PROJECT 1 -
EXERCISE 5.2: Homage
Select an image by any photographer of your choice and take a photograph in response
to it. You can respond in any way you like to the whole image or to just a part of it, but you must make explicit in your notes what it is that you’re responding to. Is it a stylistic device such as John Davies’ high viewpoint, or Chris Steele Perkins’ juxtapositions? Is it an idea, such as the decisive moment? Is it an approach, such as intention - creating a fully authored image rather than discovering the world through the viewfinder?
Add the original photograph together with your response to your learning log. Which of the three types of information discussed by Barrett provides the context in this case? Take your time over writing your response because you’ll submit the relevant part of your learning log as part of Assignment Five.
A photograph inspired by another is called ‘homage’ (pronounced the French or English way). This is not the same as Picasso’s famous statement that ‘good artists borrow, great artists steal’; the point of the homage must be apparent within the photograph. It’s also not the same as ‘appropriation’ which re-contextualises its subject to create something new, often in an ironic or humorous way. Instead, the homage should share some deep empathy or kinship with the original work. An example is Victor Burgin’s series The Office at Night (1986), based on Edward Hopper’s famous painting of the same name:
‘The hackneyed idea of ‘influence’ is not at issue here. I am not interested in the question of what one artist may or may not have taken from another. I am referring to the universally familiar phenomenon of looking at one image and having another image
spontaneously come to mind.’
www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/separateness-things-victor-burgin
[accessed 25/01/18]
You may already have taken some homage photography where you’ve not tried to hide the original inspiration but rather celebrated it. Refer back to your personal archive and add one or two to your learning log together with a short caption to provide a context for the shot.
McCurry, S. 1984. The Afghan Girl. [Online] Available at:
https://huxleyparlour.com/the-afghan-girl/ [Accessed 15th March 2021]
I came across this image by Steve McCurry, titled 'The Afghan Girl', whilst I was doing research for assignment four and looking into portrait photography. It has stuck in my mind since then. I had seen it in the past and knew that it had been one of National Geographic's most famous front covers but I had never really looked into it and read the story behind it.
Thinking about Barret's way of interpreting a photo I know the below information about McCurry's 'The Afghan Girl'.
Internal Context
The information in the picture alone, without any prior knowledge is that this is an image of a young Asian girl with unusually piercing green eyes. She is wearing a red head scarf and looks like she has been sat to pose for the photo. The look on her face is one of intensity. We cannot see any information about where the photo was taken or anything else about the girls life.
External Context
The information surrounding this image is that it was used for the cover of National Geographic magazine. A magazine of geography, archaeology, anthropology, and exploration.
The front cover that the image was used for had the heading, "Along Afghanistan's war torn-frontier". This gives us the insight that this image would be one of a young girl who had been effected by the then current war in Afghanistan.
Original Context
The photo was taken in 1984 in a refugee camp along the Afghan-Pakistan border during the Soviet-Afghan war where millions had fled to Pakistan or Iran.
McCurry noticed the girl with piercing green eyes and they became the focal point of the photo.
My Response
The image to the left is my response to Steve McCurry's 'The Afghan Girl'. I have chosen to respond with the intention of internal context but also to the original context.
Internal context response
Of course the focus of Steve McCurry's above image is the piercing green eyes. I wanted to respond to this with the eyes being the focus of my homage. Although not the same colour, the girls eyes in my image are still piercing and are the most engaging part of the photo. Her features around the eyes are intentionally soft to draw the viewers gaze straight to her dark wide eyes.
The little girl in my image is also of Asian decent. I also feel that she carries that same intense look into the camera. Not haunting like Steve McCurry's image but there is still a depth behind her eyes.
Original context response
The original context response here is that the girl in my image is of Iranian decent. Both her parents originate from Iran which is situated next to Afghanistan and one of the countries that Afghanistan refugees fled too during the Soviet-Afghan war.
I have not purposefully ever attempted to create a 'homage' to another photographer before this exercise but I had a look through my photography books that have long been sitting in my bookcase to see if any of the images I have created could be relatable to other photographers work and thought about how Terry Barret suggests to interpret an image; internal context (information in the picture), external context (information surrounding the picture) and original context (information about the way the picture was made).
Crisp, F. 2004-2009. Abteilung Nr/W. [Online] Available at:
https://www.artimage.org.uk/7578/fiona-crisp/abteilung-nr-w--2004-2009
[Accessed 15th March 2021]
The image above is by Artist Fiona Crisp of an underground WWII hospital.
Internal context
The information we see in the picture above is a grey, dark looking tunnel that disappears off into the distance lit with lights above. We don't know where it leads or how long it is. It looks slightly damp and of an old design. It is empty and quite eerie.
External context
The information surrounding the picture when I found this photo was minimal apart from the photographers name and the picture title. The book also stated that it was an underground WWII hospital which is now a tourist destination on the Channel Islands.
Original context
Again, there was not much information on how the image was made apart from that Crisp uses different locations and methods to compile her work.
I used the image above for an earlier piece of coursework and it popped back in my mind when thinking about 'homage'. This image would appear as a 'homage' to Fiona Crisp's image to the left.
Both images are of tunnels and they share the same grey and yellowy colourings. Both could also be perceived as empty and eerie and both are lit from above with bright white lights.
My image is of a tunnel in a London Underground station. The underground dates back to before the 1900's and the tunnel appears to be quite old and deteriorating like Crisp's image.