Background

‘Atlantus’ is a photography project completed this year by Martin Toft – in association with The Archilse Comtemporary Photography Project – set up by Gareth Syvret at the Societe Jersai Photographic Archives. The project explores the relationship between Jersey in the Channel Islands and the State of New Jersey in America.

In 1664, Jerseyman Sir George Carteret, a royalist statesman was offered Land in the American Colonies by King Charles II, in recognition for the Island’s loyalty to the Royalists during the English Civil War. The territory given to Carteret was named ‘New Amsterdam’, which Carteret  re-named ‘New Jersey’, in honour of his Birthplace. This territory later became known as the State of New Jersey after American independence from the British Empire in 1776.

After discovering that the Societere Jersai had virtually no photographic or written historical archives concerning New Jersey nor the relationship between Jersey and New Jersey, Toft therefore decided to make a photographic response exploring the connection. Along with Gareth Syvret and the team at Archilse,  Toft embarked on a large 18 month photography project. The project explored both the historical as well as cultural links between these two places.

The finished project  was made into a multi-functional newspaper edition, linked together on an exhibition display and shown as a visual story, of which 3,000 copies have been made. There are 5 different stories within ‘Atlantus’, which make up 5 different newspapers to complete the series. ‘Atlantus’ explores the connections shared between the communities of Jersey and New Jersey, historically, politically and socially. The choice of locations were the West Coast of Jersey and the East Coast of New Jersey, a poetic gesture as these two locations Geographically face one another, a therefore the photos of ‘Atlantus’ metaphorically builds a bridge which connects the two distant lands together.

The photographs taken  by Toft over the course of the project goes to tell a story. Toft in doing so, uses many forms of narrative techniques to tell this story. Toft uses historical events and archival images over the course of the project as a way of creating a common connections, then explored in greater detail through the documentation of his own photographs. ‘Atlantus’ is body of work related to the genre of documentary photography but incorporates many different sub-categories of this, including ‘still-lifes’, ‘formal portraits/tableaux’, as well as classic documentary photography.

We watched a short clip, where he explained his work and medium. I have stated some of my thoughts on him, in this short response:

Most of Soth’s work includes working with strangers. Being that he is a shy character he finds this challenging, but that drives him more. He quoted: My own awkwardness comforts people.” He also added: “I still get nervous today… I did a picture for a The New Yorker recently and I was drenched in sweat by the end and it was the middle of winter.”

Much like Trent Parke, Soth is also into street photo photography, although that’s not his main practice. The American photographer looks at large scale projects including: portraits, landscapes, still-life’s, etc. It’s complicated to explain it, as he says. But he tried to ‘weave all the pictures together to show this larger world’. He creates some many portraits of complete strangers and other amazing works.

He imagines what he wants to capture before he even photograph’s it. He has a purpose and an aim. Most of the time, the Magnum photographer writes down a list of things he wants to look at, for instance ‘bird watchers’

Here’s an example of Alec’s old business card:

Soth said that in he see’s ‘photography as different from conventional storytelling in that in some ways, the photographer is the protagonist’. He believes that ‘the photographer is the protagonist’. This means that they have as much input as the people being shot and that the photographer can ‘experience the movement’.

Since he’s a documentary photographer, he believes that “you need multiple images to tell a story.” He adds “being frozen in time, means you can’t really tell stories.” His contemporary photography is amazing. It captures great moments such as vulnerability, both in him and the people he photograph’s. Soth is very interested in vulnerability as he thinks there’s something beautiful about it. He added “(I’ve been) amping up the vulnerability, but also my own vulnerabilities, exposing more of myself. Throughout the process in which he takes, edits and uploads pictures vulnerability is definitely a major theme.

He’s essentially an artist that uses photography to tell stories. Although his approach isn’t the typically traditional.

For instance here’s some of his work entitled Sleeping by the Mississippi

Most people would imagine that during the ‘Mississippi’ series all Alec did was take pictures of random places. Contrarily to popular belief, Soth actually wanted to capture a ‘journey’ and magical moments as he travelled through the state.

In class, we watched a video on Trente Parke. He described his photography, techniques and philosophies. I have written some paragraphs on my initial thoughts:

Trent has so much motivation and determination. He has got an extremely strong sense of light and visual components. He takes documentary pictures, meaning that he takes pictures daily. He loves the process of making pictures, from taking them, to processing them in the dark room. His passion for photography started when he was 10 years old, after his mother’s passing. Parke wanted to capture special moments in time and keep them forever. He said ” Photography is a discovery of life which makes you look at things you’ve never looked at before.” His photographs contain very sharp strong light. Here are some examples of his work, which are in both color and black and white:

He quoted “I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical.”

His pure perseverance to get the perfect shot is apparent. Trent once tried shooting the same scene for a period of three months. He saw something in the film that he wanted to recreate and he went back to that place every chance he could. In this occasion it was at a train station. He managed to finally capture the shadows in a magical way. This is the picture that he was referring to:

Concerning the picture above Parke stated the following: “I went each evening, for about 15 minutes, when the light came in between two buildings. It happens only at a certain time of the year: you’ve just got that little window of opportunity. I was relying so much on chance – on the number of people coming out of the offices, on the sun being in the right spot, and on a bus coming along at the right time to get that long, blurred streak of movement. If I didn’t get the picture, then I was back again the next day. I stood there probably three or four times a week for about a month. I used an old Nikon press camera that you could pull the top off and look straight down into, because I was shooting from a tiny tripod that was only about 8cm high. I had tried to lie on the ground, but people wouldn’t stand anywhere near me. I finally got this picture after about three or four attempts. I shot a hundred rolls of film, but once I’d got that image I just couldn’t get anywhere near it again. That’s always a good sign: you know you’ve got something special.”

This really solidifies that he is a very determined man. His pure perseverance and love for photography drives him to try again and again. For me, it’s sort of like ‘trial and error’ where he aims to get a shot that’s very close to perfect.

He originally came from Newcastle and rose to fame, winning many awards. However, Parke’s enthusiasm is driven from his love for photography; he isn’t concerned with winning awards, but catching amazing life moments.

The Australian has a passion for street photography. He first began by travelling to certain places and he’d wait for the exact right moment to shoot. The light would have to be exact and well reflected.

In a particular shot, Parke was able to photograph a very unusual scene:

He saw a black ‘aboriginal’ woman with her ‘albino’ child. He doesn’t usually go up to people and ask for pictures, but Trent felt compelled by this unique opportunity. Just as he was clicking the camera button, the sky began dark and cloudy. He’d regretted wasting that chance, since he thought that the darkened sky had ruined the shot. It wasn’t until ten years later that Parke processed the image and fell in love with it. I think that the strong lighting creates a bold and powerful contrast, which works really well here.

His work is normally presented in grand displays. Here’s one of his exhibitions called ‘Please step quietly everyone can hear you’.

Here are some of his pictures that I discovered online: http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/parke/

Trent Parke’s work is very Contemporary. The  word in itself, originated from Latin of ‘Con’ which translates to ‘with’ and ‘temporarius’ which signifies ‘of the time’. Therefore, Contemporary now equates to the word ‘modern’. Nevertheless, just because the picture is modern doesn’t mean that it can be called this. The photography’s normally described as abstract or unusual. It’s all about recording up-to-date, present-day moments, for instance Urban Development, Terrorism, Pollution, etc.

Web link to post called “12 lessons that Trent Parke has taught me about street photography”: http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2014/02/10/12-lessons-trent-parke-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/