Cindy Sherman is one of my favourite photographer and I have taken a lot of inspiration from her in my past projects. I wanted to look into her work again but not the famous film stills that she created in the 1980s but to look at some of the work that she created during her time as a student in the late 1970’s. One particular set of images is based on a Hollywood-inspired murder mystery story with a vast amount of characters waiting for the bus. Sherman becomes each of the characters and dresses in different clothes based on people that you would typically see in a 1930s movie. The story behind Sherman’s work entitled Murder Mystery People is an imagined crime movies that features 17 different characters inspired by stereotypical figures in 1930s Hollywood films.

Sherman’s early work: http://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/2451/cindy-sherman-early-works

“I feel I’m anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself. Sometimes I disappear” – Cindy Sherman

The quote above that I have extracted above really interests me as Sherman states that she doesn’t see herself in her images, which is what I feel in my images too. They aren’t self-portraits, Sherman becomes the character and creates a new persona in her work. I like that she creates new personalities and personas in her work becoming new people and changing who she is by her clothing, props, hairstyles and mannerisms and facial expressions. I find Sherman’s photographs really interesting and I like the way she makes her images as I use a similar method. In her images she tends to be in a studio on her own and have a shutter release to make her images, often we are able to see this in her images at the bottom of the image or to the side.

This is my favourite out of this series of Sherman’s. I like the composition of this image and how the subject is positioned in the bottom right. I find it interesting to look at how the subject is photographing and the camera with the flash attachment on top as this is what was often used back in the 60s when Sherman made these photographs. I like how Sherman literally becomes her characters and creates new and intriguing characters all the time, something that I like to do in my own work too. I like the added touch of sideburns and other details like the glasses and the hat in this image. I feel that the hat could have been an easy way to hide her hair without having to wear a wig like she often does. In my own images I took some inspiration and have made images wearing a hat and hidden all of my hair inside the hat. I like how Sherman shot all of her characters with the same background and in the same place, this makes it so much easier when shooting to just stick to one location in a studio, where often Sherman would photograph alone. I like that as a spectator you are able to see the shutter release at the foot of this image showing how Sherman would have made this photograph using her foot and I like that it isn’t perfect or that she hasn’t tried to hide it too much but it really manages to blend in well with this image and the character in this image.

I love this image! I just love how dedicated Sherman is to creating her characters and that she went to the extent of making herself a much darker skin tone than she actually is. I like that instead of leaving this character out, she went a step further and actually created this persona and made an effort to try to look like the woman she had imagined. I like how Sherman never seems to be limited with her work, whether a character is black or white, male or female she no character seems to be out of reach for her. I find Sherman becomes unrecognisable in her images and her characters look so distant from what Sherman herself looks like which I really love. I like the expression on the subjects face as she just stares into the camera. I like the simplicity of the composition and how the subject is just directly centred in the middle of the image. I also like that it isn’t perfect and the spectator is able to see in the background the plugs as well as the wire from the shutter release. Something about this image really intrigues me and I like the shadow in the background too as it just adds a little more dimension to the image. In the right hand corner there is a shoe which makes me think that she was possibly changing all of her clothes just off to the side of the camera and this shoe happened to make its way into the corner of the image.

Sarah Pucill is a filmmaker and photographer who explores a sense of self in her work. The main features of her work look into mortality and the conventional filmmaking process. Pucill makes a lot of her films in simple places/rooms where she creates and enters different and new realms. Her work explores the representation of the feminine, queer or the dead. Her work is very strange and is very much surrealist works but I think this is what makes her work so much more interesting and captivating. Pucill’s first feature length production Magic Mirror explores the work  of Claude Cahun through her images as well as her writing from Cahun’s book Aveux non avenus (Confessions Denied, 1930). I like the idea of this as Pucill has basically taken Cahun’s work, restaged it and added some more context to it from Cahun’s own words in her book. I feel that this is a really great way to learn more about Cahun and to really understand the meaning behind her work as well as possibly getting an insight into the style of Pucill and her methods of film and photography.

Magic Mirror trailer: http://www.sarahpucill.co.uk/films/magic-mirror/

As I didn’t have time to watch the entirety of Pucill’s film Magic Mirror, I just watched the trailer but still found it to be very helpful and intriguing. I also think that the entire film can only be seen in the many exhibitions that it has been shown at. Something about this film really interested me and I really like that Pucill has mixed film with photography, something that I have done in the past and am making a constant link between in my own photographic work. I think that this way of bringing Cahun’s images to life more with her own words has really given me a clearer understanding of the context of her work and her constant thoughts on mortality. I like how strange and surrealist the trailer is, it really captivates me and makes me want to watch on as well as the voiceover from Pucill reciting extracts from Cahun’s book Aveux non avenue. The thing that  I’m struggling with this is that at what point does this become Pucill’s original work as the re-staged positions and images that she has created were Cahun’s and the voiceover was also extracts from Cahun’s own book. I do really like the idea of taking inspiration from other artists work and bringing your own twist to it and Pucill’s work is great but it is just re-staged versions of Cahun’s own images. Obviously no ones images can be as good or as unique as Cahun’s and her work really does stand out to me but I do like Pucill’s interpretation and recreations of it. I like the way Pucill looks in her images and really gets into the characters that Cahun has created, something that I can take inspiration from and work on in my own images.

Duane Michals in an American photographer who often uses his photographic sequences incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy. He usually makes sequences of images as if they are action shots or documentary photographs. He developed this style in the 1960s when photojournalism first became really popular and he adopted this method and used it to create his own narrative. In the 60s his work was not well received as critics rejected his work. When in the 1970s Cindy Sherman adopted this style and it started to become increasingly popular with more and more photographers taking on this style of creating narrative and not actually photographing documentary or photojournalist methods. He staged images and got people to act and pretend, his images touch upon life after death and what happens to those that die. He makes stories/narrative and creates a new concept.

“I never went to a photography school, which was my saving grace. I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to write on a photograph, and I didn’t have to unlearn all the rules that schools teach you.” – Duane Michals

A Duane Michals gallery: http://www.dcmooregallery.com/artists/duane-michals#1

I find Duane Michals methods of photography really interesting. I like the idea of it looking like stills from a film and that the characters are interacting with one another. The titles are on the pages with the images and some have writing underneath them bringing in more depth and context to what Michal’s was thinking or possibly what the characters where doing. I do really like this style and think it is a great way to tell a story just through images, the sequences of images are simple yet they are really intriguing. I feel that they interest me more because of the time they were made and how different the world looked and how different people looked in the 60s. Some of his sequences are really simple but are interesting to look at while others have more layers and depth to them. I like that some of his images are quite light and easy to follow while others are random and some others have deeper meaning making the spectator actively think about what they are looking at.

I chose to analyse this sequence of images as it stood out to me. I find that Michals way of sequencing interesting as usually in a set of film stills there are 12 frames per second but Michals has only used 8. I feel that this backs up the quote from above that he had no prior knowledge of photography or anything and so just made images that he wanted to make without having any influence from the photographic world being put onto him. I found the sequence to be unusual but my interpretation of it is that the main subject was an angel and by the clue in the title had fallen from heaven to see his lover one last time. He then kissed her and lay on top of her and seemed to loose his wings and had to run away. I feel that maybe he could have lost his wings because he wasn’t supposed to go back down to earth and disrupt the living but he still went against that and did it anyway. This image is really interesting and the spectator could take away a number of interpretations from it. I like that the images are in black and white, even though that would have been the  only option in the 60s, it looks a lot better and allows the spectator to focus in on the angel instead of being distracted by anything else. The intensity of the light coming in from the window just adds more to the effect that the subject is an angel but also eliminates any other distractions from the outside buildings. The images would have been made on a film camera and a long exposure would have been put on to give the slightly blurred effect making the subject more angel-like and is they are a ghost.

I had to choose this photograph as it is so odd. I do think that this is a great image as it does, in a way, reflect how many people think about God. For example, both men are sat naked while talking and many people belonging to Christian and Catholic religion say that they will stand naked before God at their time of death to see whether they will make it into heaven. Obviously they don’t quite mean literally but in this instance it works, making the image stronger and more hard-hitting for the spectator to look at. I feel that the piece of paper over the man on the rights face symbolises how possibly anyone can be a God or that your beliefs can be in anyone and you can confide in whoever you want without actually having to physically see any God. I like the style that this photo has been made with the caption as it makes it more personal and is more intriguing to me. I also find the way the man on the right is positioned is interesting as he looks as though he is teaching the other man a lesson or telling him about something and the man on the left is taking it all in and following the other mans lead. The image looks good in black and white again so there are no distractions from the main message of the image making it stand out even more.

This image really stood out to me when looking through Michals photographs as at first glance it looks very odd. I feel that this image is similar to the style that Francesca Woodman follows with using a slow shutter speed and getting the subject to move so that some of the image is blurred or distorted. I like this image as it makes it seem as though this man, Joseph Cornell, is a ghost and is looking in the mirror to see if he can see himself clearly. The subject is centered right in the middle of the photograph and the back lighting is over exposed and draws the spectators attention right over to it. The bright white light coming from the window attracts my attention immediately followed by the distorted figure of the man. I do really like this image as it is strange but also intriguing to look at at the same time. I also think that this image is more effective in black and white as the spectator is more attracted to the bright light rather than being distracted by any colours in the room. I find that this image represents a ghost or that the story/narrative of this person is that they have died. When researching about Michals I found that he makes his images largely based around life after death and his interpretation of what that would be like. He steers away from the mainstream photography of the 1960s which was largely documentary photography and creates staged images that are unique and a narrative has been created instead of simply bare witnessing.

Francesca Woodman was an American photographer best known for her self-portraits. Many of her images obscure the face by blurring and moving with long exposure times or are merging with surroundings. Woodman killed herself at the age of 22 before her work was discovered. She had been battling depression for much of her life and her experimentations with photography explored different ideas including angels. Her work is very moving and intriguing to look at. Whenever I look at her work I wish I knew more and want to find out the meaning behind her images. I love her photographic work as I really do love black and white images. Something that I also really like about Woodman’s work is that she uses herself as the subject, which is something I have been exploring through my own work. Woodman often poses naked in her images and has many images of naked women within her images.

“A defining voice of her generation.” – British Journal of Photography

Woodman created a series of images entitled On Being an Angel. In the images Woodman becomes the subject and uses the photographic world as a very personal means of expression. Her work explores gender, representation and sexuality. Her work contains juxtaposition perspectives, some images show her completely naked while the others show her as trying to hide and distort her body. She shows through her photography her conflicted views and thoughts. This work really stands out to me and is so interesting in the way that she photographs showing two complete opposites possibly expressing the conflicted views inside her head. After researching more of her work I noticed that a few of her images are Untitled and most of her images are black and white. This also reminds me of Cindy Sherman and her method of allowing the spectator to think for themselves and come up with their own interpretations. What I like most about Woodman’s work is that it is so unusual and brings an element of surrealism to it, making her images stand out more to me. I feel that the fact that Woodman killed herself at the age of 22 due to suffering with depression shouldn’t be a factor of her work, I feel that her work is brilliant regardless of her mental state. I feel that her work would have eventually been discovered naturally as it did after she killed herself.

Exhibition of Woodman’s work: http://www.foam.org/museum/programme/francesca-woodman

This image really stood out to me when looking through Woodman’s work titled On Being an Angel. I  really love the whole composition and miss-en-scene of this image, it really interests me. I find it odd that she is hanging off of the door and holding on to it while hiding her face from the camera behind her arm. I love that she is wearing an oversized shirt that almost looks like pyjamas or something. At first I wondered how she managed to get herself up there and saw that the chair was near so she would have most likely positioned herself from there. I don’t quite understand this image but that doesn’t really matter as it is so intriguing to me and leaves room for me to make a variety of different interpretations. Knowing that Woodman was suffering from depression I see that this could be a less intense way of showing someone hanging themselves, she wants to end her life but needs to see how elevated she must be off of the ground before doing so. The way she is covering her face as if shying away from the camera also interests me as I feel that she has a conflicted view of photographing herself. She wants to make these amazing images and use herself as the subject but at the same time conceals her identity. I like the room as there are so many little details all around that I am able to interpret and see her environment. I really do not know what to interpret this image as, it is so unusual but it looks so great and really did stand out to me. I like how she is slightly off centre in this image but your eyes are still immediately drawn to her followed by the chair giving the spectator the assumption that she used the chair to get herself up there.

This is another image that really stood out to me in Woodman’s work. I like that she uses slow shutter speeds to make her images blurred and the end results are so intriguing to me. In the 70s/80s there would not have been any kind of editing software for Woodman to make surrealist images with effects added in afterwards so she had to improvise and actually make images that she envisioned there and then in front of the camera. I love that her work is so simple, she would have made this image on a black and white film camera most likely and that would be it. There would be no re-touching or changing in editing. I like this style and think that I could possibly create some images in this format too. The use of a white dress/ cloth is really interesting as typically people see a white cloth as a symbol of a ghost, which has now become an unrealistic joke kind of halloween costume. I like that this image is blurred and that the spectator is unable to see Woodman’s face or her expression  as it brings more mystery to her work. She does look like a ghost in this image as the slow shutter speed has created an almost ghost-like complexion with Woodman’s legs looking see-through as well as part of her dress and her arms. I really like this image and think that it is simple yet brilliantly done. Looking at the background of this image looks as though she is in some dirty car park somewhere which is really interesting that she chose to photograph in a darker room/space as to not over expose the entire image with there being a slow shutter speed to capture in more light. I like her method of work and find it really interesting to see and learn more about.

This image probably gives spectators the best look at Woodman’s face without it being blurred or distorted. I really wonder what is going on in this image. She is kneeling down in a dirty old room with decaying walls and pieces of wood covering the floor as she stares blankly into the camera with her hand half covering her face. I find it strange that her dress is unzipped and it looks almost as if she is holding her breast or possibly keeping the dress from falling down. I do really like this image as we are able to actually get a glimpse of what Woodman looked like. The composition of the image is again with Woodman more to the right side of the image and not centred. I find Woodman’s work intriguing as it is so unusual and does have an element of more gothic style images with the expressionless look on her face and the way she makes ghostly self-portraits. I think her photographic work is extremely strong and does stand out to me as unique and bold.

Roger Ballen is an American photographer, now living in South Africa. He began work as a documentary photographer but soon ventured into fictional methods and staging images. One particular body of work that I am interested in is one of his books entitled Shadow Chamber. This work looks into lunacy and in his images he uses poor people who pose in cell-like rooms that occupy the grey area between fact and fiction. His images are intriguing and hard-hitting. The spectator wants to venture further into the world that he is created and try to make sense out of his peculiar images. The rooms in his images are strange and unsettling; their walls are grey and the room is always dirty. His images are unique and the figures within them always seem to be hiding away or are curled up on the floor with motionless expressions on their faces. Shadow Chamber was published in 2005. His work is very unique and stands out in the photographic world.

“I don’t think things that are nightmarish are actually dark. Sometimes nightmares give you a lot of insight.” – Roger Ballen

Roger Ballen’s website: http://www.rogerballen.com/

I find Ballen’s work really interesting and different. It leaves a lot of questions open and allows the spectator to think outside the box. I find his work quite strange as he uses animals, objects and people in obscure ways. Within Ballen’s images he creates an environment that is dull, dirty and very much staged. There is something about Ballen’s images that make me kind of uncomfortable as they are so bizarre and the subjects in the images always seem to be in another world or they are despondent to the camera, which is most likely the desired effect. Some of his images really intrigue me and make me want to know more about them but there are some that are really quite disturbing and uncomfortable to look at.

When looking through the book entitled Shadow Chambers I came across this image and found it really intriguing. My attention was captured by the doll hanging on a cross made of twigs with a piece of paper attached to it with ‘GOD’ written on it. Something about this image is almost sinister, it really makes me wonder what Ballen’s message was behind it. My initial interpretation is that this person may not have enough money to be able to get an actual wooden plaque of Jesus on the cross but in some way wanted to show their religion and so made one out of things that they have found. When researching more into Ballen’s work I found that everything in the rooms is a performance, staged. I like how the baby is in the middle of the shot, it just makes it more visually pleasing with the boy lying directly underneath it, almost as if it is protecting him. I like the little puppy in this image looking directly into the camera and with its paw resting on the boy as if he is being cared for by the puppy in some way, a comfort to him. The image is kind of creepy when you look at it for a while as the baby doll looks almost decapitated and one of its eyes looks as if there has been dirt rubbed into it. Also the boy’s feet are extremely dirty and it looks as though he has been unable to wash them for a while, this also matches the dirt of the cover adding to the effect of how grim and dirty the entire room is. I also just noticed that written on the wall is ‘Christ + Me’ as if the subject in the image is looking for some sort of saviour and is going by based purely on their faith in God and Christ.

Another image that stood out to me while looking through Shadow Chambers was this one. Something about it is really odd, maybe it’s just everything in the image itself. At first glance I thought that the subject was being tied to something through the chair but when I look closer I realised that it is actually a snake. Ballen’s images are so strange. When you first glance his images don’t look like much but when you really focus in on the image and see all of the little details i that small space you really get a sense of the efforts that were made to create and stage his images. I really wonder why there is a snake just going around the room and how odd the position of the subject is slightly crouched over. My attention is then drawn over to the reflect on the floor of the subject making the floor seem wet. This makes so much sense when I think of how the subject is wearing a rain jacket, as if it has been raining inside.

This video really interested me as it gave me more of an insight to the thinking behind Ballen’ s work and how he creates images so that people remember them and keep them in their mind. His images are so out of the ordinary and call for deeper thinking to really understand what is going on in the images. I find his work to be more about a deeper meaning rather than just what you can see in the images. This video has actually inspired me in a way to create content that will stand out and that is stranger and more hard-hitting. I want my images to impact my spectators and leave them wanting to find out more, images that are really unusual and almost uncomfortable to look at just like Ballen’s images. Ballen illustrates his art through photography, it is just another way for him to be able to express his art freely and share it more broadly around the world.

For this project I have decided to look more into the way our island treats those that are seen to have mental illnesses and the historical views of people who were on the island. I am using the Archisle to get help from this as they have many images there that I could work from. Interestingly it turns out that the Archisle doesn’t have much in terms of outcasts or those that aren’t in social circles as back in the early years of photography it was only the rich elites that were photographed and especially in Jersey it was all about getting the richer people on the island photographed. This isn’t something that I see as a setback because it just goes to show how our island treats those that are in need of help or are deemed insane. We tend to forget about them or try to ignore them and hope that they will sort themselves out when in actual fact they need help for a reason. I chose to look at local history as it is something I have access to. I want to make a series of staged images going more in depth on different cases within Jersey of lunacy and really embody and show how those people were treated. When reading more about this topic I have found that, especially in the late 1800s, residents really do not treat people with mental illness well at all. They usually tie them up or completely disown them which is awful.
I wanted to do further and more in depth research to really get a clear understanding and feel of those suffering with mental illness on the island and to see whether or not my theory will be proven that those within our society who are slightly different or misunderstood are outcast and neglected even when they are the ones in need of support and care the most. I also want to be able to make well informed images as a response to this research and wouldn’t want to create a false image of how people suffering with mental illness were treated on the island. It is something that I have a genuine interest in and want to search further in to and find out as much as possible to create clear and strong images.

When looking at an article, Lunacy and the ‘Islands in the British Seas’ I found out a lot about how the mentally ill were treated in Jersey in the late 1800s leading up to the creation of the Jersey mental asylum. There were so many cases in the island were islanders leave and neglect them. All cases of domestic issues were determined by the island Parliament, Bailiwick of Jersey. In 1859 Jersey was still using the general hospital, in part, to hold pauper (poor) lunatics without any form of medical help. Eventually a separate building was built near the Town Hospital. This held 70 people and was open to pauper lunatics from the town. It was only in 1868 that a permanent public asylum was opened.
When reading more about local lunacy and how those that were seen as mentally ill on the island I was really able to see how society cast them away and just how much my point has been proven that those that are slightly different or are in need of any kind of help that is not physical they are completely shunned and left to rot on their own. It is actually really sad to read and shows the kind of neglect that people give just because they can’t fully understand someone. One case that I looked at in particular was that of Jane Le Maistre were basically she was confined in an out-building without clothing expect and woollen cloth thrown over her. It was written that she would sit in the attitude of a monkey and was in this position for so long that she was unable to use the lower part of her body, it was motionless. After a while Le Maistre became a public issue with more and more people finding out about her wellbeing. the Royal Court soon convened but local inhabitants became defensive claiming her to be well cared for and being cleaned regularly. Inhabitants were supported by local professionals, two doctors whose visit was clearly anticipated found Le Maistre wrapped in two warm blankets, hair short, clean with no appearance of filth or vermin. This just shows the manipulation and stirring of the truth that the people of Jersey did in order to avoid others being judgemental or disapproving of them. It’s also sad as Jane Le Maistre would have been unable to defend herself or tell the truth as she was deemed insane and no one would fully understand or believe her.
Another case that I looked at was that of Dr Lowe, a neighbour of a Jersey lunatic. Dr Lowe locked away this mental patient after he attacked him and left him there for twelve years as he thought an asylum would cost too much, especially as the island was already faced with debt. The Hospital Committee of the States Parliament concluded that a lunatic asylum was not needed after hearing from Dr Lowe. There was known to be less than fifty cases that needed confinement which would lead to isolation and as stated, in most cases of lunacy, it would only increase their insanity. It was concluded by the committee that it would be better for lunatics to stay at home for their families to care and look after them. In 1847, the Hospital housed 38 lunatics. When reading further I found out that in most parishes there were those living with mental illness and they would be confined and chained into a room in the dark, filthy and in solitary cells. They were seen to have had incurable madness. There is a story of Castletown that a lunatic was being confined in a room with food being given to him through a window. Many were held down with chains or rope. Lunatics were often kept/left in inhumane conditions as they were neglected by society. It was seen as a misfortune to have a lunatic person within your family. A final case that I looked at really intrigued and astonished me. It was that of a lunatic called Waterson who was frightened out of his wits by an apprentice who jumped in front of him in a white sheet. He never recovered and was confined in a filthy outhouse, damp walls. He was barred in and had very little light, here in this prison he existed for 17 years.

I wanted to focus in on some more famous transgender people that I knew of before researching too much into the topic. It really interests me to see how different people transition and how they are perceived and the way they present themselves to the public. I do think that it can almost be harder to transition when so many people know who you were and there is also so much pressure and stigma coming from those who don’t know much about the topic. I wanted to research this topic as it is something that I don’t know a lot about and want to find out more so that I can make accurate images. I am intrigued by this topic as for me it seems so sad that a lot of these people never go through their transition because they feel to scared or trapped based purely on fear that society will judge and ridicule them.

Caitlyn Jenner
Caitlyn Jenner has to be the most famous transgender person in the world right now. She went from being father, Bruce Jenner, of the Kardashians as well as an Olympic gold medalist for the men’s decathlon in 1976. Everyone knew who Bruce Jenner was. He was married to Kris Jenner for 24 years. Caitlyn’s transition seemed to come as a shock to everyone, including his own family. It must have been such a difficult transition as it would have been so different to any other trans person’s transition. His was televised all over the world as he is part of one of the most famous families at the moment, the Kardashians. On Keeping Up With The Kardashians we really get an insight to the struggles that the entire family are going through and how they are dealing with their father coming out and going through this transition. It really does interest me to see this and I feel that because they are so much in the public domaine that they kind of have to accept the transition as they don’t want to be seen as transphobic and I do think it’s hard to live your life constantly being followed by cameras. When Caitlyn transitioned she said she felt free and that she could be her “authentic self”. I could never imagine being trapped inside a body that you know isn’t really who you are, it seems like such a hard thing to accept and to be able to openly come out and have the strength to go through that transition. I do think that the topic of transgender people is becoming more widely known and possibly becoming more accepted within our Western society. Caitlyn has also started her own TV show entitled I am Cait, I think that this show is actually educating people on transgender and what it is to feel the way she does and how people can be their true authentic selves.

Lili Elbe
I had no idea who Lili Elbe was before late last year when I went to go see a film entitled The Danish Girl. The film really enlightened me on what transgender people go through and this was the first time I really think that I sat down and thought about it and the lives that this topic effects. The film was amazing, showing the fun aspects of Elbe’s life and how she lived. Lili was born a male, Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener, and lived alongside his wife. They were both painters and in fact he was a very well known one. At first Einar posed as a woman for his wife to finish off a painting but it turned into something more, he came to realise that he was a woman authentically. The film goes through the ups and downs of Einar’s life as a man and Lili’s life as a woman. This film was so interesting to watch and I really think that I learnt a lot from it. Without this film I would never have known about Lili at all. She was one of the first known people to undergo proper surgery to become a woman. She successfully transitioned in 1930 but later died due to complications of one of her sex reassignment surgeries. Lili’s memory lived on in Gerda [Einar’s wife] who made her fortune on paintings of Lili. This story actually makes me really emotional as it seems so rare to have a transgender case at such an early time period, 1920s-1930s, yet Gerda was so understanding and supported Lili the entire time. She must have loved her very much as she painted her.

Colonel Victor Barker
Possibly a less famous transgender person but a local one. I came across this story while working with the Jersey Archisle. This story really is amazing and almost unbelievable to actually fathom that there were many, not just one, transgender people across this island at a period as earlier at the 18th century. It really amazes me how still so many people are transphobic and don’t care to understand it. I myself do not fully understand but I am trying and am finding out more and more about this community through my research. I want to know because I want to be able to fully accept it. Victor Barker was a war veteran, he worked as a hotel clerk when he was arrested for not paying a debt he owed to a restaurant. This story truly is gripping and, in a way, it excites me that it happened in Jersey because so often I feel that not a lot happens here and that not many great people live or have ever lived here. I find this island to be very consumer driven, we seem to passively accept things most of the time but the more I look into local history the more I find that not to be the case. It is so interesting to find that Victor Barker was on the island around the same time as Claude Cahun, a photographer who challenged gender norms. When reading Colonel Barker’s Monstrous Regiment I found that Barker seemed to want to be a man because of the life men led back then compared to how women lived theirs. This has really taken my interest and made me want to research into the lives of transgender people more.

Gigi Gorgeous
Gigi is a Canadian YouTuber who has actually gone through her transition in the public domain. She has been making videos since she was male and has carried on making those videos throughout her transition. In Gigi’s videos she comes across as a very open and strong character and is full of confidence. It just shows how different it is nowadays for transgender people and, in the Western world especially, people are more open to them and more accepting. I do think it is still really difficult to be transgender in our current world and society but Gigi is just living as her authentic self regardless. I find it baffling to even think that she was ever a man. Obviously she has undergone a somewhat large amount of surgery to get to the physical stage that she is at now and it is so interesting to see how far surgery and procedures have come even from the 1930s. Gigi is always so open in her videos and lets people know about her personal life and how she feels and who she is, something that those in the 1930s for instance would never be able to do. I really do think we live in a more intelligent world where most people can accept others for who they are and although might not fully understand it they will still accept that it is that person’s choice. Gigi is also friends with Caitlyn Jenner’s daughter Kylie Jenner who, I feel, has become more open to the transgender community and showing other young people that accepting transgender people is a good thing. The age of social media really is taking over and celebrities are becoming more and more influential which is why I think Gigi is so great as she is in the public domain and does show herself for who she is.

Gigi’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/GregoryGORGEOUS/videos

When working with the Archisle I was given a really interesting book to have a look at and take inspiration from. This book is basically about a Colonel who came over to Jersey during the first world war after getting a bad injury. He made his way through the circles and men of Jersey, unknown to everyone else that he was actually a woman. He was arrested and imprisoned when he was found out. This is the basic information that I know but after reading the book I found out so much more and find it so interesting and unique to actually have a transgender person living in Jersey as well as Claude Cahun around the same time who challenged gender norms. The book is called Colonel Barker’s Monstrous Regiment. To me the title sounds awful as if Barker had done something so horribly unforgivable and evil that is was a ‘montrous’ thing to do as if they could be nothing much worse, when in fact all that Barker ever did was pose as a man and maybe because she felt in her self that she was a man.

Victor Barker

Barker was obviously treated differently as a man to when he was a woman and preferred the treatment he received as a man. 1929, Central London Barker was a reception clerk of the Regent Palace Hotel. He wore very formal clothing and constantly wore an extremely tight belt. The story goes that he would tell a long story of how he was blown up in the war and without his surgical belt he would not be able to move. He would often tell stories about his experiences during the war. Something that I found interesting too was that in 1929 there was a warrant for Barker’s arrest, he owed a lot of money after the failure of a restaurant he once owned. The book also suggests that Barker had a son who he looked after and was at boarding school. His first wife left and in 1929 he was with another woman who he took good care of and would take time off work to care for her. This is really intriguing to me as maybe as a woman Barker had a child and when he then went through the transformation [non-surgical] into a man he had to make up a back story and came up with this.

Family Background

father: Thomas Barker
mother: Lillias Adelaide Hill
The couple married in Jersey when he was thirty and she was just eighteen years old. He spent his time on gentlemanly pursuits and enjoyed playing out this role. He also put his dog into shows alongside his wife. He had a smooth-haired fox terrier while she had two bloodhounds. Lillias Adelaide Hill belonged to a family whereby a relative, Olave Baden-Powell [female], founded the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides. The Barker’s moved to Jersey in 1889 and settled in St. Clements. Around this location in the sixteenth and seventeenth century it was the prevalence of witchcraft, were witches were tried. Thomas was the Honorary Secretary of the Jersey Dog Club. He was also club captain at the Royal Jersey Gold Club in 1898. The Barkers first born was a girl on 27 August 1895 but she wasn’t registered until 13 September 1895 due to her father being busy with the Jersey Dog Club holding its 8th Annual Show at the Vegetable Market. She was named Lillias Irma Valerie but everyone was to address her as Valerie. They had a second child, a boy, on 20 April 1899 he was named Tom Leslie. Valerie was very tomboyish and grew up enjoying reading boys books and pranks. Thomas [father] taught her the skills of fencing, cricket and boxing. Valerie attended a convent school at Graty to finally finish her schooling. She would shock the nuns by dressing up as a boy as well as smoking.  Back in the Victorian days it was not seen as feminine to aspire or want to achieve success.

Local Transgender cases

William Pallot was an islander who went to court because he would dress as a woman and walk around near Fort Regent. In the court it was declared that ‘from the eccentric manner in which he had seen him parading in the streets’ that he had no sanity and was to be taken to the asylum. He ‘dressed partially like a woman, with curled hair, powdered face, bracelets, etc. He had the voice and gait of a woman, as well as the mind of a woman.’ I find this so interesting to see how people would react to possible transgender cases and how they could not see that a gentleman would ever be trapped inside his own body or that he could quite possibly be trying to be himself with becoming a woman. Their immediate reaction is to say that he must be insane and that he must go to the asylum because no man would ever think in such a way. It amazes me that back then people would be so naive and unaware of what others may be going through. We now live in a time were we are a lot more accepting of transgender people, women and gay people [nowhere near a perfect world but a better one]. These people are so narrow minded and closed minded to the fact that quite possibly this man was born in the wrong body that he knows deep down that he is not a man but in fact a woman. I guess back then that it would be uncommon for a transgender person to be so open and free but then again it seems to me that people have been challenging gender norms more often then than say now in Jersey. Claude Cahun, Victor Barker and William Pallot all seem to know who they are and they all seem to have had this fascination with challenging gender norms and seeing what life is like as someone else or even if they adopted to the opposite sexes way of living. This book is really interesting and I am really enjoying finding out more about local history too. It is interesting to see how men were treated compared to women and how Pallot was found to be insane and that a sane man would never think is such a way. It shows how differently they treated men to women. Women were often found to be witches and were tried and killed while men were never really tried as witches and even though Pallot stated that he was reading another man’s fortune with cards he was not tried as a witch but seen merely as insane.

During the 1890’s there was a huge amount of suicides and attempted suicides. This suggests that for most people that was there only escape with there being on average two suicides a month with a population of barely 55,000. Jersey seemingly hated anyone or anything that was different and so if you did not conform to the norms of life back in the 1890s you were seen to be a witch or insane.

Edward de Lacy Evans was an Australian man who married his third wife, Julia Marquand, a Jersey girl. He would dress as a woman and when in the mines, to amuse the other residents, he would dress as a woman and sing. He suffered an accident in the mines and somehow ended up in court and was checked by doctors and the verdict came of lunacy and was certified with amentia [softening of the brain]. He was admitted to a lunacy ward where he shared a room. He would never change in front of anyone. After a six week period on this ward he was transferred to a hospital in Melbourne where he was furthered examined. It was revealed that Edward de Lacy Evans was in fact Ellen Tremaye, a woman. He was deemed to have amentia by doctors and was insane. There was no way that he could actually think in such a way as a woman. Ellen Tremaye was the anonymous author of a book entitled The History and Confession of the Man-Woman.

Louis Jobosch was a German in his late fifties. He wanted to travel over to France but was stopped and checked by a doctor who then would not allow him to travel into France. As a result he headed to Jersey where a witch hunt was going on and people were told to keep an eye on him. He was arrested as soon as he arrived at his lodgings. He was in fact a woman. The Jersey police soon learned that Jobosch had been living as a man for forty-two years. He was orphaned at the age of thirteen and then went on to travel the world working as a courier and who by then could speak several languages.  He was often head saying that he wished he was dead and had before attempted to jump into the sea but was caught by passing boat’s. He died after being taken from Jersey to a Southampton hospital where he died on pneumonia. A note was left after his death that read ‘I die of misery – trust God forgive me’. This is so sad because I think that Jabosch truly felt trapped inside the wrong body and that dressing up as a man wasn’t enough and that throughout Jabosch’s whole life he could never come to terms with himself or make peace with his own demons. He asked for forgiveness from God as though he had done something terribly wrong, this is really sad to read as it makes me think about all those that feel trapped and encaged in their own bodies that the body that they inhabit isn’t actually their own and that they don’t belong.

Un Chien Andalou

Un Chien Andalou is a 17 minute long surrealist film and was created in France in 1929 and is a black and white silent film. It is basically a film where a man uses a blade to cut into a woman’s eyeball. Within the first few moments of the short film the audience see the moon, the blade and the eye being cut. You don’t actually see the eyeball being cut into but instead you see a thin cloud passing by the moon, which obviously represents the eye. I like old films like this as they seemed to be more creative and left more to the imagination and allowed spectators/audiences figure things out for themselves and make them think that they had seen something when in fact it was just the trick of the camera shots/angles. I love that old cinema would do this all the time purely because there wasn’t the budget to spent on elaborate special makeup and effects whereas nowadays technology has moved on and audiences almost want to see everything, like they need to see every detail of a scene just to believe it more. I find this short film so random and strange, which kind of made me laugh because it was so out of the ordinary. I like the transitions and how a character could be in one place and suddenly be transported into another. I find this concept interesting and adds more to the short film, making it so much more inviting for the audience to keep them guessing and to move them away from the ordinary and passive way of thinking. For me this short film was made to provoke thinking and to really make audiences think for themselves and start to interpret things for themselves too instead of constantly being told exactly what is going on and what is happening in a film. After watching this short film I was left wondering what I had just watched. It was so random but strangely enough I found it amusing. It is one of those things that are just so strange and out there that you can’t help but laugh at it but also question how strange it is. I thought the cutting of the eye ball at the beginning was a signifier that they were living in a surrealist world and it was also gross to see and split open eye. The ants made me think that the man was dead and they were for some reason feasting on his dead hand, like bugs do when people die. The leading male protagonist literally seemed insane to me and was the most random in the short film but he really did intrigue me with his facial expressions and the eyeliner around his eyes.

Notes | Thoughts

-holding ants in his hand and is in a frozen position staring at it
– woman with hair slicked back pocking at a severed hand that she had in  a box in the middle of the street while police try to push spectators away
– characters always freeze in a moment
– woman run over in the street, man looks so excited about it
– the man gropes the womans boobs [so odd]. she doesn’t want him to but he makes her and he images her with no top on and seems to be dribbling
– very theatrical performance and they use there facial expressions as obviously they never used to speak in these silent films
– doesn’t make any sense, he appears in different rooms etc
– the man is strange and somewhat creepy
– the man seems to be a bit delusional or just really weird as he seems to get excited for the gory and unsettling painful parts of the film
– books turn into guns
– transported to another place, in a woods somewhere. touches womans bare back before he falls to the floor possibly dead
– she looses her arm hair which ends up on his face. she leaves through a door in the house and ends up on a beach with some other man

KOYAANISQATSI (Life Out Of Balance)

Koyaanisqatsi is a 1h23minute film that brings to the light the beauty of our natural world alongside contemporary urban society. This is something that I want to focus on in my own photographic work and so this film is a perfect example to gain some inspiration from. This film shows the true horrors of our urbanised world and how it is constantly being destroyed, re-built and is taking away natures natural beauty. I love this film as it is really relaxing to look at with the music per the top and being able to see these beautiful landscapes with the sun and clouds moving showing the time-lapse. I have always been a lover of the natural world and often find myself going down to the ocean when I need to de-stress or relax. Something about the natural world is so therapeutic and more beautiful than any building ever could be. The main thought that I left with after watching this film was how often destruction does on in our urbanised society and how often we abuse our natural world, throwing rubbish around and not caring about the consequence that future generations are going to be focused to face because of the people of todays selfishness and carelessness. This film has really helped me with my thoughts on my project and inspired me to make a really great series of images that will really give a clear message on what I want my spectators to see and the movement that I want to follow.

Notes | Thoughts

-aboriginal drawings
-earrie , with soft calming music
– the voice makes it sound like some sort of ritual
– the music makes the destruction look almost poetic, as it falls you feel more empathy towards it and just watch as it slowly falls to the ground
– beautiful landscapes with music playing over it
– showing off the natural world with slow pan shots as well as the music making it more fascinating to look at
– shot of bats in a cave, sound of their voices and flying
– one huge time lapse
– cloud time lapse replicates fire and smoke, going fast pace
– water fall blue sea and clouds of smoke
– calm ocean
– different shots transitioning across smoothly
– clouds moving fast to transition into the ocean making a smooth transition that blends well
– clouds look like the ocean going over all of the mountains, looks amazing
– really relaxing to watch
– film made using a drone, flowing across water and miles of land with crops and flowers
– visually beautiful shots
– large truck, black smoke, electronic systems build over the natural world to make roads and garbage disposals
– giant connect pillions that carry electricity and holds the wires that the internet and electricity goes through
– power station throwing out gas into the natural world
– unnatural gases coming out of these stations
– roads and pathways being built over the natural world, confining it
– construction building, moving around dirt and remoulding it to suit people
– mass construction
– explosions
– amazing shots make it look almost sad that the natural world is slowly being taken away to make room for the urbanised society that we live in
– people on a beach next to a large construction site
-tourists coming to see these buildings
– skyscrapers are so tall, reflection of the clouds in them
– plane out of focus, blurred moving as if staring from a reflection in the ocean or showing the fuel that is used for planes that infects the air [pollution]
– you could make a photo book out of the shots made in this short film, it’s almost poetic
– the film is more effective as it makes you focus on one thing for an extended length of time, making you focus on the little details and think more about what we are doing to the natural world
– highways, hundreds of thousands of cars using fuel and polluting the earth. people don’t use their legs anymore because it isn’t convenient
– war, explosions, people dying and nature suffering, cluster bombs
– intense explosions constantly in nature while tall building and cities are doing just fine
– buildings are all geometric shapes, perfectly constructed and lined while nature is suffering and being abused and ignored
– rubbish and destruction everywhere
– people living in dirt and human waste
– mistreated
– dirty and disgusting
– repetition of buildings, cars etc
– everything in nature is different and unique in its own beautiful way whereas urban society looks all the same
– tall, ugly buildings
– smashed windows, destruction
– emphasis on how the urbanised world is mistreated and a waste of space
– constant destruction and being blown up, remoulded and changed to suit people
– formation of the clouds is dull and gloomy
– seeing the destruction of the buildings made me feel more on edge, it was horrible to watch. made me more tense
– so unnatural and everything looks the same
– floods of people, in masses walking around
–  people looking into the camera stood in front of machines that people made, fast pace trains, large plane with pilot staring into carema
– huge lights and cameras behind a group of women staring into the camera
– sun setting through the reflection of windows of a huge building

Erik Johansson is a photographer from Sweden. He currently lives in Prague, Czech Republic and Sweden. Johansson’s goal in his photographs is to make them look as real as possible. A lot of Johansson’s work focuses on the environment and he also focuses on his editing, making images look surreal and stand out. I find his images look very fictional and are really well executed and most look very realistic with few looking a bit more animated. I find some of his work looks almost too perfect for it to actually be real but I guess that is the point of surrealism photography, it isn’t supposed to show reality. I like that his work comes from a vision that he has created.

Erik Johansson website: http://www.erikjohanssonphoto.com

I do like the work of Johansson and find it really brilliant the way that he edits his images to make them look almost like paintings. I like his style of creating new and strange photographs that don’t really make much sense but when looked at for long enough the meaning behind most of the images becomes clearer. I like that a lot of his focus is on the environment and shows how the human race treats its natural environment, which is something that I want to focus on in my own project. I find that he has some good images and then some amazing images that really show political views and are so powerful compared to some of his others.

This image is so powerful to me. I chose it because it really did stand out to me. It reminds me of how people will cover things up and choose to ignore it in the hopes that it will go away. However, climate change is something that is so prominent in every part of the world with 2015 being the hottest year on record. People don’t want to change their ways and so will just keep it up and try to overlook what is really happening to our natural world. I love this image as it really does embody this and speaks volumes of how we are as a human race. We tend to pretend that everything is fine and stay inside our bubbles without caring about anyone else or the world that we live in because it’s likely to not effect us. I loathe that people think this way and find this image so true and real to what people are actually like. I like the outfit that the model in the image as wearing as he looks like a normal person in his back garden trying to paint his fence or something.

I picked this image next as it goes well with the one above and how it shows climate change. I really like this image as it shows how people are trying to cover it up again and trying to, not fix it but to hide it away so that no one will notice or so that we don’t have to think about the damage that the human race has actually done to the natural world. This image is very artistic and looks almost like a painting. I like the position of the model as she stitches up the ruins that humans have done to the natural environment. This image really embodies what global warming is doing to our natural world and how badly the human race has affected the natural world too. I find this image really interesting and think it makes a huge impact on its spectators, which is something that I want to portray through my own images.

This image is strange and I don’t really get it but I like it. It really is a surrealist image and somehow it is really interesting. I wonder about how the subject is walking through his house from his kitchen through to his bedroom, as you can see through the little details on the floor. I like that the kitchen has that checked floor, which people often associate with a kitchen in a restaurant and so would easily be able to identify that as the subjects kitchen and then the little lamp next to the other door with little pictures and details on the door itself tells us that the room he is heading too is more personalised and most likely his room as he is also in his pyjamas/robe taking a hot drink with him to bed. I don’t quite understand why there is a landscape in the background, as if the man’s house is taking over that natural land and possibly how people are constantly building on top of the natural world. I really like this image anyway as it makes a normal/boring landscape image a whole lot more interesting and intriguing raising questions in the spectators minds making them want to figure out the meaning and what is going on in the image. I really like this as a surrealist image and the idea of making a landscape image more interesting, this is something I want to do in my own work incorporating different layers to make it more interesting for my spectator to look at.

Brian Oldham is a fine art photographer, born in Southern California and is 22 years old. He is currently living and working near Los Angeles. In most of his images Oldham becomes the subject and makes unique surrealist images. I really like Oldham’s style as it really is unique as well as fitting right into the realm of surrealism photographers. His work stands out and he freely experiments with different ways of photographing, which is something that I admire. His work is also very political and has clear messages that really make his work that much more interesting and captivating.

“My passion for creating blossomed at a young age as I experimented with self-portrature, and taught myself how to create freely. I make art to replace the words I cannot fathom; each thread holding a love for all things strange and beautiful. I strive to bring life to the quiet whispers at the back of my mind, to make whole the ghosts of my experiences.” – Brian Oldham

Brian Oldham website: http://brianoldham.format.com/#1

I really love the work of Brian Oldham and have previously looked at his work back in summer while finding inspiration for my performance photography experiments. I find that surrealism photography is often the most exciting, it brings to light the struggles that people are going through and shows the inner workings of photographers brains. I like that it brings out the weird and unusual as so many people tend to conform and just do what they are told and taught to believe in certain things, whereas surrealism challenges that and is so creatives and expressive. I find Oldham’s work so captivating to look at and I like to try and figure out how he made some of his images and how brilliant they are. With Oldham’s work he uses a lot of nature and the natural world which is common for surrealism photographers and something that I find really interesting and want to use within my own project.

Image Analysis

When having a look through some of Oldham’s work I came across a new project that he is in the process of creating that really stood out to me. This particular image is almost like a dig at the Catholic Church on how they do not accept gay people or gay marriage. I love that he has made this image and is making a series based upon this entitled ‘”For the Bible Tells Me So”‘. I love this as it is so true with religion that people often follow it without thinking for themselves and some tend to just passively accept this yet those that are ‘different’ or those people that don’t quite agree or fit in with the general expectations are thrown out and abandoned. I love the quote on the side of this image as it really tells a strong message with the image of Oldham being covered in blood. I feel that this image is powerful and actually quite a risky one. The topic of religion is so controversial and can be a really touchy subject for many people but that doesn’t seem to phase Oldham as he has a clear, strong message that he wants to get across. I love that his work is so politically driven and that he thinks deeper than many others. He wants to make a change in how we as  a society see one another and how we see gay people. The entire miss-en-scene of the photograph is just perfect with the almost halo light circle around his head as well as the subjects blank facial expression. This body of work is really powerful and it really does stand out to me as a excellent piece of artwork. I think that in this image the subject is naked as it shows vulnerability and that it is about the blood falling down his body rather than any sort of clothing that he is wearing. It also makes sense with the quote stating that “If a man lies with a man as he lies with a woman”. It’s as though he has been found while with a man and that he has the blood of the other man all over his body. I think that this image is so powerful and quite risky, which is something that will really stand out. It makes me want to find out more and to see the rest of the images that he creates for this particular project.

I chose this image because it made me think about how he edited it together. My guess is that he made an image of himself jumping in the air and positioned himself that way and in editing he turned the image upside down and turned it black and white. This image really interests me as it is as though he is falling out of the sky and bracing himself for when he hits the ground. I like the simplicity of having just a plain grey background as it allows the spectator to solely focus in on the subject rather than whatever is going on in the background of the image. This image could really mean anything and he could just be floating in the air. I like that the subject is centred in the middle of the square image, he stands out much more against the plain background too. Some part of me feels that this photograph shows conflicting views in his own head and it is sending him spiralling, which is why he is covering his face. The way he covers his face looks almost as if he was sitting that way and trying to take everything in until he was flung into the sky. Oldham’s work often features someone being suspend in the air and almost like they are floating.

This image interests me. The title of this project is ‘Pixels’ and is a work in progress. I like this idea of distorting someones face, it makes it more intriguing for the spectator making them want to find out more about who the person is and what they actually looks like. It brings together the digital age with reality and mixes them together by the distortion of their body and face. It is interesting to see these two image alongside one another, one being completely in focus where the spectator is able to see the subject with the other image being completely pixelated and covered up. I find that these images show how he lives in the real world and how in the digital world he becomes a load of pixels or how his identity doesn’t really matter in the digital world.

Christopher McKenney is a photographer of conceptual art and is from Pennsylvania. He specialises in horror surrealist photography. He also does live concert photography. I really like McKenney’s unique and strange style as it stands out and is really in your face photography. McKenney’s surrealist work creates a sense of dystopia and brings the spectator into a scary, more undesirable world with blood, cloaks and seemingly possessed souls. His work ranges from burning people to self-made ‘ghosts’ covered in blankets. McKenney started making photographs back in 2012 where he first found himself in the woods with a sheet, chair and a frame.

“I like taking away identity when photographing and to leave people thinking. I only make the photos I do to express myself and what other people see or think is up to them, as long as I make them feel anything I’m ok with that.” – Christopher McKenney

Christopher Mckenney website: http://www.christophermckenney.com

Originally when looking for surrealist photographers, I came across McKenney’s and really found them interesting. Back in the summer I took inspiration from this photographer and made my own surrealist images in the woods using a sheet to cover up the body of the model in the images. I found this really fun and different and something that I want to maintain and bring back to in my exam as a key project. McKenney’s work is unusual and, unlike most surrealism photographers work, his work is based on horror and he tends to make more dystopian images. I really like that his work is not something you would expect to see from surrealism photographers and he makes his images for himself and has his own meaning behind them. His images are so different and he allows the spectator to make their own interpretations on what is going on in the images.

This image stood out most to me. It’s a really in your face image that strikes its spectators straight away. I find it so interesting. The story that I create by looking at this image is that possibly an American man who works in an office, shown by the creased suit he is wearing, who is giving up and doesn’t want to carry on with his life anymore. It also makes me think of the American dream and how it might not be so perfect and all that it is cracked up to be with this man wanting to end his life. This image is actually quite sad and makes me wonder what went so wrong in the subjects life that he wants to end it. The composition of this image is also strong as the subject is right in the centre of the image with an equal amount of water beneath him with his reflection being shown clearly. I love McKenney’s work as it is so strange yet thought provoking making me want to find out more about him as a photographer and look at more of his work. To me the gun represents the pressure placed on many people to be successful making the subject feel extremely pressured and out of his depth, which is symbolises in with the water being up to his waist. The background looks dull and gives a more chilling atmosphere to add to the main prop of the gun in the image. I feel that this image is a great visual representation of how people may actually feel and does really embody the style of surrealism photography. Also, the reflection of the subject in the water adds more to the image and makes it that much more captivating, as if the subject could be staring through the flag that is tightly wrapped around his head and staring at his own reflection.

I chose this image next as I thought it linked with the previous one with the American flag.  I really like this image as it is unusual and looks almost as if a ghost is wondering around wearing a sheet. This style of pretending to be a ghost and wearing a sheet has been around for so long with little children dressing up that way for halloween. This images brings a twist to this halloween tradition as beneath the sheet/flag there isn’t a body and it looks as if possibly it is a real ghost with the body being invisible to its spectators. I find this image interesting and want to take inspiration from this for my own work on experimenting with how I edit my photographs and to try and use more unique and different styles of photography. This image is captivating as it is so strange and leaves the spectator guessing as to how the image was made and the message that is being brought across. Something that I also noticed has that the subjects hand is on his heart, which is something people do when their national anthem comes on as a sign of solidarity and being patriotic towards their country. I also think that the detail of this is evident with the American flag being what the subject is hiding under. I find it common in surrealism work for the subjects face to not be a prominent aspect of it and that is usually covered up, which is also show in the work of McKenney where you very rarely see the face of a subject.

I chose this image as I felt the colour of the red went well with the images above. I wanted to analyse this image because the red of the grass is so bizarre and something that you would never ever see normally. I like this as a surrealism image as it is odd and is interesting to look at. It makes me wonder why the person’s arm is spread across the middle of the image almost going all the way across. It makes me want to find out more about the person and why they are in that position. It could be the blood of people who have died either in battle or just in general and the arm represents the human form giving a hint to spectators that the colour red in the grass is actually symbolic of blood. I feel that this is the meaning behind this image as McKenney does specialise in horror surrealism so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was that. I find this image more simplistic than a lot of his images and doesn’t really need much work in terms of props and models as it is just one person’s arm and the red grass could have easily been changed while editing, possibly in PhotoShop.

 

After looking at the exam booklet I think that I have figured out what I want to focus on. I don’t want to do the same stuff that I have been doing for the personal study as I want to experiment and show different skills through editing and making images. I have looked into Surrealism photographers work and want to follow this path too as it is so unique and interesting to me. I have analysed their work, which has helped me to gain some inspiration for my own work. For this project I will be focusing on the environment and how our society has changed that and that nature is becoming less and less within our world due to corporate buildings and the rise in pollution. I have a few ideas of what I want to do for this and will start experimenting with these ideas and see whether or not they actually work well. I want to make another photo book as I feel that the image ideas that I have will look better in a photo book altogether to tell a larger story with different styles and techniques used in my photographs. I really want my work to stand out and be different, I want it to reflect surrealism photography as well as incorporating landscape photography. I want to experiment with different techniques, shapes and layers. This will be an interesting experiment and I think that it will make a good photo book.

 

Surrealism photography is known as a new form of reality and is heavily influenced by dreams. This is the world that we create in our minds, often we come up with these ideas when we are sleeping when we have no control over and often don’t make any sense. Surrealism is the unconscious mind and a world that we are able to share with others that they would never be able to imagine. The movement of surrealism was created in Paris 1924. There are so many surrealist photographer including Man Ray, Christopher Mckenney, Brian Oldham, Dora Maar and Eric Johansson. I love this style of photography as we are able to express ourselves in new and unusual ways that most people might see as odd yet they become poetic and fascinating to look at. One surrealist photographer that I really love the work of is Christopher Mckenney, it is so unusual and different to many other artists work I’ve seen before. I also really like the work of Brian Oldham as his work too is strange yet fascinating to look at.

Christopher Mckenney website: http://www.christophermckenney.com

Brian Oldham website: http://brianoldham.format.com/#1

Surrealism | My Thoughts

I really like the style of photographs that artists create within surrealism. They are so interesting and unique. I love that we are able to create new worlds and enter new realms that we would usually not be able to conjure up in our own heads. These fantasy worlds are constantly changing and developing bringing in different types of utopia and dystopia into our minds. I love that surrealist worlds can be utopian and something that people aspire to want to be in and think of along with the opposite world of dystopia and how we are able to create imaginary worlds that are undesirable. Through this movement I want to be able to carry on my work created back in the summer and make an effective photo book from it. I want my work to evoke meaning and to generate a sense of intrigue with my spectators. I feel that surrealism is such a fun movement  and you are really able to create pretty much anything that you want within the photographic world.

 

Tableau photography is also known as narrative photography. It’s a staged set of images that tell a story to the spectator. Famous photographers include Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson. I really like the idea of tableau photographs as through this you are able to create photos that you made up in your head and be able to become a whole new persona. This really interests me and I really like the style and work of many tableau photographers as well as many surrealism photographers. Through tableau photography we are able to tell new and interesting stories, either ones that are already around like myths, films or fairy tales or we can create new worlds and bring new ideas to life. I like to focus my own staged photographic work on movements such as feminism and show the stereotypes that are faced with women. I feel that tableau really benefits movements and photographers are able to express political messages that they feel strongly about.

Cindy Sherman website: http://www.cindysherman.com

Gregory Crewdson website: http://www.gagosian.com/artists/gregory-crewdson

Tableau | My Thoughts 

I love tableau photography and find it so interesting, especially from artists such as Cindy Sherman. Tableau photography allows photographers to generate a sense of narrative and gives them the opportunity to tell a story about anything they please. I feel that they are able to become new personas and create new and interesting tales. This style is very thought provoking and I feel that photographers are able to incorporate movements within their work. I want my work to provoke change and to change my spectators view on the world and make them want to make a difference. There is always opportunity within the photographic world to make something new and exciting. I feel that so many photographers are able to freely express themselves through their work and successfully stage their images to create unique and interesting images.

Documentary photography is what I see as true photography and is supposed to be series of images that tell a true tale about certain individuals lives. It is a way of putting aspects of different peoples lives on record and maintaining them in photographs. Documentary photography portrays real lives and brings to light some important issues that faces our society and those living in other countries. Journalists are some of the users of documentary photography as their work is seen as factual and there is also a code of conduct that journalists go through to ensure that they are telling the truth. I really enjoy seeing documentary photography as it speaks volumes to actually see how the rest of the world is and what people are going through and comparing it to my own life and privilege. I love the documentary work of so many photographers and have recently discovered the work of Andrea Bruce who makes some really interesting photographs. Much like the extraordinary work of James Nachtwey whose work is truly moving.

Andrea Bruce website: http://www.andreabruce.com

James Nachtwey website: http://www.jamesnachtwey.com

Documentary | My Thoughts

I feel that documentary photography is really important as it shows people in different parts of the world what is going on elsewhere. I find it so important in news and maintaining to true stories and sharing peoples extraordinary lives. I feel that documentary photography speaks volumes when done in the right way and shows the world hard-hitting issues of the world and allows spectators to make change and to think more openly. I think that I will take inspiration from the realm of documentary photography and the idea of truth telling. I want to use this in my own work and show my spectators the reality of what society is like and how it is effective everyone within it. I find that documentary photography can be so powerful and really make a difference in the world provoking change and making spectators want to find out more and to make a proper change to help those less in need and to change the way we work as societies, governments and policies.