MARK TEDESCHI - Tweed Regional Gallery › Download.aspx?Path...(France), Weegee (Arthur Fellig)...

A MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY TOURING E X H I B I T I O N C U R AT E D BY ANNE MCLAUGHLIN

EDUCATION

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A MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY TOURING EXHIBITION

MARK TEDESCHIShooting around corners

A MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY TOURING E X H I B I T I O N

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This Education Kit presents you and your students, from ages 11 to 16 years, with a variety of ways of looking at the exhibition Mark Tedeschi Shooting Around Corners. In a world awash with photographic images that are appearing in an increasing number of formats across diverse platforms, providing students with ways to analyse, discuss and explore meaning, photographs can only assist in developing their visual literacy and encourage them in their individual image-making.

The kit has been designed to focus attention on selected themes in Mark Tedeschi’s photographs and so provide ways of looking at the works. Discussion points and related activities are presented to extend this process and can be used by themselves or as a starting point for other class-devised activities.

Each of the five topics

1. Portraits and People

2. Putting it Together

3. Colour vs Black and White

4. It’s all about light

5. Beneath the surface

contains quotes from the artist, an introduction, key images and questions and things to do which have been designed for student use. These can be adjusted or adapted to particular age-groups as required.

Mark Tedeschi has provided extensive information on his background and working process in the book Mark Tedeschi Shooting Around Corners, Beagle Press 2012; this Education Kit is an additional resource to accompany and extend engagement with Mark’s photographs and to encourage students in their own photography.

Anne McLaughlin Learning and Audience Development Curator, Maitland Regional Art Gallery

About this Education Resource

Maitland Regional Art Gallery is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW.[cover image] Mark Tedeschi, The Golden Goose, 2006, Archival inkjet print, 53 x 80cm

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Mark Tedeschi AM QC is a Sydney-based Barrister and is currently NSW Senior Crown Prosecutor. He has a parallel reputation as a passionate and well-known Australian photographer.

Mark’s interest in photography began as a twelve year old child when he was given a camera by his grandmother. During his teenage years Mark used a Canonette camera and developed and printed his

own black and white photographs including his first portraits.

Graduating to a Single Lens Reflex film camera in 1988, travelling to Bali, and joining a local camera club in Sydney all accelerated Mark’s artistic interest and skills in photography and he embarked on a series of photographs taken in The Block in Eveleigh Street, Redfern, Sydney. This was the first time that he printed his photographs large and the resulting series of black and white prints was exhibited at his first exhibition in 1990 titled Eveleigh Street and Environs at the Kodak Gallery in George Street Sydney.

Since then Mark has explored portraiture, street scenes and landscape in Australia and overseas. He works mainly in series where a particular focus, place or subject is explored through taking many images before making the final selection. In 2001 Mark began to use a digital camera and increasingly printed in colour.

Mark’s photographs have been exhibited in 14 solo exhibitions in Australia and 20 group exhibitions in Australia, Italy, France and the USA since 1988.

Mark has been a finalist in the National Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra in 2007, 2008, 2009, the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize in 2007, the Head On Photographic Portrait Prize at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney in 2007, 2009 and the Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2006.

He is represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Library in Canberra, the Museum of Sydney, the Justice and Police Museum, the State Library of NSW (which has over 200 of his images), the Centre for Fine Art Photography in Colorado USA, and many private collections.

The exhibition Mark Tedeschi Shooting Around Corners was first exhibited at Maitland Regional Art Gallery from 14 February – 27 April 2014 and comprised of 42 photographs selected by Mark from the those contained in Mark Tedeschi Shooting Around Corners published in 2012.

Referece: Interview with Mark Tedeschi by Lou Klepac, May 2012, from Mark Tedeschi Shooting Around Corners, Beagle Press 2012

Mark Tedeschi Born Australia 1952


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A MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY TOURING E X H I B I T I O NA MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY TOURING E X H I B I T I O N

I think the most important part is the eyes, then the whole face, then the hands. Everything else is just surplus. Mark Tedeschi on portraiture, page 14, MARK TEDESCHI Shooting Around Corners

There are 26 photographs in this exhibition and 25 have people in them. Mark Tedeschi is interested in people and take photographs that capture their characters and emotions. Some are portraits and some are not.

WAYS OF LOOKING

Things to do:

1. CHOOSE one of Mark’s portraits that you like from the exhibition.

Sketch an outline of the photograph showing the person including their face, hands and eyes.

How much space in the photo do they take up?

Write 3 sentences about the person from looking at the photograph.

2. TAKE A PORTRAIT photograph of one of your friends or family. Make sure you prepare:

The setting – where you take the photograph, what else will be in the photograph

The pose – what is the person doing, where are they looking, can you see their hands?

The composition – how much space do they take up, is it portrait or landscape orientation?

3. COLLECT some other portraits that you like from anywhere.

Have a look at some photographic portraits by Anne Zahalka and Max Dupain from Australia and Annie Leibovitz and Richard Avedon from USA, and you can find lots more.

4. MAKE a montage of faces:

Collect lots of faces – drawn, photographed, pictures from magazines, newspapers, photocopies and arrange them together in a new composition.

Think about what makes some portraits and some photographs of people.

1. Portraits and people


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Fully armed, 2009(Frank Holles RFD, Lieutenant Colonel, Army Reserve, Crown Prosecutor)Archival inkjet print55 x 83cm81 x 110cm (frame size)

He’s my brother, 1989(The Block, Redfern)Archival inkjet print37.5 x 56cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

WHAT can you see?

WHAT is the person doing?

Do you THINK these children posed for this photograph? Give reasons for your answer.

?

?


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A MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY TOURING E X H I B I T I O N A MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY TOURING E X H I B I T I O N

Giuseppina, 2011Archival inkjet print38.5 x 57.5cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

Shall I be mother?, 2008 Archival inkjet print38 x 57cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

WHAT can you tell about this person from this photograph?

Is this photograph a group PORTRAIT or a PHOTOGRAPH OF PEOPLE ? Give reasons for your answer.

WHAT makes a photograph a portrait ?


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Composition is very important. Balance is very important. Shapes, angles, and movement are very important.

Mark Tedeschi page 14, MARK TEDESCHI Shooting Around Corners

Today’s world is awash with photographic images; billions of people with smart phones use them to take photographs as part of everyday life. And yet that doesn’t mean that we are all photographers or that we understand the art and craft of taking pictures.

There are some photographs that work better than others, that appeal to and engage the viewer for different reasons, that are more memorable and lasting in their ability to connect with the viewer and provoke deep responses. Every time you take a photograph you are composing an image. You are including some things and leaving others out. You are somewhere near what you are taking – higher, lower, around from. Your image places the viewer in the same position as when you took the photograph, from the same viewpoint. All these elements are combined into the finished image.

2. Putting it together

WAYS OF LOOKING

Things to do: 1. USING the four photographs (page 9 & 10)

from the exhibition:

Place a piece of tracing paper over the photograph, trace the outside edge and then trace the outline of three main shapes.

Now trace the main lines in the photograph - they could be the edge of a road, or table or window or figure. Make sure you follow them to where they end.

Now look at what you have traced and back at the photograph, are there any important shapes you have missed ? a small shape could be important.

Finish off your composition, put it next to Mark’s photograph – this is how Mark has composed the photograph, what he has included, and what he has left out.

Some things to think about:

How many shapes go beyond the edge of the photograph ?

Where is your eye led when you look at the photograph ?


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2. USE your phone or camera to take a series of photographs:

Choose a subject; person, or thingTake one portrait-oriented photograph close up from a normal viewpoint (ordinary view)

Take a second portrait-oriented photograph close up but looking down at the subject – you might have to stand on a chair or go up some stairs or place the subject on the ground.

Take a third portrait-oriented photograph close up this time looking up at the subject – you might have to sit or lie on the ground or place the subject up on something.

Print out your images and compare them:

• how has the composition changed in each ?

• how has the viewpoint changed in each ?

• how does the different viewpoint and composition change the way you look at each photograph?

• trace the main composition lines in each photograph and compare.

3. EXPERIMENT with viewpoint and composition.

• Select a subject that you are very familiar with - your bedroom, your home, your school, one of your hobbies, a sport you play.

• Take a series of photographs (minimum of eight) in which you compose each image in relation to viewpoint and composition.

• View them on screen and select the three most successful.

• Show the three selected images to others and get their reactions.

4. RESEARCH and FIND some other examples of different viewpoints and compositions in photographs by others.

You could look at Ansel Adams (USA), David Moore (Australia), Trent Parke (Australia), Narelle Autio (Australia), Diane Arbus (USA), Henri Cartier-Bresson (France), Weegee (Arthur Fellig) (USA)

5. PORTFOLIO - choose a subject

e.g my dog and take a series of 5 photographs

of your subject using one of these themes for

each photograph:

• diagonal

• off the edge

• face to face

• bird’s eye

• towering


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The wash-up, 2004(Margaret Cunneen SC, Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor)Archival inkjet print56.5 x 37.5 cm89 x 65.5cm (frame size)

Striking a blow, 2007,(Anna Katzmann SC, former barrister, former President of the NSW Bar Association)Archival inkjet print36.5 x 54cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

WHERE was Mark when he took this photograph?

WHY do you think he chose this viewpoint?

Do you THINK that these people knew that their photograph was being taken ?

HOW MANY main shapes are there in the photograph?

?

?


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Artistic angst, 2011(Pat Harry, in her studio)Archival inkjet print39.5 x 42cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

Coordinated canine 2005, (Riva del Garda, Italy)Archival inkjet print54 x 36cm89 x 65.5cm (frame size)

WHERE is the viewer/photographer

in relation to the composition ?

WHAT can we tell about the person

in the photograph ?

Can you DRAW the main direction lines in this

photograph and the outlines of the main shapes?

WHERE do you look first when you look at this

photograph?

?

?


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Why ?


Colour is such an overwhelming sensation. It completely overwhelms a lot of other inputs you would otherwise receive from an image.

When you have black and white, you notice much more: the textures, the shadows, the contrasts.


Today colour photography is the most common form of photography – domestic, travel, commercial, photo-journalism, artistic and any other form; to produce black and white photographs is a distinct choice by the photographer. This was not always so and the change to digital photography has only really occurred in the last ten to fifteen years. Cameras used to have roll film that had to be removed from the camera then developed and processed into prints. By the end of the twentieth century the change to digital photography became widespread, cameras became part of mobile phones, and your photograph became a digital file that could be sent anywhere electronically. Now everyone can take an image, see it, upload it and send it around the world immediately anytime.

Mark first started taking photographs using black and white film loaded into a manual camera; he developed his films and printed his black and white prints in a home darkroom. At first he used a Single Lens Reflex camera and had his photographs printed; since 2000 he has increasingly made digital prints and used more colour. But there is a difference... colour and black and white can create quite different moods, atmospheres and feelings and these affect the way that the viewer reacts and responds to the image.

3. Colour vs Black and White

WAYS OF LOOKING


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Things to do:

1. HALF AND HALF • Select a colour photograph that you like – it could be from a magazine, newspaper, photocopy - that has a symmetric composition.

• Carefully tear it in half vertically and stick one half down onto a piece of paper

• Now re-draw the remaining half (use the half you have torn away for reference) and instead of colour use tones of black and white to complete the photograph. You will have to match the original colours to the right tone of black, grey or white.

• Which half do you prefer? Why ?

2. FOLDED MONTAGE • Choose a colour portrait-oriented photograph that you like and make 2 x A4 copies – one colour and one black and white.

• Cut each image into 10 even vertical strips.

• Now swap over each second strip of each image until you have 10 colour and 10 black and white strips alternately across each page.

• Glue each strip down across the 2 images.

• When dry, fold along each join to make a concertina effect. Sit image up and view at 45 degrees and straight on to compare black and white vs colour.

3. HAND COLOURING • Use your phone or camera to take a few photographs of people you know. Choose two and make a digital print of each in black and white and colour

• Using some watercolour, ink or gouache, carefully hand colour some selected areas of your black and white digital print, leaving the majority still black and white. Refer to your colour version when you are hand colouring.

• What does hand colouring do to a black and white photograph?

4. COLOUR STUDIO

• Set up a mini studio in a small shoe box or small contanier where the set (background, subject, props etc) is restricted to various tones of one or two harmonious colours, for example red and orange, as much as possible.

• Add a small amount of a contrasting colour to the set e.g blue or green.

• Photograph and print in colour. To see how much tonal variation you have print in black and white too. (You will probably find that a successful colour print looks quite dull in black and white).

• Compare the black and white and colour prints. How do they look?


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Rex Dupain, 2007 (in his studio, Camperdown)Archival inkjet print55.5 x 36.5cm89 x 65.5cm (frame size)

Lewis Morley, 2008Archival inkjet print36.5 x 55cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

IMAGINE this photograph in black and white.

How would it be different ?

WHAT stands out in this photograph?

?

?


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Unattainable, 2005(Fiesole, Florence, Italy)Archival inkjet print36 x 49cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

Threadhead, 2005(Beijing, China)Archival inkjet print37.5 x 56cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

WHERE is the light coming from in this photograph?

WHAT might be happening in this scene?

WHAT might this photograph be like if it was in black and white?

WHAT do you think would work best – colour or black and white? Why?

?

?


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As I have delved more and more into photography, I have come to appreciate that the success of an image is due in no small measure to the quality of the light as much as the subject matter of the image. Light has such an ephemeral quality to it…

There is no such thing as dark – only a relative absence of light.


Light falling on surfaces in different tones is essentially how we see things and make sense

of our physical world. The three dimensional world is made more three dimensional by light

telling us about the spaces, forms and textures around us.

Anyone taking a photograph needs to be very aware of light:

• What is the light falling on?

• What is the direction of light falling on the subject?

• How interesting is the arrangement of light in the composition?

• Is there shadow and how important is it in the composition?

• Does the light contribute to the mood and atmosphere?

Across the scene to be taken look at the pattern of light and dark when you are about to take the

photograph, (it helps to half close your eyes to see this).

4. It’s all about light

WAYS OF LOOKING


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Things to do:

1. MAKE a tonal black and white montage

• Select an image from a magazine, newspaper or elsewhere - it should be simple with a few shapes and a range of tones from dark to light, it can be colour or black and white.

• Trace the outline of the main shapes in the image and note how many different tones you have and how light or dark they are.

• Now you are going to find paper (from magazines or newspapers or similar) that match each of the different tones and tear them into pieces about 1cm x 1cm.

• On the traced image match the tone of the torn paper scraps with each shape, (checking with the original image) and glue down. Complete until the new image is made up of glued down paper and the tones and shapes match. See how it looks from a distance

2. CREATE your own mood studio

• Find a small space at home where you can control the amount of light and which you can darken easily, it could be a hallway or a corner of a room, a shelf or cupboard.

• Decide on a composition, still life, portrait, collection of objects etc.

• Use a light, torch or lamp as your source of light and take a series of photographs with different angles and amounts of light and where the object/s cast different shadows.

• Compare the results and select 3 to print

•Select titles for each

3. SHADOWLANDS

• Find shadows made by light directed onto objects. These shadows could be on a wall, made by a twig or branch, a street sign, telegraph pole or electrical wires

• Take photographs of these that include both the object and its shadow.

• What are the different atmospheres created in these images?

Think about these statements when you look at the photographs on page 17, 18:

1. The MAIN SUBJECT of the photograph needs to be lighter than everything else.

2. You need SHADOWS to make a photograph interesting.

3. If there is NOT ENOUGH LIGHT AND DARK SHAPES in a photograph it won’t work.

i


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Framed (self portrait), 2007, Archival inkjet print, 37 x 55.5cm68 x 89cm (frame size)

Femininity, 2005(Outside the senate building, Rome, Italy) Archival inkjet print54.5 x 32.5cm89 x 65.5cm (frame size)

HOW much light and dark is there in this photograph?

HOW important is shadow in this image?

WHAT direction is light coming from in this photograph?

WHAT do the light shapes do in this image?

?

?


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Beijing bun boy, 2005Archival inkjet print37.5 x 56.5cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

The Golden Goose, 2006, (Chester Porter QC at his home and hobby farm at Mona Vale), Archival inkjet print, 53 x 80cm80 x 106cm (frame size)

WHERE does your eye go to first in this photograph?

HOW much light and dark is there where your eye goes first?

LOOK at the this photograph half close your eyes so you can see the arrangement of light and dark.

WHAT would more light and dark do to this image?

?

?


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I think that with all art, including photography, the more you can get your viewer to interpret and delve into their subconscious and the imagination to create something from your image, the more artistically valid your image is.


So, I think that part of the task for a serious photographer is to convince viewers to stay there and to try and visually unpack it, and to convince them that there is more there that just meets the eye.


Photography is an art form. A photograph has formal elements: subject, composition, mood,

atmosphere, viewpoint, tone, contrast, form and texture, which all influence and contribute

to how we interpret the photograph and take meaning from it. There are also the aesthetic

elements of the photograph, the level of beauty that the viewer sees in the image.

Although it is the surface of the photograph that we look at, meaning is conveyed by formal

and aesthetic elements that exist within the photograph. This is what Mark is talking about

in the quotes above and this meaning is what is created between the photograph, the

photographer and the viewer.

5. Beneath the surface

WAYS OF LOOKING


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Things to do:

1. My SELFIE self portrait • Select a photographic portrait that you like and admire – it could be from a magazine, newspaper, screen and maybe by a famous photographer

• Look at the composition, the gaze of the subject, how close up is the subject, the pose, is it colour or black and white, viewpoint of viewer etc

• Now see if you can set up yourself for a selfie self portrait in the same style as your selected portrait photograph ( see second point here)

• Take your selfie, perhaps up to 10 different versions.

• Select the best three and print.

• Set them next to your selected portrait and compare - what is different and what is similar ? Which one/s work the best ?

2. CONSTRUCTING MOOD • Choose one of the following subjects: loneliness; heat ; decay; newness; noise; nature

• Using pictures, photographs and images develop a storyboard of three scenes about this subject. Remember all the elements of a photograph.

• Now using each scene, change it into a set that can be photographed

• Take the three photographs and upload to a computer, look at them and change

whatever needs to be changed to make the photograph work better – you could use photoshop

• Present the finished 3 photographs together with just one word, the subject.

3. A PICTURE is worth a thousand words • Choose your favourite line from a song, book, poem or elsewhere

• Think about an image that reflects your chosen line: you could create the image yourself, you could find it somewhere in real life– at home, outside, somewhere special.

• Now record this image – as a photograph, video or drawing,

• Show your finished image to 3 different people and ask them to write 50 or so words about it.

• Compare what they have written with your original favourite line – how has your image been reflected in their words ?

Questions to ponder:

Why are some photographs better than others?

What makes you look at a photograph for a long time?

Are all photographs artworks?

Do you have a favourite photograph? If your answer is yes, what makes it your favourite?


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Pavilion, 2010(Newcastle baths)Archival inkjet print37 x 56cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

Inspection, reflection, distortion, 2009(National Art School, Sydney)Archival inkjet print38 x 57cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

WHAT is the mood in this photograph?

WHAT might have created that mood?

WHAT is happening in this photograph?

WHAT sort of story could go with this image?

?

?


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Proud to be an Australian, 1988(The Block, Redfern)Archival inkjet print37 x 55.5cm65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

CHOOSE your own title for this photograph.

WHAT feelings and ideas can you get from looking at this photograph?


?

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NOTES


AESTHETICS An artistically beautiful or pleasing appearance

COMPOSITION In art, the arrangement of shapes and objects

CONTRASTING COLOURS Colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel e.g. Red and green, orange and blue, purple and yellow

DARKROOM A purpose built room that excludes all natural light and is set up to develop black and white or colour photographic prints

DEVELOP In photography the process of using a series of chemicals on exposed roll film to produce the negative image.

EPHEMERAL Something fleeting or short-lived

GAZE A steady fixed look

HARMONIOUS COLOUR Colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel e.g. Red, orange and yellow

PRINT In photography, to print is to make the final finished image either as a digital print, or as a print made from a negative exposed onto photographic paper in a darkroom then processed in a series of chemical baths.

ROLL FILM Photographic light sensitive film rolled onto a spool, then encased and loaded into a camera

SINGLE LENS REFLEX (SLR) CAMERA A single lens reflex camera uses a mirror and prism system that permits the photographer to view through the lens to see exactly what will be captured when the photograph is taken.

STILL LIFE A still life is a work of art that contains a collection of inanimate objects both natural and man-made e.g. flowers, fruit, vases, bottles.

STORYBOARD A series of sequenced drawings or illustrations that demonstrate a story or idea

SUBJECT In photography, the central object or objects contained in the image

TEXTURE The surface quality, roughness through to smoothness, of any object or surface

TONE The varying degrees of light to dark of any colour or black to white.

VIEWPOINT In photography the position of the viewer or photographer in relation to the image to be viewed or taken.

Glossary


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IMAGES: All images included in this Education Kit are from the exhibition Mark Tedeschi Shooting Around Corners originally exhibited at Maitland Regional Art Gallery 14 February – 27 April 2014.

TEXT REFERENCES: The information contained in About Mark Tedeschi, page 2 of this kit, was sourced from Interview with Mark Tedeschi by Lou Klepac, May 2012, in Mark Tedeschi Shooting Around Corners, Beagle Press 2012.

All quotations by Mark Tedeschi were sourced from Mark Tedeschi Shooting Around Corners, Beagle Press 2012.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Cheryl Farrell, Collections Curator, Maitland Regional Art Gallery

EDITING: Cheryl Farrell, Clare Hodgins

DESIGN: Clare Hodgins

DESIGN INTERN: Lara Shipard

THIS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE WAS DEVELOPED BY Anne McLaughlin, Learning and Audience Development Curator Maitland Regional Art Gallery

PRODUCED BY MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY 2013 230 High St Maitland NSW 2320 © 2015 Maitland Regional Art Gallery www.mrag.org.au

About this Education Resource


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Maitland Regional Art Gallery is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW. (back cover image) Mark Tedeschi, He’s my brother, 1989, (The Block, Redfern) archival inkjet print, 37.5 x 56cm, 65.5 x 89cm (frame size)

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A MAITLAND REGIONAL ART GALLERY TOURING EXHIBITION


MARK TEDESCHI - Tweed Regional Gallery › Download.aspx?Path...(France), Weegee (Arthur Fellig)...

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