Research: David Campany

As we are slowly getting closer to Spring break it is time to seriously think about my project and undertake some research.

At this stage, I still don't really have a clue what I want to do my project about. I have a million ideas going from homosexuality and race, society's view of beauty, the 100 different faces of one person to 'the hidden everyday' or different perspectives.

So basically, there is a pretty big mess in my head right now, because I've got all of these ideas but can't really decide for one.

However, as I was looking through the additional reading on study direct, I found David Campany's article 'Almost the Same Thing: Some Thoughts on the Photographer as Collector'.

I feel like this reading is particularly interesting for me, because I was thinking about working with 'The Everyday' for my project, and that's one of the main topics that Campany also focuses on in his text.

To begin with, Campany analyses photographic modernism and pays special attention to the connection between book and photography. This then leads to what he calls 'straight photography'. The author argues that 'the straight photograph is often thought of as uncomposed and artless, a ''degree zero'' of composition, which in some senses it is.' Thus, the straight image doesn't help reading the picture. But Campany also says that this fact that the straight photograph 'refuses to lead the eye', makes it 'resistant' and 'demanding' and thus even more interesting to look at.

Campany writes that 'our gaze is restless, and we don't know quite what to do'. And this is what makes the straight images so special in its simplicity. Looking at a photograph we look out for composition, form and order, but what if we can't find anything alike? If we're left with an ordinary portrait or a straight image of a trivial object it confuses us and at the same time makes us think about it and about the world around us, because it is not at all what we expected from photography.

The author then goes on and explains how these straight photographs are given meaning through 'the structure and orchestration of the group.' I feel like this is a particularly interesting theory, because our final photography project needs to include a group of 6-8 images and thus it would be interesting to explore in the project how the group gives every picture a special meaning.

Additionally, David Campany refers to Robert Frank and his snapshots of everyday situations.

Snapshots are particularly interesting because although they only caption a single instant, when looking at the picture it still feels like there is movement and excitement in it.

'The moment of exposure is privileged as an ecstatic or traumatic guarantee the 'nowness' of the everyday and its photographic observation.' The vocabulary that Campany uses to describe this phenomenon of the snapshot is very interesting, especially the term 'nowness' seems to have a very strong impact, because it describes what the snapshot literally is: that which is happening NOW at the moment of taking the picture, no posing, no being aware of the camera, just the now and here.

For me, especially this last idea of the snapshot is very interesting, because it again gives me new ideas and a whole new way of looking at things.

I was thinking about doing my project maybe about everyday objects that we use or see every day but never really become aware of them. To show the importance and the dominant role that these objects have in our life, I wanted to work with a low depth of field and thus show the objects in much more detail and give the viewer the possibility to look at the given object differently.

But as I have now read David Campany's article, I think that working with snapshots of everyday scenes and actions could also be an interesting idea.

Reading: 
Almost the Same Thing: Thoughts on the Photographer as collector', David Campany