I have been looking through my grandparents archive photographs and have chosen a few which are my favourite.
This is my Grandad as a young boy.
and my Grandma as a young Girl.
This is my Granpa’s parents, Fredrick and Doris.
This is my Grandma’s parents, Ted and Claris.
This is my Grandpa when he was around 20 years old. He was at teachers training college.
A portrait of my Grandma when she was around 18 years old. This is my Grandpa’s favourite image of my Grandma as a young lady and he kept this image with him when he was in Jersey and my Grandma was in Wales.
These three final images are of my Grandpa’s several activities from over the years. Consisting of singing competitions and rugby.
This is my Grandparents family photograph; their three sons and themselves.
These are the final four images that I have chosen from my grandparents shoot at their local church. I haven’t had time to edit these images yet, but when I do I would like to edit the lighting as some of the images have a yellow/orange tinge.
This is a photograph of the main feature of the church. The stain glass window was put in, in the year 2000 when the church was refurbished. It was donated by Mourant and Jeune Families. The master piece was created by Neil Mckenzie who as well as being a stain glass window artist is also a great lover of Boarder collies. Neil includes them in everyone of his stain glass window creations.
I really love this stain Glass window because it is the main statement in the church, and everything else inside the building is positioned around it. It involves a great about of bold beautiful colours that are very eye catching. My favourite colour on the window is the purple, because when it is a sunny morning it catches the light and creates a beautiful colour.
This candle is in the main area of the church and is lit every service. my Grandma is usually the person to light the candle as she arrives an hour before the service to prepare the church. The candle represents Jesus being the light of the world, I like that everything in a church has a meaning or a representation behind it. I think it makes everything more interesting and intriguing.
I think this is a powerful image because of the light of the candle reflecting in my Grandma’s glasses, especially because of the strong meaning behind the lit candle. Also the wooden cross in the background of the photograph.
This is my portrait of Rev. Graeme Halls, that I took this Sunday. He usually takes the GeorgeTown services however this weekend he was taking the remembrance celebration at Cenotaph. His wife, Elaine, made him his stole especially for this occasion. The stole is so beautiful and includes so many bright colours which are very attractive to look at.
I like how Graeme is positioned, he has a very straight posture, which makes him very welcoming and nice to photograph. His hands are positioned in front of him, in a very natural way and his face is smiling, but not at the camera.
This is the last photograph from my finals from my church shoot. It is of my Grandpa who is changing into his organ shoes. It is a strong image because it is an action shot, and you can see the movement in the left foot. He is positioned directly in the middle of the image with the leading lines from the steps leading the eye toward him. He is also the darkest thing in the photograph, therefore the eye is attracted straight to him. There is a poppy display to the right of him which is a bold object to have in an image.
As we departed for half-term, I began to take some general photographs of themes like: street photography, portraiture and environmental shots.
Whilst I was in a cafe with family and friends, we came across a familiar man. The family friend had been a customer where my mum had worked for many decades and everyone grew to know him well.
The thing that struck me about him was his strong character. Although he was suffering through a very difficult condition he still managed to smile through it and enjoy himself. His uplifting demeanor and happy attitude was refreshing.
I then respectfully asked him if I could take some pictures and he agreed to let me. I instructed him to stand outside the cafe whilst I tried out several shots and angles. However, I didn’t instruct him to pose or stand which he did naturally.
Here are my edited outcomes from this shoot:
This was the first shot that I took. I wanted to capture his device which he must carry around with him in order to breathe properly. I tinted the image into light blue. Blue is a cool color so I think that it made the mood gloomy which is what I wanted.
This picture below is both an establishing shot and a portrait. It involves the man’s body and environment.
I then took a side shot, because I wanted to incorporate a full-body shot.
As the family friend was looking away I captured this. In the distance, a greatly-timed cyclist appeared.
I think that the photography below is very striking. The man ‘s expression is very strong and he seems to be very concentrated.
I experimented with various colors whilst editing. Firstly black and white and then a purple solid color.
As another experiment, I did the same to these one’s except with the shades of grey and blue.
This is my favorite image. I changed it into black and white to demonstrate the intensity of the contrasting shades. He is looking directly into the camera with sharp eyes and a great presence. The look seems very real and the fact that he isn’t smiling is even better. This is because smiles tend to hide the truth about how someone’s feeling, so this is good to imagine.
On entering the exhibition room for the first time, I was impressed at the vast display of photographs which were on offer. I would say there was probably about 200-300 images on display. One noticeable feature about this was that all of the photographs were in black and white. At first I was quite critical of this because in the last 10 years the JEP have been photographing and printing a great numbers of their photographs in colour and I think that this should have been recognized, as part of the last 125 years. One possible reason for this however may be that the archives is recognizing the fact that traditional photographs have always been I black and white. On evaluation however I am disappointed that the exhibition didn’t include this as an aspect.
The layout of the display I found was very symmetrical and well ordered. This immediately gave me a good feel about the exhibition because I think that it is important for it to laid out in a methodical manner so that the display looks tidy, reflecting the effort put into displaying. I also liked how the room was quite open. We had about 80 people that fitted comfortably in the room and I think if there was less people in the room this vast size would have been even more apparent.
My first impression of the images on display was quite mixed. Some of the images included I thought was better than others, and at times the layout appeared to be quite inconsistent as to show different themes and time periods scattered around. In honesty, I would have preferred if the images were laid out in a more chronological order so that you could literally travel through the timeline of the 125 years the exhibition attempted to convey. Some of the images however I thought were really interesting and in a way I like how a variety of different images (i.e. themes and topics) were shown alongside each other because it visually helped to mix up what was being shown. In addition, I think that the inclusion of colour images would have further added to this variation.
What is it that you like about your favourite image – be as specific as you can? What is the photographer trying to communicate?
This image shows German troops parading outside town, just outside Lloyds Back, which still exists today. I like this image because I think it gives a fascinating insight into what it may have been to live through the occupation. The thought of armed troop parading around a small island such as Jersey must have been quite a scary and unpleasant experience for the islanders. This tension is emphasized well through the presence of the two citizens, standing outside the Pomme D’or, looking very uncomfortable.
The best aspect of this photograph is that is effectively captures a theme and a moment. It is important to look back on images that shows the everyday occurrences of life under the Nazi occupation, which is something which this image effectively conveys.
This photo shows a few children enjoying the old cable cars of fort regent, which are longer in operation. These cable cars were once considered an important aspect of fort regent and St Helier in general, enjoyed by both tourists and islanders. I am pleased that the exhibition included an image of the cable cars because although not a crucial part of Jersey’s history, it was nevertheless an integral part of Jersey’s identity for a number of years, especially being a symbol of Jersey’s long history and economic reliance on tourism. I find the history of cable cars to be very interesting because my Dad used to work as a member of Fort Regent staff who were in charge of the cable car, and so had first hand experience off the mechanics behind it.
In terms of composition, this image is possibly not the best, however it is a very interesting documentation of the cable cars. The fact that cable cars are no longer in existence in Jersey means that it is vitally important that images such as this remain and are preserved in the archives for years to come, as a way of preserving an aspect of Jersey’s his.
4. What is wrong with your least favourite image? How could it be improved?
This image, presumably a group portrait of machinery workers, is an image from the exhibition which I did not think was particularly good. I didn’t like this image because as a portrait I didn’t find the composition to be very good, nor the image to be particularly exciting.
The use of flash makes the lighting very harsh, and I find such an inclusion to be furthermore unnecessary. Certain compositional elements were clearly not well thought out beforehand, fr example where the subjects are positioned, the alignment of the table, and the pencil and measuring equipment scattered in the bottom right of the frame, again an aspect which is unnecessary. I don’t find the image to be in any way balanced in terms of lighting or composition.
If this image was to be improved I would consider that greater thought and care should be taken into composition. Also don’t use flash as it is not needed in this instance, and it ruins the subtlety of the image.
I want to photograph Nana dressed up in her Salvation Army uniform. The Salvation army is something which my Grandparents shared and something which was an important part of shaping and defining their marriage. Both Nana and my Granddad were officers in the Salvation Army. My Grandfather served as a Major, and through her second marriage, Nana was promoted to the position of ‘Lieutenant Colonel’. She still attends weekly Salvation Army meetings and wears her Uniforms proudly each time.
For this shoot, Nana has agreed to dress up in her Salvation Army Uniform and pose for a few portraits. It will be interesting to photograph her in her Army Uniform. I am not able to photograph any of my Granddad’s old uniform because it is what he is buried in. By photographing Nana in her uniform however, I find this is a good way of substituting this gap in a way which is subtle and poetic. I am slowly starting to ease down on the number of photographs I take of Nana, and instead am starting to move onto other aspects of the project. This shoot which explores the theme of the Salvation Army I find is a good opening to explore the theme of the Salvation Army, which undoubtedly was a significant aspect of my Granddad’s life.
Evaluation
I am very pleased overall how the images turned out for this shoot. I only took about 50 images in total however I carefully considered different aspects of the shoot beforehand, such as composition and form. Unlike last week, Nana was more willing to help me out this time around and so it was more to my advantage to plan out my location and theme beforehand.
Something I though was quite effective was having an ‘African theme’. In Nana living room there is a painting of zebra in South Africa. I decided therefore to construct a setting linked to this theme by re-arranging the mantle piece to include two Kenyan statues of Massai ladies, as well as a traditional African carving of a tepee tent.
The main disadvantage I was faced in this shoot was the lighting. It was a very dull day which was unfortunate because I was relying on a lot of light coming in from the window. As a result I was forced to put the camera’s ISO setting up to quite a high 800 in order to compensate for the naturally low level of lighting. This means that some of my images are very grainy. This isn’t ideal as it affects the quality and crispness of the images.
This Sunday my Dad is going to drive me around to various places across the island connected to my Grandfather. The plan is to photograph these places in order to gain a few more outcomes, aswell as hopefully learn a little bit more about my Grandfather. I am aiming to go to 5-6 different places for this shoot. I am aware that we may struggle to find certain areas which is why I am propbably going to complete 2-3 types of these shoots in total, in order to get the quantity and variety of images that I require.
For this particular shoot I want to photograph landscape and still life objects.
My Granddad’s grave
The Windmill in St Peters
‘Maitland’: the house where he was born
‘Sommerlie’: the house he grew up
The farm he brought when he was 20, situated in an unknown location in St Peter’s
Evaluation
Overall this was a very fun and interesting shoot to complete. The lighting was very consititent throughout the day which meant that I could shoot with an constast ISO 400.
The main difficulty we encountered was finding where ‘Maitland House’ was. My uncle told us that it was somewhere along Trinity Hill ut in the end we couldn’t find it. Other than that we got to most of the other locations with relative ease, apart from the farm that my Grandad work on. We think we got the right location however we may need to check on this.
After going to all the designated locations, we went for lunch at St Ouens. After this I decided to photograph a little bit in the St Ouens area. My Granddad grew up in St Ouens and so I thought it would be relevant to take a few landscape shots around the La Braye and L’Tacq area.
I am pleased with my overally outcomes and beleive that I have a good variety.
