Original Assignment 2

This is my original work on Assignment 2

PREPARATION FOR ASSIGNMENT:

The topic I am researching for this assignment is Water and its presence on Social Media. I have chosen this topic because I love water. I am the granddaughter of a fisherman. I can trace seven generations of fishermen in my maternal family. I live half the year on a very small island in the south west of Ireland. We have had our house there for forty years and I never get tired of the sea. I love being on and in the water. I would like to see how popular it is with other users of social media. I want to see whether it is seen more as an aesthetic subject or is it the social or life giving aspect which generates the most images. I would like to see how my images compare to those already posted on the social media sites which I use.

I am somewhat unsure about the copyright laws for re-use of images on finds on social media.

Water: Mind Map

THE BOOK

I may take different aspects of water and discover how many and what way other photographers have treated these subjects. I may also concentrate on one issue. I also want to use my own archival images of water to compliment and contrast with what is out there on Social Media.

Best social media sites for photographers:(1)

  1. For Engagement: Instagram
  2. For Community Building: Facebook
  3. For Portfolio Development: Behance
  4. For Portfolio Expansion: Freelancer
  5. For Brand Building: Pinterest
  6. For Search Engine Optimization: Google+
  7. For the Subtle All-in-one presence: 500px
  8. For the “everything” in your trunk!: Tumblr
  9. For the Photo-management: Flickr
  10. For the Inspiration & Innovation: Stumble Upon
  11. For the Artist in You: Deviant Art
  12. For the Curious Photographer: Howcast
  13. For the Spirited Photographer in you: Photofie

Social Media and Stock sites: Putting just the word ‘water’ into the following sites:

  • Facebook: Difficult to get a figure even for a date
  • Pinterest: Dont have statistical numbers but have subheadings e.g water photography and under each of these there are further subheadings:
    • ocean, nature, girl in, calm, portraits, ideas, underwater, reflection, dark, drinking, glass of, movement, ink in, shower, pour, flowers in, sparkling, detox, ice, flowing, boiling, splash, flowing, tumblr, beach, blue, clear, beach, pure, pond, clean, sparkling, abstract, model, unique, people in. pool. art, creative, lake, black & white, moving, mineral, milky, waterfall, tumblr, bottle, blue, river, deep, running, women, still, tips, cup of, beach, sea, inspiration, drop, landscape, bath, couples lemon. men, clear, fashion, waves, people in, beauty, tap, dress, fresh, bubble, kids, hands, high speed, macro, summer, face, product, senior, studio, quotes, boy, settings, products.
  • Flickr comes up with 3.541,164 images.
  • Alamy comes up with: Stock Photos and Images (10,372,630)
  • Shutterstock comes up with: 230,934
  • #water in Instagram gives 64,307,903 posts. Many of these have very tenuous connections with water.
  • Google comes up with the following subheadings:
    • drinking. bottle, cartoon, wallpaper, ocean, ice, grill, tap, ice, spring, pool, well, solution, drawing, painting, splash, transparent,.

GENERAL TOPICS ON WATER

  • World Water Day: 22 March 2019 Theme: Leave No one behind
  • Availability of Water worldwide:

    Water scarcity – Wikipedia. 2019. Water scarcity – Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_scarcity. [Accessed 27 January 2019].

  • Poems about water which I might use:
My general archive of Water in all its forms:
POSSIBLE TOPICS TO BE COVERED:
  • world shortage of drinking water
    • bottled/tap
  • melting ice/glaciers
  • water usages
  • water projects
    • #waterwells Instagram:5327, Alamy: water wells Nepal 22
  • water pollution
    • sewage
    • ocean plastics
POSSIBLE WATER QUOTES for pages:
drinking water:
1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. 1.8 million people die every year from diarrhoeal diseases, including 90 % of children under 5. This situation is no longer bearable.(3)
1. proposed page on drinking water
melting ice:
By the end of the century, nearby Fox Glacier will have retreated up to five kilometres and lost nearly 40 per cent of its mass.(4)
2. proposed page on melting ice. My image NZ

Contact made with Instagram and web image makers:

James Balog, Iuna Tinta, Bergrisinn, Matador, Simone + Dan wanderlusters, Arctic Adventures Iceland, torazzagazzone, Laali Berthelsen

You have all the permission to use the photo. Good luck with your project, I would love to see it when it´s finished.

All the best,

Boris van der Spek

TOP POSTS on INSTAGRAM:

Essentially the ‘Top Posts’ on Instagram are a picked out by an algorithm that attempts to rank posts within that hashtag. Unlike the ‘Explore’ page that is user-specific, every viewer sees exactly the same ‘Top Posts’ for a given hashtag.(5)

The LAW on appropriating other artists images:
In order to understand the law it is necessary to first understand what is appropriation. Richard Prince is an artist who has used other people’s images (6) with very little changes. He was successfully sued by a French photographer but the decision was reversed on appeal. Following a later exhibition “New Portraits” he was again sued. (7). The court decision is still pending.
Sherrie Levine is another artist that has used older photographer’s work. (8)
her work asks many questions but supplies few definitive answers.
So what exactly is ‘fair use’ – I think the jury is still out on that.
Preliminary feedback from Tutor:
Running my original ideas by my tutor she offered the following advice
There is a lot happening with the word ‘water’ and the project could go in so many ways
… your family story and the poetry.  It is probably finding a way to bridge the way between these two strands and I would suggest trying to tell some kind of story – whether that is purely visual or with text.
So my task was then to find a story related to my attachment to water.
I looked for photographers workig with water and found the following:
Mustafah Abdülaziz (9, 10). He showed, in his beautiful images, how difficult it is for some people to access this basic right. Below is a YouTube video of him
Abdülaziz was the only photographer I could find making images of water to tell the story of the importance of this commodity that we all take for granted in the developed world.
I decided to do my book using images from our first visit to Chile in 2013. I have about 2,500 images which I made in Chile on my first visit.
I chose Chile first because I have travelled the whole 5000 kms from north to south. Secondly because it has such a varied climate from north to south and thirdly because water in Chile is a hot political topic. It is somewhat of an enigma that in the south of the country there is an excess of water and in the north a dearth.
The mining industries in the north use vast quantities of water which they draw out from the aquifers under the Atacama desert. This reduces the supply to the towns a villages causing anger and frustration to local people. As one travels south agriculture is the main activity. There are many vineyards, cereal, fruit, vegetable as well as animal farms. All are heavy users of water. In Central Chile there is still a sufficiency. But with the growth of the capital city Santiago water needs are increasing. Moving further south the climate becomes cold and wet. The Andes Mountains form the border with Argentina and are covered with snow all year round. With the increase of temperature, as a result of climate change, the glaciers carrying the snow down from the mountains into the lakes and rivers are melting and receding. Some scientists predict a 40% decrease in rainfall in southern Chile over the next decades. This is leading to a deficit of water supply over usage.
Not many people seem to be taking any notice, least of all the Chilean politicians who give licences to private companies to exploit the water resources.
I have maintained an interest in life and politics in Chile and returned there in 2015 to travel from east to west and on into Argentina. On both occasions I made a lot of images. I have always wanted to create a book of this work so this archive project seemed the ideal way to get my work into book form.
This is the first draft and I will wait for feedback from my peer group and tutor to see how I can develop the work.

FEEDBACK ON FIRST VERSIONS:
Sandi, Graphic designer
Critique:
The Book is great, the photography of course is top notch. I think the only improvements could be in the typesetting. I feel that your trying to fill the area that you are putting in type with the type. Is it possible to reduce the font size ever so slightly, maybe reduce the space between sentences, you can still have a good space between paragraphs. Careful not to have type to close to either side. I hope this makes sense!
Deirdre: Designer, printer
It really looks great, you have a clean book, with strong images, large images and great impact on your double page spreads.
I think there are three main things that strike me as I go through the book, and they are finicky bits that my eye sees, that many won’t.
1 – White space around text.
This is about visually balancing the text as a secondary element to the images and I think you have it spot on for the last spread ‘No_10’ and I would consider how to create the same sense of white space and balance throughout the other pages.
For example I have changed the visual space of text on ‘No_9’ and it ties in better with ‘No_10’ and gives the images more impact. I think the same applies to all pages with text and imagery.
‘No_8’ is another similar layout, where more text can be included where there is only one image and balanced whote space around the text.
2 – Text over images
This is always a bit tricky and when successful it’s really effective. The rule of thumb is if the box is going to the edge of the image, only go to one edge. Eg ‘ No_5’ and ‘No_6’. Also be very careful with a white box as it can look like a technical error. I think ‘No_7’ is one of these, and would work better with a coloured box. You can use a black box, transparency set to 70% and then white text over it also.
3 – The map on ‘No_4’ I prefer it with a clean edge rather than blurred, but that could be just my taste!
I would balance the white space left and right, make it bigger and line the text up with either left or right – see what you think yourself.
4 – One more! The title page, I think the “#” is too strong with the title as is. Maybe add capitals eg #Chile_Water or make the hashtag smaller #chile_water
Jo: Fine artist
I am no judge of these things, so I think that it looks amazing: fabulous photos.
 My only comments ( in my ignorance) would be:
– I think that you need to be clear if all the actual photos are yours ( maybe you wrote it somewhere and I missed it)
– I am not keen on text cutting into images…. could they superimpose in some way? I say this, but have no idea how you did what you have already done.
– the ending seemed a bit abrupt – it needs more closing cadence.
Side-Wide Hangout 17th February 2019
Basically is was trashed very politely. It deserved it totally. My peer group saw it for what it was – a text book or a travel book on Chile and having little to do with Instagram or the plight of water in Chile. As always the suggestions were really helpful:
  •  Shorten it
  • Use social media input more
  • The image I had ‘borrowed does not fit in (Too photoshopped)
  • Size of text made it look like a children’s book
  • bring map to page 1
  • Introduce the subject and use subheading to augment the argument
  • Use Coca Cola image as cover
  • Bring in other voices with captions as quotes
  • Bring last page to front


http://online.fliphtml5.com/zsdc/zljq/

  REFLECTION ON THE PROJECT:

This has been an interesting exercise on so many fronts. It has encouraged me to go back and review my travel image archives. I realise I have thousands, some still in their original RAW form. With the distance of time I found that I could look at my archive much more objectively than just after my return from Chile. I realise. looking at images immediately after returning from a trip, that I am influenced more my my immediate memory of what happened in that place and whether it was experienced alone or with others. With the distance of time my view is more objective and less critical.
One regret is that the images I chose for this project had to be tied to the story rather than having been made with this story in mind. Because of this I felt obliged to add text rather than letting the images tell the story as Mustafah Abdulaziz did. I am not sure if this detracted from the project. I also lacked some images I felt the project needed and used an image that I found online on the CT Chile Times site, The photographer very graciously agreed to its use. I am still awaiting permission to purchase and use a Getty image.


REWORKED PROJECT AND MORE REFLECTIONS:

With the input from my collage peer group I have re-worked the project.

Artist Statement

My interest in Chile was sparked by reading Isabel Allende’s books. I wanted to visit the country she had fled after her father was killed. I started this journey in 2013 in Arica in the north of Chile and travelled the 5,000 kilometers south to Punta Arenas taking six weeks for the journey.

I used public transport and most of the images I made were from the inside of moving buses. At the time I was unaware of the water crisis which was arising in Chile. I kept in touch with the information coming from Chile after my return. It was then that I learned that the distribution of water licences are in the gift of the government and hence very politically charged.

Since social media is used to highlight many social injustices in the world today I decided to investigate whether this was the case in Chile. I was not greatly surprised that this is not the case as it was my distinct impression while talking to Chileans, during my visits, that they were still in great fear of the regime.

I have tried to highlight in a small way both the problem and the lack of social media coverage.


http://online.fliphtml5.com/zsdc/bkng/

I wanted to make this work reflect how superficial the images are, that the majority of people, including myself on occasions, post on Instagram. The image of a picture perfect planet, peopled by happy self confident people making  images of themselves, seems to be what is portrayed. Meanwhile we are destroying our world and its resources by greed and over-exploitation. Most of us are not exposing this in our work.
TUTOR FEEDBACK:
On the whole because of the bad connection on Skype the feedback discussion was completely unsatisfactory. I was hoping for some pointers as to how I could improve on the assignment but Andrea suggested I just leave it for a while and maybe come back to it. I may do this or I may present it at the next DI&C hangout and try to get some input. A further email suggested I might eat to rethink the whole project.
SIDE-WIDE HANGOUT 17th March 2019
I presented the revised work to the group to get feedback on whether I really should rework this project or if it could be submitted. The general consensus was that it was a great improvement on the first presentation. A number of comments/suggestions were made:
  • the Instagram screen shot of Petroca with the red circles needs an explanation
  • there needs to be some explanation about the # which exist and those I invented #leaching
  • the messages are a bit muddled
  • needs more consistency

Clive White’s comment is that it was different and therefore had merit. He suggested creating a storyboard of what I want to say.

More research on mining from its origins following email from Marcos Zegers, a Chilean photographer.
  1. 13 BEST SOCIAL PLATFORMS FOR A PHOTOGRAPHER | Photofie Photographer Facebook Flickr Tumblr Pinterest Behance Instagram Freelancer Google+ 500Px Howcast Deviantart Photofie . 2019. 13 BEST SOCIAL PLATFORMS FOR A PHOTOGRAPHER | Photofie Photographer Facebook Flickr Tumblr Pinterest Behance Instagram Freelancer Google+ 500Px Howcast Deviantart Photofie . [ONLINE] Available at: https://photofie.com/blog/13-best-social-platforms-for-a-photographer. [Accessed 29 January 2019].
  2. Water tap Free vector in Adobe Illustrator ai ( .AI ), Encapsulated PostScript eps ( .EPS ) format for free download 944.06KB. 2019. Water tap Free vector in Adobe Illustrator ai ( .AI ), Encapsulated PostScript eps ( .EPS ) format for free download 944.06KB. [ONLINE] Available at: https://all-free-download.com/free-vector/download/water_tap_312721_download.html. [Accessed 30 January 2019].
  3. Water Supply & Sanitation | World Water Council. 2019. Water Supply & Sanitation | World Water Council. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/en/water-supply-sanitation. [Accessed 31 January 2019].
  4. Stuff. 2019. Quick retreat of New Zealand’s glaciers an issue for tourism | Stuff.co.nz. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/82972910/quick-retreat-of-new-zealands-glaciers-an-issue-for-tourism. [Accessed 02 February 2019].
  5. Business 2 Community. 2019. How to Get Into Instagram’s ‘Top Posts’ for a Hashtag. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.business2community.com/instagram/get-instagrams-top-posts-hashtag-01920608. [Accessed 04 February 2019]
  6. Telegraph.co.uk. 2019. Artist sells other people’s Instagram photos for $90,000 each – Telegraph. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11631402/Artist-sells-other-peoples-Instagram-photos-for-90000-each.html. [Accessed 01 February 2019]
  7. Artsy. 2019. Richard Prince Argues Fair Use in Lawsuit Stemming from Instagram Portraits – Artsy News. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.artsy.net/news/artsy-editorial-richard-prince-fighting-appropriation-accusations-leveled-lawsuit-instagram-portraits. [Accessed 01 February 2019
  8. The Art Story. 2019. Sherrie Levine Paintings, Bio, Ideas | TheArtStory. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/artist-levine-sherrie.htm. [Accessed 01 February 2019
  9. Gobe Blog. 2019. Water: The Important Photography Project from Mustafah Abdulaziz. [ONLINE] Available at: https://mygobe.com/explore/water-mustafah-abdulaziz/. [Accessed 13 February 2019].
  10. WWF UK.. 2019. ‘Water Stories’ from the Yangtze – with photographer Mustafah Abdulaziz – WWF UK Blog. [ONLINE] Available at: https://blogs.wwf.org.uk/blog/habitats/rivers-freshwater/water-stories-from-the-yangtze-with-photographer-mustafah-abdulaziz/. [Accessed 13 February 2019].

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