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Case Study | Michelle Sank and David Goldblatt

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Michelle Sank is the local photographer part of the Quintessence exhibition here in Jersey, as a visitor to the island previously she has a localized body of work. When asked who her influences were and her inspiration Sank said David Goldblatt. He is one of the most well-known photographers across the world.

Michelle Sank website: http://www.michellesank.com/
David Goldblatt website: http://www.davidgoldblatt.com/

About Michelle Sank

Michelle Sank was the photographer in residence at the Jersey Archisle back in 2013. Sank was born in Cape Town, South Africa but moved and has been living in England since 1987. Sank usually makes images of social documentary and tends to focus around issues of social and cultural diversity. While in Jersey Sank worked on social portrait images showing the difference in social classes and the way locals are compared to how they used to be in the Archisle images.

About David Goldblatt

David Goldblatt is a South African photographer and was born in 1930 in Randfontein, South Africa. Goldblatt has an interesting history as he was the son of Lithuanian-Jewish parents who fled from Europe in the 1890s [with their own parents] and Goldblatt lived in South Africa at a time of deep segregation between black and white people. He seemed to challenge this and made images of black people, showing that they aren’t so different. Goldblatt became a full-time photographer in 1962.

More info about Goldblatt: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/d/david-goldblatt-and-the-v-and-a/

Goldblatt in moMA: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/1998/goldblatt/

Comparison | Michelle Sank and David Goldblatt

Q. Through the work of Michelle Sank and David Goldblatt how are we able to see the difference in society and the way our world has changed?

In this essay I will compare and contrast one of Michelle Sank’s chosen images compared to that of David Goldblatt and what social impact they have. I will be comparing the differences in world opinion from the time David Goldblatt made his images [1950s] and to present day when Sank made her images back in 2013.
The above image made by David Goldblatt really interests me. I just like the  composition of this image with the two right in the center of the frame and are looking very seriously with a neutral expression into the camera, making the image a lot more personal and as if the pair are actually looking at the spectator. I find this image so intriguing as I wonder why they are holding a bumper to a car with a number plate, suggesting that the man is a mechanic as he is also wearing dirty looking overalls. They could also be stood outside their own house with the door off to the right side of the image. I really like that this image is in black and white, mainly because of the time it has been made, as it makes the image a lot more effective and allows the spectator to focus in on the subjects within the photograph rather than staring a the colour of the door or the colour of the lady’s dress.
Furthermore, I did some further research into the time period that this image was made, 1950s, and saw how South Africa was still a very racist place [it still isn’t completely desegregated today]. In South Africa they segregated everything, much like early 1900s America, there were separate toilets, cinemas, buses, schools etc. This, for me, is a very powerful image as David Goldblatt was a white photographer and it would have been seen as a radical notion to go out and photograph black people, it was seen as wrong to even talk to them at all. I really love the message behind this image showing that black and white people are no different, showing that we all have similar jobs and can work to the same standard there is no real difference between any of us. I think that this holds a strong social message showing how people can change, this photographer went out and made these images on his own free will.
I chose to compare the images above as they both hold significance. The photograph made by Michelle Sank that I chose really went well together and almost complimented each other through their social attributes. The image made by Sank shows how far we as a community and society have re-moulded and adapted our closed minded way of thinking to becoming more accepting beings that realize that everyone is equal. Sank’s image would seem like a revelation if it was shown to those photographed in Goldblatt’s image. This image shows two men, one black and one white, stood next to one another as equals both wearing suits and ties. These men both represent workers and their attire represents this too showing how far we as a society have been able to change and develop our way of thinking. However, if I had no context or hadn’t been comparing Sank’s image to Goldblatt’s then I would not have thought anything of it at all and don’t find it to be a visually interesting image a part from the history and meaning behind the whole thing it isn’t really a strong image to me. I do find it similar in composition to the photograph of Goldblatt’s in both the subjects are slightly off center and to the side of the image but that is just how each of them made their photographs and I don’t think that there is any real relation there.
Likewise, I really do find Sank’s visually boring as there isn’t much going on in the background a part from an empty country road and it doesn’t really give any extra context to who these men are and where they possibly work. As an environmental portrait I don’t like it but what the men are both wearing suits shows what kind of people they are and suggests what they do as a job. I feel like the background is all too perfect with the blue sky and perfect light but with nothing in the background it just looks really quite dull to me. Comparing the two images I much prefer the work of Goldblatt visually and with everything that it represents too. I do like the work of Michelle Sank and like that she makes images showing the different communities and people within our society.
Overall, I feel that these two images alongside one another work really well and do show how society and world view has changed from the 1950s to present day. Through these images the spectator is able to see how far black and white people have come together in the creation of equality of life and jobs. I like these images and think they are strong together and reflect how much has changed in such a short period of history.

Analysis, Exhibition, Final presentation

Michelle Sank & David Goldblatt

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To what extent has David Goldblatt artistically influenced Michelle Sank.


Michelle Sank and David Goldblatt are two artists that have been linked by an exhibition – Quintessence. This exhibition is a group exhibition celebrating the first five years of Archisle. 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-bannerQuintessence 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. All of these artists are or have been nominated by another to take part in the exhibition. The artists were asked to nominate another artist who they feel have been artistically  influential to them in their lives artistically. Michelle Sank therefore nominated David Goldblatt. These two are publicly linked due to the Quintessence exhibition as both photograph cultural diversity aswell as  peoples physical and social landscape.

Michelle Sank

Michelle was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She left there in 1978 and has been living in England since 1987. Her images reflect a preoccupation with the human condition and to this end can be viewed as social documentary. Her work focusses on issues around social and cultural diversity. The two images Iam focussing on were both shown in the exhibition, and are aesthetically linked. Sanks image was taken at Harve des pas, Jersey. And is apart of a larger project called Insula, conducted/researched in Jersey as some images are from the archive.BeFunky CollageHowever, in the Quintessence exhibition Michelle chose to exhibit two images, although only one showed an obvious link to Goldblatts work the other could be linked aswell. This is due to the theme the two artists are focusing on which is photographing people in their natural landscapes. The less obvious image shows a theme of this as the image is of a greenhouse and one bright red flower in the midst of the overgrown chaos.

David Goldblatt

David Goldblatt is a South African photographer, born in South Africa after his Jewish parents fled Europe in the 1890’s . Since the late 1940’s he has photographed the social and physical landscape of South Africa. Goldblatt is well know for photographing people in South Africa during the period of apartheid, this is when black people were totally segregated and treated differently to white people through facilities such as schools, accommodation and transportation. Goldblatt received knowledge and success from this as during this period, a white person photographing black people was an unusual occurrence, this is because if you were caught interacting with a black person you would be sentenced to prison. Goldblatts images within the exhibition were some of my favourite, due to the stories behind them and also the visual presentation of the images was very appealing to me.BeFunkby CollageGoldblatt was nominated by Sank for a degree of influence. This is obvious in the exhibition as one of the two images Sank exhibited is blatantly similar to one of the four photographs Goldblatt selected. This particular image was a photograph called -‘ She told him: “You’ll be the driver and i’ll be the lady”. This image was taken in Johannesburg, South Africa during the period of segregation, and sticking to the theme of social, cultural and physical landscape the image is of two people holding up a bumper of a car, and looked to be in the working class. This image particularly stood out as it is very similar to Sanks image of ‘Chloe and Leah’.

To conclue, David Goldblatt has influenced Michelle Sank artistically due to a theme of photographing peoples physical, social and cultural landscapes. The links between these two and influential traits that I have researched are visual and thematic links such as similar layouts to their images. Other considerable links between the two are that they were both born in South Africa, this could also have been a leading cause to the influence Goldblatt had on Sank. The photographs they both exhibited were picked due to the themes of social and cultural environments.

Exhibition

Quintessence

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How did Yury Toroptsov use the Jersey archive to help create his Fairyland exhibition? 

Recently I have been to visit the Quintessence photography exhibition at the Jersey art centre. This exhibition has been created in celebration of contemporary photography in Jersey and to mark a 5 year milestone for the Archisle. The work that was used in the exhibition was by artists who’s work was based on or inspired by our Island, Jersey. These artists were then asked to nominate a friend or a colleague to also participate in the Quintessence exhibition, these nominations were chosen in relation to their own work. The exhibition held a wide variety of photographs, which all held interesting context. All of the work was presented in clusters of each artists and were positioned next to their nominated colleague. I particularly took an interest in Yury Toroptsov, he presented some of his work from his FairyLand collection. As well as his own work he also included some of his research materials such as Jersey Archive photographs.

Yury’s ‘Fairy Land’ collection was created in 2014 when he came to stay on the island for 6 months. His first impression of Jersey was as well as it being a gorgeous Island, with lovely sunsets and beach’s he also came to the conclusion that “Jersey was a very mysterious and discrete place” (Toroptsov in FairyLand video 2014).

He wanted to get involved with the Island’s community and try and capture Jersey from his point of view. Yury’s first piece of inspiration was the traditional annual battle of flowers parade. He was digging in the archive and found a float from 1937. The float was called ‘FairyLand’.

This float was created by Percy Vibert and his family, with his daughter Ivy Jean Vibert being the Fairy Queen of the Float. In Yuri’s collection of photographs that he chose to present at the Quintessence exhibition he included a portrait of the fairy queen. This portrait has Ivy Jean in the centre of the photo wearing a white dress with a flower crown. The photograph is in black and white, however it in rich in texture due to her being surrounded by flowers. I think this photo captures the innocence of Ivy Jean, and the innocence of the island. Another image that Yury presented in his collection is something that he found when looking up the Vibert family in the Jersey Archive. He found Ivy Jean Vibert’s juxtaposing portrait from when she was fourteen. This was her portrait from her German occupation registration card. Yury presented the two portraits together to tell the story of Ivy Jean growing up from a flower inspired queen to being a victim of the German occupation.

I really like that Yury has included archive photographs in his collection as I think it gives his work depth. It also gives the audience an understanding of were his idea’s have sprung from as well as making the collection have a wide variety of type of photographs to look at.

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Ivy Jean’s two different portraits

Another archive photograph that Yury Included in his work to help complete his collection is by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths called ‘Fairy offering Flowers to Iris’. Yury nominated Frances Griffiths as his chosen photographer, but he decided to include him work in within his cluster of photographs.

This photograph was taken by two children back in 1920, who were obsessing over fairies. They made a series of photograph’s featuring Elsie Write discovering fairies, which were edited on. I really like this photograph, firstly because of its age it has almost gone a sepia colour. Because of the absence of colour, it draws the viewers eye closer to the detail. For example the ringlets in Elsie’s hair, which have gone slightly frizzy, highlights the playful nature of the photograph. Secondly I like that it is surrounded by nature, which is similar to the portrait by Ivy Jean.

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Fairy offering Flowers to Iris

The final photo that I photograph that Yury presented is one of his own photographs called ‘Jess’. This photograph is in response to the theme of Fairy Land, with his modern interpretation. This photograph is perfectly composed and I believe it is a strong image.

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Jess

I think that the colours used in this photograph are very important; the reoccurring black and the scars left of Jess’s arms are  foreshadowing the darker side of teen hood. However the obvious bright pink hair, which immediately catches the viewers eye foreshadows that last bit of playfulness left in teens. 

The photograph captures Jess looking up into the sky, which exposes the side profile. All of her facial features are well defined and create detail for the photograph. The hair is being blow backwards which adds another dynamic to the image and introduces a different texture to the eye. However I think this photograph would be more interesting if you could see more of Jess’s face. The expression on a persons face and the look in their eyes, can change a photograph and the story it tells.

In conclusion, I think that the Quintessence was a very good exhibition that provided amazing photographs that were “Socially and Politically Connected” (Gareth Syvret the 9th December  at the Jersey Art Centre) all of the work had interesting stories behind them.

Analysis, Exhibition, Planning

QUINTESSENCE: Task 1 – Questions

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Quintessence is a group exhibition at the Arts center in town, celebrating the first five years of Archisle: The Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme. 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. 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

IMG_1699blog

We all have three parts to this tasks, Task one is a set of questions, Two is an essay and three is a photo shoot in response

  • a) Write down the first thought about the exhibition that enters your head when you walk in?

When entering the exhibition I felt the room looked particularly empty but somehow cramped in some areas of the room. There were few images that really ‘stuck out’ for me, However there was one image that did stand out and was the first image I really noticed even though it was behind me as I entered the room. The photograph produced by ‘Peter Finnemore’ and the image was called ‘Koan Exercises’ from 2004. This image stood out for me due to the extreme saturation and size of the image.

  • 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.

Throughout this exhibition I came to realise that there were a considerable amount of pictures I did not like and few that I did.

PHOTOGRAPHS I DID LIKE 

IMG_8121 (Medium)PETER FINNEMORE – KOAN EXERCISES IMG_8123 (Medium)FINN LARSEN – AL GORE WAS HERE. LLLULISSAT ICEFJORD, GREENLANDIMG_8122 (Medium) JEM SOUTHHAM – RED MUDSTONE, SIDMOUTIMG_8132 (Medium)IMG_8131 (Medium) JOHN GIBBONS – AND THE EARTH CHANGES SHAPEIMG_8126 (Medium)DAVID GOLDBLATT

I came to like the images above for many different reasons, some because on the contextual meanings and some purely because they were aesthetically enjoyable. Peter Finnemores Koan exercises is the first Iam to evaluate as it was the biggest and brightest in the exhibition, aswell as it being the first image to catch my eye. IMG_8121 (Medium)This is due to the bright and extremely saturating greens of the photograph. I found this image to be cleverly edited as the saturation and contrast increase make it the most ‘attractive image of the exhibition. I also find the image draws you in due to editing but the as you get closer to further examine it, you come to realize that there is a person in the image aswell. From afar the photograph just looks like a camouflaged shed, but a further examination reveals that there is infact a person hidden within the foliage. I find this type of image interesting as there are two stages to the perspective of the image. one from a far and one up close.

 

The two images by Finn Larsen were my favourite images from the exhibition. This is because I prefer ‘pretty’ photography rather than artsy and odd photography. These images I enjoy as they are both photographically correct Eg: well lined and edited. Rule of thirds is presented in the first image as there is an even and equal amount of space either side of the bench, aswell as the bench being horizontally straight.

IMG_8123 (Medium)The photograph has also been edited well as the colours of the image are seen as very clean cut and contrast well from the blues in the skies to the brown wood of the bench. I like how cold the image looks swell, how the focus of the image allows you to see the worn wood of the bench and the ice in the glaciers infant of the bench. However this project is infact about a landfill sight that is located behind the glaciers, Looking at the image on its own, one could not see that but researching the project it explains about the beauty in the nature of this image but you cannot see the ugliness of the landfill and garbage site beyond the ice.

 

The following image is taken by Jem Southam, This image drew me in due to the ‘warmness’ of the image. The clean cut layout of the four photographs was also aesthetically pleasing.  I was also draw in by this image as you believe it is a photo sequence or time lapse so you try to ‘spot the difference’, but you then discover that the four images were actually taken at different times.  IMG_8122 (Medium)The vibrance of this image also attracted me as the saturated landfall contrasted well with the pale blue skies.

 

The next section of the exhibition was the only one of its kind in the room, a sculpture. This sculpture is by John Gibbons – And the Earth changes shape, I found this very intriguing as every other part of the exhibition was an image, in a frame, on the wall. This piece of work changed the feel of the exhibition as it was very different to the others. IMG_8132 (Medium)This piece of art I found interesting as the name obviously explains that the sculpture is of the earth due to the spherical shape, However there are rims that have been added on to the outside. This therefore interests the person viewing it and makes them wonder, why are there rims on the outside? why has the artist changed the sphere to have ridges on the outside?

The next images attracted me within the exhibition purely because of the layout and clean cut presentation of the work. The colours of the photographs contrasted well with each other and well with the frames they were in. The frames and images being the same size and presented in the way they were complimented each other well and therefore when viewing you could see the link between them all. IMG_8126 (Medium)This artist was David Goldblatt nominated by Michelle sank a former ‘artist of residency’.

 

PHOTOGRAPHS I DID NOT LIKE:

IMG_8120 (Medium) IMG_8127 (Medium) IMG_8130 (Medium)

These three photographs I disliked due to their joint awkwardness. The photograph by Tom Pope I highly disliked due to the awkward and explicit nature, Im all for and explicit shoot and pushing the limits of ‘acceptable’ photography, but this image just made me feel very uncomfortable. IMG_8120 (Medium)However, some of the good things about this image was the frame and interest of it. The frame was the only coloured one of the exhibition so clearly caught the eyes of many. Even though the photograph is extremely awkward and uncomfortable for me, it did interest many of the people that viewed the exhibition.

 

Although this image is well lined and edited, It also made me feel awkward and uncomfortable. This is because you can see the awkwardness that the two girls are feeling swell. Their body language and posture portrays discomfort and awkwardness.IMG_8127 (Medium)

 

This photograph by Martin Parr, I felt was very linked to his style of work and similar to the style and themes that he portrays in his projects. This image is well lined and has little negative space so therefore is technologically correct.
IMG_8130 (Medium)

 

 

 

Exhibition, Planning

Quintessence Archisle | Case Study

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About personal study
The personal study needs to be finished by the end of the February half term and is a self directed study, you will make a hypothesis of what you want and are going to find out in this study. All of your work relating to this hypothesis must be enough to make up an entire book. You must find a subject and choose a story, finding a real issue and explore it. You’ll also be writing an essay about this of about 2,000-3,000 words.

Case study | Quintessence Archisle
This project brings together select Jersey photographers and international photographers in an exhibition set up by the Archisle. The Archisle was put together back in 2010 and has now been around for 5 years.
The Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive in 2011 launched the Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme to promote contemporary photography in an ongoing programme of exhibitions as well as through eduction bringing Hautlieu into the mix. This brings in ideas to connect photographic archives, contemporary practise and experiences of island cultures. Jersey has become a big part in photographic history and has influenced many artists and new ideas. This exhibition celebrates the first five years of the Archisle. The exhibition contains work from 6 artists either from Jersey or whom have worked with the Archisle and they were each asked to come up with another artist who has inspired and influenced them. The artists are; Martin Toft – Finn Larsen, Tom Pope – Peter Finnemore, Michelle Sank – David Goldblatt, Yury Toroptsov – Elsie Wright and Frances Griffths, Martin Parr – Tony Ray-Jones, Mark Le Ruez – John Gibbons, Jem Southam.

Islandness | What I think
I really like the concept of islandness. To me it really makes sense as I do feel that as an island we are really bubbled from the rest of the world, unique. We tend to see the world differently to those living in the UK. For example, a mass murder in Jersey will hit headline news and be all everyone talks about for months and no one forgets but in America things like that seem to happen all the time and you lose count of how many killings there have actually been. This could be because of the fact that Jersey is so small and these things happen in America because it is so vast and huge but we do seem to reflect on the world in a different way. The idea of islandness is supposed to connect the thousands of islands across the world together. Our concept of identity is different to the rest of the worlds.
Our upbringing and culture moulds us and makes each of us unique. We can change with anything or anyone we meet or a place we go to and it can have good or bad results. Everything that you encounter changes you in one way or another, you can be somehow influenced by something in your life without even noticing it.

The Exhibition | My thoughts
answering questions

When entering the exhibition firstly I thought that it was in a much better location being in the Jersey Art Centre as it is quite a quirky place with the cafe beneath it and is in a more accessible part of town which a lot more teens and adults will likely know about. I also much prefer the layout of this exhibition compared to the Jersey Evening Post – Your Story, Our History: 125 Years Through a Jersey Evening Post Lens. This exhibition looks very professional and I prefer the white walls with the white frames on more of the images. I find the whole thing just looks a lot more professional and clear it is very well constructed and just altogether a better exhibition. I like that the Jersey photographers have their chosen artist/photographers work next to their own to show who they have been influenced and inspired by. I really like this idea of sharing and being influenced by other artists. I find it great that this exhibition is also able to sell the photographers work and showcase their talents to the community of local Jersey islanders. I have decided to do some further research on the work of Finn Larsen as I find his work captivating and after discussion at the exhibition I found that there is so much more to the beauty of the images that are shown in the exhibition itself which I am excited to explore further.

Exhibition

Exhibition

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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.

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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.

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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.

Analysis, Exhibition, Mr T instruction, Research

Case Study: QUINTESSENCE

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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 

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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.

Link to Exhibition text Quintessence Programme

Download Quintessence task_sheet

Link to Quintessence_Media_Release_Jersey

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.

Link to definition of aesthetics in art

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: both essay 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

Interview with Peter Finnemore

Tom Pope discussing some his performances

Interview with John Gibbons

Exhibition

Jersey Evening Post: Museum Takeover Day

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On Friday 20th November 2015 a small team of students went down to the Jersey Heritage Museum to get to work on creating a pop up exhibition entitled 125 Hours Through A Teenagers Lens. We all met at 9am and got into three teams, Creators; Kate, Max, Sophie and Layla, Designers; Heather, Ben, Katie and Georgia and the PR team being myself and Dylan. Each team got to work straight away on making decisions and coming up with plans. As part of the PR team we were took over Jersey Heritage Twitter and Instagram for the day and were given two of Heritage’s iPad’s to use throughout the day. Here we made loads of posts updating locals and followers on what was going on and how everything was going. This was a really fun process and we managed to make a load of great Instagram posts and Twitter updates. We were even retweeted by the founders of the whole museum takeover across the UK on Twitter. Originally Channel Television, the JEP and the local Channel 103 Radio Broadcast were supposed to head down for interviews and live interactions but only Channel TV made it and they interviewed Kate, Heather, Dylan and Lucy. This was really interesting to see the behind the scenes of a news report and to see how many takes they have to do to get it just right with the cameraman actually being more in charge that the women in front of the camera which I found interesting.

I was given a separate task by the head of the entire exhibition Lucy Layton from Jersey Heritage to create a short film from throughout the day as well as making different documentary images. I am currently editing all of this together and think that I managed to get a great deal of shots throughout the day that will really work with the film that I am going to produce. This was also fun to be able to watch the entire exhibition unfold step-by-step and to basically just photograph as pure bare witness like a photojournalist would. This film will be posted onto the Heritage Facebook page. I was really able to get creative and tell the behind the scenes story of what went on throughout creating this exhibition.

Images In The Exhibition:

For the exhibition we were required to put in 3 to 5 images for the creation of 125 hours Through A Teenagers Lens. This was exciting to do as our work is going to be exhibited for locals across the island to see life through a young persons perspective. At first I was really unsure as to what images to post as I was thinking along the lines of only adding images of teenagers and their lives but then recently I have been focusing more on my sister and niece and how she is developing as a baby. I think that this is some of my best work and with the help of Toft I chose three images for the exhibition. I am happy with these images as I do think that they are some of my stronger images.

I like these images and think that they will work will with the strong colours to make the exhibition a bit more colourful as at the minute it is all black and white. However, I did make one black and white image which I think looks much better in black and white as in colour it just doesn’t look as good and doesn’t have the same effect. I think this images will work well and are interesting for the spectator to look at. I will make images at the exhibition when all of the images are exhibited. Through the selection process at the exhibition two of my images were chosen and those were the two that are in colour. Throughout the exhibition the design team came up with themes and mainly took one image from different individuals to create a new story. I think that this did work for most of it but found that the images themselves told mini stories yet they were taken out of context for this exhibition but it did work well and looked really great.

Toft and Mckinlay decided on the day that we are now going to create pop up exhibition at the end of every term wherever we can to create little exhibitions of all of year 12 and 13’s work that has been produced that term. I think this is a great idea and it will be fun to get the team back together to create more and this will give us a chance to get more creative and a wider understanding of what proper exhibitions are really like. We will be able to work on the presentation of all of our images as well as progressing each time to make the best possible exhibitions to represent the photographers themselves as well as Hautlieu.

Critique of the exhibition:

As PR and filmmaker on the day I was able to go around all parts of the team and be able to get a proper insight as to what everyone was doing and what went on. I found that everyone worked really well and there wasn’t one person not on task and working at their hardest. The only critique that I would give to the entire thing was that I thought that we should have had the photographers names and a little description under every set of images as that is what the JEP aspect of the exhibition lacked but we didn’t seem to make up for that. In the future I think we will add the photographers names but this time round we were just finding our feet and the creators were so busy with creating different parts of the exhibition coming up with an introduction as well as setting everything up. Also, I think that next time we should start preparing before hand just so it looks more professional and put together in terms of having photographers names etc. Overall, I am really proud of what we managed to achieve and even though the exhibition was quite small I think that it all went really well and everyone did a really great job.

With these images that I took throughout the day I wanted to create more documentary style behind the scenes images to make it interesting for the spectator to see. I really wanted to get a behind the scenes visual of the entire event and the day. This is shots that I made in between filming different behind the scenes shots. I found this a really fun shoot as for the entire day I was able to take the time to make images and to film. This made it so much easier without having anything else to worry about throughout the day.

Above are some behind the scenes images of students getting interview by ITV, this will be broadcast either Monday 23d or Tuesday 24th. This was really interesting and funny to watch as they worked well under pressure and came out with some good answers which will be on the news. They asked to speak with a member of the curators team, design team and the PR team to get a rounded opinion from at least one person from each aspect of the project. When watching behind the scenes I noticed how the cameraman actually staged a fair bit of what he filmed with the design team having to mess up and put together the sign in a couple of takes for the cameraman to have extra footage for their news article.

museum takeover day-1516This is one of my favourite images from the exhibition as it is so interesting and was inspired by Claude Cahun. I just really like the expression on the subjects face and the way she is looking away from the camera as if she cannot stare the spectator in the eye. I love the dramatic makeup and think that the wig also works really well. A lot of the images were really great and it was interesting to see a lot of work that the year 12’s have managed to produce. The wire that is sort of in the way of that image is actually what we used to hang the poles up which the images are hanging on kind of like a washing line. Something that this also reminds me of is something you would expect to see in  a dark room when the images are  being hung out to dry. I really like this idea as it makes it easier for us as students to put all of the images up instead of having to mount everything on foam board and adding a load of extra little bits.

museum takeover day-1450This is just an action shot of everyone busy at work. Layla and Sophie were busy writing down the names of all of the photographers that made it to the exhibition, Kate, Dylan and Max were putting the clips onto the images to put up onto the poles. In the background the ITV cameraman was getting some extra footage for the news coverage which will be shown this week. I really like this image as there is a lot going on and really shows what everyone was actually doing throughout the day. It was hard work getting everything ready and as well as filming and making images I did help to set things up as well as stick to Jersey Heritage Instagram and Twitter.

Jersey Heritage Instagram [JerseyHeritage]
Jersey Heritage Twitter [@LoveHeritage]

museum takeover day-1190I like this image. This is one from the beginning of the day with the curator team making decisions about which images were going to be included in the exhibition. Here Kate, Layla, Sophie and Max are working together to come up with the best decision as to where the images would fit in and how they would look in this particular exhibition. This was interesting to watch and see how decisive everyone was when making decisions. The team needed to make quick decisions as there was limited time to go out to the printing place to get them done in time for half 4 when the exhibition would be open for a private viewing. I like this shot as I managed to get the team perfectly in the middle of the frame and they all seemed to be posing in a great way for the camera even though none of the images that I made of the day were staged at all. I like that everyone looks deep in thought showing that they really did try their best with making the correct decisions for what looked well and fit in with the themes that they came up with. None of the elimination process was personal as they even got rid of some of their own images as they didn’t fit in with what they were looking for on the day. All of the images that were chosen were great and I think that the main theme of the entire thing was to see the life of a teenager. I think that they interpreted the title in a different way to what I thought as they mainly wanted to focus on being a teenager and not really life through a teenagers lens. They did tend to focus on one aspect of teenage life with being young, having fun, drinking and smoking and skating etc. However, they did manage to add a few images from a different aspect of being a teenager through family.

PR work:

Throughout the day the PR team [myself and Dylan] were given iPad’s to make posts and updates across the Heritage social media. We managed to gain them around 15 followers on Instagram and a few extra followers on Twitter. We got retweeted twice on Twitter by the official museum takeover page from across the UK as well as some retweets and favourites from locals. This was an exciting process as we were able to experience what marketing would actually be like and how we can get the public excited about the entire exhibition. This will be good for in the future when we do more exhibitions. We used the hashtags: #takeoverday, #takeoverchallenge, #archisle, #hautlieu, #societejersiaise.

Instagram and Twitter Posts
Here are the posts that I made throughout the day on Twitter and Instagram. We worked together but made different posts of different parts of the day to make for some interesting content. I wanted to create a load of different Instagram posts which I did throughout and we tended to stay on the Instagram page more than the Twitter page as we wanted to make it as visual as possible since we were doing this as part of a photography project.


Heritage Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerseyheritage/
Heritage Twitter: https://twitter.com/loveheritage

Short Film:

Throughout the day I made a short film for the Jersey Heritage Facebook page. This was a fun task and I managed to get a lot of footage from the entire day. It was nice to actually be behind the scenes and to film different bits that the spectator wouldn’t be able to see. It gives them more of an insight as to what actually goes on in the making of the exhibition. I wanted to make this short film as visually interesting as possible so throughout the day I made a load of B roll for when it came to editing it all together. I had a tough job ahead when I imported the footage to find out that I had made 156 videos. I got straight to work on creating a really great short film for the Jersey Heritage Facebook page as well as for school to keep. I found that the entire experience and day down at the museum really fun and interesting making it fun to look back on while editing all of the clips together. I wanted to get an interview with the organiser of the entire event from Jersey Heritage, Lucy Layton, to play over different shots from throughout the day. I thought that this would be more of an interesting way to present the entire day while also explaining what was going on at the same time.I decided to create two short films, one is a lot shorter and more suitable for a school assembly while the other is a lot longer and gives more behind the scenes access to the museum takeover day.

Description of short edition: This is a short behind the scenes film that I creating during Hautlieu school’s one day takeover at the Jersey museum. Here we created a pop up exhibition showcasing fellow students and our own photography work entitled ‘125 hours Through The Lens of a Teenager’ fitting in with the already posted exhibition from the Jersey Evening Post’s 125th year anniversary. Watch out for the extended edition where you will be able to see more behind the scenes footage and get more of an insight of what actually goes on behind the scenes of a small museum exhibition.

[EXTENDED VERSION COMING SOON]

Description of film: For this project I was asked to come up with a short film to showcase the time, effort and talents of the creatives at Hautlieu school. Here 10 students, including myself, were invited down to the Jersey museum where we came together with the Jersey Evening Post, Jersey Heritage, Archisle Societe Jersiaise and took over the museum as part of a UK wide #takeoverchallenge. This is an extended version on the behind the scenes look of what went in to creating this pop up exhibition as well as the time and effort put in. Enjoy.

Jersey Evening Post article: http://jerseyeveningpost.com/jep-picture-galleries/2015/11/24/gallery-hautlieu-students-take-over-jersey-museum/12228205/

“when you take students out of a school context and into the real world, they are capable of doing amazing things.” – Martin Toft

Our pop up exhibition has been extended and will be open until Sunday 29th November 2015! This has been a really great opportunity for Hautlieu students which also resulted in a two page spread in the Jersey Evening Post as well as a featured article on their online site. 

Exhibition, Family Archive

Own Archival Research: 1960s

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These images which I came across from the previous owner of the house shows clearly the significant and original style of 1960s culture. These images show the counter development after the war, after its re-development in the late 60s and early 70s. As you can see, the development causes various similarities with that of its post-war development in the 1930s and 40s, prolonging its classic characteristics and structure. The images seem as if they’ve been documented using disposable camera’s, this is because, for example, in the image below the raw and vivid colouring is brought out from the decomposing of the walls, the grass, and the sky. This style is notorious, and easily recognisable, which connotes the time period as to when this was documenting, as this constantly relates back to the context and culture of the time this development took place. 2180110901_011_2001

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