EXPERIMENT - everyday photography
Fig 1. Halsall 2024, Fuck Mother Fucker
I wanted to photograph this Graffiti by ignoring it. I want to capture the flat, bright colours, the summer, I wanted the words to create conflict for the observer. Mostly though I want the spectator to wonder why the author of these words chose this location.
For myself, these images, represent those random outbursts of chaos, society expects from adolescence, like a psychological signature on a place, it's jarring and yet not completely out of place. It seems rather humorous. There is something very British about the iamge, with the flat garage roof and feather board fence. I am left wondering what the image is about. I think it depends what day you ask me.
Reflecting on the 'everyday' aspect of photography I watched The Colour Mr Eggleston (Holzemer 2009)
When asked about his subject matter, Eggleston's response "life today".
Martin Parr elaborates on this approach,
"He takes very ordinary situations and can create very powerful pictures out of almost nothing, and therefore he’s not relying particularly on the ultimate decorative thing like the nice sunset, or the incredible nostalgia which often you’ll see in contemporary practice. So I’d say he’s beyond that, he’s almost photographing on the gap between everything else" (cited in Holzemer, 2009)
There is an equality to the subjects he finds, Eggleston describes this as "photographing democratically". (cited in Holzemer, 2009). His street images demonstrate "inherent geometry" (Holborn, cited in Holzemer 2009). His images make use of all the space contained within the frame.
REFERENCE
HOLZEMER, R. 2009. The Colourful Mr Eggleston. Imagine [Film]. 2009. Reiner Holzemer/BBC production for BBC1.
FIGURES
Fig 1. HALSALL, Penny. 2024 Fuck Mother Fucker