003 - An Article, Quote and a Page

As a way to start off my research, I have been given the task to gather information through various resources using both the internet and the library. The first of which is an article from a magazine or a periodical. 

Instead of looking through loads and loads of magazines, I have decided to use the internet to see if there were any articles about the artist and his work published online. The first keyword/s that I used was 'this is not a house edgar martins' but this brought up a lot of pages that were unrelated to what I was looking for. Therefore, I decided to narrow my research down by adding the word 'article' on the search tab. Through this, I was able to find more relevant webpages to what I was looking for and also locate the artist's website. 

Edgar Martins. [Online]. http://edgarmartins.com/. [Accessed: 21/11/2011].

Interestingly, it contained links to different books, magazines and other publications that has featured his work. By clicking through each of the ones that were under the heading 'This is Not a House', I was directed to pdf copies of articles that spoke of his work. 

Edgar Martins. (2011). 'This is Not a House'. AG. Spring 2011: pp. 14-23. [Online]. http://edgarmartins.com/pdf/11_10_04_Edgar_Martins_revised.pdf. [Accessed: 21/11/2011].

Jorge Calado. (2011). 'Edgar Martins The Original Sin'. Hot Shoe. April 2011, pp. 8-19. [Online]. http://edgarmartins.com/pdf/11_10_04Hot_%20Shoe_Article.pdf. [Accessed: 21/11/2011].

There were two main articles written this year that talked about the various issues surrounding the project as well as the process the artist went through to produce his images. These articles are really helpful since their focus are also on the topics that I chose earlier in my brainstorming activity. One of the articles were written by the artist himself (Edgar Martins. 'This is Not a House'. AG.), which allowed for an insight to his thoughts and method of practice. The other article was also written this year but by a guy called Jorge Calado ( 'Edgar Martins The Original Sin'. Hot Shoe.). It talks more about the ideas behind photographs and the process it involves to produce them. He also referenced previous photographers to support his argument in terms of the controversy the project underwent as it affected its meaning and overall impact.

To find a quotation from a book, I decided to check the University Library's catalogue and see if they had any books that featured Edgar Martins and it came up with these results. I then clicked on the third link, which is the book specifically published to feature the entire 'This is not a House' project. However, this book was not yet available in the library and neither are any of the other two books by Edgar Martins. Therefore, I went on Amazon to have a sneek peek at the actual book and also did further research on google about the book and found out that a guy called Peter Osborne did an essay about the project and it was published as the book's afterword. This essay is provided on Martins' website.

Peter Osborne. (2010). This is Not a House by Edgar Martins. Lewis, Dewi Publishing. [Online]. http://www.edgarmartins.com/pdf/11_02_22_EN_PeterOsborne.pdf. [Accessed: 21/11/2011].

Quote: 

"Photography have not so much fallen apart as fallen into each other. Martins’ work is the bearer of the crisis with which it engages, a crisis that is only in part economic. More immediately the manifest theme of This is Not a House places it at a point where parallel themes converge, each governed by a fear of the loss of reality: the concern that digitalisation has undermined photographic realism and compromised any truth-telling facility in the medium and beyond; and the fear of Wall Street’s undermining of what is interestingly referred to as the real economy."
- Peter Osborne

Lastly, I did research using the library's eResources wherein I attempted to look for more articles on newspapers and magazine regarding Martins' work. Through NexisUK, I was directed to different published documents and decided to click on a copy of an article with the title 'The New York Times's Gilded Age'.

'The New York Times's Gilded Age'. Scrapbook. Volume 14: No. 41. [Online]. http://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/nexis/docview/getDocForCuiReq?lni=7W54-DF30-Y935-M00T&csi=154608&oc=00240&perma=true. [Accessed: 21/11/2011].

Although this is another article from a magazine, it is more of a criticism towards the New York Times who commisioned Martins for this project. It also provides me a different outlook on the project and how it stands on a social and professional point of view. 

The various information that I have gathered from this initial research is a really good start to know more about the main aspects of the artists work. The two most important focuses from these writings, quotes and articles are the process and method of creating the photographs as well as the entire project's social, not to mention professional, implications. I have learnt that there is a lot of debate as to whether it is appropriate to manipulate photojournalistic photos and if doing so still depicts reality or just plain fallacy. As I move on with this research, I would like to find out more the limits you have to face in photojournalism as well as its difference from the artistry in photography.