Forensic foraging in photography

Forensic Foraging embraces minimalist, throwback techniques to unlock an evolving photographic genre. This emerging approach was developed by William C. Crawford based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Jim Provencher from Sydney, Australia. Both men are writers, teachers, and photographers. The trite, trivial, and mundane are often overlooked by today's technologically driven photographers. Images shot in place can often unlock the hidden beauty and value of everyday things. Thus, a fractured glass window found on a wrecked desert shack might ulitmately be effectively presented as a compelling photographic image.
Such a transformational presentation can be achieved by applying basic photographic techniques: framing, coloration, saturation, contrast, lighting, etc. This precise application of seminal techniques can often change the mundane into a pleasing lump of eye candy. This process is the essence of Forensic Foraging.
Photographers today possess a plethora of powerful technical tools. High resolution sensors, potent post processing software, and cameras with such jacked up processors that they could, in a pinch, support the govermental operations of a small city. Many camera images all but surpass the human capacities of the eye and brain to fully appreciate their miraculous clarity and resolution.
Photographs today often look far better than the real thing. Some forward thinking literary journals are even formally distinguishing between heavily computer embellished photos and more traditionally crafted images in their submission guidelines. In a word, this because photography, in some of its contemporary applications, may have lost touch with or even surpassed reality.
The philosophy behind Forensic Foraging does not denigrate the vast vibrant sea of present day images. However, it strongly embraces the meticulous, minimalist techniques that made photography as a medium a success in the first place. Rather than a just advancing the now routinely spectacular work enabled by powerful technology, Forensic Foraging puts forth more restrained but still compelling images relying on carefully crafted throwback techniques.
Forensic photography evolved to record and help analyze crime scene evidence. Forensic Foraging borrows from these same precise, sifting techniques. The genre involves plying the world of the the trite, trivial, and mundane in a thorough, plodding fashion. Everything encountered is recorded in a systematic fashion, and then, after careful review, some of these photos are are publicly presented in this new specialized format. Sometimes this process yields striking images by mere coincidence. More often, mundane shots are elevated to reveal a bit of the beauty and hidden substance found in many everyday things. The objective is to tease out unseen value which then spurs the viewer to consider the image in an expanded fashion. Crawford and Provencher don't consider this process as creating art. Indeed, they think of themselves not as artists but as itinerant shooters with a distinct, discerning eye for the world around them.
The photographic DNA of Walker Evans, Robert Frank, and Saul Leiter permeates the pedigree of Forensic Foraging. However, Stephen Shore's early volumes, American Surfaces and Uncommon Places serve as the primary influences on their present work. Shore demonstrated that the mundane delivered in color could attract a wide audience. His work is always actively simmering in their subconscious as they shoot.
Jim Provencher's strong declaration "to constantly get out and shoot your surroundings" holds true to the primary theme of Shore's early work which showcases thousands of travel snapshots that could have been taken any where.
Shore's deadpan, banal images of motel rooms, faded lampshades, battered armchairs, and dinner food on Formica table tops hint at some deeper human narrative. His strong, astutely frozen moments helped in the 1970's to open up the color medium as as a powerful new photographic tool.
The trademark redundancy of Shore's work pays homage to the use of serial artistic forms which are also an integral aspect of Forensic Foraging. The "forage" with its methodical searching and sifting for undervalued subjects often employs the use of a large array of serial forms. Forensic Foraging requires dedicated exploration of the photographer's immediate environment while shooting numerous serial forms in a distinctive throwback style. A sample of these carefully crafted images is then presented to provide pictorial highlights from the forage.
Australian ex-patriot (Italy) painter, Jeffery Smart, also suggested some of the primary tenets of Forensic Foraging. His paintings of urban scenes exude the same heavy, layered, color saturation which is employed in this new approach. This unusual gambit helps to to grab the viewers attention when combined with creative framing, lighting, high contrast, and vivid polychrome.
Smart's use of bright, colorful, repetitive geometric shapes can also often be seen in Forensic Foraging. These visual characteristics are often found in naturally occurring situations such as street art and wrecked desert buildings. The genre's creators capitalize on exaggerating texture and Golden Hour light to cause trite, mundane subjects to pop out at the viewer.
There are also obvious instances when Forensic Foraging, street photography, and photojournalism come together to form the nexus of the the emerging genre. Street photography, of course, can also exist outside of the urban setting as can Forensic Foraging. Framing and timing are usually regarded as key ingredients in street photography The decisive, poignant moment is extremely import here. On the other hand, street photography aligns more closely with photojournalism because both usually attempt to convey a story.
Forensic Foraging sometimes coincidetally conveys a narrative, but its primary purpose is engaging the viewer with a compelling photo. Thereby, the image trumps any accompanying storyline. Where they just happen to pop up, visual narratives can greatly complement Forensic Foraging. In the final analysis, this new genre captures the essence of ordinary elements revealing both the universal and, at times, the extraordinary.
"Funk" is also an important element in the success of Forensic Foraging. This term is helpful in identifying hep, unconventional stuff. Crawford and Provencher venerate the " funk factor" in their revivalist photography. Funk, while not a absolute genre requirement, is always viewed as a gigantic plus because it helps to attract the viewer to an otherwise devalued subject. Combined with the other previously mentioned throwback devices, funk is crucial to attracting viewers to the image while making photography fun for all parties concerned. Funk in Forensic Foraging is as funk is to the Blues on the musical side of things. It makes the medium sing.
Crawford and Provencher don't seek to impede the inevitable advance of techno-driven photography. They hope that photographers today might pause just long enough to consider the downside of the over prevalent notion that basic, seminal shooting techniques have been all but replaced by the magical mantra of post processing alterations and computer clean up. The legacy of Evans, Frank, and Shore should be re-examined in the light of this emerging throwback genre of shooting. After all, these giants helped to elevate the medium of photography to the lofty status it now enjoys. Forensic Foraging seeks to remind photographers and viewers alike that basic shooting techniques will always have a place in the medium. They are, in fact, simply irreplaceable even in the face of exploding technological advances.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu