With the recent development of my life as a family, it is suitable to base this project on the transition of me moving house in early December 2015. This building project has been live for nearly over 5 years, and has been a long process due to the reserves for materials, dealing with the National Trust and allowing the correct methods to be done in order to restore the house’s natural and original form. Le Petit Fort, for nearly half a decade has become the pivitol force within our lives as a family. Both of my parents have spent countless hours on the development of our new family home, as they have effortlessly incorporated the minimalist details of their own lives with reflects on what life was like when the house was first originally built.
As a starting point, I have researched past images of the house in order for me to make a comparative link to suggest more relevance within my ideas. This was all done with help from the Societe Jerseiase and Jersey’s Photographic Archive. With help from Gareth Syvret, we researched these past images of the house with the references tagged along with the images. This was all stored in a box of photographs given by the Bailiff of Jersey, between the era’s of 1930’s and 40’s: a post war memorial. I then learnt that my house was an important artifact and gem to the German soldiers which were residence in St Ouen’s Bay during the time of the occupation in World War ll. From this, my ideas then began to develop, I found relevance into my project by being able to contextualize and relate to the history of my new house.
Contextualizing with the changes and developments society have influenced the concept of a family.
Noticing society’s expectations of of a family: what is the control of responsibility? What are guidelines parents have to follow?
How do individuals within a family react towards each other? How are they genetically similar?
Are there individuals that look similar? How can you dictate these similarities?
This aspect for me is very interesting, and I would like to investigate these factors in greater depth by recreating this style myself. The style and resiliency of the prints when disposed are unconditional to the time period and era. The rustic and compound prints objectifies images in greater detail, as colours are abbreviated allot further along with edges and geometry created from sharp lines. This could be captured with use of a disposable camera. Exploring this theme of disposables allows me to reconnect back into my childhood, as a way of integrating with the present without compromising and changing the perceptions of the past. For me, as a kid, using disposable camera was a source of fun for me and my family. The camera acts almost as a time capsule, reflecting back on the times humorous and laughable things that wouldn’t usually be remembered by memory. As a kid, using this camera as a game enabled me to take chances with the outcomes, as once taken, I would look forward to the interpretation of the moment once developed.
As you can see from these pictures, a sense of history is elevated. I want to approach this task open-minded, as from 2010, the growth and development of our family has changed and continues to change with a developing world.
I plan to initially capture my dad as the driving force of this project. He began this project initially from his idea, he was the one that initiated this move and constructed the foundations of the house as well as the various plans.
For this shoot I decided to make some images of a Film Noir detective with a dame. I thought that this would be a good opportunity to take inspiration from the work of Claude Cahun and going against the socially accepted gender norms between men and women and I am also inspired by Cindy Sherman who dresses up as characters and becomes someone new in every photograph.
I did a shoot dressed up as a generic Film Noir male detective to look at how men are portrayed with this old style of film which also goes along with my work on femme fatales and making images of famous femme fatales and inspiration from Barbara Kruger and her newspaper style images. This shoot went well and I enjoyed doing it. I wanted to portray a man well and really become the character so I put bronzer all over my jawline and cheeks to create a beard. I also wore my dad’s grey suit jacket, tie, shirt and my own trousers and braces to go underneath the suit jacket. I wore a large black hat that is reminiscent of the hats that a usual detective in film noir movies would wear. I really wanted to become the character and portray them in the way that I had imagined. Later on I went back into the studio for a couple of hours to shoot the images for the female dame character. This went well and was fun to do. I managed to look back at the images made of the male detective and got them into the same position in order to make it a lot easier for me when actually editing the photos together. I do think that the images will look a lot smoother if they are in black and white which works well as my theme is Film Noir.
Here are a few of the images that I made of the film noir detective. I like these images as I think that I managed to capture the lighting well and really made some good film noir inspired images. I think that they will look a lot better when the noir dame is introduced and when I can actually edit them together by layering them. However, I do really like the look of these images alone as they are interesting to look at. I made an attempt to edit the two images together, one with the detective standing along side his dame but this didn’t really work as the lighting was different and the camera was at different focal points and slightly different positions. At least this way I am able to still use the images of the Noir Dame and create some more interesting Femme Fatale images and I will know for next time to actually do the shooting for one image all at one time and not to go on different days. This will just make it easier when editing and allow me to get really into the characters and the exact positions that I want to be in in each of the images.
I like these images and think that they are interesting to look at as they challenge the norms of gender and how people are supposed to look and be as part of that gender. I wanted to create strong images that are unusual and will leave the spectator wondering who I am and what decade I am from. This can be linked to more recent issues on gender stereotypes and having to conform to the expectations placed on us at a young age by society and to fit in with the norm and be another one in the crowd. I did take inspiration from Claude Cahun challenging how we see ourselves and showing that really we aren’t all that different at all. This was really fun and interesting to explore as it shows a new side to photography and allows me to work more deeply and think more deeply about these kind of situations of gender stereotypes and smudging the lines between what is male and what is female.
I have taken a lot of inspiration from Film Noir films and decided that it would be a fun idea to recreate the image of these women and mimic the way they are and the way they are represented, cliches. I have taken inspiration from Cindy Sherman for this as I am going to be a different persona in each photograph and slightly exaggerating the way Femme Fatales were represented. Although they were seen as strong and independent, to me the women are represented in a negative light as if being independent and not needing a man makes you a work of the devil, a temptress. This shows how these women were there for the male gaze and brought some diversions into the films with the inevitable death of the Femme Fatale at the end of the movie. These women were always meant for the male gaze and made to be unnecessarily seductive and made out to be something like a witch that puts a spell on the man and tries to purposely steer him off the course to possibly further his career or development as a character. Femme Fatales are shown as enchantresses.
Possible titles for entire project [and/or shoot]:
enchantress – enchanteresse [translation to french]
temptress – tentatrice [translation to french]
“He keeps me on a leash so tight I can’t breath” [possible title of series of images]
For these images I wanted to incorporate the work of Barbara Kruger with Cindy Sherman and the staging of famous film noir images of femme fatale women. I will also be adding quotes from things that I have heard people say or just with the expectations placed on women. I want these images to look like posters, something that would be up in your wall with a sarcastic feel to it. I really enjoyed editing these together although at first none of them looked anything special but after I got experimenting they started to come out exactly how I wanted them to. I made up all of the phrases myself just like Kruger did when she picked images that other photographers had taken to make her own art. I used my own images and my own text just because that is the way I wanted to do it as well as experimenting with different film noir dame personas.
Experimentation:
Femme Fatale experimentation
I wanted to create strong images with strong and clear messages on them. These are all my own thoughts, text and images. I want to make this work authentic and not coming from someone else. I like the bluntness of my text as it stands out and really captures the attention of the spectator, which is what this project is all about. I like the images that I have created and don’t want to make too many more as these ones are strong on their own and too many might become slightly repetitive and irritating. I like these images as they do remind me of the work of Barbara Kruger but my images and text is a lot more directed at feminism and being a woman whereas Kruger’s work varies into other movements and categories too. The image at the bottom is an experiment that I have had in mind since I started on my film noir project and wanted to include it in my work. This one is my favourite as it is something that I wrote and performed myself, I wanted to do a parody of what a lot of people think of women and their place in society. I chose to have my subject, in this case myself, wearing all black and holding her trench coat open as if she were a flasher from the streets back in the 1960s when older men would go around wearing nothing and flash passersby for a laugh. I chose to adopt this method but instead of showing naked flesh I decided to replace it with words that would stand out a lot more and I positioned each bit of text in a way that seemed as if it were the models body. I really love how this image has turned out as it is different to the rest and it came out just how I had imagined it to be.
For this I have taken some inspiration from the tableau photographer Cindy Sherman. Here I have taken on board the way in which our community views men and women. For this shoot I decided to challenge the way our community thinks and understands certain circumstances. I want to provoke thought, I want our society to open their minds and learn that there is so much more to life than the magazines we read and the ideal of having the ‘perfect life’, watching celebrities and thinking that these people lead the most glorious lives. Nowadays we have shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, award shows, news reports that glamourise celebrities and showing them in the perfect light. We sometimes forget that they too are people and they face the same difficulties that us ‘normal’ people do. There is no such thing as the perfect life, this is what I would like to express through my work. For this shoot I am going to stage everyday life to show how unrealistic this way of life would actually be.
To me community is sharing, whether that be an environment, ways of thinking and experience. As communities grow we are able to learn more and more about one another progressing those relationships. I chose to go with the element of community as this shoot is a message for our first world community to try and enlighten them of how a lot of young people think and the fact that none of it is actually true, it’s all fake. We are constantly bombarded with images of women on the front of magazine covers posing doing everyday things that a lot of young people take literally and think that these models constantly look the way they do in the magazines. This is completely wrong and staged for the cameras. I found my inspiration for this when I came across the 1960’s Estee Lauder Campaigns. I came across these images whilst watching a YouTube video and then decided to explore it further and find out more about these campaigns. This actually inspired me to create my own images.
All of these images have helped to inspire me to create my own photographs. These models were photographed for these photos in the 1960s and to me seem very raw. I think this is because the cameras that were used were more like disposable cameras of today, they had film and that is how they operated. Images were developed in dark rooms rather than being edited and perfected on the computer with editing software. For my shoot I have decided to create all of my images in black and white to stay true to my style models as well as to maintain focus on the subject of the images rather than the colourful surroundings. I think that this shoot will challenge the way we as a community think about things and the way we see the celebrity world. I want people to understand that this idea of having the ‘perfect life’ is completely staged and people are just good at pretending. Celebrities are huge influences on our younger generations that I think we need to focus on and bring to light that this is not a realistic way of thinking. I really like a lot of the images above, most of which are from an Estee Lauder campaign in 1965.
Estee Lauder campaign
Estee Lauder campaign
Estee Lauder campaign 1965
These three images were my main inspirations as they were thought provoking. The two first images of the women looking in the mirror and doing their makeup interested me. I thought ‘why are these women leading over and doing their makeup?!’ that to me just looked ridiculous and kind of glamourised the way that women actually do their makeup, making young girls think that makeup is beautiful and that all women do it. The third image of the woman looking off into the distance all glammed up with a full face of makeup, hair beautifully done and wearing a glamorous gown while seemingly sat at home just makes no sense to me. I understand that these images are for a makeup brand and to advertise their makeup but I don’t like the way the women are glamourised making young girls and women think that this is the way to be and that this is what beauty is. I am excited to recreate some of these images and to try and make the staged aspect of the shoot as exaggerated as possible. I have also decided to do a more realistic everyday life shoot, photographing real people doing through their everyday routines and finding out a bit more about our community and the world that we live in.
A Staged Day in the Life
Lighting experimentation
Lighting experimentation
Here I asked my friend to pose in the position that I would be so I could test out the different angles for my ideas as well as lighting. I found that this shoot was more of a learning experience towards my actual main subject of Film Noir as I managed to work with a load of different lighting exposures with harsh light and soft light by only using natural lighting. I think that this did work out of the bed shots as the sun was setting when I made those images which brought in some good light into my images making them more interesting and mysterious. However, the images at the makeup table aren’t the best as I couldn’t seem to get the aperture completely right on the camera and so those particular ones didn’t come out as well as I had hoped as well as me being unable to actually properly pose for the photos as it was difficult to not get anything else in. If anything I would want to re shoot this in a bare room or something were there is very minimal surroundings with just the vanity dresser, the makeup and the model. I think that this would probably be best done in the studio where I can change the lighting and mess around with a few different things but other than that I think I’ve made a good start and am starting to really get the hang of what light looks good and what pose works well with the position of that lighting.
Here are the images that I have made so far and will be adding to as the course goes on. I experimented with a load of different angles and positions of the subject to see what looked best and which one managed to capture the story the best. This is only the beginning of the characters morning and I will be adding to this to create a more in depth story. I like the lighting in a lot of the bedroom shot images as the sun was actually setting when they were being taken and looked really great with there being more harsh lighting on the subjects face as well as in the background of the image.
This is one of my favourite images as it portrays exactly what I want to get across. This image represents how women are expected to get up and enjoy the morning and simply gazing out of the window but in this image my character looks almost concerned as if she does not know what to do. I like the position of the camera and the composition of my character. Here I set up my camera on a tripod, positioned it and asked my friend to click the button, this worked well. I do find it so much easier just to be behind the camera making the photographs of someone else but I wanted to give a more personal response to the works of Cindy Sherman and Claude Cahun as they are always the main subjects in their photographs. I also like the way my character is looking and that the hand almost covers some of the face giving more of a mysterious way to her as if the spectator cannot completely see who she is but all they know is that she is in deep thought. I do like this image as the strong lighting makes for a more interesting black and white image. I think that this image is most effective in black and white and wouldn’t work in colour as the spectator would get too distracted by the orange coming through the window of the sunset and the contrasting colours of the stripped night gown and the stripped bed sheets. This also makes my character more of an enigma and will make the spectator want to look at the rest of the story to possibly find out a little more about this woman, who she is and what is troubling her. For these images I wanted to create an almost robotic character that is just doing what is expected of her and how society thinks she is really does drain a person and that other people do have problems and do have troubles that they feel that they can only face alone.
I also really like this image as the spectator is unable to see the identity of the subject bringing more of a sense of mystery to her and again making the spectator want to look at more images to find out more about who she and what she is going. I like the way that the camera has captured the sunlight coming through as a lens flare and I also like that is kind of cuts of the subjects hand a little so that the spectator focuses more on the pan with nothing in it. I like this image as it reminds me of one of Cindy Sherman’s images where a young woman [herself] is cooking something and is just passively staring into nothingness which I have taken inspiration from with my own photographs. I do like the composition of this photograph and how the hand on the far left looks a lot bigger than the hand on the right as well as making the body look a lot smaller as if she is possibly wasting away or can’t be bothered to come closer to the pan and actually make a nice breakfast. I also like the light coming off of the subjects shirt as it just gives more layers to the image and makes it stand out a bit more which is really interesting to me. I think that I will stick to having all of my images in black and white as it makes for more interesting images and allows the spectator to focus on what I as the photographer want them to focus on rather than all of the black and red that surrounds my family kitchen. I really like the way the light hits off the counter top as the spectator is able to see the window in it as it shines, it just makes the image that more interesting as well as it giving more shades for the black and white.
I chose this image because I like the angle and position of the camera making it look as though the spectator is looking down on the subject and that she is less powerful than them. I wanted this image to represent how women feel pressured and expected to dress up and always look pretty when in reality not a lot of women want to be constantly made up and when they do it is for themselves and not to impress anyone else. I also like the entire mise-en-scene of this shot as the spectator is able to see the makeup products she has sprawled across the dressing table as well as being able to see her reflection in the mirror. I like the angle that the camera is at and find that it looks really interesting as well as the position of the subject being exactly where I want it. I really like this image as a whole as it is the perfect position of where I want everything to be and how I want the image to be portrayed. I think that the most interesting part of this image is the reflection of my character in the mirror as it is just an interesting angle and everything within that little frame within the photograph looks very staged and put together, this shows how we often only see a part of someones life, the perfect part, and are often taken in by the aesthetics and how everything in that one frame actually fits and looks pretty when in reality the subject isnt so happy when faced with the pressures of having to constantly be ‘perfect’ for the rest of the world.
A Real Day in the Life
Shoot 1:
Here are images from a more realistic day in the life. This isn’t its full potential and I think that I will be redoing this with possibly the same subject or a few different ones to show a more realistic day in the life. This was interesting to shoot but I think just as a starting idea as I know that I can make better images.
Here the subject is working out and getting ready to go to the gym. This was interesting to do but I don’t really like it as a shoot as it is quite boring and doesn’t really have any meaning or anything behind it. As documentary photos they are average and don’t think that they are anything special or interesting. Something about it just makes me not really care too much.
I think that this work is pretty average as a documentary piece and I know that I can make better and more realistic images than this as I felt that this shoot was quite rushed and isn’t really good enough. I will be furthering this idea though and will be making it a lot better visually and a lot more realistic. I will also work on some more shoots with different subjects performing for the camera and I will stage their daily routine too. This will be an interesting way using female stereotypes as well as somewhat documentary by photographing them within their natural environments.
I actually quite like this image as it just shows a teenager doing exactly what you would expect a teen to do, sit with their headphones in listening to music and playing on their phone. I like the position of the subject as the spectator is able to see her reflection in the mirror and can see how dusty it is reflecting on how teenagers are stereo typically seen as lazy and messy. I also like the way my subject is sitting as she doesn’t allow the spectator to see too much of her face as if she is so engrossed in her phone but the spectator is able to see some of her face through the reflection in the mirror.
A few weeks ago I was walking home from a shoot with my sister and her family, I decided to walk home and instead of just going straight home with my camera in my bag I kept my camera out and made photographs as I was walking just as an experimentation of the light and how the camera picks up different light in the evening compared to in the day time. I also made images of the people walking past me to see how it looked and whether or not they were in good lighting for silhouettes. I liked this experimentation as it has helped me come up with some more ideas to add to my Film Noir inspired project. The photos I have made aren’t meant to look great or anything special I was just trying out different lighting at to see whether or not it was dark enough for the light to really stand out when it actually comes to making the Film Noir inspired night images that I want.
I think that these images look a lot better in black and white and the lighting is perfect for the experiment that I want to do. I like the idea of this shooting and making images during the night as it brings a sense of mystery and allure which is the kind of images that I want to create when my Femme Fatales are introduced. I want to experiment further with different locations for this shoot before actually going out and shooting it as I think that this will make it a lot easier when actually shooting as I will know exaclty where, how and what I want to shoot.
This is my favourite image out of all the images that I made that evening as the lighting is great and is very film noir with more of a chiaroscuro lighting feel towards it. I think that when it comes to actually shooting this might be a possible location or more likely I will definitely be using a lamppost to light my images and to make harsh lighting so that the silhouette of the Femme Fatale really stands out in the darkness and looks mysterious. This experimentation worked well for me and has given me a chance to have a look at what kind of images that I am able to create when it actually comes to making the images.
From my photoshoot, I chose my best photographs, and edited them. Although this photo shoot is not part of my family project I used it as an experimentation. I took these photographs using my iPhone, however the quality of the photographs aren’t very good and some are blurry because the shutter speed is set to slow therefore when I do my project I am going to use a camera rather than my phone.
I edited these photographs by experimenting with the brightness and contrast, with the different colors and by cropping them. Overall I think this improved the appearance of the photos.
This shoot was made when celebrating my nieces first birthday party on Sunday 27th September. Here around thirty people, friends and family, came round to my brother-in-laws parents house to celebrate with us. I decided to take photographs of this to show true family life as well as documenting my nieces first birthday. I don’t think that I made many interesting photographs as they were mostly just family shots and some action shots. I think that family is a very personal thing to photograph and I am not comfortable photographing this, I think I will enjoy focusing more on faith or community. Here are the images that I took from the day, it basically just tells the story of a 1 year old’s first birthday, how the child doesn’t actually know what is going on while the rest of the adults stand around and chat. something that I found when reviewing my images was that her mother was a lot more excited about the party than her daughter was.
I like this image because it focuses on my niece trying to share her food with me. I found that throughout all of the photos my niece is the only one that acknowledges that I am taking photos and she constantly looks for me and tries to come next to me. This made for come interesting photographs. My niece loves to share as you can see in this image she is looking slightly above the camera at me and is trying to share her food with me. It also shows how she is surrounded by family as she is sitting on her nana’s [my mum] lap and her auntie [my sister] is sat waiting to pass her some more food. I like this photo as the light is creeping in the right side of the image as well as creating dramatic light on my mum’s jacket. There is a lot going on in this photograph giving the spectator more to look at.
This image was actually corrupt when I was looking through my photos but I actually quite like it. This is three images that have been put together somehow by my camera/SD card. I think it looks pretty good and I think it looks like a collage. I don’t think that this image is very strong as a final image but I do find it interesting as it was a mistake but it seemed to catch your eye. This image brings together three different photos from different times in the day and different elements of what was going on in the garden.
I don’t think that I would use any of these images to tell a story for family as I don’t think they are good enough. The photos are ok but there is no real meaning behind them with no real dramatic or standout issues. These images are plain and simple which I do not think is good enough after researching some family photographers. I really think that these images are boring as it’s only parts of an ordinary day with an ordinary group of people and nothing very interesting happened that day. I guess that for some people these images could be a good insight on someone else’s life and how other people celebrate birthdays etc. I think that to link to this idea of photographing my niece I would possibly follow my sister round for a day and see what it is really like to care for a small baby and to show that it isn’t as easy and fun as TV and films tend to make it out to be.
I like this photograph because it is quite simple. It shows my niece with her broken arm, my mum [her nana] and my brother-in-laws mum [her nanny]. I don’t really have a solid reason for liking this image apart from how clear and bright it is. Everything seems to be well lite and it is an action shot from throughout the day of my niece’s birthday. I like that they are all ignoring the camera and acting like themselves. I find this image shows that her nana cares about her and is looking out for her to make sure that she doesn’t fall over while attempting to stand up using her chair. It also shows my niece looking up at her nanny as if in awe of her or just happily watching her as she fixes the balloons. I just like this image because of how clear the actual image itself is.
Here I have selected a series of 12 of my favourite images that I think work better together. I think that these images tell the story of my little niece and brings in different elements of the day for everyone. I think that these shots are good and interesting to see another perspective of other people’s lives during an event like a birthday. I think that these photos work well and give a clear understanding of what was going on throughout that day. The spectator is able to see what goes on behind the scenes of an Instagram photo or a Facebook post. I tried to get photos of my subjects off guard and not looking at the camera so to get the most raw photographs possible. If I had to choose a favourite image it would probably be the one below just because I find it the most interesting and it is quite off guard and isn’t staged at all which ties in with it being more documentary style.
More experimentation
Previous shoot [1st birthday]
Previous shoot [1st birthday]
Previous shoot [1st birthday]
This is one of my favourite black and white images as it shows my niece trying to stand up on her own using her little chair for support. I think this image is simple and looks good. I like that my mum is cut off only showing her hands holding down the chair so that my niece doesn’t fall over on her face. The facial expression of my niece looks very concentrated as if she is trying really hard to stand up and using all of her power to do so. It shows a growing stage in her life and how she needs to work on her own and learn how to walk on her own two feet.
I also like this image as it shows my niece with her broken arm. She is looking up at her grandfather and holding onto his leg in the hopes that he will give her some of the crisps that he is holding for the party. I like that she is looking up at him as if she is begging for the food. I like this image in black and white as it makes it more effective and allows the spectator to focus in on what the subject is doing the facial expression of that subject rather than focusing on the environment and all of the colours surrounding my subject. For this shoot I took inspiration from the photographer Kristen Lewis by taking more action shots of the family and to catch them in moments, when something more exciting is happening or even when no one is going anything and are looking bored. I took inspiration from Lewis as I found her images very simple and I wanted to use that with my family photo shoot. I also like that a lot of her images are in black and white which I also like to use as it allows the spectator to focus in on the subject and what is going on within the picture rather than focusing in on the colours and environment surrounding the subject.
Experimentation based on inspiration from a glitch in a photo…
For my first idea I am focusing on my Grandfather’s life before he passed away. I want my project to focus on all the memories I have of my grandfather and the poignant moments of his life that represent who he was as a person. I began my research into his life by looking through an album of his life including all his family both immediate and extended.
This image is of my grandfather with my mother as a young girl, there is also my mum’s older brother on the far left. My grandfather’s brother is in the middle. My mother was the youngest of eight children.
In order to explore the theme of family, I decided to take some pictures of my extended family. I went to my aunt and uncle’s house to do so. Since they were at home, I was able to capture more natural moments due to their familiarity and comfort in that environment. I took most of images in an amateur manner. It didn’t really matter whether the composition was perfect. I wanted to photograph with a casual approach, just like Richard Billingham did for instance. I made sure to experiment with different zoom lenses and angles. I also took staged and un-staged images, meaning my family didn’t have to pose.
I visited them on two different occasions. The first time I went, I mainly captured them outside, whilst we were having a BBQ. My parents were also there that day and the atmosphere was very different.
The second day, I shot them inside, in the lounge and dining room. They were doing ordinary things, for example my cousin was playing games and my aunty was doing house chores. I also caught some social interactions, like when my uncle played with my cousin.
