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Evaluation

Finished Print Products

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

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

final newspaper double spread

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

magazine spread final

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

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

Research

Tilt-Shift/ Miniature Photography

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As I have been looking at large spaces and places where people will gather, I thought I should look at miniature photography, although I probably won’t use this technique within my own photos, I may be able to learn something that will improve the quality of my images and my project.

Tilt–shift photography is the use of camera movements on small- and medium-format cameras, and sometimes specifically refers to the use of tilt for selective focus, often for simulating a miniature scene.

citysrinkers_4 B Tal_2 ef bus

This kind of photography is quite intriguing, because there are some images where is difficult to tell if the image is of a real life scene or a model.

An artist named Serena Malyon took a very different approach to tilt-shift photography, taking paintings by Vincent Van Gogh and editing them through photoshop to create this tilt-shift affect. I think these images are a really good example of how this effect can really change an image and the way the viewer looks at them. This also forces the viewer to look at certain details more than others, and actually prevents other bits of the image to be seen clearly.

tilt-shift-van-gogh-starry-night-detail tilt-shift-van-gogh-red-chestnuts-in-the-public-park-at-arles-detail

tilt-shift-van-gogh-prisoners-exercising-detail tilt-shift-van-gogh-mountains-at-saint-remy-detail

tilt-shift-van-gogh-snow-covered-field-with-a-harrow-detail tilt-shift-van-gogh-the-harvest-detail

Some photographers go to great lengths to make effective tilt-shift images, for example, the art design group Skrekkogle made a giant 50 cents, with the scale 20:1, to make other objects look small. I quite like this idea, because rather than photographing whole models, or real life, they’ve decided to mix the two to make the images even more confusing for viewers.

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Olivio Barbieri mentioned that this kind of photography is good for showing off impressive structures, without all the business of crowds and it allows you to see the big picture without having to see the whole story.

 “I was a little bit tired of the idea of photography allowing you to see everything,” Barbieri says. “After 9/11 the world had become a little bit blurred because things that seemed impossible happened. My desire was to look at the city again.”

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Although I don’t think I will be using this style of photography within my project, I may try to experiment with it on a couple of images as I really like the effect, and it could add a different angle to my photo book.

 

 

essay

Quintessence

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Quintessence is a group exhibition which celebrates 5 years of the Archisle, which is a Jersey contemporary photography program made through the  Société Jersiaise Photo Archive.  The Archisle connects photographic archives to contemporary photography and experiences of Island life through the work of Jersey and international artists. Jersey is a small island but with internationalism, photographers are more socially and politically aware and have made many connections outside of the Island. To highlight the importance of connections and influences in this exhibition, Quintessence, the photographers have been asked to nominate someone who inspired their own work. “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.”

We visited the exhibition on  Tuesday 8th of December, when I first walked into the room, the first thing I noticed was the way the photographs had been displayed. I think that the display looked professional and I like the way the photographs had been laid out because it flowed well visually . I noticed that there wasn’t any labels letting the viewers know who made the photograph, however there were booklets which included this information. I think that it would have been more user friendly to have the artist names with the photographs.I found myself constantly looking at the booklet and the photographs to try and find the artist which after a while became a hassle. I preferred this exhibition to the exhibition for 125 years of the JEP I think it was more visually attractive. In the JEP exhibition there was short paragraphs with each photograph explaining what was happening in the photo.  In this exhibition there was no explanation, when confronted with this question, Gareth the curator said that this was done deliberately so that the viewer would be intrigued by the context of the photo and do some further research into the meaning, rather than just looking at it once and never referring back to it.

My favorite photograph from the exhibition was the photograph by Finn Larson called ‘Al Gore Was Here’. I found this photograph visually attractive and I like the composition of the three smaller separate photographs had a line going through them which led my eyes from one photograph to another.  This photograph was simple but I think that’s what made it good. It was not until I further researched into this photograph that I understood the meaning behind it. Behind the photograph of what looked like a beautiful landscape, there was actually a rubbish dump hidden, which are at completely to different ends of the spectrum.  Often place are portrayed to be ‘ touristic-ally appealing’ but we rarely ever get to see the other side. I think in this photograph Finn Larson was trying to illustrate this divide, I think he achieved this in an intelligent way These photographs were the only ones displayed however he had a newspaper style booklet with photographs of the dump behind this landscape. After I found out the meaning behind the photographs I questioned why Finn had broken the small photographs that went together into three rather than using it as one, we then thought that he could be using the ‘breaks’ in the photograph as a metaphor for breaking the public’s perception of these ‘touristic-ally’ attractive places.

One of my least favorite photographs from the exhibition was the photographs by Iury Toropstov, called ‘fairyland’. I chose them as my least favorite because I didn’t really find any connection with the photographs and I didn’t think that they were very visually attractive. However I think that the portrait of the girl was quite powerful because it presented her as a beautiful mystical ‘creature’ which ties in with fairyland, however if you look closer she had bruises and cuts on her arm, showing that shes dealing with more deeper and serious issues that what she is presented to be. I also like the idea behind ‘fairyland’ and how it links in with Jersey’s history, however I don’t think the combination of photographs were strong or appealing enough.

Al nr 4_1000

Al nr 2_2000
Al Gore Was Here – Finn Larsen
haute vallee phone shot
Untitled from ‘Fairyland’. 2014 – Yury Toropstov
Yury Toroptsov
Jess St Helier, Jersey.2014 – Yury Toroptsov
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.

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Task 3: Conduct further independent research and write a 1000 word essay

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Try and think of an essay question (hypothesis) as a starting point for further investigation. 

Incorporate your answers to the questions above and any other notes from the exhibition text and gallery talk with Gareth Syvret (curator of the show). 

Include direct quotes from sources using Harvard System of Referencing. 

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 from images included in the exhibition:

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Task 2: Response to the Quitissence Exhibition

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Upon visiting the exhibition, answer the following questions:

Look at all the images on the walls. Now find a set of images that you like / don’t like and write short descriptions. 

My first set of images which I favoured very highly where the works of Jem Southam’s “Red Mudstone, Sidmouth” (1995 – 1997) as I really enjoyed viewing the vibrant colours and diptych effect.

jem-s.
“Red Mudstone, Sidmouth” (1995 – 1997)

Ironically, I didn’t like Peter Finnemore’s interpretation of Southam’s images, as I felt they didn’t appeal to my style of photography. Finnemore’s works in the exhibition entitled ‘Koan Exercises, 2004’ Performance based photography is Finnemore’s speciality, and in my opinion , I don’t favour it to normal documentary-based photography as its too materialistic and stylised.

The second image  that I favour highly is Martin Toft’s   from the series ‘Atlantus’.

Using exhibition text, note down artist name, title of work(s),  his / her nominated colleague and consider the following:

Artist name:

Title of work (series): 

Nominated colleague: 

Title of work (series): 

What are the connections, influences, relationships between your chosen pairing of artists? Look also broader into the common themes, subject-matte, form, aesthetics, visual language, methodologies among your chosen artists and across others featured in the show. 

Have a closer look at the phonebooks and newspapers on show at the exhibition. This will provide a much deeper understanding of their work. 

Link to definition: 

Planning

exhibition response

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In response to the quintessence exhibition we have to:

Task 1:  Read the case study and think of at least 3 questions to ask and find answers to when we go on the visit.

Task 2:  answer the following questions:

  1. Write down the first thought about the exhibition that enters your head when you walk in?
  2. Look at the set of images on the wall. Find a set of image that you do and don’t like and write a short description about them.
  3. Using the exhibition text, note down artist name, title of works and nominated artists and consider the connections, influences and relationships between them.

Task 3: Conduct further independent research and write a 1000 work essay.

Task 4:  plan a photo shoot and make a set of images that respond to your chosen artists paring in your essay.

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.