My third shoot is based on the same thing as the second shoot, however it will be shot in a different location. The third shoot will take place in St Brelade’s in the woodland area on the left side of the bay. I have decided to take images in this location to create more variety of images for my London connection photographer, this way it is easier to respond to the images that I have taken.

In my previous year in AS level photography we were given the task to present images based on 100 years of history in Jersey through a teenagers eyes. My focus on this topic was to create a scenario of  a young gambler. This is something that I would like to continue in my A level photography, however this time the images will be taken in the outside environment showing the islands natural beauty. The use of wearing typical gambling suits and black and white attire is to present the concept that our gambling has an effect on the nature around us. This links to larger problems of global warming and how we are causing this problem as man.

My plan was to take the images for my second shoot around the lanes of St Lawrence, a relatively un photographed area of natural beauty in the island. St Lawrence is filled with small country lanes and fields that present the opportunity for me to place my subject into the environment. I will be using black and white filter to present the images to make the subject stand out in the environment, also it follows the images created by artist I have made references to previously.

To create the effect of a side by side response I have sent a message to a UK resident in London to respond making his own version of the image but in his living environment. This also portrays how our gamble of construction has become in previous years showing how London looks compared to the natural beauty of the countryside. However if this plan does not work I will take similar images in St Helier to present the same idea.

Environmental portraits are a very involved type of portraiture that is a very slow and methodical process requiring interviews and understanding of who the person is. In the end, it requires the photographer to deliver a product that tells something specific about who the subject is.

Jonathan Bielaski has been doing this for years, and knew that he wanted to be a photographer from a very young age. He is based in Toronto, Canada and some of his clients include, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and TFC), Sports Illustrated, Billboard Magazine, T+D Magazine, Bard Valley Dates, California Peach and Pear Growers, Home Depot, Lucas Oil, Hydro One, Ontario Pork, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, University of Waterloo, Sheridan, Laurier and the list goes on.

Bielaski said about his own life, ‘When I started out in photography I did not enjoy making portraits and was attracted to still life photography, I now know that it was my attraction to lighting and with shooting these types of images I could master light and its effects. But something was missing–when I was photographing custom motorcycles and custom made products the story about the makers became a huge interest to me. Who they were and where they lived or worked fascinated me. I wanted to capture them in their workspace. People have a story as well as their space, together they complete a visual story and you can capture who they are and what they do in a signal frame’.

I have focused on some of the work that is created by Bielaski because in my opinion it is easy to depict that the subject of focus is a type of environment, I have analysed his work to gain a greater understanding of the concept, environment. Bielaski is a perfect example of someone who captures work environments. In my study I would like to focus on the opposite of working, using the concept of leisure.

This image shows a man in his working environment, from the image we can clearly outline his occupation that is a printer and painter. The image was taken using a high quality film camera in order to pick out the vibrant display around the room. Bielaski uses the rule of 3 to make his images stand out. For example this image is sectioned into a left, middle and right side. On the left we can see the practitioner himself, middle being his working tools and the right being his working station. It is clear that this man is at work due to the way the image is presented. It is often found that the subjects of Bielaski images are found on the left or right side of the image, not often central. This gives a wider display of what is going on around the working environment.

One of Bielaski’s main inspirations is Benrd and Hilla Becher, this is because he believes that the ism they focused on was important to how photography has shaped itself today. Again it is clear that Bielaski uses typography to present his images since all of the images he creates are based around the same thing being working environments. Similar to the above picture this image shows a man in his working environment, however the man does not look so content with his job. The image below shows a happy man. This could be the concept of how content people are with their working environment.

Please Check Exam dates class lists here. For those of you who have extra time – check when this has been allocated.

A2 Photography Exam 2017

FINAL PRINTS DATES:
Select your final images for both EXAM and COURSEWORK (if you haven’t completed this already)

Wed 3 May 13:00
– those sitting exam Tue 2, Wed 3, Mon 8 May

Thurs 4 May 15:00
– those sitting exam Thurs 4, Fri 5 and Wed 10 May

You must make sure you have uploaded prints, saved as your name and in a high resolution (Min 3000 pixels) in the folders on Image Transfer

Rooming during AS Photography Exams: 24^th April – 28^th April

Mon 24^th April:

Pd 2 (yr 13D) go to ICT 7

Pd 4 (yr 13A) go to ICT 7

Pd 5 (yr 13B) go to Media

Tue 25^th April:

Pd 1 (yr 13B) go to Media

Pd 3 (yr 13D) go to LRC

Pd 5 (yr 13A) go to ICT 6

Wed 26th April: All lessons in normal classroom

Thurs 27^th April:

Pd 2 (yr 13A) go to Media

Pd 3 (yr 13B) go to LRC

Pd 5 (yr 13D) go to LRC

Fri 28^th April:   

Pd 1 (yr 13D) go to Media

Pd 3 (yr 13A) go to LRC

Pd 4 (yr 13B) go to Media

Tue 2 May

Pd 1 (yr13B) go to Media

Wed 3 May

Pd 2  (yr13B) go to Media

In terms of refinement of my images, I have been consistent in editing my photos in a monotone colour scheme, accompanied by a high contrast and low use of highlights.

I made the decision to stray from the use of colour, in order to focus the viewers attention to the subject of my photograph, as apposed to beautiful colours or surroundings, although the surrounding or environment itself is highly important, I am trying to present the impression that the subject is the environment. The people I am with and the activities I engage in become my environment and essentially we could be anywhere, as long as the people were those that are photographed.

I decided to begin with experimenting with movement with my woodland den. I thought this would be the best one to begin with as under the tree’s there was less light then with some of my other dens during the day and i assumed that over exposure was going to be a problem with such a slow shutter speed. I actually really like the slight over exposure in the images as it makes them appear less realistic and more in the realms of fantasy. It took quite a while to be able to balance the light levels with the aperture and shutter speed as even with the trees casting shadows the light levels were still very high with the slow shutter speed. I then got my model to walk up and down within the frame of the camera. Throughout the images below we experimented with different speeds of walking to create different effects with the shutter speed. I composed the framing of the images to have the den right in the center of the frame and then the figure is flittting around the frame. The light spills into the image mainly from the right hand side and this is predominately the side of the image in which light is coming from. 

These first two images experiment with the subject moving quite quickly through the frame. Therefore the subject is very blurred to the extent that you can’t tell that it is a definite figure. The first image is composed to have the subject in the right hand corner of the frame, the direction of the movement suggesting the subject is moving inwards towards the center of the frame and towards the den.  As this is the direction in which the light spills it works quite well in looking as if the subject is following the beams of light into the image. In the top image the figure looks more like a person as the shape of the blur maintains the appearance of a head and some sort of arms and legs. 

The below image is composed differently and the subject is moving a lot quicker through the frame. In this image the subject is running towards the light and away from the center of the frame. The blur of the subject is much more extensive and is a lot less suggestive of being a person. You can tell that they are wearing something green and the colour of skin in the blur suggests that the photograph shows the movement of a person. I personally prefer the above image just because it conveys some sort of presence to the blur more so then the image below. While i do want to create mysterious blurs i do what there to be some substance to the photograph. 

All of the rest of the images show my subject walking a lot slower through the frame so you can see the complete outline of the subjects body it is simply blurred in some places to show the movement of these specific body parts. The above image shows the whole figure almost in completeness simply with the arm of the subject and the face of the subject being blurred. I think this works really well in creating the sinister impression that the subject is turning towards the camera to look at you as the viewer. I also really like how the light in this image works, having the light coming from behind the subject and therefore illuminating the back and shoulders of the subject. This intense light on the subject also suggests an eerie ethereal quality. The above image is the most solid of my blurred images, the rest of the photographs descending into more of a blur of movement.

The three images below act almost as a little series of photographs, showing the progressive movements of the subject in and around the den. I think if i use these images they would work really well to be displayed as a trip tic.  

This last image is almost an odd one out as the subject is walking forward and therefore in a completely different direction to the rest of the images. Almost the whole of the figure is blurred in these image and the lighting on the subject is completely different and therefore conveys a different impression. 

Overall i think these images worked really really well as they convey exactly the impression that i wanted them to. They show the presence of people without having a solid presence and this creates an eerie impression to the photographs. 

Clare Rae is the latest photographer to be in Jersey working with the Jersey Archive in order to inform her artistic practice. Her current body of work is inspired by the photographer Claude Cahun and as she lived and produced work in Jersey we have extensive material in the Island on her. Clare Rae is a photographer who explores performance within her practice and therefore i thought she would be a really significant photographer to consider within my project. The process of building my dens is a performance for the camera as i am creating something to be recorded by the camera. I think more significantly my movement photographs are going to be capturing a blurred impression of a performance and therefore i wanted to consider how a performance can be captured within a space. I went to a workshop and talk given by Clare Rae which really really intriguing to consider the nature of performance photography and what exactly that means. 

Clare Rae is an artist based in Melbourne, Australia. She has created many body’s of work, starting from her time at university. I really like how when she was talking about each project she mentioned how they all link together. She began creating work for one reason and then everything she learnt from that project and the inspiration for that project then inform her next body of work and so on. It really conveyed to me how an artistic practice and style of work can grow to become your own unique style as you as a person grow and evolve forward. I think its actually quite hard to define the exact “overview” of Rae’s photography. Her work is basically to go into a space and interject her own body within this environment doing a movement which becomes a performance. She interestingly spoke at the talk about how she only ever uses herself within her work. This stems back to her research on feminist theory at university and how she doesn’t want to impose what she is doing on another person so as to speak for them. She feels that by photographing herself she can convey the message that she wants and is not making someone else conform to the message she wants to present.  This links directly to the main concept of all her bodies of work which is representation. She uses performance and the photographing of gestures to present her own body and her experiences of it. Another reason that Clare uses herself within her work is because of this consideration of the smallest, authentic gestures. It is amazing that none of her photographs have a rigid nature to them, as if the movement is anything but spontaneous and Rae believes this comes from the lack of direction. She knows sort of the movement she is going to make and the pose it will take but when the photograph comes to being taken doesn’t need to consider creating a pose someone has told her to. This is because being both subject and photographer she can translate her concept within her head into her photograph without over analysising being asked to do something very specific. I really love her work for this lack of rigidness to the movements. At the talk Rae was asked about her photographic process in creating her bodies of work. She spoke about how she chooses her locations very carefully to consider light and also space. Her early work in particular explores domestic spaces. Once she has chosen her space Rae then goes to the location to consider the composition of her photograph. She considers what is available within the space to use as a part of her performance and then will take test shots of the lighting and composition to make sure the photograph is going to work. She doesn’t however create the movement until the day that she is actually taking the photograph. This is another way in which she avoids the rigid movements of pre-planned actions as the exact movement while it is considered is not tried out. Rae can then take up to 100 photographs of that same movement on shooting day and will then consider them to find the best movement.

Rae’s most recent work explore producing work within a specific location and then having her work displayed in this location.

One of Rae’s more recent bodies of work was “NGV” which explores the difference between the public and private spaces of the National Gallery of Victoria. In these photographs like all her other’s Rae interjects her body within the space to capture her movement and the form of her body. This work stood out to me to consider as it was her first work which explored a space which wasn’t domesticated in some sense. I think it also really reflects the possibilities of surroundings, which seems to be another key element of her work. To go to a space which is both public and private and then to create movements which would never normally be associated with that space suggests what you can do within a place is not limited to what is expected for you to do. In a public gallery you would never normally hang from the stair case but then what really stops you from doing this? I think Rae’s photographs explore an alternative to how you can treat your surroundings and interact with them as much as to show the representation of self.  I think the fact that many of her poses are completely frozen, almost in suspension of a moment, in the sense that she is hanging and so eventually will come down or balanced on objects which will eventually fall over creates a real tension in her photographs. You look at the images and consider not just the position Rae is in but also how they got to this point and the eventuality of it falling apart.

When speaking about this body of work at the talk Rae mentioned how for the first time her performances had viewers within the room with her. As it is a professional space which deals with precious material she was followed everywhere by a guard who would watch what she was doing to make sure that she didn’t hurt herself or damage anything. This then raised the question to herself of how much this influenced her performance. She spoke about being acutely aware of this guards presence at every point, particularly when climbing the decanter racks as he would continually run forward to catch her when it looked like she was going to fall. It is interesting to think how different actions can be with or without someone watching you. When questions were being asked at the end of the talk the concept of Claude Cahun’s work came up in considering how she created her work for no audience. Her work created in Jersey was never exhibited in her lifetime, she created her photographs almost only for herself and her partner. Had she known her work was to be exhibited it would have influenced the outcomes as she would have had a notion of how others were going to perceive the work. This becomes the difference between how in Clare Rae’s work she is doing the action for the camera and the camera becomes the witness to her act. She knows that the poses she makes are to be seen by others through the camera capturing the act. She is making the work to be seen. Whereas with Cahun her work doesn’t seem to have been produced with this notion exclusively in mind.
With Raes work if the  performance  is to be seen by an audience who are not present, some form of documentation is necessary; this meaning she utilises the camera as an active participant and collaborator in her process, rather than as a silent observer recording her movements.

Rae created a couple of series of works which explore very similar concepts. “Testing”, “Climbing the walls” and “Tumbler” all explore a specific type of movement within a domestic space. “Testing” is a series of movements which seem to test Rae’s body to become different shapes and stay suspended in these shapes. “Climbing the walls” quite literally seems to show Rae both climbing walls and other objects and “Tumbler” is a stock animation which again explores similar movements. Rae developed at university as part of her practice a way to layer photographs together to create animations which are repetitive and played on a loop. “Tumbler” is one of these animations which explores the layering of hundreds of photographers over each other to creating a moving sequence. Rae says when she displays were animations in public galleries she leaves these animations on a continuous loop so that they become monotonous. I found when watching them that the repetition of movement actually became really hypnotic in causing me to continue to watch the video over and over again.  I really like these series of spaces because of the sparseness of the frame, the minimal composition making the poses themselves the most significant feature.

This last project that i want to consider shows how Rae would take photographs within a specific location and then also show the work in that place. This body of work is called “Magdalen” and explores the site of the Magdalen Asylum, where girls and women were housed at the Abbotsford Convent, whilst working in the laundries downstairs. The asylum was in operation for approximately 100 years until it was decommissioned in the 1970’s. These photographs very much follow the same compositions as Rae’s other work, simply using new spaces and her poses being influenced by the buildings history. Rae did say she was carefully not to completely explore the lives of the women who lived their in her poses. She didn’t feel as if it was her story to tell and instead decided to create movement which showed her impressions of the place as it is now. I feel like the poses she creates in this environment are a lot more dynamic then other movement in her other works and i feel as if its because she is trying to add life and energy back into this space. The space is vast and its minimalism in these photographs appear cold compared to the homely minimalism of the other domestic spaces. I feel like Rae’s poses are to compensate for all this and to give a sense of feeling back into these rooms.

IMAGE ANALYSIS

The above photograph is part of the NGV series and explores the contrast between public and private spaces. This is one of the private spaces in which the paintings are stored within these decanter racks to be protected. The photograph is composed according to the rule of thirds. Rae is positioned to the right hand side of the frame, hanging from the decanter. I think this photograph is very cleverly composed to suggest movement as the position of Rae’s body being at a downward angle hanging off the decanter suggests the movement of her having pulled it out from among the rest. We can see in the photograph that this decanted is extended out while the others are still tucked away and the composition of the photograph gives the impression that she has pulled out the decanter by running and jumping on it leaning backwards. This is suggested by the dynamic nature of her pose. Many of her movements in other works are more docile but in this piece the unbalanced nature of her pose, leaning backwards powerfully resting on legs and hands which are at different levels suggests the application of power and force. The structure of the decanter itself is positioned so that the line of  the end of it exactly divides the photograph into the third quarter of the third of the frame, Rae then being in the end third. As with all her other compositions the photograph is very minimal, the colour scheme being all whites and grey’s and the lines of the photograph being made up distinctly of straight lines. Rae’s body shape therefore contrasts even further with the surroundings as it is curved compared to the straight lines of the shelves and ceilings. The only colour within the frame also comes from the green skirt that Rae wears. Within her talk Rae spoke about wearing this skirt in many of her pieces of work as it allows a lot of movement and also records movement well. The way her skirt is hanging down also suggests the gravity of the pose.

This is one of Rae’s earliest pieces of work and shows the beginning of how her compositions began. The main composition of this work is to consider how the curve of the body of Rae is contrasting with the straight lines of the rest of the composition. The body is composed to be in the very center of the frame. The body looks as if it is spilling out the door frame into the room. This impression gives more of an appearance that the body is in a sense a material or more fluid as it “spills”. I think it is that the body’s position has connotations of being more than a body, more like a substance that in entering the room. The lighting in the photograph comes from the window which is seen within the frame. The light shines directly onto the body and the floor around the body. This light shinning onto the face of the body emphasizes the body’s form and its outline. The rest of the frame then contrasts with the body as it is composed all of straight lines. The door frame is made up of all straight lines, there is then the lines of the skirting board and the lines of the window. The colours within the frame are then also very complimentary and neutral, bland colours. The brightest colour of the frame is the blues of the wall, the wall contrasting with the browns and whites of the rest of the picture. I think the fact that Rae is also wearing white clothes goes back to the idea that the body doesn’t appear like a person but more an object spilling into the room. The white clothes add to this impression as they paint her as a white canvas.

MY OWN INTERPRETATIONS

These first two images are an experimentation of self portraiture in the style of Rae. One of the things which seems to be common in her photographs is an extension of the body which is what i have tried to achieve in these photographs. I composed both fairly classically as her photographs have quite a traditional style to them. Both images work quite well in having a contrast between the curves of the body and the straight lines of the environment. 

The above photograph was more of an experimentation with capturing a dynamic movement. Rae’s photographs look in many of them as if the subject has merely frozen in their action and i wanted to take a photograph which reflected this. I composed this image according to the rule of thirds, again having a contrast between the straight lines of buildings and the pole with the curved form of the body. I quite like this position in conveying tension in the figures form aswell. 

These last two images simply explore existing within a space. We choose an elevator and decided to have the subject facing away as the image wasn’t so much about the person as an individual but more having a body within a location. 

Alexey Titarenko is a really intriguing and inspiring photographer. He took my favourite style of photography which is street photography and turned it into a completely otherworldly experience of an image. His distinct photographic style makes his work instantly identifiable as he uses an incredibly slow shutter speed so that people’s movements become a blur. This is such an interesting concept as street photography is all about capturing individual, key moments of peoples lives while Titarenko’s work gives us everybody and yet nobody’s story all at once. I am goign to be taking inspiration from his work to consider taking some photographs of blurry movement of people. I want to suggest the presence of people within my photo book but without having solid figures. I think this will add to the eerie and dreamlike quality of my project. I think it works quite well to have no people within my den photographs as the absence of people is then heavily noticed. This way by using Titarenko’s form of photography i can include people but keep them mysterious. 

His work is very political as he created the majority of his photographs in Russia after the collapse of the USSR when people had been seriously influenced by Socialism. He mainly photographed St Petersburg but he has also created work in Havana and Venice. He is an incredible individual as he chose to become an artists in a time and place where artists who didn’t produce propaganda work for the government were repressed. He only has one body of work called “Nomenklatura of signs” that he created under socialism in the USSR, the rest of his work explores the effects of this time period afterwards. Even one body of work however is an incredible achievement as it was displayed in a solo exhibition in 1988. He was lucky that he only began to produce work under Gorbachev who had a lot more relaxed views on culture and the arts than Khrushchev or Brezhnev.

“Through the prism of my native city, I attempt to show events that occurred not only here, but throughout the country – the changes, the catastrophes, and the human tragedies, which have swept this city and the people of this land.” – Alexey Titarenko

He wanted his work to reflect the human condition of these individuals living under oppression and how they were forced to assume one identity under communism. His photographs portray a real sense of uncertainty due to the lack of solidity and this dehumanizes the people in the images. This links so directly to communist oppression in Russia where people were expected to have one identity which matched everyone else’s identity; being a committed communist. His images present a lack of an actual person behind the shadowy blur and a real sense of living and going through the movements of life for the sake of it.The figures appear fragile and ghostly as if from the past as they have no solid presence in the image and so appear to have no solid presence in the present. This is exactly the metaphor I think Titarenko wanted his images to display as they show a link between the people after the collapse of the USSR going about their daily lives still being so effected by their past it is as if they are the past. The images show a transition of movement in a time where the people themselves are going through a transition of discarding old values and stumbling into new ones. Time seems to be moving all at once and yet is frozen, his images really causing a person to reflect on their own life. It caused me to question all the everyday movements and journeys i make, where to so many people i am simply another blur walking past them on their own journey.

The below video is the first of a series of video in which Titarenko takes us on a day photographing around his home town and really shares what it means to him to be a photographer. These videos are hugely insightful in getting to know the person behind the lens which in these images is so significant.  Titarenko wants to reflect the history of his home town St Petersburg and the history it shares with the rest of Russia in his images. He talks about how walking around the city, alley ways or a courtyards will suddenly strike him from a childhood memory and he know he needs to create an image of that place. The places he takes his images touch him form the past and it is this connection which gauges to him the authenticity of his photographs. To an extent he see St. Petersburg as a city whose soul hasn’t changed, only the people.

I chose Alexy Titarenko as a relevant artists research as i wanted to add a sinister element to my dens and the show shutter speed makes people appear as ghosts. I though this could be quite an interesting concept to play around with having fragments of people moving around my dens. 

IMAGE ANALYSIS

The above image is my favourite photograph of Titarenko’s and is probably also his most famous. The image is taken in St Petersburg as people go up and down the staircase. The composition of the image is really clever as it uses angles of harsh lines but these are softened by the lines ending in curves. The whole image feels very surreal and has a lack of presence almost in the lack of people and yet the reality of so many people. The grey and white blur really breaks up the straight lines of the background filled with buildings and the straight lines of the steps as it is just a mess of shadows.The barrier of the staircase stands out really prominently in the image as the grey blur of people really separates the background from the foreground. The barrier appears really solid as if it roots the photograph in time and place  compared to the blur of life behind it. I really like the phantom hands which are placed along the barrier where someone has rested their hand for a while as walking. They are the only distinguishable factors which show that the mass is the movements of humans. The whole images feels very detached and it is only the barrier which really cements the image. The photograph feels really fragile and brings to mind the word “wispy”, the people appearing as whispers of smoke and whispers of who they are in reality. The idea of the people being presented as ghosts creates a really morbid feel to the image which is only intensified by the black and white of the image. The image is very dark with the background receding into darkness and heavy shadows in the foreground. The lack of any people in the immediate foreground in front of the barrier gives a sense that the place is deserted and yet in reality there are so many people. I think Titarenko’s photograph perfectly captures the human condition of the people in Russia. They are living life which seems fragile and easily wafted away after years of oppression and so it is almost as if they are tip toeing around their lives not wanting to draw too much attention. They also seem like the ghost of the people they could have been, as they have become different people to who they wouldn’t have been without communism.

The above image is more ghost like than the other image as it only includes two figures and probably had  a slightly faster shutter speed. This means that the figures are more clearly distinguishable as people rather than a mass of grey movement. I think the colour in the above image is key in establishing the ghost like impression. Both the girls are wearing white dresses which fits with the idea of stereotypical ghosts being dressed in white. The slow shutter speed has also created an element of translucency to the figures and so in parts they are see though to the street behind. The idea that they are ghosts is heightened even further by how there is a man in the background who doesn’t appear as the forefront figures do and the contrast between the two makes the figures seem other worldly. The straight lines of the image, the buildings,the pavement also emphasizes further how the figures lack in a shape. They are made up of “wisps” of shapes especially their dresses which fade into nothing. I think the fact that the image is taken from behind the girls is also very powerful. It is almost as if these pure white girls have turned their backs on society and the idea of communism. They are walking away from that ideology and to something new, something more solid maybe.