The Archive/Data Base Assignment

November 9, 2008

It’s done – I have finished the 100 Images photo album complete with acidic and hopefully funny comments.  I realize that archiving these images into an album has been a logical step for me.  I have many personal photo albums which span a period of many years.  This is one of the regrets I have about digital photography – no more photo albums.  Everything is kept in digital files – the opportunity to have prints made and then placed into an album does not present itself in the same way as it did when I photographed everything with film.

Next step – the presentation and then the summary.

I actually enjoyed doing this project – it was fun!

November 6, 2008

Finally I have all the prints placed the way I want them in the photo album.  Next step is to glue them in and write comments under some of them.  Tomorrow I will buy a glue stick and a silver or gold inked pen.  Once that is done I will be able to continue with the reading of the book and  draft my summary.  I’m looking forward to writing sarcastic comments and I think this will require a glass or two of wine to help me.  I didn’t really assume any particular character as I had planned to do – I decided to just be me, doing what I have done in the past when archiving photographs into a photo album.  Especially when the photos are from an event that really invites commentary.  (that’s why I need the wine)

November 4, 2008

All the photos have been trimmed and put into categories.  Today I bought a photo album and all that needs to be done is to figure who I am when I put  the album together.  The reason why I have to assume a new identity is because I want the album to appear authentic and there is no way that I, Gail Hammer, would ever have a collection of photos such as these.  It will be a bit of a challenge but one that I am actually looking forward to because I think it will be fun…I intend to write remarks under some of the photos and that will be another area where I will be using my imagination.

November 1, 2008

I have finished printing all the images from the 100 Images assignment, and am now in the process of trimming all of them with an exacto knife.  I purposely did not have every photograph the same size as I want the album to look authentic.  As the creator I want to become somebody else and put together the album as if I had lived this person’s life.  I do not know who I will become and I have to give this some thought.  Not only will I assume a new identity but also a whole new lifestye in order to put together this album. 

“The storytelling nature of an album constitutes lived experience (real and imagined) that neither erases nor cancels sites of longing, but continuously revisits them in a moving present.  This actualization ofthe past – its blending in the present – is illuminated by an album-collection that is the very picture of longing.” Langford, Martha 61)

October 28, 2008

So far I have reading my book and loving it.  So much information about photo albums..the history, the philosophical & psychological raison d’etres of collecting…so much more meaning than I would have thought.

Some interesting excerpts from the book:

“From its beginnings the snapshot has had two basic characteristics:  a constant focus on family life and an informal, casual style that was consistent with the new freedom within the family and derived from the mobility of the hand-held camera.” (Steven Halpern)

“Family photographs..contribute to some extent to the stability of family narrative traditions.  But because they record events of symbolic importance and have a great deal of ambiguity they allow constant reinterpretation to fit changing circumstances, which may contribute to their survival as a tradition and an institution.” (Pauline Greenhill)

“In the early 1970s Christian Boltanski’s album-type installations, such as Album de photos de la famille D., 1939-1964 (1971), were fictional biographical reconstructions based on the artist’s hypotheses and deductions from the images…….Boltanski has uncovered a system of lies (cultural codes) which is the basis of all family albums.  In other words, the fictional album that Boltanski has created as a work of art invites us into the universe of lies that the Nazi regime created, and it starkly illuminates (as by one of Boltanski’s famous bare light bulbs) the conditions under which all albums are created, not necessarily evil, but at considerable distance from the truth.”

I intend to create an album from the 100 images which will be a fictionalized account of somebody’s life.  I haven’t decided whose life it will be, but I want it to be a quirky, satirical piece.  I have been making prints and so far am up to 25….75 more to go…although I probably won’t print everything for the album. On the other hand if I do put all 100 images into the album people viewing it will probably experience painful boredom and this album will indeed prove itself to be “art”.  (“why is this art?  Because I said so”….quotation from the infamous G. Hammer.)

As Robert Frank said….”photographs leave too much open to bullshit.”

October 19, 2008

Yay!!  The book arrived from Amazon.  I’m going to begin reading it right away because I want to establish my methods of creating the 100 Images Project photo album.  Although I have only read about 20 pages from the book (when I borrowed it from the library) and I have scanned the rest of the book, my impression is that it is a wealth of information and insight.  It is probably the definitive book on the subject of photo albums and it’s history.

Yesterday I began to print photos from the 100 Images DVD….well actually I only printed one but I’m on the way.  I doubt that I will print all 100 images.  For the sake of clarity and not having viewers go through the possible horrors of looking at somebody else’s vacation pics or the like, I will trim it down and create an impression of a family photo album.

October 15, 2008

I’m still waiting for the book to arrive from Amazon.  I now think of it as my bible on the subject of photo albums and don’t want to do any real thinking about the subject until the book is in my hands.  Although I suppose that might be the easy way out.  In the meantime I am going to start making prints from the 100 Images dvd on my handy Epson printer.  I will print different sizes because I want it to appear as if it is a “real” family album and photographs have been placed on the pages in a random manner.

October 10, 2008

The book (Suspended Conversations) is turning out to be very interesting.  Unfortunately I had to return it  to the library because there was a hold on it.  I immediately put my own hold on it, and I’m hoping to receive the copy I ordered from Amazon soon although it appears as if I won’t be getting it until the end of October.  Langford talked about the McCord Museum in Montreal where there are quite a few old family photo albums in a special display.  I have friends and relatives in Montreal and I am seriously considering going beginning of November just to be able to see these albums.  I myself have quite a few albums at home that I put together as a teenager (these might be considered old enough for the McCord Museum exhibit!). 

Although I have learned to love digital for a variety of reasons, I very much miss the act of putting photos into an album.  One of the things that Langford discussed was how people would decide on placement…in many cases it was completely random.

My late step-father left a few photo albums from his younger days back in the 20’s and 30’s and after my mother died, I thought it would be best to give these albums back to his side of the family.  Although I had no connection to 99% of the people pictured in the albums, I found them beautiful and very nostalgic and I would  loved to have kept them.  I’m not sure why photo albums have such a hold on me…

October 5, 2008

I had a conversation with Vid last week and he approved of my idea to study the idea of the family photo album as an archive.  He recommended a book called Suspended Conversations (the Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums) by Martha Langford which I picked up at the library.  I have scanned it quickly and it looks so interesting that I have ordered it from Amazon.

September 29, 2008

After reading Joan Schwartz’s article “Records of Simple Truth and Precision:  etc. I felt inspired and thought how great the 100 images would be if they were viewed with a  stereoscope. I did some research and found a few sites on the internet on how I could actually make my own stereoscope.  I  realized at that point that there was no way that was going to happen in spite of the promises in the article about how easy it would be to do.  No way would it be easy for me in a million life times.  On the advice of a friend/mentor/former Ryerson prof I called a store that is probably a dream haven for those with scientific brains and lo and behold they did carry stereoscopes!  Fortunately, they did not have it in stock because shortly after my friend/mentor/former prof told me, when he realized that I wanted to  make stereo images from my computer, that I clearly had NO idea whatsoever how it actually worked.  At that point I realized what the right eye/left eye/cross eye references in the articles meant.  To me it  meant that I wouldn’t be able to do it.  But it wasn’t long before I began to think that I should follow my instincts and archive the 100 images in my own way.  A photo album – that’s how I have archived all of my “snapshots” down through the years.  That said, I will begin by categorizing all the images and putting them into a logical order.  I will treat these images as vacation snapshots complete with little notes, dates, and smiley faces.  My archive will make  fun of the archive, especially the ultimate archive – the vacation pics.

September 27, 2008

First things first….I will take a longer more serious look at the DVD that Vid handed out to the class.  I can see by reading the syllabus that the first problem to tackle will be figuring out the fine line between archive and data base.  Am I on the right track by thinking that  a box labelled Photography is the data base and a bunch of categorized photos, snapshots, negatives, etc.  are the archives? 

I have spent the last hour (at least) looking at the images on the DVD and writing a brief description of each image.  I then made a copy of the DVD onto my hard drive and I hope when the time comes I will know what to do with it! 

In the meantime I noticed lots of photographs of professional skaters and photographs taken in museums with hints of security guards in the picture.  Hmmm,  I say to myself, does this mean anything?

 The next step is to wonder and dream and invoke Dorothy Parker’s famous quote -”what fresh hell is this?”.