ASSIGNMENT 3

PEOPLE OF LJUBLJANA

Residing in the deep north east of Italy grants some opportunities from the geographical point of view: from the town where I live it is relatively simple to go by car to another country and return in the day.

The borders with Austria, Croatia and Slovenia are no more than a hundred kilometers away.

The linguistic affinities of Italian (neo-Latin stock) with the languages spoken in these countries are null: the Austrian linguistic stock is Germanic / Indo-European, while the stock of Croatia and Slovenia is southern Slavonic / Indo-European.

The lack of affinity is not limited to the linguistic theme: in particular, to cross the border with Slovenia or Croatia means to come into contact with different populations, different history, influences, cultures, uses and traditions.

It is not a progressive change: just pass the border and enter a different world.

For this reason I have chosen, in order to complete my assignment, to take a two-day trip to the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, and "open a window" on its people.

Ljubljana is a relatively small city (about 270,000 inhabitants), nevertheless it is the largest city in this small country.

I chose to spend my time walking around the streets, trying to get in touch with the locals from time to time.

However, as an outsider I needed to establish less occasional relationship with a local, in order to get inside the city's spirit.

I met Bostian and engaged with him. I realized that it's not an easy task, since Slovenians are prudent by nature.

Nevertheless we could talk about the city and its inhabitants.

Bostian was born in Nova Gorica, studied and works in Ljubljana, so that I could interact with a Slovenian who has a disenchanted and fresh vision of the inhabitants of Ljubljana.

Bostian tells me that, in general, the inhabitants of Ljubljana are considered closed, nervous, abrupt and hasty in human contacts.

They are friendly only with tourists and are not very open.

They speak a different dialect.

They drive aggressively and are generally undisciplined.

On average they earn more and behave in a presumptuous and arrogant manner, particularly towards people who have moved to the city to look for work and opportunities.

Not coincidentally, Bostian's portrait is what 99% of people in other nations make of the inhabitants of their country's capital ...

I told Bostian that I had not seen immigrants from outside the city, and he explained to me that there are immigrants, but they are mainly concentrated in some peripheral neighborhoods of the city.

However, they are mostly from Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, and even Albania. It is therefore a type of "internal" immigration, from countries that once were part of Yugoslavia, as well as Slovenia.

It is immigration originating from economic necessity, given that Slovenia, so close to Western European countries, is felt as richer of opportunities and money.

The inhabitants of Ljubljana are proud to be Slovenians, and they were proud to be even before becoming an independent nation, on June 25th 1991.

I noticed that the national flag is hoisted everywhere, in state buildings and houses, in shops and parks or along the streets.

In Ljubljana there is the most important of the four universities in Slovenia.

The university is free of charge.

Along the streets I noticed many students: I have the impression that most services and bars are more dedicated to them than to tourists.

Every day a large mass of farmers arrive in Votnikov square and give life to the food market.

The city is articulated along the Ljubljanica river. I noticed the difference between the center, where the spirit and influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the current influence of Austrian culture are captured, and the outskirts, where social housing reminds us that the Yugoslav socialist regime has ceased only 28 years ago.

Images

When I decided to go to Ljubljana, I thought not to go there as a tourist but as an outsider, aiming to become an insider through Bostian and my camera. I am confident that I could catch a part of its people's spirit.

I was able to see the older people, who come from the past experiences of the socialist regime and who every day declare their pride to be independent and Slovenian.

In their eyes I could see the prudent sadness of the eastern people and the privacy of those who, with such a history on their back, still have their defenses up.

I saw the youngest, open, totally oriented towards "living the day" and thinking to the future, to different experiences, different people, to Europe.

I saw the peasants who, as they once did, bring the products of their land to the city, and now they do it by car and no longer with carts.

I saw economic immigrants trying to find their future far from where they were born, aiming to live in a richer country.

I saw the appreciation for something that not everyone is yet accustomed to having: freedom to think, live, move and self-determine, just like those who live a hundred kilometers away, across the border, that now they can cross without fear.

Contact Sheet

TUTOR'S FEEDBACK

Overall Comments

Hi Giorgio, many thanks for sharing your 3rd assignment with me. A difficult assignment with some strong images but which needs more research and focus to strengthen it. See ‘assignment’ section below.

Again, I really do think it would be very motivating and valuable for you to interact with fellow students, perhaps through the forum or via blog sharing? It’s another opportunity to seek feedback on your work (test how it’s being ‘read’) and to see a range of approaches to course assignments.

I look forward to seeing your 5^th assignment. I suggest making an initial blog post on this soon with your early thoughts/ideas. If helpful, do also email me with a brief assignment ‘proposal’ outlining your intentions and the ‘what/how/why’ – it can help to focus the mind to do this, and I may be able to offer a few suggestions.

Assessment potential

I understand your aim is to go for the Photography Degree and that you plan to submityour work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, providing you commit yourself to the course, I believe you have the potential to pass at assessment. In order to meet all the assessment criteria, there are certain areas you will need to focus on, which I have outlined in my feedback.

Feedback on assignment

· This is a thoughtful piece of work, Giorgio, and one in which you have produced some compelling street portraits.

· It’s a difficult assignment brief and one which is most easily tackled through choosing one particular section of a community – a group, or collective of some kind – rather like you did in Assignment 2 where you focused on the orchestra/concert hall.

· Here, you have set yourself the immensely difficult task of trying to produce a collective ‘portrait’ of an entire national identity, a task which even the most experienced and accomplished photographers would find challenging (especially within the limited time you had available).

· Given that you had to travel some distance to Ljubljana, I’m not sure that any re-shooting (often recommended) is feasible. I suggest therefore that we think about ways to enhance the work through the research element, and with more focus on a more specific (less general) concept.

· You raise several interesting points in your writing:-

o The pronounced language difference within such a short geographical distance - i.e. the lack of Latin influence

o The nature of national borders – and patriotism as an aspect of individual and collective identity

o The recent political history of the place, experienced by its inhabitants.

· Visually, you have several portraits of older citizens, which work rather well together.

· The black and white shots show again that you have a great eye for composition and geometry (I do enjoy the way the work in B&W), but how do they work alongside the other images..?

· One way forward might be to isolate, as a set, those images of the older people (including the accordion player and the woman at the window by the flag) and observe the effect.

· The older people are more clearly linked to the notion of history and its wider context, so I would certainly recommend some more in-depth independent research.

· As well as your historical/political research, see if you can find some relevant historical/archival images as visual research. You might even find some that might be appropriated to use as ‘found’ imagery for your final assignment selection.

· I would suggest that evidence of such visual research should be part of your learning log, documenting the development of your idea. Other material too – photojournalism, maps, etc – absolutely anything that informs or expresses what you want the work to say.

· Ideally research of this kind would have formed part of your preparation for your visit to Ljubljana (or perhaps it did and has just not yet been recorded?). I don’t mean this as criticism as it’s really all part of laying the foundations for both practice and research (at Level One) – but I do need to point out that your assignment work should always evidence the development of an idea through inquiry/research/reflection.

Coursework

Some more good examples here of your eye for what makes a strong B&W image.

There seems to be a common thread between your coursework introduction segment + the Elina Brotherus research point + your assignment 3. Is this something you could reflect on in your learning log – the experience of alienation (and perhaps a heightened visual alertness?) that comes with being in an unfamiliar place?

I enjoyed your reflection in Project 1 – it shows you are really considering the big questions around identity/subjectivity and representation (which you can interrogate much further as you progress through the BA).

Re. Project 2: think about the differing effects on the viewer of the direct and the indirect gaze. One feels like an ‘encounter’ – you are meeting the subject on some level; the subject knows you are there. The other could be seen as more candid or even voyeuristic ( ‘fly-on-the-wall’) – the dutch painter Johannes Vermeer preferred to paint his subjects in this way, to give an impression of their ‘interiority’ during (clearly staged) moments when they were not consciously ‘projecting’ but, rather, quietly absorbed in what they were doing. Something to consider when you are shooting/planning portraits. ‘Who’ is doing the looking, and what is the dynamic between viewer/camera (photographer)/subject?

Research

Again:

o Ensure your learning log reflects all of the research you have been doing.

· Include contextual research around your subject.

· Consider and reflect on how other photographers have approached similar subjects.

· See if you can begin to link back through to your research notes when writing about your own work (whether at the planning or reflection stage – wherever relevant). How has your research informed what you produce? Use hyperlinks to bring this material together.

· Don’t be afraid to draw on/refresh research from your previous course, e.g. Barthes on portraiture in Camera Lucida – try a fresh skim-read of this text, picking out the sections relevant to ‘performing’ for the camera.

Learning Log

· Learning log is working well. However, there does need to be much more documentation of your own creative journey. What are you looking at/reading/thinking? The LL should be much more than a receptacle for your responses to the exercises and assignment briefs. Think of it as a journal (we have discussed before) and set up extra sections for your ‘journal’ and ‘research’ – which you can then link through to your assignments at relevant points (hyperlinks work well in showing what has influenced/inspired you).

· Assignment needs to be expanded upon in terms of preparation/inspiration and reflection/reworking.

· It would be very helpful for me to see any re-works of your previous assignments in light of feedback.

· Again, try to link in key points from your research with your own practical work – draw in any relevant ‘Eureka!’ moments.

Suggested reading/viewing

Carried forward:

· Portraiture by Richard Brilliant (see course reading list) is a worthwhile addition to your library.

· This recent thread discusses a recent exhibition of work by Diane Arbus, including links to some student blog posts on the exhibition – see what you think. https://discuss.oca-student.com/t/study-event-31-03-2019-diane-arbus-in-the-beginning/9547

· Journal de France – A film about French Photographer Raymond Depardon, giving insight into his approach

· + Karen Knorr / Robert Poliodori as mentioned above.

· + Stranger Passing by Stephen Shore – famous work linking people to wider landscape

· See also previous suggestions

Summary

Strengths

· Growing confidence in approaching strangers

· Genuine interest in and empathy with subjects

· Engagement with coursework, informing your wider practice

For Development

· In general, spend more time looking at photographic portraiture (if you are already doing this then perhaps you need to reflect on more examples in your learning log). Who do you feel inspired by?

· More independent research around your assignment subject, as above.

· Reworking of the image selection in order to create a more focused assignment piece, as above.

Tutor name	Jayne Taylor
Date	30/07/2019 (amended 16/08/2019 to correct the Assignment no. from 4 to 3, with comments added in respect of coursework for Part 3)
Next assignment due	15/09/2019 – to be confirmed

Reflection on Tutor's Feedback

My Tutor rightly pointed out to me: ".... Here, you have set yourself the immensely difficult task of trying to produce a collective portrait of an entire national identity, a task which most experienced and accomplished photographers would find challenging (especially within the limited time you had available) .... ".

I think I generated a misunderstanding, because my intention was not to produce a collective portrait of an entire national identity (definitely too ambitious and even conceited), but the portrait of people I met while wandering around the city of Ljubljana, where, even if with a local contact, I am a stranger and a real outsider.

Probably even the title I gave to my work can mislead the reader, even if I was referring to the only city of Ljubljana, which however is a capital and which projects the Slovenian identity anyway.

I thought of changing the title of the work, so as not to deflect the reader on the scope of the one made.

I have also decided to favor black and white.

I would like to send a message of "distance" and "randomness", from a foreigner like me (definitely outsider), who arrives in a not known city for a couple of days, and which, even if guided by a local, cannot expect to seize all the characteristics, the nuances, the faces, therefore also the colors, of a just known reality.

I continue to be influenced by authors like Robert Frank, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, who have been masters of black and white. And I am happy of it.

Wandering through Ljubljana