(an annotated image from, Jack Latham- Sugar paper theories)
Jack Latham - Sugar Paper Theories.
Sugar Paper Theories is Jack Latham's second major project which he created in relation to the unsolved Icelandic murder case. It adapts a documentary style of photography to lay out the events of what unfolded. Forty-five years ago in 1974 two men went missing in two separate incidents. An 18 year old set off from a club one night to embark on a long 10km walk back to his house. A few months later a similar event occurred. A man failed to return home. The double murder case became one of the most infamous unresolved murder cases in Icelandic history and continues to taint Icelandic society to this day. Jack Lathams exhibition shows archival photographic evidence of the past and the present laying out and explaining the events. The collection challenges photography's defining principals challenging the ability to trust what you see.
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In the interview with Jack Latham he talks about the 'grey area' of photography, the area in between fact and fiction and how the public were deceived during the investigation. He didn't necessarily take photos of what he was 'supposed to' he photographed that area.
The book includes images of people and objects significant to the case for example the suspects and areas as well as using images from the original investigation. |
The book and investigation combined really make you consider if you can trust an image, you might look at a photograph and not think about the context and story behind it but in reality it might not be that simple. Photographs can be manipulated and used in a way to tell a certain narrative or to get a certain point of view across. In this case photography was used to manipulate people into thinking they did something and in turn create memory distress syndrome.
I created responses to Jack Lathams work taking inspiration from his landscapes. I also decided to respond to the original photos taken during the police investigation as they are two very different types of landscape. Jack Lathams photographs are quite high quality photographs with colour whereas the police investigation photographs are black and white and quite grainy. As well as this Jack Latham seems to split his photographs into two sections. The bottom section is the main landscape and the top section tends to contain a large amount of sky. The police photography is much more basic with a central focal point and in black and white.
Overall I think the photos are good representations of Jack Lathams work. To make the responses to the police investigation responses I decided to use my iPhone camera to get a more grainy look as well as a black and white filter and made sure to centralize the buildings and subjects. To create
Clocks for Seeing
In todays lesson we were discussing the similarities between clocks and cameras and how cameras can also be described as 'Clocks for Seeing'. Cameras can capture a moment in time and only that moment. If you look at a portrait between us now and our younger selves for example we can only see ourselves in that specific moment in time and see the differences. It does not give is an idea about what has happened in the past, just like a clock where when you look at it only shows that time.
Below are images from books related to this idea of 'clocks for seeing'
Below are images from books related to this idea of 'clocks for seeing'
'For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness' Is a book by Julian Germain depicting the life of Charles Snelling after the death of his wife. I really like the images as they have such a vibrant colour and happy initial tone but once you know the backstory it has a whole different feel. I also like the images because they are quite simplistic yet so full of character and life. The house depicted in the book also reminded my of my neighbours house which is similarly colourful and full of character.
Below is my first set of images responding to this project. I decided to photograph the estate that I live on as my community. I wanted to try and capture what life is like and I think I was reasonably successful doing this. When refining and developing my images I would like my images to contain more picture of people. I also did like the landscape photographs I took so I would like to develop them.
The next stage was to begin the production of the final 20 photobooks. The initial challenge was choosing the overall layout, for example 8 page or 16 page.
I started off by designing an 8 page zine but I couldn’t really fit all the images i wanted to use so i decided to stick with a 16 page template.
The 16 page turned out much better as i could fit different images that looked better as double pages.
The 16 page turned out much better as i could fit different images that looked better as double pages.
Once i had finished my design on photoshop the next step was to print it out. I printed out the main page and the full photo cover onto a4 paper. I decided I wanted to use cartridge paper so put 20 sheets into the a3 paper tray. Next I had to select the correct settings on the printer for example making sure it went from 1 sided to 2 sided. Once I had all 20 pages I trimmed the white parts off of the edge and began folding. I had to fold it twice vertically and twice horizontally to create the 16 pages and cut three pages up then three pages down. Folding the zine was the most complicated part as I struggled to line up all the pages which caused some zines to be quite messy meaning I had to make it again.
It was at this point where I realized I had made a mistake in photoshop and one of the double images was the wrong way round on the template meaning it was upside down on the page. It was too late to go back as I wouldn't have had time to re print and make all 20. I decided instead to incorporate it into my work. Each zine has an impurity showing that it isnt perfect which is what the zine embodies. It is a quick and simple way to present work and doesnt have to be perfect. It is also similar to Persian Rugs which have a small impurity because of the belief that nothing is perfect except Allah.