For this shoot I decided to go out into our community and document those who work and wonder round the market. I think that markets are getting lost in our modern world and they seem to be getting lesser and lesser. I wanted to make my images as clear and real as possible. I like the vibrant colours showing that the market place is still very much alive with so much to see and explore. I feel like it is a world that often young people overlook and ignore.
During the summer I went round the market and made some images of those who were walking around, I also asked a couple of people that worked there if I could make images of them after explaining what it was for. Only a few people allowed me to make photos of them but the images that I was able to take I am happy with [all photos are my own].
The images that I found the most effective were the ones with the subjects looking into the camera. I like these images as I did have to go up to these people, explain what I was doing and hope that they would be willing to contribute and be in my images for me. These image stand out because the subject is actually looking into the camera, making it more personal for the spectator. I like these images as it shows the environment surrounding the people that work in the market and shows what they do for a living. I find these images interesting to look at as there is a lot going on and a lot of different colours for you to look at. I enjoyed making these photographs and think that they look good although I do not want to progress this shoot into anything more and like it how it is. I want to find something different to explore and go more in depth on.
After venturing round the market a couple of times and making some interesting images I realised that I wasn’t that interested in this and do not want to further develop this through my study as I think it is very self explanatory and not something I feel passionate about. I think that these images tell the story however they do not provoke anything or ignite a spark. I am pleased with how these images turned out though.
More experimentation
I think these images work well in black and white because there are so many colours going on in each image it makes it more effective. I think that these images look interesting and that the spectator will want to find out more and look at more images from the market. I really like these images and I find them a lot more interesting in black and white allowing the spectator to focus in on what is going on in the photographs rather than focusing in on the bright colours etc. I think that the reason the black and white worked so well was because there were so many different colours that stood out and made for a more interesting photo and different shades of grey and black.
I photographed birthday meals over two days of my closest friends, as part of my second idea of exploring what defines a family and family beyond blood relation. In the photograph’s I took are of my point of view of what was happening by ‘bare witnessing’ as most of the time they weren’t aware of me taking the photographs. Below are my favorite outcomes.
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…
This weekend I had a very unexpected trip and so wasn’t able to take the photos at the Teacher Strike and Marathon that I had planned to take. I had to take a last minute plane over to Birmingham, so thought I would take advantage of this to take a couple photos, although I was only there from about 5 on Saturday till 1/2ish on Sunday, and I forgot to take the camera with me everywhere, but I did still get some photos. The photos I took which are the most relevant to my project are the ones I took at the airport and on the plane. I didn’t get that many photos, but i can still use some of these. As I was staying with my Bother, who is currently away at uni, he took me around the university, although there weren’t really any people, and it would’ve been more beneficial to go on a weekday, the last photo I took in the University was quite good, and I have a couple of ideas now on how I could layout a photo book.
The photo is of a Cafeteria type area inside one of the Uni buildings, and although everything is locked up and there is no one there, the viewer can see that it is a place that would normally be pretty full, and I think it would be a nice mixture, having photos of places that should be busy, but have no one in them, and places that are busy with people.
When I was in the Jersey Airport before getting my plane I also took some photos as it was fairly busy.
I also managed to take a photograph when on the plane to Birmingham. I quite like this photo, because its a view that anyone who has been on a plane has seen, except they normally don’t see it when everyone is sat down and the plane is in motion.
Unfortunately past this point of the trip I either forgot my camera, or had too much stuff to carry to be able to take a photo when I wanted, but if I happen to go on another trip I have a netter idea of what I can do to take more photos, and I also have a better idea of the type of images I want to take in Jersey, and I may even go over to Guernsey or France on the Ferry to get some more images.
This is my first shoot of my grandparents new home. They took me to their new house and showed me around for the first time. The house had no furniture or belonging in yet, and everything is brand new. I photographed them exploring the different rooms and deciding where they were going to put their bed, wardrobes ext. At this time they had sold their old house and were floating around different houses until their new house was ready to move in to.
I have also photographed them whilst they have been staying at my uncle and aunties house. They had a small bedroom in my aunties house, which they kept their clothes in suitcases, big boxes of paper work, a calendar and a bag of nibbles.
My Grandparents often came up to my house during the day time where they would make them selves lunch and do their laundry. Here are the photographs from my first shoot.
I started looking through my family albums and found some photographs of my mum’s side of the family before and right after I was born. However I don’t have access to photographs which were taken any earlier than in 1997 because they are with my Nan who lives in Madeira. My mum is part of a 6 sibling family I was able to find photographs of two of her siblings who were living in Jersey at the time. I also found a photograph of my auntie and two of my cousins in Madeira outside my Nan’s house.
On Friday the 25th of September, our photography class visited Tom Pope’s recent exhibition. It was called ‘I Am Not Tom Pope, You Are All Tom Pope’. In the building, he had a total of 21 works. Here’s a picture of Pope giving a speech on his outcomes:
Tom Pope
Tom quoted in this exhibition letter: ‘My practice does not make artwork for a community, it creates a community through the act of making’. I think what he means is that he brings people by doing what he does. He is probably inciting that he isn’t the sole producer of the work, rather, community members have a big part to play. In that, everyone’s brought closer together under the name of visual arts. Here’s the letter:
I Am Not Tom Pope, You Are All Tom Pope – Letter.
He also displayed a rather long film, around 20 minutes or so. Pope and many other volunteers from all around Jersey, helped to push a small boat across the island. The film was entitled ‘The Last Portage’. Portage defined as: the practice of carrying a water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. The boat was then placed on a slipway and pushed out to sea by Tom. The aim was for the boat to sail in the Atlantic ocean. Surprisingly, Pope then had to phone the coastguards to alert them that a ‘lost’ boat was at sea. The footage was displayed in a dark room, here’s a picture I took of the screening:
Tom Pope – The Last Portage. – Film Presentation.
At the end of Tom’s presentation, I took some pictures. Here’s his collection from the first room:
This picture above, shows an upside down woman holding a reflected shoe on her heel. The background of the image is pitch black, so that the girls legs stand out. I think that this picture is quite bold. The subjects in this photograph are quite off balance. This is because there’s a massive void of empty space on the right hand side. For me, this creates interest and mysteriousness. Also the rule of thirds are rather strong. The legs intercept the two hot-spots and are aligned with one of the vertical lines.
This picture shows a portrait of a woman on the beach. She’s wearing a leopard skin bikini and has had a face altered on top of hers. The face is actually from the Jersey Archive and Pope’s cleverly placed it onto her body. I think that this hides her emotions and is a sort of disguise. Compositionally, it’s great. The woman is directly in the center of the frame and the sea behind her creates a vertical overlap with her. Also, her stance is strong and tall.
Tom Pope is actually featured in this one. This self-portrait shows Pope being painted by another man. His expression looks surprised and the painter looks focused. The way that Tom’s arm has been cut off on the right hand side, leads me to look at it. This image also has a pretty good amount of depth to it. The painter in the foreground creates shadows on Tom, which then creates shadows on the background wall.
Here, a man appears to be climbing on a statue. This was taken during the night, so it’s likely that a flash camera was utilized. In all, there is a lot going on in this picture. From the street signs on the side, to the cool statue and the man trying to stabilize himself. It looks like it was taken in an amateur man, because the elements aren’t that well aligned. Nevertheless, I believe that that makes it more intriguing.
Lastly, these two images were placed together. In the left one, a night scene has been captured, where someone seem to be holding a hockey stick. The man pictures was probably playing hockey whilst someone was snapping pictures. The image on the left is of a girl on a cylinder shaped structure. It looks as if she jumped on it and is now grabbing on. The way she’s holding on, somehow reminds me of a bear climbing a tree. The striped background works well, as it creates depth and leading lines.
If you notice, all of the pictures were framed with a bright orange frame. When asked why he did this, Tom said that he simply liked the color. He also said that it paint the pictures stand out and that he has presented his work like this in the past. For instance, when he photographed oranges, he’d normally frame in in that color. It could also relate to Baldessari’s work.
In this room, Pope had also displayed a blue podium. The color was bright blue and it stood out quite a lot. Pope stated that he chose this color to create a contrast against the white images on it. He said that it wouldn’t be as interesting to look at, if the podium was just plain white and i agree. The podium is cut at exactly one meter by one meter, making a perfect square. The way that he presented the images is also quite exquisite. Tom said that he would grab a picture and hold it up, at about one meter from the ground. He would then drop the image and simply leave it to land, whether it be upright or face down. Again this incorporates his love for performance photography. In this medium he performs something and records it, with the camera.
Here’s his collection from the second room:
Tom then gave us an insightful speech about his idea behind this part of the exhibition. There were various cutout faces placed on posts. The portraits were in black and white and so were the pieces placed on the tables. Pope said that the faces were actually from the archive. He added that this project was about distributing the archive out into jersey, which he did by photographing them. I think it’s great because he’s bringing the past and present together, to create new images.
Below are some close-ups of the masks. The eye’s have been cut out so that people can wear them:
On the tables, Pope displayed these pictures. He used a coin method to create these interesting holes. Basically there’s one picture on top of the other. Tom used a regular coin and placed it in a desired place. He then cut out the shape and left a gap for the photograph underneath to shine through. Again, a coherent theme of combining pictures is apparent here:
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.
Before the school summer holidays, I briefly looked over ‘Corinne Days Diary’. Over the summer, attending parties throughout the summer and Reading Festival at the very end of the summer. Over these events i captured some images that represented a more PG version of Corinnes images.
Here are the images –
All of the above images were taken on disposables, i took 6 disposable cameras to Reading festival as i love the style the cameras produce. They give a rough old look which i feel matches this topic perfectly. One of my favorite images is the two below. These were both taken at Reading and i love the informal feel in both.
This image was damaged by water. It rained nearly every day at Reading and water got into one of the cameras. However i feel it has benefited the image as it has given it texture and an even older look. The floor looks very worn and tired, similar to the picture and the subjects in the image. The girl photographed was heavily intoxicated, taking a surprise image turned out to be one of the best images taken.
The next image has also been damaged by water and shock. Over the course of the week i dropped the camera numerous times. This resulted in a two of the images being split and merged together. However i loved this affect as it makes the image look older again and more interesting as you have to work out what it actually is. The two subjects in the photograph are also unaware the image was being taken, sharing a hug they are unknowingly being photographed.
