Category Archives: Recording
Filters
Shoot at Millbrook Park
Shoot w/ Dad in His Flat
Photoshoot 1///Brother
When taking these photos I focused on mainly exploring the idea of isolation. As this was already a large part of Davids personality before the accident. However when the accident happened he did not want to talk to anyone didn’t want to know anyone just wanted to be alone. The David we knew before was no longer there he had changed dramatically. The lone part to his personality had taken over completely. I wanted to capture this change in the photos I took. This is also why I like the photo of him sitting on the bench so much, as it already shows what I was trying to capture. Also by having those words ‘miss me’ on the back of the bench makes it even more prominent. As it’s almost saying he’s a different person to who he was before.
There are photos on this that I will not include in my final product as they do not fit the story I am telling. However, I did like the photos themselves. This is why I included them in this section. The photos I am including in my finals is the one of my brothers eye and the “miss me” photo I talked about previously. I liked the photo of my brothers eye, as its looking away from the camera. It shows a loneliness, this is also captured through the fact that there is only one eye shown.
A Discovery into my Mum & Dad’s Relationship
A couple of days ago, I went to collect a ‘box of memories’ from my dad’s flat to help me with my research into my mum and dads relationship as well as their divorce. He has previously told me about this shoebox he has filled with memories he has form his time with my mum. This includes postcards my mum sent from France when she 18 and my dad was 20. This was in the very early stages of their relationship when they had only been going for about a year, yet the postcards were filled with very cute and sincere messages telling my dad that she missed him and she can’t wait to see him. These are resources I intend to use for my project where I will photograph them against a blank background to achieve a studio effect where all you are focusing on is the object. These postcards were from my dads memory box as I said and he keeps it in his garage shoved underneath all his other junk and is often forgotten about until discovered when rummaging through the mess every year or so but I an glad I have got my hands on this to use the appropriate resources suitable for the story I want to tell. The postcards sent by my mum to dad will help to show the relationship the once had by using physical information – a love letter essentially. However, this, I intend to photograph very soon. Meanwhile, I have come across a new object which has sparked my interest to talk about.
Retrieving the special box of my dad sparked a thought that my mum might also have one of these, even though she has never talked or mentioned it or something similar before, as well, I had never seen something like it before, I believe this to be because my mum now has a very strong relationship with a new man which is a prominent figure in my life also who has been present in my life for now thirteen years, however, I asked my mum if she had something similar and she told me “yes”. This was great news and I was eager to get my hands on it to see what was inside and if there was anything that went hand-in-hand with that f what I found in in my dad’s collection of good memories from their time together. As well, everything I found was also new to me as I was very young when they split so remember nothing apart from myself speaking to dad about it. All the objects were new and it was great for me to see them and learn the stories behind them. However, when we went looking in the loft for the box my mum thought she had kept in this particular place, we could not find it and we emptied the whole oft and looked through each and every box, yet the collection of nostalgic objects was not there. My mum, as well as myself, was mortified as it many I could not retrieve nay physical information and evidence form mum’s behalf of the great times my mum and dad had together apart from hundreds of photos of us as a family from me as a baby to me at 4 years of age. SAs well, it meant tat mum had lost this box she treasured and cherished because it was filled with memories from her youth – in the most happiest times of her life – when she met her first love, she married him and had a child with him – this was all gone. However, mum did have some images and cards from their wedding hidden somewhere else and this was where I made my amazing discovery which is perfect to begin the project/book.
Mum began to take all of these images of her and dad at their wedding out this small bag and within that bag, she picked out two cards – one form her to dad the day before their wedding and one from my dad to mum also on the before the wedding, and, by chance, the happen to be the exact same cards they both have to each other! I was shocked but also overjoyed at this because I knew it would be a great way to begin my project, epically after reading inside at what they had both written.
I believe this gesture from both of them and coincidence of this one in a million chance of them both giving the same card to each other, just with a different heart-felt message to one another shows the true meaning of love – that the two of them were in sync with one another and it shows tat perhaps they both knew what they other half would like – they both saw the card in shop and picked it up knowing that it represented them two as a couple and this coincidence shows the concept of love displaying the essence of unity.
I was desperate to photograph the two cards together and make some sort of image out of them! I wanted to create a diptych or one image of the two of them side by side and, although not yet finalised, I’ve got an image I quickly took of them together but the lighting is poor and the image above will not be my final due to the ‘slapdash’ finish of it. I also managed to get an image of the message inside each card. As well, for my final edit of this, I wish to have images of developed exposures from their wedding day alongside the one image of the cards to show the ‘starting chapter’ as such.
Inside the cards, both my mum and dad wrote a very loving and quite emotional message that came from the heart. In the card, they expressed their love for one another and their excitement to begin a new chapter in their life together – this idea of a ‘chapter’ is expressed not only from their words about their life, but it will make-up a ‘chapter’ in the book also.
My dad has never been one for being emotional with his words and is not the best at articulating himself, which I have grown to realise as I have grown up with him and his card was not as in-depth as my mums, which made me chuckle a little because this has not changed. However, although his straight-to-the-pint words are limited in comparison to my mum’s I had an idea to transcribe one statement/comment/sentence form each of their cards and insert this into the book along with the images. My inspiration for this idea came from Yoshikatsu Fujii’s book of his own parents divorce where he includes transcribed statements from his mum and dad to tell a story more visually.
Below is my mum’s card to my dad:
“TO MY DARLING ALEX,
REMEMBER IT’S JUST YOU + ME – THAT’S ALL WE NEED TO KNOW. WE HAVE BEEN TOGETHER FOR 8 YEARS AND TOMORROW WE ARE STARTING A WHOLE NEW CHAPTER IN OUR LIVES – THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A DOUBT IN MY MIND THAT THIS IS WHAT I WANT – YOU + ME TOGETHER ALWAYS, I KNEW THAT SINCE I WAS 16.
YOUR MY NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD MY LITTLE ONE.
SEE YOU TOMORROW, DON’T BE LATE!
ALL MY LOVE + KISSES
KATHERINE
XXX”
The statement I believe I will use due to its significance is the point at which my mum says “you + me together always, I knew that since I was 16.” I think I would choose this statement because, for me, it is actually very relatable as I actually fell in love when I was 16 – my girlfriend now is my first love and this was the same for my mum dad – they were both each others first love so there is an uncanny similarity here.
Below is my dad’s card to my mum:
“TO MY DARLING KATHERINE
I LOVE YOU
HERE’S TO FRIDAY
THE BIG DAY
GOOD LUCK
HERE’S TO THE REST OF OUR LIVES TOGETHER
ALL MY LOVE, ALEX
XXXXXX”
From my dad’s card, I think I will choose to transcribe the statement, “here’s to the rest of our lives” because this was their plan and any other lover’s plan when they are about to marry each other and especially commit their lives to one another but it is a shame that at some point, the love does break down – not in all relationships, but many relationships end in a love which distances and becomes very difficult to express so this statement is very significant. However, I may not choose to transcribe any of dad’s statements from his card as the one from my mum speaks a lot.
The print on the card reads:
IN A WORLD OF RUSH AND CRUSH AND CROWDS,
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THIS — A TENDER WORD, A GENTLE TOUCH, A SMILE, A LOOK, A KISS…
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO FAITH AND TRUST,
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO WHETHER WE’RE GOING IT ALONE OR KNOW WE’RE IN THIS THING TOGETHER,
IN A WORLD OF HYPE AND HURRY,
IN A WORLD OF PUSH AND SHOVE,
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO YOU AND ME,
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO LOVE
The print on the card alone is very sentimental and is very heart-felt and it sums up love – that no matter what, you will always have on another – act as thought it is just you two in the world and nothing can stop you because love conquers all. I believe in this concept very much and hoe to show it clearly in my project.
Archives & Documentary Further experimentation
As further experimentation to the idea of family photography and the difference between documentary and tableaux and the links with family and archives, i decided to do a mini project. When i think of archives i think of my mums photo albums that she used to make when i was younger and they were full of images of the most important events and celebrations of that specific year. As these were also printed out images i wanted to replicate this as much as possible and therefore got a disposable camera because then they will have that old style film camera look. Linking again to family photography i am going to focus on capturing the most important events and celebrations that i experience in the month of september with my family and friends(which is like another family). the challenge of the film camera is that it has a set number of exposures therefore i have to make sure to only take a few good photos at each event. I feel this will extend my photographic ability as i will be having to think about the images that i want to capture and the placement of these images.
The photographs will become a mixture of archival images which are both documentary and tableaux because i am assuming that some will be taking very much in the moment and some i may get a group of people to gather round to get a ‘family style’ photograph.
These are the final outcomes of my shoot i had them developed at the end of September and found that i was being so careful with what images i captured that i didn’t even use all of the exposures. I really enjoyed doing a shoot/ mini project in this style because it has left me with archival images of my family and friends which are pictures of important and significant events but only a few key images. The shoot links back to the idea of family archives as these images will now become my archives of September 2017 which i will keep and be able to look back on similarly to what my mum had created when i was younger.
In my opinion this style of archive focuses more on tableaux photography as the images have had to be staged in a way to get a group of my family/friends to stand together and look at the camera. This is a true representation of what most family albums (archives) are created from and brings a real sense of family to my images.
Review and Reflection and Progressing to Personal Investigation
Now I am making the transition from set assessments based around family and environment to my own personal study and investigation where I begin to take control of what I do, I saw it necessary to felt on the work I have produced so far during the second year. I have been very archive when participating in workshops and completing tasks relating to my own personal archive and have shown a keen interest when observing the history of Jersey through it sown public archive at the Societe Jersiaise and following on from these early stages, I have really enjoyed producing my own photoshoots which encapsulates the notion of documentary and tableaux and through these processes I have had the chance to look at several new artists which have heavily influenced my artistic mind to aid my success for the rest of the year.
I have used these last couple months as a process of learning of elimination essentially; I have thrown myself into all activities to allow myself to get a full understanding as well as letting myself experience the full effects of being very much committed to my work in order for myself to understand what I personally enjoy and what I am not too keen on. This has allowed me to reject certain topics/themes that I don’t feel I can strive in as much as others – which has therefore made my decision easier now I am deciding on the outlet I want to pursue for my own personal project which will conclude in a photobook.
Being able to work with professional and world-renowned photographers such as Jonny Briggs and Tanja Deman has really expanded my horizons and matured my artistic mind as well my eye for new perspectives when using a camera because the close relationship and intimate workshops carried out with the two have been a very useful experience. As well as this, out of school, I have been actively involved in what else they had to offer and have taken full advantage of their time on the island because it is not often that you have two willing professional photographers on your doorstep to aid your own passion for photography. Through attending workshops they have held in holidays and at weekends, I have been able to work very closely with both artists and the skills learned from this has essentially been transferred into my work at school where I saw myself experimenting with new techniques and the skills learned on the workshops have benefited my confidence to be different which will play a very huge part in my own personal work in the future. Through the workshops, I had the chance to meet other likeminded people of my age and the close proximity I have had with these people has made me appreciate the creativity on the island much more.
With he two photographers immersing themselves into two very different concepts of genres of photography, it has allowed me to see the direct contrasts of two styles of photography and allowed me to realise, in my work at school as well, the format for my personal study I want to pursue. I have always had an eager interests in photographing people since I started using photography as an outlet for being creative and this has followed me through my whole experience with photography at school, however had not had the confidence to use people as focal subjects of my work until recently. This concept will be the main focus point of my work this year and I look to interlink the ideas of documentary and very “raw life” images of the actuality of our lives themselves and the use of portraiture and people who are very present in my life currently.
One of my aims for the year is to experiment and explore much more than what I have done thus far. I want to be much more contemporary in my work – evident from the work I have recently produced where I made a link between family members and their childhood memories trough objects they treasure. This contemporary approach was influenced by the likes of Alfonso Almendros and Rita Puig-Serra Costa. As opposed to last year and recent times where I have relied heavily on editing to manipulate an image heavily and produce very overpowering photo montages where the meaning and raw visual concept of the images is often ignored, this year I wish to be much more simplistic and delicate with my editing process where in portraits I will only look to enhance certain colours if needed or make a few touch ups etc.
Certain themes I enjoyed were mostly based around family and the idea of photographing the faces of the people around toy to tell a story – another idea I wish to experiment with in my work this year – to tell a visual story and this is vital in a photobook. I hope to use other various concepts such as dairy entries, notes and drawings etc. to insert into series of works to tell a narrative. As well, I hope to be much more elegant and thoughtful in the work I produce and one of my goals is to not rush things and make sure I am taking time with my processes in order to get the best outcome.
Personal Target: to be experimental and concise with my work - make sure I taking my time with my thought processes to benefit the outcome and to tell a narrative with my images - be different to what I done already.
Photography and Truth
Truth or Fiction?
Photographs can lie by being manipulated, in order to change or influence our opinion of something. This therefore poses the question of reliability. Some cases I would argue that these photographs trying to manipulate our opinion are reliable because they want to show us the truth which changes our opinion. However more often than not, photo manipulation often exaggerates, slants the truth in favor of the message the photographer is trying to convey. This can be potentially harmful as it leads to the population to take the photographer’s opinion of a certain event as truthful, even if it is shot in the style of documentary photography. Photographers could argue that they are simply taking what they see through documenting the world. However the photographer is documenting the world in a way in which he perceives it, leaving out certain elements that contradict the documenting of his view on the world. Therefore we have to consider before acting on a certain photograph of how useful an image is in helping us find out about something rather than treat it as factual trust. This is because the photographer may for example being trying to express his political beliefs in the photograph which we have to acknowledge before we treat it as accurate.
Essentially the date of the photograph is very important in the sense that as humans from different generations look at a specific photograph, the morals of each generation change as time goes on and so the opinions towards the message the photographer is conveying changes. For example in the photograph below, at the time in 1945 and in America it would of been seen as a patriotic shot celebrating the death of fascism in Europe. However in more modern days, facts have come to light over the years of what the US army and her allies did when invading Nazi occupied Europe and so the photograph leaves out the context in what the US soldiers did in order so that one day, they could raise their flag that is portrayed as so patriotic.
Furthermore in respect of this last point, it is important to note what the photograph is showing, and how much, whether it be a lot or a little which ultimately helps affect our reliability rating towards a picture. In considering the provenance, it helps the viewer determine not just for example the photographer’s motives, but the wider context in how the photographer’s motives fit into the opinions of society, which helps us to understand whether much of society agreed with the photographer or not. Therefore the location of where the photograph was taken is important but also where the photograph was published. The location of the photograph which was taken in Japan, from a Japanese man’s perspective would view the photograph as these imperialists invading their country. Where it was published, in America, the general view of society would be one which is proud and honored that shows the US major role in the world.
This allows us to get onto the topic of propaganda which was particularly important in warfare in the early to mid – twentieth century which could be an example of this photograph, whereas in nowadays we see the levels of blunt propaganda as more unacceptable because propaganda in our generation is much more subtle.
Now I wanted to have a go at taking some photographs which may not tell the entirety of the truth in terms of their content. I chose to shoot some relatives walking with a slow shutter speed, adding a blurred effect that would later mean the viewer would question who the identity’s of these people are. By altering the photograph in a way so that the presence of these people is mysterious, the truth is tilted in the sense we don’t know the identity, the purpose, the reason as to whay they are there and what they are doing.
Best Photographs:
Memories of Childhood / Tableaux Shoot
Childhood Nostalgia
After researching the work of a couple of tableaux photographers, being Alfonso Almendros and Maria Kapajeva, I really wanted to get underway with my own tableaux photoshoot, however, I did not feel like I wanted to produce a series of images in the style of either Kapajeva or Almendros because I wasn’t completely attracted to their work in order to implement their style into my own example.
However, I had a look through a photo book which present in the classroom at school. It was a book entitled ‘Where Mimosa Bloom’ by an artist named Rita Puig-Serra Costa. In her book, she also specialised in aspects of tableaux photography in the form of photographing objects – still life as such and portraits of the family members and then pairing the images together. However, the meaning and concept goes beyond what the simplicity it sounds like. The objects photographed in a studio style as opposed to photographing them in their natural environment or where she found them are then digitally directly placed in this photo book on the opposite page of a portrait also taken by Serra-Costa. It seems as thought the portraits are of family members and the objects paired with each portrait is relevant in some way to the subject of the portrait. Although there is no direct explanation or link between the two, a narrative is drawn by the audience where we provide out own explanation of what could be the intention of this – there is obviously a meaning of the object in relation tot he subject but this is not actually explained. I found this very intriguing and eye-catching in its minimalism and wished to attempt a series of my own in the style I witnessed by Serra-Costa in her book ‘Where Mimosa Bloom’ which is about her family and place they live.
The primary results are below. I first attempted by completing my own memory and I will then go onto do the same process with my other close family members, including my mum, my step-dad, my nan and my girlfriend. This will provide a very compete and cohesive set of image which tell a visual story of not only my childhood memories about the loved ones around me.
Explaining the Series' Process
Here are the images I created in response to Rita Puig-Serra Costa’s images from her series ‘Where Mimosa Bloom’. My aim from this series I have created was to show my own family through a composition and the juxtaposition of old archives in comparison to contemporary, staged portraits of their life now and how they look back on to the memory they have shown. I have presented nt only my own childhood nostalgia but the others around me to create a cohesive narrative accompanied by very thoughtful inserts of written notes by each individual to he;p the audience understand what is going on in the photo. Each individual has explained why they have chosen the object they have and what it means to them as well as the memory it brings back. I attempted to show this connection to a particular object even further in the portraits where I asked my subjects to create a facial expression/show through their presented emotion the feeling the object gives them when looking back on its worth of their childhood.
To create the studio-like images of the objects each subject handed me to accompany their portrait, I set-up a mini studio in my room suing black card. I collected a couple sheets of black card from my school to take home t allow me to produce to the still-life images. In my room I have two very large windows both with very large window sills as the windows are almost like alcoves in that they are very far into the wall. This allowed me to set up the black card on the window sill and this was perfect as I allowed for lots of natural light which resulted in my objects being perfectly lit and the conditions for this were great when I would come back for school each day. I created an infinity curve using one sheet stuck to the wall and then competed the set-up with another sheet on the flat surface and I would place each object on the curve and then adjust my camera settings accordingly to account for the lighting already provided which obviously illuminated the right side of each object and this allowed for an interesting look to each image where the left ide would be in the dark and I would aim to under-expose each very slightly to get the best effect of the black background. For the notes written by each subject, I got each of them to hold their own note with their hand so it adds a personal touch and I would photograph this against the black background also.
I don’t really feel a need to explain the actual chosen object of each person because the explanation in the words of the subject themselves is provided in written form and I feel like my words won’t do the memory justice because a memory is a very personal and it is best told fro the perspective of the person with that memory. I have attempted to get as close in to the note as possible to it is legible at the same time as keeping the hand in frame and I hope that the handwriting is not too difficult to read.
The Images
Jude
Mum
Mark
Lucy
Nan
Tableaux – Constructing Childhood Memories
For this shoot I went back to the area where I used to frequently play as a child and constructed an Environment of what I remember the sort of activities I got up to as a child. I shot things such as dug holes, sand castles and other things that showed the activities of playing on the beach, but also other things such as possessions like towels and buckets and spades to show me bringing my own objects to the beach that helped influence my personal opinion of the beach. I believe this shows my personal relationship that I have with the beach which is quite precious in the sense that this particular beach is quite a quiet beach, allowing me to explore and enhance my understanding of the beach.
Best Photographs 
