Photo Challenge #3: (re)Creativity

Writing by Jer on Monday, 18 of August , 2008 at 6:11 pm

Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Var Department, Hyères, France (1932)

Photo Challenge #3:

Brief: Recreate the photo above, using whatever techniques necessary. Submit your image by uploading it to to Flickr and tagging it with ‘glocalproject’ and ‘photochallenge’. Need help? Don’t have a Flickr account? E-mail us.

Challenge Ends: Monday August 25th

Throughout the history of photography, artists have used the medium to re-stage scenes from history, to reference famous works of art, and to re-examine moments in time that may not have been originally captured. For this week’s photo challenge, we’re asking you to recreate the (???) above. You can choose to reconstruct the scene as accurately as possible, or you can re-imagine it in any way you see fit. As usual, we’ll select our favourites and send off a Glocal prize pack to each of our winners.

In the 19th century, staging scenes for photography was more of a necessity than an artistic choice. With exposure times of up to 12 seconds, subjects had to pose and remain still for long periods of time. In the 1840s, photographers like David Octavius Hill staged fairly elaborate scenes for their photographs. In 1857 British photographer Oscar Rejlander used composites of several staged images to create his well-known allegorical work, The Two Ways of Life (pre-dating the idea of ‘photoshopping’ by more than 125 years).

David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson Scottish Fishwives, Washaday Group (1843-1848)

Oscar Rejlander, The Two Ways of Life (1857)

More recently, a number of contemporary photographers have used similar techniques. Canadian artist Jeff Wall, in particular, has made extensive use of staged photography in his work. in A Sudden Gust of Wind) after Hokusai, he recreates a classic Japanese woodblock print:

Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind) after Hokusai (1993), and Katsushika Hokusai Ejiri in Suruga Province (1830-33)

Wall’s recreations are meticulous and typically involve an extensive system of casting, set-up, shooting, and digital postproduction, contrasting starkly with our typical understanding of the photographic process. Similarly, Israeli artist Adi Nes’ Last Supper recreates the famous painting in careful detail – using young Israeli soldiers in the place of the apostles:

Photographer Mike Stimpson makes even more drastic substitutions in his recreations – he uses lego to pay homage to some of his favourite photographers:

As you can see, re-creation in photography can take many forms – so it is up to you how to decide how to complete this week’s challenge. Realistic or non-realistic, perfect or imperfect – we are lookig forward to seeing the results!

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Category: Photo Challenge

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