Introduction for portfolio

To propose this portfolio, I have stated its theme as ‘Anarchy and Harmony in the Brighton’. As a background, this writing will introduce an overview for notion of Punk in UK. Firstly, punk as subculture in UK has started in mid 70’s as a new style of protest by Malcolm McLaren, an English impresario, artist, and boutique owner. In order to embody the new style of protest, McLaren has blended his influence from stance of the Situationism, an notion aims social rebel against consumer society with fashions and the music by Sex Pistols, the band organised and managed by him. As a result of the concept and its style, and provocative direction he has suggested, punk culture became an influential movement among the youth and played a role as a breakthrough for their bottled up emotion against reality. However, through the transition of genre as counterculture, punk as a movement has literally declined and its updates has stopped. Thus, the punk movement can be seen it is returned to underground culture supported by minority fans who remains to regard punk as their lifestyle. Not surprisingly, those punks were regarded as minority or deviant from society and often oppressed at that era, and its still remains the same. Based on the background above, I have decided to photograph the ‘holdovers’ from the punk movement and also the younger generation of punks. To propose the series of photographs, I have chosen street photograph without permissions as a way of shooting method because simply I wanted to shoot natural expressions and attitudes without intentions of those people. On the street, I have chosen the people wearing clothes in punk way as subjects. The criteria for defining whether he/her is punk or not was difficult to state because the fact that punk is a state of mind makes it vague so I have shoot the people especially fitted in iconic punk fashion, such as punk band’s t-shirt, leather outfit with studs, and hair-style such as mohawk. At the beginning of taking those punks on the street, I was expected that the punks as deviant and outsider from our society with literally ‘punk’ attitude. However, through the several street photo session, I have noticed that most of those punks were hanging out with partner, pals, and dogs peacefully but with punks-like attitude. At that stage, I have stated the portfolio’s theme as ‘Anarchy and Harmony in the Brighton’ because I was fascinated by the antithetical concept between their anarchistic attitude and personality of harmony with others, as well as normal people. Considering the background of theme and its process above, I believe I can say that my portfolio succeeded to capture the conflict between punks’ anarchistic attitude from their outfits and styles and their actual feeling of being connected to their partners and society at certain extent.

Photoshop Collection

At this stage, I have chosen 6 pictures from my archive of street photo-session so far. To propose these images as portfolio and to arrange them as a series of images that shares one theme, I did crop of the image, adjustment of colour and light, and revision for blur partly. These 6 images are original taken by D7000 and the series of images at beneath is the result after the photoshop collection.

Before

After

Street Photograph #5

Street Photograph #4

Street Photograph #3

Adobe Photoshop Experiment

Shutter speed - no under 1/250
Small aperture - F31 small F5 big
Low ISO
A auto
S shutter
Raw image

Street Photograph #2

Photographer Research: Glen E Friedman

Glen E. Friedman is am American photographer who has involved in early US hardcore scene and has photographed the bands Black Flag, Minor Threat, Germs, Circle Jerks, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, also photographed old-school hip-hop artists Run-D.M.C, Beastie Boys, KRS-One. His carrier started from skateboarding kid, and as a writer at a DIY zine for skateboarder. He is an independent photographer who does not contract with particular company and only receive an order from agents directly. His attitude can be described as a response for the street youth-culture such as skateboarding, hardcore, hip-hop. Especially, hardcore scene in the US at that time was aiming to counter the Reagan Era, mainstream culture and its capitalist process so it can be seen Friedman's art were recording the atmosphere of youth closely.

Research: Situationism

Situationism
Key Dates: 1957-1972

Situationism is a notion advocated by Guy Debord (1931-1994), which aimed it concept as throughgoing criticism on modern consumer society (The Society of The Spectacle) which impeding the people and changing their attitude passive.

"They originated in a small band of avante-garde artists and intellectuals influenced by Dada, Surrealism and Lettrism. The post-war Lettrist International, which sought to fuse poetry and music and transform the urban landscape, was a direct forerunner of the group who founded the magazine ‘Situationiste Internationale’ in 1957. At first, they were principally concerned with the “suppression of art”, that is to say, they wished like the Dadaists and the Surrealists before them to supersede the categorization of art and culture as separate activities and to transform them into part of everyday life."
(http://www.artmovements.co.uk/situationism.htm)

Situationism's influence on punk culture in mid 70's is undeniable at its principals, which is enlightening people to rupture the desire constructed by fake reality (Spectacle) suggested by consumer society, and to discover their own desire. Debord insisted that "Situationism should make individuals critically analyze every day lives in order to pursue their genuine desires". Referring to this statement, Malcom McLaren, the pioneer of first wave of punk in the UK who managed Sex Pistols claimed that "you should be an insult to your useless generation" as hiring the Debord's idea of Situationism.

Photographer/Artist Research: UK punk

Dennis Morris

Dennis Morris (1960-) is a Jamaica-born British photographer known for portraits of Bob Marley and photographs of Sex Pistols to Public Image Ltd.

Jamie Ried

Jamie Reid (1947-) is a British anarchist and artist best known for the artworks featuring letters cut from newspaper headlines in the style of a ransom note. His style was exploited as Sex Pistol's band images to build up their image strategy and featured in their first album, "Nevermind the Bollocks".

Gavin Watson

Gavin Watson is a British photographer pictured Skins, one of the punk subculture among the working class youths in London. The origin of Skins is earlier than the punk movement in 1977 but Skins culture were absorbed by 2tones or Oi culture after the first wave of the punk.