A Photo-cultural Project by Laura Maguire

My thesis, entitled “Growing Up is Giving Up,” is a documentation and celebration of the culture of youth, the people who embrace it, and the environments they build and inhabit. Through the images, I strive to capture the excitement of youth manifested in the unique styles and environments of the individuals photographed.

The project was born from my final assignment for lighting class as a series of portraits shot in the fall of 2007. In the beginning, I approached the portraits as color studies, focusing less on the individual being photographed and more on the overall unity of the color palette. I strove to capture the blank stare of my subjects, a look of complete disassociation or alienation from the viewer. The environments portrayed little of the specific personality of the individual, and did not offer any clues to the location. Rather, they served as fields of color that when paired with the graphic elements in the images, created very quiet and orderly photographs. I used central compositions, trying to achieve an almost graphic quality where the subject was transformed into a single object against a flat plane of color.

Though I enjoyed both taking and looking at the portraits, I felt like they were lacking an important element: purpose. Other than capturing the likeness of the individual, they had little personality, and my subjects all have strong personalities that I wanted to portray. In one of these early portraits, John Asselin, (fig, 1.1) this simplicity is revealed. The subject sits, holding a cat, in a brown chair against a blue wall. His shirt and eyes match the blue of the wall behind him, while the deer head and the chair share similar shades of brown. The image is made up almost entirely of blues and browns. The figures blank stare adds little complexity, and there is no inherent concept behind the image.

Fig. 1.1

I started to think about what exactly drove me to photograph my friends and realized that it was the “young till I die” lifestyle and the characters living by that motto. I was also very intrigued with the idea of creating an archive of images as part of something larger - a way of visually marking or remembering a particular place and moment in time. I find this to be a reoccurring theme for many young photographers and I attribute this to the importance of youth culture in our society and documenting ones’ youth, using photographs to remember the people and places that shape your life. For me, this idea of remembering was a huge part in starting to photograph my friends. Although I know this is much more of a personal goal or inspiration, I balanced this out by creating images that spoke of a larger subject -- the youth of today, rather than this very personal idea of, “my friends.”

I started by narrowing down the possible subjects, choosing only those who fit into the subculture I was trying to define. I vaguely knew the environments in which I would shoot, but as time went by and I found myself falling into a very specific method of shooting. When approaching a possible subject, I introduced the project and asked the person to think about how and where they would like to be photographed. The first time I went to their space, I spent time looking around and shot in a number of different locations, some of which I chose and some of which were chosen by the subjects.

Though the imagery became more complex through the inclusion of environments and the larger concept of documenting a specific subculture, there were a number of elements that I was able to pull out of the older work and include in the new series. First and foremost, I continued to let color play a hugely important role in the images. In choosing both the subjects and the locations I made sure to include the bright, vivid colors that I felt best represented the “youth culture” that I was trying to capture. This meant excluding any imagery that was too dull – an unpainted white wall was not going work to visually describe this larger concept, instead I chose lime greens, electric blues, neon pinks and oranges.

Along with color, I also chose to keep a certain graphic quality within the images, using elements within the environments to create interesting lines and angles. For example, in the photograph entitled John Von Slaby (fig. 1.2), the lighting bolt painted on the ceiling splits the background and stops at the subject’s head.

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Fig.1.2

Other photographs make use of similar techniques, such as diagonal lines, blocks of vivid color and interesting relationships between colors within the subject and the environment. In the image entitled Dan-0 (fig. 1.3), The purple ladder on which the subject sits extends outwards, creating interesting diagonals and pulling the figure into the foreground. The dolls haphazardly strung in the foreground break up the composition, adding interesting color highlights. The bright orange of the toy gun serves as a symbol of the toys made of the adult world and pops against the darkness in the background, as does the bright yellow jacket hung on the ladder.

Fig. 1.3

Another important aspect of my work is placing it in the context of documentary photography. The documentary element is born within this visual exploration, and through my photographic approach, it is reinvented. The most appropriate area in which to place my work would exist somewhere in between street photography and environmental portraiture. Like street photography, the images document individual humans as they exist in the world. The inclusion of their personal environments, details within their spaces that help inform their character, gives the images greater depth and bring them to the level of environmental portraiture.

The most “non-traditional” aspects of the project in terms of documentary photography exist within the lighting and the posed subjects. While one might argue that documentary photographers do often pose or direct their subjects, the biggest difference between traditional documentary and my thesis work is that traditional documentary images do not appear posed. In viewing the series it is very clear that the subjects photographed are intentionally posed, both by myself and by themselves, and that they exist within a very intentional space.

The change in direction from very basic portraiture to more environmental imagery was a direct result of looking at other the artists and photographers. The work of Daniela Rossell was included in this group, and her book, Ricas Y Famosas, published in 2002, was the most influential body of work I’ve found. I first became familiar with the book while still in high school, using it as research for a project, and have continued to reference the book over the years. Rossell used her upper class upbringing in Mexico as an entry to photograph other members of this elite group, giving the subjects the choice of where and how they wanted to be photographed.

It was from Rossell I took the idea of giving the subject a say in the way they would be portrayed, looking at this decision as an attempt at creating a more “real” portrayal, real, in the sense that the portrait would be an accurate representation of the subjects as they defined themselves. I also found myself following Rossell in the group I was choosing to photograph. Like Rossell, I used my familiarity and acceptance within this group to photograph its members, the only difference being the response by the subject at seeing the work. For Rossell, the subjects were outraged by the critical and somewhat derogatory nature of the images, while the subjects I photographed were thrilled to see their likeness captured in film.

I attribute this difference to the purpose behind the two different bodies of work; For Rossell, there were a definite need to capture the excess of the group, and though it was the subjects themselves who chose how to be photographed, the book as a whole presented the work through a critical lens. For my thesis, the emphasis was more on creating a relatively unbiased body of work, using the photographs to present the character and space in more of a celebratory manor rather than a critical one.

These two approaches, one critical and the other not, are best considered while viewing the images side by side. In the first image by Rossell entitled, (fig. 1.4) we see a figure lounging in her lavish home while their servant stands beside them. While the subject chose her location, one cannot view this image without taking from it an inherent criticism: her lavish wealth juxtaposed with her servant speaks to the gap between rich and poor. If we explore the image further and in the context of the larger body of work, we find that these images are portraits of the upper class in Mexico, strengthening this criticism. While the same method of letting the subject chose the location is applied in my image entitled Jenine, (fig. 1.5) the outcome is vastly different. The subject has chosen how she would like to be portrayed in a public sphere, but unlike Rossell’s images this choice does not result in a criticism.

Fig, 1.4

Fig. 1.5

In her book, Punk Houses, Abby Banks took a very different approach towards photographing a similar subject matter. While traveling the country, Banks photographed the people and places she came across, focusing in the same subculture photographed in my own work. Most of her images capture domestic spaces -- squats, warehouses, or collectives -- and there are only a handful of traditional portraits.

Though the subject matter is similar, comparing Bank’s book with my work illustrates the two very different approaches taken. While my images are lit evenly with the use of strobe lighting, Bank’s images use available light, often creating underexposed, hard to navigate images. Her compositions appear much more haphazard, giving the images the appearance of snapshots, far from the almost commercial quality of my thesis work. As printed in the book, the images appear grainy and sometimes even blurry, a technique that, like my highly saturated colors, also fits the often disorganized and rarely polished subject matter. The approaches are almost opposite, but in their own ways they each do a good job of visually illustrating the subject matter at hand.

In comparing Bank’s untitled image, (fig. 1.6) and my own, entitled Mike Riley, (fig. 1.7) we see the differences in the photographic approach. Bank’s image uses little of the environment to inform the photograph; instead she focuses on the individual as they appeared at that specific moment in time. The subject does not appear posed, nor does much thought seem to have been put into the lighting or composition. The opposite can be said about my image. The lighting is very specific; two strobes are used, one to light the subject and the other to light the back of the space, allowing the viewer to navigate the space. The composition is equally as important; the subject has been posed centrally and shot from below.

Fig. 1.6

Fig. 1.7

I found inspiration in the way Bank’s photographed and used my own approach in capturing the portraits in the series. More than anything I find it interesting to consider these two different approaches and take from each the elements that work in relation to the subject matter.

A less obvious but still important influence is Matthew Barney in his project entitled, The Cremaster Cycle. I found inspiration in the characters that Barney created throughout his series, and found his choice of using a very specific and saturated color palette particularly interesting. Though Barney created the characters he photographed while I worked with real life subjects, I still found myself trying to use aspects of Barney’s portraits within my own.

In his image, entitled The Entered Apprentice, (fig, 1.8) Barney uses highly saturated turquoise, red and orange, along with signature pale skin, to create his image. These color choices are repeated throughout the series, unifying the images and creating a “style” particular to Barney. Within my own imagery, I chose highly saturated, bright colors to unify the series. While these colors differ from image to image, they work much the same as Barneys in the creation of my own particular “style,” a style that fits the subject matter being photographed.

Fig. 1.8

Fig. 1.9

One can see this similarity in the image entitled John and Mike (fig. 1.9). The bright green of the wall along with the golden color of the couch are the most prominent colors in the image, while the orange hat and writing on the poster, along with the purple design on the figure t-shirt, serve as both highlights and contrasting details. Together, these bright, highly saturated colors speak to the celebratory nature of the imagery while uniting the photographs within the series.

Though not a photographic inspiration, the punk, hardcore and DIY scene has greatly influenced who I am as a person and therefore as a photographer as well. While music fuels and unties these scenes, I find inspiration and comfort in the positive ideals held by many of its members, along with the celebration of individuality it encourages, something hard to come by in many other social scenes or subcultures populated by young people. This individualism is often joined by the desire to question society, question why it is we value the things we are told value, why it is that we let money, fear of failure and fear of the unknown restrict the choices we make. There is a very powerful feeling or desire within the scene to “live life to its fullest,” often translated into the importance of sustaining the excitement of youth far beyond a mainstream idea of acceptability. This is best manifested in the rejection of traditional corporate jobs and cultivating a conventional professional appearance.

My own inclusion in this group has forced me to reconsider everything in my life, giving me the freedom to make decisions that are beneficial to me and my loved ones without unnecessarily contributing to global consumerism, and more specifically, corporate America. Little things like riding a bike, reclaiming spaces that have been abandoned or forgotten, even shopping locally and ethically allow me to make decisions on a daily basis that resist and reject the pressures of modern, consumer-driven living.

The friendships I have made through this scene, along with their own uniqueness, greatly influenced my decision photograph these people. Like many other young photographers in my position, there is a pull to photograph the people and places that define ones specific youth, my own thesis project doing exactly this. While a great deal of my intent was to capture this broader subculture as reflected in its members, I was aware of the fact that I am capturing and remembering this period in my life.

Sources Cited:

Banks, Abby. Punk Houses. New York: Abrams IMAGE, 2007

Rossell, Daniella. Ricas Y Famosas. Germany: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2003