Research 2

Jeremy Deller

Jeremy Deller was born in 1966 in England and is a conflict photographer that took a project under the name of the 'miners strike'. Margret Thatcher shut down a lot of mines which took a lot of jobs for the working class. This created a lot of conflict and violence for the police and the working class. Deller decided to take it into his own hands to get involved and capture this atmosphere into photographs.Deller belongs to the Conflict, Documentary & Photojournalism movements. These are movements that show conflicting imagery while also telling a story, documentary photography is a movement that allows the photographer to document real life issues and situations within an image. 

These three images were taken as part of Dellers project under the name 'Miners Strike' this was a project Deller had taken up during the 1984 Battle of Orgreave, these images were taken to show the conflict between the miners that had lost their jobs and the violent police officers on duty that day. These images connote violence, anger and sorrow for the men that had lost their jobs due to Margret Thatcher closing all the mines down and taking thousands of working men out of business. These images are photographs of fighting and violence. I agree with the intended meaning of the photographs taken within Dellers 'Miners Strike' project of showing that how life can change so quick in just one decision and how these men are pretty much fighting for their lives and work to have a house over their heads and they are doing anything they can to make a living in this situation.

The techniques that have been used in these photographs are angles and shot types, Deller has taken an image using a low angle facing upwards, this creates a powerful image and making the violence stand out. Deller using a low angle facing upwards has made the violent men look very masculine and over powering to look giant like. Deller also uses depth of field in an image to show how many people were causing violence in one image, the amount of miners that day were as far as the eye can see, this creates a powerful image as if the miners were lining up taking it in turns to fight the police men on duty all down to anger from loosing their job.

I can use this work as part of my theme as I have an idea or using documentary photography with the working class to show the struggle in life, this is exactly what Deller has done with this project. This work inspires me as Deller shows perfectly how hard life can get for the working class in within a group of images taken and also that we need to be grateful for what we have before it has all gone and we could be in the same position as these men by just a few words by important people that we can't change.

For my AS Photography final piece I a working on the theme of conflict, I have chosen to do this as I also want to work with photojournalism, doing this will help me add a story behind the photographs I will take and also make a powerful image for anyone seeing it.
The history behind the theme of conflict is to involve conflict and the effects it creates on people and places around the world. Conflict photographers that find themselves in positions where they can take powerful images can also put themselves into harmful situations and in some cases being killed to get the images they dreamed of.
The influences for my ideas are Brexit, I have chosen this as it is going to go down in history and it has all gone down to the older racist generations that know nothing about it they just want to get any race or culture out of England that isn't white, I want to focus on taking images of violent men with English flags being held or round them. Brexit will have a high chance of driving England into the ground in the future with no plan on how to get out.
I also want to work around the conflict between the working class on rough estates and the upperclass with their own houses in nice areas, to show the conflict between life being rough compared to how some people have it lovely, also the conflict on single mothers from council estates and rich mothers with horses.
the influences for my photography are Jeremy Deller & Charlie Phillips. I have chosen these as they show conflict between working class and also ethnicities, not just war and violence. Charlie Phillips had done a project and had a photograph between a couple of a black man and a white women in the 60s when this wasn't aloud and racism was heavily being used upon black people, this is very inspiring because Charlie has taken it into his own hands to show people that it is okay and it is time to end racism by portraying photojournalism inside the photograph.
The techniques I wish to explore when creating my final piece are photojournalism and documentary photography so that I can tell a story and hopefully get a powerful piece as an outcome to show the conflict in the working class and the upperclass. I also want to either use the perfect lighting inside a film camera for a more gritty look or use black and white for a dark element inside the photograph.
I aim to present my final image by halving two photographs into one of the working class and the upperclass so that they create a conflicting image by acting upon each others present inside the photograph so people can see the conflict between the two.