniques to him, for example double/multi exposure and montages of faces or body parts. I wish to develop my project through a range of photoshoots portraying a variation of narratives that represent dream-like images.
I am interested in this project as I like exploring different photography techniques that can be used to make my work unique and fascinating. My intentions are to create a few final images that will be printed and used to create my final presentation on a mountboard, where I can change the layout of the images, making sure they are presented in a clear way. This matters to me because I feel that Surrealism explores the power within the presentation of dreams. Artists find strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny. To edit my photos, I am going to use Adobe photoshop as there is a variety of tools I can use to create dream-like and illusional images.
Larry Sultan was born 13th July 1946 in Brooklyn New York to a Jewish family. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, part of Los Angeles, California, where his parents moved when he was an infant. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in political science, and received a master’s degree in fine arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco.
He was an American photographer and started his career in the 1970’s. In 1977, he published a collection of photographs he found in corporate and government archives called ‘Evidence’ with a photographer called Mike Mandel, which the New York Times characterised as “a watershed in the history of art photography.” The two men also created billboards aimed at slowing down road traffic. He then published ‘Pictures from Home’ from 1982-1992, followed by his 2004 assignment for Maxim, which consisted of photographs of middle-class residences rented by the porn industry in the San Fernando Valley, which led to another photographic series called ‘The Valley.’ He also photographed Paris Hilton for Interview in his parents’ bedroom in his childhood home.
Sultan was an instructor of photography at his alma mater, the San Francisco Art Institute, from 1978 to 1988. He then taught at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco as Chair of the Photography Department from 1993 to 1999, and as distinguished professor of art from 1989 to 2009.
He served on the board of trustees of the Headlands Centre for the Arts from 1992 to 1998. At the time of his death, 13th December 2009, he was the artist trustee at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, a position he had taken up in the same year. He died of cancer and died at his home in Greenbrae, California, with his wife Katherine Sultan, also known as Kelly Sultan.
Pictures From Home
Pictures from Home was first published in 1992 and was a collection of photographs taken of his parents in the San Fernando Valley from 1982 to 1992, whose role was to question societal expectations of gender and aging. Sultan returned home to Southern California, which is where he grew up in his childhood home in the 1980’s and began his work. His home became a source of inspiration for a number of his projects. In ‘Pictures from Home’ he combines contemporary photographs with film stills from home movies, fragments of conversation, Sultan’s own writings and other memorabilia. This results in a narrative that collages both documentary and staged images causing the boundary between them to thin and create images of the psychological as well as physical landscape of suburban family life. Simultaneously, the distance usually maintained between the photographer and his subjects also slips in an exchange of dialogue and emotion that is unique to this work.
“What drives me to continue this work is difficult to name. It has more to do with love than with sociology. With being a subject in the drama rather than a witness. And in the odd and jumbled process of working, everything shifts: the boundaries blur, my distance slips, the arrogance and illusion of immunity falters. I wake up in the middle of the night, stunned and anguished. These are my parents. From that simple fact, everything follows.” – Larry Sultan
His photobook displays the flow of ordinary life and Sultan noted that he wanted the images in Pictures from Home to “become part of a larger narrative…to slam up against other images (an afterimage). I want to measure how a life was lived against how a life was dreamed.”
Article on His Work
Review in the Guardian Newspaper-
‘Pictures from home by Larry Sultan review- When mom and dad lived in the dream‘
‘Sultan’s 80s portraits of his parents are both artful and authentic‘
‘A tortured labour of love’: Larry Sultan’s Practicing Golf Swing (1986). Photograph: Larry Sultan
Larry’s work published in 1992 ‘Pictures from home’ is an intriguing visual memoir that also explores all American families, both as reality and a construct. Sultan began the project when Ronald Reagan was president and “the institution of the family was being used as an inspirational symbol by resurgent conservatives. I wanted to puncture this mythology of the family and to show what happens when we are driven by images of success. And I was willing to use my family to prove a point.”
Although this was the original motive, his book is much too personal and self-questioning to be anything other than a tortured labour of love, as it allowed him to see his parents and himself in a new way. Sultan used family snapshots and stills from home movies alongside his own photographs of his parents, who were retired in a desert community near Palm Springs. Their expansive house and gardens are the setting for Sultan’s portraits, which, whether intimate or cinematic, are always artfully choreographed, as if reminding us that we are looking at a highly constructed narrative.
Pictures from Home also included the merging of images and text, including painful reflections of Sultan’s upbringing, his parents, his photography, and the wisdom of this project, which are undercut with his father’s more macho, matter-of-fact monologues. The tension between the two is the classic generational tension between father and son; the one seeking affirmation of his work, the other baffled by it. “Every few months I visit, loaded down with camera gear and ideas for pictures,” writes Sultan. “It takes a day or two for most of these ideas to seem strained or foolish and then I’m left with cases of unexposed film and a feeling of desperation.”
Pictures from home also displays the particular tensions of photography: the tricky balancing act between critical distance and emotional engagement, between empathy and voyeurism.
Sultan describes sneaking into his mother’s bedroom and photographing her as she lay sleeping – “I was so apprehensive of waking her that I breathed in rhythm with her.” He photographs the underside of her foot, which he realises he has never seen before. In his furtive excitement, he wishes he could “photograph it again and again.” It is a strange, heightened interlude, made more so by the realisation that she was not really asleep – “We were co-conspirators. Just as I was secretly photographing, she was secretly awake. She felt me looking.”
Ultimately, as Sultan acknowledged, Pictures from Home is an impossible project. “I realise that beyond the rolls of film and the few good pictures,” he writes, “the demands of my project and my confusion about its meaning, is the wish to take photography literally. To stop time. I want my parents to live for ever.” In a way, he succeeded.
Interview on His Work
‘In 1983 the republicans had hijacked the family and they turned it into a ideological tool and the family values that they were talking about I found them quite oppressive and I felt that family is one of the most complicated, unnerving institutions and it’s the last institution that I think anyone believes in, most of us believe in
Larry sultan found that in 1983 the Republicans has hijacked the family and turned it into an ideological tool. He found that the family values that they were talking about were quite oppressive and he felt that family is one of the most complicated, unnerving institutions and it’s the last institution that anyone believes in, as most people didn’t believe in the government, churches, or in the bank, but family still has a pull on people.
Sultan’s family life was complicated, as his father was a very strong character. He was an orphan that came up out of the lower class and worked his way up to being a vice president at Real Horatia Alger Story. His father did not like that sultan was an artist and gave him a hard time about it, calling him a ‘loser.’ His father lost his job in his early fifties, because the company was sold and he never worked again.
Sultan states, ‘the wound is deeply in the family.’ This led to him beginning to study these at home movies, looking for himself and the evidence of his life. This made him realise that he could reshape them, ‘like a good dream,’ as he could reinsert himself into family life. Looking at the documents of his families at home movies he found they also have a sense that a families projected its dreams onto film emotion, as they celebrate the family in the most mystical, remarkable ways.
This led to him beginning to use the movie stills, their pictures, snapshots and he began to take his own photographs. His photographs were a blend of staged and documentary work, as he was trying to collapse those differences.
Sultan states that, ‘the truth is about performance, how we perform, how we project and the truth can be staged and it can be found. I don’t think there is such a division between the two.’
The images were intimate images, private images, which he then made public. He felt that there was a kind of betrayal that happens when this is done, as something is torn when you go from private to public. A trust. Sultan felt terrible about this throughout the project, as he felt like he had a secret and that he was betraying his parents. To get around this issue he had his parents in a sense be collaborators, as they wrote, discussed the pictures and they dismantled his position. He was under question just as much as the home movies were. The home movies were all fictive and partially true.
This project allowed Sultan to solve a lot of personal issues with his family. His parents came to one of his art openings at MCA in San Diego and there were people asking for his fathers autograph, where his father said, ‘I don’t know whether i’m making you famous, or your making me famous.’ This caused Sultan and his father to be bound together in a very odd enterprise.
His Work
Analysis of 2 Photographs
The type of lighting used in this image is natural lighting, which is coming in through the window on the right, where the curtains are. This image is a staged image, so has high levels of control, because he could manipulate the setting, distance and position of the subjects (his parents) and himself with the camera.
There are neutral colours throughout this image, including the cream/ white trousers, furniture, curtains etc. as well as having that contrast with including more vibrant colours, such as the bright green walls, the yellow flowers and the slightly pink shirt the women is wearing and the patterned black and orange shirt the man is wearing. This image includes lots of lighter tones, due to the neutral colours, but also includes a few darker tones including the belt on the women, the shirt on the man and the tv. There is a bit of texture in this image, due to the objects used in the photograph (the furniture) and the outfits that are being worn (the silk shirt). The way they are positioned creates space and dimension in this image, as the women in stood in the background, while the man is in the foreground. The main viewpoint of this image however, is the women, even though she is in the background.
This image was taken in the photographers childhood home and the subjects are his parents. This image is a staged image and it is trying to present the everyday flow of an ordinary life, while also questioning societal expectations of gender and ageing. This image presents an ordinary flow of life, as the activity presented in this image is watching TV, which is an ordinary activity that almost everyone does. However, this image also presents gender roles, as in the image the male is able to sit down and relax and watch TV, while the female is stood by his side waiting by the looks of it. This may present that the male is more important than the women, which is why he is sat and that the women is waiting to serve him.
The type of lighting used in this image is natural lighting coming in from the windows. There are high levels of control in this image, as it is a staged image, where the position and distance of Sultan’s father and himself with the camera was manipulated.
There are lots of neutral colours in this image, including the warm/ cream bedding and the brown walls. However, there are also some brighter colours including the green carpet and the dark navy suit his father is wearing. There are lots of light tones in this image, which creates a contrast between the darker tones of the subjects suit. There are also a lot of textures in this image, including the textures seen of the carpet, as well as the textures of the bedding. There are also lots of patterns in this image, including the shapes on the bedding and the shapes on the wall paper.
The composition of this image is a simple one, with the subject in the centre of the frame being the main viewpoint.
This photograph was taken in the photographers childhood home and the subject is his father, who he had a very complicated relationship with, because he did not want him to be an artists. However, this photo allowed them to grow closer together and allowed Sultan to discover that his father has more similarities to him than he recognised. His father states, ‘that’s you sitting on the bed, that this is a self-portrait. I know who I am, you know who you are, your values are part of this work, but let’s just make it very explicit. That’s you sitting on the bed.’ This allowed Sultan to recognise that his father was very clear headed and astute about photographic issues.
My Inspiration
I am going to take inspiration from Larry Sultan, because I am also going to take staged images of my parents in the same way he has done in my current home, which I have grown up in, just how he has taken photographs in his childhood home. However, I am not only going to take pictures of my parents, but other family members as well, like my sister for example. I am also going to include archive images, including photographs and films, just how Sultan has, in my photobook, as I am going to also be recreating some of these archives. I am also going to include some of the features he has used in his photobook, like using different paper for certain pages, because I think it works very well and completes the book.
I am also going to experiment with joiners, which I have taken inspiration from David Hockney, but I am also going to create different types of collages, just how Sultan has in his photo book. I may also try and recreate some of Sultan’s photographs, like the one of his father sat on his bed in a suit.
