. . . → Read More: #Phonar13 COMING SOON

Phonar ended 2012 like a supertanker trying to stop at traffic lights.  Messily and with significant momentum. So much momentum in fact that the same students who you’ve seen submit to the will-of-open in both phonar2012 and picbod have demanded that their next class be open too. But better;  designed by them, for them and supported by those people formally referred to as ‘teachers’.

So what does this mean? It means that most of the projects you’ve seen grow in #phonar2012 will evolve (in some cases mutate)  into Final Major Projects in 2013. These are the final major investments of our students and what they come out with will constitute their exit portfolios, as well as a significant chunk of their final degree “grade” ( incidentally thank you very much for contributing in every way to phonar2012 – the result of all our input and hard work were the highest marks awarded in the history of the course #FTW ).

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Phonar for Us By Us (#Phubu) will run in Google communities and has been designed by the students. The program is structured to be a live and open workshop which everyone can take part in. They’ve ditched one . . . → Read More: Back to the #Phubu – the future of Phonar.

After near revolution in the #phonar class this week we’ve redesigned the schedule.  A fire alarm being sprung in the building meant our brilliant guest speaker (Jon Levy aka FOTO8) was cut off and also led to us not being able to get back in to #phonar HQ in time to regroup.  AND SO… due to ominous class pressure and the pursuasive effects of an outstanding break for cake aka #phonarFood  care of Helen Kuchta – Matt and I have decided to give everyone an extra week to complete the class.

This means that next week will be a taster of the final presentations – it means everyone will “pitch” their project for their appropriate platform/outlet/publication and we’ll (all of us) will chip in support and feedback. Final screening will be December 12th.

If you have a project that you’d like us to feature then please prepare a pitch for next week and we’ll feature it.

#TopTip Think movie-trailer rather than treatise. Keep it snappy –  teach us something, draw us in, surprise us with tension but don’t resolve it. Remember you need us to . . . → Read More: The fabulous #phonar pitch – you have one week….

Thanks to Spencer Murphy, Lecturer in Media and Communication at Coventry University for a brilliant talk this morning concerning the four looks of photography/film and the male gaze. To see the short extract from 'Carrie' featured in this talk please see the video embeded below the lecture when prompted (NSFW).

. . . → Read More: Spencer Murphy “The willing suspension of critical engagement: the four looks of photography”

Hopefully some of the themes in Pete’s article will sound familiar to us over here on #phonar – if we’d had this back at the start of term I’d of played it straight after the first lecture. This is one not to be missed and brought to you by the Director of VII Agency no less

Photographs Are No Longer Things, They’re Experiences

[Stephen Mayes]  argues that the rise of digital changed the very nature of photography by moving it from a fixed image to a fluid one. The swift pace at which we create images is only matched by the pace at which we discard them and yet, paradoxically, we’ve never been more engaged with images. Photography is less about document or evidence and more about community and experience … and that’s not a bad thing.

“The way we relate to imagery is changing,” says Mayes, who thinks the pace of change is astonishing. Fortune magazine reported in September 2012 that “10% of all photos ever taken were shot in 2011.” That same month, Mark Zuckerberg said Instagram, just shy of two-years in existence, passed the 100 million users. Instagram users, who are signing up a rate of one per second, have taken over one . . . → Read More: Phonar collaborators Pete Brook and Stephen Mayes in conversation for Wired.

 

This week we caught up with the writer and #phonar collaborator Pete Brook .  He shares what he learned when he took his blog “Prison Photography” on the road and  introduces us to Michelle Vignes, the French photographer who was the very first staff member of Magnum.

 

Prison Photography Cruel and Unusual exhibition: http://www.noorderlicht.com/nl/fotogalerie/cruel-and-unusual/ Why we made a newspaper and not a traditional exhibition catalogue: http://prisonphotography.org/2012/02/13/why-we-made-a-newspaper-instead-of-a-traditional-exhibition-catalogue/ Buy the newspaper: http://www.noorderlicht.com/en/shop/books/cruel-and-unusual/ My reflections on my first experience curating and why Noorderlicht has all the right ingredients for a world class gallery: http://prisonphotography.org/2012/04/05/some-thoughts-on-and-thanks-to-noorderlicht-photo-gallery/ And why, when Noorderlicht was threatened with cuts from the Dutch government, it was a hard fought battle: http://prisonphotography.org/2012/06/02/strong-words-in-the-noorderlicht-funding-cut-debate/ Michelle Vignes Good biography: http://galeriadelaraza.org/eng/exhibits2/archive/artists.php?op=view&id=638&media=info&name=v Good gallery of selected works: http://www.smithandersennorth.com/artists/vignes/index.html Vignes’ photographs of the Summer Of Love: http://www.summeroflove.org/vignes.html Gallery and words by Michelle about covering the Indian Occupation of Alcatraz: http://60sfurther.com/Guest-Michelle-2.htm An American Vision / French photographer Michelle Vignes shoots from the inside http://www.sfgate.com/magazine/article/An-American-Vision-French-photographer-Michelle-2491973.php#ixzz2B5uJXL25 ‘Bay Area Blues’ book: http://www.amazon.com/Bay-Area-Blues-Lee-Hildebrand/dp/1566405955 “Magnum Salad” http://prisonphotography.org/2011/03/21/magnum-salad/ Late into her life, Vignes collaborated with social activist artists. In 2011, with RIGO23: http://prisonphotography.org/2011/03/20/rigo-23-the-black-panther-party-in-portugal-and-leonard-peltier-in-syracuse/ A tribute to Michelle by friend Melanie Light: http://lejournaldelaphotographie.com/entries/8819/death-of-michelle-vignes Vignes realizes there is still great documentary work being done, but is unsure about where it is all going. ”They seem to work on the web,” said Vignes. “To me it is just like spitting in the wind.” http://www.sportsshooter.com/news_story.html?id=1857 University of California Berkeley Bancroft Library adds photo archives of . . . → Read More: In conversation with the writer Pete Brook of Prison Photography and WIRED.

 

Here’s a little more Ira Glass magic whilst we think about storytelling.  Remember, the challenge is to think how we can “story-tell”  like this with our pictures – not tell stories and plus our pictures.  So when he uses a pause, a hook, or describes an ” at this point, no one turns off the radio ” moment – we need to turn that back to our practice – do you have a “no one closes the book at this point” moment in your work?

If you have time then this is well worth the 30 mins, if you don’t then I recommend 10:00 . . . → Read More: Story telling tips: do you have a “no one turns off at this point” moment in your work?

This was a very full session that kicked off with Professor David Campbell’s lecture on Narrative, Power and Responsibility. Please build on the notes by tweeting your thoughts and reactions using the hashtag #phonar

Then we shared our stories, stories that we’d not shared before.

We did this to position ourselves as the subject. To make ourselves vulnerable in other words and pledge our commitment to becoming better storytellers.

This is Alex’s story.

 

Here’s Sean’s :

 

and . . . → Read More: Storytelling – narrative, power and responsibility.

Our session this week, unusually takes place largely offline. We will be sharing stories in the class and no one will be obliged to put them online. The purpose of this is to consider vulnerability of the subject and put ourselves in that spot for a moment. Some of us will post our stories  and we’ll feed back on everyone who does (have you fed back on another student’s work yet? If not then do it right now).

For now though, here is a story by Graham Macindoe, it was the first time he told this story during #picbod2012 – we’ll be catching up with Graham over the next couple of weeks so there’ll be a chance to talk to him as well.

This movie contains graphic imagery that some will find upsetting.

 

Photographer Graham Macindoe in conversation with Jonathan Worth. from Jonathan Worth . . . → Read More: Graham Macindoe

This week we introduced a whole new section and #phonar photo-experience to the class. It started as a simple cake-rota (surely every ungraduate class has one?) and the rest will go down in the annals as a turning point in multimedia story-telling - possibly even another paradigm shift (Jack, Sean, Mariya - what is a paradigm shift and what was photography's first?  Answer in comments please with links), enter the age of the Trans-sensory story-teller ®© : the photographer able to speak the beautiful  language of cake.

. . . → Read More: #PhonarFood – Edible Photography (it’s going to change the world).

This week's lecture is the foundation for the #phonar class and details its background. It's the third time attending students have been asked the questions "What is a photograph?" and "What is a photographer?". The first year was inside a general introduction to photography, the second was in #picbod (Picturing the body) where we considered the "generative experience" offered by the photograph as artefact, this third time posits the photographer as "publisher" and we begin to sketch out a bigger picture for the digital-image.

. . . → Read More: #Phonar week 2 : The 2000 year old trans-media story