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Task 3: Conduct further independent research and write a 1000 word essay
Try and think of an essay question (hypothesis) as a starting point for further investigation.
Incorporate your answers to the questions above and any other notes from the exhibition text and gallery talk with Gareth Syvret (curator of the show).
Include direct quotes from sources using Harvard System of Referencing.
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 from images included in the exhibition:
Task 2: Response to the Quitissence Exhibition
Upon visiting the exhibition, answer the following questions:
Look at all the images on the walls. Now find a set of images that you like / don’t like and write short descriptions.
My first set of images which I favoured very highly where the works of Jem Southam’s “Red Mudstone, Sidmouth” (1995 – 1997) as I really enjoyed viewing the vibrant colours and diptych effect.
Ironically, I didn’t like Peter Finnemore’s interpretation of Southam’s images, as I felt they didn’t appeal to my style of photography. Finnemore’s works in the exhibition entitled ‘Koan Exercises, 2004’ Performance based photography is Finnemore’s speciality, and in my opinion , I don’t favour it to normal documentary-based photography as its too materialistic and stylised.
The second image that I favour highly is Martin Toft’s from the series ‘Atlantus’.
Using exhibition text, note down artist name, title of work(s), his / her nominated colleague and consider the following:
Artist name:
Title of work (series):
Nominated colleague:
Title of work (series):
What are the connections, influences, relationships between your chosen pairing of artists? Look also broader into the common themes, subject-matte, form, aesthetics, visual language, methodologies among your chosen artists and across others featured in the show.
Have a closer look at the phonebooks and newspapers on show at the exhibition. This will provide a much deeper understanding of their work.
Link to definition:
Quintessence exhibition photos
exhibition response
In response to the quintessence exhibition we have to:
Task 1: Read the case study and think of at least 3 questions to ask and find answers to when we go on the visit.
Task 2: answer the following questions:
- Write down the first thought about the exhibition that enters your head when you walk in?
- Look at the set of images on the wall. Find a set of image that you do and don’t like and write a short description about them.
- Using the exhibition text, note down artist name, title of works and nominated artists and consider the connections, influences and relationships between them.
Task 3: Conduct further independent research and write a 1000 work essay.
Task 4: plan a photo shoot and make a set of images that respond to your chosen artists paring in your essay.
Exhibition
Yesterday, we went on a photography to the art centre to view the most recent exhibition that our teacher, Mr Toft is in. As soon as I walked in I was pleasantry surprised when I saw how the photographs were displayed. I liked how they were mostly all uniform with white picture frames, and especially the size of the images as they were large which made it better to look at. My favourite photograph in the exhibition is one of the photographs that Mr Toft took, the one of the Tamika Tolliver in Ausbury Park, New Jersey. This portrait is really stunning in my opinion because I love the contrast between her skin colour and the bright green sarong that she is wearing. The two colours really compliment each other, her skin looks flawless and is a lovely tone. I like how the background is clear of people and the strip of sand goes on and on. Her pose is also very striking and I like how shes looking at the camera with little emotion, it makes the photograph more effective. The story behind the photograph is also interesting as the idea have come from an achieve photograph, as Ausbury park was place where rich people use to go and relax and is now for any member of the public.
I liked how Tom Pope’s photograph was in a different colour frame, the orange was very striking as the photograph was by itself, it needed something like that to make it stand out. His image is very much performance photography is exciting to look at, however, isn’t the style of photography that I am leaning towards.
I liked how the exhibition had an extra something to it, as the photographs had to chose a photographer that inspired them to take images in Jersey. The photographs of their chosen photographer were placed next to their images which enabled me to view the connection between the old photographs with the new, using unique ideas. These achieve pictures were much smaller which was important because the main images were the ones which were taken more recently. Overall, I liked the layout of the exhibition and the way the pictures were presented largely in a smaller space. The impressive sculpture made by John Gibbons really tied the space together, it was very artistic and well presented on the white stand.
Government House
As I work at Government House I have the opportunity to take photographs of what I experience during my shifts. I worked at a lunch party yesterday and as we wait for the bell to ring to collect the plates the chefs prepare the next course, so I took a few images whilst waiting. I used my iPhone so the picture quality isn’t as good as my other photographs. It shows the life behind doors at government house which is an interesting topic.
Picture story design finals
After experimenting with various different designs, I have chosen my final two picture story designs, overall I am pleased with both outcomes.
The picture story above, was the first one I created, I wanted this one to look more professional and ‘clean cut’. I previously had this design in colour however I chose to change it to black and white because I think It works better and it ties it all together. Although there is no colour I think the black and white makes it look more ‘sophisticated’ and it’s still eye catching. I like the line I have created starting from the top right of photographs of my mum ending with the one on the bottom left, I think this makes the picture stories composition much better and it allows the viewers eyes to travel across the picture story fluidly without jumping from one image to another. I also like the use of photographs of the environment where my mum works because I think it gives the picture story more context and depth. I found writing the captions and the paragraph at the top one of the hardest things to do, however when I got started it became a lot easier. Through out the photographs you can’t see my mums face almost as if I was hiding her identity I think this make it more interesting and mysterious to a certain extent. 
This was my second picture story, this one was supposed to be more like something that you would see in a magazine. I had less time to produce this outcome after spending most of my time on the first design, however I am happy with it. I choose to put a background in this one, the photograph is of me and my mum. This photograph is originally a coloured photo however I chose to put it in grey so it wouldn’t be over powering and because it is a memory, almost like a flash into the past. I then put the 4 photographs at the bottom take recently in black and white to establish this difference. I chose to put two photographs of my mum and two photographs of objects of her surroundings to make a pattern and make it more interesting. I used the same text for this one as the previous picture story, however when writing the text I tried to avoid typing over my mums face, so you could see her, which is one of the main differences between the picture stories. Finally, I chose to put a white edge around the title to make it stand out a bit more from the background. This picture is not to overcrowded and much more simple which is what I like about it.
Task 1: Quintissense Exhibition
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?
Link to Exhibition text: https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo16a2/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/12/Quintessence-Programme.pdf
Link to Media Release: https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo16a2/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/12/Quintessence_Media_Release_Jersey.pdf
Link to Task Sheet: https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/photo16a2/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/12/Quintessence-task_sheet.docx
Final Picture Stories
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.