Janna Dobson How does photography influence our world?

L4

How does Photography influence our view of the
world?
In this essay, I am going to discuss photography and how it has influenced the
present era, specially focusing on the subject of Roller Derby (a nationally
recognised sport, presently coming into favour within the UK), as well as its
linkages to fashion and the modern world. I will also discuss how photography
has influenced my own work, as well as the thought processes behind it.

Since its humble beginnings, the camera has been used to capture the world
around us. The photographs and the photographers have offered people an
insight into what is occurring in the world, whether its within a family or
overseas. It offers a unique chance to view something that we cannot touch or
see before us, but can view on another level.

In its time, photography has influenced a wide range of people on many different
levels, through various different subjects: fashion, sports, film etc. Personally, I
feel that I too have been inclined to follow the original ideals these areas wished
me to see. They pointed towards perfection, idealism: an unblemished
flawlessness within a human being. My own ideas have been corrupted and since
taking my first steps into the world of photography, I have found it difficult to
drift from the original ideas planted in my head from a young age; photography
must equal a clear outcome; perfection.

Recently, Ive found myself drawn more towards a particular subject, that of
sport, and even more specifically, the sport of Roller Derby. A contact sport that
was first introduced to the US in the 1930s, it has slowly crawled back into
modern society, collecting a niche of fans and players within the UK. In order to
learn about the sport, many of the newer players sit on the sidelines of games or
bouts played by skilled skaters in order to get the gist of the game. From doing
this myself, I eventually found the urge to pick up a camera to be unstoppable.
This allowed me to meet other photographers capturing the sport.

Janna Dobson How does photography influence our world? L4

One of them was Joe Boneshaker Armitage, a Sheffield based Photographer
whom often worked with the Sheffield Steel Roller Girls his local team. In the
last year, he was asked by the women of the team to capture their headshots a
tradition in the sport, in which portraits of their alter egos are captured for bout
programmes. Joes original
images caught the
personalities of the girls
perfectly, but after his initial
shoot, he took his editing once
step further - I wanted them
to look MORE than human -
Almost cyborg/clinical in the
colouring. I noticed that a lot of
the skaters had amazing eyes
that I wanted to capture and
bring out in the edits.
(Armitage, 2012, [online])

He selected eight images of
various members of the team,
perfecting the image. Their
eyes became brighter, their
hair colours stronger, their
skin far paler and smoother.
Rather than looking like the women they had been before, they became stronger
definitions of their on track alter egos they became inhuman.

This editing and the original use of props, takes the group far away from their
true personalities. What we see is a representation of them, a representation that
both they and the photographer want us to see. Ellen Parnavelas said, Many
skaters claim that assuming an alter ego on the track helps them to become the
powerful and fearsome player they want to be, as they are liberated
(Parnavelas, 2012: 56) This liberation, this freedom from their true self is offered
Janna Dobson How does photography influence our world? L4

in Joes image. They are no longer
themselves, but a person within a
person; a deep part of them buried
inside, or something that they long
to be.

Their images become a
representation of their track alter
ego, an escape behind a barrier
where no stranger really knows
their name or the truth to their life, merely a created version of it. For example,
the image above is no longer Vicki Wilson, a married mother and administrator.
Due to the careful placing of props and the tidy editing, she is now Luna Trick; a
ferocious, deadly looking roller girl who looks like the pinker haired cousin of the
character, Hannibal Lector. This alter ego can be twisted in multiple ways in the
minds of other people, but it will always leave the impression that Vicki is no
longer herself.

While Joe admits and is honest about his editing of the images, revealing his
intentions for the set, there are those in other lines of business that have not
been as forthcoming with the truth. The editing of images occurs on a regular
basis in the fashion world, especially in the redefinition of models in the
magazine business. One of the most memorable discovers of severe editing was
found in GQ Magazine.

In January of 2003, Kate Winslet appeared on the cover of GQ. Her legs had been
airbrushed and editing, creating limbs of unnatural length and thickness. The
editor of the magazine at the time, Dylan Jones, said this on the photograph:
These days you only get two kinds of pictures of celebrities - paparazzi pictures
or pictures like these which have been highly styled, buffed, trimmed and altered
to make the subject look as good as is humanly possible. (Jones, 2003 [online])

Janna Dobson How does photography influence our world? L4

While Joe Armitage was
attempting to make his images
more than human
(Arimitage, 2012 [online]),
Dylan Jones wanted his image
to appear as good as humanly
possible. (Jones, 2003
[online]) Both are attempting
to take their images to a new
level, editing them to
perfection or beyond, yet there
is a stark contrast in their
wording as well as their
images. Armitages look more
human that Joness and Jones
is attempting to suggest that
this longer legged version of Kate Winslet is actually something that occurs in
everyday life, something normal, yet extraordinary.

The public is influenced by this perfect human appearance, more so in the GQ
image because at the time, it was so commercially spread. The ever day, average
citizen is influenced every way they turn, by edited images that depict the so-
called perfect person; the sexiest, the greatest looking the person that every
other person wants you to be, because theyll like you that way. Theyll prefer
you, if you are no longer who you are. I dream of a mirror. I see myself with a
mask, or I see in the mirror somebody who is me but whom I do not recognize as
myself. (Borges, 1985 [online]) This quote by Jorge Borges is a frightening
example of what many in the modern world think today, surrounded by so many
edited images of small, perfectly featured woman. A downside to the influence of
photography in the modern world is that it has twisted our idea of what is beauty
and what is not.

Janna Dobson How does photography influence our world? L4

Both of these examples of photography can link back to a time before cameras,
when an image was created with a brush and representation of oneself came in
the form of the Swagger portrait. The paintings in the Tate's show do not,
strictly speaking, depict those who sat for them. What they depict is, rather,
those people's fantasies of themselves. (Graham-Dixon, 1992) The people
within these Swagger paintings chose what appeared within their paintings,
giving them the opportunity to surround themselves with objects that offered
certain perceptions, rather than truth. Each object present in the portrait was
chosen for its hidden meaning; it hinted at a certain power or status, a wealth
that couldnt be shown in a more obvious state, but was still understood. Even
their positions within the image meant something. How they seemed to hold
themselves or that way that they sat upon a chair, the direction their eyes looked
in everything told the viewer something about that image, and more often than
not, it all came down to showing power.

In a way, the images of Kate Winslet and of Vicki Wilson try to depict a similar
meaning; I have a beautiful body, I have power, I have no fear. There is no
questioning what they dont have; only everything they do and that you dont
have. This form of controlled image appears often in the modern world. No
matter how much we believe a moment or an image is decisive, more often that
not, it can be revealed how set up the image is without us realising. An example
of this comes in the form of David Baileys image of his son, Sashca Bailey.

The photograph appears to be a spur of the moment capture of a young boy,
ironically looking in the opposite direction to a piece of graffiti behind him.
However, if we look a little deeper into the image and discover the subject is
Baileys son, suddenly, we realize the image is entirely staged from the
deliberately discordant gaze to the Bugsy Malone-style costume. (Higgins, 2010:
108)

This staging of images has been present since photography first began. Like the
Swagger portraits, everything gives a hidden meaning. Its the same for the
images within the roller derby portraits. Each prop, the expression of the skater,
Janna Dobson How does photography influence our world? L4

even the make-up that they wear, it all leads up to a final image from which we
take our perception of them. I have found that this is one of the largest influences
photography has had upon the modern world: the idea of perception.

Jean Baudrillard said, Photography is our exorcism. Primitive society had its
masks, bourgeois society its mirrors. We have our images. (Ewing, 2006: 68) In
basic terms, Baudrillard is saying that images are this eras way of creating a
godly image of us. They are an exorcism, a purification of our imperfections,
away to hide everything that we dont
want others to see. Images allow us to
mask ourselves, to hide behind other
personas and allow people to
perceive us in a different light.

Ive found that a lot of my work has
been influenced by the ideas of
perceptions, but also, my ideas behind
my derby life have too. As a Roller
Derby player myself, Ive had to
create my own persona and come up
with ideas for my own portraits. Ive
found that my ideas for my
photograph always come back around
to perceptions. In roller derby, most people want to be perceived as rough and
tough, a powerful person who could kill you with a glance. This comes across in
outfits, names and images. Ive sought out a similar idea.

Using a photograph, I could completely shift the idea of myself. I can bend the
truth, manipulating an image to show a person that I want other people to
believe I am on track, rather than myself. Within a photo-shoot, I can take away
the nerdy perceptions of myself. Im no longer the meek, shy, nerd that wanders
around in the day. I take off the glasses and I become Scaryfication, a superhero
style villainess who can wipe away the competition with a glance. Anyone who
Janna Dobson How does photography influence our world? L4

would didnt know me in the outside or the real world would take this image to
be how I was: non-spectacled and seemingly thinner, with a sly grin and brightly
coloured hair. The reality being at the time of the image being taken, I couldnt
see what I was doing due to not wearing glasses, my hair was a fading brown and
turquoise and my eyes were a dark blue not the menacing green they later
became. I was also wearing a necklace, which was removed in the post-
production.

But why did I edit the image at all? Because I wanted to be perceived in a
different light, I didnt want people to know the real me. A similar thing occurs in
most sports. People adorn masks and make-up, wearing brightly coloured
outfits, all to distract their opponents and heighten the audiences love for their
alter ego, another part of themselves where the boring parts are cancelled out. A
person changes himself or herself to draw an audience in, but equally, to scare
the opponent. Sport is sublimated warfare, and if the mask is there essentially to
protect the face, full advantage is taken of its decorative potential in order to
intimidate the offensive players. Jagged forms, brilliant colours neotribal
masks to distract the opposing warriors. (Ewing, 2006: 55).

In conclusion, photography has influenced our view of the world by offering us a
way to change the original us. It has shown us an outlet that lets us change who
and what we want to be through imagery, to manipulate the way we are seen by
the world who do not know us. It allows us to believe that through lies, we can
change the worlds perception of who we truly are and create an entirely new
person, just by adjusting the objects in a frame, the expression we give and the
position we stand in. Photography has made the world believe that manipulation
is the key, and perception of us is the most important thing, in order to take a
large step towards perfection.





Janna Dobson How does photography influence our world? L4

Reference List
Armitage, J. (2012). Sheffield Steel Roller Girls. Available:
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2014.

Parnavelas, E. (2012). Names, Characters and Personal Styles. In: Beecroft, J Flat
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Unknown. (2010). Magazine admits airbrushing Winslet. Available:
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Ewing, W. (2008). Facing Up. In: Unknown Face: The New Photographic Portrait.
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Graham-Dixon, A. (1992). ART / Posture and imposture: Andrew Graham-Dixon
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Higgins, J (2012). David Bailey. London: Phaidon Press Limited. p108-109.

Ewing, W (2008). Face: The New Photographic Portrait. London: Thames &
Hudson Ltd. p68.

Ewing, W (2008). Face: The New Photographic Portrait. London: Thames &
Hudson Ltd. P55.




Janna Dobson How does photography influence our world? L4

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