In advance of our visit, read the Exhibition text below and make notes. Think of at least three questions that you want to find answers to on your visit and write them down. Bring text and notes with you.
During our research on photo stories and documentation , we looked upon the various ways to document photography in a new, palpable way. Visiting The Jersey Arts Center in early December, we got the chance to view the exhibition ‘Quintessence’. Quintessence is a group exhibition celebrating the first five years of Archisle: The Jersey Contemporary Photography Program.
The Archisle Program, hosted by the Société Jersiaise Photo Archive promotes contemporary photography through an ongoing program of exhibitions, education and commissions. Archisle connects photographic archives, contemporary practice and experiences of island cultures and geographies through the development of a forum for creative discourse between Jersey and international artists. Quintessence selects works commissioned for the new Archisle Contemporary Collection at the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive since 2011 to celebrate, critique, contrast and discuss what has been achieved over the first five years of the project. Our teacher, Martin Toft is one of the thirteen artists representing his works in the Quintssense exhibition, exploring his project ‘Atlantis’. Other artists include the likes of:
Martin Par/ Tony Ray-Jones / Jem Southam / Michelle Sank / David Goldblatt / Yury Toroptsov / Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths / Tom Pope / Peter Finnemore / Mark Le Ruez / John Gibbons
Alongside photographs which have been produced in Jersey, Artists such as Jem Southam one of Britain’s leading landscape photographers and David Goldblatt, the seminal documentarist of apartheid era South Africa, have been influenced by the work produced by the archive. Gareth Syvret, the Archive’s leading curator, has singled out Jem Southam as his nominee, prior to studying him since he was a student.
I asked a few questions to Curator, Gareth Syvret about the exhibition:
What did you find was the main themes which run through the show Quintessence?
Has Quintessence changed your perception of Jersey and its cultural diversity? What have you learned from this exhibition?
When curating this exhibition, how did you narrow down which images to select? Was it clear what you wanted to present in the show?
I went with two different kinds of designs for these picture stories to get the most varied spreads and to appeal to more spectators/readers. I went for a traditional newspaper spread taking inspiration from the photo story of The Midwife. I decided to go with this design as it looks really great and I like the idea of making it all black and white with text underneath each image. The second design I went with was a magazine style print which is a lot more modern and I do really like this type of design. I think that it will appeal more to a broader variety of people and age groups as a lot of people nowadays are in to reading magazines.
Newspaper Layout:
For the newspaper layout I decided it would be best to follow two double page spreads to tell my story like my style model as I wanted to develop the story a bit more and for the spectator/reader to be able to visually see as much as possible by adding in plenty of images for them to see and to add more context to the story and the text. I think that this works best as a professional layout and looks good in black and white as well as with all of the captions underneath the images as I think this really makes it that much more professional. I like this design as it is interesting to look at and will hopefully make the reader/spectator want to read on and look at more images. I do think that my title and the text needs to be changed as it isn’t as effective as I would want it to be. I want to change it to the same text as the magazine layout designs as this is the best one that I have written and I think that it works better with the images too.
I prefer this title as it stands out more and seems more interesting to read as it reflects how unpredictable babies are and how much care and attention you need to give them as a parent. I also like the images that I used as they are interesting to look at and give the spectator and insight as to what life is like as a parent having a crazy one year old. I also made the font size of the little captions a lot smaller as that is what it would have been like in an actual newspaper. I like the layout of this design and think that it works well. Overall, this is my favourite newspaper design as it looks the most professional and stands out to me the most. I like the black and white images as it is more like a traditional newspaper layout which I like.
Magazine Layout:
Here is the final layout of my magazine design. I moved the text and the title to the bottom left hand corner as this is where I had empty space with nothing going on and wanted the focus of the main image to be my niece looking up at her dad. I think that it looks a lot better like this and is more interesting to look at. I like this design as it is the most professional looking out of all of the designs that I have made and looks the most interesting to a spectator. I have also made the font size smaller as it took over too much space and I did want the focus to mainly be on the images rather than to focus in on the text. I think that this balances everything out and it is all evenly spaced out and shaped. I chose these images as I found that they worked well with my text and title showing how fast pace and manic children can be, you have to follow them around constantly to make sure that they don’t get themselves hurt or stuck anywhere. Overall, I am happy with this layout and think that it does tell the story well enough for the spectator to know the story and what is going on within it.
This case study is about developing academic study skills for your next module Personal Study which involves developing a self-directed study based around a hypothesis of your own choice. The final outcome from your Personal Study is to produce a photo-book with a coherent set of photographs (30-40 images) that tell a story or express a personal point of view, including a 2-3000 word essay which relates directly to your hypothesis and body of work.
QUINTESSENCE is a group exhibition celebrating the first five years of Archisle: The Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme (www.archisle.org.je). The Archisle Programme, hosted by the Société Jersiaise Photo Archive promotes contemporary photography through an ongoing programme of exhibitions, education and commissions. Archisle connects photographic archives, contemporary practice and experiences of island cultures and geographies through the development of a forum for creative discourse between Jersey and international artists. Quintessence selects works commissioned for the new Archisle Contemporary Collection at the Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive since 2011 to celebrate, critique, contrast and discuss what has been achieved over the first five years of the project. The exhibition features works by:
Martin Parr / Tony Ray-Jones / Jem Southam / Michelle Sank / David Goldblatt / Yury Toroptsov / Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths / Tom Pope / Peter Finnemore / Mark le Ruez / John Gibbons / Martin Toft / Finn Larsen
Since its launch in 2011, Archisle has engaged diverse approaches to contemporary lens based media to lead creative research into the condition of islandness, ‘a complex expression of identity that attaches to places smaller than continents and surrounded entirely by water’ (Stratford 2008). Quintessence contrasts works in the Archisle collection in a group exhibition for the first time to analyse the ways in which the Island’s culture and landscape has been interpreted by Jersey and international photographers. The Archisle project recognises that Jersey as a small island community needs to go out and discover the world because the world will not come looking for us! Through internationalism we have developed a growing network of colleagues, friends, influences and inspirations. To reflect these connections, for Quintessence, artists represented in the Archisle collection were invited to nominate colleagues who have influenced or inspired their own visual language.
Curator Gareth Syvret remarked, ‘We do not travel alone; we take with us the histories, knowledge, influences and ideas of others; others we have met and other places we have known.’
As a starting point we will visit the exhibition currently on show at The Berni Gallery, Jersey Arts Centre where Gareth will give a little introduction to his desire to mount this exhibition and discuss possible connections and relationships between exhibited artists.
Meet at Jersey Arts Centre for coffee, Danish Christmas cake and talk
Class 13B Tue 8 Dec Pd 1 – 9:00 am Class 13E Wed 9 Dec Pd 5 – 2:20 pm
This Case Study has three parts. First you need to view the exhibition and answer the questions listed below. Second, you need to write a 1000 word mini-essay that reflect your visit and critical engagement with a paring of artists from the exhibition. Third, you must plan and produce a shoot as response to the above.
Deadline and presentation is Mon 14 Dec. Gareth will be assisting me in reading your essay and view photographs and will be providing some feedback for further improvements/ developments.
Present your answers, essay and images in a number of blog posts.
Task 1:In advance of our visit, read the Exhibition text below and make notes. Think of at least 3 questions that you want to find answers to on your visit an write them down. Bring text and notes with you.
Task 2:Upon visiting the exhibition try and answer the following questions.
a) Write down the first thought about the exhibition that enters your head when you walk in?
b) Look at all the images on the walls. Now find a set of images that you like/ don’t like and write short descriptions of them.
Link to folder with exhibited images; M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Personal Study\Case Study Quintessence\images of exhibited work
c) Using exhibition text, note down artist name, title of work(s), his/her nominated colleague and consider the following:
What are the connections, influences, relationships between your chosen pairing of artists? Look also broader at common themes, subject-matter, form, aesthetics, visual language, methodologies among your chosen artists and across others featured in the show.
Have a closer look at photo books and newspapers on show at the exhibition. This will provide a much deeper understanding of their work.
Task 3.Conduct further independent research and write a 1000 word essay.
a) Try and think of an essay question (hypothesis) as a starting point for further investigation.
b) Incorporate your answers to the questions above and any other notes from exhibition text and gallery talk with the Curator.
c) Include direct quotes from sources using Harvard System of Referencing (I will demonstrate how it work).
d) Illustrate your essay with images of artists work from the exhibition. Make sure you include name, title of work, year of production, dimensions, collections (if known.)
Link to shared folder with images from exhibition here M:\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Personal Study\Case Study Quintessence
Task 4:Plan a photo-shoot and make a set of images that respond to your chosen pairing of artists and your essay.
a) Upload shoot, process and select best 3 images
b) Show experimentation with images using Lightroom/Photoshop appropriate to your intentions.
c) Evaluate and present images on the blog.
DEADLINE: bothessay and photographic response Mon 14 Dec.
A selection of video with featuring exhibited artists where they talk about their work
David Goldblatt on his seminal body of work: In Boksburg
Michelle delivering a lecture on her work
Yury Toroptsov talking about Fairyland the work he produce while IPR in Jersey 2014
Jem Southam on his study of rockfalls
Finn Larsen presenting his work in Greenland over a 25 year period
Atlantus film with interviews
The world according to Martin Parr
From exhibition: Only in England showing work by Tony Ray Jones and Martin Parr
