Photographic self-assessment

For the unit of “History of photography and language of the image”, all students have been asked to auto evaluate their work and present their aspirations. The assignment is governed by three guidelines with accompanying images, where the student will present:

• one of his best photographs, articulating his choice
• a photograph considered regretfully failed, providing arguments and proposals for improvement
• last but not least, a picture that matches the student’s photographic aspirations, commenting the underlying reasons

Maybe I am too absorbed in my studies and take them too seriously, but I think this apparently simple work is very difficult to execute, particularly points one and three. It is quite hard to summarise one’s whole body of work into a single image, an image that encompasses our aesthetic, cultural, socio-political appeal… Even harder to present someone else’s production that would correspond to our final ambitions. Restated, the result is closer to psychological introspection than to a critic of one’s photography: my assignment turns out to be a written statement of who I am at the time of writing.

After much research, I am ready to present something.

One of my best photographs to date is this black and white nude, taken during a session with the model Amanita in February 2007. Shot earlier this year, the photograph is still fairly recent to adhere to the desirable principle that the best images are those yet to come, the last ones thus being among the best produced then.

I have always been fascinated by the quintessential beauty of the human figure. From my earliest infant visions expressed then as doodles on paper, to my fledgling manifesto when I undertook painting a decade ago, I conceive the body as one of the most eloquent messengers of beauty. Another important one being abstraction. I believe that the reduction of theme, form and tone is an underlying current, desirable to attain some sort of universal communication – which in itself, is an impossibility. In photography, I translate these two concepts into minimalistic depiction of nudity, using but a little palette of tones.

In this photograph, the body is present, and the nudity is felt rather than acknowledged. The absence of a focal point is intended to render a more ethereal atmosphere. Disambiguation with vulgarity is so obvious to me that it should remain unstated, although undeveloped conservative minds may think otherwise. The simplicity of my composition, reinforced by the square format, is intended to guide the spectator’s vision, facilitate the reading and any subsequent interpretation, of which I will disclose nothing further. An image needs no words and should suffice itself, which is why there is no title. in short, this image is a brief of my artistic statements, and as such, I hope it conveys them well.

This photograph was taken in August 2007 during a session with the model Sunshine. Although also a black and white nude, I believe I have missed the point here, as it is either too much or not enough. Again, blur is present in the theme, only this time it was perhaps not so necessary because sensitive body parts are not exposed. The format is not square anymore, and it could have been, given the position of the model. Still, something that disturbs me even more than the aforementioned points is that the model’s shoulders and fingers are missing, and in this case, it would have proven beneficial to show the entirety of the model’s body, with either a long or shallow depth of field – this needs further experimentation. Overall, I would consider this image only as a prop, and drive myself forward into the production of an improved version.

My third and last image cannot be shown here, because it is copyrighted and because it is much more stimulating for the reader to visit the original website where it is displayed. It is a black and white nude photograph by Richard Avedon portraying the dancer Sylvia Guillem.

I mentioned above my admiration for the human figure, and of all the expressive media geared to demonstrate its elegance, dance is one that truly touches me, followed by artistic skating, rhytmic gymnastics, and synchronised swimming.

The expert eye of Avedon, coupled with the grace of this amazing dancer, caught a glimpse of the divinity that is mankind. This is a homage to all men, expressing what we could reach if we all lived to our full potential. Man, free from submissive rules, social pressure, financial threats, celebrating the act of will upon life in all its glory. No need for blur here, both photographer and model work together skilfully to depict a beauty that cannot, would not be mistaken. The abstraction I strive to is achieved with a monotone background and the use of black and white. And what a masterpiece it makes!

This image exceeds my expectations, and it is my ambition as an artist to work in that direction and perform a similar achievement.