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Analysis of my work influenced by Tanja Deman

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This is an image produced by myself influenced by the work of Tanja Deman. I made this edit after the photoshoot we carried out with Tanja herself at the locations, Grosnez and L’Etacq. This was a really enjoyable task and I managed to get some really useful images that I knew I cols use in my collages and edits. However, in the image above, there is only one image used from the shoot and the other, the main image in the background is from a holiday me and my family took to France last summer where there was a pool with a stunning view out to the woodlands surrounding it.

I was looking through my images and was trying to envisage what photos I could use to create an interesting image. This was one of the last edits I crated and I wanted it to be different and more obscure to my other edits where I simply just placed a smaller image over an edited background, often being a vast landscape juxtaposed by a macro. In this edit, I used more Photoshop tools to play about with the layering and re-sizing of images.

I was influenced mainly by Tanja Deman’s work in this edit due to the layering of images and creation of a new environment and narrative and I always had her work in my head when editing in order to get the best possible outcomes where her work was reflected in mine, however with a personal touch. Furthermore, I was influenced even more so, in fact by a photographer Tanja showed us at the beginning of the six weeks called John Stezaker who also specializes in photo collage. Here is one of his works that influenced me:

Mask CII
John Stezaker

Although this is an image simply with one background image and another placed on top, like I mentioned before, it has much deeper meaning in that when you look at the image layered on top of the portrait it is meant to juxtapose a beautiful landscape with a portrait and create the idea that you are looking into the subjects mind or eyes through the landscape. Stezaker purposely used an image that present the idea that it is leading you into the image as he has used a cave as the subject leading lines draws your eyes into where the mans eyes would be – creating a new narrative and completely new image. In his images, he uses postcards as the foregrounded image which is why there is a slight shadow and softness to its edges.

In my edit, I have flipped the subjects to have the landscape int the background and the human subject foregrounded. It may seem as though I have sued three images but it is two.

I began with the image form my holiday in France – it was a coloured image of myself in a pool ring looking out the landscape of woodlands. It is again a personal image to me because it reminds me of fun holidays. I then made this image black and white and attempted to get as much contrast as possible but this was difficult to achieve from the original image not holding much contrast. However, the contrast between the lightness of the pool and darkness of the trees work well. I then transferred the image from the shoot at L’Etacq to the original. I reduced the size and began to find a suitable area to place it. I decided to crop the background image to remove the trees that were appearing from the edges and unnecessary objects at the sides which made it look messy. I originally wished to juxtapose the effect of man made beauty of setting up a pool in front of a stunning and vast landscape versus natural beauty of a beach.

I then decided to, once the image of the beach was positioned, to remove the centre of this photo so that it created the effect of looking through a frame to discover another landscape. This didn’t have the effect I wished for though so decided to place the beach over myself so that you could only see my legs and leave it as this – creating the effect of John Stezaker’s photos where you can only see part of the portrait – provoking thoughts as to what he actually looks like. I didn’t like this so again changed my idea and placed the image over myself in the ring and then removed part of the beach image so you could see me. I wanted this to look as though the smaller image is a frame and you are looking through it to discover me then looking out again at another landscape – creating tis never ending pattern of staring through different frames to eventually find a new way to see the world. I wanted it be as though the audience have to look at me to enable them to then see the landscape in front of them through the beach image. I created this effect by using the ‘rectangular marquee’ tool on Photoshop to cut and paste areas of the photo where I wish and then re-size how suitably. I, mainly, wanted to take the focus away from the natural beauty that is in the collage and move it onto the landscape in the background but imply that the swimming pool and myself become the focal point, taking the attention away from what actually is the beauty. I enjoyed working with the layering effect to create different frames within one frame and enjoyed playing about with deception. Tanja was also attracted to this image most out of all my edits and said she liked that I had experimented more so with the layers and told me to do even more!

Inspirations, Recording, Research and analysis

Reflection on Workshop w/ Jonny Briggs

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On 18/07/17, Jonny visited us at the school again to take a look at the edits we had produced from the task he set us on  his last visit. He allowed us to go through each of our works and share them with the class whilst explaining or thought processes. This was a good opportunity for me share how I work and my style of work ans to get opinions from other people. So, overall the workshop was very useful and enjoyable – as well as beneficial to my self-confidence and ability to speak in a large group.

The session began with Jonny gathering us around the table with our images that we had produced prior to the workshop. He began to ask how we wished to go about presenting our images ot the class and asked if we would be happy sharing our thoughts willingly without any prompts. Most of us turned our noses up a this thought but I would have been happy to explain the thoughts and meanings behind my edits independently because I feel most comfortable doing it this way as my images always hold some meaning and narrative behind them, especially now I’m working with images that are a lot more personal to me. Jonny, however suggested the idea for the rest of our peers to prompt us to talk by asking us questions about our photos.

I really enjoyed talking about my images because it allowed me to explain rte meanings behind what I had produced to the class and to Jonny, a hugely influential photographer to my style at the moment. I felt like my edits showcased how I see my relationship with my dad and how I wished to present this through an edit. I think Jonny liked my images and could connect with them in the way I wanted my audience to and he seemed to be able to derive some sorts of meanings from each of the images who boosted my self-esteem. I have learnt form the process over these last six weeks that my work is my work only and it is bound to prove different thoughts from different people and not everyone is going to like or even understand my work but for one persons, even if it is just myself to get what I produce, then I know I have succeeded because if I know I that I have differentiated myself from everyone else then I can be proud.

I feel like the task has set up other opportunities for me develop mys skills and progress with my work through the A2 course. I hope that the work I have produced and the influence of Jonny over the last six weeks will rub off on how I go about conjuring up ideas for my own personal study. I have definitely begun to see the world in new perspectives and the concept of telling stories and narratives through my photography will be a heavy aspect of the A2 course because I feel photography is a very powerful tool of expressing emotion and creating new stories for people close to you to connect with.

Analysis, Experimentation, Inspirations, Personal Study, Preparation, Recording, Research and analysis

Jonny Briggs’ Task (Destroy an Image 5 Different Ways) – Archival Imagery Task Response

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When Jonny Briggs visited the school on 04/07/17 for his workshop he held for us, he set us a task to complete for the next time he visits the school on 18/07/17.

“find five different ways to destroy an image”…

I have chosen to destroy one image form my own personal archive. It is an image I have already experimented with – this being the image of myself and my dad sitting at the breakfast able on a holiday in France wearing similar raglan tops and with identical haircuts! I find this one very amusing because of the obvious similarities between myself and my dad when I younger, but still now that I’m grown up I get told I look lots like my dad.

I have already experimented with the image on Photoshop to attempt to alter its look digitally. I do enjoy this method because it allows me to play around with the Photoshop tools and find a weird way to make an image look different. When editing on Photoshop, I found it difficult to let my creativity run wild and my freedom seemed limited because I didn’t really know what I wanted to achieve. I am hoping that when I have the image in front of me physically, I will start gathering ideas as to what I can do to essentially “destroy” it. Therefore, as well as the digital edits, I have printed out around seven copies of the image so I can manually destroy it. I will upload the outcomes from this experiment once complete and explain my thought processes so it is easy to understand why I did it.

Here are the products from my session on Photoshop:

With each edit, I used the same page size and same sized image to show consistency and make a pleasing series of five of the same images it just edited differently. I also chose the same background colour being a faded out black because I felt like this allowed the image to stand out best.

For this edit, I extracted just the eyes from the original image. I wanted to show my understanding of Jonny’s work and attempt to replicate in my own way but following similar styles to what he does. Jonny makes a habit out of using and focusing on the eyes of some his images frequently and he often takes out just the eyes and makes this feature of the subject within the image the focal point which I love because it is so small and can be so easily ignored yet the eyes can hold so much narrative in themselves because emotions are told through your eyes an the way you look at something. However, what Jonny does not do is make an image or a montage out of just the eyes of people. This is what I have done and attempted to make it personal. I taken the eyes of myself in a picture and the eyes of my dad from an image and merged them into one edit. I wanted to create the idea that my dad’s constant gaze down on me from when I was a baby up until I was a young child, to when I became teenager and still now has been a significant part of my upbringing and is for moist children if you have a dominant male figure in your upbringing. His effort to look out for me non-stop is a huge influence for how I have grown up and what I have become and I wanted to show this in my edit yet a gaze can sometimes become very confused and hazed and I wanted to play a trick on the mind – by pixelating the cut-out eyes, the viewers own look becomes confused. I wanted to show that my dad’s gaze has progressively and gradually morphed into mine and as I become older, I begin to look at things the way my dad does. Especially now with a younger sister, my own look has matured as I have to monitor, as a guardian essentially, someone who is so young and innocent, as I used to be. 

With this edit, again focusing on the eyes, I have taken this particular feature out this time. With this edit, I decided to make it more simple and not edit the photo in any way apart from to take the eyes of both myself and my dad out of the frame. This is something Jonny does in his photos and was something I was really drawn to because of its simplicity but complex meaning behind it. I decided to remove the eyes of both subjects because although eyes can tell a million words through the way you look at something or someone – whether it be love or passion or anger etc. I wanted to address the idea that emotions can be so easily ignored and although you may look at someone with love, other gestures, such as your body gestures and your words can play a part in getting across your message. I also anted to see the effect of removing the eyes in this image because they actually play a big part in the story told because my dad is looking down at me, with what I now is love and happiness, however, I am looking away. But we both have a smile on our faces and this is what can show the sense of love.

Forward Slashes, Altered family photograph, 10 x 28cm, 2013 <br/> <br/>Jareh Das; In some of these altered family photographs, you have removed <br/>the eyes. I'm reminded of Peggy Phelan's observations that the formation of 'I' <br/>cannot be witnessed by the 'Eye'. In other we don't recognise our 'self' <br/>through our eyes. Do you think that your works through the camera's 'eye' <br/>somehow communicate or capture some of how the self is formed?<br/> <br/>The gaze is an important aspect in the work – beyond myself as a <br/>photographer looking through the lens, there is often a wish for the works to <br/>look back at the viewer, to return the gaze. The work could be seen as a <br/>rebellion against my father’s gaze from behind the lens when taking our <br/>family photographs. Whenever I take photographs of him or my mother, I <br/>suddenly feel in control, like there has been a power flip, that now it’s about <br/>the way that I see, unveiling an alternative family story. <br/> <br/>I’m reminded of times in public, when I realize that someone is looking at me; <br/>or even worse, our gaze meets. In that moment my mind splits into my <br/>fears and desires – that they are either attracted to me, or that they want to <br/>start a fight with me. That they think that I am attracted to them, or that I want <br/>to start a fight with them. It’s no wonder that so many people find it hard to <br/>look others in the eye, that when we look at an image we gravitate towards <br/>the eyes of the subject, and that fights so often start with the phrase ‘What <br/>are you looking at?’ <br/> <br/>I often entertain the thought that what our parents, Grandparents, and all <br/>those around us say to us – and even words and language in themselves, <br/>can categorize and shape the way we see the world around us. Our <br/>memories can cloud the way we see, and it is these artificial perceptions I <br/>wish to think beyond; to detach myself from my adulthood assumptions and <br/>see the world afresh like a child again. Because what we perceive can be a <br/>projection of our own fears and desires or tainted by our memories, <br/>I identify with Peggy Phelan’s observations. In this sense the work could be <br/>interpreted as how the conditioned self is formed, which reminds me of <br/>Narcissus, upon tearing out his own eyes exclaiming ‘Once I could not see, <br/>but now I can see.’
Jonny’s image

This is the same edit as the one above, however told in a different perspective to get across a different meaning. Where the space was that the eyes originally filled, I have filled this with a red block. The reason I have done this is very simple and was just an addition tot he original edit to show a different narrative. I chose to colour the negative space red because red is an iconic symbol of love and we, most of the time use our eyes as a way of telling someone we love them if it isn’t verbally. This isn’t my favorite edit but I do like it and I have focused on the effect of love and showing this through all my edits – the love that is shown between myself and my dad and how strong and powerful it is – that a relationship can provide happiness – also shown in the photo. The concept of happiness is evident to someone who hasn’t seen the photo but for me, it has a stronger meaning and I connect more so with it which I like. For this edit, I simply cut the photo in half in using the ‘rectangular marquee’ tool to select what area of the image I wanted to adjust. I selected the area then copied it, deleted the original and pasted the area I copied so that I could move it about as I wished.

I chose to move the copied area of myself and my dads head closer into the original image so that it overlapped. I wanted to do this so that the arms of my dad which are wrapped around me as I laugh in his grasp were closer together so that it portrayed the idea that he was holding me very tightly – crating a stronger bond and a cohesion between us two. Although, this was occurring in the original, I wanted to emphasise this further, therefore moved the copied area so that I was closer into my dads abdominal and so there wasn’t as much of  assistance between us as before. I also moved the image up a little bit once repositioned so that the table edges were in line with one another. And as you can see, here, I have again opted for the concept of love and creating strong bonds.

Schisms 3, Sister's head upon my body, Adapted family photograph, 2011
Jonny’s image

This is my final edit that I produced and is one of my favourites because of the addition of text. I have again focused on what the eyes of each of us – myself and my dad can say and what they tell the audience. I cropped out the head of myself and replicated this four times and did the same with my dad also. This forces the viewers to look at the face’s of us only and derive some menaings and thoughts just by what we look like and what the orginal image may have looked like if they hadn’t seen it.

I wanted to confuse the audience again so flipped my head once cropped to face the other way to the original and I also moved my dad’s presence to the right of me instead of to the left – which is what the original was. However, to provide a clue that I have cropped the image, in the photos of my head, you can see the mouth and chin of my dad in the upper right corner – hinting that that he was originally looking down on me, however, now looking down at nothing. The emotions are still the same and it can be viewed that we are both smiling at nothing – perhaps there wasn’t actually anything funny in the original image and I am therefore making a new narrative for myself to interpret because I was so young at the time, I cannot remember the time the image was taken.

Adding to the idea of nostalgia and creating new stories and memories – I have arranged both sets of images in the style of a series of images from a photo booth. I really like this effect because each image is the same and it hasn’t changed as the series progresses which is usually what happens when having a mini shoot in a phtobooth. I wanted to show the idea of repetition in our lives – maybe going to the same holiday destination every time because it was what I liked and what my parents knew was safe (in the image we were in France).

As well, I have added in some type this time because I felt ike it would add an extra layer of narrative and give the overall work some more character. I chose to use the words ‘those loving eyes’ as I wished to narrow down the image to the focus of eyes and how they pay an important part in this image to tell a story and show emotion. I decided to replicate the word ‘loving’ several times as it works its way down the page fading gradually to black – showing that love is so easily lost at times in terms of romantic reltionships and I wanted to show that love is such a delicate thing.

Here are my manually made edits:

 

Independent Study, Instruction, Preparation, Research and analysis

Reflection of Workshop w/ Tanja Deman

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Yesterday, on 11/07/17, Croatian photographer Tanja Deman came into the school to hold a workshop with us. It was centered around looking at the shots we captured form out shoot at Grosnez and L’Etacq a few weeks ago – she wanted us to reflect on what we caught and start thinking about ideas for creating photo montages and photo collages like hers.

She also set a task before her workshop yesterday for us to gather some out favourite images from the shoot, and link them to our artist references to then begin gathering thoughts about what we could o with out images and I began creating some edits. These are on the blog.

The workshop consisted of Tanja getting us to open up Adobe Bridge on out computers and to begin organizing our folders so she can come round to our work areas and look at what we have produced – this was what the opening part of the lesson was made up of. From working with Tanja before in the photographic academy which took place in the Easter holidays, I was aware that she was very reliant of using Bridge to arrange her image and she essentially is an advocate of the software program to use as a tool for seeing all your images together and she encouraged all of us to use it regularly in future work. She briefly went through the essential tools within the program to help us.

Katrin Koenning

I like that in the image above, Koenning has, as it seems, attempted to contrast the effect of land and sea. The left image being land and some sort of bush or tree being the subject contrasted against a black background so that it absorbs the light and makes the red of the tree stand out. The right image being sea and a fish being the subject. I love the contrast between content and colors of the photo – that the right one is almost over exposed and looks as though a flash has been used but I really like this effect and I find the cold blue very enticing. I thought about contrasts in my images when editing in post production. I chose to use the method of overlaying images and creating a collage of just two images to contrast subjects. I like the effect of layering images because it can hide features of the background image and the new image can replace what is missing and create a new outlook and a new narrative.

In the above image I crated, I wanted to show the effect of contrasting two images. I really like using a black and white image that is heavily contrasted so that there are deep blacks against faded out whites and neutral greys and then a more vibrant, smaller image on top. I wanted to contrast the vast and wide landscape in the background that is very empty against the more close-up macro of the yellow plant and greenery surrounding it. I love the juxtaposition of feeling micro and feeling mega! There is also more evident detail in the macro which contrasts to the vaster landscape where you cannot pick up detail as much and to add to this, I also blurred the image in the background using the motion blur tool on Photoshop.

By the timer she had come round to my work station, I had organised all my folders so that she could have a look and give some advice on what I can do next to progress. I really enjoyed seeing Tanja again because it is helpful that she already knows my style and has seen my photography work before so knows that I nave a particular way of photographing and editing images. I think this was evident from my sets of edits I presented her ans I believe she enjoyed looking at them. I did show her my images that I collected from the archive in advance to the workshop but I have no intention of using them because I don’t feel like they would relate to what I want to produce, however, the other artist references, including Superstudio, Luigi Ghirri and Katrin Koenning will be influential to be further edits. In particular, Katrin Koenning’s images – I hope to take into account her work when planning another shoot so I can capture images that reflect her very aesthetically pleasing style and technique of paring two images together – almost like half-frame photography.

Katrin Koenning
My image inspired by Luigi Ghirri’s warm and retro colours and environments

Once Tanja had had a look through my edits and given me her thoughts on them, it had given me some sudden inspiration and there were thoughts going through my head about her I could improve and move forward with ideas she told me she liked. She especially liked the pool images where I had played about with overlaying and re-sizing images to create more of a collage where proportions are a bit confused but had a nice effect on the audience. She told me to progress with this style and play about more and more with overlaying and re-sizing on Photoshop and to just go crazy with it until I have some works that look very muddled but effective. The images of myself in a pool in France on a holiday last summer with the use of an image of L’Etacq are my favorite as well and once again used contrasts to juxtapose man-made swimming areas – being the pool and natural constructions of beach and eroded rock over time to create a seascape.

Tanja then finally showed us some of her work on Photoshop using hr own laptop where she gave us a very quick masterclass on how to make the most of the tools on Photoshop to create a good collage. She demonstrated her skills and told us what she does to create what she does.

Experimentation, Preparation

Further Edits Inspired by Tanja Deman from Grosnez/L’Etacq Trip

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Here are some more edits, continued on from my primary experiments using the pen tool on Photoshop to digitally draw on top of the images. I decided to explore the concept of photo collage and montage more so in preparation for Tanja visit on Tuesday 11th June. I felt like this would be necessary and would open up my mind to the style of art more to allow to me decipher whether I wish to explore it in more detail for A2 course or not – or whether I just want to use it as a starting point and experimentation tool – which I think is most likely because I don’t feel like collaging is something I can strive at but is useful for developing my skills and advancing my understanding of the very popular style.

I tried to use the work of my artist references more in these edits and just explore different way of editing to get me back into the habit of editing constantly. I started overlaying images and I was particularly drawn to the idea of placing one image on top of another – most of the time contrasting black and white and colour and I opted for the lighter and more delicate way of editing. Towards the latter stages however, I explored the tools more so and came up with a piece plays about with proportions and colours.

Independent Study, Research and analysis

Jonny Briggs Activity Review – Fear in the Process of Creativity…

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On 04/07/17, Jonny Briggs came in to school to give us another talk and include us in his style of work again. He had more tasks set up ofr us to immerse ourselves into the style of photo collage and he gave us a briefing about his work again to refresh us. The more intimate and inclusive experience was really helpful and beneficial to my development in the field of photo collage and producing work int he style of both Jonny and Tanja.

The session began with Jonny asking us is we had any primary questions for him to answer. Then he began to talk to us about his recent works in Jersey and what he is doing in his residency that could provide an influence to what we produce. The most prominent topic of discussion was the thought of fear within work and if it is an aid to the creative process. A heated discussion on this concept leas to many different views about the question Jonny asked us – whether fear is a good thing, or if something good can come from mistakes in a creative process. Jonny began to tell us about a piece of work he is really focusing on in his residency and tat he feels has the most relevance to his life. He told us that he has a focus on creating series of works in locations of authority and an explanation he provided for this was that an authoritative figure was missing from his family when was younger as his relationship with his dad was lost but he re-gained this sense of authority in his life through the school he wen to being very strict. He said that he has a plan to produce a photoshoot in the old police station, in particular in its evidence room where there are empty shelves throughout the room. He plans to cover the room in red lipstick and says that this freedom to essentially create a mess makes up fro the strict upbringing he had where at times he would feel dislocated. This gives him freedom to make something that has an association with desire and something that possesses a sexual connotation into a thought of disgust if shown in large quantities – as in this sticky mess. I found this relation to family, although strange and unpredictable very interesting. He told us that fear should not be a thing that hinders the creative process and you should embrace it. He then transferred the question to us and told us to give our opinions on whether fear is a good thing and something that helps us move forward with our work. I personally believe this is true because a good artists will take the idea of fear and use to their advantage to produce something that questions the normalities of art. I said that in my personal experience, if I came across something that scared me, and if I did not not know what I wanted to do in order to advance and complete something, I would freak out and essentially implode with stress and fear but this would spur me onto to do better – I would use it as a tool of determination and use it to motivate myself. The idea of forcing myself to achieve a goal even it requires me to go outside my comfort zone is a determiner of success because it means I am trying new things and the risk you take as to whether the outcome will be a success is all part of the creative process and how you learn from your mistakes. This idea made me think more about how I can use fear to improve my work and I think I will take into account that when I don’t know what I’m doing, I should fight that and remove the blanket of comfort – as Jonny described it and move forward.

Jonny then set up a task for us to do and he told us to draw a face – any face at all – a generic face, but with our eye closed. He gave us 3-4 minutes and then we had to open our eyes and see what we had produced. It was very weird to see what we had drawn because obviously the image was not what a face would look like because usually when you tell someone to draw a face, they would spend lots of time finalizing the intricate details of the features but crating s simple drawing with no boundaries apart form the limitation of us being blind created much freedom for me experiment and go wild with my thoughts. Although it looked very odd, there is no rule that states something does not look how it should or that if something does not provide a direct representation isn’t good. Breaking boundaries can result in a pleasing result and differentiation is a tool for creating new work as it can encourage new thoughts and new ideas from seeing things in new perspectives. I really enjoyed the task as it allowed dot be free in what I produced with no one to tell me that it is not good – and this is how everyday art should be.

blindfolded drawing of generic face
blindfolded drawing of someone’s face

I then drew an image of someone in the room, I chose to draw Harrison. I found this task much more difficult than the first because I was given a criteria to fill and limited my freedom for creativity in a way because I was not allowed to draw anything knowing that it would be accepted either way; I had to draw someones face and use my memory to put the features in the correct position. This task limited me more so and I therefore did not enjoy it as much. I would prefer to be told to get on with something and then do it in my own personal way that suits my style. This is how many photographers and artists get by nowadays because creativity and uniqueness is key. However, there is a theories who stages. His name is Kirby Ferguson and he says tat you cannot create without being influenced by others. I can totally agree with this but he also goes as far as to say that there is no originality in art today because each idea is derived form something that already exists. He describes the idea of copying as ‘simple-mimicry’ which I find quite fascinating and amusing because, yes, to some extent it is true.

Overall, I really enjoyed the workshop with Jonny because he is a modern day photographer who suits my style of work and he addresses personal issues through his now art which I admire and think is very brave – which I will have to become as I unveil my own archives gradually. He also wanted us to use the objects and images we brought in to create some photo collages or photographic scenes that mean something to us and gave us a task for homework to find five was to destroy an image. I am eager to get going with this and hope to conjure up some weird and ‘outside of box’ methods. I will publish these once finalized.

Here are the objects I brought in:

teddy given to me by my sister when she was born
teddy I had when I was a child
apron I used to wear when I was a child
bag made by Nan which I used to put my toys in
cricket ball given to me by my Dad when I was younger
Research and analysis

Prepapration for Activity w/ Jonny Briggs

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On the 04/07/17, we will be working with Jonny Briggs again in the studio at school. He will be coming in to work with all of us and wishes to focus on creating images to boost our personal study by forcing us to delve deeper into our own family history. We will be bringing in objects and images that have some significance to us in order for us to experimnent with and create some interesting images that reflect the work of Jonny.

We will be in the studio talking to Jonny one on one and I am really looking forward to this experience and hope to embrace it fully so I can get the best possible outcome for my own photos and own personal study for the future. I hope to get some ideas from Jonny to influence my work and I hope that he gives me some feedback on what I produce so I can improve upon it for furure reference. Jonny focuses hugely on his family in his work and how his childhood influences his current life choices. He includes family members in his work and their views and how they behaved with him when he was younger in comparison to his other siblings is a vital part to his work also. My relationship with my siblings, in my case, my younger sister of four years will also be a part of my study for year twelve as I wish to observe her childhood life and document it using my camera. This task tomorrow can kick-start my ideas and how I will go about it. I really like Jonny’s work and I think it reflects my own work in that it is abstract and different.

For tomorrorw, I plan to bring in a couple objects that has significant meaning to me. This would be things that provides a relationship between myslef and my dad in particular because he moved away from my mum when I was young, at around four years old. Therefore objects that he has given to me over the years as I grew up has a lot of meaning to me and I wish to treasure them for the memories they will hold in the future. Specific obejcts bring back nostalgic thouhgts from when I was a child and used to stay at his on the weekends – therefore I will be bringing in a blanket I slept with when I was younger if I can find it – I would take this to my dad’s house and I have kept for keepsake reasons. As well, my dad used to play cricket regualrly as a sport he was very passoinate about. When he stopped playing, he gave me his “lucky” cricket ball that he used most games. I still have this in my room and it is on display. I also wish to bring in some images of myslef and my dad from when I was younger because these have a special menaing to me and I find it amusing to look back at them because even though I can’t remember them, I notice how similar myself and my dad looked, especially when were next to each other. We have a joke about this now and still get told we look alike and this will be noticeable form the images I bring. I will bring in a teddy that my littler sister, Minnie gave to me for my birthday when I was 12 – how old I was when she was born. This is also on display in my room and holds a lot of meaning to me and I will also bring in one of my older toys from when I was a baby to see the wear in both items.

I also plan to bring in my apron that I would always wear when I did baking as a toddler. This is kept safe in my memory box and I will bring this in as well as a picture of me when I was younger wearing the apron. I think that the items and images I am bringing in set me up for an interesting hour of experimentation and will generate the ideas for my personal study.

These are the images I will be bringing in tomorrow:

myself and my dad when I was a baby
myself and my dad when I was 4/5 years old
myself when I was a toddler
myself and my little sister now
Independent Study, Instruction, Research and analysis

Whose Archive is it Anyway? (Essay)

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Whose Archive is it Anyway?

An archive is something I had only encountered this year – I had never looked or even come across an archive before the start of year twelve, however, I am now fully aware of their purpose and function. I find this crazy that I had never come across the archive that Jersey holds after seventeen years of living on the island, and, with such a rich history, there is such a vast amount to document on the islands history – which archives such as Société Jersiaise and Jersey Archive from Jersey Heritage do so well. I am now very eager to research into the concept more and hopefully use and expand my own archive of my own life to benefit my progress through year twelve. An archive like the Société Jersiaise was founded in 1893 by a number of prominent islanders who were interested in the study of its history, its language and antiques, so set up the program, in order to aid their knowledge – in-turn helping islanders of today understand Jersey in more depth, and I, for one, am thankful for this.

The official definition of an archive, taken from Google, is ‘a collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people.’  Synonyms of the word include records, accounts, papers, documents, files and history. In my opinion, history being the most important or one that stands out most – because an archive essentially holds history of a location or of someone. An archive can be a document, a certificate of birth, an image from several centuries ago or an object that holds significance to someone. I really like the idea of an object holding much importance to someone, because, for me, there is something very pleasing about having something physical to touch because all our sense can play a part in remembering specific moments of your life and an object can bring back much nostalgia for someone – I know it does for me anyway! This is perhaps why so many photographers nowadays create a photobook, or in fact several photobooks because it is much more pleasing to have your work physically published for people to look at and then keep.

My mum has kept, since I was a little child, even a baby, a memory box or what we like to call my ‘special box’ as it holds all the things that relate to the special moments in my life and therefore, my mum and dad’s life. This box contains objects such as my first pair of shoes, my birth certificate, pieces of artwork I completed when I was child at nursery and my first strands of hair etc. This takes its place in the loft for whenever I or my family feel like they wish to reminisce about thoughts that bring back happy memories – not away to be forgotten forever – it is in there for security, which I feel is something very important with photos – because touching something physical can give you a warm feeling – in my instance, love. So, we all have our own archives, whether they’re public, social or personal, we all have our own documentation of our life and it can be digitally on our phones or physically but in any instance, it can be used to bring people together as I feel photography is a strong concept that has the potential to act as a cohesion tool between the people we love. Actions are so quick – they happen and then they’re gone but taking a picture of a simple action provides a snap shot that can be kept forever.

I have made a short video to accompany this essay. It consists of me talking to my mum, almost interviewing her and asking a her few questions about my memory box and why she started it in the first place. The video is intended to give you more of an insight into our archive and why it exists. My mum reiterates throughout that she has kept all the photos from my childhood as well as special objects for me to look back at when I’m older – this idea sticks with me strongly and my mum emphasizes it constantly. She also said that “if you have ever had children of your own, you can compare what you looked like when you were a child to what they look like”. This notion that I can carry this idea of documenting my whole life through to when I grow up and have kids of my own is very true and encompasses the whole being of what an archive is – is that it is supposed to provide a place where memories and nostalgia can live long in the memory of people to then compare and contrast different lives from a completely different decade or even centuries. My mum also said that she took the photographs of me when I was child on an old film camera, which is what they had back in those days – they did not have digital DSLR cameras so used disposable ones where you would get the film developed. However, this introduction of digital cameras has sparked interest in photographic practices and it is now becoming more and more sought after to take up as a hobby. Although with the introduction of high quality, expensive, technological cameras, there has been a recent boost in the use of disposable and vintage film cameras again in order to take photos that give a sense of nostalgia through the effect they have on the images you take once developed – this is achieved through the colours and textures of graininess. Sticking to the idea of technological advancement, David Bates’, in his book Art Photography states that the ‘awareness of historical accumulation of photographic archives has expanded expositional since the invention of the internet’. I believe this is very true because with the endless possibilities of the internet, things such as photo sharing is ever so easy and can be argues that it almost too easy but is hugely beneficial.

I wish to make the most of my personal archive and look through it as much as I can in order to get a better sense of my own life and the life of people surrounding me. I am aware that also my grandparents have left their own photobooks from when they were younger documenting their life and as they grew older to become fathers and mothers to my mum etc. It is evident that archival imagery can be passed through many generations of family members and the all link us together to create a cohesion – like I mentioned before. However, an idea I am really keen to pursue over the course of this next year relates to how my life on Jersey for seventeen years differs to that of my younger sister, of four years. I am lucky enough to have a sibling and even luckier, in my opinion, that she is thirteen years younger than I am. I think this is amazing and I think it would create a perfect project for me to carry out for my personal study by looking at archives from when I was younger in comparison to what my sister has experienced. This is how I will look at archival imagery to enhance and enrich my experience throughout the A2 course. I have no intention of focusing heavily on public archives of Jersey because this won’t relate to what I want to study – being a personal archive between myself and my family. I think there is something mesmerizing about old photos from when I was a child to see what I actually got up to if I can’t remember certain things. I think it will be interesting to see how her life as a child differs from mine – even more so because we have been raised by different mothers because my sister is on my dad’s side after my mum and dad divorced and my dad found another partner. What I have also noticed whenever I go to see my sister, is that she obsessed with Snapchat on my pone and the filters it offers – she is fascinated by them and looking though photos of me and what I get up to. I believe this will make the project a lot more interesting.

All in all, however, every archive in the world functions in the same way – in that it intends to provide a rich documentation of the history of someone or something whether it be place or a person. In my opinion, I find personal archive, carried on throughout many generations much more interesting than public ones’ due to the fact that they are so much more intimate and mean so much more when you look at them.

What I have earned from archives is that they are such a useful tool for anyone who wants to discover more about themselves and they can essentially work as a family tree. Archives provide an open door for endless possibilities to re-create and re-live memories you may have partially forgotten about and the nostalgia that comes with archives, more so for the older generation of Jersey due to how influential Jersey was in the 20th century, can spark new emptions they may not have experienced in a long time.

To answer the question Whose Archive Is It Anyway? – I don’t know, you decide. Maybe it’s all of our archives because each and every one may lead back to the same place or have a link in some way. My archive holds much food for thought and I know that I will be utilizing it fully and my memory box is my archive but the wonderful thing, I want to share it with people – archives can be shared, and therefore instantly becomes a personal archive to other people.