On Friday 23rd October the whole of year 12 and 13 photography students headed down to the Jersey Art Museum where we were delivered an opportunity to get our creative work exhibited within the Jersey Museum. This was created to celebrate 125 years of the Jersey Evening Post [originally named Evening Post]. This would be a really great opportunity to get our work out there within the Jersey community as well as actually being a part of an exhibition.
Archive collaboration with JEPArchive collaboration with JEPJEP collaboration with Jersey Photo Archive
The film cameras were great, as I’am fond of vintage cameras, it really brought the whole exhibition into perspective that people actually used to use these to make photographs for the papers and looking around at the images they were all so amazing without any editing being done at all. I personally was unable to attend the exhibition but from pictures and research i have done i have a clear imagery of what the room and presentation looked like. I do not like the layout of the exhibition and thought it could have been done a lot better. The very bright red background was too intense and set off the view to the images. However the contrast of the black and white images onto the red was very complimentary. The captions of the photographs were too high up the wall and very small so they were unreadable from a low level. The actually quality of the prints at the exhibition were very poor also.
The space that the exhibition was in the Jersey Museum and the space was also very small for the images shown. Ceilings were relatively low and makes the space feel cramped and small. The lighting was very harsh and did not compliment the photographs well at all, On a whole i thought the exhibition was very poor and could have been done ALOT better. This is a shame because the conceptual idea is a good and if done well could have been a successful and well perceived.
Jersey Museum Exhibition- Analysis of favourite and least favourite photographs
I have chosen this as one of my favourite photographs because I like portraiture photography, especially this black and white style. It has a very ‘poppy’ ‘rockstarry’ feel to the image, also the policeman’s hat being in the image connotes to the idea of trouble and control. This feeling is highlighted by the possibly fans asking for autographs which has been captured at the bottom of the image. The reflection in the subject’s sunglasses also makes the audience focus on this area of the photograph. Moreover, I like the framing of the image because the main focal point is in the centre of the image and the complimentary subjects are there as an additional. I do not think this image would of worked as well if it hadn’t been in black and white. This photograph doesn’t looked as though it were staged, it’s more a documentary photograph where it has been captured for the news or in this case for the JEP Newspaper.
This is my second favourite image because I think it has a very natural feeling to it; the simplicity of the photograph is what makes it interesting for me. Also the position they are both in gives the image a sense of unity and support. Through the subjects linking arms they have created a warm and endearing photograph which could connote to their love for one another. Framing is also very important for this image, having the subjects at the right makes it almost formal and as though it were set up. It is also clever how the photographer has included parts of the plane in order to relate to whatever news story was being published.
My least favourite photographers were of subjects creating the newspapers in the factories. I thought there were too many of this type of image because they didn’t actually have much relevance to the specific project. Furthermore we were not told any of the photographers that took the images, which I found very strange as this could of potentially been a research point for us to begin from.
Picture stories are techniques commonly used in newspapers and magazines. Photojournalists report media in a way of interpreting news. Picture stories however, can be seen easily as inconspicuous
The Guardian is a British national daily newspaper. Founded in 1821 as a local paper. The Guardian Newspaper and Magazine has redeveloped the photo-history of picture stories, as it has impacted readers from over 150 years.
From the archive: When Fred Perry and Virginia Wade won Wimbledon Compared to the wall-to-wall Andy Murray coverage, the Guardian was more muted when Fred Perry and Virginia Wade won Wimbledon
The Guardian is renown for its technical response to society, and ever changing life events and
“INTO OBLIVION” PUBLISHED ON THE 11.12.2010. It is a five-page spread layout and the first publication of the series, underlining the lives of elderly people. The words of this article have been written by Andrea Gillies.
This technique is very efficient, it draws readers in.
Another example is Motion Picture Magazine. This was an American monthly fan magazine about film, published from 1911 to 1977. It was the first fan magazine.
Vilma Banky Portrait from Idols of the Silent Screen — Ronald Colman & Vilma Banky Magazine Portrait from Motion Picture “Classic,” March 1927
Motion Picture Magazine 1944
The aim is to make sure the reader can interpret the image in a certain way. obstacles like captions can throw away the original perceptions you want the reader to consider.
“Street photography is photography that features the chance encounters and random accidents within public places. Street photography does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment.”
Nils Jorgensen is a good example of Street photography, although quite humorous street photography. His photos, although appear like they might be staged, are mostly spur of the moment images where he’s seen something happening at the perfect moment to take a photo, exactly like Documentary Photography, except instead of focusing on political issues or ‘newsworthy’ subjects, he has chosen to try and take more humorous photos among the public.
Some of his images are more ‘artsy’ photos, but the majority seem to show either something unusual, that doesn’t normally happen, or photos taken at just the right moment to be funny.
The way he takes his photos is similar to the way that I have been taking photos for my ‘Gatherings’ project, the majority of the time I don’t go out know exactly what and where i’ll be taking photos, but I take my camera and if I see a moment or place worth photographing, i’ll take a photo. Jorgensen doesn’t do a whole ‘photo shoot’ where everything is planned and he has organised people to be there etc, he just waits for the right moment and captures what is naturally happening around him.
Another photographer who takes this style of images is Todd Gross. Again, he goes into the public and when he see’s something interesting happening, he photographs it.
I think this style of photography really intrigues me because a lot of the time, street photography and photojournalism/documentary photography is used to show all the bad stuff happening, fights, police, gun violence, political issues, but this style of street photography is used to make people smile about all the little coincidences or funny moments happening everywhere, and it reminds you that not everything that is worth photographing and reporting has to be serious.
This kind of photography also reminded me of Andreas Gursky, he takes very large scale images, but then focuses in on individual things happening within the image, for example with this large image of a swimming pool, he cropped down to point out all the individual things going on in a situation, which you may not ordinarily notice when looking at the photograph as a whole, whilst it may not be humorous as such, it shows all the different things all happening at the same time, like little fights in the pool or an intimate moment between certain people.
Vivian Maier was a nanny and also a ‘secret’ photographer. She was described by friends as being introvert. She preferred to have a very private life and even asked for a lock to be placed on her room door. Maier had O.C.D. and with that she also took many photographs. Her ever-growing passion for photography lead her to the extreme of creating a darkroom in her bathroom. Spread out throughout the five centuries that she photographed, she managed to take over 100,000 negatives.
Amazingly her work was only discovered in 2007 at a Chicago auction. She’d actually become very poor and had to sell one of her storage lockers in order to pay for her house. Inside there was a mass of photographs and a man called John Maloof unknowingly bought them. He was the man that got her famous. After all those years of storage and hiding the photograph’s were finally brought to light. He’s played a huge role in helping to archive her work for future generations to cherish. Maier’s street photography seems to be very contemporary although it was taken with a rather historical camera. One of her many camera’s was called ‘Rolleiflex’ and can be seen in her self-portrait:
Vivian Maier: Self-Portrait.
I have produced a similar photograph to this one. I actually took this picture spontaneously during the half-term and have edited it into black and white to create a similar effect to Maier’s. My face is not very visible but you can still see the outline of my reflexion on the car window.
Here’s my outcome:
my response
Her photography focused on the street life in urban areas. Since Maier was born in New York City during the 1920’s, she had many sources for inspiration. During her life Maier kept changing locations from the her hometown to France. In 1951 she finally decided to settle down in the U.S. where her passion for photography evolved. Her documentary style created meaning and evolved into a great story. Vivian incorporated both still images and video recordings into her work.
Here are some example’s of her street photography:
1953, New York, NYUndated, New York, NYUndated, CanadaMay 5, 1955. New York, NY
“Well I suppose nothing is meant to last forever. We have to make room for other people. It’s a wheel. You get on, you have to go to the end. And then somebody has the same opportunity to go to the end and so on.” – Vivian Maier.
Over the past term, I have been working with the Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive implementing key ideas to developing the Archive to my own personal project. These skills have made me develop various creative perspectives involving Archive extraction, research, experimentation and documentation. Exhibition and presentation design.
Some of the skills, which I have been contributing to my Archive experience, consist of:
Scanning & storing images
Image manipulation, resizing, creating composites
Producing teaching materials for Photo Archivist’s Workshop
Re-purposing images for Jersey Projection Gallery – Skipton Arts Series 10-14 November
Searching database
Outputting digital prints, labeling and marking images from the archive
Understanding copyright policy
Retrieving original images from vintage collection in strong room
Working in secure areas, safe practice in the archive environment
Appropriate handling of original archive materials
My personal project has allowed me to evolve, as with help from Gareth Syvret, I’ve been able to manipulate photographs which relate to the history and period of my new house and how I can contrast the changes and traditions in everyday life today.
Vernacular photography is the creation of photographs usually by amateur or unknown photographers both professional and amateur who take everyday life and common things as subjects. Closely linked to vernacular photography is found photography, which refers to the recovery of a lost or discarded vernacular photograph or snapshot. Found photographs can be found at carboots, charity shops or hidden away in attics. I decided to research this particular genre of photography because a great of the images I have previously posted have been amateur photography which is vernacular style. This photography is very hard for those that are professionally trained photographers. I think this is a really interesting genre because it lets you capture photographs in reality because life isn’t perfectly framed or focused; there are mistakes and distorted shapes and angles therefore it reflects the complications of life perfectly especially in relation to family and community.
How can I incorporate vernacular photography into my work?
Particular photographs I am planning on taking are defiantly going to be in this style. I want to incorporate this style with the theme I am focusing on, with regards to my family project vernacular photography will be the perfect style to highlight the feelings and thoughts of my grandfather. Most of my family photographs which I have posted previously on the blog are vernacular photography.
Some of the gatherings I want to take will be in Public spaces, and in some cases on public transport, namely the buses. When doing some research on Street photography I came across Nick Turpin, over three winters he used the dark evenings to discretely photograph the top decks of the london double decker buses. About his own work he said
“the pictures reveal intimate moments of commuters journeys between work and home, a strange lost time that they fill by reading, sleeping, staring, thinking and engaged with their tablets and phones” – Nick Turpin
I personally really like these images because of the blurriness and distortion of them. I love the way the smudges and drips and steam on the glass, it gives the same effect as when people overlay images of textures, like writing or trees to add more depth to the image or make it seem weathered.
Without even having to use an overlay like this, Turpin’s images have this kind of texture.
Because of this texture the people are mostly clear but their surroundings are very blurred and just appear as colour, which is how it tends to feel when you’re sat on a bus, trying to ignore the people around you.
“People in transit tend to adopt a small temporary territory, their seat, their bit of window, their half of the arm rest and they diligently ignore those around them in the hope of being themselves ignored. Words are not spoken, eye contact is not made. You will not see these people again, emotional investment is considered pointless.” – Nick Turpin
The distortion means you can’t see every detail of the person perfectly, again like if you were on the bus yourself, you may remember the colour of someones hair who was sat in front of you, or what book someone was reading, but you never pay full attention to every detail of any particular person, and in these photos, although you are being almost forced to study what the person looks like and is doing, you can’t fully, because of the blur.
Although I am particularly intrigued by these photos, there are other photographers who have done transport photography, (mentioned by Turpin himself on his own blog), but they have all adopted their own style/way of framing their images, with Turpin, he frames the image around the window, similarly, so did photographer John Schabel. He took the images from the end of an airport runway using a 500mm reflex lens with a 2x teleconverter lens, without anyone’s permission, the grainy images show the passengers in their thought before the plane takes off.
He frames the people within the plane window,which focuses the viewer in on the small and centred ‘action’ of the image. Some of the images, like with Turpin, have rain and distortion, which only adds more mystery to the image.
Another photographer who did transport photography, but looking at it from a completely different angle is Christophe Agou. He took a closer and more personal approach to transport photography with no window between him and his subjects. Whilst they still don’t seem to realise that they are being photographed and so are still shown in they own mental bubble.
I find this style of photography really interesting as well, because of how personal the images feel. I want to try and take photos of gatherings and public places, but I want to try and remove the personal-ness. Partly because its very hard to take up close and personal images without people noticing, and also because I want to show of the places, not so much the people within the places, but I may experiment with me personal images of people in public places, and see how they could fit into the photo book I plan on making when i’ve gathered all the images.
