For my Family study i have decided on an idea called ‘The Box’, This idea comes from a ‘special box’ that i was given when i was born. My sister was also given an identical one also. Throughout our lives, my mother has collected things from our childhood that have been of significant memory and has put them in the box. These things range from baby scans of us inside my mother, hospital bands from he day we were born, our first shoes, presents we were given as children and much much more. These objects in these boxes have become very special to us, and are restricted and hidden in chosen places in our bedrooms. My parents, imparticularlly my mother doesn’t like anyone who is not family looking at these boxes, I’m unsure of the reason why but i assume privacy reasons. I would like to study thing as my “Family” area of work as i feel firstly it is a very family related idea and very few people could tell this story as all of the objects in the box have sentimental value and memories related to them that nobody would understand apart from me.
COMMUNITY IDEAS –
My community study i feel is going to be the most interesting and intriguing to conduct. This is because the idea and plan of the study is based on unexpected behaviour and events. My community idea is based around my community of friends. Your friendship community are the people you surround yourself with and tend to do everything with, bad and good. I would like to therefore document my community of friends to study and capture the behaviours and events that happen when you are in company with each other. Typically at this age alcohol is a bit part of social occasions, due to 18th birthdays and social party events. Behaviour that is present at these events and gatherings depends on the company and degree of comfort you feel when you are around them. You therefore allow behaviour that is not accepted or performed in front of others e.g: Family. My idea for this area of work is capturing and photographing these events and to catch this behaviour and intoxication on camera swell as memory.
FAITH –
I have no ideas for Faith so far, however will update this post when I do.
this week I will make photographs of my family based around my niece, research another family photographer. Develop responses to Lewis, compare and contrast and evaluate in depth.
I will also be making tableaux photographs in response to Cindy Sherman’s work and a personal study of adopting the idea of documentary in a completely staged and more dramatic way [this will just be an extra shoot done to explore staged photography more].
Do research on Film Noir and look more in depth at Femme Fatales and try and find a way to form a radical representation of this, either conforming to the genre of a femme fatale or opposing it and making my own juxtaposition.
Week 2 19th Oct – 23rd
carry on making images of niece, go visit them at her home on Thursday 22nd to get some real images of life with a small child.
Start storyboarding and making images of film noir inspired femme fatales. Experiment with lighting, make images at night time to make for a more mysterious atmosphere as well as keeping subject as key focus.
edit images from previous week [will edit as I go]
Week 3 [Half Term] 26th – 30th
continue to make Film Noir inspired images and add in some more responses to the work of feminist photographers including Cindy Sherman.
make more artist references on tableaux photographers and generate own meaning and come up with an interesting response and interpretation.
do community shoot with different groups of friends to show differences in teenage life
stay with sister and make images of niece throughout the day and night, follow them around for the day and throughout the night to show what life is really like as a first time mother and father.
use other models to be a part of shoots on feminism, society and film noir
start to make short film on chosen subject; family, community, faith or tableaux
Week 4 2nd Nov – 6th Nov
edit all images from previous weeks and create sets of favourite images
further explore ideas if they are unfinished including feminism shoots and film noir shoots.
evaluate work and pick out favourite shoots and then best images from each of the shoots
In 2006, Alec Soth came up with another series, Niagara. The concept behind this series was that after studying the context of Niagara falls, Soth discovered that what Niagara Falls symbolised has very ambiguous meanings, on one hand in is connected with love, marriage and family memories, whereas it can also have more painful connection; death, suffering and suicide. Soth decided therefore to explore this ambiguity in a poetic gesture, with love as the dominant theme
What Niagara Explores?
Niagara is a community based Project by Soth that explores the people that live and visit Niagara Falls and the community around it. Specifically the focus of this project is based on love and relationships. Soth photographs various young couples presumably in their twenties and thirties, who have come to Niagara Falls either on holiday or to get married, or a based in the area permanently. Soth’s photographs focus on; portraits of the young couple’s together; photos of letters the couples have sent to one another; photos; landscape shots of Niagara Fall; still lifes; and landscape shots of the urban environment surrounding Niagara Falls. Effectively ‘NIAGARA’ documents the ups and downs of relationships. The images reflect many different emotions in vary in context.
Narrative
The narrative starts off very positive and upbeat. This mood is achieved through the way Soth presents the opening few pages of the photo-book, full of outdoor landscape images with soft lighting and well spaced out compositions, as well as a playful scrapbook layout. This careful layout and presentation introduces the subjects, in particular exploring the theme of marriage; in an manner glamorising the prospect as joyous and exciting. The narrative is also very raw and intimate, with Soth photographing nude subjects, a very brave and daring aspect to explore.
Over time as more is revealed about the subjects, and about the location of Niagara, Soth begin to show another side to the place and the subjects. Cracks in the relationships of the subjects start to show, illustated through the letters included. In addition, the landscape is conveyed as less joyful and positive through photographing at night-time, a poetic metaphor connecting the location, as well as the overall structure of the narrative as darker and more sinister then previously shown. This progression is important because it shows a rounded perspective of the Location and the subjects.
Style of Photography
The style of photography in ‘NIAGARA’ is very traditional and Soth pays close attention to composition and detail. Soth carefully considers the surrounding environment before taking a photograph, and composition is a deliberate process that Soth attempts to create a well formed and balanced photograph that helps to convey the contexts of the narrative, as well as developing and structures the narrative in a manner which is subtle, reflective and poetic. Soth uses a combination of portraits, still-lifes and landscapes to create his story. What I found was quite clever is Soth’s inclusion of the letters that some of the couples sent to each other. Such a concept is a very clever way of both; providing breaks within the narrative; as well as helping the viewer to gain a deeper insight into the lives of the couples, in a manner which reveals more about them then perhaps a photograph on its own can, but is still personal at the same.
Summary
Three things I like about ‘NIAGARA’
Use of many different photographic style
Strong, well composed images
Strong Development of Narrative
What I didn’t like
Text could have made the story easier to follow
The jump in layout made the narrative difficult to follow sometimes
I have chosen an artist from the Guernsey Photography Festival, from 2014. This is the link to the website: http://guernseyphotographyfestival.com/
Sam Harris is a self-taught, London born photographer. Harris has a very precise style of working. He photographs in a documentary style and captures every-day moments, sort of like a diary.
Here’s a link to his website: http://samharrisphoto.com
Before, Sam produced portraits and sleeve art for various companies in the music world. However, he soon came to realize that he wanted to start something different and new. His desire to photograph his family began on a family trip. Instead of photographing exterior subjects, Harris began to document his close family. With this, he learnt a lot about himself and found his calling.
The way that he forms the pictures is amazing. The images almost have an artistic quality to them. Here’s a very famous example:
Sam Harris
It almost looks as if this picture was produced in a professional studio. The rule of thirds is aligned adequately as his daughters eyes and hand are positioned against the hot-spots of the grid. The orangery-red background gives the frame warmth and interest. There’s also a lot of depth here. The girl in foreground contrasts with the bright green bird in the middle-ground. In effect, the picture has a sort of three-dimensional essence to it. The focus is mostly placed on the right hand side, leaving the girls face a bit blurry. This is probably because Harris doesn’t believe in ‘over-exposing’ his children to the world.
Here’s some examples of four of his photograph’s from the collection ‘The Middle Of Somewhere’:
Sam Harris – The Middle Of Somewhere
Harris said that this image was taken because of pure chance. He was cooking one night and the window steamed up. His daughter then began drawing on the glass and creating amazing shapes. Harris took the opportunity to capture this moment with a single shot. It has a very magical essence to me and I think that it looks very mysterious.
Sam Harris – The Middle Of Somewhere
This picture is great in my opinion. I think that Harris has framed this image very well. The dark blue material around the rabbit cage restricts me to look directly in the center of the picture, where the brightest light is shown. I also believe that the angle that he used is effective. It creates interest and gives us a similar view to what the little girl might be seeing. Also, the dark shadows, caused from the blockage of light, give the rabbits a black outline. Again, this picture is quite mysterious because you can’t really see any fine details, all you see is shapes. Additionally, the girl looks very mesmerized by what she’s seeing. She looks relaxed and eager to learn.
Sam Harris – The Middle Of Somewhere
This picture captures Harris’s daughter and wife trying to get the water off the plastic roof with brooms. In my view, this picture is quite amateur and doesn’t really follow any compositional rules, however it works. The yellow hints and hue’s in the background add a golden and warm feeling to it. The color yellow is significant of hope and happiness. I think that the contrast between the yellow light translucently shining on the ground and the water is great. There’s an aspect of freshness to it, the bright colors throughout exude positive vibes. You can tell the sheer energy and probably excitement that they are feeling whilst pushing the roof up. It seems as if they are having lots of fun as they’re both smiling and their body languages show signs of joy. Likewise, the green and calm field in the background adds serenity. Green is significant of power and growth. You can also see a bit of a blur in between the girl and the mother’s bodies that was created through their movement. On the whole, this image has a summer feel to it and is great in capturing a fun family moment.
Sam Harris – The Middle Of Somewhere
Lastly, here’s a picture of Harris’s wife doing the laundry. Sam says that she hates taking pictures, so she always try’s to get her face covered in some way or another. You can see that her arm is up in an unnatural manner. It’s these moments that make the picture so intriguing. I’d like to find out more about this scene. Like the previous image, this is cropped in a rather different matter. I think that the tree on the left takes my focus to the left side, whilst the leaves on the right also divert my attention. This is because there is not much alignment or hot-spots from the rule of thirds. Nevertheless, I think that the sense of surprise and ambiguity is greater than if the shot is perfectly framed or not. I like how it’s been taken in such a way, that it doesn’t follow the perfect compositional rules or techniques. It’s just simple, refreshing and shows an engaging moment in family life.
Week of the 12th Oct – RECORD: This weekend I am going to record images of myself that replicate the photographs of my mum from her wedding day. I will get these photographs developed on Monday and hopefully have them to present on Tuesday.
Week of the 19th Oct – Find photographs through old family albums and find images of me and my family. I want to try and replicate those photographs so I can present them from past tense to present tense and see the difference between them.
Week of the 26thOct – RECORD: I am going to Southampton for 2 days, in this time I am going to capture some images from around the town of different kinds of people. This will relate to the theme of community, showing the contrast between different classes of people and how they make up our community. This will be interesting as it will be in a different setting to Jersey which is what I want to do. I could then take photographs of our community, in Jersey, showing the contrast here and then compare the two places.
Week of the 2nd Nov – Research community photographers.
Week of the 9th Nov – RECORD: On the weekend its my Friends Birthday and she is having a party at one of the heritage sites in Jersey, L’etacquerel fort. The theme is glitter so I want to bring my disposable camera and take lots of pictures of my friends at the party and I especially think the glitter will look really effective in the photographs. This will relate to the theme of community as our friendship group is a big community, we are all basically like family so I am hoping to capture some images that reflect that.
Atlantus is a photography project which Mr Toft and Gareth Syvret have been working on it explores the historical links between Jersey and New Jersey using photographs from the archive as a vital point . The project was inspired by 350th anniversary of the naming of New Jersey in America after Jersey by Sir George Carteret. This project is very research based in order to find identities, historical and geographic links between the two places for example: the Jersey cow being shipped too New Jersey as a gift. The project includes a wide variety of photographic styles from documentary, portraits, landscapes, interior and set up photographs.
One of my favorite photographs from the project is one of an African American woman standing on Asbury Park beach because of the story behind it which made it more interesting, Mr Toft found a photograph in the archive from years ago of Asbury’s wealthy community on the beach with African American slaves, the wealthy community then left. Today there is a large African American in Asbury the photograph shows the link between this and shows how this community has now evolved.
I liked the layout and the way that Atlantus was displayed as the narrative and flow of the images were quite easy to understand. I think this format is a new and creative way of displaying projects. The newspaper is folded into four this allows the receiver of the project to experiment and makes the project more interactive. Finally, I think newspapers are an easier way of presenting and can be distributed quicker.
Tamika Tolliver, Beach, Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States, 1 August 2014Jersey Calf, Goodlands, St Ouen, Jersey, Channel Islands, 27 May 2014Steve Lemprière, Semi-retired Fisherman, Grève de Lecq, St Ouen, Jersey, Channel Islands, 27 May 2014
I went through my old family albums to see how my family took images when i was younger. Some of these images are from when i was little and some are from when my little sister was born. I think that it is interesting to have both of these types of these images in as they show how through time how my family changed taking there images, but also how some of the images are similar even though they are taken around 9 years apart. Most of these images are taken in different settings and some of the images are of better quality than others. I think that the images look really interesting when the quality of them is not that good, as it makes the images look more individual and different from other how other typical photographers take family photographs. These are just some of my family images that i have that show how my family life and how my family take portrait images of one another.
