Unit 3 Personal Investigation title: Under Influence

Alcohol has varied effects on the human body and mind, sometimes negative and
sometimes positive, but what makes us as humans want to induce such effects on a regular
basis, and can such effects be influenced by environment?
In Unit 3 I was deadly interested in making some form of sociological comment. Having
previously worked thoroughly in Unit 2 with landscape and environment I wanted to venture
into the use of people. Ive always found portrait photography amazing but previously have
never had the confidence to ask people if they mind being photographed. This placed me
with boundaries over the possibilities of my photography work; but over the summer I
became close friends with two guys, one a previous friend and one new, developing this
friendship gave me a lot more confidence in myself and of course opportunities to have fun
and new experiences. I didnt want to forget such experiences, therefore I began
photographing them.
Originally my aims were simple, to capture memories through photography, but I soon
realised the context of such ideas could have a much deeper meaning.
As teenagers of the modern world its no secret that we like to consume alcohol and other
substances and I became interested in why this is. What makes us want to drink? What
makes us want to take and do drugs? What environments induce such temptations? And
what are the consequences? I wanted to able to answer these questions through
photography and I felt generating an almost diary like portfolio of my personal experiences
would allow me in some way to answer such questions.
My project is about social commentary, human documentation and finding out why
consuming alcohol is such a popular past time of the modern world with sometimes such
negative consequences.
In terms of inspiration, I was originally inspired by a blog. The blog
was created and is run by magazine and website Vice. The blog is
called Your Town is a Paradise and its aims are to expose the dirty
secrets of night life in different cities of the modern world. Its
obsession with environment is what originally intrigued me, the
concern over capturing the different ways of which cities enjoy
themselves was fascinating to me not only from a contextual basis
but simply as an idea.
The other contextual aspect which interested me was the comedic
element of the work they displayed, despite the sociological meaning
having quite serious connotations, the blog is ultimately about
capturing people in a drunken state, capturing the little things that
make a night memorable, capturing fun.
In terms of stylistic features this blog made me fall in love with the
use of vernacular photography. Before discovering Your Town is a
Paradise I was completely unaware of the word vernacular and its
stylistic possibilities. To take a photo in a vernacular style means to
almost not care about the image itself. In a sense it means to
diminish all stylistic features of an image and to take a photo on
instinct. Despite the diminishment of all stylistic features, vernacular
photography generates a non-care style of its own which I feel
certainly applies to the contextual basis of capturing people in a
drunken state both from behind the camera and in front.

Work of Your Town is a Paradise

What I took mainly from the Your Town is a Paradise blog was the aspect of environment.
The blog questions whether where you live determines your experiences in life. This not only
inspired me creatively but made me question where I live myself.

My work
I began my documentation as the summer ended. With a disposable camera I began
capturing my nights out aiming to cover an array of environments. From 18th Birthday
parties, to unorganised house parties and club nights, I spent my nights photographing the
events of teenage nightlife. A documentation of alcohol induced teenage regression.
Another photographer whose work follows a very
similar contextual route is Nan Goldin. Her work to
me is beautiful in a very similar sense to the work
of Your Town is a Paradise but in a much more
defined, professional manner.
Im not sure what it is that makes Goldins
photography such a marvel of beauty to me, but
there are a few definitive aspects, which Im aware
of.
Certainly the subjects of her images are the
pinnacle of her work and its the subjects for me
which makes her images so interesting. A lot of
her subjects are quite strange looking people, they
intrigue you, make you want to know them and
wonder why and how theyve ended up in the
situations theyve been captured in. Despite being
strange looking in a sense, it seems Goldins work
generates beauty within the people she captures.
Much like her photography a style of which at first

Work of Nan Goldin

usually isnt perceived as beautiful; but as you look further into it opinions change.
Theres a sense of mystery within Goldins work that contextually and stylistically intrigues
the mind, a sense of confusion, which in time generates approval.
Environment doesnt appear as such of a strong focus within Goldins work, as mentioned
previously; the pinnacle of her work is the subjects within the image not the situation theyre
based in.
As my project progressed I felt my contextual approach had become repetitive and tedious. I
felt new ideas needed to be approached. I felt I needed to apply context in a more liberal
fashion; but that I didnt need to improve my photography itself in any sense, but instead
apply further features.
This idea evolved into the application of text to my images. I wanted to not only capture a
night out through photography but gather further ideas from the subjects themselves.
Inspiration was initially based around the work of Jim Goldberg. His work didnt directly apply
to the contextual basis of my project but I felt stylistically his work was intriguing, it had a
sense of rawness about it which I felt could represent the teenage life Im documenting in a
sense.
.
Stylistically Goldbergs work is very harsh; his use of high
contrast black and white photography, large white spaces
and raw hand written type generate a minimalist yet
effective tendency about his work.
The contextual approach of his social commentary is
represented by the portrait photography, but most strongly
through the application of text generated by the subject
themselves. This aspect of Goldbergs work truly changed
my outlook on my project, I felt as if the analysation of
Goldbergs work allowed me to gain a new route of work,
and I felt as if I should approach this route with a direct
state of mind.
I decided to take two images from the latest shoot I had
taken that had portrayed a friend of mine. From the night
the shoot was conveying, this friend of mine I felt had the
strongest experience out of all my friends; he, Dylan not
only had to leave the party early but also passed out on
the way home. Not only this but I felt his views as a person
would be not only interesting but insightful because as a
person I feel he has a very interesting thought process.

Work of Jim Goldberg

From recreating Goldbergs style of work I feel I gained a

certain rate of depth within my project. The interview with
my friend Dylan allowed me to gain secondary insight into
my projects sociological ideas.
I felt this progress shouldnt remain stationary, the notion of
secondary insight had to make steps forward and therefore
I decided to research further artists within the realms of
applied text within photography.
My work

I came across a photographer by the name of Sophie Calle. I researched her work on a sole
stylistic basis as her contextual studies are concentrated on a subject out of my contextual
spectrum. I became interested in her hotel pieces which document a period in time of which
she worked as a hotel maid, she produced profiles of hotel room environments and
proposed personal opinions on the rooms resident.
Sophie Calles work tells a story and I found this
interesting. Her style and composition basis within her
Hotel Room pieces allowed the use of a high amount of
photos and a high amount of text to apply opinions and
personal stories.
I began recreating Calles style of work using my own
shoots and own stories. I found the notion of being able
to convey my own opinions on the nights out I was
capturing quite interesting, it gave me the opportunity to
go into more depth and analyse my own thoughts and
opinions in a deeper sense than simply generating
general points within annotation.

Work of Sophie Calle

Not only this but by recreating Calles work, my work had

gained a larger sense of character and personality, my
work became personal. What made me think the most
was that by applying such a large sum of text this would
narrow down the amount of people who would appreciate
my work in a positive sense; the people who take time to
read what is written are the people that would gain true
understanding.
Being fond of Calles compositional style and Goldbergs
secondary source of opinion, I decided to combine the
two and begin completing in depth interviews. Within my
shoots I began generating profiles, concentrating on a
couple people instead of sporadically capturing events as
they unfolded in front of the lens. I felt at this point my
work had become real, it had gained importance. Before I
was simply capturing the nights of my teenage years with
comedic sensibility, but now I felt a certain sense of
sophistication had entered my work style.

My work

My work

My work

Within my interviews I decided to apply my whole contextual basis. I collated all my research
and contextual studies into a single interview. Currently at this point I was simply working
around the effects of alcohol and environment and therefore I based my questions strongly
but simply around these points. For the interviews I generated a profile, age, name and
location. This gave the interviews the sense of sophistication I was searching for, but I then
remembered the roots of my project. My project at its birth was about fun, capturing teenage
regression induced by alcohol and I didnt want to forget that. Therefore I induced a comedic
aspect to the interview pieces and applied the notion of drink of choice. This gave the
interviews a whole new degree of humour, especially when analysed that one of the
interviewees was drinking Amaretto, Vodka and Pepsi.
I decided to prolong such humorous factors of the interviews and apply the drink of choice to
the interview itself; and what made this so interesting was the final question of Okay and
why?; this truly opened up the spectrum of teenage regression.
Interviewee 1 Dylan Antoniak
Because I wanted to get fucked and Amaretto takes the edge off Vodka. Wow that sounds
bad.
Interviewee 2 Matthew Bishop
Why? Urm, I chose the drink because I like the taste and the price is decent. Some say that
drinking cider is like drinking a pop drink and before you know it youre pissed, but that really
doesnt bother me to be honest.
These answers convey such a strong sense of personality. What I found most interesting
about these answers is that they could and can be perceived in a variety of ways and that to
me this is determined by age. To an older reader this could generate disgust, whilst to a
younger reader it would most likely generate laughter; modern day teenage life is a subject
that generates a variety of opinions in itself but to document it, and allow people to study it I
feel will only bring out and strengthen such opinions whether negative or positive.

At this point in the project I felt I had discovered my niche, I was trapped somewhere
between the spectrums of sophistication and comedy photography and I found this deadly
interesting and exciting. The notion that my work could affect people in a number of ways
excited me, there was a sense of danger that surrounded my work for the public, but for me
it was simply fun. Being able to document some of the finest nights of my life so far and
generate sociological commentary simultaneously made me happy; I felt I had gained a
deeper insight into my own life.
Unfortunately what became quickly apparent at this point in my project was that the amount
of work I had completed simply wasnt up to standards. This was simply down to the rate I
was going out, I knew at the start of my project I had posed myself in a difficult position and I
knew it would be hard to overcome. At the beginning of my project it was summer turning
autumn; a warm time of year. Parties, especially house parties were at their peak, I was able
to complete shoots almost once a week, but as time progressed and the nights became
colder, parties began to diminish. This presented a barrier within my work, and I felt I had to
overcome it, but week after week I struggled. The summer air makes people want to get up
and go out but unfortunately the cold winter air does the opposite, my project almost came to
a standstill.
I turned 18 on October 18th, the mid-point of the project itself, up to this point I had been
using disposable cameras. Shoot after shoot I was presented with disappointment only
receiving a minimal amount of the images I took due to the quality of the cameras
themselves, I refused to use such cameras again. Now 18 I began going out in town, this
presented me with so many opportunities but factors of camera use deemed such
possibilities near impossible. I refused to use disposable cameras and feared using a college
camera in case any damage occurred.
Instead of giving up I decided to begin documenting simple nights, these include simply
hanging out with friends round someones house and a work night out. Although the factor of
alcohol induced teenage regression diminished significantly the shoots were still successful.
I was able to delve into a whole new spectrum of teenage life, the bad night out.
The finest example of this was the work night out I captured. This night was awful, a deadly
array of age groups were collated and forced to sing 70s and 90s classics on the karaoke. I
felt by capturing a night deemed so bad I could invert my current contextual points to
generate negative opinions rather than positive.
I chose a previous interviewee to focus on
for my interview piece, I felt this would be
deemed as a repetitive nature of work but I
then thought it would be interesting to
collate opinions from the same person as
then such opinions would be enforced by
previous experiences.
I asked the interviewee very similar
questions to the previous interview he took
part in as I felt I would be able to generate a
strong contrast between the environments
of the nights captured by doing this.
Whats most interesting about this is the
drink of choice question that I spoke of
previously. I re asked the same question
within this interview and the response
gained displays the contrast I was
My work

searching for in a strong state.

Interviewee 1 Dylan Antoniak Interview 1
Because I wanted to get fucked and Amaretto takes the edge off Vodka. Wow that sounds
bad.
Interviewee 1 Dylan Antoniak Interview 2
Well it was the only cider on tap, but then again the prices were extortionate so at the end of
the day I didnt really want it.
The enthusiasm displayed in these responses is key to my point here. The opening line of
each response is what I feel is most interesting, the contrasts presented between the two
opening lines is what truly displays the way of which environment can affect a night. The
enjoyability of a night out is about whom youre with, where you are, and of course the price.
This may sound as if thats all Ive learned within this project but there is certainly deeper
meaning behind the point Ive made.
I wanted to make a statement with this project and I feel Ive succeeded. I wanted to capture
the stupidity, the enjoyment, the hate, the anger and the love induced by alcohol.
Sociologically I wanted to define why people take such actions to induce the actions and
emotions listed and environmentally I wanted to define how and why environment affects a
night out and the evolution of enjoyment defined by age.
I feel Ive answered all these questions to a strong extent and have gained deeper insight
into my life itself. Certainly the most informed decision Ive made influenced by my project is
that time shouldnt be wasted. Throughout my project Ive developed an almost photographic
diary of my current teenage life, looking back on all the images Ive collated induces
happiness, and lets me know that time and money shouldnt be wasted on the little things.
You wont remember the night you stayed in and digitally rented Shawshank Redemption
when youre forty-four, youll remember the night your friend mistook a police car for a pizza
delivery guy, the night you broke into an allotment shed and the night you walked four miles
home because you thought itd be funny; although extremely clich, youre only a teenager
once and my project wholly defines that.
Jacob Benfield
Words - 2951