I have been considering why I have been so attracted to blurring people in my images during this module. My intent has been to use people as archetype or examples of people in London, rather than focusing on them as unique individuals. By blurring the people I have been removing the sharpness of their individuality and turning them into a ‘type’ instead.
To aid my understanding of the effects blurred images can have on a viewer and how they interact and perceive an image I have been researching various uses of it. At Paris Photo I found a good amount of successful images with blurred people in them, and felt there was certainly a contextual canon within which my work could fit.
In his book Failed Images, Ernst van Alphen discusses various issues that could be thought of as errors in photography (such as stages images, over- and under-exposed images, and blurred images) and how these ‘errors’ are part of an attempt to translate reality into photography, rather than problems. He makes a number of key points which are directly related to my current series and which have helped me to further identify and vocalise the intent behind my work both in terms of its themes and the way it is made.
Van Alphen suggests that blur is initially thought of as relating to the image and the technical manipulation of it. He suggests that, “The blur indicates a condition of the image, not of the referent. Even if the blur is the result of motion… the blur implies the failure of the image to capture that movement.” (Van Alphen 2018, p.119-120) This idea that blur is a failure is something I initially have had to contend with in my own mind, and with external people. In preparation for a face-to-face portfolio review I recently sent some images to be printed quite simply at a neighbourhood photography shop only to be called and asked if they were meant to be blurry. The printer’s first thought was that there had been some technological error, rather than that the blur was intentional. I reassured him, but he sounded incredibly unconvinced. Blur can imply failure, so it is important for this work that a) the artists intent is made clear and b) the images combine to form a series in which the blur is not only understandable but integral to the work.
After suggesting that in technical terms blur implies failure, Van Alphen then goes on to examine the numerous ways that blur, rather than being a failure, adds a number of alternative or additional dimensions and elements to images. He suggests that blur allows us to tap into different dimensions, saying, “It [the blur] also visualizes dimensions, especially temporal ones, that are supposed to be invisible.” (ibid. p.120) This is one of the first things that attracted me to using blur within my work, the ability to infer time passing. My initial work that included blur was designed to really show a period of time while the camera was taking the image, as can be seen in my discussion of my long exposure work here. The current series attempts to embrace this temporal dimensionality and explore it further, using blur to explore time over longer periods and a sense of people and time rather than a specific 30 second period.
Van Alphen refers a lot to Thierry de Duve’s consideration of time, which I also read. De Duve suggests that blurring is a form of mirroring or echoing painting techniques, that “Whenever photography makes use of blurring or related softening techniques, it endeavours to regain some of the features through which painting traditionally enacts time… it loosens the fabric of time.” (De Duve 1978, p.121) Though I have not been consciously echoing painting techniques during this module, I have done so in previous modules (as can be seen in my Current Practice Presentation in module 1). In this module I have certainly been using techniques of blur to, as de Duve puts it, loosen the fabric of time. This has allowed me to explore the idea of representing 30 years of experiencing city living within a series.
In his discussion of blur and portraiture, van Alphen focusses on Julia Margaret Cameron’s work in the mid-19th century.
Iago, Study from an Italian, 1867 
J.F.W. Herschel, 1867
He uses these examples of portraiture and references de Duve’s suggestion regarding time, “… The soft focus freezes, to use De Duve’s words once more, ‘the past tense of the photograph in a sort of infinitive.’ The young phase of life and the old phase of life are not presented as ‘moments’ in a lifetime, but as the embodiment of the duration of time condensing the whole lifetime of these two figures each in one single image.” (Van Alphen 2018, p.125) I find this idea of representing a sort of infinitive extremely interesting.
As an English language teacher in a previous life, I spent a good deal of time with learners examining how we talk about the past, present and future, both individually and in relation to one another. The various infinitives always caused the most bother, partly because their uses can be hard to define. They are not as easy a tense to use as simple tenses, and learner tend to either not use these tenses much or use them so much that their language sounds unnatural. But the infinitive is such a perfect way of describing certain ideas, including this idea of a portrait representing the span of a life rather than a single moment in it.
Infinitive time has been a key element of my work during this module. I have been striving to photograph Londoners in a way that is representative of my experience of them over my lifetime. I have aimed to photograph a sense of different types of people, or archetypes if you will. The suggestion that blur can aid in calling forth a lifetime rather than a single moment is one I have been exploring throughout the past ten weeks. I feel I am closer to this idea with the individual blurred portraits I have been making more than anything, so that is what I have continued to work on this week.
A final point from this work that resonates deeply with my current work is Henry Bergson’s idea that photographs are never only of the past in the image but are intertwined with our own memories. “In the act of looking the viewer entangles the visual, spatial dimensions of the image with his or her memories.” (ibid., p.142) Though de Duve was discussing architectural imagery, his ideas can be applied to my portrait/street work. The intent with these archetypes is that when a viewer looks at them they are reminded of people they know or have seen and that they begin to imprint their own memories and ideas onto the images. I do not intend the images to say specific things about the subjects. Rather they prompt memory and imagination in the viewer.
References:
– ALPHEN, ERNST VAN. 2018. Failed images. Amsterdam: Valiz.
– CAMERON, JULIA MARGARET. 1867. Iago – Study From an Italian, 1867 [image]. Available at: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/julia-margaret-camerons-iago-30th-birthday-countdown/ [accessed 26 November 2018].
– CAMERON, JULIA MARGARET. 1867. J.F.W. Herschel, 1867 [image]. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/L.1997.84.6/ [accessed 26 November 2018].
– DE DUVE, THIERRY. 1978. “Time Exposure and Snapshot: The Photograph as Paradox”. In October, 5, 113.
Jo Salomon CRJ 