Comparing both Henners and Rickards Images

Whilst looking at both Henner’s and Rickard’s images I saw some similarities. The images that they have created are made to look surreal and isolated. They both are focusing on something very real and problematic. I feel that the use of pixilation adds to the devastating areas you see via these images; the images that both have created feel empty, almost deserted.
The image 1 and 2 I feel show the isolation very well. Although in image 2 you can see the presence of cars and shops, I feel that the environment that is surrounding looks very derelict and run down. The 3 people that are walking across the road look like ghosts almost; the only people who seem to be living in this space. The way Rickard as adjusted and composted the images makes us feel like something suspicious is going on. Although not as isolated as Henners images, I find the fact you can very much tell that there is a vast differences between the poor and rich I feel that the isolation of class is very much visible in Rickard’s images.
Image 3 shows a lone boy cycling past houses that are boarded up and run down. I feel this may show the isolation of Rickard images more; but I feel it resembles similarities with Henner’s work. The people in image 1 and 3 are shown to be alone in the image, almost signifying their separation from the space around them. I also feel that Image 3 has some similarities with Image 4. Image 4 shows two women sitting on a sofa on the side of the road, as though this is very much a natural part of their living. I feel that both image 3 and 4 shows that the people within that environment are very comfortable and used to how they live and the space around them; I feel this is also the case for image 1 and 2. All 4 of the images have people within them, they all seem to be pretty relaxed within their environment; I feel this is what both photographers are trying to show.

 Image 1














Image 2









Image 3











Image 4

Comparison of their reasons for using google street view

On a webpage called Time Light box, both Rickard and Henner explain their reasons for using Google street view by explaining how they think the quality and use of the pictures present themselves to a viewer. 'The pictures that I chose don’t really have a strong feeling of spying; the pixilation and the broken elements actually emphasize the subtext and the emotion that I wanted to impart, which was America in a devastated form, almost the inverse of the American dream. The aesthetic that I used heightens that sense'[1]. When looking at Rickard’s statement, I feel that he has a lot more to say about his reasons for using Google street view. Here is a statement from Henner “In its raw form, satellite imagery can be quite dull. Cropping, adjusting, and forming a body of work out of them completely transforms these images into something that can be beautiful, terrifying and also insightful.”[2] He says that cropping and adjusting the images that can be found on Google Street view ‘Transforms the images into something that can be beautiful, terrifying and also insightful’. This is very similar to this line in Rickard’s statement ‘the pixilation and the broken element actually emphasize the subtext and the emotion that I wanted to impart.’ They both use the quality of Google street view to their advantage; they are insightful and very real. Although Rickard uses the pixilation to his advantage as it really emphasises the concept of his work. He is looking at run down, poverty struck neighbourhoods, and I feel that the use of pixilation adds to the devastating areas you see via these images. It makes they images look more like the area itself, a worn, decaying feeling; a feeling of brokenness by poverty. Although I feel that with Henner’s images he doesn’t see pixilation as an advantage, but making sure that the curser on the screen in angled in the correct way to make the image speak out for itself. In a video Rickard talks about how he also adjusts his camera on his computer screen to make a shot that he is wanted to show. ‘My wheel started turning and I was sitting there and picked up my iPhone and I started taking a picture of the screen, like this, sort of moving it around and moving the curser and composing these scenes.’[3] This is very similar to what Henner was saying in his statement, when he talks about cropping and adjusting the images transforms their meaning. I feel both photographers use the Google map to their advantage, and still use all the necessary tools and a street photographer to come up with an image that states something.

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[1] http://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/24/street-view-and-beyond-googles-influence-on-photography/#1

[2] http://lightbox.time.com/2012/10/24/street-view-and-beyond-googles-influence-on-photography/#1

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwLHc4vCcdQ

Photos and quotations I have looked at

http://www.likeyou.com/files/fullimages/Doug_Rickard_wirtz_11.jpg
http://www.yossimilo.com/exhibitions/2012-10-doug_rickard/
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/%2333.665001%2C%20Atlanta%2C%20GA%20%282009%29%2C%202010.jpg
http://www.ideastap.com/Upload/CmsMedia/magazine/Articles/mishka-henner3.jpg


Doug Rickard
 
'The pictures that I chose don’t really have a strong feeling of spying; the pixilation and the broken elements actually emphasize the subtext and the emotion that I wanted to impart, which was America in a devastated form, almost the inverse of the American dream. The aesthetic that I used heightens that sense'


Mishka Henner

“In its raw form, satellite imagery can be quite dull. Cropping, adjusting, and forming a body of work out of them completely transforms these images into something that can be beautiful, terrifying and also insightful.”

‘Occupying liminal spaces in post-industrial and rural settings, the focus on these women also casts a critical eye on the Street View project itself and on photography’s indelible link to voyeurism and surveillance.’