John Baldessari is an American photographer who lives and works in Santa Monica, California. A place I was lucky enough to visit myself (click here to see some photographs from my trip). Here is a link to his website, which is very good...
In our first GCSE photography lesson, we studied a photography by John Baldessari titled "Wrong". The photograph doesn't have the best resolution ever but you can make out most of it.As you can see above, the photograph is of a man stood against a pole on the path of what looks to be America judging by the surrounding area. The photograph was taken in I think it's a great topic to start with in our GCSE corse as it have raised many questions from myself and has really opened my ideas and thoughts to Mr Nichols as it breaks the boundaries of photography and really starts to make us ask questions. Some may think it is titled wrong because of the way he is dressed or because of the quality of the photograph itself, possibly that it is hard to distinguish the difference between the darks and lights especially around the sort of shrubbery on the right of the mans head. But I thinks it's a statement not getting us to question but to realise that just because something is said to be "wrong" it doesn't mean that it is. You could suggest this about a whole (possibly endless) list of things. But to put into perspective, there isn't anything that is wrong with this photograph, in fact I thinks it's quite nicely put together. the face, too small to characterise which leaves a sense of mystery. and the bungalow in the background, who's lives there? When was it made? Where is it? All questions raised whilst look at it. The title, therefore, is misleading to the actual photograph but is a lot deeper. For the above reasons and many more unspoken ones, and therefore, I think it is a successful piece. For these reasons but also, compositionally, I think this is a great image. The balance is near perfect. Yes the subject of the photograph, the man leaning against the tree, is slightly off centre, but the back of the truck edging into the right side of the photograph along with the black tree next to the right of the house in my opinion join to compensate for this. Also if you think of the image as just shapes and not actual objects, it becomes more aesthetically pleasing rather then what Baldessari has (successfully) done by trying to get the audience to ask questions. This easily done by squinting at the image.
My wrong photographs
In class we went out and took our own "wrong" photography that we thought to be wrong. Here is the result.
After attempting to re create and "wrong" image, it became apparent to me that it is near impossible to take, in the literal sense, a "wrong" photograph. It also struck me that everything that is shown as wrong is not, or can't be. For example if you were to set out one day in an attempt to take some wrong photographs, had this have been successful, then they would in fact be in a Photographical sense be "correct" pictures.
Of all my images, I think this is the worst, and therefore best at being Wrong in the explicit sense. The photograph is under exposed in some areas, and over in others. I think the main reason that I find this image the worst is that there is nothing interesting about it nor would it have to be thought about to be taken. That is not saying that you are unable to take a good photograph by chance, because you can. In fact if a toddler had a camera and the means to take a photograph, eventually it would come out with a good one. However it is all about consistency of thought and care when photographing that is the key to being a good photographer. And it is clear to me, and perhaps you, that I didn't think about it, and intentionally in order to create a relevant response to Baldessari's image "wrong".
On the other hand. As a response that directly links to "wrong" is my image on the left as it is, at least more than the one on top, is successful in getting the audience to ask questions. Again, as in Baldessari's, simple questions at first, but questions never the less. Who is the girl? Why am I covering the lens? Am I hiding something intentionally? What is the girls feeling/thinking/looking at? Also, and non intentionally, this photographs half heartedly incorporates the rule of thirds where I blocked the view on the left of the image. i think this adds a interesting side to the picture. Maybe if i went out again, I would try to do this intentionally. Then, I could chose the subject of the photograph. OR, maybe I could use this technique of covering in different ways. Perhaps by covering the lens with different materials? Tights? Glass? Colour filters? |
Some of Baldessari's other images...
As you can see, there is a common theme to John Baldessari's work. He combines a small amount of text with a simple image which come together to form something so complex.