DISSERTATION-HOW JUILAN GERMAIN USES MULTIFOCAL APPROACHES TO GIVE A VOICE SUCCESSFULLY

ulian Germain will be the main discussion within my Dissertation for my final year at university. The three projects by Germain I am focusing on are Steelworks(1990) For every minute your angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness (2005) and In the eyes of the streets (No Olho da Rua). My dissertation will break down the strategies of these project and how Germain has avoided being criticised for his power and a photographer of his vulnerable subject.

A brief overview of steelworks(1990) would be Germain explored the social issues from a town Consett in County Durham after the closure of the steelworks. Leading to less money in the town and loss of jobs. Germain uses Family archives and newspaper images from the town to build this storey of this stone town and the people who live there.

When viewing Steelworks(1990) I noticed the combination of the images used within this project; they represent these working-class people in a different perspective that we are used to seeing from the likes of Martin Parr’s work in Brighton. New Brighton (1979) [right image.] Parr photographed the lower-class people and the images seem to be documentation which points out the poor with a camera. This supports the critique of documentary photographers using the camera as a tool for power. Germain has photographed the people from Consett in County Durham in a positive way showing their personal lives, families and homes. When photographing British towns, photographers tend to document them in a negative way; exposing them on how they choose to live, leaving a stigma around British working-class towns.

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For every minute your angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness (2005) is more of a personal project about an elderly man and how he appreciates the simple things in life. The photobook also touches on the loneliness from the loss of his wife and plays with images so that the absence of her is evident. Julian again used archives images from the elderly man family album. Germain believed that the man’s photo album was very talented and when exhibiting this project, he plastered the archived album wall to wall [left image] yet left his own images small. This reinforces the importance of his subject matters and their voice when making work.

Germain has again made this work into a photo book as seen in the middle image. the floral cover represents the love for flowers Charles the elderly man documented has. The flowers run through the book in Germain work and in Charles archives.

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In the eyes of the streets (1995) is the third project I disguise in my dissertation in relation to Julian Germain multifocal approach to give a voice. In the eyes of the streets (1995) Germain didn't work alone which he has previously done in the other project.

Working alongside another photographer such as Belo Horizonte who photographed the street kids work platters around the city of Brazil.

The strategy used by Germain in this project differs from the first two projects as Germain not only works with others, he doesn't use his own photographs. Julian gives the streets kids their own camera so they can document their day to day without Germain being there. In order for Germain to get their voices, Hurd, he uses a newspaper zine rather than a photo book for the subject to hand out in the streets. this method allows the kids to be seen and Hurd through handing the papers out and their photography within.