*Raw* Photography

Many of you responded to my Russian Women post including Johann Wall who offered up one from his own collection:

And thanks to a couple of you who pointed me in the direction of Jon Feinstein’s From Russia With Love project.

There is a rawness to these images that we are (conveniently, uncomfortably, guiltily) sidestepping. Thanks to Liz (check the comment section of the original post for her mindful and cogent perspective) for bringing reality back to bear on this photography.

But to continuing thinking about the photographic quality of these images, here’s a note I received from Daniel Ehrenworth:

I think you’ve opened up an oil drum of issues here especially in relation to the photography. I don’t think any of these women pictures in the email have any connection at all to the content. It may very well be written by a 50 year old man and they may have just found these pictures on a myspace page. Have a listen to the most recent episode of This American Life called “Bait and Switch”. Click on the “full episode” link and fast forward it to 38:25

However when thinking about it from the point of view of a photographer who’s worked in both advertising and the art world, I can’t help but create parallels between what’s being done here and what is done everyday in the world of advertising. Basically create a fantasy and figure out ways for people to buy into that fantasy….even if it never fully delivers on its promise.

I’m gonna give this some more thought. But thank you so much for bringing this up. I love thinking about how benign photographs take on a whole new meaning by a simply shift in context. I also love thinking about what it means to make photographs that have a “real, raw, unwashed quality”. I get that a lot. And it’s so full of contradictions it kinda makes your head spin.

After we chatted, Daniel followed up with these further thoughts, taken from his own experiences:

The scenario given to you by an AD is they want you to produce a photograph for their campaign that has a really raw, gritty, snapshotty, unwashed kind of look. I seem to get that a lot nowadays. I’ve attached three examples of images I’ve shot where I had been given that kind of direction at the start. It’s kind of amazing to see how wide a range the “raw, snapshotty” look seems to be.

© Daniel Ehrenworth

© Daniel Ehrenworth

© Daniel Ehrenworth

But perhaps we should think a little less about what the images look like and perhaps more about what the instructions actually mean. Are they talking about Nan Goldin or Robert Frank or Terry Richardson or Roger Ballen or Larry Clark or your aunt Joany’s snaps from her vacation in Brazil? Do they want raw-snapshotty (shitty looking) or raw-snapshotty (the unwashed beauty of the world just as god intended it to be rendered on film at that given moment) or raw-snapshotty (appears to be taken by someone who probably wasn’t even looking through the viewfinder). Because all three are kinda awesome and all three come with a huge amount of codes and conventions - possibly even more than your typical stylized slick ad shot.

In my experience, this can be one of the hardest things to interpret as an Art Buyer. When the Art Director says: “I want it to look real” it can be very difficult to sort out where on the continuum the AD really wants his real. Likewise with talent: does “real people” just mean “not models but still prettier than you or I”?

But thanks to Johann’s unsolicited Russian Women contribution above, I’ve found a great example of the successful use of “real” photography in advertising. Johann shot this for TBWA Vancouver and says the Creative Team were after what they called “staged reality”:

© Johann Wall

© Johann Wall

© Johann Wall

© Johann Wall

The photographic approach to the campaign was super successful for the brand. According to Creativity Online:

“Major sporting events don’t need beer sponsorship. You do!”

This was the starting point for TBWA Vancouver to create an integrated campaign for promoting their clients craft beer. Instead of sponsoring big public events the Okanagan Spring invested his ad dollars directly to its drinkers.

Party hosts could submit their ideas on sponsormespring.ca from their small-scale, backyard or basement social gatherings to party’s like “Hanging Around After Ed’s Soccer Game”. People could vote on who should get supported and by the end of every month sponsorships where given out to the submissions with the most votes.

The documentary pictures of the events could not only be found on flickr and other social media portals but also became part of the official ad campaign.

A great idea that sells, in the first month of the campaign sales went up by 30%.

For more on the Okanagan Spring work, go here and here.

Is Ryan McGinley the current reigning King of staged reality? Could be:

For more context on this commercial, check out Daryl Lang’s (PDN blog author) post about it here.