A Certain Walk – Jersey Art Centre Exhibition

On Thursday the 12th January I visited the Jersey Arts Centre.  The Arts centre focuses on promoting and encourage the development of art.  Their website says they aim to:

  • “To enrich the quality of life for all residents and visitors
  • To encourage participation in the performing, visual and literary arts
  • To educate, inspire and to encourage debate”

The exhibition, known as: “Climate State of Emergency” in association with Alliance Francaise builds upon the theme of how climate change impacts different people in different parts of the world.  The exhibition was responding to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.

The exhibition portrays the serious dangers of climate change exposing the level of truth despite endless politicians burying and therefore prolonging the issues that have already arisen.  This exhibition successfully points out to us of ho climate change has got so bad that it cannot be an issue that is simply swept under the rug for another 50 years.  In this sense it is somewhat a form of protest for the lack of things being done with the issue and how it harms everyone on an international level.

Image result for jersey Arts centre jersey

My favorite photographs:

DSC07109

What I like about these photographs:

  • Tells impact of man’s actions
  • Sad/distressing
  • Lack of life – nervous

DSC07110

What I like about these photographs:

  • Serious/crisis level, impacts us all
  • Strong contrast
  • An issue we cannot ignore

DSC07111

What I like about these photographs:

  • World is suffering
  • Little amount of colour stands out
  • Tells a story
  • Feeling of abandonment from a once happy place

DSC07114

What I like about this photograph:

  • Appears toxic
  • Dark levels, appears dangerous to go near
  • Quite dirty
  • Colour projected

DSC07115

What I like about these photographs:

  • Lots texture
  • Taken on Macro to pick out detail
  • Appears quite painful

New Topographics

Today, I experimented further with the New Topographics movement by updating my knowledge and understanding of it; refreshing my memory then taking a trip out in the playground/car park of the school as I was aware this had many opportunities for me to capture the ugliness and dullness of the mess which is hidden behind the school but attempt to find it’s indirect, inner beauty.

CS NT 1 CS NT 2This shoot focuses particularly on the nuts on bolts of New Topography – capturing imagery of the man-altered landscapes of our world – landscapes which have no direct beauty or meaning to them, including objects like bins, glass bottles, broken fences and graffiti. I wanted it to be the simplicity of the each image, in the way it was taken that provokes the thoughts of viewers.

I took all of these images of my iPhone 6S and what I wished to achieve was a photographic contrast between natural landscapes and man-made features obstructing the beauty of them or perhaps vice versa – the natural landscapes adding another perspective to the inanimate, lifeless man-made features. The not-so-great quality of my iPhone camera compared to that of a professional Canon adds to the effect of dullness that is received on this windy and miserable day.

Romanticism, Abstract and Panoramic Photography

My Romanticism photography heavily includes photographs which include emotions within them, capturing a strong sense of beauty and awe.  To do this, I have incorporated a sense of abstraction by building upon certain techniques and compositions such as: striking light forms, colour, pattern, texture, reflections, contrasting emotions, patterns  and shadows.  By doing this my photographs not only capture beauty, they almost appear slightly unrealistic, unusual and exaggerated in terms of the raw essence of the landscape strongly embedding in elements of Abstraction.

ContactSheet-001 ContactSheet-002 ContactSheet-003 ContactSheet-004 ContactSheet-005 ContactSheet-006 ContactSheet-007 ContactSheet-008 ContactSheet-009 ContactSheet-010 ContactSheet-011 ContactSheet-012 ContactSheet-013 ContactSheet-014 ContactSheet-015 ContactSheet-016 ContactSheet-017 ContactSheet-018 ContactSheet-019

ContactSheet-001 ContactSheet-002 ContactSheet-003 ContactSheet-004 ContactSheet-005 ContactSheet-006

Furthermore, I took some panoramic photographs of the landscape.  I believe I successfully captured the area around me and of the area far away and in the distance depicting beautiful landscapes in various locations

Best Photographs

 

Certain Walk

On the way to the Art Center for the Climate Change Exhibition, we had to take twelve images of the Landscape that we walked past. As we were walking through town the landscape that we saw was Urban Landscape, and therefore I mostly decided to capture the buildings. Here are the twelve images I took.

certain-walk

Here are a few edits of the images that I took on the certain walk. I mostly chose to edit them into black and white because it defines the shadows within the image, and helps highlight the light areas.

certain walk edits

Climate, State of Emergency-Exhibition

On Tuesday 10th January, we visited the Art Center where they were having an exhibition of an International Photo Competition from 2015. The exhibition was done by the Alliance Francaise Foundation.  It contained a selection of images from varies photographers that submitted  work into the competition. Each photographer looked at a very different concept of climate change.

An amateur photographer called Antonio Ponciano, who is 27 years old, focused on an aspect based on the New Topography ideas. He captured the realistic and true view of climate change, and how it effected the lives of people.  He took both these images in Peru. I really like the photos by Antonio, because he has not manipulated the situation, he has simply captured the truth of what climate change has done. I also really like how he has edited the images into black and white, because it makes the tones stand out more, and creates more contrast.

img_0883
Sobre el agua-2015-Peru
img_0884
Campamento damnificados-2015-Peru

 

An Amateur photographer called Somennah Mukhopadyay, aged 47 years old, used juxtaposition in his chosen images.  Like Antonio, Somennah focus’ on the way climate change effects the lives of people.  However instead of focusing on Peru, he has chosen India. The main connotations when I think of India is bright colours, and this goes with the style of this photographer because his images are full of colour. The first image from Somennah’s selection shows drought created by climate change. The second image shows the flooding caused by climate change. They are both very different aspects, but both show the problems that many people face.

img_0891
Carrying the Burden-2013-India
img_0892
On the Water’s Edge-2014-India

A photographer called Rodrigo Eduardo Marta Moctezuma, aged 35 years old, submitted photos for the competition taken in Mexico.  Unlike the other two photographers  who focused on the effect Climate change has on people, he chose to focus more on the Landscape. Rodrigo’s style is very romanticized with the warm colours of the orange sunset  being in the focus of the images. Both these images are very slimier with the flat landscape in the foreground, and the mountains in the background. It creates a sense of depth. Although the images are in the style of Romanticism, neither of the photos are full of colour, which is why I like these images.  The sky and  the ground are in equal proportions, which creates a natural feel to the photos.  Both these photos focus on the drought caused by climate change. and how it effects the landscape.

img_0894
The Dead Lake-2014-Mexico
img_0893
The Last Drop-2014-Mexico

The image below is my favorite image from the Exhibition because it is  different from all the other images. The other photos in the gallery had a very different perception and view of what they were capturing, where as, with this image, the photographer is looking downwards towards the child. This creates a completely separate way of how you look at the photo. It suddenly creates a dimension that helps you believe you were there when the image was taken. It makes the image more realistic, and with the bright colors and the expression seen on the child’s face, it makes the image have personality.

IMG_0891

Alliance Franchise // Climate State Of Emergency Exhibition // 10.01.17

The Alliance Française is the leading cultural network worldwide, with 1,040 establishments in 136 countries on all five continents. Each year, 450,000 people, of all ages, attend Alliances Françaises to learn French and more than 6 million people participate in their cultural activities. The franchise has organised a  photography competition every year since 2010. The competition aims to highlight the “richness and diversity” of the 800 Alliances Franchise around the world, and to give amateur photographers  the opportunity to display their work to a large audience. The theme selected by the franchise was ‘Climate – State of Emergency’.

The candidates were invited to submit photos which captured the questions posed by the way climate is changing, where they live or the effects resulting from the changes.

img_1620

We went to The Jersey Arts Centre on the 10.01.17 to view the final photos selected by the franchise and chose my favourite images out of the 44 on show.

img_1621

These are my favourite images from the exhibition, along with the name of photograph and the photographer:

img_1598img_1599

Yunjie Zang is an amateur photographer and is 29 years old. He is a teacher and does photography in his spare time.

What I like about this image: 

  • obscure
  • unusual
  • unnerving
  • tells a story
  • provokes thoughts
  • mysterious

img_1600

img_1601

img_1602

David Porteus is a 47 year old amateur photographer, employed at Melbourne Arts Centre in Australia.

What I like about these images:

  • they go together very well
  • metaphor of the toxic danger surrounding us
  •  the bright colour of pink in both images
  • aesthetically pleasing
  • not necessarily focusing on landscapes

img_1603img_1604

Marc Lamey is a 54 year old and is an engineer

What I like about this photo:

  • abstract
  • the motion blur
  • moody atmosphere
  • looking to tell a story

img_1605

Somennath Mukhopadhyay is a 47 year old amateur photographer and is a teacher from India.

What I like about these images:

  • very cultural
  • lots f bright colours
  • very vibrant
  • bases each photo around the life of a  local at the same time as incorporating the them of landscapes and, most important, climate change.


img_1607img_1608

Dipayan Bhar is a 25 year old amateur photographer employed in a service sector in Bengal, India. He is also a member of National Geographic and takes images to submit to the program.

What I like abut this image:

  • he is so young
  • lots of focus points
  • black and white effect can represent that his is how the children within the image see the world
  • reflection of water

img_1609img_1610

A 36 year old amateur photographer, IT engineer from India.

What I like about this image:

  • very minimal
  • aesthetically pleasing
  • representing life where you may not think it existed
  • one focal point

img_1611img_1612

Oniblis Jose Gonzalez Urbaez is an amateur photographer from Venezuela.

What I like about this image:

  • a juxtaposition between the industrial landscape and typical beach scene
  • contrast between colours of beach and dull grey colours of industrial scene
  • great example of changes in landscapes

img_1613img_1614

Susan Whitbread is a 63 year old amateur photographer and is a civil servant from Australia.

What I like about this image:

  • many leading lines
  • sense of symmetry
  • repetition
  • bland vibrancy
  • warm and cold tones juxtaposes the image

img_1617 img_1618 img_1619

Fahran Saud Al Shammeri is an amateur photographer, 40 years of age and is a teacher in Saudi Arabia.

What I like about these images:

  • the vibrant colours and simplicity
  • almost looks like a computer background it is so crisp
  • you can see the immediate beauty of the natural landscapes
  • the shadows

My Favourite Image:

img_1607

What I like about this image is the story it tells and the message it perhaps trying to portray and it had an immediate impact on me. It seems very mysterious but there are several points in the photo that us as the audience can pick up on. It is a great example of our changing world and the different lifestyles/cultures we are surrounded by – fitting in perfectly with the theme of climate change and the affects in has on us.

I also really like that it is in black and white because it may not have had the same effect if it was in colour. You can argue that the evident deprived children in the photo see the world in black and white and may not have any vibrancy in their lives as they live in the conditions we get only a preview of in the image.

I believe the photographer, Dipayan Bhar has captured an told the story well of the lives of the kids who live in such poor conditions. Our eyes are drawn to a range of aspects within the photograph. The main, in my opinion, being the little child, thigh deep in dirty water drinking from a jug of this water. The pole down the middle of the scene splits the photo in two and makes it more easily digestible for the viewers. We can then see the rest of his family sitting on a balcony who can only sit their and allow the boy to drink the water as it’s their only option.

The overall mood and atmosphere of the image is very grim and miserable and we get a feel for how the subjects are living, which I believe is what Bhar wanted to achieve.

To the right of the image, we can see what looks like a Bollywood film poster; immediately representing two sides to the area. What we originally thought was deprived, we suddenly get a sense of class as this film poster is displayed next to such poor conditions. It provides us with a contrast.

I believe Bhar would have wished to prioritise the message received from this photo over the actual quality of the image and any editing techniques, which is why he submitted it to this amateur competition.