Bring together a series of 12 images (a typology) in which a particular motif appears again and again. For this exercise, you may use found images (images you have at home as part of a family archive, for example) or images found online (from photo-sharing sites such as Flickr, for example). Select an appropriate way to display your series (as an animated slide presentation, in grid form, as single images, etc.) and present them on your learning log.
Look at the work of Corinne Vionnet. In her series Photo Opportunities, Vionnet uses Flickr archives to pull together vast series of images taken from a similar position in popular tourist sites. She then uses digital layering techniques to bring these images together into the one frame. See Link 3
I feel this exercise is all about the image overload which we are all experiencing with social media. I wanted to see what part I was playing in that both consciously and subconsciously. I am not sure my ideas fit the brief exactly but it is how I would like to interpret it,
I love the work of Corinne Vionnet. I am really interested in stacked images. My first reaction was the places chosen were so obvious but then, of course that was the point of the work. I was interested to see how many of the places I had visited and how I had photographed them. We all strive to find the angle, the place, the light, the detail in these ‘must see’ places. Alas there is nothing new or original under the sun…..
I decided to see the result if I superimposed my images of these most photographed places on an image stack either of Vionnet’s work if available , or creating a stack of Instagram or Flickr images of other tourist places I had visited and superimposing mine. Many of the images are of very low resolution and all required resizing. I was limited in the final stack by my own image which did not always superimpose well. To overcome this I used different stacking modes. The work is meant to be fun and slightly cynical of tourist images.
Although it does not fit the brief exactly the recurring theme is “We tourists keep photographing the same sites”……
1.Taj Mahal
There are 1 million images under #tajmahal on Instagram. This has to be a good reason not to go there to visit. But on a visit to Hyderabad, India in 2012, to see my brothers project with the children of prisoners, we decided to go north and see Rajasthan. We had spent a week with the children and were so privileged to be part of the everyday life of these children. We were not wanting to be involved with tourists or to visit places like the Taj Mahal. Nevertheless we were advised by a young Indian man that we really should go and see the Taj. On our way back to the airport in Delhi we decided to stopover in Agra. We queued with the masses at 6a.m. and as we got to the entrance the security man did not like my rice filled bean bag in my camera bag. This was removed and we were allowed to enter with our guide. I was feeling less than well disposed towards the Taj Mahal by the time we were allowed in. We came to the arch which forms the entrance. We were both completely overcome with emotion at the magnificence of this building. I raised my camera to my eye and framed the image you see below. I like how it stacked with Vionnet’s stack showing the people in the front.
2. Eifel Tower
There are 5.2 million images under #eiffeltower on Instagram. My husband worked in Paris for a couple of years. Although we lived in the south I got to visit Paris very often. Like any place one lives or with which one is very familiar one tends not to make images of that place. That said I do have a number of images of the Eiffel tower, mostly made when I rented an apartment in Paris for a week just to photograph the city. I used maximum stack mode so that the buildings would be evident in the combined stack with Vionnets.
3. Mount Fuji
There are 327 thousand images under #mountfuji on Instagram. We visited Japan in 2016 but as is our way of travelling we did not especially want to visit Mount Fuji. We did travel from Tokyo to Kyoto in the Bullit train so I caught a VERY fleeting glimpse of the majestic mountain from the high speed train. Not a very majestic image but the one that says “I was there”!! Well that I flew past….
4. Palace in Paris Disneyland
There are 18.3 thousand images under #parisdisney. We went there with our son and daughter and grandchildren in 2011. I had avoided taking my children to any Disneyland when they were growing up. Obviously both felt totally deprived and they got together to take their children there. They invited us to come along as they obviously felt we needed educating in how to bring up children….
5. Tokyo Shamble crossing
There are only 330 posts under #tokyoscramble but there are 40 million posts under #tokyo.
6. Trinity College Library, Dublin
There are only 333 images under #trinitycollegelibrarydublin. This is probably because it is forbidden to use a camera inside the library. Of course this does not stop anarchic people from snapping surreptitiously. I used “Variance for the stack mode in the final images as I though it brought out the colours better.
7. Torres del Paine, Chile
There are 401 thousand images under #torresdelpaine on Instagram. We have visited Chile twice. On the first visit in 2014 we walked the W in the Torres del Paine. On the day we struggled up the four hour climb the weather turned really nasty and a deep fog came down. We could not see a thing. The next morning we walked out of the park and as I looked back the three peaks of the Torres looked incredible so I took the image below. I liked the way the person in red in the Instagram stacked image which I made is still evident in the stack of this image with my own image. The lake under the Torres is evident in the stack of five but blends in with the hill in my image.
8. The Leaning Tower of Pisa
There are 205 thousand posts on the leaning Tower of Pisa on Instagram.
My brother-in-law lived in italy for many years and he took us around the “must see” sights in 2004 so of course we visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa. So like all the other tourists I took ‘the picture’. In an attempt to make something different of the final stack I used the ‘range’ as stack mode. Kitch but I like it!
9. Mont Blanc
There are 1.8 million images of Mont Blanc on Instagram.
We were lucky enough to have friends who had a house just facing Mont Blanc and we spent a couple of wonderful holidays with them there before they both sadly passed away. The house had been in M.Vidal’s family since it had been built sometime in the late nineteenth century. He remembered, as a child, the chauffeur driving him with his family for holidays. The chauffeur then donned white cotton gloves to serve the supper!! And M. Vidal became a socialist!!!
To make my image I just had to go out on the balcony of the house.
10. Colosseum, Rome
There are 1,388,542 images of the Colosseum in Rome on Instagram. I thought I would be precise about this number.
We go to Rome every second year for the Rugby match between Ireland and Italy. This is more an opportunity to meet up with friends who now live all over Europe than it is to see spectacular rugby. Well I have to admit I never go to the matches – how could I miss the opportunity to wander around Rome with my camera. I was a little surprised to find that I did in fact take a picture of the Colosseum. Most of my other images are of discarded trainers, rubbish bins and other more interesting finds on the back streets of Rome.
This has been a most amusing exercise for many reasons. Firstly I was totally flabbergasted by the millions of images, of most of the above famous places to visit in the world, on Instagram. I was then amazed at the really bad quality of almost all of these images. And finally I was devastated to find I had fallen into the exact same trap as all of these snappers – I just had to take that photo of that famous place – why?
MY FINAL GRID
I only included 9 images. Unfortunately they are not absolutely square because when they were stacked I had to crop some of them and a square crop would not always include what I wanted in the final stack. If I were doing this professionally I would search images on Instagram which matched mine as closely as possible. For this exercise I decided to expand my stacking technique rather than use the time to find exactly the right dimension images on Instagram.
Digital Image & Culture 