Exhibition Research: Liverpool Biennal

The exhibition that the group went to is the Liverpool Biennal in the Open Eye gallery. There were two photography works featured at the time of visit, the first one was a photo gallery based on Nigerian monarchs from the photographer George Osodi and a film and photo based exhibition featuring the change of Pakistan language from Urdu to English by Madiha Aijaz.

George Osadi

The way George Osodi’s work was showcased in two big rooms with a TV that played the documentary based on the work placed in the middle of the two rooms. The photos were displayed in large gold frames and were all placed on the walls that surrounded the room. The way this was shown allowed each of the monarch photos to stand out in their own way allowing onlookers to look closer at the details of each Monarch’s picture to differ them from the rest allowing the character and expression of the Monarch to be the main draw of the photos. The way the images are placed allow the cultural and ethnic diversity of the different Nigerian Monarchs to be the sole focus of the gallery, this is confirmed by the artist statement located in the 1st room of the gallery.

Madiha Aijaz

Madiha Aijaz’s gallery space is nowhere near as big as George Osadi’s as it is located in a small room up in the 1st floor. This gallery does not have much lighting and because of the black walls it has little to no light. There are some small photos located to the right of the room from the entrance perspective. The images are not in frames and are entirely focused on numerous Pakistani civilians in different areas either observing, reading or inspecting. At the very end of the room is a big screen which plays a documentary that focuses on the changing language of the Pakistani community from Urdu to English. The way this is displayed allows onlookers to be directly drawn to the documentary due to it’s size and brightness due to the dark room. The way the work is displayed shows to me a dark tension that is occurring due to the change of the community’s language, something agreed upon from the artist’s statement.

Photographer Research: Maureen Drennan

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The other photography I chose to research for this collaborative project is the photographer Maureen Drennan. The reason I chose Maureen Drennan as a subject of analysis is due to her past work where she took pictures of her husband who at the time was suffering mental depression. The way she showcases this subject in her photos is something I hope our group will take into consideration for our own project.

These four images of Maureen Drennan’s husband showcase numerous symptoms of mental depression which can shown by the expressions of his face and pose mixed in with a variety of minimal lighting and locations to show a mixture of how the effects of mental depression effect the husband.

The first image of Maureen Drennan’s depression series involves her husband lying on the bed starring blankly into the air. The way he’s just starring showing no emotion showcases the effects of depression as it looks like he feels nothing and that he wants to just do nothing while lying in bed. I like how Maureen was able to capture this look with minimal lighting as the darkness surrounding her husband really adds to the picture especially when she’s trying to show the effects of his depression.

The second image of Maureen Drennan’s depression photos involves Maureen Drennan and her husband in the bathroom. The Husband is brushing his teeth while Maureen is simply taking a picture. I like the way Maureen tries to use reflection in this photo as we can both herself and the husband from the mirror while still including the perspective of how the photo is viewing the husband in front of the mirror. Mirror’s are in most bathrooms so I hope we can utilise some of them for our project.

Next up we have the third photo from Maureen Drennan’s depression series involves the photo of her husband standing out in the open during a bright day. This is a simple but effective image as the way Maureen Drennan showcases the depression’s effects from her husband is by fully relying on the facial expression portrayed from him that show cases how down and beaten he is from the mental issue.

The last photo from Maureen Drennan’s photo series based on her husband’s depression is this image of the husband lying in bed, this time though from a different angle than the other one. I really like the minimal use of lighting in this image as only patches of bright light can be seen on the husband’s body implying how covered in the dark he is thanks to his depression.

Photographer Research: Edward Honaker

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One of the photographers I chose to research for the collaborative project is Edward Honaker, a photographer who has done previous work based around mental health more specifically how it effected him. The work he did based around the mental health subject focused on his clash with depression with numerous self-portrait photography works in different areas and placing himself in a variety of different poses.

These images in their own way manage to showcase the depressive state of Edward Honaker by using different techniques to place him a blurry non identifiable state. All the photos are coloured in Black and White as there is nothing colourful about depression.

The first image places Edward Honaker in a room facing a mirror. The first thing to notice about this image is how Edward blurred his face in the mirror, this can be interpreted as a means of showing Edward’s depressive state forcing him to not even be capable of looking at himself in the mirror, a result of just how bad the issues with his mental health is. I like the simplicity of this image and how it’s able to convey the message of Edward’s mental health issue just by blurring out his face.

Edward Honaker’s next image in his depression series involves him lying on top of a messed up bed with a lamp on outside the photo. A way to interoperate this in his depression series is on how this signifies how tired and down Edward is as he is lying on the bed fully clothed. Something that can be seen as a side effect of Edward’s depression and how it hinders his mental health. I really like on how Edward kept his lighting to a minimum for this shot only showing enough of himself and the bed while covering the rest in the dark as it serves as a visual metaphor for his depressive state.

Next up is Edward Honaker’s third image that involves him lying in a bath tub that is fully covered in soap. The way this establishes a visual image of the effects of mental health issues is by covering Edward in so much soap in the water that you can only see a small amount of his body in the shot. This is a way to show on how he wants to hide himself by blending in and not being acknowledged by anyone. The bright lighting makes this work as it makes the image bright enough that Edward’s body nearly blends with the soap he is bathing under.

The last image of Edward Honaker’s depression series of photos is this image of him simply sitting on a chair but his face is once again similar to the 1st image, blurred out of view. The way his face is blurred out showcases desperation as it clearly shows his head is moving all over the place indicating that he is desperately looking for help. A simple but effective way of showing how people struggle to locate the necessary aid required in dealing with mental health issues which causes this problem to keep occurring.