Immersion – Robbie Cooper

Immersion Porn Project – 2009

Very intrusive. The way it is filmed it is as if they are talking directly to the viewer. Talking to camera then cutting to clips of the subject masterbating. Girl boy girl boy pattern. Older guy talking about discovering porn in a book as opposed to the internet and how he prefers reading erotic stories, you can see his eyes scrolling across the page.  It is almost as if Robbie is filming porn when you can see their faces as they pleasure themselves. I noticed that this in this project and the immersion project about people playing video games there is a similar look, almost as if they are possessed by what they are playing or watching.

6 Photos I Love Taken by Other People

These are 6 of my favourite photos. I like them all for different reasons.
In no particular order.

1. This photo is an iconic one by the legend himself Don Mccullin of a shell shocked soldier and when I first saw it I had feeling that I hadn’t go before from looking at a picture. Sadness, fear, pride, anger etc.

2. This photo was taken by Chris Floyd. It seems so simple and I like that we have an insight to a Charlie Brooker that we might not always see with the ‘mask’ he perhaps wears on television when he is being a funny man. It’s quite a vacant stare but he also looks quite sad. I think this also tells us a bit about the photographer and how important it is to not only take an aesthetically good looking photo but also perhaps getting to know your subject and let them feel at ease.

3. I saw this photo for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery in London for the Taylor Wessing portrait prize. I just thought I would love to have been there and taken the picture myself and spoken to these people. To get paid to go and embed yourself in a culture and document it would be a pretty cool job. I love the countryside and this image speaks to me in that way.

4. This is a photo from a set of images Dead Eagle Trail by Jane Hilton. This is another photo that I wish I could have been there to take. All I have known about cowboys is from the movies so to see them in this intimate situation in their houses is quite special. With this photo in particular I was surprised when I saw it because I wouldn’t have thought this is what a cowboys room would look like. I couldn’t decide what I thought it would like like but it just wouldn’t be like this in my mind. He may well have a female influence with the taste of colour of curtains and the sign saying LOVE on the window sill but I suppose I imagined that cowboys were more stern people and therefore the people around them are similar.

5. A photo by Mickey Smith who has produced my favourite short film ‘Dark Side of The Lens’. He is primarily a surf photographer and he does music videos for one of my favourite musicians at the moment ‘Ben Howard’. Mickeys attitude towards life as a creative is inspirational. I find this image peaceful and although it is a dark photo and possibly depicts the idea of drowning it reminds me of holidays to Cornwall and Devon which I have happy memories from.

This is where I see myself feeling happy and content, walking the dogs, picking up pine cones that have fallen of the trees, dissecting them and then flinging them back on the ground a bit further away from where it originally fell,  picking off bits of bracken and smelling that distinct musty sweetness and noticing and feeling the heavy due from the night before resting on leaves, feeling the warmth of the dappled sunlight fade in and out on my skin as I walk between trees, the uneven ground below my feet, nostalgic memories of characters I had once been, battles I had won and then thrown my wooden weapon on the floor. This is why I like this photo. The photo was taken by Bertil Nilsson and is part of an incredible series called Naturally (an ongoing project)

Bordon

Class – Middle to lower. 

Age – Anything from new born children to people in their mid to late 70’s. The young men in late teens to mid 30’s appear to be the most common age around. 

Ethnicity – Mainly White/Caucasian 

Gender – I got a feeling of male dominance in the area but female’s still clearly present. 

Sexuality – N/A

Disability N/A

 

 

Bordon – Creative Thought Process

When trying to tackle this brief creatively I struggled at first, I think I was too worried about making sure my location fitted the brief criteria. I then settled into my chosen town and started to believe in it and I wanted to focus on the history that is being left behind due to Bordon’s planned eco town. The history I am talking about is the army and how they have been living there for such a long time. I wanted to look at the juxtaposition of how people have been sculpted into a military environment, how children are being brought up in this community and how the brutality of what happens at war can sometimes be pushed to one side, in the same way that the current town of Bordon will be pushed to one side in order to build the new planned eco town.

 

I am looking at the housing that is amongst some of the barracks. If you follow this link you will be able to see some details of the housing in the area CLICK HERE.

I am looking at producing a photo film