The final evaluation of my project Three Chapters. 

Overall, I think my project had both positive and negative aspects to it. Firstly, the research and planning that went into the project I think was successful, I looked into a diverse range of sources including, websites, books, magazines and newspapers. I think it is important when beginning a new project there must be a comprehensive and thorough investigation into the theme and concept behind the project. Therefore, it was appropriate for the research to heavily influence my original work. The second part to my project is the actual recording and photo-shoots. I began my project by interviewing my grandmother, I wanted to learn more about my grandfather and the best possible person to talk to is his ex wife and best friend. The interview was very interesting and evoked a great deal of emotions from my grandmother, she found it incredibly difficult to talk about my grandfather. This then led me to begin looking at my grandfather’s past, I started looking at archive images that my mother had kept. There was a collection of images that stood out to me, photographs of him with his children, on his wedding day, at his retirement do, holidays, birthdays and normal everyday events. I also thought it was appropriate to look through the box my mother has of some of his belongings. There was lots of condolence letters and cards sent to my family, there was the death certificate, birth certificate of his child Christine Benning who is my mother and there were personal items like his after shave and darts. Other photo-shoots I produced were focused on personal items that I had found, images from interviewing my grandmother, photographs from visiting places that reminded me of him like Green Island beach and Queens Valley Reservoir. I think it was important to include several types of images for example, portraits, landscapes, close-ups and stills. The next aspect of my project was on the experimentation, each photograph was cropped, levelled and adjusted regarding the contrast and brightness. I used the black and white effect on particular images and especially concentrated on Photoshop when arranging the collage I created of my grandfather’s life. However, I do think that I needed to focus on experimentation a great deal more in this project. Therefore, for my next project I will specifically spend more time concentrating on the experimentation of the images I have.

With regards to the essay, I found it difficult to think of a title in the beginning but came up with the title ‘How has Boltanski, Abril and Toroptsov represented the concept of capturing the invisible and reflecting the meaning of memory through the medium of photography?‘ I think it was specific enough but  still allowed me to look at lots of different aspects and include my family’s interpretation as well as my interpretation. I enjoyed writing the essay because it explained the path I was taking regarding my influences from photographers, academics and artists. I found the analysis of images complicated and hard to understand sometimes due to some of the images being more metaphorical and therefore could have multiple meanings.  I wanted my introduction to be more poetic and abstract but I wanted the conclusion to complete the essay, basically finish it off by answering the question simply. I think the design of the book was successful, I researched the designs of books on the Blurb website as well as designs of other photographers both professional and amateur. My book design was a combination of scientific and metaphorical, I wanted my images to contrast and compliment each other. I thought it took a great deal of time to design my own book, especially when designing the essay into my book. I wanted it to look clean and precise but it was not as simple as I initially anticipated. I am happy with my final design for my photo-book, I think the title works really well and the sequencing of the images are strong. But I do think it would of benefited by project if I had started designing my book a lot earlier so that I could experiment with book more, with regards to the layout and order.

I think I have managed to confidently capture the concept of photographing the invisible and the idea of memory. I wanted to explore how the invisible can be made visible. I think the idea was initially quite daunting because it seemed such a complex concept but once I properly looked into it more, I decided the project would work.

Chance, change  and challenge 

At first when I was introduced to this project I found it hard to understand the concept and the meaning behind Tom Pope’s work as there was no explanation and most of his videos were in silent of him doing a repetitive performance. However after the day at the Societe where Tom explained what he was trying to achieve,I got a better understanding of the idea of pushing boundaries and his videos made more sense to me. I also liked that we were working with a photographer making our work more practical which is something we haven’t done before.  I found this project interesting because it was something I hadn’t given much thought to or questioned before. I also like the fact that we were working with the archive and got to explore Jersey’s history, before this I wasn’t aware of the archives existences.  I think it was  challenging to think outside the box however the more the more you think about it the easier it becomes. In France I was able to do most of the ideas that I had planned to do and I was pleased with the outcomes.

Family, faith and community 

At the beginning of this project when we were first introduced to documentary photography, I thought that it was a powerful form of communication. I enjoyed looking at ethics within documentary because I think it is a interesting and a subjective topic which allowed me to think deeper, although I didn’t find any right or wrong answers I was able to develop my opinion. I also like that we were able to draw on real life situations such as the Vietnam war which documentary had a big influence on, this also gave me a better understanding. I also learned about the sub genres within documentary such as photojournalism and street photography which is something I hadn’t done before.

At the beginning of this project we started looking at the theme of family. I enjoyed exploring this theme both taking photographs and researching other family photographers. I found that I connected with this theme more than the others although I think it’s more personal than the other two themes. When I first started photographing my family I felt that I was making them vulnerable and opening them up to be judged, however after a few photo shoots this ‘feeling’ faded. I started to explore the theme of community through research and a photo shoot however, I struggled with deciding what and who to photograph. Due to the lack of time I didn’t get to explore the theme of faith, which is something that I would have liked to do as most of my family is religious.

Overall I enjoyed this module and I am going to carry on with the theme of family for my personal study by photographing my mum in her working environment.

I have designed two different Print products. One being a newspaper article and the other being a magazine layout.

The newspaper was the easiest of the two to design, as I am a to more familiar with the layout of a newspaper, as they all have very similar structures, whereas magazines have a much wider variety of layouts and design possibilities.

I think the newspaper is very affective, and one of my classmates even asked if my images had been in the paper, because he saw a print out of it and thought it was a photocopy, or nice version of the newspaper print. I really like the simplicity of newspaper spreads and I feel that my newspaper spread has worked really well.

The magazine was a bit harder, but instead of creating a design first, I started with the two colours red and black, creating the banner at the top and header, I then looked at the scope and how i could add it into my spread, and decided the best way to do this was putting a photo behind it. I then decided which images I wanted as background images, then made them slightly transparent. Trying to fit the text in proved much harder than it did with the newspaper spread, as magazines normally have much more creative ways of displaying text.

I do feel that both my products look very affective and somewhat professional and I am happy with how they have both turned out.

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.