Students studying Photography at Hautlieu have been offered an incredible opportunity to be involved in a collaborative project with Jersey Heritage. The opportunity will give students a chance to work behind the scenes with staff at Jersey Museum to curate and mount a pop-up exhibition on Friday 20th November 2015. This experience will provide excellent experience for students interested in pursuing a career in photography and/or museums and art galleries.
Jersey Museum visit: Friday 23rd October 14:00 – 15:20 pm In terms of transportation, We will all meet in reception at 14;00 on Friday 23 Oct to board the coaches that will take us to Jersey Museum. At the end of the school day 15:20 students will be dismissed from site. Make sure you hand in slip with permission to your teacher. NO SLIP NO TRIP!!
It is essential that all students get to see and engage with the images on display from the JEP exhibition at Jersey Museum and in order to facilitate this we have arranged for a whole group visit during lesson 5 on Friday 23rd October. During this visit students will be giving a special talk and tour by museum curator, Lucy Layton and Photo-archivist and historian Gareth Syvret from the Societe Jersiaise.
CABLE CARS RUNNING FROM SNOW HILL STATION UP TO FORT REGENT.
(PIC TAKEN ANYTIME FROM OCTOBER 1971 TO 1972)
(FROM FORT REGENT BOX 5, NEGS IN BROWN ENVELOPE)
REF:00002887
Temps Passe Decked out for Summer 1982
Summer at last! – Locals and visitors alike relax in the sun at the Havre des Pas Pool Fete on Bank Holiday Monday in May 1982
Pic taken Monday May 31st 1982
Ref: 82-1649 neg 7
Eighties exhib chosen
exhib Temps Passe Hanging About For Xmas 1937
Hanging Around: Shopping for the Christmas turkey, this display of festive fowl was pictured at Orviss, at the top of Halkett Street, in December 1937
Pic taken December 1937
Report in JWP 25th December 1937. (This pic also used in 21st December 1990 paper)
From Red file 7, sheet 11, neg 20
(Turkeys)
REF:00775026 chosen
Thirties
Temps Passe Robert Bisson 1988
Writng On The Wall: Island character Robert Chalmers Bisson pictured outside his property “The White Lodge” or “The Retreat” at Mont Cochon in February 1988 (also known as Tekel)
Pic taken Thursday February 4th 1988 at 2pm
Picture: Reg Cridland
Original Ref: 88-367 neg 14
REF:01101901
Eighties exhib chosen
Temps Passe Housewives Protest 1970
On Saturday 20th June 1970, some 30 to 40 housewives, many accompanied by their children, took part in a prices protest march through the town. Banners and placards pleaded their cause, to bring down prices, especially of milk and the cost of living in general and to raise family allowances and the pension. The marchers were led by two policemen through King Street, Queen Street, Bath Street, Beresford Street and Halkett Place to the Royal Square, where Mrs Eileen Pritchard appealed for signatures to the petition they planned to present to the States.
Pic taken Saturday 20th June 1970 at 3pm
Report in JWP 25th June 1970 front page
From Unclassified box 8, neg bag 1513
(Protest march, cost of living)
REF:01846098
Seventies exhib chosen
TASK 1: All Photography Students (both Yr 12s and Yr 13s) will be exploring a photo-assignment over half-term that respond to the existing exhibition – Your Story, Our History: 125 years seen through a JEP lens. It will be expected that students take between 150-250 new photographs over half-term that respond to the brief: Our Story, Half Term: 125 hours seen through a teenager’s lens.
For yr 12s this means that you will be exploring your final assignment: IDENTITY and make some self-portraits. In addition you can also improve other types of portraiture that we have explored in class, such as Environmental and Street Portraiture.
For yr 13s you will continue with exploring your personal stories that relates to the themes of FAITH, FAMILY & COMMUNITY.
TASK 2: All students must produce a number of blog posts that explain how you engaged with the JEP exhibition and what ideas you explored over half-term.
– Upload image analysis and answers from Task Sheet given to you at the JEP exhibition. Download sheet here: Takeover Exhibition Task
– Produce contact sheets from your shoots and edit a selection of your best 8-10 images.
– Show experimentation with image adjustments and annotate.
– Choose a final edit of no more than 3 images that work together as a coherent series with a clear personal identity or visual narrative
DEADLINE: Wed 18th November
For further inspiration see this video: The Story of Jersey
Only the best work produced by students over half-term will be entered for the collaborative project in partnership with Jersey Heritage. This new work will inform your current coursework and would significantly help you achieve more marks as you work towards finishing you current coursework module.
“I think the photographer should have some reason or purpose. I would hate to risk my life to take another bloody picture for the Daily News, but if it might change man’s mind against war, then I feel that it would be worth my life.” – Eugene Smith
William Eugene Smith is an American photojournalist, known as a humanitarian photographer. His devotion to projects on a professional and a standard ethics level came with the purpose of creating a profound response from his viewers . He developed the photo essay but, began his career by photographing for two local newspapers. His most famous projects include photographs of World War II, the city of Pittsburgh and of Dr Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa.
Country doctor
Eugene Smith spent around one month in Kremmling, CO in 1948, documenting Dr. Ernest Ceriani’s daily life, which was double the amount of time he was commissioned for. This is shown in how personal the photographs are. His photographs for this project were then published in Life Magazine on the 20th September 1948 along with his famous essays. Eugene choose to photograph Dr Ceriani over several other candidates due to his appearance and because he was married with 2 children. Eugene photographed the Dr’s work life and personal with his wife and children as well as his patients and surroundings for example he photographed the aerial view of Kremmling and the outside of the hospital where the doctor worked this gives us a bigger perceptive and understanding of what is going on which allows us to visualize what hasn’t been photographed. His work is done in a documentary style therefore the photographs are of him ‘ bare witnessing’ which make them more relate-able and credible. I think that his photographs are interesting and very personal which capture’s the viewers attention.
Eugene’s work is similar to the work that I am going to do with my mum because I will be photographing her in a documentary style , I will be doing this over a few weeks which I hope will also capture the personal element to the photographs. I will also be photographing my mum like Eugene did both at home and and work which will show the difference between the two. I think Eugene’s photographs are of high quality which is something I really like about them as well. In his photo essay’s he uses quite a traditional layout with a variety of observed portraits , environmental shots and establishing shots. Although he doesn’t use any detail shots. He also uses large titles which gives the viewer a snapshot of the story and makes them curious as to what else is in the story. I think the layout flows well and you’re able to understand the story line without reading the information.
Untitled“through weeds growing rank in an unkempt dooryard, Dr Ernest certain of Kremling makes his way to call on a patient”“The hospital”
On the weekend I went to a shooting competition in England and so I thought it would be a good opportunity to take photos as the shooting community is very big and I knew there would be lots of people there. As we were flying there I was also able to get some more photos at the airport, which this time was Gatwick (bigger than the last one I went to).
I then went through and have picked the best images from the weekend, some are of big gatherings, empty places, close ups on one person, or just of my friends who were on the trip with me. Although there’s still quite a lot of images now, I will hopefully narrow it down more for when I create my picture story.
I really like this image because of the focus, and also partly because of how real it feels, I think that it shows perfectly what it’s like to be sat there, preparing for Field target when its cold and a bit damp. The use of thirds works really well too, because it allows you to see the person and their body expression, but still allows you to see the context of where he is. I also think the perspective within the image works well, as the likes are all straight and show the perspective of the field, with the lines of tape on the floor all going in towards the centre, it directs the viewers eye to the vanishing point, which is in the top centre of the image. The gun and the tin of pellets are to the right of the shooter, and so framing the image like this further represents what it’s like to be sat there. As most people are right handed, they’re focusing more heavily on whats happening on the right side of their body. Having the gun and pellets in the very centre of the image highlights where the image was taken and what was occurring at the time.
This is another of my favourite images from the weekend. I like this image because it represents what most people think of with gun culture, old men with guns, except here its controlled, unlike the gun culture of America. The composition is good as well, with all the men in the lower right two thirds, and all the straight lines around give the image perspective, and as the surroundings are all quite brown and boring, it means the men in the centre are the focus of the image and what the viewer will look at first.
These images where my favourites in terms of the actual shooting, but there were other images I took whilst I was away which apply more to gatherings and community, and so I will be able to use these later when I make a photo book on Gatherings.
Alec Soth is a photographer who was born in 1969, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Alec’s photojournalist approaches to Westernized America shows short stories of people who has been described as a ‘Geographical journey’. The Guardian critic Hannah Booth has added His work tends to focus on the “off-beat, hauntingly banal images of modern America”. Starting the theme of ‘Community’, I was inspired by Alec to capture everyday life in a significant way. Soth’s specialization of using people as a portal into their own lives entices me to do the same, and make storytelling a different to usual narrative photography.
Alec’s work has inspired me as much of it relates to family and the connection it has to certain and particular location. This fits in well with my surrounding theme of how my personal family is aimed to be connected to a location, my new house. I want to use Alec’s style as a way of approaching this connection as I feel its a clear and stylized outlook of family life which is realistic, that observes a mundane representation of life.
“My own awkwardness comforts people, I think. It’s part of the exchange.”
This quote shows Soth’s mundane placement in society as the photographers main aim it to communicate with society which does not reflect off of himself. However, aside to the normality of Alec’s personality, when taking photographs he states:
Untitled 09, Bogotá
Soth holds a continuous style of showing snippets of images which are non-chronological. This makes the viewer understand the story in a different way. Cleverly, this enables every viewer to see Soth’s story in a different light as many interpretations are then produced.
Reverend Cecil and Felicia, Saint Louis, Missouri
“The loneliness of travel is endemic in photography’s history for those who leave the studio and travel for their own subjects”.
Here, Soth underlines how photography can sometimes be described as a ‘restricting’ medium. Soth’s desire to travel further with his photographs in order to become deeper within the photograph. This is why many of Alec’s work is journalism based, but only shown through pictures. This sense of a ‘journey’ underlines the narrative tales of the people Alec captures.
‘Sleeping by the Mississippi’
Alec uses various different portraits and landscapes to tell stories (different types of typology). This variation is good towards his ambitious style of documentary photography, as the reader is transgressed through the different stages of this story.
In Soth’s career making photo book ‘Sleeping By The Mississippi‘, Soth illustrates his childhood growing up in Louisiana. The Mississippi River, Alec explains, had tenancy to overflow, ruining the lives of many people. Humorously and ‘without surprise’ according to Soth, families and natives went by ‘trusting luck’, regardless of the ‘levee going everywhere they go’. This determination, and fixation of remaining home in Louisiana derives the reader into understanding the love of home and family within this overall community.
‘NIAGARA’
Living from his imagination, Soths document style has been finalized in the words of Anne Wilkes Tucker, from the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston:
“Soth Pries open what he experiences and those whom he met and he wonders (and confirms) that the world can bear & be”.
After finishing his one year internship at Magnum Photos, Bendiskon travelled to Russia in an attempt to pursue a career as a photographer. At this point the USSR had only been abolished as little of 10 years before and the people of Russia were starting to adjust to life away from Communism after over 70 years. Bendiksen decided to photograph different parts of Russia, documenting this tranisition, aswell as remaining traces of the previously exisiting USSR.
Narrative
Bendiksen begins the narrative with eerie images of the Russian landscape, and silhouette styled portraits of unaware subjects. Straight away within the story the viewer is immediately connected to the theme of loneliness and isolation. Arguably this connects to the context of the narrative, being the documentation of how Russia is adjusting to lfe outside of communism. These types of image are a metaphor for the Russian people’s sense of insecurity and search for a new identity in a time of great social change. The opening images also show Russia in a very glim perspective: showing dark, depressing and cold scenes.
Throughout the narrative, subtle hints to traces of Russia’s Communist past are present. Relative to Bendisken’s poetic style, these hints are very covert. The references to communism, for example the image which include framed photographs of Lenin and Marx, help to build up the context of the story, allowing the viewer to develop a degree of understanding and empathy for the communities he photographs.
As the story progresses, Bendisken photos begin to reveal more about the communities. He starts to include images moving away from a candid style, progressing onto more formal portrait style, in which he engages and interacts which the subjects more. Also Bendkisen begins to include images of the communities engaging in events and activities, such as dancing, hunting and military training. The images gradually become more revealing about the people and the communities in contrast to the initial sense of mystery.
The images are all connected through the theme of community. Oppose to photographing individuals, large masses of people or families, Bendiksen has based the series on photographing small communities throughout Russia. One community in particular that Bendiksen has photographed is a community of Satellite collectors; people who make a living out of selling scrap metal from fallen satellite ships and rockets from the Cold War. The inclusion of this story I find works very well because it links the theme of past and present: the fallen satellites are metaphorically a trace of Russia’s communist past, and the community of collectors symbolise how Russia is moving on from this past, whilst remembering it at the same time.
The viewer is drawn to be empathetic towards the communities. The communities are shown in a very respectable light, seen as honourable for carry on with great optimism and positivity despite the uncertain political and economic times. The series champions the Russian people as brave and resilient, holding on to their patriotic, cultural identity in a forever changing world. Community in Russia is also shown to be fragile and Bendisken documents this vulnerability through the dark and reflective moods he establishes in some of his images, especially early on.
Style of Photographs
Bendiksen’s unusual style of photographing is apparent throughout the book. His style is very photojournalist and he makes little attempt to interfere with the frame, allowing for a spontaneous and natural flow to emerge through the images. The role of a photojournalist is to document the world from an objective, distant perspective. This sense of distant and separation from his subjects is clearly shown. Bendkisen’s photos are very mysterious, often images of lone, unobserved subjects. As a result, the mood established in ‘Satellites’ is very chilling and dark, reflectingg the grim, barren landscape of Russia. I find Bendiksen’s style to be very subtle and poetic in meaning. In contrast to photographers such as Richard Billigham and Bruce Gilden, who shoot images which are deliberately upfront, snap-shot styles with bold composition: Bendisken has a much more observed and laid back approach. Carefully considered, well balanced composition is key to Bendiksen’s work.
What I find effective about Bendisken’s work in ‘Satellites’ is the way that he is able to balance technical composition with subjective aspects of mood. Bendiksen’s photos still have a structure composition whilst incorporating an natural mood, sometimes photographing in midst and darkness. It is this naturalness, along with visually well executed photographs which enable Bendisken to effectively tell his story in the careful, delicate poetic manner he does so.
How will this influence my own work?
The main influence that I will take from studying this series is the style of photography I will use. Recently I have been exploring the work of Richard Billingham, and so my photographic responses have recently been reflective of his style, taking snap-shot style photographs. However in order to create greater subtly in my project I will start to photograph more in the manner of Bendisken, balancing attention to composition whilst still allowing some freedom to create images of bold composition to create a raw and authentic mood.
Claude Cahun was a French artist/photographer who moved in 1937 to Jersey Channel Islands during World War II. Cahun was a surrealist and had many political and personal movements behind her work. I really love the idea of having a strong political message behind my work as through photography were are able to visually represent what a lot of people wouldn’t dare to say. We are able to send out strong messages that makes the world stand still. This only happened to Cahun after her death. She was a lesbian together with her half sister. During Nazi occupation in Jersey Cahun gave out anti-Nazi leaflets in attempts to demoralise the troops trying to get them to leave the island. The pair also created notes on a bit of tissue with a drawn picture and always written in German to insinuated that it was a German officer writing them. Cahun was arrested along with her partner and were sentenced the death penalty. Although, the pair escaped with their lives as the island was liberated before the sentence could be carried out. This was unfortunate for Cahun as she actually wanted to be a martyr.
Claude Cahun self-portraitClaude Cahun’s father
The image above shows Cahun looking very masculine and a lot like an image of her father. i find this image very interesting as she does look like a man as she has no hair and more masculine features. Cahun had a good relationship with her father and, in some ways, idolized him. She shares the same beak shaped nose as her father and seems to identify with him through this image. It is very simple but is a bit of an enigma. I think that if a spectator was to look at this image they would not be able to tell that the subject is a woman and just think nothing much of it. I find this image strange and I want to find out more as to why Cahun saw herself this way and felt that her way of identifying herself was through her male role models. I can see that possibly this images represents standards, how men are typically seen as having short to no hair and wear quite baggy clothing and suits whereas the norm for a woman would be to have long hair that is always made presentable and pretty long dresses to go as well as makeup. I can see that Cahun doesn’t identify with the stereotypes put on females and wants to break that stereotype by being radical and different to everyone else. She seems to go against the expectations of women and how they are supposed to be.
“There are very few Jews in the islands. The two Jewish women who have just been arrested belong to an unpleasant category. These women had long been circulating leaflets urging German soldiers to shoot their officers. At last they were tracked down. A search of the house, full of ugly cubist paintings, brought to light a quantity of pornographic materials of an especially revolting nature. One woman had her head shaved and been thus photographed in the nude from every angle. Thereafter she had worn men’s clothes. Further nude photographs showed both women practicing sexual perversion, exhibitionism, and flagellation.” – German Soldier’s report on finding Cahun and Moore, 1944 (The Guerilla Girls 63)
For a female to be a photographer back in the 1930 Britain and Jersey was something very strange as women had only received the right to vote in 1928 [above the age of 21]. A lot of people were sceptical of this kind of job especially for a woman as they were still seen as child-baring, stay-at-home-mums. For Cahun to be a lesbian would have been a very radical thought. From the years of 1558 Queen Elizabeth I introduced laws against gay men, she did not include women in this law because she did not think that they would do such a thing so being a lesbian wasn’t actually illegal or seen as a crime because it was so rare and unexpected. Cahun would have had a hard time being accepted within society because she was an open homosexual. Her photography work has only really been noticed more recently after she died in 1954.
At first looking through Cahun’s work I couldn’t really understand why she is seen as a feminist as well as from her history she didn’t have a good relationship with her mother but tended to identify more with her father and male role models. I had a think about her work and came to realise that Cahun is challenging the social norms that men and women face. She wanted to challenge the way women are seen, the way women are supposed to present themselves. I really like this idea as I believe that we should not be defined by gender but we should be able to mould ourselves in any way we deem fit instead of trying to conform to social stereotypes. For example, my little niece is expected to wear pink clothing because she is a girl which to me is so stupid because a colour shouldn’t define a gender nor should we shun people for wearing that certain colour. I like Cahun’s work as she wants to challenge the way society thinks. In many of her images she wears male clothing and picks up male norms, she tended to pick up more of an eccentric lifestyle compared to others during that time.
“She rejected all conventions of her culture and time, especially those regarding sexuality and the performance of it.” – Feminist Art Archive review
Andre Breton link to Cahun
Andre Breton
Breton was the founder of the surrealist movement back in Paris along with a few other artists and writers which was influenced by Karl Marx. Breton defined surrealism as “psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express – verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner – the actual functioning of thought.” Breton proposed that artists will often bypass rationality and reason by expressing and accessing the unconscious mind. This allowed artists to think outside the norm and to create new realities within their own work. Andre Breton took interest in Cahun and her work although she would never actually directly associate herself with his movement and actually became wary of any direct association with any label or group. Cahun was an individual who wanted to remain unique and stick to her own ideas of creativity rather than belonging to any group or movement. Cahun refused to be limited by certain labels of females, lesbians, writers, a photographer, a Jew or even an artist. Cahun rejected all familiar and generically given conventions of life and adapted her own unique way of living, the way she wanted to live.
“Individualism? Narcissism? Of course. It is my strongest tendency, the only intentional constancy I am capable of.” – Claude Cahun
Cahun’s work is very unique and stands out from the norm of what spectators would expect from a photograph. I think that a lot of her images are made with the intent to show that women can look like men and that it isn’t a negative thing because in reality we as humans are all very similar. Cahun has many works with a shaved head, making her look a lot more like her father who she really looked up to. I find this interesting as this at the time would have been so unusual and masculine looking whereas now so many young women are shaving their heads and look very beautiful. I think that Cahun has helped this to become more of a norm by challenging the way spectators think and making them see certain aspects of gender stereotypes in a different light. Much like other feminist/tableaux photographers, like Cindy Sherman, Cahun tends to look different in each set of images. I think that photographers use this as a way to allow more spectators to identify with them and to show characters instead of just repeatedly seeing images of the same person. I like the idea of creating a character within each photograph and dressing up as someone else to portray a new and unique story for each set of images.
The image above really interests me because at first glance it is actually quite scary looking. The way Cahun has positioned herself isn’t at a flattering angle and the black eyeliner around her eyes makes her look like more of an enigma and interesting character. I like that this image is very simple and only has a medium close up of Cahun herself looking masculine and a lot like her father. I like that this image is in black and white as it becomes more effective as well as there only being black and white film cameras around when Cahun was a photographer. This allows the spectator to focus in on the subjects face and really try hard to see what is going on in the photograph and it also makes the dark makeup on her face stand out more. This particular image is like a standard portrait image but Cahun has changed it by facing her body away from the camera and only turning her head round as if glancing behind her to see what is happening. I like this image because it is strange to look at, I’m really interested as to why Cahun chose to make this image. It shows the masculinity in her facial features while hiding her more feminine side of her chest area. I would like to respond to Cahun’s work with some unique surrealist photographs, responding the social norms faced with modern women and challenging them in a new and unique way much like Cahun has done.
Another image that I find very interesting is this one above. To me the subject is showing her true self and how it different she is to the norm while holding a mask that she possibly feels that she has to wear. The subject doesn’t look happy at all, as if she’s been covering up for so long and has always felt that she needs to conform to the ways that society has taught her and pushed her to be. The mask seems to be a physical representation of this pressure from society. The subject looks quite strange to me, she has hearts drawn onto her cheekbones and her hair is weirdly curved, however I actually really like it and find it unique. This image challenges the ideals of beauty, which seems to be shown on the mask. I really want to respond to Cahun’s work with more up-to-date versions of her images, even though a lot of pressures and socially accepted norms from back in the 1920s and 1930s still remains today with ideals of beauty actually being remoulded and shaped differently. I have gained a lot of inspiration from Cahun’s work and think that I can reflect this in new ideas that I have come up with and will begin working on.
I find this image extremely interesting. Cahun looks like a man, she looks nothing like what society expects a woman to look like and I find this very interesting. Cahun wanted to challenge the way people saw men and women and I think she would have seen our current world as a newly successful step. At the time these images would have been so radical and outrageous as women weren’t often seen as being able to creatively express themselves, unlike nowadays where men and women go against societal norms and do whatever they please. I think the reasoning behind each of Cahun’s images is very powerful and does really reflect the pressures that men and women both have to suffer through within our society. Although her work was made almost 90 years ago, it is still very current and still manages to fit in with our modern society. That is why I like this work so much because it is still relatable and still makes sense to this day. Cahun didn’t know that her work would one day be widely known but I think that she would have been extremely happy, especially with the way society has remoulded and is now a lot more accepting of people that don’t quite fit in any category, the misfits.
Feminism in photography really stems from tableaux photographers including Cindy Sherman as a movement to further progress understanding of unfair societal, economic and political differences with the way men and women are treated. I really like tableaux photography as the photographer is able to tell a story that is completely staged and they have complete control, it is almost like making a film but in stills and each image tells a strong story on its own or even within a series of images.
Suffragettes movement
The Suffragettes movement in Britain came around in 1872. Suffragette is simply a woman seeking the right to vote through organised protest. Women were actually banned from voting in Britain from the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act. The suffragette movement was a political one creating organisations including the National Society for Women’s Suffrage. Suffragettes used peaceful protest in speech, they were expected to stay at home look after the children and cook and clean. During the First World War 1914 suffragettes put their movements on hold to help out and work in defence manufacturers and made a large contribution to the efficiency of defences and other supplies made during the war. After the war women began to fight more violently for the right to vote and would smash windows and blow up post boxes. The most famous suffragette act was by a woman called Emily Davidson who stood out on a national horse racing day to raise the flag of ‘Votes for Women’ in front of TV cameras that were to be broadcast all over Britain. She was hit by a horse and died due to fatal skull and internal injuries. She became a martyr to the suffragette movement. This made headlines unlike other protests where the government and police had silenced the press. Thousands at tented Davidson’s funeral and the suffragettes movement was now being recognised. In 1918 the coalition government passed the Representation of the People Act giving women certain women over the age of 30 the right to vote who met minimum property qualifications. Finally, 10 years later, 1928, the Conservative government passed a new act giving the vote to all women over the age of 21. The movement of the suffragettes gave women the power to know that they were worth more than just living at home and they were worthy of an education. Without these women in Britain women wouldn’t have the positions within work places that they are able to have today. This movement saw a more equal Britain and women were now treated less as housemaids and more like they should be treated, as equals. I really do think that not many people know about what suffragette women went through and the brutality and force that men had over women. The story of the Suffragettes, to me, is the almost untold story of British history. However, a film titled ‘Suffragette’ has been released that explains what one group of women did to further the movement in the early 1900’s.
British Suffragettes
British Suffragettes
British Suffragettes
What is feminism?
Feminism could only come about after the Suffragette movement as women were only then starting to get a voice and being seen more equally. Here feminism came about because men and women are faced with unfair standards and stereotypes. Feminism is the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. This movement does not see women as more important than men but it sees them as equals. In recent years it has become a very controversial topic of which some people are saying it to be a ‘man hating’ movement claiming that women ‘are more important and that men don’t face problems’. This is the wrong perception of the movement as there are male feminists. People tend to get it confused because of the name of the movement suggests feminine which is obviously associated with women. Feminism urges to change stereotype, objectification and derogatory lexis that mainly women face day to day. For example, if a woman were to sleep around she would be labelled as a ‘slag’, ‘slut’, ‘whore’ etc unlike a man who would not even be labelled or even be called a ‘lad’ by friends. This is an hypocritical and unfair label that women are constantly faced with. However, there are many other aspects to feminism that seek the equality of life for both men and women. Another example would be that if a male is seen to be sad or to show emotion he is ‘probably gay’ which is completely wrong as women are allowed to be emotional. There are so many unfair and unrealistic stereotypes faced with men and women which feminists are trying to change. Many photographers use this within their work to further the movement of feminism.
Celebrity feminists
Tinie Tempah
Benedict Cumberbatch
Emma Watson
Tom Hiddleston
Douglas Booth
Eddie Redmayne
Ed Miliband
Simon Pegg
Joseph Gordan-Levitt
Feminist photographers include Cindy Sherman, Claude Cahun and Barbara Kruger. Feminism is becoming more and more widely known as more people are beginning to see the unequal stereotypes and labels put on men and women. I love that through photography artists are able to express themselves freely and show spectators physical representations of what women actually have to deal with day in and day out as well as men. I believe that women are still somewhat underrepresented and a lot of people see feminism as a negative thing and shameful. This is what Suffragette women also went through because they were at a different mindset from the rest of society. It takes time and I believe that through generations we become more understanding and openminded about societal issues such as feminism.
I am excited to explore this topic further to gain a broader understanding of feminism and the way men and women are treated differently within our society. I will be responding to various photographers work as well as making my own work. I feel that there is still so much to learn and so many aspects of feminism that are untold in photography.
The video created by Amber Rose is obviously an over exaggerated way of expressing her views on what is commonly known as the ‘walk of shame’. This label is only given to women who have one-night stand yet men are not faced with this same label. This just shows the double standard that our society has for men and women. I like this video because it juxtaposes the way people actually think when they see a woman walking down the street in the same clothing that she wore the night before. People will automatically label women that do this and give them derogatory labels like ‘slut’, ‘slag’ etc. Some people see it as wrong and disgusting for a woman to do this yet if a man were to do it it would be seen as fine as it is his body and he should be able to do as he pleases with it. I think this video is really effective and Rose has made the seriousness of this issue more comical and blatantly easy to follow and to show how ridiculous slut shaming and labelling women is.
Feminist protestors at the Suffragette London movie Premiere
This past week the film ‘Suffragette’ came out and premiered in London. Here feminists from the activist group Sisters Uncut lay on the red carpet where the stars of the film were and held signs that said ‘We are suffragettes’ and ‘dead women can’t vote’. Their movement puts emphasis on domestic violence and the protest was organised because cuts had been made to domestic violence services. This movement focuses on how women are abused as well as men. It is good to see that the there are still activist groups fighting for equality in political, social and economic aspects of modern life.
Sisters Uncut protest at Suffragette London premiere
Sisters Uncut protest at Suffragette London premiere
Feminism in photography can be hugely influential as many people identify with more visual aspects of it and find it easier to relate and get their head around. There is so much to feminism and a lot of photographers will tend to focus on social aspects of this because it is what becomes more effective and is the one aspect of modern life that really is backward and unjust.
Martin Toft and Gareth Syvret came together at the Jersey photo archive and decided to embark on a project comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences with Jersey and New Jersey. New Jersey was actually named after the small island of Jersey when a British man named James who visited Jersey and was warmly welcomed and treated as an honoured guest before moving to France. The Governor of Jersey at the time was called Sir George Carteret and James wanted to honour him when he found the colony and decided to name the State New Jersey. Toft’s project explores the idea of how two places on the opposite side of the Atlantic ocean perceive each other within archives and cultural memory. I like the idea of this project because I feel that not many people from New Jersey know the origin of its name and don’t even know that Jersey exists. Toft decided to do this as there has been no archival evidence of the link between Jersey and New Jersey.
“I must admit…I prefer the winter to summer on the Jersey Shore…quiet, cold, friendly.” – Martin Toft
Instead of creating one large exhibition with framed and printed photographs Toft and the Societe Jersey decided to create a newspaper that would be sent out to different places in the world where spectators could create their own exhibitions wherever they are. To make an exhibition you would need two copies on the newspaper. This newspaper was created by a professional company in order to get it to the highest of quality and so that it would work all spread out. I think that this is more interesting than a regular exhibition as the spectator is able to read it as a newspaper with all of the text and then they are able to make a small exhibition themselves and being able to see the photographers larger. The newspaper is more of a DIY concept allowing spectators to piece everything together themselves. There were 3,000 copies of the newspaper printed and were sent out to different places in the world including schools in New Jersey. This newspaper will be put into the archive as a part of Jersey history and in hundreds of years to come spectators will be able to look at this newspaper and see the link between the two and how possibly different that link will be in the future.
Jersey, Channel Islands
New Jersey, United States of America
Toft explored many different places around Jersey and went to St. Ouens manner were Sir George Carteret lived. It is an 11th century castle. Toft’s project focuses on the West Coast of Jersey facing America and the East Coast of New Jersey that faces Jersey through the Atlantic ocean. Through visits to and from New Jersey and Jersey Toft discovered that Jersey was much more rural whereas New Jersey is a lot more urbanised. They seem to be binary opposites to one another. Toft successfully shows the political, social and economic difference between Jersey and New Jersey including the people, landscapes, industries and identities. The Atlantus Project makes connections with memories, the archives and photographs two lands on opposite sides of the Atlantic ocean.
I like to compare images from Jersey and New Jersey to compare and contrast them. Looking at the two images above I can see how the two aren’t so different in that they are both facing the ocean, obviously Jersey is an island and totally surrounded by the ocean whereas New Jersey is facing the Atlantic ocean on one side. I think that we can identify the two together through the love of surfing and how surfing often brings people together. I like that these images show the similarities within the beaches of both Jersey and New Jersey and how they can be brought together this way. I particularly like the New Jersey image here as the surfer looks as if he is getting ready to go when Toft approached him to make a photograph and she almost looks very natural and as if was already positioned there.
Jersey, Channel Islands
New Jersey, United States of America
These two images really stood out to me and I wanted to put them beside each other because I wanted to see the difference between the way the channel islands deal with guns and the way America deals with them. I really do think that America has a gun problem with mass killings every single month. The image to the right shows a New Jersey man holding his riffle gun in his back garden so casually. In America guns are allowed and people seem to be able to get licenses so easily. Unlike, Jersey Channel Islands were you must be in a club to get access to a gun. This is obviously more expensive and organised with officials and people there to take care of the guns in a safe environment where they are only able to shoot at objects that are prepositioned and ready for them. I find this so interesting as there is a ‘Chief Range Officer’ watching over all of the people on the shooting range in the Channel Islands whereas in America they just have them in their homes with no one there to ensure safety. I think it is so crazy to see these photos side-by-side because of how different they are. The people of America can so easily access guns and carry them around anywhere they please in contrast to the Channel Islands were you must be watched over and stay within the grounds of the actual riffle club.
For some reason I love putting these two images beside each other. I think I decided to do this because they were both wearing similar hats. I find this interesting because they are two completely different men with completely different backgrounds, the American being a Vietnam veteran and the British [Jersey Bean] being a semi-retired fisherman. The fisherman wears a camouflage hat while the Vietnam veteran wears a camouflage jacket. It is weird to think that camouflage has transitioned from being a way of blending in with the environment to actually becoming a fashion statement, not that the fisherman is making a fashion statement. I think both men will use the camouflage pattern to blend with their environment but more likely the war veteran would use it more effectively. I like these two images as the spectator is able to look at the two men and see two completely different and unique stories.
Jersey, Channel Islands
New Jersey, United States of America
These two images are similar in that they are both on beaches. The different is that the American teens look as if they are just chilling and hanging out as it seems to be getting cooler, possibly getting later in the day. Compared to the Channel Islands photo which seems to be midday and all of the teens have just been out for a swim. These images differ in the youths and just the groups of people that are hanging out on the beaches. I like these images as they show different communities in two different places and environments.
New Jersey, United State of America
This is my absolute favourite image of the entire project. There is just something about it that I really like, it is easy to look at and the subject is very interesting. I think the colours work really well in this image, with the green really standing out and flattering the skin tone of the subject. This woman is very beautiful and looks really good in this image, she is interesting making the spectator want to know a little bit more about her. I think that the composition of this photograph is great as she is directly in the centre making her the key subject. I think that the green and the colour of her skin really makes her stand out against the light sand and the light blue cloudy sky which is really effective and draws the spectators attention to her. I don’t really have a main reason for liking this image apart from the fact that it is just very interesting to me and I enjoy looking at it and trying to find out more and more about the subject and the plain environment surrounding her.
Overall, I think that the Atlantus project successfully shows the links that Jersey has with New Jersey and how their communities vary in similarities and differences. It is interesting to see the historical links between the two as well and how Jersey actually has a State in America named after it even though it is such a small island. I really like this project as it allows more people to learn more about the Channel Islands as I feel not a lot of people in New Jersey and around the world even know that it exists.
