Daily Life Revisited

Daily Life Revisited

Draft project outline

From the time he started taking serious photographs in 1959 until the last Soviet troops left Lithuania in 1993, the Lithuanian photographer Antanas Sutkus (b.1939) worked intermittently on a large project recording daily life in his native land. The project culminated in the extraordinary book, Daily Life Archives (Kasdienybės Archyvai), published in 2003 by the Union of Lithuanian Photographers of which Sutkus was a founder member in 1969. In the book’s introduction, the photographer notes (with the help of a not particularly competent translator) that:

• All have equal rights to daily life; there is no need for a Daily Life Defense Committee! Persistently trying to keep pace with the present day we have learned to contemplate, to meditate and many other splendid things. And maybe observation of daily life is a form of meditation open to all of us? Meditation, which does not need schools or guru. Daily Life has got lost among phone calls, important meetings, electronic information, and political scandals. Do I need it?

I personally believe the answer to this question is quite definitely Yes. I think we all need it.

My own Daily Life Revisited project utilises infinitely different technologies and techniques to that of the original, whilst staying true to Mr Sutkus’ fundamental observations and beliefs. Timed to coincide with this year’s 1,00th anniversary of the first use of the word Lithuania in written texts, Daily Life Revisited marks the end of two years photographing ordinary Lithuanians with the aid of a simple, two-megapixel Nokia mobile phone.

The 60 images that accompany this short piece of writing show where the project is at. Daily Life Revisited could (and might) go on for years. However, with a deadline of December 2 to turn in a completed project, it’s time to start putting everything together into a coherent collection.

Interestingly, despite my choice of technology, Daily Life Revisited will be presented as a classic exhibition of (albeit rather small) prints.

Sco

Vilnius. October 19, 2009

Mark Chilvers

Eastbourne

UK1 transparencies

More of this to follow after a really productive five-day trip to the UK, but before I do... shopping in Eastbourne yesterday I bought some inkjet printer-friendly A4 transparencies. I just made my first print. Not only is the effect unbelievably beautiful for possible exhibition presentation ideas, it may well also solve the problem of stopping prints from getting damaged. Next week I'll print a couple more as negatives and get them printed onto photographic paper.

Dean Cox

Major project summary

Observing the Unobserved

After a short period investigating mobile phones that stemmed for a peculiar desire to possess one that took photographs, in July 2007 I bought a Nokia E61i. Although at the time it wasn’t the best of its kind for photography, it suited my wishes, which were, I seem to remember, a mixture of pure interest in how to approach taking serious photographs with a ‘toy’ and a need to free myself from the cumbersome equipment associated with the majority of photographs I was taking with my dSLR. During the intervening two-and-a-bit years, I’ve done quite a lot with my Nokia, including taking formal portraits, shooting the independence celebrations in Kosovo in February 2008, pure experimentation and, the area that I believe to be the Nokia’s strongest quality as well as being what I seem to enjoy doing the most, which is street photography.

The particular kind of street photography I’ve developed has been a secret observation of people in their most natural (unobserved) state. Much of this work has been done in Lithuania. My major project follows this path, and will culminate in a series of black and white prints of ‘ordinary’ Lithuanians (or, to be more exact, residents of Lithuania) that exploits some of my techniques (shooting entirely blind for example) and that aims to show several things including the aforementioned natural state of people when they’re not aware of being observed (thus Observing the Unobserved), the question of photographic composition (an increasingly large amount of my photographs are taken without looking at what I’m doing, which challenges just about every theory of composition), the belief that it’s the photographer who takes the photograph, not the camera (with more than a passing nod to Bert Hardy), and, topically, the fact that 2009 is the thousandth anniversary of the Lithuanian state.

Interestingly, considering I’m using a tool that embraces everything about the ‘new’ journalism this course covers, I’ve moved almost entirely away from new technology and, as already mentioned, am now working in print thanks to the purchase of a cheap Canon inkjet printer earlier this year which I bought as an experiment and which has produced absolutely stunning results.

The finished body of work will be exhibited inside a small ‘pod-like’ hanging café inside a modern shopping centre in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. I was originally offered an exhibition (that I may follow up early next year) at the major photographic gallery in the country, but due to my own belief that galleries are the enemy of the people and a recent visit to the World Press Photo exhibition inside a shopping centre in Warsaw I’m going with the popular vote. The exhibition will be just as important as the photography itself, and will present enormous challenges concerning how to present the work (see earlier blog entries for more on the subject). I believe that one of the more interesting qualities of the work relates to where it’ll be seen. A photograph is nothing until its judged, and to have it judged by as bigger cross-section of society as possible is surely a good thing.

All of these ideas are still very much imperfect. There’s still a long way to go.

Finally, the project for me is about closure, namely the ending of over two years of experiments my with Nokia. My next project, which will without a doubt still be all about people, will be a very different thing indeed.

Having said all that... how about this?