All posts by Shannon O'Donnell

I am an A Level student currently studying at Hautlieu School. My subjects include, Media Studies, Photography and History. My blog includes updates of my current work in both media and photography where I am able to show research, planning and experimentation. I update this blog weekly with different posts relating to my subject topics.

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Analysis, Mr T instruction

Michelle Sank 2013 Photographer in Residence

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http://www.michellesank.com

Michelle Sank is a South African photographer who moved to England in 1987. Sank is a social documentary photographer, with her work illuminating issues around social and cultural diversity. Sank was in Jersey for six months working on a project called ‘Insula’.

These set of images follow the Archives of the past with photographers such as Henry Mullins who recorded his photographs in rows of four in large photo albums. This set of images shows the people of today living in Jersey and how different cultures and social classes live rather than just the higher social classes which were recorded in the past. I like these images as they can show the different personalities of the people of Jersey as well as letting the spectator in on the environment surrounding the subject.

One image which I find really interesting is the one below of Liberation Square on Liberation Day 2013. It interests me because of the Union Jack in the background because I would have actually expected to see the Jersey flag and not the British. One reason being that the Prime Mister at the time of World War II, Churchill, chose not to defend Jersey against Nazi invasion and also failed to announce that the Channel Islands were unarmed resulting in 47 innocent Jersey farmers to be shot and killed when the Germans arrived. Although, I realise that the reason the Channel Islands were liberated the day after Britain was because of the great effort the British and the Americans put into defending the rest of the world against the German Nazis.
I like this image because it shows how the people of Jersey will come together on this one day, 9th May, to celebrate the freedom and liberation of its past people and its ancestors.

Dais, Liberation Square, St Helier, Liberation Day 2013
Dais, Liberation Square, St Helier, Liberation Day 2013
Mr T instruction, Research

Societe Jersiase Photo Archive 2015

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On Tuesday 9th June 2015 all the year 12 photography students were invited down to the Societe Jersiaise Archives to learn more about the photo archive we have on the island and as an introduction to the 2015 Resident Photographer Tom Pope.
Throughout this workshop we were put into groups to work with. At first we watched a presentation made my one of the people who work at the Archisle Jersey. In his presentation  he taught us that photography is a tool for questioning what art is and what it can be. This can be developed in art history and the sciences.

http://societe-jersiaise.org/photographic-archive

Photography is used for many things, such as; advertising/criminal/passport/travel/family/marketing etc.
The archives can tell a story about you, for example the photos you take and choose to save. The photos that you keep can tell a lot about your personality and what interests you. I like to print out my photographs so that I have a physical copy of them to look at as memories as I grow. I also have a huge archive of photographs on my old laptop and my new laptop. This is where I store the bulk load of photos that I have accumulated over my life and am still gaining more and more each day. I prefer to have physical copies of my favourite photographs so that I can access them and look at them without having to search through my laptops for a load of photos from years ago. I think this is because my family have so many photo albums filled with memories and good times. I like the idea of using photo archives as a way to reconnect with my past and to show how much I have changed and developed to the present day.

A man called Henry Mullins [1848-1873] had the first ever photography studio in Jersey! He was very successful as most people in Jersey came to him for their photographs to be taken. He took photos of the most wealthy who lived on the island, which has now become a large archive for the Jersey people of today. Mullins would put all of his images in rows of four with the persons title below so that he would know who was who which has proved very helpful today as we are able to look at these photo albums and see who was around this island many years ago.

mullins-1865

The man from the Jersey Archives also said that the Archives can show how portraits have changed and developed over the centuries. This allows us to see who was around in Jersey in the past. It also shows the difference in social classes from the past and now. It shows how the only people who were ever photographed in the past were of a higher social class whereas nowadays pretty much anyone is able to take photographs.

– photography is always contradicting itself
– Michelle Sank is one of the photographers in resident in Jersey a few years ago [2013].
http://www.michellesank.com

– Yury Toroptsov was the photographer in resident in Jersey last year and was very much influenced by the Battle of Flowers as part of his 6 month project in Jersey [2014].
http://www.toroptsov.com

In photography we need to learn to look beyond just what we can physically see in front of us and instead look at the connotation of an image or set of images. We need to understand what the subject can make you feel and how it influences you as an individual. We as photographers need to anticipate what our audiences’ are going to think and feel about our work.

Analysis, Research

Artist Research: Tom Pope

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Tom Pope is the Photographer in residence 2015 at the Jersey Archive. Pope was asked to do a masters in photography in the Royal Academy of Art, after graduating from his first University at Swansea Metropolitan University where he studied Photography in the Arts.

http://www.tompope.co.uk/index.html

http://www.archisle.org.je/tom-pope-appointed-archisle-international-photographer-in-residence-2015/

Pope is an experienced photographer and has won many awards over the years, such as;

2013: Public Arts Grant, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Tempting Failure Bursary recipient

2011
Deutsche Bank Award Winner of the £10,000 Bursary
Prix Leica Photography Prize, Finalist
http://www.tompope.co.uk/timebound.html

2010
Photograph of the month, National Portrait Gallery London

2009
Bursary Winner, Royal West of England Academy
Sir Leslie Joseph Young Artist Award, Shortlisted

Below are some of Tom Pope’s recorded performances which are displayed on his official website;
http://www.tompope.co.uk/films.html

Mr T instruction, Record / Photoshoot

St Malo Day Performances

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Below are the performances we did within the first hour of our day trip in St Malo. I think this was the shoot where we collected the most images and had inspiration as we ended up with quite a few different finished products. I also took some stills from each of the videos which I found to be the most interesting.

#1
MVI_6976.00_02_57_22.Still007This performance was inspired by Tom Pope’s Weak Anarchy. As you can see this is very weak anarchy with the subject jumping over the off limits tape and sitting in the little crevice that they are keeping the public from running in. The subject then walks out of frame. It is simple but is a small way to go against the norm and to challenge the way people think by doing things that aren’t necessarily the right thing to do or what people are used to seeing.

#2IMG_6978IMG_6986IMG_6982For this performance we also adopted the idea of weak anarchy and tried to see the reactions of the public. I came up with the idea to climb onto this window which has been barred over. I thought that the message of the window says that people aren’t allowed out but then I thought maybe it was there so people cant get in. This is why I decided to climb it and stand in various positions and in different ways to make for an interesting image. This barred window made me wonder what was inside it and why it had been barred up in that way. I thought it would be a fun experiment.

#3MVI_6976.00_01_11_00.Still002Here I challenged myself to see if I could throw a small wheel, which Tania and I found, over the wall. On the other side of the wall was a small car park so we knew that no people would get hit by it. It did take me a few tries but finally I managed to throw the small wheel over the wall and triumphantly walked away.

#4
Pushing the limitations of the public. Here we decided to interact with the public and tried a few different things in order to get a reaction out of the public. Some worked better than others.

#5
Hiding in a bush. Here we took inspiration from Tom Pope, Weak Anarchy and basically did the same thing but instead of doing this to challenge the rules of private property, we decided to challenge the public and see what they thought of it. I simply walked into the bush, I got quite a few odd looks and some people took photos.

IMG_6994